a business big leaguer. (phone ringing) go for key. (blowing) even the ultimate pool float inflator. with 22 brands and the best value for your money, choice hotels has a stay for any you. stay twice and get a free night when you book direct at choicehotels.com. gotta get the corners. ♪ shut up and drive, drive, drive ♪ pete: that's the daytona 500. i'll be there tomorrow morning. i will miss hanging in person with guy and rachel, but i'll be live from the track on "fox & friends" as we promote the great american race. it's the not raining now, might be raining tomorrow. rachel: just shut up and drive, pete. peter: deal. let's do it. have a great saturday. guy: buy, guys. >> donald trump may have authored the art of the deal, but he perfected the art a of

the steal. >> if i weren't running, none of this stuff would have ever happened. these are corrupt people. these are people that shouldn't be allowed to do the things they do. neil: so much legal drama, so little time for donald trump slammed with a massive $5 -- 354 million fine and banned from doing business in new york for up to three years. he's vowed to fight all a, and we are on top of each and all including that georgia case and whether the former president just got a helping hand from the very district attorney trying to take him down like fani willis are taking the stand could blow are up her entire case. good news, maybe not so good news for president joe biden, mean if while. the good is an fbi informant who dished republican dirt on him and his son hunter has just been charged with lying about it all. the bad, the special counsel put joe biden's mental fitness to the test is now set to testify to congress. uh-oh. add it all up, and it's eating

up all the headlines. so one week from a crucial primary in her home state, how does republican presidential candidate nikki haley feel about all of this? get ready because she's here and only here, and we are just getting started. ♪ ♪ neil: man, we are in for a busy two hours. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. let's get right to it with alex hoff on that ruling that has a one donald trump i would assume reeling. alex. >> reporter: yeah, neil. and as you mentioned, you know, time is ticking here. we're a week exactly away from the republican primary here in south carolina, but it was new york yesterday with that was the focus for the former president. that was when the judge found that the former president had inflated his business assets to secure better loan terms from banks. he edges pressed that trump and his team lacked remorse, so with that trump and his companies have been ordered to pay more than $355 million in penalties,

that includes interest -- plus interest, actually, it could go a lot higher than that. he's been barred from running his businesses in new york for three years. what he was able to do was retain his business licenses, and the former president has rejected the ruling. the current gop if front-runner argued that he paid back the banks and that they made money on his investments. more so, he sees this and the district attorney as partaking in political theater. >> we have a totally corrupt attorney general. she campaigned on the fact that i will get trump, i will get trump. everybody sees it, letitia james. they've all seen it. >> reporter: an appeal would put the verdict on hold pending higher court review. the former president is balancing four indictments right now, his trial over allegedly falsifying records regarding hush money paid to stormy daniels is set to start in march. nikki haley is holding several events here in her home state of south carolina today. the former governor said this in

texas last night. >> i'm not goingny. [cheers and applause] going anywhere. [cheers and applause] trump's got another court case march 25th, he's got another one after that. he's going to be in court march and april, he's going to be in court may and june. he said he's going to spend more time in a courtroom than he is on the campaign trail. >> reporter: so haley's going to be campaigning here throughout the day, throughout the week. she's going to be all over the state. there's three events today. we don't expect trump to arrive here in the palmetto state until tuesday. tonight he's rallying in michigan. neil? neil: all right, alex, thank you very much. speaking of nikki haley, we'll be speaking to her in just about 10 minutes. in the meantime, tom dupree, former deputy assistant the attorney general, what he mix of what's at stake for donald trump. reading between the lines here, you realize this is a lot bigger

than the $354 million if you include back dated interest and the like, now you're up to $450 million. how much of that does the former president have to put up and i guess the equivalent of escrow to move forward? i know he wants to appeal this. explain that process. >> sure thing. well, neil, the normal rule is that you have to put up a bond in the full amount of the judgment including any sort of interest. so in theory, he's going to have to put well over $400 million in the form of a bond while he appeals this. now, you can ask trial judges to modify that requirement say, well, maybe you only have to put 50% of the judgment. my guess is this trial judge is not going to be particularly sympathetic to former president trump, so i think the trump defense team is going to have to be prepared to get a bond on file north of $400 million. neil: and if you think about the e. jean carroll payment that also he's appealing and protesting, that's $80 some odd million. if you think about it, at a minimum that he'd are to put up,

that can drain a lot of cash pretty quickly. >> it sure can, neil. and,ing i mean, that's a real challenge here. there's no question that the former president has a significant amount of cash on hand. i don't know whether it's $400 million, but he may be soon at the point where he actually has to sell some of his assets, his real property, his real estate holdings in order just to continue pursuing his legal rights and take these cases up on appeal. neil: you know, tom, or you were explaining this to me yesterday, it got partway through my thick skull, this was an unusual case in that no one was harmed, no one lost any money, no one was screwed out of something. so you begin to ask yourself, is this a fair case period? >> yeah. and, you know, that has been one of the biggest we cure area the cities of this -- we call area the cities of this case from the start is that the banks themselves haven't been coming forward and saying, hey, we were ripped off, we lost millions of

dollars because of what a this guy did. now, look, to be fair, the attorney general didn't need to prove that there was a victim here. new york law allowed her to pursue this case. but from my perspective, you've got to think that the absence of a real victim here would play into the court of appeals' thinking as they review judgment and they say did you really have to hit him with a $450 million fine. they might if say, rook, the banks themselves -- look, the banks themselves weren't harmed, maybe there should be some punishment here, but does it really have to be to the tune of $450 million. that's what makes this case, among other things, so extraordinary. neil: exactly. and that figure is with back dated interest. mercedes cullen joining in the mix, former new york administrative judge. mercedes, is this appealable? >> that's e a great question, neil. wonderful to be on sure show, as always. judge actually put in language that a mix it pretty much bulletproof. i want to read this for you. this is at the very inception of his ruling.

he said the court listened carefully to every witness, every question, every answer. witnesses testified from the witness stand approximately a yard from the court who was thus able to observe expressions, demeanor and body language. the court has also considered the simple touch tones of self-interest and other motives, common sense and overall ve veracity. any judge will tell you that when you put in the ve erasty of witnesses, your own personal observations, the demeanor that the witnesses express during their testimony, it's bulletproof. the aa pell late courts will not step in and start to substitute their judgment for the judgment of the judges that actually sat and listened to testimony. neil: so what does that mean then, mercedes? this has been on the books in new york for a long, long time, but it's never been applied to an individual or company that i know of. so this is sort of like a first splash of this pond, and you're saying that it is resistant to

appeal. i mean, what makes it so? just the ve rahs the city of some of the witnesses? there are others who look at accounting, simple accounting, and say that, you know, valuing real estate properties is a subjective art. the owner of the properties will inflate them, the one who's going to finance those properties will try to deflate the inflated prices. that's just the way it goes in real estate amaze praisals and valuations -- appraisals and valuations. what about that? >> that's such a great question, neil. it really boils down to when this particular judge looked at the witnesses and started to really dig down at a very granular level what those valuations were, he mentioned several of them. one of them was a building that was allegedly valued about at $5.5 by the appraiser, yet it was put on the books for 10 times that plus. so when he -- yes, that might be an art, and i think that's a great, that's obviously a very great defense, and the defense did try to articulate that. they brought in their own experts.

they talked about that art. but several things happened to the defense. one is that the accountants that are at the crux of this controversy, they really distanced themselves, terminated their relationship with trump a couple of years ago and said everything that we put down in terms of the statement of financial condition, those are the sfcs that you see throughout the decision, that was based on information and and valuations that were provided to us. we, as accountants, didn't put in any independent appraisal as. we april -- appraisals. we actually relied on the information that was given to us by the trump organization. so once you have the accountants that are really key to these sfcs distance themselves and actually testify in adverse position to the trump organization, it became very problematic for the defense. neil: you know, i don't know, i understand the legal argument, mercedes, but, tom, i pick up with you on this because it

strains credulity to me -- i'm not a lawyer, but i'm kind of okay with lawyers, and i've kind of been through the whole mortgage and financing experience, you know, when i just got married and my wife and i bought to our first homing -- home, the banks were relentless going over every single asset we declared. they found out and got it right back down to size. the reason why i'm saying that is no potential lender, someone who's going to finance what you're doing, isn't going to do their due diligence to check your numbers, right? >> that is such a -- >> that's right. neil: first, i do want to go to tom first on that, mercedes. i do want to go back to you but, tom. >> yeah. and, neil, you're right about that. in other words, this is not a case of a consumer -- [audio difficulty] neil: all right. mercedes, if i could go to you on that, we just lost our feed to tom. mercedes, what do you make of

that argument? again, you're the lawyer. i'm looking at it just as a money guy, and i know banks love to protect the money that they lend out and make sure that all the is are dotted and the ts crossed. what do you think? >> a brilliant money guy at that, neil. i have tremendous respect for you as legions of others do. it really is an excellent argument because what bank -- obviously, there were times prior to a lot of the financial downfall where there were no-doc loans. i can't imagine that these types of loans didn't have their own due diligence. the banks have their board of directors, their shareholders. they are required, have their own fiduciary duty to ensure that if they are extending money to lenders that they do their own due diligence. so you make an excellent argument, and that's not one that was really -- at least not found in the decision -- not certain if the defense started pointing fingers at deutsche bank and the other banks that they had gotten loans from, but there were witnesses from

deutsche bank. but that's an excellent observation, is that these banks, they had their own due diligence, they have their own fiduciary duties. their the ones that are required to insure that if they're lending these types of financing to anybody, that they are insuring that there's substantiation of the need and substantiation of the valuations of the collateral that's being put forward to support the loan. neil: tom, i think you're good again. i -- this goes maybe on the legal issue, but what's to stop businesses in new york from thinking, gosh, we don't have is mercedes' legal expertise or tom's legal expertise but, man, this seems like a good time to get out of dodge if we're going to be fingered for crimes that we didn't commit or didn't harm anyone. that's how they're going to interpret it, and this wave of companies leaving high-tax and high-regulation states to say nothing of aggressive courts, whether it's warranted or not,

they're going to bolt, aren't they? >> i think it's a real risk here, neil. and, look, businesses are very sensitive to the legal environment in the states in which they operate and in which they're incorporated, and if you have a legal regime that subjects people to massive multimillion dollar penalties based on what at least the business views as ordinary business decisions, ordinary business conduct, you are going to have an exodus of businesses from the state. if i would say that the attorney general though has made this really a unique case and that as you know she campaigned on the premise that she was going to get trump. and and so i think a lot of businesses might say, look, this was pretty terrible, but, you know, as long as we don't get ourselves in the attorney general's crosshairs, maybe we'll be okay. neil: yeah, maybe. guys, or thank you both very much. in the meantime, there are other cases donald trump is dealing with including a big one in georgia that has the prosecutor under fire for maybe, well, getting too fiery. take a look. >> no, no, no, this is the trut-

>> judge -- [inaudible conversations] >> it is a lie, it is a lie. get a little slack on pump three! earn big with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. sometimes your work shirt needs to be for more than just work. like when it needs to be a big soft shoulder to cry on. which is why downy does more to make clothes softer, fresher, and better. downy. breathe life into your laundry. (♪) there's two things a young man wanna be - a cowboy or a gangster. and a gangster's outta style. i got back to my roots... we come from a long line of cowboys. my grandfather, my great-grandfather, my aunt even rode horses. when i see all of us out here on this ranch,

i see how far our legacy can go. (♪)

>> let's just get down to it. did you or did you not by may the 30th, 2023, have had sexual relations with ms. willis, yes or no? yes or no? >> yes. >> you're confused. you think i'm on trial. these people are on trial for trying to tale an election in 2020. i'm not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial. neil: well, she is a very big imped ifmentment for getting that trial to resume if it can at all. steve harrigan has the latest on that atlanta case that seems to be unraveling as we speak. steve. >> reporter: neil, we expected to see fani willis on the stand again friday, we did not. instead, we saw her father who explained why it was quite likely that his daughter would repay her boyfriend in cash. >> it's a black thing, okay?

you know, i was trained and most black folks, they hide cash or they keep cash. and i was -- no, i was trained. you always keep some cash. >> reporter: willis' father also backed her timeline9 that the relationship began only after wade was hired. >> did you ever meet mr. wade in the year 2019? >> absolutely not. >> how about the year to 2020? >> absolutely not. >> have you ever seen mr. wade at ms. willis' fulton county house in the year 2021? >> never. >> reporter: as for the star witness for the defense attorneys, he seemed to have a tough time ever remembering seeing willis and wade together socially. >> did mr. wade, prior to november 1st of 2021, ever talk to you about socializing with ms. willis? >> i can't recall. >> you can't recall? >> you're asking me if he, if he ever mentioned to me that he socialized --

>> ms. willis, correct. >> and i'm saying i cannot recall if he socialized -- if he ever mentioned to we that he socialized. >> reporter: the judge will have to sort through the two days of testimony. a decision is expected in 1-2 weeks. neil, back to you. neil: all right. like we keep saying, so many cases, so little time. what does nikki haley make of all of this? the big south carolina primary a week away from today. we'll talk to her next. just want a low price... you want the lowe's-est price. did you say lowest, or lowe's-est price? it's basically the same thing. if you find a better price somewhere else, we'll match it. get the lowe's-est price, with our lowest price guarantee. you got this. we got you. so. you give eye exams. i give ... fresh starts. good eye health? that's priceless. “hero doc saves vision!” (laugh) well, i- “hero owl saves money!” ... sure. not just better eye health ... america's best.

♪ ♪ ♪ (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. i take qunol turmeric because it helps with healthy joints and inflammation support. why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric. qunol. the brand i trust.

neil: all right, donald trump is facing $354 million judgment, actually, $450 million if you add potential back interest. that's a lot of money to pay and a lot of court battles to get entangled in because this is just one of many. nikki haley, his challenger for

the republican presidential nomination, joins us from south carolina. ambassador, governor, very good to see you. >> good morning. it's a great day in south carolina. neil: can i, first off on these settlements or imposed fine, they're pretty hefty even for a guy as rich as donald trump. what do you think? >> i'm worried about the rnc becoming his personal piggybank. i mean, i think we saw that he spent -- 50 million of campaign contributions -- $50 million on his own personal court cases. now he's taking over the rnc before he's named any sort of mom me by put his daughter-in-law as chair, his e campaign manager as the director, by them saying they're just going to focus on him. first of all, i'll tell you with, there's no way that donald trump is going to win this election. you're going to have a female president of the united states. it's either going to be the me or it's going to be the kamala harris. and if donald trump is the nominee, that's what we're

looking at. he's doing to be in -- going to be in court march and april, he's going to be in court may and june. he said himself he's going to be spending more time in a courtroom than he is on the campaign trail. that's a problem because republicans need to win in november. we cannot have a president kamala harris. neil: governor, lara trump, the daughter-in-law of which you spoke, had said, i hope i'm quoting correctly, that every single penny will go to the number one and only job of the rnc, and that is electing donald j. trump as president of the united states and saving this country. what a did you think of that? >> that it's going to go to his legal fees. that's what he's focused on. the whole thing is to get out of paying any of these legal fees. and, you know, it's the a fact, $50 million of his own campaign contributions went to 47 different law firms to help with just personal court cases. you know that they're running out of money, and now the rnc's going to go broke because any

contributions that go to the rnc now are going to be paying for his legal fees. you know, we don't anoint kings in america. we've got a vote that needs to happen. it's wrong that this is even going in that direction yet. but my focus is if you look at what happened after minnesota and he went -- after new hampshire and he went and had this temper tantrum on stage talking about revenge and my dress, and then you look at the fact the next day he said anybody that supports her is barred permanently from maga. think about that. a president of the united states, you're trying to bring people in, not push people out of your club. and then he tries to push the rnc to anoint him, you know, as the presumptive nominee. the problem with -- and now he's had this court case and he comes out and he's talking about being a victim. the problem with all of that is the fact that at no point does he ever talk about the american people. at no point is he talking about the fact we're $34 trillion in debt. at no soint is he -- point is he

talking about the fact that only 31% of eighth graders in our country are proficient in reading. at no point is he talking about a completely open border, that he told congress not to do anything until after he gets elected because he was worried it would hurt him. at no point did he talk about the lawlessness in our cities and the wars around the world. that's the concern i have, is we can't have this be four more years about him. we've got to get our country straight. we've got to get things back on track. and the party that gets rid of their 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins, mark my words. neil: you know, you've been a lot more of -- vociferous in speaking out against donald trump, you know? there's a concern you're going to damage him if he ends up being the nominee. do you think that's the case? >> i mean, that's just ridiculous. first of all, if i got out of the race now, it would be the longest general election in history. we need to look at the fact what are the american people saying. not just what i'm saying, what

are the american people saying. 70% of americans have said they don't the want donald trump and joe biden to be the nominees of this presidential. 59% of americans have said they think donald trump is too old and joe biden is too old. this is not personal for me and donald trump. i voted for donald trump twice. i was proud to serve america in his administration. this is about the fact that republicans have to win, and if you look at any general election poll, any of them, trump is down on biden by 5 points, by 7 points. on his best day it's margin of error. i'm in we have one of those -- every one of those general election poll, and i defeat joe biden by up to 17 points. do you know what that means? that's a mandate going into d.c. to stop the wasteful spending by republicans and democrats and get our economy back on track. that's a mandate to get our kids reading again and go back to the basics in education. that's a mandate to secure our borders once and for allith no more excuses. that's a mandate for law and

order in our cities, and that's a mandate for a strong america that prevents wars that we can all be proud of. that's what we're trying to do. that that's the focus, is we need to start looking at what is going to take us forward. and when you look at majority of americans disapprove of joe biden and and a majority of americans disapprove of donald trump, that's telling you everything you need. we need to -- neil: well, you might be right, but within your own party right now an overwhelming majority of republicans like the guy, and he's the front-runner. you're quite right to point out the math as well, ambassador, that donald trump is -- has 63 delegates, you have 17 right now. last time i checked, you need 1,215, so you're both a long way from that. you're quite right to point it out. but people talk about momentum. if you do pyre e poorly -- poorly in your own state, then it's lights out. what do you say to that, that -- and, or again, we haven't seen polls post some of these latest,

you know, payments that donald trump is going to have to make. maybe that could change stuff, i don't know. but how do you feel about that, that losing big in your home state puts you in a very tenuous position? >> i mean, my focus is this is bigger, this is not about my political career. everybody loves to say, oh, this is hurting her -- this is not about my political career. this is about the fact i don't want my kids to live like this. i don't want anybody's kids to live like this. it's too much chaos. if this is the focus of we're going to close that gap in south carolina, and the day after south carolina i'm headed to michigan. and three days after that, michigan votes. and within ten days of south carolina, 20 states vote. what is everybody so afraid of? why don't we let those states vote. here you've got a situation where it is very clear by polls, by court cases, by everything else donald trump cannot win the general election. it's all a there.

we can like him all we want. i have no issues with him personally. but if he can't win, guess what that does? that gives us a president kamala harris, and we should all a -- that should send a chill up our spine. this is about a america. and you look at what's happening whether it's anytime he goes off the teleprompter, he gets completely unhinged. and we don't know how many more unhinged moments he's going to have. look at what he did just in conway, or south carolina. he went and he talked about the fact, he mocked my husband's military. now, michael and i can handle it. we're used to being in politics, you don't take it personally. but you mock one person in the military, you mock every person in the military. and you have to understand, these men and women don't deploy because -- for kicks and giggles. they don't sit there and, they're not willing to shed blood just for the fun of it. they do it -- neil: well, i definitely get that, governor, i definitely get that that. but you mentioned before that

you supported donald trump in two elections because he was the right man for the right time. but personally in some of the things you cite now, we're very present in, before and through those various elections. he has not changed. >> well, he has changed. i think he's gotten more diminished and more unhinged. but i called those things out to him when he said those things. i mean, look, you can read my book with. i talk about all the times that i would confront president trump. the reason we worked so well together was because i told him the truth when no one else would would. if he was doing something right, i fought if hard, i defended america. if he was doing something wrong, i showed up in his office or i'd pick up the phone and say you can't do this, but instead you could do x, y orz. i always gave him options. the problem is if someone's not there to rein him in, he gets out of control. look at what he said about nato. think about the fact that he went and he said that if they didn't pull their weight, that -- then he would not defend

them. but he took it a step further, neil. he went and said that the he -- if they didn't pull their weight, he would encourage putin to invade them. now, i want you to think about this for a second. someone who wants to be president of the united states is siding with a thug who kills his political opponents. he's siding with a dictator who arrests american journalists and holds them hostage. he's siding with -- neil: all right. >> -- a man who has literally always wanted to defeat america. we can't have that. he puts our allies in danger who stood with us at 9/11, and he put every military service member in danger when he did that. neil: we'll watch very closely. i did want more time, i know you have to rush to an event, so i appreciate your time with us, governor. nikki haley, the presidential candidate, south carolina primary a week away. one issue we didn't get into, but it's a big issue right now is the fate of alexei naval ifny that -- navalny now that a

we've confirmed he is dead. here's the problem though, they can'n't find his body. after this. (♪) (♪) (♪) your pride and joy is measured in acres. keep them looking their best with the kubota lineup. versatile sidekick utility vehicles. the #1 rated tractor brand for durability and owner experience. professional-grade mowers for a professional cut. ( ♪ ) it's equipment built with one purpose. to get the job done right. ( ♪ )

from pep in their step to shine in their coats, when people switch their dog's food to the farmer's dog, the effects can seem like magic. but there's no magic involved. (dog bark) it's just smarter, healthier pet food. it's amazing what real food can do.

neil: all right, by now you know that alexei navalny, the fierce vladimir putin create cantic, is dead. but in a macabre sense of drama, they still can't that it their hands on or even find his body. that's a separate drama developing in russia. remember, he was kept at this siberian prison where they don't treat the prisoners all that well. more on that in just a second, but i to want to go to lucas tomlinson traveling with the with the president in rehoboth beach, delaware. as far as i know, lucas, the president has no doubt who's behind this, or right? >> reporter: that's right, neil. president biden has put the blame squarely on russian president vladimir putin. and just a few hours ago in munich the vice president, kamala la haste, speak being alongside ukraine's president, volodymyr zelenskyy, saying

russian forces must be stopped in ukraine. and this comes as we've heard ukrainian forces have retreated from a city in eastern ukraine, the biggest gain for the russians in months. >> history shows us if we allow an aggressor like putin to take land with impunity, they keep going. the other would-be aggressors then become emboldened. >> reporter: harris is warning, neil, in munich a not so subtle reference to the munich agreement in 1938 when british prime minister neville chamberlain declared, quote, peace for our time after the agreement between europe and hitler allowing nazi germany to annex part of sec slovakia. coffining -- of course, hitler didn't stop there, poland was conquered a year later. harris also a spoke about the death of alexei navalny, putin's fiercest critic, as you mentioned, who bravely returned

to russia after being poisoned with a nerve agent. navalny recovered in a german hospital. he could have stayed there and continued his crusade against putin outside russia. instead, he flew back to russia three years ago after a releasing a 2-hour documentary exposing what he called putin's largest -- [inaudible] his palace are along the black sea. president biden yesterday at the white house blamed putin for navalny's inside that penal colony in the arctic in siberia. >> make no mistake, putin is responsible for navalny's death. putin is responsible. what has happened to navalny is yet more proof of putin's brutality. no one should be fooled not in russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. >> reporter: recall the geneva summit where president biden met with putin. president biden was asked what would happen if navalny were to die in prison, and at the time president biden said there'd be devastating consequences.

asked about that pledge three years ago, biden said, look, that was three years ago, and russia has suffered consequences in ukraine where over 30,000 russian soldiers -- 300,000 russian soldiers have been either killed or wounded, neil. neil: lucas, the one thing i don't understand from the president, he draw cans the distinction in saying vladimir putin was responsible for his death, but he doesn't go foras saying he assassinated the guy. it might be semantics, but he's the guy who essentially killed him. >> reporter: that's right, neil. and that was the question when the president took questions after speaking yesterday at the white house, he was asked point-blank was navalny if assassinated, and the president stopped short of saying that but did, as you mention, put the blame squarely on president putin, of course, who imprisoned navalny and was held in dire conditions in that penal colony in siberia. neil: thank you very much, my friend. lucas tomlinson following all those developments. in the meantime, the saga of navalny, what happened to him,

you've that heard the president peek if out about it. donald trump not so much since we got that news, although he had, that is the former president, spoke opinion off -- often a of vladimir putin. take a listen. >> if we don't pay and you're attacked by russia, will you protect us? you didn't pay, you're delinquent, yes, let's say that happened. no, i would not protect grow. in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. putin and xi and all of these very smart people, the media a hates when i say they're smart, but let me tell you, they're very smart and they're very cunning. i got along with putin. let me tell you, i got along with him really well, and that's a good thing, not a bad thing. neil: we've got general philip breedlove, u.s. air force, former retired nato commander. commander, this is a former commander in chief essentially saying in this particular case nato nations that aren't paying up, you're on your own. what did you make of that? >> well, thanks for having me on, first.

well, i'm sad about those remarks. i think they're irresponsible. i think they take a very dim view of what we as a allies have to do into the future. i'm not sure the president, former president actually meant that, but in any case, these are very damaging remarks to our allies and to future allies and those around the world who aren't actually in alliance with us, but have bilateral defense relations. neil so let me can ask you about the death of alexei navalny. he seemed perfectly fine in video outside it looked like a prison cell, sir, just 24 hours earlier. so we don't know the means by which he died. we do know they're having a devil of a time, at least his family is, recovering his body. they can't find it. what do you make of this? >> well, neil, i think that the

world is really sort of looking at mr. putin through the eyes of egypt meaning this is an individual event. i think need to get our eyes off of our feet and up on the horizon and realize that mr. putin is literally running a amok in many different areas. so if we look at the toe alty of the last week -- totality of the last week or so. we have navalny if being killed, and i agree with those who have said that mr. putin is responsible for it. it's clear. we have the recent revelation that mr. putin has abrogated another treaty and appears to be putting nuclear weapons in space. we have continued awe toesties in the war -- atrocities in the war against ukraine, this unfounded war. and so i think that we need to step back and realize that mr. putin has a made a decision that he can get away with pretty much anything he likes in this world because the leaders of the west are not going to hold him

to task. neil: general, very insightful, as always. thank you also for your incredible service. you're very modest but, man, looking at your record, that is enviable. general, very good seeing you. be safe, be well. okay. we have a lot more coming up, including what's happening at the border. you know, not too many years ago those who crossed the border were coming from countries like mexico, guatemala, ecuador, venezuela. but now better than 120 countries including china? that's a long way. to get into the united states. after this. i've got to go. ok. bye. mom! (♪) -thanks mom. -yeah. (♪) (♪)

you were made to dream about it for years. we were made to help you book it in minutes.

neil: all right, it's a long way to try to get into the united states or at least sneak into the united states. a record number of chinese nationals crossing our border illegally. 90% of them are entering along the border in southern california. that's where you'll find our griff jenkins with the very latest on this.

griff. >> reporter: that's right, neil. and we're here about a 60 miles east of san diego proper and already the migrants have been coming since before the sun was up. let me just step out of the way here and show you this group, neil. now, what you're looking at is a trash bin where the migrants are literally taking wood, cardboard, things they can get out of it, taking it over to the fires because they're building fires to try and stay warm. it was in the 30s when we first got here. the sun coming up. but we have seen, i just got the numbers, neil, a little while ago almost 6300 across the entire southwest border. but as you've seen the migration and the surges, really the big numbers have moved out west to arizona particularly here in california. and this group here i've been talking to some of the migrants, there are people from as far as africa, from the country of guinea and also some ecuadorans, peru, brazil and colombia. now, the chinese though

is what's really alarming the officials from the national security standpoint. yesterday there were 121. the day before, 212. and they're mostly adult, single males. and that troubles the officials because we have a very difficult time vetting them. for the starters when you first meet them, most of the agents don't speak mandarin, so there's a communication hurdle to get over. but finding out who they are, if they have any ties to potentially the chinese communists, that's the problem. very quickly, let me let you just hear from one migrant who told me why he came here. listen. why did you come? if. >> take the money. >> reporter: money? >> yes. >> reporter: for job? >> yes. >> reporter: there's no job in china? >> maybe. i don't know. >> reporter: so that's a snapshot of what's going on here, neil. we'll continue to watch it and bring it to you as it develops. neil: all right. you're everywhere,

griff. thank you very much. [laughter] give general -- give jenkins following that from the california-mexico border. in the meantime, better that it land nebraska. -- late than never. president biden did take a visit to east palestine the, ohio, but not all residents were happy to see him including one who waited a long time for this moment. >> the first night we ran out of the house with the clothes we had on, i grabbed my wallet, the kids, the wife, the dog and we left. that was it. (♪) some people just know that the best rate for you

is a rate based on you, with allstate. because you know that just because it fits in the cupholder doesn't make it 'to-go'. and you know how to brake, without breaking everything. and you're definitely not doing -okay, i don't even know what this is, but you're definitely not doing that. with allstate you're connected to a rate based on you. (♪) with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles to help me out. splurgy tina loves a hotel near rodeo drive. oh tina! wild tina booked a farm stay to ride this horse. glenn close?! with millions of possibilities you can book whoever you want to be. that's my line! booking.com booking.yeah

neil: well, for east palestine, ohio, resident eric, he had been waiting for this moment, the president of the united states to show up. it's been the better part of a year since that train derailment disaster. eric kind must have to join us today. how you doing these days? the. >> you know, things have gotten

better. doing well though. the whole family and the town, we're recovering. neil: good. >> and just getting along with life. neil: good for you. so you still live, you didn't move out. you got to see or maybe not see the president yesterday when he showed up? >> i did go downtown. we didn't get to meet with him. i don't think anybody really did. there was not really a q&a, it was more of a speech that probably could have been given from anywhere or. you know, any warehouse would have worked, it looked like. but we did go down there, i did go down with my kids, but it was pretty cold. after he arrived and we couldn't see anything and we were being pushed back so far, we decided to come home. it started to snow pretty hard and didn't want to keep the kids out too long or myself. it was just -- there was no point being down there really. neil: so you don't seem too excited that he came, and it is a year after the fact. are you bitter? >> well, i'm not -- at this point it doesn't matter anybody

who wants to come and visit the town. it just kind of turns the town into a circus for a day and made it difficult for anybody getting in and out of town. you know, it's the usual turning it into a circus. but if people had come a year ago, it would have been a lot better, sure. but for for me myself, as long as we're getting the assistance that we need and we're not forgotten about, that's the more important part for what i think majority of the residents are looking for. that we're not -- neil: are you getting that assistance? are you getting that help? >> well, i'm kind of worried about that. i mean, i just got the -- we just got our forms in the mail for paying taxes for the relief money that we had gotten for us to get out of town while they're doing the cleanups, and it kind of worries me that i'm going to pay taxes on money that i used to pay for food, shelter and travel and and get out of town. it was either that or breathing toxic fumes in the air. and now hopefully, apparently there's a bill for it to hopefully waive the taxes on it.

but until it's passed, we're still stuck with that bill, and i hope that at least that small part is taken care of. everything else, i mean, norfolk is in town, they are doing the cleanup, as a i -- as they said. like i said, things are getting better, but those little things would be nice to, you know, help out everybody not have to pay taxes on something that we didn't ask to have happen. neil: yeah. no, it's a very valid point. eric, thank you very much. hang in there. you're a brave guy, looking out for your family as well. eric whiting, east palestine, ohio, are resident. the president visited there yesterday, again, almost a year after the fact. some are pointing out better late than never. meanwhile, the legal cases for joe biden's predecessor keep piling up, but joe biden't isn't out of the -- joe biden isn't out of the woods either. we follow both legal strategies after this.

...

i found a cheaper price on my meds with singlecare. did you say singlecare? i use singlecare. are we talking singlecare? i saved 40 bucks with singlecare. that's cool. yeah. i have all my customers check the singlecare price first. good job. whenever my customers ask me if there's a cheaper price on their meds, i always tell them about singlecare. you just search your prescription, find the best price and show your coupon, in the app, to the pharmacist. i found a cheaper price with singlecare! i know. download the singlecare app free today.