ras reeling. today the u.s. has the highest growth rate, it's no accident. that's bidenomics in action. >> sandra: he is in bright blue chicago. americans say the policies are not so friendly to them. >> bret: 18% of americans say economy is in good shape, inflation from the supermarket to the housing market, not hard to see why. >> sandra: what will it take for the americans to buy what the president is selling. welcome back as a second hour of "america reports" is underway. sandra smith in new york. good to have you here today, bret. >> bret: good afternoon, bret baier in for john roberts. lots more reaction, talk to an atlanta tavern owner who lives through the disconnect between the president and the main street every day and his thoughts on what he just heard. and we'll hear from dagen and sean, but new at 2:00, developments on a story in

maryland. >> introducing sexual behavior and preference at an early age raises legitimate concern for us parents. >> where is the respect or does inclusion and respect only apply to a specific group. >> for us it's an issue of faith, not hate. our faith is not partisan and our people are not backwards. >> sandra: parents slamming a proposal to keep them from opting their children out of classes and lessons that address sexuality and gender. >> bret: hundreds are demanding a choice whether their kids are taught the lgbtq curriculum. >> sandra: the battle a debate over the first amendment as parents of different faiths argues it attacks their rights to religious freedom. mike emmanuel has the latest. hi, mike. >> sandra, bret, good afternoon.

faithful people, christians, muslims and jews are pushing back in an upscale washington, d.c. suburb. before that, it was muslim parents gathered outside in protest. wondered gender and sexuality are forced on their children at a young age, requesting an ability to opt out. >> we are asking our children not be strong armed to believing ideas about gender and sexuality or turning the children against the religious values we hold. >> born ready, the true story of a boy named penelope, and pride puppy, introduces pride parades to 3 and 4-year-old children. and "born ready," based on a main character who is transgender. a montgomery county father sis it will not change children.

>> i am not gay because of a book, or not gay because i engaged in a conversation about being gay. >> author who attended the board meeting says an opt out is not a big demand by the parents. >> they are just fighting for the ability to say i get a say over parts of my kids education and democrats in montgomery county are saying no, we know what's best. >> it has unified people from very diverse backgrounds worried the school system is indoctrinating their children. sandra. >> sandra: mike, thank you very much. this will emerge as a bigger and bigger issue closer to the presidential election, bret. >> bret: this is an issue i think crosses as mike mentioned at the end party lines. these are just parents, republicans, democrat, who are really concerned about this. >> sandra: and we want their voices heard, that's for sure, bret. >> bret: presidential hopeful

looking to show voters who is the best fit dealing with china, specifically. many outlining new policies to tackle the growing threats from china, and slamming president biden's handling of xi jinping's regime. fox team coverage, former secretary of state mike pompeo joins us in just moments. but first we go to senior national correspondent rich edson, republicans have been pushing for a more robust response to china. >> they have, several republican candidates are detailing new proposals, and nikki haley accused former president trump of showing moral weakness in his friendship with xi jinping and said trump did too little to address china beyond the economic threat. >> we have to take china on domestically, economically and militarily. we have to get them to stop the flow of fentanyl and if that means us changing our normal

trade relations we should do it. >> trump defended his record on china, including tariffs of hundreds of billions of dollars of import to the united states and knocked his main rival. >> ron sided with the communists in china. >> desantis is willing to use tariffs to get china to the negotiating table, and even support tax incentives for critical industries in the united states. and one of the latest entrants in the republican race, miami mayor francis suarez. >> question, mayor, will you talk about the uyghurs in your campaign. >> the what? >> the uyghurs. >> what's an uyghur? >> we'll come back to that. you have to get smart on that. >> uyghurs are a minority in northwest china the government in beijing is persecuting, and

suarez said he did not understand his pronunciation and does know. >> sandra: mike pompeo, great to see you, mr. secretary. what was your response to that, by the way? >> yeah, you mean to the incident on the show? >> sandra: yeah. >> goodness, you know, every candidate has to make sure they know all the things that matter to americans and the fact that there's a million minorities, uyghurs, in western china held for all the world looks like a concentration camp from not so long ago in world history, every candidate has know how they would respond to it and deal with it, i was the one who made the genocide declaration, every candidate needs to understand the religious freedom around the world and impacts us here at home. >> sandra: very good, mr. secretary there are some bold

calls over how we handle this growing threat coming from china. one was presented right here on this program, this was gop candidate vivek ramaswamy on how far he would go to stifle china's economy. listen to this. >> i would ban most u.s. businesses from doing business in china unless and until the ccp reforms its behaviors. >> sandra: that would have serious economic consequences in this country. >> i think it would have some short-term economic consequences but we can make the sacrifices if we know what we are sacrificing for. i think xi jinping will fold if he knows we mean it. >> sandra: would you support us going that far, as far as banning u.s. corporations from doing business in china? >> well, sandra, i'm not exactly sure precisely what that statement meant. i know what i was trying to do as secretary of state, trying to make sure that america was not reliant on the chinese communist party for things that really

mattered. think of the weapons systems, manufacturing for semiconductor, all the tools -- we were working diligently on that and we were simply demanding the chinese economist party behave on the global stage, a set of trade rules, senator, you've seen this, they steal millions of our jobs, built the economy on the backs of the american economy. united states has for 40 years simply turned the other cheek. enormous mistake. incredibly proud of what we did for four years to begin to turn the tide, and it's going to take even more determined effort and i've seen lots of ideas from lots of republican candidates. i hope we will see them from democrat candidates, too, it's not an partisan issue. but american issue. >> sandra: a way in which the candidates see themselves to separate themselves from the pack. another one of them came on the program, mike pence, this is what he said we need to do when it comes to china.

>> i have met president xi, i know what the language there, the language there is strength. and if we make the right investments in our national defense, if we maintain our commitment to freedom of navigation and to supporting our allies in the region, i think it's the best pathway forward to peace. >> sandra: you tell me, do they need to get more specific? >> of course, every one of them has to put a lot of detail behind their proposals but nothing the former vice president said that i would disagree with at all. but this is going to take real resolve. and it's complicated, we, europe, every country has deep economic connections to the chinese communist party. and so it's not going to be instantaneous, but we have to protect the things that matter. basic property rights, the rule of law, human dignity. this is the country that had the virus on the world that killed millions and millions of people across the world and did not lose an ounce of sleep over it, xi jinping didn't.

we have to make sure we get it right for the american people, when candidates begin to talk about their specific plans, i'm confident we'll develop a strategy that actually leads to a chinese communist party that no longer threatens the united states in the way this one does. >> sandra: could i get your response to this moment from president biden, happened earlier this morning, he was asked a question and the answer is quite p uz ling. listen. >> what extent has vladimir putin been weakened by recent events? >> it's hard to tell, but clearly losing the war in iraq, he's losing the war at home, and he is -- around the world -- it's not just nato, it's not just the european union, it's japan, it's -- >> sandra: when asked has putin been weakened by recent events, president said it's hard to tell but losing the war in iraq. your final reaction to that? >> my goodness, sandra, so disturbing to have a president

misspeak in this way on one of the most central issues of his administration. i've applauded the biden administration for holding nato and the europeans together to support ukraine. i'm glad they have done that. but that's -- that's a big misstep to make a statement like that, and as for the central issue, has putin been weakened, we don't know the answer, but you can be sure he's worried about it and greater lockdowns, even more military around moscow, you will see any leaders that tries to get any power, they will be squashed like a bug, and so there will certainly be changes from putin as a result of what happened over the last 96, 100 hours. we need a president that understands this threat and can take it seriously and explain it to the american people. >> sandra: good to get your thoughts on all of that. mr. secretary, appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. >> bret: scary scene in

charlotte, a delta airlines flight lands on its nose without its landing gear. no one was hurt there, but only adding to delays now seeing at airports across the east coast. how passengers are reacting to the slowdowns. >> sandra: new messages from hunter biden pressuring a -- take out an average of $70,000, pay off debts and high rate credit cards, and save hundreds every month. the all-new tempur-pedic breeze makes sleep feel cool. so, no more sweating all night... ...or blasting the air conditioning. because the tempur-breeze feels up to 10° cooler, all night long. for a limited time, save $500 on all-new tempur-breeze mattresses.

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>> bret: house republicans highlighting a new batch of hunter biden whatsapp messages dating back to 2017, the president's son demanding millions in a potential deal

with a chinese energy company claiming the bidens were best at doing what the company's chairman wants. spectator editor at large and fox news contributor, ben, there's one whatsapp message and we have seen a couple now, this one is to this chinese energy company's associate, and he says i'm tired of this, kevin, allegedly hunter, i can make $5 million in salary from any law firm in america. if you think it's about money, it's not, bidens are the best at doing what the chairman wants from this partnership. please let's not quibble over peanuts. and we have the irs whistleblower gary shapley on tonight that says all of their investigative efforts were thw thwarted to go down this particular road. >> you know, the plural there is

doing a lot of work. the bidens, plural, not just hunter himself. he says i can make $5 million from any legal firm in the country, i'm not sure how many of those would actually have hired him, i think he might have been having that work instead if he was not in the desperate situation that he was, and i think that that plural question really is the one that the forces -- the powers that be at the doj and else-wise were trying to try to prevent any of these investigators from getting into. they didn't want them to ask about joe biden, they didn't want them to in any way search the guest house or do any of the other things that they said would be embarrassing for the president or, you know, then -- or the former vice president at various points, and i think that's the part of this that is so telling. we really are meant to be, you know, to take away from this,

that hunter was sort of operating on his own, that he was trying to sell people on things that he couldn't deliver, but the real questions that i think have to be raised are did he deliver, did he actually deliver things to these various foreign entities that would have been completely unethical and inappropriate to, you know, allow any kind of son of a vice president or a president of the united states to promise to, you know, particularly america's adversaries, and that's the kind of question that republicans in congress and other investigators need to dig into. >> well, this investigator, irs whistleblower gary shapley saying that there are a lot of roads to go down here, that they were not able to go down, however, there were specifics on what hunter biden owed the government based on his taxes, and take a listen to this. >> there is still, you know, outstanding tax owing above the

$620,000 that because of this deal they'll never recoop. the most substantive felony charges were left off the table. >> which what would be what? >> invasion, for 18, and false return for 18 and 19. >> there is a long list here, but we often play the game, look through the prism of what happens if this was president trump's family and these investigators or whistleblowers were coming forward. it's not a game. but worth thinking about. >> i can't believe for one second that eric trump, don, jr., ivanka, anyone else who was the son or daughter of the former president, they had this type of evidence pile against them, that we would see anything like the way that the legacy media has really until this past week tried to sweep this story

under the rug, pretend that it doesn't exist. instead what we have here, i think, is a fact set that clearly deserves to be investigated, deserves to be looked into, and you have the additional aspect of, frankly, merrick garland's promise before the united states congress that he would not in any way interfere that mr. weiss would have total authority when it came to what was done with this case, and i think that we now know or we have a preponderance of evidence that was not the case, whether they were directed on high or acting in partisan interest, this is a case they wanted to go away, didn't want questions asked about any connection to hunter biden's father and certainly any decisions that he might have made that could have been influenced by this money. >> bret: ben, as always, thank you. sandra, that interview tonight, 6:00 p.m. eastern time and we get right to that question about

the attorney general, what he said about overseeing this, and this whistleblower, who you know, a career worker inside, supervisor inside the irs who is being pretty brave coming out saying everything he is saying. >> sandra: sounds like a fantastic interview and v very newsy. people have major questions over whether there's a double standard or if there is fairness or unfairness at play. so we'll be listening, bret. thank you so much. president biden meanwhile betting big on the economy, taughting his economic plan as a win for millions of americans, but is his message resonating with voters? we'll ask an atlanta tavern owner how the president's policies have affected his business, and also here, sean duffy and dagen mcdowell will break down what we just heard. >> bret: plus, bad weather causes thousands of cancellations and delays. sorry if you are in an airport,

it could get ugly today. will the travel chaos continue into the holiday weekend? >> six hours, not even a bottle of water. >> the line doesn't move and i know they don't have nothing to offer for us. >> they just told us it was delayed and delayed it and delayed it and then eventually like 4:00 a.m. they said it was canceled. >> we'll have to get a hotel, you know, when we will get home is unknown.

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helping businesses both large and small, communities and the people who live and work there grow and thrive. we're proud to call these places home too. they're where we put down roots, and where together, we work to help move everyone's financial goals forward. pnc bank. >> bret: travelers stranded at the airport after 2,000 delays and 800 cancellations, threatening to impact the holiday weekend. alexis, how are passengers handling all of this there? live from new jersey. >> bret, people are frustrated, to say the least. everyone we talked about want to pull their hair out or they are crying, but then when they leave, they have nowhere to go,

they have to dish out hundreds of dollars to get a hotel. the united line, three hours long throughout this morning and hoping to get rebooked and find out they might be leaving after the holiday. listen. >> we are like we don't have a home to go to, where he don't know where we are going. we just spent $400 for a hotel for a night, and now, you know, no hotel vouchers, no -- they are not helping with anything. we don't know what to do. don't know if we should go to, you know, another hotel for a night, if we can -- we want to go back home. >> this is the scene at airports across the country, bret, as more than 28,000 flights have been delayed and 7200 and counting canceled since sunday. hundreds of passengers were left waiting on the tarmac and then once they taxied up they found they were not going anywhere. take a look also at the cell phone video, from jfk airport

there, these people are waiting in line for the american flight for more than 24 hours for an international flight. once they got up there, they demanded answers and the crews told them we don't know where the flight crew is, people were not happy about that. storms along the east coast have been involved in this, technology issues and the faa staffing shortage at the center of the chaos. not enough air traffic control workers, specifically at the new york hubs, impact all the country. an issue ongoing for months. united had the most cancellations. transportation secretary pete buttigieg says yeah, things are bad but it could be worse. >> we got hit with some pretty tough weather, it has affected a lot of flights. i reached my hotel room 2:30 in the morning after mine was canceled and delayed. overall, we have seen the system perform much better than it did a year ago. >> this morning, mechanical issue on the delta flight led to

a scary landing in charlotte, the plane damaging the front end and the nose, as it scraped along the runway, the airport had to close down. and the heavy smoke from the canadian wildfires leading to low visibility across chicago, it's going to impact o'hare and midway and the cancellations there ongoing and here on the east coast, live at newark international airport, not many happy people. there are long lines for the july 4th weekend, supposed to be the busiest since the pandemic. >> bidenomics is about building an economy from the middle out and the bottom out, not the top down. >> i think it's a plan i'm happy to call bidenomics. and guess what, bidenomics is working. >> sandra: president biden doubling down on the economy as

his re-election campaign heats up. he is claiming his economic policies are working and even that they are popular with the american public. but, are voters buying it. we will have dagen and sean standing by, first brian, owner of manuel's tavern in atlanta. brian, thank you is much for joining us. i don't know if you had a chance to hear the president a few moments ago, but he's essentially saying that his economic policies are working, and that the american public is thriving as a result of it. what are you experiencing? >> so, i -- i don't know where he's looking. he's not looking on main street, he's not looking at small business because we are hurting. it has not gotten any better for us. there's been some small improvements in food cost, i will say that. that's been a good thing.

but the labor shortage is real. customer spending is down and people have gotten tight because their expenses are way up. utilities and insurance for them, rent in a lot of cases, from my employees i hear that constantly, i have employees coming to me telling me about $400 a month increases in their rent. so, that's real. and it's hurting everyone. >> sandra: and to deal with that, credit card debt seems to be only going up. we checked in on the numbers. the raw data shows that credit card spending in this country right now in the first quarter reached 986 billion, it's up 28% under this presidency and as consumer prices are going up, you know that, up 15% over two years, and inflation is up 4% year over year. so, talk to us about prices. how are you -- how are you

battling through these challenges? we love our small business owners, and we know that things -- when things get tough, get tougher. what are you doing about it? >> so, being an independent restaurant we can take really quick action. we purposely delay, that's important that you understand, we purposecally delayed our price increases because i wanted to believe that the transitory inflation they talked about was real and i did not want to be a business that was in some panic-driven price increase unnecessary situation and put en the burden on our customers. so we delayed that. to our detriment. because when powell spoke to congress and said stop using the phrase transitory, to be honest, the floodgates open, letters started arriving and we had double digit percentage increases on every service that we use, every service that's mandatory for us, sanitation,

all the different utilities that we use, accounting, i got -- i got notices in the mail from all of these services with dramatic unheard of, never before seen price increases. what shocked us was that the mathematical formula we used to set prices just -- it wasn't working anymore, so we have these equations that worked for over 50 years and now they were not working, and that really surprising to me, that was a big indication to me that the entire landscape of business had changed, that the fundamentals, the bedrock of how this economic engine works has been blown up. it's just -- it's just gone. >> sandra: you survived the pandemic and you guys have been around a long time. nearly 70 years, is that right? >> we are pushing 70 years, i'm

hoping to have a 70-year anniversary, yes. >> sandra: our best to you, and you've made it through a lot. there's big challenges out there that you face, but you sound tough and like you are going to get through this. thanks for coming on and telling us how this is all impacting you. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. i hope other people speak up because something is being missed. something very fundamental. what is coming out of washington and what's happening on main street, it seems like it's 180° difference, and i don't know where the disconnect is, but somebody needs to put it together and figure out that there's a real problem here. >> sandra: we understand. thank you very much for joining us. appreciate that. >> thank you for having me. >> sandra: co-host of bottom line, dagen mcdowell and sean duffy, hosting a town hall to talk about the state of the economy, decline of the cities and pretty much what we just heard from that business owner,

brian. they are facing some really serious challenges, some hard times, and that's tough when you hear washington touting these economic successes. >> i think brian said a disconnect from what's happening in washington in politicians and main streets of america and exacerbated by biden does not understand bidenomics is not working, and man on the street, talked to people in new york city, everyone is complaining about their rent prices, all going up. and so if you look at people's wages have gone down because yes, the wage has gone up, but the wages have not kept up with inflation, so they are actually making less now under joe biden than they were under donald trump, and they feel that pain and they are taking it out. joe biden is at an approval rating of 40%, they don't like the economy, we were talking about the joe biden speech and he wants to lean into a number and idea that people actually hate about him, use -- i was in

politics, i usually lean into things that people love about me, they like about me. they hate them on the economy and no, i'm going to put my name on this economy and lean into it. >> sandra: leaning into bidenomics, put out a message on the twitter feed from the white house defining it, saying bidenomics is the word, it's a noun, he said it's about growing the economy from the middle out, not the top down, an economic vision where we make smart investments in america. funny enough, he said this morning to gillian, i don't know, i didn't start that, that originally came from the wall street journal. we called up the editor at large and asked him for a statement, he said this, bidenomics is merely an attempt to put an old wine in a new bottle with a new label. we are much better off when the market, not politicians and bureaucrats, allocate resources. dagen. >> and dan henninger who writes

for the wall street journal opinion page coined the term state capitalism, and jake sullivan in a speech in april kind of laid out the real bidenian vision for the american economy and it is essentially, sounds a lot like communist china where they are in control of -- that on its own -- making investments need to secure our national ambitions where we work for the state in essence, where they control how capital and money is allocated, and that's what joe biden is talking about. you talk about inflation, so consumer prices have gone up 16% since joe biden took office. tell me who has gotten a 16% raise in this country. the average family income has translated, because of inflation, into a 5600 decline in 30 months. so nobody has gotten a raise, broadly speaking.

so, you have inflation and joe biden is going to be spending more and more money, that -- that -- same time, interest rates are going up because the federal reserve is trying to fight inflation. ten interest rate increases, five and a quarter percent short-term funds rate. this is the vice grip that the american people are now trapped in. you talk about almost a trillion dollars in credit card debt, credit card rates are at a record, almost 21% because people are just trying to survive right now. >> sandra: during the president's speech, they said for the first time in many years went to the grocery store and used their credit card to buy their groceries because they did not have the cash on hand to buy them, and that's the disconnect you heard from the business owner and in the polls, how concerned about inflation, 90% say they are. those who approve of the way that biden is handling the

economy, 33% as of may have. those who view the economy good or excellent, just 18% in may of 2023. those numbers continue to come down so people don't feel great about what's happening right now. >> and at that dagen's point, it feels foreign. we don't like the chinaesque, creates, grows jobs, the economy, brings more money to the federal coffers and joe biden has rejected that and said no, i'm going to go with the state run philosophy and you will drive inflation higher further, people don't have jobs, don't have incomes that can keep up with the price increases, and their debt is going to continue to expand, in the end is going to put more pressure on the american family and joe biden will be worse off. >> the most insidious thing, they are subsidizing with all of this spending their favored industries and their pet -- their pet people and that's

union leaders. so that money then flows right back into the democrat's pockets. >> sandra: you want more of them, tonight. 6:00. >> dagen is hot, you don't want to miss it. >> sandra: thank you, bret. >> bret: i'll be watching. charges piling up for a new jersey lawyer now accused of assaulting eight women between 2007 and 2008. how a new indictment impacts his case. plus the marine veteran charged in the chokehold death of jordan neely, his attorneys say they are confident he'll be acquitted. reaction next. y in the family photos? they helped us save money when we bundled, so... yeah. same difference. okay. this one's going on the mantle. [bones cracking] ♪ (tense music) ♪

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>> we were listening to president biden as he was on the south lawn talking to reporters, you may have noticed, some people did, he had visible marks on his face this morning on the south lawn before that speech in chicago. he was talking to reporters. we now know those were from a cpap machine, white house deputy press secretary andrew bates telling fox, since 2008, the president has disclosed his history with sleep apnea and thorough medical reports, he used a cpap machine last night,

common for people with that history, so again, those marks are the straps from the cpap machine to help him sleep, and since the white house put that out, we thought we would tell you. sandra. >> sandra: thank you, bret. meanwhile, suspected serial rapist already charged in a string of sexual assaults from more than a decade ago is now facing a new indictment on seven more charges, including rape. mercedes colwin will be joining us in a moment, c.b. cotton, the assaults happened close together. >> police say the attacks happened during the same time frame in two boston neighborhoods, ten minutes apart. matthew nilo will head back to a court in july. between 2007 and 2008, attacks on four women in boston's north end neighborhood. police say one of the victims was attacked twice, 11 days apart. earlier this month, nilo pled

not guilty in the attacks of four other women. right now he's out on bail. nilo has denied all allegations. his attorney saying he'll present a legal and factual challenge to the case. prosecutors initially linked nilo to the cold cases from dna he left behind on a drinking glass. >> this is being used more and more, dna abandoned on a drinking glass or trash is used to link them to crimes. >> nilo was a student in madison, wisconsin. police are working to see if any of the cases are connected to him. >> sandra: c.b. cotton on that, thank you. bret. >> bret: let's bring in trial attorney mercedes colwin. what about this case and how do you see it? >> well, certainly it's very problematic for the defense that there are more and more individuals coming forward and saying they were raped. because the more individuals that come forward and apparently there are a lot of similarities

between the assaults. they get into his car, allegedly they get into the car, their lives are threatened, they are taken to a remote area, they are then sexual assaulted. some have been raped, others have not. but that type of similarity and certainly sitting there as a juror and you start to see all of this combined evidence against this individual, it can be very damning. that's just setting aside, of course, the dna evidence and you are going to see the defense are going to attack that. they are going to say we are talking not just about the routine genetic testing, we are talking about genealogy testing. so it wasn't this this particular individual that has been accused of rape actually went through those ancestry.com-type of dna testing, which a lot of folks do. it's someone in his family allegedly did and they are trying to connect the dots. so it really will come down to a battle of experts. they are going to come forward, they are going to start to really thread the needle and not only just go through the

stories, similar stories between these individuals that claim that he attacked them, they are going to go through the forensic testing as well. >> bret: mercedes, turn to this other case in manhattan, the 24-year-old marine veteran, daniel penny, pled not guilty to manslaughter, this chokehold on the subway. listen to the attorneys this morning. >> the reality is that there is not a living, breathing soul in manhattan that has not experienced a variation of what not only mr. penny but the other individuals experienced on that subway car the day in question. >> daniel penny killed a man. he took a life. and for everyone who thought donating $3 million was somehow make this go away or buy his pass, is not going to happen. it didn't work. >> bret: mercedes, your

thoughts. >> i think the defense attorney is exactly right. a lot of individuals can feel what took place in that subway car. time and time again you see and hear anecdotally about the incidents that take place on a daily, monthly, weekly, hourly time frame. people understand the subway system is not safe. there are these types of encounters. you are going to have individuals among those 12 jurors that will make the ultimate decision whether mr. penny is actually convicted of these crimes. it really boils down to was daniel penny understandably aware of the dangers that jordan neely was posing to himself and to others. had no intent of committing the crime, which ultimately ended tragically in mr. neely's death. that's going to be what's really going to boil down and certainly the number of individuals in that jury box that experience a subway system, the subway system described, subway system so many of us experience when there are

these types of outbursts that frankly are very fearful for those of us who take the subway. and you are really going to have a tough decision, certainly to make as to whether or not daniel penny is actually going to be convicted. it's tough. >> bret: already, mercedes, it is tough. thank you. sandra. >> sandra: a billion sparring match, latest in the battle between elon musk and mark zuckerberg and now they are actually practicing for it. ♪♪ ♪ the final countdown ♪

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>> the first images of elon musk training for his match with mark zuckerberg have surfaced. here they are. this is ahead of the unscheduled bout between the two tech ceos. musk says he does not regularly work out but he's trained in

judo and no rules street fighting. watch out. bret, we'll be watching you tonight in the big interview. >> yeah, it's going to be interesting. the irs whistle-blower, one of two. gary shapley sits down with me. if you're following this, you'll want to see it. >> thanks for joining us. i'm sandra smith. >> i'm bret baier. "the story" starts right now. >> martha: thanks. we're looking forward to that interview. we're going to talk to the attorney for him in just a minute. i'm martha maccallum. so today, "the story" is georgia ron desantis of florida. he joins me shortly for a one-on-one interview with presidential hopeful. lots to discuss with the governor. stay tuned for that. that's coming up. and the plot thickens daily in the hunter biden story. what the president's son told a foreign business partner, "the bidens are t