>> all right.

the killing of the united health care ceo went down a couple of days ago a block from where i sit right now and amazing they caught the shooter and now we're learning more about the shooter. and jack has more the former fbi supervisory agent. jack, the biggest development was the shooter in this case or the alleged shooter now has himself a pretty fancy and probably an expensive lawyer out of new york, and indications he will be back in new york a lot sooner than he wanted to be. what do you make of all of this? >> yeah, i mean, holding up extradition at this point, it's a formality, it's paper work. he's going to be extradited back to new york and his attorney, she's very good. i know her, i know her husband, i worked with her husband when he was a federal prosecutor when i was in the fbi. and you know, he has very

confident competent counsel in back of him. he should be back by next week. neil: one thing we learned neither he nor his mom had any association with united health care, it wasn't their insurance company, their health care company, so there's no known connection between the two. of course, united health care is the largest such insurance in the united states and it might be just an easy target because of sheer size, but what did you make of those developments? >> we do, we're looking at the history of this guy now and not finding any history with united health care with him whatsoever. it looks like, you know, this guy comes from a very upper middle class background. neil: right. >> he's very well-educated and for all indications leading up to this, he lived a normal upper middle class life and something snapped, something happened in his life to trigger this. we've now seen, you know, we

have the manifesto, as the uni-bomber in his possession that was found with him when he was arrested and you know, he has a strange affinity for this kind of stuff and you know, the more we talk to him, if he's willing to talk, i'm not guaranteeing that will ever happen, we'll see what he has to say, but also, too, we're looking to social media, all right? we are going to see one of his last posts were, obviously the mother reported him missing and hadn't spoken to him in about six months. neil: right. >> a lot of strange indications over the last six to eight months seemed to have happened. neil: you know, you talk about affinity. a lot of people have affinity for him and a rock star in a certain community, looks and the people who have been flashing images on social media, one big ceo down, many more to go and i wondered, occurred the same week that the ceo of the parent company of united health care, the parent company of that is united

health and andrew witty who had security himself even though it turns out that his ceo there at united health care did not, he said that the health care system is flawed and let's try to fix it in a new york times letter he wrote. so, what is he reacting to? >> well, i think it's apparent to all of us, i mean, i've had multiple surgeries myself. i've had that back pain. i've had procedures, i've had, you know, shoulder surgeries and so on, so forth. i understand it. the health system is totally flawed and there are a lot of people that are frustrated with it. neil: right. >> does that give you the right to go out and take another human being's life? the answer to that is obviously no. but people are frustrating and frustrations boil to the top. you're right, there's no reason for this guy to be his target. he didn't know him. had no affiliation with them whatsoever or this individual, but he found a target and this is when he took it out and he took it out on mr. thompson.

neil: i'm just wondering, a lot of the insurance companies taking down the web pages and the top executives out of abundance in caution, and we've seen where ceo's and banks were targeted, outside of the country and same with the tobacco companies, what they knew and when they knew it. do you think this could be a new wave of that thing? >> absolutely. and ironic, mr. thompson had security once upon a time. why that discontinued, i do not know. i have, many, many associates that currently do this, colleagues, at the minimum they have a driver who is issuely armed, a retired police officer, agent, or law enforcement officer. the fact that he didn't have security kind of surprised me he's just walking new york city by himself with no protection

whatsoever, you know, mr. witty, i'm sure, does have, you know, quite a bit of protection around him, along with many, many other ceo's of many, you know, significant companies like united health. so, yeah, you're going to see a change for sure. i'm already getting phone calls at my company now. neil: i'll bet. >> of executive protection, executive protection, can you be a driver? you know, can i have one of your guys, you know, being armed and driving me to and from new york city, you know, in northern new jersey where i reside, many people in this community commute to new york every day and they live in and around this area, so, there's going to be a definite need. neil: yeah, i'm not at all surprised sadly by that. and thank you very much. great seeing you again. i want to go to mercedes, a great criminal attorney and you probably heard the news that luigi mangione now has a lawyer, karen freedman and by the time i hope i'm pronouncing

that correctly and jack had gotten into as well, he retained her so this wasn't a public defender and i'm just wondering what you make of that and who is picking up the tab for that. i don't want to be so, you know, casual or callus about that, but he does come from a wealthy family. they hadn't been talking and had been disconnected and seemed to indicate they're talking or connected now. >> oh, absolutely right, neil. always wonderful to start my day with you. you're exactly right, this is a very high profile criminal defense attorney, very well-known in these circles, she has a very successful podcast, she's a who's who to select in the throes of a crisis of this magnitude and that means she's very costly. i know what criminal defense attorneys charge in this sphere, something that those who have the means are able to do so. if you don't have the means then frankly there are great lawyers in the legal defense, but they will not be of the magnitude of karen freedman.

so, to your point, there's probably some level of communication between luigi mangione and his family. we know that he comes from very enormous wealth. they own, what i hear that they own country clubs, they own property, they have been very well-known in those circles and maybe they weren't in communication at least that's what's been reported, the family hadn't known of his whereabouts for months, but in this thick of a crisis, i'm sure that luigi mangione has connected with his family at some point, if not, maybe reached out to him to come forward and help him. otherwise it would be the legal aid, some sort of legal defense fund would step forward. neil: you know, he had hoped maybe to push back getting extradited to new york, even alvin bragg is saying that's very unlikely and that he could be back in new york -- bragg isn't saying that -- the reports as early as tuesday next week. is that likely?

>> neil, it was such a head scratcher. we all know that these extradition hearings, especially talking about intrastate are just a formality and when you talk about the magnitude of the evidence that was on luigi's person, the manifesto, the ghost gun, the fake i.d., that's what would have been presented in an extradition hearing to establish probable cause to have him go from pennsylvania to new york city. so all of us in the defense part, what are his lawyers saying, maybe it's puffery, pounding the chest, they didn't have probable cause. they did have probable cause, he was identified at a person from mcdonald and the pictures, and shown flirting at the hostel, flirting with the clerk, full face. and you had reasonable suspicion he was that person.

the local authority came and the local police officer asked you, have you been in new york recently and he start today get nervous acting suspicious and they then have the reasonable suspicion to go in and start questioning him, open up what he has because he may be a danger and all of that was in his backpack. so, the fact that his defense attorney was turning around and saying, oh, we're going to fight this. what are you doing? what are you talking about? and frankly, you'll just delay the process because it would have been about 30 days for the extradition to take place, but no one in the defense would look at this and say he's not going to get extradited. of course he is, especially with the evidence established here and by the way, he's presumed innocent. the extradition has nothing to do with whether or not he actually committed the crime, it's believe it or not there's probable cause to believe he was the shooter on that day. much lower circumstance, much lower standard of proof and given what we know and what he had on his person, he would have been extradited.

it was just was a delay tactic, not worth it at all. >> quickly, and i asked the other guest, this united health care connection that wasn't a connection, neither his mom nor he had been united health care customer or either an insurance company, whatever, none of that. so why was this guy gunned down? >> it reads like a crime fiction novel, neil, because there's really no -- this luigi mangione from all intents and purposes if you actually committed this crime, and presumed innocent, amid allegations, where is the beef here? he wasn't denied-- he wasn't insured under united health care, somehow he got it in his mind, hey, let's target united health care, it's the biggest insurer, one of the biggest insurers in the country and health care insurers, why not do that and why not just target the ceo. what's a little frightening the ground swell of support that surrounds him and although it's still just allegations, but

talking about how hot he is and good for you, putting up posters with other ceo's. what are you doing? what are we doing here? look, if -- there are changes that obviously need to be made, but that's not for individuals, executive leadership within u.s. health care to be gunned down in cold blood. so, we'll have to see what happens, but that ground swell of support is another head scratcher. neil: you're amazing. and no matter what i try, mercedes thank you. i hope you have a merry christmas, my friend. >> you are, thank you, merry christmas. neil: criminal defense attorney extraordinare. in the meantime, a lot of open questions about these drones, the disproportionate numbers in new jersey. i'm a new jersey resident and love new jersey and what new jersey brought to us, bruce springsteen comes to mind, but the drone stuff, that's getting a little crazy. why was the garden state targeted first and why are at least five or six other states joining new jersey? we drone on about drones after this. stretch your budget.

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>> these drones have been seen every night beginning november 18th with the exception of thanksgiving and so. neil: wow. >> i don't believe the chinese intelligence service gives their people thanksgiving off, but i know that americans do get thanksgiving off. i would just tell the people of new jersey, connecticut, pennsylvania, new york, that this seems to be something that the united states government is a part of. it's being held as a very top secret, very classified for whatever reason and when the experiment is over, the testing is over, whatever they're testing, for whatever reason they'll simply go away. the government will offer no explanation and everyone will forget about it. neil: all right. well, that's the hope anyway and that guest is referring to the fact there were no drones flying around on thanksgiving day. a number of you reached us via e-mail. and some very nice e-mails,

nice tie, and everything, but others saying this guy is nuts, there have been drones on thanksgiving. and it's a jump ball, you're open to say that, i can't say one way or the other. joining us is a new jersey state senator watching closely. he's not getting answers and he's not happy about that. senator, do you know offhand whether there were drones sighted in new jersey or elsewhere on thanksgiving day? >> well, does it really matter? the other night, i saw three of them. i saw one hovering couldn't have been more than 1200 feet almost directly above me. so they are there. don't believe when the government doesn't tell you don't believe what you see. neil: what worries about me the government wants to calm me down. i was calm before they were constantly calming me down. there's nothing to worry about. okay, so i'm worried now. should i be? >> well, i think we're curious, and if you continue after one

month of telling people that there's nothing to worry about, they're safe, but we have no idea what they are, then people start to worry. and this is no different than when the chinese balloon flew over the united states for six days and we can't shoot it down, and this is, they are over water. and we hope for the current administration to get things done and share with the american public. neil: if there are dozens of them, in one case, senator, we've learned of a community that 60 of these have crossed during the night hours. you shoot one down and it's open season on these things and hunters want to try to knock them out of the air. it could get dangerous, right? >> right, nobody is saying that. as a matter of fact i would discourage people from doing that, but the united states has the capability. don't forget we spent $800

billion a year on defense and the other ancillary money, foreign aid to ukraine, and i think for $1 trillion we should get answers what are they and who is sending them over. neil: so we know they're bigger than your normal drones and i think we have a comparisons to show that the 20-inch variety that most people are familiar with, buy for their kids, versus something that others have likened to the size of an suv. the ones you have seen and your constituents have seen of that magnitude. we're getting reports, senator, i'm sure you're aware, some people have been mistaking these for actual aircraft. what's the latest on it? >> i can promise you, what i saw was not an actual aircraft, it hovered above me. it's hard to judge the size of it, at least 12 to 1500 feet above me. it was hovering. it wasn't an airplane, it had the capability to hover and

stay where it was, neil. neil: senator, you have the pentagon saying, ruling out a lot of things, saying it's not operated by the military. it's not coming from a foreign country, or adversary, but by the same token, not saying then what it might be very quick to say what it can't be. what did you make of that? >> first, i think the american public has the right to hypothesize. after one month we haven't gotten any answers, and could it be an iranian drone from a mothership? maybe. there are so many, complex, electronics and things behind it is so intricate that it's got to be government related, whether it's our government or another government, honestly, i just don't know, but the american public deserves an answer to that. neil: you know what i was impressed by, senator, you said i just don't know. i don't hear public officials of any sort saying i just don't know. i'm going to try to find out, for now i just don't know. senator, thank you. >> you should have come to the

briefing we had with the state police. really great group of guys, and at the end after an hour and a half, you can sum it up in those words, i just don't know. why bother having a briefing. neil: well put. senator, thank you so much. the new jersey state senator. we'll continue to follow this for you and also continuing to follow the big army-navy game today. it's even bigger because the president-elect will be there, and in with him are a couple of his cabinet choices, pete hegseth and the senator who will play a key role in deciding their fates after this.

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>> all right. the big army-navy game today.

it's traditional and a big deal. and they're doing really, really well. the added drama of the next president of the united states going to the game and bringing people with him, cabinet picks as well as some others so it's going to be a big day. madison scarpino has more. madison. >> hey, good morning, neil. yeah, iconic game in the college football world and people are already loading into the stadium behind me. you mentioned it, there's going to be some big political names here today, including president-elect donald trump who went to save army-navy games during his first term. he'll be with j.d. vance and expe expecting defense secretary nominee pete hegseth and former navy lawyer,s tell that he was or considered replacing hegseth with desant after

sexual misconduct and drinking allegations against hegseth all of which he denies. other expected guests, dni and vet tulsi gabbard. house speaker mike johnson whose son actually attendance the naval academy and marine vet daniel penny just acquitted in the new york city subway chokehold death of george neely. it's a question whether president biden will be here. and both army and navy, they said they had great football teams this year and we spent the day speaking with leaders of the sponsor, and leaders of the academies and cadets. >> army-navy is one of the best in the year, but everything we do on a day-to-day basis is our opportunity to excel and at the end of the day we get to be

leaders. >> at the end of the day we're on the same team. after we win the game we're able to shake hands and move forward. >> and the 125th match-up between the black knights and the midshipmen. the black knights have won most of the games the past few years, but we'll see what happens today. >> madison enjoy that, and following that we've got shelly here and crucial things happening from west virginia, the republican senator there. and she's had a chance to meet a good many of the candidates for donald trump's cabinet. senator, very good to see you and merry christmas to you. >> thank you. neil: i did want to get your sense who you mike and maybe if there's anyone you don't like? >> well, i think i have met several, certainly pete hegseth, i just saw sean duffy before i left town, brook rollins, i could go through the list. you know, i think all of them are well-prepared for leading

the prospective agencies that they have. you know, tough questioning for some that i saw kash patel asked about some of the public statements that he's made, and where he would like to take the fbi. certainly in my space where i do a lot of work, lee zelden will be a great epa administrator and i think he will affirmed once we begin the process and the committee. and i'm one that believes the president should have his team, but the senate should have the advise and consent duties what i'm fulfilling. we're learning more about a lot of these that i didn't know and we'll see as they move through committee and after the fbi checks are completed, see how these roll out. neil: senator, you're better at the math than i am when it comes to confirming someone from any cabinet post. can't lose any more than four republicans. >> right. neil: assuming all the

democrats vote against them. is it your sense that pete hegseth will not lose any more than four republicans? >> well, i think really what's going to be critical there is the testimony that he has in front of the committee and i think that will determine if he gets out of committee. i think if he gets out of committee, which i expect him to, i don't think he'll lose any more than four unless something arises in the background check that hasn't previously been disclosed. so, he's worked hard, talking to a lot of people and he has the same vision for the dod that president trump has, a strong, war fighting position, strength, you know, let's get rid of the other things that have been diverting, dei and other things diverting our military and move forward with building a force that's going to be lethal because that's what we're going to need and that's where his area of emphasis is. he served for 20 years. neil: we hear the rampant reports some of your colleagues are under enormous pressure from big supporters of donald

trump not coming exactly from donald trump that they might be primaried if they don't vote for these choices. what do you make of that? >> here is what i would say to that, there's 53 republicans, all of us got there by the strength of our own character, our campaigns, and our ability to make decisions regardless of where the pressure points may be. and so, i think if the pressure campaigns and i've actually seen some of this, obviously, in the public domain, are-- might even strengthen your resolve to go the other way. we're independent people, we're able to make our own decision, at the core of this, we believe that president trump needs to have his own team. let us move forward with our responsibility at the senate and i think the results will be good and the president will hit the ground running after january 20th. neil: but do you think, not you particularly, senator, if you vote against, let's say one of the candidates, one of more controversial ones that it's going to come back to bite you that you might be primaried?

some of the colleagues are saying, my gosh, i'm going by my gut and all of a sudden primaried if i don't support this person. >> honestly, we won an election where the republicans took the house, the senate and the president, overwhelmingly. why in the world are we shooting at each other and trying to divide other and threaten primaries. it's a useless exercise, what we should be doing formulate how we're going to get tax reform, close the border, economic decisions, the things that people voted on. i hope this all dissipates as we turn the corner into the new year and you know, threats of primary, you get that threat every time you're up for election. so, to us, those of us who run all the time, it's just kind of in the course of doing our business. neil: all right. part of that business is extending the president's tax cuts, they expire the end of the year, we have a ways to go and into next year, i should say, senator. what is your sense of the timing of that. border first and obviously you guys can walk, talk, chew gum

at the same time i get that. the priority seems to be the border first, can you enlighten us? >> i believe and our leader who is coming in, john thune has put forward a plan we might have a two-step process here. we have border, we have defense, and we have other things that we could do quickly that we know will move much quicker. tax reform is much more complicated and doesn't expire until the end of '26, some of the tax relief that we passed in 2017. and the theory here is to get a win on the board, to show the american people, border is number one, energy is important and our defense is important and couple those, have that paid for and move forward as a team, and then begin to get into the pushes and pulls of tax reform. i like that plan, but i realize it's still up in the air and i realize that the speaker of the house has unique challenges there with a narrow margin, but

they're working together. i think what you'll see is once the president weighs in and finally he wants a win quickly and i think particularly on the border and i think that's the best way to get it. neil: got it. we'll watch closely. senator, thank you. >> thank you, have a good saturday. neil: senator capito. and syria, it's fallen and seeing israel as an enemies and don't normalize ties with it. that brings us to trey yingst and how it's going down. >> neil, good afternoon. we could hear the israeli jets overhead and we visited one of the sites that israel struck outside of damascus. we'll have more after the break.

>> these attacks that israel has been waging on syria. it says it's virtually destroyed syria's navy. is that so? >> i will let the israelis speak for their operations and the results of those operations. they, of course, have a right to defend themselves and they certainly, we recognize that they want to properly assess the threat coming from syria over that golan heights or near the golan heights. again, we recognize their right to self-defense and we are going to continue to support them as they defend themselves. in terms of what they've actually done and efficacy of it, i'll leave that for them to speak to. neil: well, the assad regime is

out, the old line the devil we knew is gone. is the devil to come really the apropos expression here? we don't know much about the rebel groups that have taken over. trey yingst has been following it closely joining us out of damascus. >> hey, neil, we could hear israeli fighter jets overhead today. the israelis are targeting equipment and facilities left behind by the assad regime. we visited one of those facilities, here is what we found. we just arrived at one of the locations that the israelis struck this week on the outskirts of the syrian capital of damascus. this appears to be a research and production facility. when you look at some of the documents that are here in english, you can see drones and other information about rockets that the syrians were researching to produce. there's a diagram of a drone and if you look at just some of

the words on this, it says, rocket booster, right there, and then it goes through the different types of launchers for rockets, engine tests, here is a list of material that you need to build these drones and those rockets, and another diagram of a drone. this is an indication that the israelis had intelligence about what exactly they were hitting here in syria. they don't want this information and these production facilities to fall into the hands of hds. >> at this site we found order forms from components from iran to be shipped to syria to build drones and rockets. interestingly though we've been speaking with hts fighters in control of the country and they expressed no interest in war with israel and even the hardest fighters say they're focused on syria.

neil: thank you, trey yingst, stay safe. and retired general spaulding with us. we talked a lot about and we did when syria was ruled by assad and a new government has taken over, it's not going to be a devil that we don't know, it's not a devil at all. we knew the one there and i'm old enough to remember and so are you, after the sha of iran left, the atolla khomeini ordered structure and it was anything but. what do you see happening right now? >> i don't believe that you are going to see some great civilization arise out of syria. i think the bigger lesson to learn here is the incredible weakening of iran just since the election, our election in early november, and you just see iran starting to contract in terms of its ability. you know, some of this has to do with what the idf has done,

but a lot of it has to do just with the changing nature of the overall globe since the election. neil: so general, the issue becomes what now? right? we already have hezbollah's chief on the wires saying that we hope the new rulers of syria will see israel as an enemy and not normalize ties with it. everyone is trying to get their pr points in. where do you see this going? >> i think what you'll see is a strong support of israel and more importantly, we're going to see a lot of our adversaries start to rock back on their heels. you're already starting to see russia clear out of syria. neil: yeah. >> you're seeing the withering of iran and i think you're going to start to see china begin to do some retracting of some of the things they've done and what this does, it gives us an ability to start focusing here on the homeland, digital structure. you know, the fact that we have drones flying around that people are worried about, i'm not as concerned about that, but i am concerned about the ability to, you know, in the

future detect and track those types of things. building on our energy supply and manufacturing, reshoring manufacturing here in the united states, protecting the homeland. i think that's going to be the name of the game for the next four years and i think it's a very positive development, what's happening in the middle east. neil: you know, general, if i talk about the next four to five weeks. donald trump has already warned hamas, you better release all of these hostages, or there's going to be hell to pay. let's say they don't do that. then what? >> well, first of all, i think the idf has clearly established their supremacy in the region and they've dealt with hamas, they've dealt with hezbollah to the extent that they need more support. you're going to see weapons coming in to support them and you know, capabilities, if they need it, but my sense is, you know, where the idf is now with what they've done and given the fact that the biden administration has really kind

of short changed them with regard to resources and material, i think that's going to change and i think, again, that's going to give us more time to focus on domestic issues, which i think are, from a national security perspective, are much more serious right now. neil: you know, if i can switch to ukraine, but there is a method to my madness, if you think that vladimir putin lost support in syria that he had and he's really down to crimea right now and the importance of at for him in europe, would it push him to resolve this long war in ukraine with donald trump or do just the opposite? what do you think? >> well, i think it will and more importantly, i think president now can turn to china and say, look, you keep supporting the russians and we're going to basically turn your ships around at our ports, and so, i think given the fact that the president has stated that he wants to end that war and you know, quite frankly, neil, what i've been saying from the very beginning is we don't need to seek a victory

for ukraine. what we need to seek is a cease-fire. i think the russians and putin are going to be more than ecstatic to figure out how we get to a cessation of hostilities, maybe not peace, but as you know, we're still at war on the korean peninsula, but we're not fighting, that's the key piece. neil: all right, general, thank you very much. we'll take a quick break. i want to alert you to something that happened at the white house a short time ago from our fox folks, an individual approached the fencing pleased ahead of the inauguration getting ready for the big inauguration, the individual attendant today climb, however, before being able to put a foot up and scale, she was detained by police and remains in custody. the situation is under investigation. we'll have more after this. to me, harlem is home. but home is also your body. i asked myself, why doesn't pilates exist in harlem? so i started my own studio. getting a brick and mortar in new york is not easy.

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>> very crowded outside the americas, fox news headquarters. i get in very early for the show, all of my shows i try to get in early and i was greeted by very, very friendly fans, hi, sean, hi, sean. and steve does more than talk about the weather, he talks about people trying to recover from the weather when it gets really, really nasty and good things going on right now in north carolina. hey, steve. >> hey, neil, it's good to talk with you. as you mentioned we talked about the weather, but how does it impacevybody when there's a violent storm like helene. we're in a toy drive bringing the holiday spirit and it's an amazing organization and we'll talk with them, tunnel to towers. this is clothing, this is beyond toys. kid are excited about that, but so many need the warm clothing. you saw the clothing racks,

these jackets, which is what so crucial. i woke up this morning we were at 26 degrees, that's the theme is temperatures dropping overnight and it's going to be cold and a lot of items that families are in need of after losing everything with hurricane helene, we have jackets, of course, gloves, some beanies, so many of the winter clothing items and families here that are gathering some toys, this started earlier in the day and still constant streams of people that are coming in. so, let's talk more about this event, and why it's so important since everybody is trying to recover and it's been a really difficult time, i want to bring in two special team that have really brought this altogether. this is sandy and tommy and i know we've got to position you guys around the other way. >> sorry. >> no, you're good. you're with tunnel 2 towers and can you talk about what this year's event was like? >> this event has been enormously successful, right now over $90,000 worth of toys

down here and distribution has been a smashing success. and we're still going to approach big numbers for children getting toys from us. >> it's amazing, we've been on the ground and neil, seeing the kids light up and smile, five boroughs represented and sandy, this is your community and you kind of put this together. what's it like to hold this toy drive. >> i don't know that i put it together and a lot of people helped me and without the help of the new york city folks we wouldn't be able to put it together at all. it been incredible to see the kid come in here and tear up to see how happy they are. it's a tough year for them. a little bit of hope has been fantastic. >> it great to see that excitement again and as sandy mentioned, a lot of volunteers and quickly we'll show you the volunteers are fed because another organization that has a bunch of food so, neil, a lot of excitement here and finally the holiday season returning back to western north carolina. neil: all right. good job, my friend. thank you very much, doing a lot of good besides informing people and showing at that big heart to help them out.

talking about drone activity and all of this, new york governor kathy hochul says last night runways at stuart airport were shut down for a while, approximately an hour because of drones in the air space. she says it's gone too far and the sporadic incidents are popping up. after this.

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and steve is here to put it in perspective. that will be a crowded booth, i guess, steven, but this is a chance for the president-elect to do what? >> well, i mean, if you look at the guest list, i guess it's a chance for him to look at two possible defense secretaries, right? we know that pete hegseth is still chugging along in his process on capitol hill. the last two weeks we've seen a lot of him and i would say his meeting schedule has been pretty aggressive in terms of trying to meet with a lot of republican senators and even desantis, governor ron desantis will be there as well and we know that, you know, he's sort of waiting in the wings if this hegseth thing goes south and he can't get the votes. so, it's an interesting mix of folks who are going to be around trump this weekend. neil: how do you look the hegseth thing? i had a sense the beginning of the week it was looking dicey and by the end of the week you

cover this much more than i do, maybe things have stabilized somewhat. what's your sense? >> i think it has stabilized a bit. we know that the president-elect wanted to see hegseth and all of his nominees sort of fight for the votes. he wasn't going to pick up the phone proactively and help these folks out. you know he likes to see people work for the positions and that's what hegseth has done over the last two weeks, i think the longer that he stays in this, the better his odds are, the more he sticks it out. he's meeting with folks who are on the fence like joni ernst and those meetings seem to have been going well, at least what they're saying publicly. i think if you look where things were at for hegseth last week, versus the end of this week, i would say they look better. neil: there have been apparently reports of pressure on senators to vote for these controversial candidates or else. that they might be primaried. any truth to that?

do you know of this campaign? senator capito of west virginia said senators are beyond feeling pressured by that sort of thing. what do you think? >> yeah, there's certainly pressure. i think there's always pressure in a lot of these situations. i think hegseth himself is navigating this well, coming out and sort of saying that he doesn't think that these senators should be primary'd, i think that was an idea an ally of president trump sort of put out into the ether. so, you know, i think that there's definitely pressure. there was always going to be pressure, but we'll see where they fall at the end of the day. neil: steven, thank you very much. and following that, the big game of course three hours from now. a lot of news could be made at that game that we might find out during that game. fox news continues. that will do it for us. have a great weekend. lowe's knows the best holiday tradition is taking your tradition to the next level. so, if you find a lower price on the things you - want. - need. we'll match it. plus, with mylowe's rewards, you can earn points when you shop.

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>> new reported sightings of drones now in several states across the country, including a