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good evening, i'm trace gallagher. 11:00 p.m. on the east coast, 8:00 -- 8:00 in california and this is america's late news, "fox news @ night". we maintain the peace through our strength. weakness only invites aggr aggression. >> trace: breaking tonight, we are live at the 11th annual reagan national defense forum more top national security leaders and innovators come together to talk about the biggest threats facing our nation and some of those leaders will join us live here onset at the reagan library and moments. but first, daniel pennies manslaughter charge dismissed today after the jury deadlocked. >> what i do know is a minimum -- at a minimum is that there are jurors on the jury who likely believe that the defendant mr. penny is not guilty of manslaughter in the second degree.

>> trace: those jurors off for the weekend and will begin deliberations next week on the lesser charge of negligent homicide. meantime, the hunt for the assassin who killed united health care ceo brian thompson now widening beyond new york city. >> the suspect or a person of interest may have left new york city. >> we have him entering the port authority bus terminal. i believe we saw him go in, we did not see him come out. it's thought he got on one of those busses. >> trace: breaking tonight, police now say they may have recovered the shooters backpack along with a t.j.maxx bag containing clothing. they found this in central park. john you is coming up in moments but we begin with team fox coverage. christina coleman life in los angeles with the latest on the daniel penny case but first a kevin corke live in d.c. with new information on the backpack the police think belongs to the keller. >> reporter: police sources telling fox tonight as you point out they do believe they found

the gunman's backpack in central park. we've also learned tonight that the masked man who gunned down the unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson is also believed to have left the city on an interstate bus shortly after the killing, that according to the nypd, which with the help of the port authority has actually managed to track the gunman's movements from when he first arrived to the city on the evening of november 24th until he left. police sources also say the suspect arrived on the 24th on a greyhound bus from atlanta though it's still not clear exactly where he boarded. on the morning of the shooting, thompson was leaving his hotel, was gunned down within minutes of exiting the hotel at 6:44 a.m. he was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later. tonight detectives are working with greyhound to identify all the passengers who may have boarded that bus when the gunman did.

>> we actually have a tremendous amount of forensic evidence in this case. we've collected dna evidence, fingerprint evidence, which is all of the lab being processed. >> reporter: we will get a lot more on that in the days ahead. at the time of his death, "the wall street journal" reported that the 50-year-old thompson had been living apart from his estranged wife for years and he was said to have been earning $10 million a year as the head of unitedhealthcare. at this hour the manhunt, trace, continues. back to you. >> trace: we will get back to you as the news brakes on this, thank you. meantime there are major developments tonight in the case against daniel trend -- daniel penny. the jury is still out but so is the most serious charge against him. christina coleman is live in los angeles to explain where deliberations go from here. >> reporter: good evening, trace. today the judge in daniel penny's case dismissed of the most serious charge, second three manslaughter. he would have faced up to 15

years in prison if convicted. penny pleaded not guilty in the choke hold death case periods lawyers say he was protecting himself and others on the subway from jordan neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness who was acting erratically on the subway. >> if that case was dealt with properly to begin with, he would have been incarcerated. inc. -- treat him but incarcerate him. he would be alive today and mr. penny would not be in this situation. the criminal justice system has a lot to account for and i think to some extent mr. penny is being scapegoated. >> reporter: meantime prosecutors argue that penny used too much force on an unarmed man and neely's family believes penny is guilty. >> racism is still alive and kicking in america. there's no other way to view this. everyone has looked at the case and those among you who say that

daniel penny is innocent have racism and bias in your heart. >> reporter: after hearing both sides, jurors could not reach a unanimous decision on whether penny was guilty of second-degree manslaughter. the judge read on alan charge encouraging them to deliberate further and reach a verdict but they remained deadlocked. the defense felt that was reason enough to call for a mistrial. prosecutors ended up asking for the manslaughter charge to be dismissed so jurors could deliberate on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide and the judge allowed their request. if convicted of this charge, the marine veteran could face up to four years in prison. the jurors will continue to deliberate on monday. trace. >> trace: christina coleman live in los angeles, thank you. let's bring in uc berkeley law professor and former justice department official john yoo. great to have you on the show. should the judge in the daniel penny trial have declared a mistrial? >> trace, great to be with you.

i actually think what the judge did is a great victory for penny and this is the reason why. normally when the jury hangs, which means that there's at least one juror who is refusing to go along with the verdict of guilty, if not more than one, usually you get a mistrial which means that the prosecution would get to retry him. in a new trial later on. so actually it's very i think quite extraordinary for the judge to intervene along with the prosecution and say no these charges are dismissed entirely. he can never be tried again for this kind of reckless manslaughter, which is up to 15 years. now i think the reason the prosecution wants this is because they are still hoping maybe with that major charge out-of-the-way, maybe the jury will feel like they have to convict penny of something and mike go for this lesser, criminal negligence, but that only has a four year maximum sentence and could result in him only getting probation. >> trace: do you think he will be convicted on that?

very quickly. >> who knows. i have to think that if a juror, at least one, does not want to convict him of the serious charge, manslaughter, second-degree murder basically, they might also say i'm not going to go for this lesser charge either. >> trace: meantime in the killing of the insurance ceo, we know that police have a new backpack. they found this. the video we will show you compliments of "the new york post". they also have a burner phone. maybe a t.j.maxx bag. a bottle he drank from. video and pictures of his face. steal casings, the bullet casings with words on them. we know how he got into new york, we know how he got out of new york, but still no name. does that all make sense to you? >> i'm surprised we don't have the identity yet but what you are seeing here is great police work by the nypd. it's being misused against penny but when they are really going

after a person, they are righteous here, they can put together a lot of evidence quickly. i think they will catch this guy pretty soon. they already have his dna, they have his fingerprints, they've got the video of him, they've got a picture of him. he might have escaped new york city. now the fbi can get involved if he has crossed state lines. i think they will catch them pretty soon. >> trace: i was interested because an investigator, former investigator for the boston marathon bombing, said this about evidence. watch this, john. >> in boston we had photos of the marathon bombings but they weren't very clear and did not have much investigative value. when we got the clear photo we had a news conference good evening and several hours later, the tips started pouring it and i'm sure that's going on right now with the nypd. >> trace: do you think that's a fair assessment, that tips are now flooding in? >> i'm sure there's a lot of tips. they already know that he left the city on a boss, they probably have a good idea which bus, where it went, and so they

are filling all the information which means they can start searching people and information and trying to get to where he's likely to go next. he maybe trying to go all over the country before he really goes back home. i'm sure you are seeing tips come from every possible stop along that bus route now. >> trace: we hope so. great to have you on the show, thank you. meantime president-elect trump is standing by periods pick for defence secretary publicly expressing confidence in pete hegseth as the media continues focusing on salacious and unproven allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual assault. the senior white house correspondent jacqui heinrich is live in west palm beach with more on what trump had to say about the confirmation battle. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, trace. president-elect trump acknowledged tonight that people were a little bit concerned about pete hegseth's confirmation chances. but he says that hegseth is doing well now, even though he

hasn't received any assurances from senators that hegseth can definitely get through. >> do you still have confidence in pete hegseth? >> yes, i do. he's a very smart guy. i've known him through fox but i've known him for a long time. he's basically a military guy. every time i talked to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. >> have you got assurances from senators that he's going to be confirmed? do you think he can make it? >> no. i think he will, yeah. i've had a lot of senators call me up saying he's fantastic. >> reporter: one senator withheld her endorsement after her first meeting with hegseth this week advocating instead for the vetting process to play out. her doubts fox is told spurred pressure from the base for senate republicans to back hegseth. she evidently felt that, posting tonight pete hegseth and i will continue our constructive conversations as we move forward in this process. we plan to meet again next week. at a minimum we agree he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our war fighters at a fair hearing.

earlier this week tran began -- trump began working on plan b, i florida governor for the job. they disgusted on tuesday and speculation about an impending swap was swirling after fox learned that trump will attend next weekend's army-navy game alongside desantis. vp elect j.d. vance trying to quash all of that. >> pete hegseth will get his appearing before the senate armed services committee, not a sham hearing before the american media. we are not abandoning this nomination. >> reporter: meantime trump is turning to his agenda. he's on the way to france where he's going to attend the reopening of the notre dame cathedral alongside other world leaders who will try to reestablish report after trump threatened tariffs on canada, china and mexico to force negotiations on other strategic issues, trace. >> trace: jacqui heinrich live in west palm beach, thank you. let's bring in california state assembly woman alexandra macedo and california g.o.p. chairwoman

jessica patterson. thank you for coming on. jessica, to you first, j.d. vance said this about pete hegseth and the confirmation process. watch. >> all i'm asking is that people actually allow the senate process to work. we do not determine important government officials based on anonymous sourcing from the american media. we determine who our officials are through the nomination process, the advice and consent process of the united states senate. >> trace: after the whole bret cavanaugh fiasco, you would think the media would learn to be a little bit more, you know, a little bit careful about what they are doing. >> i think you get some of your credits too much credit but it's clear that president trump is also, this is my number 1 choice. we've won this election, i get to choose and nominate. we are also going to see this process play out. we saw a poll this morning that showed a plurality of americans agree with him as well. so we are going to see this process play out, this is a

tried and true process where the senate will confirm the president gets to nominate and we are going to see how it all works out. >> trace: it's interesting, back to you alexandra macedo because karine jean-pierre, she was a little defensive today. she was pressed quite often on the sole hunter biden pardon, joe biden's credibility, and here's how the back-and-forth went. watch. >> the next time the president says he will or won't do something, why should the american people believe him? >> i answered that and i don't have anything else to add. i answer to the question. i can't speak to understanding the question or not or my answer or not. i don't have anything else to say. i'm not going to relitigate this. >> trace: seems a little defensive to me. what do you think about that? that was like yeah, no, i'm not doing it. >> that was the most nonanswer i've ever heard. this goes to that we have so much distrust of our elected officials because they say one thing and do something very

different. i don't think it's a problem for the media or the american public to ask. he said he would do this and he did the opposite. we have to build faith back in our republic and this is not how you do it. >> trace: that's not the last of it because you have texas congressman on biden giving preemptive, the possibility of preemptive pardons to people like, i don't know, adam schiff, maybe liz chaney. he had this to say... >> it would send a terrible message. first of all it would say that we think the people that have been running our government for the last four years are guilty of something. >> trace: it would send a terrible message but it would be awfully telling. >> absolutely. he has about a month left in his presidency and this is what he's focusing on. last month americans were so incredibly clear what is important to them, they want a thriving economy, they want to be paying less for their gas, they want to secure border. instead of focusing on those issues in this last month and going out on top, he's choosing to focus on this and it's

incredibly telling. >> trace: if you were betting, would you bet he issues these preemptive pardons? >> yes. >> trace: really? >> he has nothing to lose. >> trace: a lot of chips on the table and you are right, nothing to lose. meantime trump going to francis weekend because emmanuel macron invited him. it seems to me alexandra that it's almost like trump is the president and joe biden is just kind of off and running, nobody is focused on him at all. every focus is on the president-elect. >> if it walks like a dock and quacks like a dog it's probably a lame duck and that's exactly what joe biden has been since kamala harris announced her life or the presidency. really excited to have trump back on the world stage. we have been craving strength on the world platform and the fact that trump is already getting to work shows we have an exciting four years ahead and having the respective other nations is what we can expect. >> trace: i think the interesting part of this is not a lot of world leaders, you know, you talk about canadian world leaders, people who don't really aren't big trump vance

also seem like they are ready to jump into the game. alexandra, jessica, thank you both. i think as far as the landscape of the briefing room, it needs to reflect the media habits of the american people in 2024. not in the 1980s. president trump won this election by utilizing nontraditional nonlegacy media voices outside the beltway, that's clearly who the american people are listening to, that's how they are digesting their news and i think it would be irresponsible of us not to include some of those voices in the briefing room. >> trace: president trump's incoming press secretary karoline leavitt apparently unfazed by white house reporters who are not thrilled with plans to shake up the briefing room. let's bring in seattle talk radio host jason rantz and the federalist elections correspondent brianna lyman. thank you for coming on. jason, i'm not sure if you heard karoline leavitt there, it sounds to me like there's going to be podcasters and some independent journalists also in the briefing room. things might get shaken up a

bit. what do you think about that? >> perhaps some talk show hosts from seattle might show up as well. i love the idea. at the end of the day she's absolutely right that we get news in different ways. we are not all watching "nbc nightly news". we are not all watching cable news all the time. i think to get in front of more people, to make them more interested in the entire process, we have to talk to the people that they are listening to. so this idea i think is a great one and i hope they follow through with it. they have to be careful, you cat push can't lead in the cranks but i think there is enough room to bring in new voices. >> trace: it's interesting because john stewart was blasting the media for scaring people about donald trump and he had this to say, watch. >> we don't know what's going to happen when donald trump takes over. unfortunately we cannot see into the future but we have to be prepared for all outcomes. i don't know how helpful it is

to get us [bleep] our pants this much this early. >> trace: which makes me laugh because you and i both know on january 21, john stewart is going to be the first one in line just trashing donald trump every single night. >> yes. john stewart is right to criticize the propaganda press for what they have done to this country through their divisive rhetoric. i don't say this lightly, i think the propaganda press is the greatest threat to this constitutional republic because people go out and vote based on what they know and the things they know come from what they read and here and watch and when they go to left-wing news sources, they are actually getting quite literally misinformation, russia collusion hoax is, liz chaney hoax, propaganda. so that is because they are not truth seekers, they are propagandists working for the democratic party so they have to fearmongering about donald trump now because that is what their job is, that's what their job has been and will continue to be.

>> trace: it's interesting now because sunny hostin was on the view today and she was using the shooting death of the insurance and health ceo to call for universal health care. listen. >> our country is one of the only countries that does not have universal health care and we don't take care of our elderly and people are feeling the pinch. we talk about that all the time. i think people are really angry at the health care system and unfortunately it's translating. >> trace: i mean single-payer is clearly the answer in this investigation. >> i love the idea she's talking about health care while basically justifying the murder of someone. that's what we've been seeing not just from sunny hostin but other voices, seemingly gleeful in the death of an insurance executive. look, i know that, especially on social media, you see the worst of the worst, but i've been shocked at how much of the worst

of the worst we've been seeing. i've got a pretty high bar and to see this kind of language, this kind of rhetoric is really disturbing and ultimately i think it could have the impact of inspiring more instances like this because these people now think that they are heroes for doing this because they think it's being done for the right cause, for the just cause. it's disgusting. >> trace: yeah. when you talk about rational and reasonable responses to a killing it just does not sound right. meantime the owner of the "los angeles times" plans to notify readers about bias. the guardian headline reads as follows, "los angeles times" owner says articles will use ai meter to show sources bias. it's like being, being, bias. what is it going to do? this paper is so biased, what meter is going to be able to gage that? >> you know, this was actually sad to watch because what this tells us is that the "los angeles times" along with a

cohort of other left-wing outlets are so far gone from reality and from being a journalist and truth seekers that they actually need to have a bias tracker and they are doing this because they want to try to win back the trust of their audience and they think that if they are openly transparent about how biased they are, that will do that. i think it's a good move because i think readers will be aware they are consuming propaganda but is just indicative of the state of the corporate left-wing press. >> trace: and i doubt seriously if you will see an actual bias meter out there. it will always be no, that was straight down the middle. absolutely the truth. thank you both. "fox news at night" is here at the reagan national defense forum for a second year and arroyo. coming up, various defense experts attending the form will join us live onset with their insights into america's biggest national security threats and how the incoming trump administration could reshape u.s. defense policy.

if you walked around this area, you would watch and listen to some fascinating conversations. there is a lot of excitement in the defense world about president-elect trump coming into office and what they think might happen. we will talk to some of the people who could make that happen, next. live at the reagan library ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the black friday sale is now on. visit sandals.com or call 1-800-sandals

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♪ ♪ >> trace: it is 11:27 on the east coast, we are back with special coverage live from the reagan national defense forum where the big subject is how the incoming trump administration will handle some very major and

tenuous situations abroad. the war in ukraine, israel's war on hamas, china and taiwan to name a few. with that, let's bring in republican congressmen john moolenaar from michigan and u.s. cyberspace will area mac commission executive director, former rear admiral in the u.s. navy, mark montgomery. gentlemen, thank you prebeing here. congress man, i thought this was fascinating because i was reading your talking points and you believe china is the biggest threat that america faces and you look at some of the surveys, the reagan defense forum is doing, this one caught my eye. we can put this on the screen. this one is which country do you see as the greatest threat to the u.s. and you see china there is at 49 percent, russia 26%. the fascinating part of that is just six years ago at this very same forum, russia was the number 1 threat. not by much, by four or five points, but that's like a thirtysomething point swing. that's a vast difference. what's happening?

>> i think it's because the american people see that china is becoming increasingly more aggressive at home and abroad. they are violating trade policies, they are building up a defense, threatening taiwan and their neighbors, and they are spying in the united states of america. committing tremendous human rights violations. genocide. i think people are becoming more aware of that and as president reagan said, peace through strength, the american people want to have the resolve to ensure that this does not continue. >> trace: it's interesting because when we think of china and threats, you talked to people and they will always say we worry about taiwan, worry about china going into taiwan, will america support taiwan? but you say we also need to worry not just about the western pacific, we need to worry about the homeland. what do you mean by that? >> thank you for bringing that up. as a navy admiral i'm required to say i'm worried about the chinese navy.

but you are right. the chinese navy's threat to the homeland, the chinese threat to the homeland is as serious or more serious. cruise and ballistic missiles that can reach and touch our country which we have no realistic defense. even more important, the cyber threat to the united states. we had a compromise of our telecommunications network and one was a significant operational preparation of critical infrastructures, the chinese putting in malware that can attack our systems. china is a significant homeland threat. >> trace: it really is. you look at things like the chinese spy balloon and we did not get a lot of answers on that. it flew over for a long time and we just kind of washed it away but it's in the back of people's minds, they are looking at things like this. if china invades taiwan, the reagan national defense survey says would you support if china invades taiwan moving u.s. military assets into the region? 58% say yes, sending more military equipment to taiwan,

56% say yes. but the select committee had simulated this war and you say the results were not as fortuitous as we thought they would be. >> you are right. we have concerns about the strength of our defense industrial base to do a prolonged war against someone like china. we have the greatest military, the strongest fighting force, but unfortunately there's been a lot of atrophy in our defense base and it's been stretched with conflicts in ukraine as well as the middle east. we need to rebuild our military industrial base so that we can deter aggression against taiwan and others in the region. >> trace: a lot of generals we talked to as well, they also war game this. the islands that are getting close to taiwan and china, they've militarized and it's scary and we need to look at

what's happening there as well. >> absolutely. they are intimidating, the bully in the neighborhood. whether taiwan, japan, korea, the philippines, you see an increasingly aggressive china and they are expanding their malign influence around the world. >> trace: it's interesting because the defense survey asked, how concerned are you about increased cooperation between china, russia, iran and north korea? the number is big. you talk about more concerned, 86%. i often say you can't get 86% of this country to agree on the color of an orange and here's that number. less concerned at 12%. what do you think, what do we do to prepare for that? >> the american people are smart. 86% of people are right. we are dealing with four adversaries simultaneously and away oui haven't had to since world war ii. ukraine sees this every day. ukraine is fighting russia, but north korea has put troops and artillery, iran is helping,

china is backstopping their economy. i expected the same thing if we go to war over taiwan. we will be fighting china, russia, iran and north korea. in that case china, russia and north korea will be the big ones but in every kind of conflict to see, we see north korean equipment showing up with hezbollah. it's all for these against those who believe in the western way. >> trace: admiral, congressman, thank you edelman. we appreciate it. more of our special coverage live from the reagan defense forum just ahead. experts will weigh in on some of the most pressing global challenges we have and the role technology will play in addressing those challenges. continuing live coverage here at the reagan library in simi valley. air force one behind me. you can have lunch here beneath it and they will have a big dinner here tomorrow night with all kinds of executives and military types.

it might change the world. we are coming right back. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ >> trace: welcome back to our live coverage. the reagan national defense forum where defense and national security leaders from both the public and private sectors are gathering this weekend to talk about everything from ai in the military eat to major global threats, the trump administration will soon have to deal with. without let's bring in our panel that air force veteran, american dynamism cofounder katherine boyle and technologies head of defense, former congressman mike gallagher. thank you for coming on. your biggest concern in the military is not modernizing fast enough, specifically, what do you mean by not modernizing fast enough. >> there's a lot of great technology being developed across industry but more

importantly small technology firms that are developing the next autonomous vehicle, the next artificial intelligence algorithm. our ability to deploy and field to those capabilities to our war fighters is of great concern to our national security, especially in light of all of the threats we face across the globe. >> trace: we hear a lot about big tech, a lot about military tax. what we don't hear is about little tech. you think little tack needs more focus. not quite sure what you mean by that. >> little tack is basically start-ups, it's companies building in the national interest and they are building for the defense ecosystem but they are engineers coming up of the large defense companies like space x. they are coming up of larger companies saying i want to build for the next mission. we call it defense 2.0. company started seven, eight years ago that have changed the game in terms of how you work with the department of defense.

bringing autonomy and defense -- into defense but there's a whole new generation that is solving really critical important problems. >> trace: it's interesting, i want to put up this because this is reagan national defense survey. increased government spending in the military, do you support or oppose? look at the number, 79% support increasing military spending. only 19% oppose that. the question though is spending on what? when you and your company and all of what you're talking about, the question is what do we spend this on? >> i think it will be a mix of things. the urgent priority is what can we do to enhance near-term deterrence and the indo-pacific in general and across the taiwan strait in particular. for that you need more ships, long-range precision fires, drones, you need to clear the backlog of $20 billion worth of things that taiwan has purchased. beyond that we need to be making meaningful investments in next-generation technology, ai,

quantum. thus far we have not had a concerted effort. depending -- defense bends about 2.2% of it's budget on ai and that is nothing, particularly relative to the scale of scope that china has. we know china wants to dominate. we need to do better if we want to make sure our foremost adversary does not have that ability to bring us to our knees because they control critical tack. >> trace: you were saying i think we need to get radical changes in pentagon spending. when you say radical people go like what you talking about, what does radical mean in this sense? >> i think we are at a crossroads. we have a once in a generation opportunity. all the pieces are in play where we can make significant changes to the defense budget and start investing in the capabilities that we actually need to win the next war. >> trace: when you talk about start-ups, little tack, when you pitch ideas and you come up with ideas, are you looking for the admirals, the generals, are you looking for trump, who do need

to by into this so your vision becomes reality? >> a great question. we always say the people best to building the start-ups, when they are fantastic engineers, on the cutting edge of what needs to be built. but often times they come from great companies that have already scaled. they know the playbooks, they don't have to learn new terminology, they don't have to go to washington is no gets there first time talking to people. they already have the relationships and they underhand -- understand how to sell into government. they respect the war fighter. we have a number of companies founded by veterans who have served. they know what it's like to be on the ground floor, they know what it's like to be on the battlefield and they can take that knowledge and really work with engineers and build products that will ultimately -- >> trace: do you listen to younger military people and what they need, the people involved in it right now? >> absolutely, they have the best ideas, they are on the ground understanding what they need. the best companies will always be talking daily, understanding

what can help. >> trace: you know more about the military than i do but i think the confidence is growing. do you have a great deal of trust and confidence in the military? right now 51% say yes. just last year the number was at 46%. it's a jump. in one year it's a significant jump. i'm wondering what you think is attributed to that. >> also there was an increase, a near double in propensity to serve. primarily driven by republicans, due largely to the change in administration. by and large the military has been the one institution that has retained the trust of the american people even at a time of historic distrust in institutions. it's not saying that that's permanent. every generation has to renew that trust. he gets back to our ability to field systems and capabilities that deter a war or if necessary, win that war. i was part of the generation that signed up to serve, to fight in wars in iraq and

afghanistan. the conclusions were inconclusive at best so we want to give our war fighters the absolute best advantage they have on the battlefield. >> trace: about ten seconds for each of you. when you see this number in one year, is it the fighting in israel, is it ukraine? what is boosting the confidence in our military? >> i think the world has changed a lot over the last 12 months and the american people recognize that a strong military is critical to our national security. >> i think we've become more patriotic. young people want to serve their country, whether engineers, in the military, but more and more people don't remember september 11th. they are saying i want to serve my country. >> trace: it means there's a need for companies like you are involved with right now. >> we need the ecosystem. we partnered with the business today to help the small, medium and large companies to work together to give us a dominant capability. >> trace: thank you all,

appreciate your time. the u.s. space forced is the first new branch of the armed services since 1947 and now our military is faster, better connected, more precise and more lethal because of it's ability to harness space effectively. we are coming right back from the reagan national defense forum and the reagan library, next. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> trace: there you have ronald reagan's air force one. back live at the reagan national defense forum in simi valley of the reagan library. the theme of this year's meeting, peace through strength during a time of transition. so trump's return to the white house obviously top of mind for leaders gathering here this weekend. there's also a big emphasis on national interest beyond our planet. let's bring in the director of the space development agency, doctor tran17. doctor, thank you for coming on. we appreciate this -- doctor tran17 when you talk about rapid defense acquisition, what are you saying, that we need to build our space abilities or our overall abilities? >> primarily our overall abilities which are tied to our space abilities. when i say rapid acquisition, i'm talking about fielding hundreds of satellites to be

able to provide war fighter capabilities and do that every other year. hundreds of satellites every other year. >> trace: the reagan survey asked the following question and i found it instructive. in the next five years do you think china will extend it's advantage or will the u.s. close the gap? the numbers there, china will extend it's advantage, 41% of those who were polled. the u.s. will close the gap, 44%. it's almost neck-and-neck. it shows you that a lot of americans are not quite sure where this is going. they know that china seems to be getting stronger, they know that america seems to be getting stronger. what would you tell them? >> i say that tells me that 44% of americans are certainly aware of what space development agency is doing. we need to make sure the rest are as well, to know that space to filament agency and the spaceports in general is going to be fielding hundreds of satellites over the next few years that are able to provide space superiority which gives us tactical superiority for the war fighter so we will not only catch up and exceed just in the

next year. >> trace: when people talk about space and about the military, people think about the uss enterprise, talking about captain kirk. not what your goal is. not yet. what are we looking for? you said you are going to launch 167 satellites in the next year. >> that's right. when you think of the spaceports, don't think of captain kirk, think about how you get from point a to point b using global positioning, gps, that's how we do timing, that's how we make sure our financial systems are tied together. that's the u.s. spaceports. in addition, how do we make sure the u.s. military projects power and can be able to move and conduct a fight overseas? it's all enabled by the u.s. spaceports. that's what we do. our satellites provide low latency tactical communication to the war fighter and they provide critical information about how missiles are flying so they can provide that data directly to the fighter. >> trace: how do you publicize that, doctor? how do you make it so everybody knows about the space force, is

based of element agency? >> this based of element agency, on most we do we publicize, we put it out. you can see our milestones and our plans to be able to do this. we talk about it now, make sure that everyone is aware that we are going to field these capabilities, the adversary should be aware of it, american people should be aware of it, this is how we are going to win and fight wars in the future. >> trace: about ten seconds left but what's your biggest concern? is it china? everybody on the panel tonight seems to think china is the biggest concern. >> china is the threat. my biggest concern is that all of our adversaries are moving extremely rapidly especially china and if we don't continue that pace, they will outpace us and we won't be able to catch up. >> trace: doctor derek tournear, thank you for your time, best of luck. thank you for watching america's library, the defense forum is here all weekend. fox news sunday on sunday g back. start to break away from uc with tremfya...

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