is still in the hospital. has he been a part of the decision. >> is he in the hospital. he has been part of discussions. not sure about specifically this one. but has been, according to the pentagon, in good condition, we would imagine but, again, it's a hospital. it's not the pentagon. there aren't secure fittings there. he has delegated some of his authority to the deputy secretary. >> we will continue to watch this and we'll have updates throughout the night as we have more news. thank you, rich edson at the pentagon. tomorrow on "special report," we will be talking to joni ernst probably about this but also the monday caucuses. remember, if you can't catch us live set your dvr 6:00 p.m. east, 3:00 p.m. on the west coast. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. a little breaking news at the end from the middle east. we will monitor it from here. "the ingraham angle" is now. ♪ ♪ >> laura: i'm laura ingraham this is "the ingraham angle" from washington tonight, we

begin with a fox news alert. we have just been notified within the last few minutes that the united states, along with our allies in the u.k. have begun striking the iran-backed houthi group inside of yemen. now, we do not know the extent of these strikes but they come after the houthis have been launching missiles and one way drones on u.s. positions and commercial vessels in the middle east now for a number of months. picking up in recent days in fact this action by the administration comes only after there have been 130 such attacks. the white house has called a lid. that means biden has gone to bed, so as we strike the military targets in the middle east tonight, we don't expect to hear from our commander-in-chief. meanwhile these strikes come as defense secretary lloyd austin is still out of commission. earlier today the pentagon spokesperson strolled to the mics and leveled what now looks like a telegraph. >> we will continue to call on

these iranian proxies to cease these attacks 'we went hesitate to take action. >> laura: is he the defense secretary now? of course, rumors of the strikes have been bouncing around for hours. so who knows how effective they are and, in fact, the "wall street journal" reports that in anticipation of the attack, houthi forces transported weapons and equipment and fortified other positions while houthi militants evacuated the red sea city of who he dated da. what do we know is we have a middle east raging out of control and the pentagon give the impression they are nothing lore than listless vessels driving the american people into the understanding that there is no one at the helm, joining me now and delighted is he with us white house correspondent peter doocy. peter, this just broke. what are you hearing tonight?

>> well, the first word of this is coming from our team at the pentagon. they are saying more than a dozen locations within yemen have been struck with a combination of surface and air, basically weapons. so that means some sort of a missile some aircraft. we are told if i can look at my email for one second because this is all come in. f-18s from the uss eisenhower that were used in these strikes. it comes after a couple days of john kirby, who works with the national security council here at the white house coming to the microphone in the briefing room to say the houthis needed to stop doing what they were doing, jeopardizing innocent lives of american military and commercial interests that are in the red sea. the houthis have just been launching one-way drones up the coast over the red sea, and it's been doing a lot of damage.

the u.s. military has been intercepting what they can but today when iranians took over a oil tanker in the red sea. it seems like that was enough of an escalationed that the white house and the brit decided they needed to go and start taking out the one way drone locations in yemen and it's worth pointing out these houthis, we don't talk about them a ton or at least we have not over the last several years, but when this administration came to power think delisted the putin houthis as a terror organization. there was a concern listing them as terrorists was preventing humanitarian aid from getting into yemen. as the president at the top of the chain of command orders these strikes against the houthis, they are not technically a terrorist group but they are a group that has been warned many, many times

from folks, the president on down to stop and they didn't stop and when daylight comes in yemen tomorrow, it seems like there is going to be a lot of smoldering houthi stuff, laura. >> laura: peter, is there any sense, whatsoever, that our commander-in-chief, as these responses are taking place military responses, that they might lift that lid because we don't have a defense secretary right now that can go to the microphone. is he obviously on bed rest after that debabble last week with no one knowing even noticing he was missing for days. is this someone surprising? it would be very unlikely they would lift the lid. the white house is basically put in place the lid which means that the television cameras and the still cameras and the writers here to document what the president is doing can go home. we haven't heard anything about them calling anybody back, so

anything that comes from the president explaining his decision here is going to be a paper statement. >> laura: peter, thank you. joining me daniel davis, senior fellow for the defense priorities and nathan sales, ambassador at large and counter terror coordinator under president trump. let's start with you, colonel davis peter is right. americans hear houthis, they know it's trouble. >> they probably don't know much about this yemen based group launch ago civil war against yemeni government for many years. what's your take on what you are hearing so far tonight? >> i will tell you, laura, i'm really concerned on a number of fronts. number one, i want to know what's the plan here? what is the expectation? what is the end state? where are we trying to go with this. if we think firing a few and they will be deterred that should be eliminated after we

have been seeing the failure of all these strikes to eliminate to deter the iran-backed groups against our troops in iraq and syria and elsewhere. and we have already taken out their boats. that's not going to do it. this has every chance to escalate to a higher level because the houthis have expressly said if we attack them on their territory, they are going to start attacking americans and american interest in the region. what is our plan for that? this is potential strike to draw us into the war. the president owes it to the american people to explain what we are doing to make sure we want to go into a war. i don't. i would like to hear what the white house what the plan is how this follows american law and constitution, which it doesn't. >> laura: again, calling a lid while we are launching military strikes with the u.k. in the middle east seems to me like mind bogglingly outrageous. but, nathan, peter just mentioned this among the first

moves he made after he was inaugurated was to specially lift the designation of the iranian backed houthis in yemen as a global terror organization. how idiotic does that look tonight? it's a real head scratcher, during the trump administration, we were willing to call a spade a spade. so we said the houthis are launching terrorist attacks against infrastructure, against allies, against ships. if looks like a terrorist, it's a terrorist. biden folks, we got crucified in the media for doing that we were called baby killers because people said this is going to prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance. well, things look a lot different today and it's kind of ironic, laura, that, you know, the president is now engaged be in combat against a group that he removed from the terrorist list. so that's a bit of a puzzle to think through. >> laura: i mean, when you think

about this, again the head of the houthi group came out in the video, just hours ago saying you strike us and we are coming after you. we also have an open border right now. we know terrorists have exploited the border. we have caught some of them who knows who is in this country now. another reason why we need a total change in leadership. we are going to get into this with mollie and kellyanne in a moment. this is a dangerous situation we are setting up. >> it is. unfortunately this thing is long in the building. there is no easy answer here. there is no obvious solutions. i do share your concerns about the fact that there has been -- you can't even call it a porous border. it's been wide open. >> laura: open. >> god only knows who all is come in. there could be sleeper agents in there right now. i don't have any knowledge whether there are but there is a very real possibility there is somebody who wants to harm our country could already be here.

>> laura: nathan, is it a point of interest that germany and france did not choose to join this effort tonight? obviously the two larger economies in the eu the u.k. and the u.s. handle this? >> yeah, you know, i'm not sure if other countries from europe were to participate that would be a good thing it. tends to be the lowest common denominator response. the u.s. and u.k., we have got some reps. we know how to take terrorists off the battlefield and so, you know, i'm pretty comfortable with the eisenhower and its british counterpart leading. this now, what concerns me, laura, we have been telegraphing all day the fact that these strikes were coming. >> laura: for hours. >> if there is a houthi surprised by this, they have got to be the dumbest terrorist in the world. it would surprise me if we actually managed to eliminate any of their leaders or the people responsible for these attacks on americans and on

commercial shipping it. looks like the administration was telegraphing this strike precisely to avoid casualties on the part of t houthis. >> >> laura: we want a successful mission here to that point, colonel davis, it does remind me a little bit of what happened with our withdrawal from afghanistan we had our service personnel standing out there. they were sitting ducks and we lost precious american lives because of that. now we don't think that kind of thing is going to happen, but, again, telling the enemy what we're doing, where we are. where we are standing, when we're coming, i mean, they told us, i think, within about 15 minutes that we knew it was coming that's one of my enduring concerns we have troops sitting out in the middle of iraq and the desert the enemy has detailed coordinates of exactly where they're and it's not that hard to shoot them. and add to it if they want to. what the other thing that i haven't heard -- well we haven't heard anything from the white house, but dang sure want to

hear quickly what next? what happens if the houthis make good on this threat and they do hit some of our interest, they do hit some of our people somewhere else? they do strike somewhere on the border? now what are you going to do? now we have to escalate up even higher. now we are taking what is a problem in the red sea and could be drawing us into a war which god only knows where that could go. we do not need a new war. >> laura: nathan, right on queue, giving the last question, politico just reported that the u.s. and the u.k. did have support from australia, the netherlands, bahrain, and canada in these strikes. but, again, no france and germany. we don't know the extent of their support, could be intelligence support, we obviously have the hardware and we should have the intel support but maybe we should stop spying on americans and focus more on the real threats. but, does that coalition give you some comfort, nathan? >> i think so. these are countries that have a lot of skin in the game. our fifth fleet is based in

bahrain in the region think are obviously going to be a key player. australia and other countries you mentioned, these are some of our closest allies. they have excellent intelligence collection capabilities. really what they add above all is the support of diplomatic heft. it's good to know you you have allies in your corner prepared to support you. even if that just means moral support. the more assets, the more intelligence information they can share and devote to this mission, the better. >> well, again, this also reminds us, colonel davis, of why it is so important that we knew where our defense secretary was and the white house close coordination of him. i go back to what i said a few days ago. the real story there is apparently he was so insignificant for daily briefing they weren't looking for him. i worked in the reagan

administration i'm dating myself. cat weinberger if he was missing for 15 minutes they would know about it. they didn't know about it for four days. what message does that send our adversaries? not a good one. >> worse than that this is exactly on deep dive show a couple days ago. had this is what i talked about. if something unexpected happens and the president need to talk to the sec def right now he is not there. is he awol. unconscionable that he would not have told the president or his deputy where he was for two days and this exactly the reason why. >> laura: please stay with us. i want to bring in kellyanne former counselor. mollie hemingway. both fox news contributors. kellyanne, we have a secretary of defense who is on bed rest, who was missing or not this touch or nobody was looking for him for days. so how does the administration at this point still keep the american public at in the dark with the president calling a lid

tonight. i can't imagine this having happened in the trump administration. >> wouldn't have for several reaches. either president trump would be under wing or in the press briefing room or calling reporters into the oval office. if it were later that the night, maybe he would be firing off a couple tweets so chaotic and crisis laden. at least then you would know what the commander-in-chief was thinking. you would also have spokespeople from the department of defense. look, i think that the secretary of defense being absent all those days should concern everyone because they basically prove he is not a vital part of the conversation here coordination. laura, this is exactly why who is commander-in-chief is important. and when you -- when you stop designating terrorists as terrorists. you are asking them, you are inviting them to be terrorists again. and you are inviting them to threaten america, her interest, and her people. her values, her freedom. i think what the gentlemen were just saying is incredibly important. because when people look at this, they say this is not some distant fight that's not ours. people are so concerned now what

is happening there is affecting us here. and this is why president trump long ago pivoted to general election strategy their two presidents, sure, economy, energy, border, but this particularly, as you said first president in 72 years to not start a new war. we called terrorists terrorists. we brought hostages home. look at iran fund so much of what we are talking about. so stearving to make deals by the time we left our administration. now they basically 3 million barrels a day. they stockpiled over 80 billion. you know where it's going. you see on the screen where it's going. laura and mollie, i think this is why even in the personal attribute questions trump is beating biden who has a plan who cares about the middle class, who was has the energy and ability and experience. all the major issues security and affordability, people are very concerned and they are -- they are against biden.

i think they are hiding biden. at this point we have heard more about and hunter biden than joe biden the last few days. you see more of hunter than joe biden. disgrace. >> it was interesting one of the questions asked at the town hall concern that people might have that chaos would return if trump were. >> laura: what's this? >> and trump's answer pointing out some of the chaos we are seeing in the country not just domestically but internationally. >> this is a really serious situation. it's a serious situation that the houthis have been bombing shipping routes and that is effecting so many things. something needs to be done about this. we have also been in conflict either in a proxy way or otherwise with these people for quite some time now. this is the third administration. you want to have good communication with the american people. you also want to do things in a constitutional manner. and, again, biden is not the first president to violate what the constitution says about how congress should be involved in launching airstrikes. >> this is a good example of why congress should be involved. because we do need to think about to the point. >> laura: what's next?

>> and, also, how we are going to deal with this. being involved in a global conflict in multiple parts. >> laura: when we're broke. >> yes. and but it matters to people. and how we do it matters. and it doesn't seem like a lot of our defense industry or that our defense leadership have been thinking about how to effectively win wars very good entering in them. we need to know what the strategy is before we get another one. >> laura: i think ability a matter of trust. who is trusting what is happening here? and that's why you really do have to have someone in place. you can say okay, even if we disagree with this action, they are laying it out for us. >> peace through strength. that's what president trump talked about last night. and when you have a weak economy, when yourself loathing, talk about this in a little bit. teaching people to hate your country. supporting the pro-hamas

protesters on college campuses. maybe they are going to be supporting the houthis tomorrow. >> i think this is why trump right now is -- he really is re -- realigning what the traditional democratic coalition of voters. is he really burrowing into hispanics and african-americans, independents first time voters who are young or maybe not young. maybe they just first time voters, laura. the other thing here is that we made it the party of the worker. we made it -- it was a administration that was there for the worker. when you even talk to iowa's caucus goers. they're mentioning things like this. they are not just talking about inflation and the cost of gas and groceries and the border crisis. they're talking about what is going on all around the world the hot spots. crisis and palace intrigue. there is chaos and crisis everywhere we look. everywhere we look is a hot spot. >> remember the adults will now be in charge. >> yeah. >> we do have a real different vision here of foreign policy. i think we were robbed of that in the 2020 election to have an

actual debate about whose foreign policy was better. asserted by corporate media that biden had a better foreign policy. we now have this unique situation where we can just compare the four years under the trump administration with the four years under biden and see who had just objectively speaking a far better record. >> laura: does that not speak to the fact that the u.s. media has so fallen down on its job to first vet joe biden in 2020. he was not up for the job. everybody knew it. they hid it. he is a hologram candidate and hologram president who calls a lid on a night like tonight. this is a failure across the board of the elite, establishment and corporate media, mollie. you hit this every day. they have a lot to be accountable here tonight. >> and they are very much responsible for getting us into this situation by failing to vet. why it's so important that people are able to have a good evaluation of what they are getting into. >> there is one reason, the name is trump. everything flows from trump. if you challenge anyone to answer a question about joe biden is our commander-in-chief,

our foreign policy or the secretary of defense being missing, and you ask them to answer the question, laura or mollie, they can't go 10 words or 10 seconds without saying trump five times. they are so obsessed with him and trump derangement is real no. vaccine or therapeutic for it. it's so real that it was okay not to vet him. it's okay to lie. it's okay to pretend that what you see joe biden and kamala harris not up to the task while we are at war in some plates and including at our southern border, that's okay because the alternative is trump. it's outrageous. >> that's part of the reason why they have such hatred toward trump. you remember in 2016 he said if we were elected we would have nuclear conflict and conflict all over the world. he wouldn't be up to handling all the global issues at play. when he not only won which surprised to many people did effective job and you see even again with the town hall pretty effective responses to these questions that were being asked. i actually think that's part of the reason why people hate him so much is that they resent that

he has command and control and is funny and is, you know, and is engaging with elm people. >> laura: this was all over the internet 12 hours ago that this was going to take place. >> yeah. >> laura: president trump was dining with president xi of china at mar-a-lago and it was between the main course and desert, you know, we unleashed a missile attack against one of our adversaries. nobody knew about it. >> syria. i remember. i remember it very well. he said. >> laura: didn't have a 12 hours in the this was going to happen. >> that crazy person and here is my response. isn't that funny, too? we were told we were the leakers. nobody even knew things like that were happening as they were happening. president trump said it last night fox news town hall he said they broadcast everything or said in an interview recently you broadcast everything. you don't tell your enemy us what are going to do before you do it. they are enemies for a reason. we don't have this kind of discipline and coordination and collaboration right now because joe biden and kamala harris has

number one and number two in our nation's government. make otherwise smart people say really stupid things all the time. >> laura: we have a cabinet of firsts and then we have tony blinken who started his tenure as secretary of state, certainly getting lectured by china. that meeting in alaska. and now headline in the "new york times" blinken talks a grand vision for middle east peace but hits a wall in israel. strikes expand battleground for the west for the war in the middle east. >> it's not surprising. there has been a very muddled vision there. there have been mixed messages about what our role is with israel and it's not surprising. >> laura: all right. ladies, hold on. back with me now lieutenant colonel daniel davis, senior fellow for defense priorities. nathan sails, former ambassador at large and terror coordinator under president trump. colonel, how do we ensure and

how would you advise that we avoid the prospect of what even the "new york times" is warning about tonight a widening war in a presidential election widely tomorrow too old, too frail and not up to the job? what a devastating outcome that could be for the world. >> i was actually cheering over here when mollie was talking just a second ago. talking about how the president needed to, number one, get authorization because of the constitution doesn't authorize him to attack into another country without getting authorization. the american people have to be on board. i think the first thing he has got to do is to tell us what is he doing. and make sure before he takes more action. i think the chances are pretty high that the houthis are going to do something, some kind of a counter strike. hurt an american somewhere and now he is going to be forced to play the possibility of

escalating another strike somewhere else and you see it's real easy to take on a life of its own. we can't get into a war over something that was supposed to be a problem in the red sea. which was a problem and needed to be dealt with, but there were 1000 ways better to do it than what we are doing right now. >> laura: nathan, your response to that concern about now a widening conflict and the start of what is going to be a tight and obviously very dramatic very dramatic election year choosing a commander-in-chief and hoping a new one. >> yeah, laura, it's irresponsible for the white house to call a lid not let the american people hear from the president. this is ha really big deal to borrow a phrase that joe biden is familiar with he needs to be explaining to the american people why this matters. it's pretty straightforward. it doesn't take a ph.d. from the harvard kennedy school to be able to lay the case out. the houthis are attacking

american soldiers, they are attacking commercial shipping. they are putting american lives at risk. and our response has been to fight not with just one hand behind our back but both hands behind our back. we have been colding them and saying pretty please and guess what? they don't respond to pretty please. they respond to shows of force. what we need to do is establish deterrence. we need to sandy clear message, not by words but by deeds that we control the escalation ladder. that any attempt by the houthis or their patrons in tehran to threaten us, to threaten our people and commercial shipping is going to be met with an overwhelming response. it's reagan doctrine it's peace through strength. that's how we make sure we don't get sucked into a war. in the enemies of the united states think that we're weak, that's when our chance of getting sucked into war is at its greatest. >> laura: well, there is no warning coming from the white house tonight. i mean, there is no warning, do you this and we know what

commander-in-chief trump would be doing there would be no doubt that this has escalated he wouldn't handle this in the first place. i don't think this would have happened in the first place. remember, colonel davis, this really picked up after the hamas october 7th attack heinous barbaric attack in israel. this has been gaining steam for weeks and weeks and week bees and here we are again with a president could be literally asleep at the wheel i don't know who is running the white house. the man who couldn't get off the stage in valley forge last week i don't think is actually, you know, looking at targets and really being clued in on what is going on. >> well, and that's my worry that they haven't give much thought to this. look, i just got to tell you, i understand about hitting people hard and not doing these little

pinprick attacks we have. that doesn't deter anybody as we have seen graphically. it's self-evident that's not going to be the case. we can't go in and just throw a bunch of missiles into yemen and think that's going to make any difference. even if it's a lot of missiles. look, saudi arabia just tried since 2015 to militarily cow them and they can take a big punishment. i think they have a lot of capacity to endure these kinds of hits and keep hitting back. that's where they could also have their own side of this escalation ladder which we have to be concerned about. now that we are already in it. now it's going to be a lot harder to manage than it was before. >> laura: nathan, the iran deal, remember, which biden kicked off, that was his thing to start his administration, that, you know, ends up infecting this entire conversation, setting this whole situation up as some people are saying tonight the coddling of the houthis over the last few years the biden

administration came into office saying they were going to fix the middle east, that the trump administration had screwed up, and the centerpiece of their effort was we are going to cozy up to iran and get them back into the nuclear deal. it turns out that when you allow iran to sell billions of dollars worth of oil, peace does not break out across the middle east. instead, when iran has access to billions of dollars of oil revenue, what happens is hamas gets mil millions of dollars to commit terror acts. shia militia groups in iraq taking shots at our soldiers and diplomats in iraq and syria, they get on the gravy train as well and houthis as well. the key fact here is that iran is the puppet master pulling all of these strings. iran is trying to coordinate a region-wide campaign to, one, destroy the jewish state, to destroy israel. and, two, kick america out.

and united states, under this administration, has simply not grappled with the fact that iran is our adversary. because, if we took that seriously, we wouldn't be enriching them with oil sales. we would be squeezing them with maximum pressure, driving them to the negotiating table from a position of strength. unfortunately, that's not the administration we have right now. >> laura: panel, stay with me. joining us now live from tel aviv to reset what just transpired fox news foreign correspondent trey yingst. trey, what can you tell us? >> trey: yeah, hey, laura, good evening. we are following this breaking news out of the middle east. both the united states and the united kingdom launching airstrikes and other strikes against houthi positions inside yemen. this comes after around 27 attacks against the red sea commercial shipping lanes since mid october. this all started back on octobes got directly involved in the war that is taking place as we speak between israel and hamas inside

the gaza strip he houthis have fired on commercial shipping vessels. japanese flag. they still hold that vessel today. and they have threatened american forces in the region. there has been ongoing effort by the united states and its allies to come up with a coalition to respond to the ongoing attacks by the houthis. you might remember a few weeks ago u.s. secretary of defense lloyd austin meeting with his israeli counterpart. you have gallant here in tel aviv launching guardian. effort to respond to houthi attacks against the red sea shipping lanes. it's significant though because u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken was in the middle east over the past week. weighs meeting with his counterparts. and during those visits, he discussed what this has done to the region and to global shipping as a whole. saying that 20% of global shipping has been affected by these houthi attacks that are

ongoing. and we do understand that the israeli officials here in tel aviv remain on high alert tonight. just a few minutes ago, there was an israeli fighter jet flying over israel's second largest city. and there is concern that the response from the houthis could target the southern israeli city of elat that does sit on the red sea. and you might remember back in october that is when the attacks started against elat and israel had to use some of its most advanced air defense systems to intercept that fire headed thwart the jewish state. laura? >> laura: thank you. joining me is tulsi gabbard. one of the houthi leaders anticipated the attacks and as i said warned earlier today that any american attack will not remain without a response they said they are not afraid of confronting americans in follows the iranian seizure of that

crude oil ship earlier today where that seemed to change the tone of things and the trajectory of things from this administration standpoint. but we don't have a commander-in-chief, at least that we can see. they have called a lid at the white house. which concerns a number of our guests tonight, tulsi? my concern army reserve, a veteran for over 20 years in multiple deployments, two different war zones is how short cited, incompetent and lack of caring that this administration -- the biden-harris administration has for our own national security and american people. what they are doing here now appears to not be well this thought out at all or considering what the ramifications this will be. and how it serves our national security interest. just like they didn't think through what the ramifications would be of taking the houthis off the terrorist list a few years ago. just like they didn't consider the ramifications of giving iran

over $6 billion. of which is going not to the well-being and humanitarian interest of the iranian people. as they were promised. but to fund these terrorist groups like the houthis to do exactly what they are doing, threatening global commerce and peace. we have a secretary of defense hospitalized for five days and the white house leaders and the pentagon the national security council. the president himself had no idea it's hard to convey this frustration as an american but as a soldier how is this possible coming from our leaders in the pentagon and the president of the united states who already turned off the lights for the night even as our military is taking action overseas. so we should all be very concerned right now about the consequences of such a short-sighted administration who undermines our national security at every turn in the decisions that they are making overseas,

but also in the decisions that they are making here at home. and you talked a little bit about this before though sands tens of thousands of people streaming across our borders into our country with no vetting whatsoever and we know that that includes people who are terrorists who soak to do harm to the american people right here at home. >> laura: tulsi i want to read a quote from richard goldberg the key for military action in yemen is to respond in a day that doesn't lead to never ending tit-for-tat in syria and in iraq and it has failed. now, tulsi, that does seem to be the most frightening aspect. three months ago when israel was so brutally attacked and innocence raped and maimed, it was at that point that our commander-in-chief had to make it very clear that any attack or

escalation of this is going to be met with severe and immediate military response and consulting with congress at the time. that was not done. it was kind of comments here and there. john kirby came out a lot. but, again, this administration seems much more interested in demonizing donald trump and pursuing him legally than it does in reassuring the american public and having a clear and concise, frankly, foreign policy. >> you are exactly right, laura. there is no doubt in my mind that the actions that are being taken right now will not increase our national security or the safety and well-being of our troops who are deployed overseas right now. nor will it have the consequence of stopping these attacks by the houthis. in fact, the opposite is true. just as they stated and we don't only have to trust their words. we look at their actions. it will increase and escalate their attacks on our interest and our -- on our troops who are in the region, many of whom are

very, very soft targets in those surrounding countries. the administration hasn't done the basic analysis to say hey, do our troops need to be in these areas? do we need to be exposing them to this risk and harm? conduct that analysis, that cost risk analysis to decide where our interest, how are we protecting them and stop trying to undermine our own democracy as you pointed out right here at home they they are willing to pull out stops protect their own power. priorities screwed up from day one. the biden-harris administration only gotten worse ever since. now we are at great risk of this action unintentionally escalating to ha larger conflict we become mired and many many more lives are lost and many more of our taxpayer dollars are unnecessarily spent. >> laura: weakness in the white house sends a message of weakness abroad. tulsi, thank you.

back with me now from the white house, fox news white house correspondent peter doocy. peter, i know we finally heard from the commander-in-chief. what's biden saying tonight via statement. >> peter: he is saying a lot, laura. all this information is brand new. it was president biden's order. he is telling us that the aircraft used were from the u.s. and the u.k. but that the coalition also had help from partners in australia, bahrain, canada, and the netherlands. the president is also telling us that something that happened two days ago is what ultimately was the red line is the thing that went from these attacks are a nuisance that are affecting trade to it is time to launch this huge widespread airstrike in yemen. he is saying on january 9th. houthis launched largest attack to date directly targeting american ships. i will quote the president here. he says today's defensive action follows this extensive

diplomatic campaign and houthi rebels escalating attacks against commercial vessels. these targeted strikes are a clear message that the united states and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes. i will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary. something else that is important in this statement because we are starting to see on social media some videos in the dark in yemen of things on fire and things exploding. president biden says that this was a successfully conducted airstrike against a number of targets. our pentagon team is telling us it's roughly 12 targets and there was a combination of submarines, fighter jets and missiles used to attack them. laura? >> laura: peter, thank you for the update. right now we're going to

continue to monitor these strikes and bring you the breaking details as they come in. we will be back in just a moment. so stay there. ♪

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>> every time somebody sees me in court remember joe biden and

his thugs that surround him did it. they are trying to get a man in office that can't put two sentences together. and they are doing that. but so far we seem to do very well. >> laura: now trump's civil fraud trial wrapped up today in new york and after receiving massive blow back for that order denying president trump the right to speak, the judge did an about-face and allowed him to speak for about five minutes or so. now, there were no cameras inside for it. but the reports from the courtroom quoted the president as saying that he should be entitled himself to damages, given the d.a.'s political vendetta against him. saying this is a fraud on me, what's happened here, sir is, a fraud on me, he said. he later accused the judge of not listening to him, saying i know this is boring to you and the judge, of course, says control your client. warning trump's attorneys. now, engoron then told trump that he had a minute left, let him speak a little bit more. then adjourned. trump then finished his closing remarks outside the courtroom.

>> we have proven this case so conclusively. we have asked for directed verdict many times. they don't have any facts. they don't have any evidence against us. millions and millions of pages, years of litigation. and all politically motivated. she campaigned on i will get trump. she has serious trump derangement syndrome. no question about it. letitia james the corrupt attorney general of new york. >> laura: joining me now sol wisenberg, fox news contributor and mike davis article three project founder and president. sol, the trial involves six supposedly undecided claims, allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud, falsifying business records and his company and two of his sons eric and don jr. are also defendants who was actually defrauded here. >> the so-called victim testified at trial, the representative from deutsch bank who said we weren't defrauded at all. we wanted to do business with him. he didn't get a lower interest

rate because of what he did. and there is no difference in insurance, the insurance coverage. >> laura: were you surprised that the judge relented and allowed the president to speak? that was such ridiculous ruling? >> i'm not surprised because i think he is very concerned about his public image and he should be concerned. and he should be concerned about what an appellate court is going to do if he returns, agrees with james' ridiculous claim for $370 million in damages i think it is now. >> laura: mike, this is being called by some in the corporate world or business world as corporate murder what they're doing to the trump organization trying to absolutely run it out of new york and absurd civil fraud fines also being levy idea which, again, would pretty much do them in. that is the goal here. >> yeah, you have this new york attorney general tish james campaigned on the fact she is going to get trump. she teamed up with this partisan

democrat clown judge arthur engoron, who is a democrat donor. his law clerk is a democrat operative. and he ruled before the trial even started. before any witnesses or any other evidence that trump somehow committed fraud. how the heck do you commit fraud when you paid back sophisticated wall street banks on time, in full, as agreed with interest. this is part of the democrats' lawfare with four indictments, two impeachments, this fraud, illegal gag orders, taking him off the ballot. this is lawfare. this is election interference. >> laura: the fraud is taking place by the district attorney. and, sadly, the judge seemed to join in on the fun as well. even cnn, one of their top legal guest had to admit what is going on here about james. watch. >> letitia james campaigned for attorney general in 2018 specifically on a promise of vote for me and i'll get donald trump. that's not something she said once. she said it dozens of times.

she said it in writing. she fund raised off it and she wasn't even specific. the day after she was elected and she said and i quote we are definitely going to sue his ass he will know my name. when you make statements like that, how can you say there is no political angle to this? >> laura: look at that other panelist just disturbed that he was actually saying something. can you take that back now? she did come out today and said this case has never been about politics, sol. >> it's an absolute joke. just an absolute joke. it's an ethics problem. she campaigned, everybody has said it a million times but it's true. she campaigned on throwing him in jail. it's unethical in my view. >> laura: is there an ethical move here, an ethics action that could be filed against her for this obviously blatantly political case that she brought? >> laura, laura, laura, they only do that against bill barr in new york. that's the only person they bring an ethical complaint against. >> laura: the judge would be part of this as well this should

have been a directed verdict. summary judgment. >> no. i don't think can you do an ethical complaint against the judge based on the fact that he is ridiculous judge. he is not the one who campaigned on doing. this a lawyer who campaigned on this. so, no, i don't think can you do that. >> laura: sol, mike, good to see you. sol, great to see you in studio. i hardly recognized you. you are so spiffy. mike you are always spiffy. the trans surgeries at texas children want hospital being targeted by biden's doj. is he here to tell his story after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ every day can be extraordinary with rich, creamy, delicious fage total yogurt.

jesse:

>> the country largest children's hospital said it would stop having gender care for my force. this was card win for concerned parents and their children, but behind the scenes things at texas children did not change. documents reveal the hospital

never stopped these quote unquote treatments. three days testify hospital said they were stopping one doctor inserted a drug delivery implant on an 11-year-old. we only know those details because a brave anonymous whi whistleblower spoke to us and explained what was really going on at texas children's everything from puberty blockers to top surgeries. soon after it became national news that whistleblower said he got a knock on the door from two agents walleter from the doj. he was a potential target in what they were call a new criminal investigation. he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending him and they still won't stop coming after him.

joining us now is surgeon haim. why exactly are they saying that they're coming after you? >> you know, i wish i had a good answer for that but honestly i couldn't tell you. your guess would probably be just as good as mine. it's my opinion this is a politically motivated investigation because of the eye de logical capture of sds and their transgender technology. >> medicare fraud? i used to work in an area agesing a, what? you can't like come after you for no reason. at least they would have a proported reason for coming after you? >> you would think so, but it seems to not be the case in my situation. >> tell us what was really going on. >> really it was i believe

because i told the truth. that's a thing. if you counter the dominant political ideology they are coming after you. at some point we have to fight against it. >> we certainly saw this during covid. tell us what you saw or what you understood and knew was happening with these transgender procedures at texas children's who is a phenomenal hospital by the way. >> it really is, but there are a select few individuals who are not doing the right thing and so i had found out that they released that same in march of 2022 that they were shutting down their program and soon after i found out that was not the case at all. i talked to people that had done those procedures themselves and saw those being done on children as young as 11, 12, 13 years old. i knew what kind of path these

children were being put down and it was my responsibility as a surgeon and doctor if we can't speak up about something like this then we have no profession left. they ever has to be some degree of accountability. >> here's what one of the texas children's psychiatrists said about parental rights. >> i have the go to my ethical standards as a physician and i know the best thing to do for this child, the child is less likely to attempt and die by suicide if we use a supportive ideology with them. >> mutilate a child and change their fertility perhaps forever and you are saving that child's life? your reaction? >> it's one of the most malicious lies evans told in medicine. >> what is next for you? >> we fight. >> you've wiped out your savings

and defending yourself. are you defending yourself in a legal proceeding or hippa violation? what are you defending against? >> at this point it's only investigation but we believe that's politically driven so we have to be ready for whatever they come against us with. that's the great thing about this situation. once you decide to speak out you have all these people willing to come to your side and help you. you have different perspective on the people around you and you realize they ever so many people out there willing to sacrifice something meaningful for something worth fighting for. that's why it's so important. >> we're up against the top of the hour but thank you for telling your story and keep going. maybe i should be waived into the texas bar to help you. jesse is next. fox news alert. the ued is and the british hav