service. >> john: we are going to jump out for a little while, if she gets into questions particularly with hunter biden we will get back in. >> sandra: she is about to take questions, john. remember, this time yesterday she opened with a statement from the white house, from the president and his family about their son after that explosive moment at the federal courthouse where a plea deal fell through. she did not open with any particular statement about that today. she's likely to be pressed with questions on that shortly. remember, there was a lot of very interesting exchanges in the briefing room yesterday. there was a pretty simple question about somebody who was found with an illegal firearm whether they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law she responded by saying i know where you are going with that question, i won't answer it. we'll see, reporters pressed her yesterday. our own fox reporter did not get a chance to pose questions to her, possibly will be able to do

so today. >> john: she said she was not going to take any questions about hunter biden, certainly in the past she has made statements about the president and his relationship with his son and has chosen because of the sensitive nature of the current proceedings to not say anything. she's asked about it now. let's listen. >> anything more than what i shared yesterday. this is a personal matter for hunter biden. this is, you know, a personal issue, and as you know, this has been done in an independent way by the department of justice. it has been led by a trump appointed prosecutor and i'm just not going to comment beyond what i said yesterday and of course and we have said this multiple times, the president and the first lady, they love their son and they support -- they support him as he is working to rebuild his life. i'm just not going to say anything beyond that. >> and on leader mcconnell, he mentioned that the president called him yesterday. can you talk a little bit about

that conversation, what the president's message was to leader mcconnell, and whether the president believes he is able to serve considering his medical condition as the republican leader. >> i'm not going to get into the medical condition of the republican leader in the senate. what i can say is the president respects senator mcconnell. there is a lot that they disagree on but they have found ways to work together to find common ground and i think that's important for the american people to see that bipartisanship and how they have been able to work together. obviously the president has known the senator for some time now, like the leader mentioned, they -- the president called him yesterday, i'm just not going to go into details on that conversation. as you know, and we say this often here, we try to keep those conversations private so i'm not going to go into details from here. >> thanks, karine. follow up on hunter, is the president concerned his son's legal challenges will continue to take attention away from the white house now that this plea

deal has fallen apart. >> i'm not going to speak to the politics of this, i'm not going to speak to characterize any of this for the president. what i can say is that, i've said it before, this is a personal matter. this is hunter biden as you know is a private citizen and this was done in an independent way, this investigation is being led by a trump appointed prosecutor and so the department of justice is independent. we give them the space to be independent. and we respect the rule of law. i'm just not going to get into details of characterizing. >> have you spoken to hunter. >> i'm not going to speak to a conversation with the family. >> in 2021, president biden told david muir accountability is necessary for the january 6th insurrection of the capital no matter where it goes. does the president stand by those comments even in the case of former president trump. >> i just don't have anything additional to add. the president spoke, was very

candid when asked that question and i believe his words stand today. >> is the u.s. considering making a plan to remove troops from niger? we have to evacuate u.s. citizens and is there any indication at all that russia could be playing -- have a hand in what's happening there? >> so a couple of things. the u.s. embassy released a security alert on july 26th advising u.s. citizens, yesterday as you know, to limit unnecessary movements and avoid the affected area until further notice. as the situation develops, we continue to monitor the situation and will continue to provide information to u.s. citizens in the region through the travel advisories, alerts and travel.state.gov. we strongly encourage u.s. citizens in niger to enroll in the smart travel enrollment

program to receive important emergency information and be careful. careful where they are and what they are doing. we will certainly determine on what is needed as we get further information. to your question about russia, putin, i know there's a question about the wagner group as well. until now we have not seen credible indications of russian or wagner involvement. but to the u.s. citizens who are in the country, we again continue to tell them to be mindful, to be careful and as i just stated, we did put out an alert yesterday. >> another one on international stuff. i think the subpoena, supposed to provide information on afghanistan withdrawal by tuesday at 10:00, that hasn't happened. are you concerned that you could be held in contempt if you don't -- >> i don't have anything, don't have comment on that at this time. >> quickly on meloni visit

today. to what extent talking about china and do you have any indication are that the italians are -- will accelerate moves -- [indiscernible] >> so, look. i don't want to get ahead of the conversation that they are going to have. as you know, they are going to be meeting fairly shortly. as it relates to the -- i know my colleague was asked yesterday from nsc what i can expect, they will discuss the benefits of closer trans atlantic coordination of the people's republic of china and other topics but i don't want to do anything to confirm other specifics. obviously the conversation is going to happen in less than an hour. i will give the president and the prime minister the opportunity to go through their agenda. >> so far you guys have been

unwilling to say exactly where president biden invited the israeli prime minister to here in the u.s. earlier today benjamin netanyahu said president biden in a phone call invited him to the white house for this visit later this year. can you confirm that? >> what i can say is they both agreed to meet in the united states later this year. both teams are working through what that's going to look like, the timing. i don't have anything else beyond that beyond what we have said last week and continue to say after that conversation is that they both agreed to meet in the united states later this year. >> the president did not invite specifically to the white house. >> i want to be clear, it was a conversation they agree it would be in the united states. don't have anything further. both teams are indeed talking and working through -- what i can say is the united states, that's what they both agreed on, and both teams are having that conversation on what that would look like on the details of that. >> thanks. and separately, senator mcconnell said they spoke with the president yesterday, the

president reached out after this apparent medical episode that the senate minority leader had. can you confirm that. >> i think i just did when she asked that question. basically the senator mentioned the president called and certainly the president and the senator have known each other for some time and have, as i mentioned so song min have had a lot of disagreements but common ground to move forward with the american people. i'm not going to go beyond what the senator said. >> and prigozhin was apparently spotted at the africa summit that russia is hosting. what does that tell the white house about prigozhin's standing in russia and the importance of the wagner group going forward in africa. >> i'm not going to characterize or speak to prigozhin's appearance or participation in the summit.

that's something for the russian government to speak to. >> thanks very much. >> i'll never forget thor. >> and if you allow me, thank you to the unsung heroes of the white house, the stenographers. >> i agree, they are the unsung heros. >> the mumbling we have to do. >> we appreciate you. appreciate you. >> two questions if i could. one, could you comment on the report in the "new york times" that the government, the president has, you know, asked to move ahead, the government to move ahead with cooperating with the icc on collecting evidence against the russians for war crimes. >> and what was your second question? >> second one, can you answer that one first? >> oh, ok. so a couple of things. since the beginning of russia's assault on ukraine, the president has been very clear. there needs to be accountability for the perpetrators and

enablers of war crimes and other atrocities in ukraine. he's been very clear about that. we support a range as you know, of international mechanism to identify and hold accountable those responsible, including through the office of ukraine prosecutor general, the joint investigative team through euro just and the united nations human rights monitoring mission. the expert missions established under the osce, moscow mechanism, and the international criminal court among others. so, we have deployed teams of international investigators and prosecutors to assist ukraine's office. of the prosecutor general and documenting, preserving and preparing war crime cases for prosecution and department of justice has entered into a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with ukraine on investigations and prosecutions of war crimes committed during russia's invasion of ukraine. so, but on the icc specifically, which is your question, we are not going to -- we are not going

to get into specifics of cooperation, which is -- which is consistent with the court's practice of treating requests for cooperation in a confidential manner, so we are going to be very careful and continue with that tradition that has been around for some time. >> is there any policy change in that, in the sense the u.s. is not -- >> i totally understand. we are going to not discuss any specifics. i just laid out the united states role over the past 15, 16 months, as it relates to investigations. multiple different entities that are looking into this. the unjust war that russia has started in ukraine and i'm not going to get into what has been common when it comes to icc specifically. >> and then on the heat -- 40,000 foot question here. the president got so much focus on climate change, he talks about it all the time and the

ira and so on. is he -- how does he assess the broader acceptance of u.s. society to getting on the daily life, a lot of the experts who talk about the climate crisis say should be happening, things that really get into every individual's life. compared to europe, for example, in europe, a lot more, say grassroots type of participation in recycling and energy saving and driving little tiny cars and being told to bicycle instead of driving and being told to take a train instead of a plane. i have a reliable source tells me in france when a holiday comes, a sign saying you could not shower for more than two minutes. i don't know if that would work here. does the president feel american society is on board with that level of a push that some parts of the world are -- >> what i'll say, i'll say what the president believes and how he's taking this climate change crisis very seriously.

since he walked in, day one in this administration as i have laid out many times before. >> john: all right, we are going to jump out of the briefing, karine jean-pierre refusing to entertain any questions on hunter biden, and one of the questions that a lot of people have is this plea deal that came before judge noreika yesterday apparently was unique in her experience, also unique in the experience of leo weiss, the assistant u.s. attorney there representing the government, and how did that ever get crafted in the way it did, particularly with the immunity provision being buried in the diversion, the gun diversion part of the agreement which really was not subject to the judge's influence or discretion. so these are a lot of questions we have as to who wrote this, why did they write it the way they wrote it, but we are not going to hear anything about that. >> sandra: those are great questions, not a lot of answers in the briefing room. we will get back there as questions and answers are ongoing, we have two reporters

in the room. but one of the questions was has the president spoken with his son, karine jean-pierre says "i'm just not going to speak to any private conversation the president has with his family." she maintains this is a personal matter and that he is a private citizen, and tammy and bruce will react in a moment, but hillary vaughn is live on capitol hill. >> democrats on capitol hill have said the things that have come out recently, some suggesting that president biden may have had some knowledge or involvement in his son hunter's overseas business deals. they tell me all that stuff is "b.s.," and this idea of impeachment inquiry to look into what role, if any, the president had in his son's business is crazy. >> would you support an impeachment inquiry into president biden? >> that's crazy, crazy, we have more problems. let's make the country work. >> why are you not curious or

concerned if the president lied? >> other democrats tell me there's no evidence of any wrongdoing by the president and nothing that has leaked out from whistleblowers or ex-business partners of hunter is proof either. >> why do you think democrats seem to not care when there's a democrat in the white house about possible corruption in the oval office? >> we care about corruption. the corruption that we are seeing is a corruption of the republican party that has no high crimes, no misdemeanors, but just has a thirst for impeachment. >> wouldn't an inquiry help democrats get evidence you say they don't have at this time. >> sandra and john, republicans say they need to open this inquiry so that they can get their hands on this hard evidence.

the most recent high ranking republican to back an impeachment inquiry, elise stefanik says she would absolutely support an impeachment inquiry into president biden. >> sandra: hillary, thank you so much. tammy bruce as mentioned is here. your reaction to what we heard from the press secretary, a personal matter, hunter biden is a private citizen, she will not comment further. >> that was interesting to me because that tells you what they're worried about, tells you they want to separate him from the white house, from politics, from his father, from interest, not just his father now but when his father was the vice president. this is in the midst of the whistleblower conversations, everyone admitting the laptop is real and those dynamics, texts with hunter biden referring to his father. there is enough there for us to realize, and even the conversation with the judge yesterday, where she asked him, you know, who were you working for. what foreign companies were you working for, and that brings up

issues regarding fara, if you are an agent for a foreign government, those companies were controlled by a government, that's of interest. and then if your father is the vice president and the president, of course that's an interesting dynamic. still hunter is invited to the white house, flying on air force one, seen with the attorney general, seen with the president, and the white house, so to say that he's just a private citizen and this is private and he's an individual tells you what they are worried about is that connection, is they want to make sure he is kept separate because they know if the impact. >> sandra: and ongoing, i guess, difference in the messaging from this white house through karine jean-pierre that we have seen in recent weeks. it's messaging that i should say built up long before that, that the president never spoke to his son about any of his foreign business dealings. now he's never been in business with his son.

sal wisenberg spoke earlier. >> the president said two years he never spoke business with his son and now they are pulling back on. this question of the whose app call where he says, hunter says i've got my dad sitting here with me, great example of the intersection of possible impeachment and the interference. >> sandra: tammy, where the wall street journal editorial board wrote this, imploding, the big question is not whether a plea deal is too tough or lenient, the question over the plea is whether joe biden was also in on his son's sleazey influence peddling. >> and that's why this matters, right. the reason why hunter biden matters. it's never really been about hunter, it's about the nature of the entire package, what the democrats are doing, what the biden family has been doing and now we see that evidence of the money, the distribution of money to the various members, not just

hunter or joe or whatever. it begs for an investigation. this is the transparency that the american people have wanted is when there's a question like this we deserve certain answers, especially if the answers are they are completely innocent. why should we then not even note that much. so, there is an interest clearly as your own report showed for the democrats to not be able to prove them -- that all of this is just politics and is not, does not matter. it matters, certainly, for the american people to see it. >> sandra: while yesterday, the ladies of "the view" were swooping into hunter biden's defense here. whoopi goldberg earlier today. >> i don't understand. he's like john val jean. i feel they are going to find something, go, seven years. but you know, maybe i'm crazy, but it seems to me after seven years you would know what your

case is. >> sandra: tammy. >> you know, it goes on for that long perhaps when you've been pushing back constantly, when you've said a laptop is russian disinformation and you delay and delay and delay and so pushes things along so the statutes of limitations expire. it's not necessarily the length of things. this is -- almost happening despite itself because of the actions that they have taken like, you know, the pushback against "the new york post" and twitter and the desperation to keep people from looking. so yes, it might extend it a bit but also more interesting. why the desperation, why was this required. it's not because everybody loves hunter so much, it's because what is that link to now the head of the country and the head of the democratic party. >> sandra: that's a big question. tammy bruce, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you for my lottery ticket. >> tomorrow night, fantastic. >> john: sandra, the house judiciary committee is delaying

a vote to hold meta ceo mark zuckerberg in contempt of congress as they are dubing the facebook files. never before released internal documents prove that facebook and instagram censored posts under the direction of the biden administration. grady is reporting from capitol hill. do we know what's in the documents? >> we know what is in some of the documents, john, and that's because judiciary chair jim jordan posted pictures of some of them on x, formerly twitter, and what we have seen so far appears to show that meta, then facebook, was in pretty regular communication with the white house and that over and over again the biden administration requested facebook remove certain posts, specifically to do with the covid vaccine, that the white house apparently did not like. so here is one of the posts from jim jordan. in april 2021, he says, a

facebook employee circulated an email for facebook ceo mark zuckerberg and coo cheryl sandberg writing we are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders including the biden white house to remove posts. other documents jordan posted appear to show at least one facebook executive expressed concerns that removing posts would be attack on free expression. in some cases jordan says facebook changed its content moderation policies because of the political pressure. >> it's pretty sad that you have to threaten a subpoena for documents to get the information that we have requested in a professional manner and suddenly right before a vote on contempt suddenly documents are produced. >> and for its part, facebook says that it's been cooperating all along, that it's produced more than 53,000 pages of documents to the committee. you know, you mentioned that jim

jordan is calling this the facebook files and they seem very similar to the twitter files. to that end, elon musk responded to jordan on x and said what jordan laid out is "extremely concerning" and jordan, by the way, john, teased that there is more to come. so, we'll keep you posted. >> john: all right, grady trimble, thank you. >> sandra: real life fallout for bud light after a controversial campaign, anheuser busch, the maker of bud light has plans to lay off hundreds of workers. cuts will not impact brewery and warehouse staff but eliminating corporate and marketing roles in major cities across the u.s.. bud light sales have fallen since april after a promotion with transgender influencer dylan mulvaney. amazing how far-reaching that campaign has been, john. >> john: yeah, you know, we have said the most expensive cans of beer that bud ever produced.

>> sandra: no question. >> john: how much have they cost the company? >> sandra: and people their jobs. >> john: and that's the real shame. you can say don't buy bud light because of this, but when people lose their jobs the rubber hits the road and hurts a lot of people. >> sandra: absolutely. >> i should be at home with my family celebrating my 19th birthday, instead making a plea to my elected representatives, learn the lessons from other medical scandals like the opioid crisis, to recognize that doctors are human, too. and sometimes they are wrong. my childhood was ruined along with thousands of detransitioners that i know through the networks. this needs to stop. you alone can stop it. enough children have already been victimized by this barbaric pseudo science. let me be your final warning. >> john: heartbreak and powerful on capitol hill, dangers of

detransitioning for children. chloe cole was put on puberty blockers and underwent a double mastectomy long before she turned 18. now she wants to protect children from the harms from gender transitioning treatments. very powerful testimony. and high pressure situation you are incredibly composed there. what was the message you were trying to get across today. >> i wanted lawmakers and parents and really everybody to know that this is an issue that is very complex and requires a lot of compassion and understanding. but the immediate thing, the immediate thing to do that we should do is not to tend to the wants of these children but to their needs. >> john: so it's incredibly complex but are people who are involved in that side of it,

gender therapists, gender consultants, i think, some people even are, they try to simplify it to say oh, you are a girl but really a boy. we need to give you puberty blockers, give you testosterone, we need to take your breasts off and then everything will be fine. >> right. i mean, once gender is brought up in the discussion i mean, whatever mental health issues that the patient had before it's completely thrown away, they pivot immediately to gender. >> john: that's the business they are in, right. we were talking off camera and if you go to a knee surgeon and say my knee hurts, a chance somebody will recommend surgery on your knee and the same thing for this, you think? >> yes. and with the standards of care now, i mean -- this is being recommended so flippantly to children now. they're allowing children to direct the course of their own medical treatment. >> john: give us some insight in

your story. you had a double mastectomy at the age of 15. >> yes. >> john: what led you down that path to that mastectomy? >> well, i started puberty rather early and i was very insecure about my body and the unwanted sexual attention i was getting from my peers and sometimes adults and i found it difficult at times to fit in with the other girls my age as a bit of a tom boy and really all normal feelings for a girl my age and had an unresolved sexual trauma i felt i could not trust adult with talking about. >> john: and so. >> all the factors led to me wanting to get rid of my breasts. i saw them over time as not breasts but tumors that needed to be removed from my body. and i wanted to be like any other boy my age, i wanted to be just like them. >> john: were you thinking that yourself or somebody bring you

to that conclusion. >> it was a conclusion that i came to mostly on my own terms. i was introduced to gender ideology through social media but when i initially started transitioning both socially and medically i was not directly interacting with anybody in the transgender community at the time and i was very determined to do this, and mostly something i had led on my own but under the pretense that this is the only option that i had or that i thought i had. >> john: nobody said to you slow down, let's take a look at this, examine the issues behind that and see if there's a different route? >> no, i mean -- they did a psychiatric evaluation before i was diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria and they knew at the time that i had previous diagnosis of hdhd, likely had autism and struggling with social anxiety, but also that i was going through things that were perfectly normal for a kid my age and that -- they told my

mom and dad that it was either transgender or suicide for me. but i was not suicidal until after i was put on the treatments. >> john: that put pressure on them, put pressure on you as well. >> yeah. >> john: we talked a bit about this off camera. do you believe that societal pressures towards transitioning are outpacing our understanding of gender dysphoria? >> it's a huge part of it. i mean -- a lot of these people getting caught up in this are kids who have a previous history of mental illnesses, many of them don't really have very many friends at school or have much of a sense of community in their own neighborhoods, within their family even, and they seek that somewhere else. they seek that through these communities online or with their peers and it gives them that sense of belonging they didn't have before and kind of explains why they feel so different from

their peers. what's setting them apart from them. >> john: i don't want to call it criticism, but you've been highlighted in places like the "new york times," put this up, they wrote about you saying how a few stories of regret fuel the push to restrict gender transition care. stories of regret and irreversible physical have tapped into strong emotions, parental worry, lawmakers have used these accounts to override objections from all major medical associations which oppose bans on transition care as well as testimony from the far larger number of transgender people who say transitioning improved their mental health. they are basically saying experiences like yours where it was all a mistake are in the minority, yet because you get pulled before congress you have an outsized voice in the debate. what do you say? >> i hear that quite often and i'm somebody who went through it myself. i know what it's like. and i went through it and according to transgender activists the most ideal

circumstances. i was pretty much as young as possible, just a few years in puberty, 13 years old when i started to medically transition and i had a supportive family and friends around me and i passed pretty well as the opposite sex, i had a deep voice, deeper than most of the boys my age and yet it still was wrong. i still came out hurt by it and to say stories like mine are in the minority you can't say that. we don't know how many people actually detransition. the studies the activists frequently cite are poorly conducted over a very short period of time. surgery regret takes about like 7 to 10 years, if not longer for most people to really appreciate. and a lot of it is self-reported data, it's surveys and surveys

are notorious not being reliable, and the entire premise of the treatment is a lie. you can't actually become the opposite sex. no matter how you feel. >> john: you can't change your chromosomes. >> no. >> john: chloe, it was fascinating watching you on capitol hill and thank you for sharing your story. sandra. >> sandra: very interesting discussion. thank you very much. back to the white house, i'm told we are, she's getting a question on hunter right now. still the case, back to the white house. >> thank you for your nice words and thank you to the whole press team. the i've got two follow-ups, one on russia, on niger, more broadly can you talk about the concern of the united states -- >> sandra: ok, what just happened there, our reporter in the room today for the fox news channel is mark meredith. he asked a question about hunter, i'm told that she cut him off and moved on very quickly. and that is why we did not see a reaction to that.

larry kudlow is here is fired up about that and bidenomics, to that in a second. but larry, you know, it is news that you've got a president that is facing growing calls from a growing number of members of the gop for an impeachment inquiry of this president and the reporters in the room are not asking about it. >> larry: of course not. >> sandra: and the president's son in a federal courtroom in delaware yesterday has a plea deal fall apart in dramatic fashion and she won't even take a question on it. she says he's a private citizen, it's a personal matter, she will not comment. >> larry: you can say it's a personal matter but a big impact on his father, which makes it a political matter. and presidential matter. remember -- >> sandra: and a legal matter. >> larry: what blew it out of the water, the smart judge refused to grant global immunity, part of the deal and

it was never really clear and the justice department was not very clear about it. >> sandra: or who constructed the deal. >> larry: i don't know the answer to that, i presume it was mr. weiss but i don't know the answer to that. all i know the deal was unacceptable, unconstitutional. you cannot have global immunity for all problems related to international transactions, which is what that was about. because those problems with respect to international transactions, we have learned through a growing body of evidence, i know this is alleged, but through a growing body of evidence now, we have learned these suspicious bank accounts are out there, we have learned that by hunter biden's own whatsapp communication that the chinese invested money in and it was paid out to all these llcs, and his father joe biden was involved in that, and then of course the fbi 1023s and the

irs whistleblowers. the web is -- the net is closing in on joe biden and to give hunter biden total immunity from any of this is effectively to give his father total immunity to any of this, if i understand the legal reasoning that's extent in this. so, this judge did a very smart thing, and now it's all on hold. >> sandra: just to be clear, the question our reporter in the room posed to the press secretary when she cut him off and moved on without letting him ask another question was whether or not he would pardon his son. >> larry: well, that's very interesting. >> sandra: she cut him off and moved on, did not take another question. >> larry: some press speculation about this. >> sandra: ok, we have another reporter in the room for the fox business network and talking about real wages. >> just to be very clear, we are

accounting for inflation when we say wages are at 1.2% higher and then they were last year, 0.7% higher than before the pandemic. so is indeed something we are accounting for. and so you know, there is a strong job market that that exists, inflation as you know has been easing for 12 months straight in a row, 12 months in a row, and so wages are rising and there's even more low and middle wage workers which is also important as we look at the data, as we look at the direction this economy is going and that's helping us catch up from decades of widening wages that we have seen. >> thank you, karine. >> sandra: ok, so just to fact check that real quick, real wages are down in this country, ok. the average hourly wages earnings for all workers in

january 2021 when the president came in, 11.39 an hour, now 11.05. a drop of 3%, that needs to be said. go ahead, larry. >> larry: as i understood it and she said this before that real wages are above the levels pre-pandemic. that is also completely untrue. and since joe biden has been president, if i use february 2021 as the base, ok, real wages are down 3%, donald trump real wages were up 7%. we have the charts to show it. now, i will say this. real wages in the last month were up, ok. they were up. >> sandra: that's good news. we can take that. >> larry: first time in 25, 26 months. but the thing is, look, the level of the consumer price index since february of 2021. >> sandra: up 16%. >> larry: increased by 16%.

>> sandra: the prices the average american is paying up 16%. >> larry: more or less, that's correct. and you see it, look, grocery prices up about 20%, gasoline prices, ok, a perfect example of why the level matters. we are not as high as we were where it was $5 a gallon nationwide. but you know where we are, just short of 3.70. when donald trump in the last months, it was about $2. so -- >> sandra: and people don't like that, people are still not happy. >> larry: $2 is less than 3.70. >> sandra: direction in my ear -- >> larry: $2 gasoline in trump's remaining months lower than 3.70. i don't want to go out on a limb here, i'm just saying -- >> sandra: according to my math -- >> larry: i know you went to a

fine southern school. >> sandra: what i was told in my ear, we now have the exchange with mark meredith, our reporter in the white house briefing room when he tried to put this question to karine jean-pierre. listen. >> the first question in the briefing i know you said not a lot has changed since yesterday and it's a personal matter. from a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son? >> no. i just said no, i just answered. go ahead, go ahead. >> sandra: she answered said no, but moved on. >> larry: that's definitive, may eat those words later on, but it's interesting she answered it and interesting what her answer was. >> sandra: i look at you and what's happening there and think you know, you were inside that white house for quite some time, you saw a lot happen inside those walls. can only imagine what they are dealing with. the president spoke earlier, asked the same question, they threw a bunch of questions, he ignored questions about the collapse of hunter's plea deal,

turned his back on the press when asked if he would pardon his son. >> larry: so he would not answer that, but she did. she's supposed to be speaking for him, fascinating. >> sandra: larry, as far as the federal reserve tasked with bringing those, down those prices, are they doing it and what kind of -- >> larry:. >> sandra: you see borrowing costs up to buy a house, a car, credit card rates are going up, all to tackle the inflation created in the last two years. >> larry: has not had much impact. it's interesting. the increase of interest rates, let's take autos. auto sales, very interest sensitive sector of the economy. they are back to 16 million now. that's a good number, not a record number, but a healthy number, better than the last couple years. car rates have gone up. borrowing rates, has not really had much of an impact.

>> sandra: what does that tell you? >> larry: housing -- well, i don't know. if you judge the fed on that basis, it means they have more work to do. but, but, but, but, i don't like that, i don't think the role of the fed -- >> sandra: here it comes. >> larry: is to destroy the economy. lower taxes, regulations and limited government will grow the economy. the role of the fed to curb the money supply and keep prices stable and despite all i heard, i don't know what jay powell says when he goes through this gyrations for one hour and market volatility goes up. i don't know what he's telling us. but, the results are good, they are improving, they have a ways to go. >> sandra: just because they raise them -- does not mean we see the impact of that right away, as you well know, it could be months down the road. >> larry: running about 4%.

>> sandra: i have to leave it there today. i'm joining you today, i accepted the lovely invitation. >> larry: i'm going to ask the questions, 3.70 versus $two on gasoline. >> sandra: i punched him after we threw to the white house. >> larry: my first question to you this evening. >> john: ecowarriors are popping up, to get the extreme message across. not the only ones hitting the panic button. >> sandra: president biden touting clean energy, may do more harm than good. byorn is here and will give us some facts coming up.

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>> john: it's the summer, that means the weather is going to be hot hot hot, but ecowarriors are saying the rise in temperature has nothing to do with the season and instead are fueling climate anxiety, many of them protestors on roads and airports, some of them epoxying their hands to the pavement so they needed to get the pavement removed in order to get their hands free. and they are not the only ones hitting the emergency button. listen to this. >> we provided a record $50 billion for climate resiliency to restore wetlands, manage wildfires, help americans in every state withstand extreme heat. but our maga extremists, congress, are trying to undo all the progress. >> john: let's bring in bjorn lomborg for more on this. always our go-to person with

climate issues. record setting heat, setting off all kinds of alarms here and progressives sounding the alarm louder than anybody. ilhan omar tweeting the earth broke the hottest record in 120,000 years. three separate days. national climate emergency now. is it, bjorn, a climate emergency. >> it is real there is a problem with global warming and heat is dangerous but three things we need to recognize. first of all, how do you actually help people avoid heat, you do so by making sure that they have air-conditioning, and that they can afford the energy to run their air-conditioning. secondly, there is a lot as you point out, a lot of worry about heat waves, but remember, cold is actually much, much more dangerous. so, the global burden of disease

estimate 2500 die, but 120,000 people die from too low temperatures. why are we not only hearing about the heat waves and not the danger from cold. and the third point, we need to remember that dealing with both of these issues is about having access to cheap energy. cheap energy to make sure that you can run your air-conditioner and cheap energy to make sure you can stay warm in the winter and unfortunately, much of the climate policy has the exact opposite effect. so some truth to what they are saying but we need the context, that makes it a lot less dangerous and less scary. >> john: in the panel next to you, protestors say end fossil fuels, the biden administration and the president is pushing the green agenda as hard as possible. at the same time as china is burning record amounts of coal and a lot of people are

wondering if this president is going to push green energy down our throats, is it not incumbent upon him to get other people to come to the table, people like china? >> well, absolutely. and again, i think the administration would say we are trying but honestly, what do china and india and africa who are going to be the main emitters in the 21st century, what do they care about, they care about making sure their people are pulled out of poverty. and so you can go to china as john kerry did last week, i believe, and say please reduce your carbon emissions but they are not predominantly going to focus on that. they are going to be focusing on getting lots of cheap energy. and again, emphasizes we are trying to tackle global warming wrong, we are trying to tackle it by saying to everyone i'm sorry, could you be a little poorer, less comfortable and pay more for your energy in order to cut carbon emissions. that's not going to play well with americans, certainly not going to play well with the rest

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>> john: overseas hackers are stealing data from americans like food stamps and other government assistance. william la jeunesse has this story. sounds like taxpayers should be up in arms over this. >> yeah, it's almost like government malpractice, john. it does not have to happen. there's agencies watching billions of dollars going out the front door without doing the simple things at the front end to stop it. >> for this operation, we targeted self-criminals. >> in california, police bust a crime ring using stolen welfare cards. >> this was cash taken out of the atm. >> the scam happens around the country. >> we're understaffed, underfunded. we just can't keep up with the fraud. >> about one in five americans receive some form of government

benefits. food stamps, welfare, unemployment insurance. money deposited monthly in their accounts is withdrawn using a debit or ebt card. when money is stolen, taxpayers pay twice. the thief and reimbursing the victim. >> this isn't just one thing. it's an all-out assault. we're losing $3 billion a month to organized criminal groups. >> how does it happen? hackers target government agencies one way. skimming is another. criminals install skimming devices on card readers. when swiped, the card number is stolen. they clone the card and drain the account. >> we've seen on surveillance sitting at the banks up to 45 minutes and taking out up to $40,000 at a time. >> prosecutors around the country say romanian gangs are my primarily responsible. >> the romanians are perhaps the best cyber criminals in the

world. >> simple solutions the government is not doing, number 1, putting in a mike chip so a card can't be skimmed. second, requiring people to authenticate their identity numbers and not allowing pin numbers like 1234. we had a state case, 16 romanians charged, eight got probation. the other eight never showed up for court. back to you. >> john: we've heard that story before, not showing up for your court date. william la jeunesse, thank you. >> sandra: now to this fox news alert. this just happened in the white house press briefing room which we took some. this happened later on. the moment when the press secretary was pressed repeatedly on the president's age. last as few seconds. let's listen how she responds. >> that would be all cleared up if once again, if you would just ask him to step out of that door into this room for 45 minutes

and so i can ask you again to pass that along to him to ask him to come out. >> i appreciate the request. thank you for the request. the president, as you know -- you know, again, i appreciate the question. i get it. the president understands. you guys want to ask him questions and have the opportunity for him to answer your questions. i do want to say, this is a president that has done more in the first two years, 2 1/2 years when it comes to the economy. >> sandra: okay. we've addressed that. those fact checks a few times just in the past two hours during this program. >> john: i know you want to talk to the president. but he's done more in the last two years on the economy. >> sandra: that was interesting. this is a great question. to that reporter's point, just come on out here and address our questions. you know, a president can step

in the briefing room and take questions himself. >> john: i know you'd like to ask the president some questions. he really is fond of his corvette. that's how disassociated those two thoughts were. do we have a mark meredith question? >> sandra: this was the moment on pardoning his son. listen. >> back to the first question of the briefing. i know you said not a lot has changed since yesterday. it's a personal matter. from a presidential perspective, is there a chance the president could pardon his son? >> no. i just said no. >> john: so write that one down. we may need to re-visit it at some point. >> sandra: that was news. we have a lot of it. >> john: there's a lot of, you know, 11th hour pardons on the way out the door. if we got to that point, i wouldn't rule it out. >> sandra: a few interesting moment.

john, great to be with you. i'm going to be on "the five" tonight with that crew. so tune in for that. and join us again tomorrow. set your dvr. never miss "america reports." i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'll see you tonight on "special report" filling in for bret. "the story" starts right now. gillian turner is in for martha. >> hi, guys. thank you. good afternoon from washington. i'm gillian turner in for martha maccallum. right now former president trump is facing a third indictment. we're keeping an eye on his office and the d.c. courthouse where the grand jury is meeting now. take a look at this. normer president trump as this is going on has managed to leap flog ron desantis in a new poll. he leads by 54 to 46 percent in the marquette survey. in march before trump's first indictment, those numbers were precisely reversed. andy m