ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. >> gillian: fox news alert to kick off a brand-new hour. moments away from the first

white house press briefing since secret service agents found cocaine stashed in the west wing. reporters have a lot of questions. >> bill: gillian, hello. our white house team confirming that agents found the drug in a bag in a personal cubby area used by staffers and guests into the west wing. a secondary drug test confirmed it was in fact cocaine. the first family was at camp david when agents found it in a routine sweep. >> gillian: and begin there for hour two. >> bill: bill hemmer. john roberts and sandra have the day off. cocaine is a drug, along with oxycontin and fentanyl, begin all new at 2:00 right now. >> gillian: a federal judge in louisiana says likely the biden

administration censored free speech, and blocking officials from contacting social media companies about content. a lawsuit brought forward by louisiana and missouri, accusing government officials going too far and pressure ling them to censor posts during the pandemic. overreach in doing so and influence over social media, what some legal scholars have called censorship by proxy. director of national intelligence. >> you have these agencies with social media working to suppress the truth and amplify lies, this was a stunning rebuke but also an appropriate one. >> let's go ahead and bring in louisiana attorney general jeff landry. sir, a major victory, not ruling but temporary injunction. >> it's a great victory for the

constitution, for the first amendment. arguably this could be the most massive attack of a first amendment right in the history of the united states. i mean, what we have uncovered here is basically the government coercing big tech to censor americans, or basically muzzle their opinions or questions about policies that government officials were implementing during the covid period and during the election season. >> so, the biden administration believes communicating with the big tech companies during times of national crises, and public health emergency, benefits the public. the president himself said in july of 2021 there was a pandemic of the unvaccinated, thanks to disinformation that was spread on social media. you're saying it sounds like you think he had more nefarious motivations? >> well, no, look, the evidence

we discovered through this court proceeding shows exactly that. that they -- that basically the government went out and censored speech if they felt or questioned the government on a policy -- policies. any -- any comments about it or concern about the vaccine was basically muzzled, did not have honest and open debate about it. the biden administration believes it is the minister of truth. >> gillian: having some audio issues there with you, sir, if you can just hang in with us. you keep cutting in and out. i want to respond to one point you made. it is sort of normal practice and procedure now in the last few years for the white house and the administration to talk to social media companies

frequently during times of crisis. do you think that's a practice that wholesale needs to be stopped as we go forward into the future? >> well, no, look, i think the government communicating with big tech about concerns and policies it's putting forth are reasonable. when they are communicating by telling big tech to take people's comments and platforms and positions down when they are banning people's twitter accounts or facebook accounts, when they are doing things like throttling back the tucker carlson show or robert f. kennedy's youtube interviews, that's not big tech, that's the ministers of truth and in america, the first amendment protects us from that type of activity, from the government going in there and determining what we know and what we should know. we should be able to debate these issues in the marketplace of ideas.

>> gillian: do you think god forbid we live through another pandemic, like we just did, sir, but how do you think the government should best try and protect the american people from really dangerous talking points out on social media. sometimes from very credible people about dangerous, you know, toxic chemicals and things they should or shouldn't do. where is the government's role there? >> well, what happens when we find out that we basically ban somebody's comment or some expert's position only to find out months or years later that their position was accurate. i mean, again, in this country, we don't -- we don't have a government organization that determines what the truth is. americans are free to be able to debate these ideas across the social platforms and then come to their own conclusion as to what they're reading and what they are discerning.

we don't walk around like robots where the government programs us what to believe and not believe. god forbid, this was not the only pandemic that struck the united states. it was the most poorly managed one but certainly was not the only one. >> gillian: mr. attorney general, we have to leave it there. we wish you the best managing all of this going forward, and hope you'll come back with us as the case proceeds through the courts. >> ok, take care. >> gillian: bill. >> bill: gillian, the clock is ticking for the u.s. attorney from delaware in charge of the hunter biden investigation. this as house republicans seek several pieces of information from him following the bombshell testimony from an irs whistleblower. but david weiss says he will talk at the "appropriate time." david spunt live at doj now and david, do republicans have a back-up plan? what's next? >> the back-up plan is still being worked on, i spoke to a

source on capitol hill, it's possible they may have david weiss come in and talk under oath. those discussions too preliminary right now. david weiss is the trump-appointed u.s. attorney who stayed on during the biden administration and he has doubled down saying that not only was he in charge of the hunter probe, he still is in charge of the hunter probe as we await this plea. but house republicans, including house judiciary chairman jim jordan don't believe it. they are skeptical. they believe officials at maine justice, including the attorney general and others have been calling the strings. now, this all began with a different letter from june 7th, weiss wrote jim jordan, i've been granted ultimate authority over the matter, including where, when and whether to file charges. a few weeks later jordan asked him who told him to sign the letter. right now jordan is remaining skeptical. jordan believes it's based off the testimony of irs

whistleblower gary shapley who investigated the hunter biden tax probe. on the record numerous times, saw weiss personally complain he was not in charge of the probe and not able to charge in other districts. watch. >> i even had him repeat that, because i knew how important that fact was and i wanted to make sure i understood it. >> weiss last week wrote to jim jordan, i would be granted 515 authority in the district of columbia, the central district of california or any other district where charges could be brought in this matter. weiss does go on to say he would be willing to talk with members of congress at an appropriate time, but right now he's insinuating it's not appropriate because hunter biden's plea deal is not even on paper yet, signed yet, i should say. he's going to be in court july 26th, the end of this month. >> bill: a lot to follow there. and also learning more about the man arrested near former president obama's home last week. >> detention memo from the

department of justice, taylor toronto, found outside or near president obama's home in washington, d. c., and a defendant in the january 6th, he was on social media doing livestreaming and the memo says toronto is a direct and serious threat to the public. his own words and actions demonstrate he's a direct threat to multiple political figures as well as the public at large. they go on to use the word that if he is released they say the se severity of the consequences could be catastrophic. but doj wants taylor toronto to be behind bars as he awaits trial. they don't want him out on the street, bill. >> bill: david spunt, thank you, at the department of justice. >> gillian: the airline industry is being put to the test again

as people are starting to return home from record setting volumes of trips this independence day weekend. if you are one of the folks who had smooth flying so far, you should consider yourself very lucky. flight aware misery map shows thousands of flights have been delayed. thunderstorms now adding to the mix, or threatening parts of the south. fox business's madison al worth from new jersey. what are you hearing from travelers this hour? >> gillian, we are hearing and seeing the things at newark today are a lot smoother, great. this was not the case this time last week. but the same time, a lot of the travelers that are showing up today to the airport are doing so for their second time after flights were canceled yesterday or the day before. some are just trying to get home. >> we tried to leave yesterday and they canceled our flight. >> i got up around 4:00 this

morning worried. i want to be there for his first birthday and i was not sure. if i cannot get on the flight i was going to drive, drive to fort myers. >> we have not had issues yet. >> now, secretary of transportation pete buttigieg says travel is back to normal, but the air traffic controller shortage, that is very much alive and well. a recent transportation report warns that problem could persist for years because of a government-related shortage of air traffic controllers that started during and really continued on through coming out of the pandemic. when you combine that with poor airline planning and bad weather, you get tens of thousands of delays and cancellations. taking a look at today, we are at over 2,000 delays and when it comes to cancellations we are looking at a little over 180 cancellations. much better than where we were last week like i said, united here at newark, particularly

struggling, they really had a meltdown and the company has now confirmed to us here at fox that they will be officially reducing the number of flights that they operate out of newark this summer in part because of what happened last week. they were not specific about how many routes, how many flights will be cut. the company also handed out 30,000 frequent flyer miles to those travelers hit with the delays, because travelers were doing things like sleeping overnight at the airport in order to get out as soon as possible. the thing with the airline miles, to use them you have to get on another united flight. and some of the customers we spoke to say this is their last time flying with united, at least for the time being. back to you. >> gillian: madison, thank you for that. bill, sounds like things are not getting a whole lot better since the christmas debacle. i thought things were done with the people sleeping on the airport floors. >> bill: and the anxiety, the woman getting up at 4:00 in the

morning trying to make a birthday party can be disappointing when it does not work out the way you want. >> gillian: and expensive. >> bill: a live look at the white house, the briefing room and we should get underway any moment now. among the many questions facing the white house, how did cocaine get inside the west wing? these the question of the day. >> gillian: and paul mauro will weigh in next.

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>> gillian: 4th of july celebrations overshadowed by violence as mass shootings left

five people dead and two children injured in philly on monday night. the suspect charged with five counts of murder. this went down in baltimore claiming the lives of two people and left 28 more injured. gun violence in forth worth, texas and shreveport, louisiana, at least six killed in those separate shootings. aishah hasnie joins us. a lot of these city officials are now calling for gun reform, it looks like. >> that's right, good afternoon to you, gillian, and that includes philadelphia's progressive d.a., larry krasner, ripping on pennsylvania republicans for not passing stricter gun laws as he puts it. but according to court documents released just today, that suspect in the massive and horrific shooting in philadelphia actually got his guns illegally and we are talking about 40-year-old kim

brady kracker, senseless rampage in southwest philly that killed five and injured five more. the youngest victim, 2-year-old boy shot four times in his legs while sitting in his mom's car. >> this office is 100% committed to the vigorous prosecution of this mass killer. and we will do justice in court with this case. >> now, surveillance video shows the suspect stops on a sidewalk, points and then starts shooting at a car. police say he was carrying an ar-style rifle and a ghost gun, but he had a past gun conviction and court docs reveal he was carrying both of those firearms illegally. so this was not someone who was following the rule of law here. baltimore's mayor is also calling for gun reform after shots broke out at a block party there in that city, killing two people, injuring 28 people.

democrat government wes moore has been complaining about a lack of solutions but he's also facing criticism for waiting two days to visit the scene of the crime and gillian, president biden we know has been calling on congress to pass gun reform. that very unlikely to happen with house republicans in control of the house. gillian. >> aishah hasnie in new york city this hour, thank you. >> bill: paul mauro, good afternoon to you. just mentioned the d.a. there, larry krasner in philadelphia, and the individual carrying an ar-15, and said about certain republicans wearing an ar-15 pin on their lapel. >> if they are not going to do something, voters have to vote them out. that's what the lapel pin means, vote me out, i am against you and against your safety. >> bill: react to that, paul and

the series of violence over the holiday weekend. >> typical larry krasner. he always makes it about himself. i saw that press conference, the chief of police came out, she gave the facts, inspector who is running the homicide case, gave the facts, and what they are going to be doing relative to the investigation. krasner says the first thing i do as a prosecutor, my first obligation is be liaison with the community to make sure everybody is ok. wrong, your first move is to prosecute, nobody ever told this guy. he's more of a politician than a prosecutor. pew research center, a couple years old but the most recent numbers, i trust the source, 3% of murders, gun murders in this country are from long guns. what are the rest? by definition, they have to be handguns. laws are on the books. they always talk about gun seizures, never about gun arrests. this guy that did the shooting, this person had a prior gun

conviction, was carrying illegal guns. we have the tools to enforce against this stuff. they won't use them because it's politically incorrect. >> bill: another story out of new york, i don't know if i've been to a pharmacy, you cannot buy excedrin without having somebody come over and unlock the case. now you have this. "new york post," locked up ice cream. shoplifting in nyc is so bad, supermarkets are locking up and installing anti-theft devices on $6 ice cream. "this is the age we live in." is it? >> i mean, it is. shoplifting is part of -- generally a petty larceny and under the bail reform laws under the de blasio administration, you bring the perp to the precinct, a summons and he leaves. many are homeless, they will not respond anyway. if you put them into alternatives to incarceration, they don't show up, they leave

just like in the jordan neely case. it does not work. >> bill: does this comport with what you write at ops desk about tougher rules for nypd. >> putting as much downward pressure on the nypd. public advocate here, jermani williams, he is pushing a bill through the city council going to make nypd put paperwork on every self-initiated encounter with the public. every one. >> bill: self-initiated means you are a cop, you are walking a sidewalk, you've got a question for a person, you initiate the conversation and you have to document that? >> not only do you have to document it, put demographic information, the results of the encounter, why you did the encounter. it's a gift to the defense bar. it's all going to be on bodycam so pulling body cameras, well,

you did memorialize it it the right way, he does not look like the race you wrote down, god forbid if you miss one of those. >> bill: it's all paperwork, paul. >> the cops are not going to do it. you think they are going to go up to people and say hey, store owner, hit by shoplifters lately or even at a crime scene, did you see anything, who did the shooting, where were the shots -- where did they come from. every one of those encounters has to be covered with paperwork. they are going to spend all day every day in the precinct filling out forms. it's moronic. >> bill: rikers is the bill jail that's going to close down. >> down 40% from now in the beds. from the de blasio administration. >> gillian: a live look at the white house briefing room. karine jean-pierre is going to

take to the podium any moment now. questions swirling now about the cocaine that was found inside the west wing. what's she going to say? marc thiessen is here, he's going to weigh in, react, minute by minute with us. >> bill: also, the 2024 presidential hopefuls barnstorming across the country. yesterday participating in the parades and trying to woo the early state voters. the leading candidate took the holiday off. so, what is the strategy there? we'll check in on that next. hi, i'm william devane. did you know it took our founders 116 days to debate and draft the u.s. constitution? turns out they didn't trust the printing of paper money, but they did trust gold and silver. article 1, section 10. gold and silver. good for the founders, good for me, good for you. rosland capital - is a trusted leader in helping people acquire precious metals. gold bullion, lady liberty gold and silver proofs,

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>> gillian: republican front-runner donald trump off the trail this independence day. he has a significant lead now in early primary polls. 2024 rivals spent the long weekend by contrast crisscrossing iowa and new hampshire. chief washington correspondent mike emmanuel joins us here in the d.c. newsroom with all the

details. hi, mike. >> former president trump taking aim at his first gop rival on truth social writing he is getting demolished for yesterday's performance in new hampshire, no crowds, no enthusiasm, no interest. his campaign is in total disarray, he's hurting himself very badly for 2028. see loyalty does matter with patriots. the youngest candidate in the field vivek ramaswamy is selling his work ethic and authenticity. >> hard work pays off, we are putting in the work. i'm speaking honestly. my entire campaign strategy, i don't really listen to message consultants for my message. >> on the other side, president biden participated in a campaign event with a teachers' union virtually. >> i've never been more optimistic than today, i really mean it. never more optimistic. so much we can do we are on the edge and the american people are figuring out what the other team is talking about and they don't

like it. >> former vice president mike pence is doing more traditional campaigning. trying to connect with conservative voters across the hawk eye state. another guy campaigning the old fashioned way, senator tim scott in new hampshire. >> i would say without any question, doing parades is one of the things you should do, because you have a chance to see a cross section of the community in one location. it was a lot of fun. >> the campaign can be grueling but there was some fun to be had over this holiday. gillian. >> gillian: mike emmanuel here in washington, thank you. >> bill: a live look inside the white house briefing room, karine jean-pierre will take the podium any moment now. scheduled to start about 20 minutes ago, but we are waying that now. among the questions is the discovery of cocaine found inside the white house. let's get to mark meredith live

on the north lawn as we wait. does the secret service have any ideas as to how it made its way inside the white house? >> somebody physically brought it in but secret service says they are trying to determine who it was. as you mentioned, the white house briefing set to get underway here any moment announcement i imagine a lot of different questions to white house officials about not only what happened but the procedures in place and also hearing in the last hour from arkansas republican senator tom cotton, demanding answers from the chief of the u.s. secret service, he wants to know how often it happened, how screening takes place and if they have a better idea to ensure the security here at the white house is not compromised. secret service official told me they were able to confirm through secondary testing the substance found on sunday was cocaine. it was believed to be but secondary tests should be sure. a brief evacuation, but then the president and his family, you know, the majority of people working in the white house were not here on a sunday evening

when this was discovered. the substance was also found in what you would consider to be a phone cubby and i understand it may be confusing, but pockets throughout the west wing, if you go into areas you cannot bring your technology, like outside the roosevelt room, you put your personal belongings there and go into a meeting or tour, they were found in a phone cubby, if you will. whether it was a staffer, somebody on a tour, yet to be determined. and the white house will say it's an ongoing investigation by the secret service and not much more to add toit. secret service is not expected to be at the briefing but see if the white house has any more to add. and president biden was asked about it a few moments ago when he had the swedish prime minister, he did not talk bit in the oval office. >> bill: just got the two-minute warning, we are on stand-by. nice to see you. >> gillian: waiting for the

briefing, marc thiessen, former speech writer to president george w. bush and fox news contributor. marc, your $0.02. who do you think did it? how do you think it got in? >> well, first of all, i think it's very highly unlikely it was a tourist coming in for a west wing tour. you and i both worked at the white house. the cubby holes, the ones i think they are talking about are right at the entrance on west executive avenue, the entrance everybody going into the west wing goes into, whether you are a cabinet official, senior staff, junior staff from the old executive office building, people on west wing tours. the only people who would not go in there are the president's family and visiting heads of state. if you are going in there as a tourist or regular staffer you have to go through secret service screening to get into the complex before you got to west executive office. the other way to bypass, a cabinet official with a vehicle, a senior staffer who is parking on west executive and so you bypass the secret service

screening, or a family member, coming in with carpet service, carpet service is the vehicle service for white house senior staff. so it just seems very unlikely that would be a tourist, that would mean that the secret service screening at pennsylvania office or by the ellipse failed it to coming in. if they failed to detect a white powder coming into the white house, i would be concerned if i was the senior staff of the white house. >> also we don't know now how long it was lying around before it got swept up from the stash place. it could have been mr. for hours, it could have been there more than a day. >> days. >> gillian: we have no idea. what do you make, you know, a lot of -- regardless of who brought this in, a lot of breaches in protocol. follows an event on the south lawn the president was in

attendance and a female visitor took her top off and walked around shirtless for a while. >> yeah, i remember george w. bush with not walk into the oval office with a jacket on but now we have topless sundays on the south lawn and cocaine in the west wing. it's a different era. >> gillian: the white house said she is not going to be invited back. but times are different now. >> i know, i know, can't imagine this happening under previous administration, shall we say. >> gillian: i asked the fox news brain room, you will enjoy this, if anything like this had been reported and when they tell me, they cited an instance where jimmy carter said willie nelson smoked pot with his son on the roof of the white house in 1978 and 6 years ago snoop dogg told serious radio he had smoked weed in a white house bathroom but did it alone and he snuck it in. what do you make of that? >> well, there you go, there you go. so back to the days of snoop dogg, amazing.

>> gillian: i'm just here to entertain you. >> and you have, wonderful. >> gillian: what do you think about -- so what can they do, if this was a staffer, obviously somebody is going to face severe penalty, probably fired, maybe a criminal investigation, but if it's a security breach, tighten the ship so it does not happen again. >> what kind of person would bring cocaine into the white house? first of all, if you are going through -- there is a secret service post on pennsylvania avenue and one down the ellipse, so you go through that. p that has a -- it does radiological screening and when i went to walter reed once and had like nuclear tests, they actually had to give me a sheet of paper to get through because i would set off the nuclear detector and they have dogs sometimes sniffing you, i would assume a dog would notice the cocaine. so if you were going, even if

you were thinking about doing it, it wouldn't be somebody to go through that, too afraid of getting caught. i can't imagine it was somebody who went through the prescreening at those two points at pennsylvania avenue and down by the ellipse, so probably somebody who came in without going through the screening. that's, you know, somebody who has a vehicle, can park on west executive avenue, coming in on carpet service or, you know, there a cabinet agency of some kind or a family member. but i don't remember family members going through west executive or going into the working areas of the west wing. >> yeah, that's a good point. the other thing is that everybody there faces the spector of random drug tests, nobody likes. you have that, too. while we are here and waiting for the briefing to start, ask you about 2023. the wall street journal, you have been writing about third party candidates in the 2024 election cycle lately. they write today, who is afraid of a third party, if nothing

else the presence of no labels may serve to wake up both parties that they can do better and should do better or face a third party challenge. serious republicans are running against mr. trump and democrats worried about mr. biden's vulnerability could do the same. voters certainly deserve better than a 2020 rerun. the case is becoming more and more compelling as the election cycle goes on. >> i'll go so far i think a third party could win in 2024. i'll tell you why. in normal times, a third party is nothing more than a spoiler. these aren't normal times. 69% of americans don't want joe biden to run, 62% don't want donald trump to run, people don't want a trump-biden rematch. >> gillian: sorry to interrupt you, karine jean-pierre has just started talking at the podium, bill, i think you got word on that. >> bill: listen to this, drop

into the briefing room, talking about gun reform a moment ago, e evan, the wall street journal reporter held in russia. >> entry, the holiday, any more details where the secret it was found the cocaine in the west wing. >> this is under the preview of the secret service, they are currently investigating what happened over the weekend, i would have to refer you to the secret service on all of this. one thing to share i'll share a little more information. as you know, the president and the first lady and their family were not here this weekend as you all reported on this and as you also know that they left on friday and returned just yesterday. where this was discovered is a heavily traveled area where many white house west wing i should be even more specific, west wing

visitors come through this particular area. i just don't have anything more to share. it is under investigation by the secret service. this is in their purview and so we are going to allow certainly the investigation to continue and we are confident the secret service will get to the bottom of this. >> the president said let's get to the bottom of this. >> we have confidence the secret service will get to the bottom of this. the president follows the reporting here and was briefed on his staff. secret service is investigating this, investigating what happened over the weekend and we have confidence they will get to the bottom of this. >> secondly, a chance sweden will be approved into nato by the time of next week's summit. >> so look, this is something the president as you know, the sweden prime minister is here, they are meeting as we speak in the oval office as some of your colleagues, and maybe yourself, steve, was able to be in the

oval office, so look, i mean, we have been very clear on this. we have encouraged turkey and hungary to approve sweden's application for nato membership as soon as possible. and sweden and i said this last week, said it many times, fulfilled the commitments they made under the tri lateral memorandum of agreement, they had agreed to win -- to with finland and turkey on the nato summit a year ago, they share nato's values and strengthen the alliance and contribute to european security. we believe it should occur, the partnership into them to become members in nato as soon as possible and that's what you'll continue to hear from the president. i think the sweden prime minister being here today having a meeting with the president certainly shows that commitment. >> thanks, just two quick follow-ups. you said the president has been briefed on the cocaine found at the white house. is the white house conducting its own internal investigation?

>> this is something that's under the purview of the secret service. they are the ones who handle the investigation so it lives in their purview, their world. >> this type of tour, can you explain to the american people who would have access to the west wing on this type of tour and what kind of protocols are in place? >> when it comes to security protocol, that's something the secret service is going to handle, that is a question for them. when it comes to visitors to the west wing, they come for many reasons. obviously we do have west wing tours that occur here on campus, they happen, in this particular past couple of days, they happened on friday, happened on saturday and sunday. the times that they do not happen is when there is a federal holiday like yesterday, there was not a west wing tour and also a large white house event. i don't have anything more to share on the particulars. again, when it comes to security, when it comes to anything of those types of

protocols, that is something that secret service handles. >> thanks, karine and congratulations. should i call you president -- >> appreciate it. sure. >> i was waiting, over the head or got missed. >> not my turn, it's not -- one president at a time. >> incoming president. >> i wonder if the cocaine episode has prompted the white house to ask the secret service to review its security protocol. >> let them do their investigation, again, this is under their purview. let's see exactly what occurred and what happened. they are going to get to the bottom of this. they meaning the secret service. i'm not going to get ahead of changes in protocol or anything like that. let's let the secret service do their job and get to the bottom

of this. >> and episode shines a light on the fact you can bring illegal substances into the white house. what's preventing a visitor from bringing in anthrax or something like that into the white house. >> it is under investigation, we will get to the bottom of what happened, secret service will, not us, and so we will let the secret service do their job. not ahead of if or when or changes, we will let the secret service do their job, which they are. >> can you tell us how the white house is assisting the secret service with this investigation? have you made any white house officials available for interviews with law enforcement, for example? >> look, we are not assisting under anything. this is under the secret service purview. under their guidance and guidelines, their borld -- world, this is something the

secret service handles under their protocol and we appreciate that. >> you noted it's an area where visitors on tour groups often pass by. is that the working theory it was likely a visitor and confident it's not a white house staffer? >> there is an investigation, they will get to the bottom of this. what i want to be very clear is this is a heavily -- heavily traveled, to be more accurate, area of the campus, of the white house, and where visitors to the west wing come through, this is the part where they come through when it comes to coming through the west wing. i don't have anything else. i'm not going to speculate on who it was, just wanted to make that very clear and give you all a little more information. i believe the secret service is also sharing this as well. >> and then another topic, among the 12 palestinians killed in the operation carried out by israel, four under the age of 18. israel says all the palestinians killed were combatants.

does the white house have an assessment whether they were combatants or whether any civilians were killed? >> as you all know and said many times, we support israel's security and right to defend against hamas palestinian islamic jihad and other terrorist groups. it's imperative to take all possible steps to protect civilians from harm and measures need to be taken to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and restore electricity and water to the civilian population and so don't have anything more to share beyond that but certainly we are certainly we are monitoring things very closely. >> anything you can tell us about the level of engagement by u.s. officials to try and prevent a broader escalation. we have seen rockets fired from gaza, seen the attack carried out in tel aviv. what's the white house going to prevent this from escalating.

>> israel is a close ally and partner and in touch with the national security and defense officials, don't have anything to read out on our conversation but we are in regular contact. >> thanks, karine. i wanted to ask about this decision we saw yesterday in louisiana on the white house contact with social media companies. a response the judge basically saying this is the most massive attack on free speech in the u.s. history. >> as you know, doj is reviewing the decision, the injunction, and so i don't want to get ahead of what they will evaluate and their options could potentially be, not going to get ahead of the doj. if you are asking me if we agree or disagree, we certainly disagree with the decision, and as i said, the doj is reviewing this, i'm not going to get ahead of what options they are going to potentially take on moving forward. >> does the president plan to make a direct appeal to turkey

or hungary regarding sweden's nato bid? >> i think we have been very clear, i just laid out our position has been and the president has been very public and clear about sweden and so just going to leave it there. don't have anything else to add towards that.enter i think again having the prime minister here ahead of nato next week i think is important. the president clearly has been -- has been very clear about sweden becoming a member of nato, and so we will continue to be outspoken about that and continue to be public about that. >> i don't have any calls to read out. i think you can see by the president's actions and his words, not just actions, that he's been pretty steadfast on saying that sweden should become a nato member as soon as possible. >> how does the white house view the quran burning in stockholm

and whether it will affect the nato negotiations with turkey. >> look, i'm not going to get into the negotiations or any diplomatic conversations from here. clearly the burning of the quran as you all know is something that the president would certainly agree is disappointing to see but i'm not going to get ahead of any conversations or diplomatic conversations. >> bill: so several questions on this cocaine that was found on sunday night, karine jean-pierre saying the first family was not home at the time, they left on friday for the holiday weekend. secret service is investigating, she said that repeatedly. gillian, also talked about the heavily traveled area, said that several times. where a lot of west wing visitors would gather inside the lobby, maybe for a possible meeting or even a tour that would be conducted there. but i think our viewers would probably recognize this part of the white house, it's where the marine guard stands sentry just about all day long on both sides

of that door. >> gillian: 24 hours a day, as long as the president is inside. >> bill: and right inside the lobby is apparently where it was, and very little after that, and hopefully the secret service can do it in quick office. stand by for that. >> gillian: curious, bill, i thought, that she said the white house is not assisting the secret service in the investigation, she was pressed on that point by a reporter, how is the white house assisting, she said, they're not. don't know what to make of it. >> bill: see if it stays that way or not. gillian, move our conversation here, a few questions about the economy during the briefing as well, and president biden with a full-court press for his bidenomics plan. he and his cabinet hit the road to tout his economic agenda as he gears up for re-election as the president's sales pitch continues will voters buy what he is selling. robert wolf, former economic adviser to president obama and steve moore, freedom works chief

economist. good to see both of you. steve, the president will go to south carolina. no small coincidence there if the primary season plays out the way it does. and robert, i mean, if you are the white house -- what are you selling on this economy? >> well, that's an easy answer. i mean, i think you have manufacturing up, you have the jobs market up, you have wages up, retail sales up, auto sales is up, consumer sales is up. i mean -- listen, i think there's wind at our back. gdp has been better. with all that said, inflation has continued to stay much higher than we can have it. so, we are at this inflection point. i think they should be going on the road, and talking about the data, the data doesn't lie. and so i would continue to -- >> bill: the data i've got,

robert, call for 2, fox news poll condition on the economy, fair or poor, 76% check in on that number. that's a pretty heavy side on one. steven. >> yeah, look, i think the problem for bind taking some kind of victory lap on the economy, by the way, the other thing that's way up that robert did not mention is our national debt, which is increased by $6 trillion in the last two and a half years and prices are up way more than people's wages. and i think, bill, that's the reason why, you know, people are not feeling the love for this economy right now. is it better than it was this time last year, absolutely it is. are there jobs out there, yes, but people are suffering a middle class squeeze right now and i think that's a big problem for the president going into next year's election. >> bill: and part of that point can be emphasized in the other poll number, robert, number 3, guys. personal finances, how do you feel, how you doing? we asked three questions. this is compared to two years ago, ok, so you see the number on the right side, that is june

of 2021. falling behind, 27, holding steady 56, ahead, 17. the column on the left is now. and falling behind has shot up by 20 points, holding steady has gone lower by about 13, 14 points, and getting ahead has dropped by 6. so i guess robert, that's how people are feeling about their current circumstances. today whether or not you can sell it is another question. >> yeah, bill, two things. one, i did not say he should be doing a victory lap. number two, i use the term we are at an inflection point. i think he has to make sure he talks about the things that are going very well. we have infrastructure, 35,000 jobs, manufacturing, all-time high. that's one. number two with respect to steve's, you know, 6 trillion, trump was 7.5 trillion, he has not reached the goal of president trump.

but we also know it's coming down by 1.5 trillion. and so yes, i mean -- we have to keep the data going but you know, polls are tough and inflation is still there. i'm being pragmatic, at an inflection point. >> robert, the problem is we came out of covid and we never really had the boom. the last six months, the economy has grown a little over 1%, kind of pathetic given we had to shut down the economy, so i think americans are fearful of where we are headed, they sense, bill, that there's something fundamentally wrong with an economy that's living on both government debt and don't forget, bill, the way that people are maintaining their living standards is by borrowing more themselves. look at the credit card debt, just hit a trillion dollars for the first time ever. that's no road to prosperity. >> bill: gentlemen, it was short, but appreciate you being patient given the briefly. pocket book election, what everybody says. we'll see if they are right.

thanks, gentlemen. back to gillian in d.c. >> gillian: soaring house prices, rising interest rates, a lot of americans say they are considering buying a tiny home. jeff flock joins us from pennsylvania, i've seen them on tv, you are there in real life, how tiny are we talking? >> some are tinier than others. actually, they are getting a little bigger, gillian. i want to show you this one, they go from, you know, real tiny to this size, which i think you'll be very surprised by what this one looks like, talk about the economy. this is one way around it. something that sells for, tiny homes between 30, $60,000, this one a few more, but it's tiny but not that tiny. people are trending this way, all you need is a piece of ground and this rolls in on wheels, it's a little bit like a mobile home and maybe one last look at the bedroom over there, thomas, and a lot of people are opting for this. you can't have a lot of stuff in here, and

maybe simplifying your life and not having too much stuff is not a bad idea these days. gillian. >> gillian: as long as you don't have too many folks living at home with you, jeff, thank you. >> bill: as long as. hey, gillian, great to be with you. >> gillian: you, too, bill. >> bill: see you later in the week. bill hemmer live in new york city. >> trace: thank you. we're following two huge stories. cocaine showing up in the white house and the biden administration says the judge put limits on feds on how contact with social media companies can be obtained. let's go to mark