brutal year. you can't have inflation in double digits. >> sandra: it can be very misleading. hold on. >> facts on 2022. >> sandra: wages, real wages, are they up or down? >> yeah. well, at what -- what point are you talking about real wages since, if you look at the fed data, since december of 2022, real wages since december of 2022 are up versus inflation. inflation, 2.5, 3%, real wages are 4%. slightly up. >> sandra: this is really important, what people are talking about. real wages, to be clear, are down, and this is the u.s. bureau of labor statistics in front of me. they are down two. -- it's a two-year change, this is since the beginning of the biden presidency, down 2.63%. >> i'm talking about since december of 22, and talking about since december of 22.

because you were talking just now about 2022, right. your inflation adjusted where steve said was down by $2,000, is 2022. look at the article, it's 2022. i can send it to everyone watching the show. >> sandra: i have all the data here. but we are talking about this administration's policies, and whether or not they are solely to blame -- >> 2023 is going the right way. >> some truth to what robert is saying. it is true, the report, but the way, the report that came out today, sandra, is really, you know, the gold standard of economic data we get every year, robert is right, for 2022. and 2022 was a terrible, terrible year for the economy. remember, sandra, the inflation rate at one point hit 9.2%, and robert was right, that was the highest rate of inflation since jimmy carter was in office. so we have seen some slight real wage gains in 2023, robert is right about that. but here is the problem, robert.

look what -- we are getting an inflation number in the next couple of days for the latest month and that's going to show a huge rise inflation again. you know why? because energy prices are so high right now. gas prices are headed back to 4.25, 4.50 a gallon. i'm here to tell you, i don't think this inflation problem is over whatsoever and there will be some slight improvement in 2023, not a lot. >> sandra: you guys are playing so nicely, i love it. like the argument like oh, gas prices are down -- like gas prices are down over six months but up over a buck since this administration got started. i think you can obviously -- >> sandra, i'm with you where inflation is. you know i think the long tail is going to be here for a while. so, i'm glad i'm on today instead of tomorrow when we have the inflation numbers. >> robert, that hurts american families. that's why the problem will persist with higher poverty and reduced family incomes. >> sandra: a lot more news to get to, that's incredibly

important stuff and robert, huge economic news tomorrow and may just call you back. thank you so much. fox news alert, live look at the capitol where senate leaders will be speaking, we expect mitch mcconnell to have questions on the house side, kevin mccarthy and the impeachment inquiry into president biden. "america reports," a new hour with the top fox story. sandra smith in new york. >> john: good to kick off another hour with you, sandra. john roberts in washington. following along party lines. >> they think that maybe they can cause a little chaos, maybe cause a little trouble. >> i do believe an impeachment inquiry will be an essential tool in the toolbox to get at joe biden's bank records. >> more important things we have to do, this basically takes up a lot of time. >> john: and one democratic

senator, john fetterman, playing it off as a joke. >> launched an impeachment inquiry. >> oh, my god, really? oh, my god, you know. oh, it's devastating. [laughter] ooh, ooh, ooh, don't do it, please don't do it. >> sandra: the biden family investigation is far from a joke. james comer is demanding answers from the state department into decisions that led to the firing of the ukrainian prosecutor probing burisma. >> john: david spunt is live in washington with more. what kind of information is the chairman looking for? >> comer and others on the republican side, they want to know the policy decisions that led to the firing of this prosecutor named viktor shokin. he was let go, 1 of 2 high profile letters sent from the hill, the other letter went to attorney general merrick garland, it accuses hunter biden's attorneys of intimidation. they say hunter's attorney's christopher clark and abbe lowell are harassing and have been harassing two irs

whistleblowers, and in part reads hunter biden's legal team is engaged in a brazen harassment of the irs whistleblower. what we have today, going over to doj. >> john: hold it for a second, kevin mccarthy is going from his office to open up the house floor, and he's going to probably stop and talk to the cameras, let's see. >> well, we tried. he is walking down the hallway. >> john: well, there's our chad pergram with a valiant try. >> we tried. >> john: to get the speaker to comment a little bit on the new inquiries that have been opened. chad, he clearly wanted to get to the house very quickly, get business open. the big question is, is this going to go to a vote and then when you take a look at what

republicans said about the democrats' impeachment inquiry, how does he square that? >> well, this is something that kevin mccarthy talked about. he said what house speaker, former house speaker nancy pelosi did in terms of the two impeachments with former president trump said that was without precedent, said those were political impeachments, said it will not be an impeachment. here is the problem for kevin mccarthy. he clearly at this stage does not have the votes to formally start an impeachment inquiry. if you do that, you have to vote on the house floor. the problem for mccarthy is he has said consistently he wants to do it by the book. if you do it by the book, you have to have the votes and eventually have a vote to formally launch that impeachment inquiry. the house committees can continue to investigate the way they have been doing for a while now, and that would cause some people to say what's different now compared to what you were doing before? here is the difference. house speaker kevin mccarthy is facing a lot of pressure from

conservatives to try to fund the government by the end of the month, how he's going to juggle that, he got a lot of criticism on the house floor this morning from matt gaetz, regardless what was announced with impeachment, and he is kind of holding that idea of the motion to vacate the chair hanging that over the speaker as the sort of -- if you don't do certain things and if you fund the government on a temporary basis, renewing the old funding, the only way to avert a government shutdown, we might pull the trigger on that. it's a very precarious situation for kevin mccarthy, speaker of the house. >> john: great effort there, chad, trying to get some comment. we'll let you get some information on it. finish up with david spunt, don't have an official house sanctioned inquiry here but operating at the committee level, and much the same way

that it was in the past, except it's got the house speaker saying this is not just an investigation, this is an impeachment inquiry. >> it's an impeachment inquiry and i would be remiss to say i've heard from several sources on capitol hill that attorney general merrick garland is in the sights of house, he's going to appear tomorrow before, excuse me, a week from tomorrow before the house judiciary committee, so this is something, john, where the attorney general is very much on the minds of republicans for these investigations into hunter biden. also the special counsel to former president trump and perceived unwielding scale of justice. >> john: a lot of talk about potentially impeaching the homeland secretary as well. >> mayorkas, too. >> john: now this. >> it appears that the president's family has been

offered special treatment by biden's own administration. treatment that not otherwise would have received that they were not related to the president. these are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption. they warrant further investigation. >> sandra: that moment told the world full steam ahead. house speaker kevin mccarthy ordering house republicans to move ahead with impeachment of president biden, not all the party is on board, jason chaffetz on what he's hearing, former utah congressman and fox news contributor. where do you think this goes? >> they should pass it, and it should be unanimous. i don't see any justification not to do it. if the judiciary and the house oversight committee are to do their jobs, they should be able to issue somebodies and have those adhered to, but they are not. and so you need to strengthen the legal case because it will

end up in a court. there's no doubt it will end up in a court and having the weight of the vote of the full united states congress in an impeachment inquiry makes that case that much more compelling before a judge. i don't see any reason. if you wear the republican badge and you believe in the rule of law, then you have to pursue this. the difference between this case and what they did to donald trump is the biden case actually has evidence. and this -- there is direct evidence the president's involvement and there is direct evidence of the family involvement. money, texts, emails, videos, voice mail messages, photographs, it has all of that. there's no justification to deny the ability to pursue an impeachment inquiry. >> sandra: well, perhaps not all republicans are in agreement, jason. ken buck, freedom caucus member from colorado, is throwing a little shade on all of this. here he is on this disagreement with mccarthy. >> i said i would go where the evidence takes me and i still

want to look at the evidence. i'll get a briefing later in the week what evidence links vice president joe biden to hunter biden's activities. i have not seen that link yet and so i'm reluctant to agree with speaker mccarthy. >> sandra: so that's rep ken buck from colorado. this, too, from chris christie, current gop presidential candidate. listen. >> i don't think there's enough evidence at this moment to open a full blown impeachment on joe biden. i think that wouldn't be smart to do. but should they use their oversight function to find out what was really going on there, i think yeah, they should. >> sandra: so does he have the support, kevin mccarthy, to move forward with this? >> well, governor christie does not understand how congress works. guess what, mr. christie, you have to actually have somebodies that are adhered to in order for the oversight function to work and when they are being stiff armed and not done, then to get the evidence you need to do

that. now, ken buck, highly respected. i am a fan of ken buck. a former prosecutor, he's the real deal, i've got nothing but positive things to say about him. but he, too, should understand judiciary and oversight have been thwarted in their ability to get those documents and if you are going to pursue the truth it's not an impeachment, it's an impeachment inquiry, and allow the committee chairman to get the facts. >> sandra: the white house and ian sams says it's been happening and turns up nothing, they have turned up no evidence in nine months, no evidence of wrongdoing. so vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment and now flip-flopped because he does not have support. extreme politics at its worst. your response, jason. he's a clown show. for him to suggest the speaker of the house went before the

microphones and said he was pursuing it, so i don't know where ian sams is, you know, what century he's living in, but he doesn't have a clue. it's very wishful thinking for him to suggest that. no evidence, are you kidding me? this is full of evidence, money, all that list that i just laid out is there in black and white and it went to the bidens and we need to know fully. there is more evidence out there, let's go look at it. what's he afraid of? >> sandra: he's put that out at 11:33 a.m. on the twitter feed, a few minutes after mccarthy made the announcement. jason, good to talk to you. thanks for being here, thanks. >> john: house republicans holding a homeland security hearing at the 9/11 museum in new york city where the migrant crisis is putting failed border policies on full display, number of border crossers on the terror watch list may shock you. that's part of where critics say the open border is the biggest

threat to national security that america has faced in two decades. >> sandra: plus, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle blasting the prisoner swap with iron. john cornyn on whether president biden is putting more americans abroad at risk by giving up 6 billion to the iranians. >> you have just now set the price for taking the next american hostage, you can write it down, it will happen again. veterinary boutique hospital. i was 5...6 years of age and i knew i was going to be a vet. once alexandra called me to let me know that bank of america had approved my loan... it was important to me. we not only just provide the financing piece, we do everything that we can to surround them with the right people. all you need is a perfect, amazing team that will guide you through the right steps to be successful. and that's what bank of america was for me.

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comcast business, powering possibilities. >> john: this just in to fox news, the justice department has indicted the five memphis police officers involved in the death of tyre nichols. it comes on top of the charges the officers face from state prosecutors, second-degree murder. the doj says they are going to hold a news conference at the

top of the next hour to formally announce those charges. go to former nypd lieutenant darin porcher on the phone with us. federal charges not necessarily surprising because the department of justice was investigating the policing practices of the memphis police department, and take a look at the horrible video that led to the death of tyre nichols, you can see the federal government likely would have wanted to get involved here. >> good afternoon, john, you are absolutely right. it was clear the federal government had a pathway into invoking a claim of civil rights as it relates to the excessive force against the officers. and this is one of these things, often times you'll have dual prosecutions. you'll have the state which is who initiated the prosecution, and now we have the federal government. now, when we speak to the indictment, this is merely the federal government or the court

deemed appropriate there was probable cause for us to move forth to a court proceeding and that's where we stand at this point. >> john: in terms of the potential penalties for this, second-degree murder clearly could be life in prison, if they are found guilty on federal civil rights charges. what would that add to any potential prison sentence? >> well, of course this creates more troublesome narrative for the former officers being charged. the challenge is, is this going to be a concurrent sentence or are we going to lump these -- have one sentence come right after the other. so, that's really where this plays out, and i think more than likely this is going to be concurrent moving forward, but this is an important step from the federal government perspective in terms of gaining or garnering the indictment against these officers to move

forward and i think the two entities are going to work together simultaneously in terms of the discovery that's going to be extracted from what happened to mr. nichols in relation to this horrific event. >> john: all right, this is going to keep this very, very high profile case. darrin porcher, thank you. >> sandra: official have arrested 146 people on the terror watch list at the southern border so far this fiscal year alone, and those are just the ones we know about. it's unclear how many have gone undetected. now, some congressional lawmakers are trying to get to the root of that question at a field hearing today here in new york city, focusing in on our homeland security and the two decades since 9/11. bryan is live from the 9/11 memorial here in the city. bryan. >> sandra, this congressional hearing by the subcommittee of homeland security was held in the 9/11 museum today and the focus was about the evolving

threats this nation and this city faces since that horrific attack 22 years ago, to include cyber and lone wolf attacks, for instance. border crisis was not supposed to be the focus but the republicans on the panel made clear the border crisis should be the focus and that it could be the number one nexus for the next terror attack. u.s. border patrol reports encountering 146 suspected terrorists or people on the terror watch list at the southern border. this year alone, that number was 0 in 2019 before president biden took office. democrat congressman dan goldman accused his colleagues of politicizing today's hearing by focusing on the border. >> do you not think that the migrant crisis or the southern border situation is at all a security threat to new yorkers? >> i don't think it's any more of a security threat to new yorkers than domestic violent extremism or other threats.

>> 1.7 million people have entered the country without 0, 0 interaction with our government. don't know who they are or where they are, and how do we know among them is not someone who wants to commit a terrorist attack, we don't. >> there are currently 110,000 migrants in new york city. on average, 10,000 are arriving per month since april 2022. now, the nassau county police commissioner said this absolutely makes it harder to protect all new yorkers. >> i have to vet the normal domestic terrorist people that are evolving in this country. now i got to take everything from around the world that's coming to the border with no vetting process and now try to figure out who going to be my next potential target. >> cbp says there have been 650,000 known got-aways so far this year. sandra. >> sandra: bryan, here in new

york city, thank you. >> this is a bad business model, it is bad for america, and we are doing this at a time that the iranians are underwriting the russian effort to kill ukrainian kids, civilians, to give them $6 billion, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism is horrible policy. >> john: former secretary of state mike pompeo slamming president biden for the controversial prisoner swap with iran. the deal will unfreeze $6 billion of iranian funds in exchange for five u.s. prisoners. texas republican senator john cornyn. senator, this is iran's money, it's been held frozen in accounts in south korea. it will now be transferred to qatar where the treasury department, according to our state department, will have a good oversight, again, according to our state department, over how it's spent. what do you think of this deal and what do you think of assertions by the state

department that we'll keep an eye on the money? >> well, unfortunately, you know, we have sanctions in place to try to discourage the number one state sponsor of terrorism, which is iran, from developing a nuclear weapon. but it doesn't do much good when the biden administration decides to write them a $6 billion check and of course the money can be used for any purpose, offset other expenses and the like. and i don't think of one single thing that they could do that would actually encourage more hostage taking than to pay off the iranians for these five hostages. i'm glad for the families, but unfortunately this virtually guarantees there will be more hostage taking and also undermines the sanctions we have in place in order to discourage iran from developing that nuclear weapon. >> john: getting americans who are wrongly detained out of hostile nations like iran is always a good thing, but wonder

how much was given up and what the consequences of that would be. matthew miller at the state department said we will keep a close eye, but the president of iran said to nbc about the money, he said this money belongs to the iranian people, the iranian government, so the islamic republic of iran will decide what to do with this money. he seems to be suggesting to the treasury department you can go pound sand, this is our cash, we'll do with it what we want. >> i have 0 confidence in the biden administration to monitor the expenditure of the funds. obviously as you said, its great for families, five hostages are released. unfortunately, this undermines the sanctions and encourages more hostage taking in the future. and i have absolutely no confidence in the biden administration's ability to

monitor how these funds are being spent. >> john: so in matthew miller's briefing at the state department in just the last hour, matt lee, the venerable reporter from the associated press was going around with him when freeing up funds was a monetary reward to iran. miller said no, it's their money, they had access to it anyway but then wanted to have it both ways when he said this. >> iran is not going to release these american citizens out of the goodness of their heart. it's not real life, not how it works, never going to happen. we have to make tough choices and tough negotiations to bring these american citizens home. there were five american citizens jailed under brutal conditions, one of them for more than eight years, and the secretary and the president decided that we need to do everything we can to bring them home and that's what we are doing. >> john: which is -- which is a way of saying we had to give them the money or this never would have worked. >> well, the question is, john,

are we trying to deter iran from developing nuclear weapon with which to wipe israel off the map and create potentially another world war? or not? and clearly giving them $6 billion, i don't care whether it's their money or somebody else's money, giving them access to that undermines that deterrence and basically helps them get away with it. >> john: senator john cornyn of the great state of texas, good to spend time with you, appreciate it. >> thank you, john. >> john: watch this here. >> coming forward, ramming the police cars. ramming the police cars. down the ramp. >> john: a crazy and destructive car chase roaring tlu los angeles. 28-year-old man driving a stolen truck which belonged to the city

into multiple police cruisers. jonathan hunt joins us now with more. this video is just unbelievable, jonathan. how did it all get started? >> yeah, we have seen some wild chases here in l.a. but this one was really something else, john. the suspect in the chase had been on police radar earlier that day, he had been stopped and cited for suspended license and then detained at a small airport, and then detained again for traffic violations and after all that, he stole a department of water and power truck and took off and when officers finally cornered him he did this. >> headed down the ramp -- after that, police first opened fire, listen here.

[gunshots] >> shots fired, shots fired, get on the ground, get on the ground! >> even when officers thought they had the suspect completely blocked in, they didn't. >> the car is disabled, it's not going anywhere. holy [bleep] eventually the 28-year-old suspect, manuel ramirez, had been hit by several of the many bullets fired could no longer drive the severely damaged

vehicle. even then he did not give up, he was waving and screaming at police before a swat team arrived as you see there and he was eventually arrested. three police officers were injured during the chase, john. two were treated at the scene, one taken to a hospital, treated and released. but when you look at that video, john, frankly it seems a miracle none of those officers was killed in that wild scene. john. >> john: and how the suspect himself survived all the gunshots is behind me, too. >> a lot of shots fired there, and apparently none of them -- none of them caused serious injuries to him. >> john: that's unbelievable. well, you win video of the day today, jonathan. appreciate it. >> thank you, sir. >> if there's an emergency and i have declared an emergency for a temporary amount of time, i can invoke additional powers. no constitutional right in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute.

>> sandra: that's the new mexico governor, she says a string of deadly shootings compelled her to place a temporary ban on carrying weapons in the state's largest metro area, but the order is getting major pushback from gun owners. the sheriff's office and even those in her own party. basically everyone is saying it's unconstitutional. bring in our panel, liz mcdonald, host of the evening edit, and david carlucci. and a tweet, i support gun safety laws however this violates the constitution. no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the u.s. constitution. where do you fall on this debate? >> aclu is saying the same thing, overzealous, invoking an emergency to take away rights.

you understand about shootings, everybody gets that, but also said it's not going to stop criminals carrying guns. >> sandra: she admitted that. here is the sound, governor admitting the suspension will not have an impact on the criminals. listen. >> you really think that criminals are going to hear this message and not carry a gun in albuquerque on the streets for 30 days? >> no. >> sandra: so what's happening here? >> i think the governor is doing what she can to stop gun violence in her state. and this comes after one tragedy after the other, she's actually standing up and trying to do something. many cases were not just from criminals, it was from discharging of a weapon, where it was not safely stored. she's trying to address all the issues. >> but she's violating her own state's constitution and the u.s. constitution to get there. that's what people are upset about. they are tired of pandemic shutdowns and lockdowns, taking away people's rights, and tired of electrifying the economy

without say so and saying you do not get to invoke an emergency to take away anyone's rights. why not do it another way, what michigan and ohio and new york and new jersey did, buybacks for illegal guns. police confiscated nearly 500 illegal guns. >> sandra: what about that, david? >> one tactics for buybacks, we should all be doing that. new york state last year the supreme court overturned 100-year-old law, what did the legislature and the governor do, implemented restrictions on conceal carry. >> sandra: this is this morning, the governor went on another network. >> we also have governor, the constitution of new mexico and the constitution of the united states and you are an attorney.

do you think you are on solid constitutional ground here? >> well, we are going to see. i mean, look, i would not do it if i didn't think i had the right. i have the right. >> where is the right? where is the right? >> in the state of new mexico, suspension, it's not a ban. and we'll see what all of these court actions do. >> she's right, it's a pause, a 30-day pause, it's not a complete ban. >> sandra: to act before you can say whether it's constitutional. >> you are saying it's ok to break the constitution, you are saying -- >> it's not breaking the constitution. second amendment. >> sandra: the sheriff in the middle of this is vowing not to enforce this, this is the county sheriff, john allen, is this -- county sheriff's office will not enforce this segment of the order. this order will not do anything to curb gun violence other than punish law abiding citizens and their constitutional right to self-defend. >> now we have sheriffs deciding what laws or what actions they

are going to enforce or not enforce. that's a real problem. >> he's saying it's unconstitutional. >> no, he's abiding by the constitution. the top prosecutor says it's unconstitutional, so does the aclu. where do you go? >> the governor is absolutely frustrated like millions of americans are and finally someone is doing something. >> one thing, many can agree something needs to be done but nobody wants to break with the constitution. >> right, j every one is talking about, oh, it's unconstitutional. let's do something that is constitutional that protects americans. >> sandra: appreciate the discussion. thanks to both of you for joining us. >> john: another big controversy, some parents have argued that sexually explicit books like this do not belong near your kid in the classroom. the senate took up that issue today. author bethany mandel next on that. >> family's concerns about books in schools are not book banning. >> reading is powerful and the

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idea. >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear you. >> the impeachment inquiry that speaker mccarthy opened announced into president biden -- >> look, i -- i'm going to say it again. i don't think leader kevin mccarthy, speaker mccarthy needs any advice from the senate on how to run the house. >> sandra: so republican leadership in the senate speaking live at the capitol, says he's in no position to tell speaker kevin mccarthy how to run the house after he said he's moving forward with impeachment

inquiry. chuck schumer spoke a few minutes before and said the impeachment inquiry into biden is absurd and a witch hunt. so, all that happening as there's a bit more commotion, a bit more activity at the capitol the last few days. >> john: yep, and with the house open now, we'll see which way this goes. there's a belief that mccarthy, even though he says he does, doesn't have the votes to get it passed in the house so they will do it at the committee level, but something we'll be watching in the days and weeks ahead. meantime, democrats blasting republicans, parents and school f officials for removing sexually explicit books from schools and libraries. but critics say parents and schools are banning books they don't like, harming minority or lgbtq students. the senate took it up at a hearing and senator lindsey graham had this to say. >> can a parent, a taxpayer complain under this theory, or

should they just shut up. there's no role up here for any of us. illinois do it the way you want, florida do it the way you want, each school library you'll decide. the day that a parent, a concerned citizen can't come forward and say i object without being humiliated is a bad day for america. am>> john: bring in bethany mandel, co-author of "stolen youth," great to see you. thanks for coming in today. >> thank you. >> john: the left is characterizing this as banning books. i mean -- that's a way to really, i think, gin up a lot of opposition to it. is this banning books or simply deciding what is and what is not appropriate to have in a school setting where there are young children? >> that's exactly right. if you look at the school board meetings where parents are holding up these books and reading from these books, often they have to cut the cameras and have to cut the mics and i could not show many of these books on camera here because of fcc

rules. they are so graphic and so inappropriate that we understand as a society that they can't be shown on television at school board meetings but then we should be making them available to kindergarten children in the school library? just because they are not available doesn't mean they are banned. >> john: the national education association, which is the largest teachers' union, sent a note to the senate judiciary committee in advance of this hearing saying there are certain books out there that are being either censored or banned, like "mouse," a graphic novel about the holocaust, "walk two moons" about native american girl with the disappearance of her mother, and "the blueest eye," a culture that devalues her and they are saying this is what they are banning. but is that the full story? >> no, of course not. a lot of the books that they are accusing people of banning are actually just being moved to

more age appropriate sections and a lot of activists in the librarian world are trying to push the narrative, we cannot discriminate based on things like race, gender, yada yada, and one of the things they say they cannot discriminate against is based on age. of course you can discriminate on the basis of age. you cannot tell a 6-year-old something you can tell a 16-year-old and the same with a 60-year-old. a stratification necessary within all of this content that they want to erase, they want to act as though children are not sacred and it doesn't matter and they are trying to take the innocence from children. >> john: a writer writes for slate, up in arms about what he said was hysteria surrounding this controversy. he said he took a look at a book called "it's perfectly normal," a graphic novel for children the subject of whether or not it's appropriate and came to this conclusion. flipping through the book's pages, i was a little shocked.

i had an involuntary reaction to seeing nude cartoons, like i needed to make sure i was alone and hide the book. the chapter making love there are three graphic images that show adult bodies having sex. i was sure i would not hand the book to my kids when they are 10. and i began to wonder if in my own allergy to the book burning fervor i was too dismissive to the parents at the root of this fight. clearly looking at the book his view was completely changed. >> absolutely, and it's funny. because he wrote a piece about a children's book company i work here, heroes of liberty, and we tried to donate books to the local library and the school district, they said they were too patriotic, what they wrote on the form. and so they would not accept our books. are these therefore banned by montgomery county public schools? a book about clarence thomas and amy coney barrett.

they cannot apply their metrics. dr. seuss was banned. and no relationship to the author, took them from amazon, and used bookstores, you cannot get this book, and i snagged it for 20 bucks. the book banner, people who are screaming about this, are silent when it comes to dr. seuss, and silent by this book banned by my local school district and silent to the alterations to classic books. i would love for them to put their money where their mouth is. but all they seem to care about is putting graphic sexual content into the hands of minors. >> john: by the way, you have to give over that dr. seuss books. >> no way, i cannot get another copy. >> sandra: morocco, a 6.2

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>> search and rescue efforts

underway in morocco. the death toll has risen to over 2,900 people and rescuers are searching for survivors. trey yingst is live with more. what is the situation like there right now? >> sandra, you can hear the call to prayer in the mountains of morocco. recovery efforts are taking time. rescue teams are still pushing deeper to the mountains. >> those like this man still wears the blood-stained clothes. a massive earthquake killed 15 of his family members. the house collapsed. we tried to find our neighbors, hamed recalls.

some are dead. the 68-year-old's home frozen in time. sits next to six blue tents where he and 11 others now live. up the road, medical aid and supplies are finally starting to reach families as the military and international allies step in. >> deep in the high atlas mountains, the moroccan military is evacuating the wounded by helicopter. there's many people in need of urgent medical care and cannot get the treatment here. they're being shuttled to larger cities in other parts of morocco. >> these efforts will take weeks to complete with the full scale of the disaster still not yet known.sandra? >> sandra: trey, thanks for your reporting live on the ground in morocco. thanks. john? >> john: a flash flood engulfed a smart portuguese town over the weekend. it's not the kind of flood that

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>> the house speaker mccarthy talked to the cameras and reporters on his way from his office to the house floor. here's what he said a short time ago in the impeachment inquiry. >> we went to dinner, a new course. millions of dollars. we find now that he had a pseudoname from his office used and communicated with the business from the office. we know from an employee at the white house from the vice president that he went back to hunter's business partner and said the vice president got the talking points for burisma and okayed them. so then it could anywhere from

the way his son is getting treated, the timeline that americans don't get. we have watched an fbi informant allege about a bribery in there. these are all questions that need to get answered. i would think the president would want to answer these questions. so all -- remember what an inquiry is. an impeachment inquiry -- >> john: i don't know what happened there. but clearly he said that there's evidence that the former vice president, now president, did know something about his son's business dealings. that's what they want to look into. >> sandra: something that was just a little bit of news, governor kemp of georgia is declaring a state of emergency over inflation in his state. that is something as we do anticipate a big report on inflation tomorrow. consumer prices we'll be watching for all of that. great to be with you. >> john: great to be you. the red liquid in the portuguese

town, two big wine vats failed and the town was running red with portuguese wine. they managed to stop it from getting into a river. you think they would have been out there with glasses filling up. the picture is amazing. thanks for joining us. dvr us if you can't make it live. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: thanks, guys. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum. glad to have you with us this hour. we have an exclusive this hour with tim ballard who inspired the film "sound of freedom." he was on capitol hill to advocate for missing migrant children. he has shed so much light in this country on exactly what's going on with child trafficking. it's an absolutely horrific tense story. we'll hear from him after this today. first to the other