means and. >> judge jeanine: now it's time for -- if you don't think your hips are big enough, this season's dior designs are for you. check out these models in structured petty coats decorative screen lynn and many other unique styles. i can see you wearing the gold dress right there. what do you think? >> greg: it's so 80's. although i do lo a good petticoat. deign pett petticoat junction. >> do you want to save yours for another day? >> i will tell you tomorrow. oh, that's a good tease because we will all be here tomorrow. have a great night. >> bret: i will be on pins and needles waiting for jessica's. >> jessica: you are going to love it, bret. good evening, welcome to washington. i'm bret baier, fierce and emotional exchange in the senate

confirmation hearing for robert f. kennedy jr. an historic prison sentence for former new jersey democratic senator bob menendez. we'll take you there. and we'll also take on a deportation flight from texas to ecuador. ♪ but, breaking tonight, president trump is taking new action on his immigration agenda. he signed a powerful new law regarding illegal immigrants, a bipartisan law. and that law commits any immigrants who commit crimes in this country, and he has decided where he will put some of the thousands of immigrants being kicked out of the u.s. who could not be sent to their home countries. the white house is also trying to clear up confusion about the president's freeze on federal funding of some programs. senior white house correspondent jacqui heinrich starts us off live tonight from the north lawn. good evening, jacqui. >> good evening, bret. the president made immigration and curbing illegal immigration the focus of his campaign. now the first bill that he signed into law term named after

the 22-year-old slain nursing student from georgia. >> he said he will secure our borders and that he would never forget about laken. and he hasn't. he is a man of his word. >> jacqui: president trump signing first law of second term with the parents of 22-year-old slain nursing student laken riley coming on. the president declining to take questions during the emotional moment. >> i don't think this is appropriate really. >> after his administration rescinded a memo freezing federal funds impacted by executive orders on foreign aid, american energy, ending dei and immigration. it came after a federal judge temporarily blocked it from going into effect. the white house says the freeze will continue. but the injunction blocks communications between agency heads and ompleght mb and, quote: this action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the president's orders on controlling federal spending. >> we stopped an attempt to make illicit payment for illegal

alien resettlement. we canceled $181 million in dei training contracts. >> but the legal battle may continue. that means they are still blocking investments congress passed into law to help our communities. investments in new clean energy jobs and a lot of other projects funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, which trump is stopping with his illegal executive orders. >> the president keeping the focus on the laken riley act, which now mandates detention for illegal aliens accused of crimes, including theft. riley's killer was released after being arrested in new york. >> this is something that has brought democrats and republicans together. that's not easy to do. laken did it. laken did it. >> the president today also moving to create a migrant facility at guantanamo that will k. hold 30,000. this is not the camps. you are not putting criminals in camps where isis and other criminals -- this is a temporary transit to humanely move illegals out of our country. >> the president's memo says the

space at guantanamo u.s. naval base should go to high priority criminal aliens. dhs secretary kristi noem described it as a sight for the worst of the worst the cuban president criticized this decision calling it an act of brutality territory, bret? >> bret: the defendant funding freeze pointing to something the president mentioned in the briefing room yesterday that the administration had blocked $50 million in condoms for gaza, that's a lot of condoms, what is the specific details here? >> jacqui: yeah. so the state department said actually two buckets of $50 million that would have gone to gaza through the international medical corps. it included contraceptives as well as material for family planning and preventing disease transmission. that state department official says condoms have traditionally been used for family planning in developing countries by usaid the president also said today hamas had been using condoms to make bombs.

back in 2020 israeli reporters sounded the alarm on this issue after hamas began using condoms, balloons, and also kites with burning rags attached as incendiary devices, bret. >> bret: okay, jacqui, life on the north lawn, thanks. >> jacqui: thanks. >> bret: president trump's pick to run the department of health and human services, weathering a storm of criticism from democrats during his senate confirmation hearing today. former presidential candidate robert f. kennedy jr. who ran first for the democratic nomination, then as an independent was attacked for his positions or perceived presipositionson vaccinations ad supply conspiracy theories. republicans tried their best to defend them and ask some tough questions themselves. we have fox team coverage tonight. chad pergram on the hill looks big week for several of the president's nominee, alexandria hoff reports from capitol hill

on today's contentious hearing. good evening, alex. >> good evening, bret. yeah. this was the first of two scheduled hearings this week. and kennedy testified before the senate finance committee here today. a tone was set right off the top. >> news reports have claimed that i'm anti-vaccine or anti-industry. i am neither. [shouting] >> i am. [gavel] have order. >> this is a job where it is life and death, frankly. you frighten people. >> self-proclaimed disrupter robert f. kennedy jr. was repeatedly disrupted by protesters and admonished by democrats in the most tense confirmation hearing yet. >> are you supportive of these onesies. >> i'm supportive of vaccines. >> president trump's pick for health and human services secretary insisted that despite past statements of skepticism, he is not anti-vaccine.

>> the only thing i want is good science and that's it. >> if confirmed the former independent white house contender would oversee a trillion dollars budget 90,000 employees and agencies including the fda, cdc and nih. kennedy hesitate his make america healthy again prioritize nutrition and shift federal research away from infectious disease towards chronic illness. >> first thing i have done in the morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and pray to god that he would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic. >> today's testimony was used by democrats to point out kennedy's past support for abortion an issue could give pause to several republicans. >> when did you decide to sell out your life's work and values to get this position? >> senator, i agree with president trump that every abortion is a tragedy. >> the three and a half hour hearing concluded with cheers from kennedy supporters and a senate divide. >> i understand there are

concerns about vaccines, i think bobby put those concerns to bed. >> basically served up a big plate of word salad. >> so far there have not been any republicans come out publicly and said they plan to vote against kennedy. >> tomorrow's senate help committee final vote could take until mid next month, bret. >> bret: thank you. tomorrow may provide significant challenges to a pair of president trump's other top cabinet picks. tulsi gabbard, his selection for director of national intelligence, and fbi director nominee kash patel are up for confirmation hearings. senior congressional correspondent chad pergram has a preview tonight. good evening, chad. >> bret, good evening. democrats see tulsi gabbard and kash patel as radioactive. there is particular worry about patel. >> i think he's going to be eating a lot of his past garbage and back tracking very clearly

on his extremist statements that i think disqualify him. >> chad: fox is told at least six republicans have reservations about gabbard. bipartisan senators wonder if she is trustworthy. a senior g.o.p. source concedes confirmation may be tough. others will decide by watching the hearing. >> i have never met ms. gabbard. these confirmation hearings matter. senators will make sure that the nominee is not a meat head. >> vice president j.d. vance says if republicans reject gabbard that's a, quote, insult to new g.o.p. voters. and all democrats might oppose gabbard. kash patel and r.f.k. jr. some democrats supported six of the seven nominees confirmed by the senate so far. that includes lee zeldin to run the epa. democrats hope to stall the nomination of us are vogt as budget director due to the pause of grants and loans.

>> this is a man who time and again has refused to say he will follow the law. every lawmaker who doesn't want to see funds that they worked to secure for their state funds they know their families are counting on ripped away, must vote no. >> city committee green lighted pam bondi this morning. commerce secretary nominee howard lutnick had his hearing today and the senate broke a filibuster on the nomination of doug burgum to serve as secretary of the interior. bret? >> bret: cabinet is filling. chad pergram live on the hill, chad, thanks. security agents escorted the agriculture department inspector general from her office on monday after she refused to comply with her firing from the trump administration. phyllis fong had worked with the department for 22 years. she had intended to stay on after the white house terminated her friday. she said she believes the administration did not follow proper protocols. the federal reserve left its

benchmark interest rate unchanged today. it cut the rate -- it cut the rate three times in a row last year from 5.3% to 4.3. stocks didn't necessarily like that. they were down today. the dow lost 137, the s&p 500 fell 28. the nasdaq was off 101. >> breaking tonight, former democratic senator bob menendez sentenced to 11 years in prison. menendez convicted of accepting crimes and acting as an agent of a foreign government. correspondent bryan llenas is in new york with the latest. good evening, bryan. >> bret, good evening. the 11 year prison sentence handed down against former democratic new jersey senator bob menendez is the longest ever imposed against a senator in our nation's history. menendez must report to federal prison by june 6th. now, priewshts had recommended that menendez be given a 15-year prison sentence, noting that

menendez is the first senator convicted of acting as a foreign agent amid a slew of corruption charges. now, after court today, an angry menendez maintained his innocence amid reports he is now seeking clemency from president trump. >> president trump is right. this process is political and it it's corrupted to the core. i hope president trump cleans up the cesspool and installs the integrity to the system. >> in court today menendez cried as hing abouted usage for mercy. 8 years speaking in front of his family menendez said, quote: every day i'm awake is punishment and that in his 50 years of public service, he has done more good than bad. now, a jury last july convicted menendez of 16 federal charges, including bribery. menendez was found guilty of selling his influence to egypt's government and to three new jersey businessmen even attempting to interfere in two

criminal cases on their behalf. in exchange menendez received gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury convertible mercedes benz. the judge ordered he must forfeit all of it. menendez said the gold bars belonged to his wife nadine who faces similar charges in a trial that starts in march. judge sydney stein in court today told menendez that he was successful and powerful but, quote: somewhere along the way, i'm sorry to say, you became a corrupt politician. today, menendez's two co-conspirator, the two new jersey businessmen were sentenced to 7 and 8 years in prison. menendez says he is going to appeal this case. bret? >> bret: bryan llenas live in new york. thank you. up next, brit hume joins to us discuss the rescinded spending freeze memo and the fate of the president's nominee. first what fox affiliates are covering tonight. fox 32 in chicago a fight breaks thought a meeting in thorton

township. frequent critic of adviser and dolton mayor tiffany henyard fought with henyard's boyfriend. she joined the scuffle. monday lori lightfoot presented findings from an investigation into henyard's alleged misuse of funds. fox 31 in denver as the denver based frontier airlines makes a second bid to merge with spirit airlines. frontier tried merge with spirit in 2022 but was outbid by jetblue. the justice department blocked that deal. spirit filed for bankruptcy protection in november. this is a live look at salt lake city fox 13 our affiliate there one of the big stories sign disses from smithsonian institution say asteroid samples brought back by nasa hold salty remains of an ancient water world. nasa's spacecraft returned the samples to the utah get setter back in 2023. the findings may support a theory that asster recognize may have planted the seeds life.

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>> bret: an air force fighter pilot was taken to a hospital after ejecting from an f-35 jet just before it crashed at air force base in fairbanks, alaska. video shows the plane spiraling toward the ground and exploding on impact. the cause of the crash remains under investigation. president trump has signed an agreement calling for meta to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit over the suspension of his social media accounts. those accounts were taken off line following the january 6th, 2021 capitol riot. $22 million will go toward fund for the trump presidential library. the rest will cover legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case. the justice department has abandoned all criminal proceedings against the two co-defendants of president trump in the florida classified documents case. trump valet walt and mar-a-lago property manager carlos possession of classified documents. >> president took with him when he left the white house after

his first term. now those cases are dropped. president trump is appealing his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. the president's attorneys filing a notice of appeal today. they are asking the state mid level appeals court to overturn last may's conviction. he was sentenced earlier this month what is known as unconditional discharge. that left his conviction on the books. but spared him jail, probation, fine, or other punishment. >> today, we saw what happens when americans fight back against disastrous policies. americans made their voices heard. donald trump rescinded the omb order. now he should rescind the nomination of russell vought. >> bret: russell vought for omb. there you see the senate minority leader. karoline leavitt the white house press secretary issuing this

clarification today. this is not a rescission of the federal funding freeze. it is simply a rescission of the omb memo why to end any confusion by the court's injunction. the president's eo executive order on federal funding remain in full force and effect. and will be vigorously implemented. with that, let's bring in fox news chief political analyst brit hume. you know, you need a whiteboard at time here, bret, at the beginning as you followed this. basically to sum it up this freeze was designed to scrub any funding going out the door for dei or things that they specifically with executive orders targeted. it was not a blanket freeze, even though that's how many people took it and there was a lot of chaos at the beginning and for all of the politics, whenever they say republicans pounce, this was democrats pouncing on this chaos at the beginning. >> bret: it certainly was, brit. pretty clear that memo from omb

which is the sowr source of alls trouble was poorly drafted. read sweeping blocking of funds across the government social security, you know, other entitlement programs and all the rest of it. i don't think that was the intent. it was poorly draft and now will be redrafted and i don't think the order is as senator schumer was claiming has been rescinded. what's been rescinded is karoline leavitt the press secretary the memo itself which it was in need of work for sure. >> bret: you know, you look at the headlines, brit, obviously this is a big one because a lot of the media are following the confusion over this. and they were getting a lot of calls. trump white house reverses course rescinds freeze on federal grants. trump looks to re-purpose federal money to expand school choice programs. trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-palestinian protesters. he just signed an executive order to open up guantanamo bay for a holdover for illegal immigrants who are not getting

flown back to their countries. there's a lot that is happening and this is just day 8. >> brit: this is just a moment it's been absolute blizzard of statements, memos, orders, comments by the president himself. commence by his team i don't think i have ever seen anything quite this dizzying and his opponents were clearly caught off guard. and i think most of the things, bret, that he has done are sufficiently popular with the public broadly speaking that even when democrats recover their balance, they may have trouble -- it may be difficult for them to find ways to come at him about these things. they may have to wait for more fertile territory later on. >> bret: yeah. i think they thought they had it with this freezing but may not have politically. tomorrow, you have the

confirmation, another hearing, pam bondi, tulsi gabbard, kash patel, it's actually confirmation vote for pam bondi tomorrow. but the hearings for tulsi gabbard, kash patel and today obviously r.f.k. jr., brit. what's your take about how things are going across the board? >> brit: well, look, i don't think bobby kennedy did the -- made the kind of mistake you could make that would absolutely torpedo his nomination. i don't think he's out of the woods yet. but i don't think he did anything to hurt himself today. heat heathed though the hearing got. i'm sure plenty of people are going over tooth and nail the transcript of it or video of it to see if they can find something. i don't think he did himself real harm but i don't think he put himself out of trouble yet it. remains to be seen whether he can make it. he remains a pretty controversial figure. he has loyalty -- he should have loyalty on both sides. he certainly has loyalty among republicans these days and not so much among democrats. although might once have had

that since most of his life he has been a democrat and i guess he still is. it's a complicated situation. got through today. he got through it. >> bret: we will follow it all tomorrow. brit, thanks. up next, an exclusive look at president trump's effort to ramp up deportation flights for illegal migrants. also head to the touch screen to show you the numbers so far. pretty staggering. and later the panel on the confusion over the federal funding freeze. what that happens politically and more in-depth about the robert f. kennedy jr. confirmation hearing coming up. but we're different. (other money manager) how so? (fisher investments) we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client'' best interest. (fisher investments) so we don't sell any commission-based products. (other money manager) then how do you make money? (fisher investments) we have a simple management fee, structured so we do better when our clients do better. (other money manager) your clients really come first then, huh? fisher investments: yes. we make them a top priority, by getting to know their finances, family, health,

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>> sean: so thousand. the president is looking for that's ambitious goal. >> it's ambitious you need a leader sets goals and hold leaders to those goals. look at the number of illegal entries on january 19th the last day of the biden administration. i believe the number was north of 1300 illegal entries nine days later less than 60% and cut it further. >> see the entire vance interview 9:00 p.m. eastern time. president trump entered office last week and immediately declared a national emergency southern border. he ordered the expulitzer number of migrants dropped 60%. new data obtained by fox news digital shows more than 7,000 migrant encounters at the southern border in president trump's first seven days.

the daily average 1,041. that compares to about 20,000 encounters in the final seven days of the biden administration averaging more than 2800 encounters per day. border patrol recorded 582 illegal crossings at the southern border on sunday. our own bill melugin says he has never seen a number this low. in biden's final week, the crossings were in the range of 1200 to 1400 per day. now, in del rio section, very active section here in texas. there were just, see, 60 -- 6-0 encounters total illegal crossings. to put that in perspective. at the height of the border crisis in december of 2023, some days in the del rio sector saw more than 4,000 encounters a long this sector of the border. so it's a big, big shift. now, if we continue on the trump

administration under this administration ice is reporting about 1,000 arrests per day. we don't yet have the total return and removal data nobody as repatriates not apples to apples. 1.2 during the obama administration. more than 1700 per day. now, illegal immigrants are being sent back to several countries, about 201 to colombia. we saw the back and forth with colombia. at least 2,000 illegal immigrants have been deported to mexico. both on the ground and in the air. brazil accepted 88 on one flight. guatemala has taken back 224 on three flights. and ecuador has accepted and reoperation flight today dozens of illegal migrations on board

united states illegally? >> fox news got exclusive access to the latest repatriation flight from el paso to ecuador. dozens of illegal migrants loaded onto the c-17. >> not today. not tomorrow, not next week. do not come to the united states and enter illegally. >> border patrol tells us these illegal migrants were already in their custody. either crossing the border illegally or found in stash houses. expedited removal flights are not new. but now president trump is using military planes to ramp up efforts. >> this is the second largest plane the air force has. 08 migrants. border patrol says the message is if you come into the united states illegally you will be sent back to your home country. >> once you are found amenable to removal under title 8. we can have you back in your home country within seven hours. >> separately, ice has been busy clearing criminal illegal

migrants off the streets in major cities like boston, chicago, new york city, and denver, where they arrested a suspected tren de aragua gang member overnight. ice says they arrested more than 1,000 migrants on tuesday alone. chicago mayor brandon johnson calling it a scare tactic. >> there's a real goal here to stoke fear into the american people. >> dhs secretary kristi noem who joined ice raids in new york city slamming back at democratic leaders. >> that's exactly what these democrat leaders are saying. is we want to protect the cartels. we want to protect the gangs. >> and the dhs secretary also announcing a first on fox and "fox & friends" that today the trump administration ended the temporary protected status for all venezuelans, bret. >> bret: brooke, thank you. an israeli official says hamas will release three israelis and five thy nthai hostage tomorrow.

two women and 80-year-old man. the release is part of a cease-fire between israel and hamas that has paused the war in gaza in exchange for freedom for oz dozens of hostages held in palestinian territory and hundreds of palestinian prisoners held by israel. up next, the panel on the robert f. kennedy jr. first, beyond our border. the leader of the former rebel group bashar hall assad is now the country's asharia appointed hing be authorized legislative council until a new constitution can be drafted. ashall are a previously was link to the terror group al-qaeda. north korean state media reports leader kim jong un inspected a facility that produces nuclear material. he called for bolstering the country's nuclear fighting capability today. at least 30 people killed and many more injured stampede at the world's largest religious

gathering. millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters in the festival in northern india. this is a live look at new taipei city in taiwan courtesy of earthquake. one of the big stories there tonight. clouds rise buddhist terms as people light incense good luck in the year of the snake. ethnic chinese flock to terms across north and southeast asia on what was the lunar new year the first year of the year of the snake and chinese zodiac. just some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. ♪ —hi! —hi! ♪ chocolate fundraiser. ♪ with the chase mobile app, things move a little more smoothly. ♪

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♪ >> should i be so privileged as to be confirmed, make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods. we will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply. we will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies. we will create an honest, unbiased gold standard science at hhs. we will reverse the chronic disease epidemic and put the nation back on the road to good health. >> bret: some of these confirmation hearings have beef.

take a listen. >> it's time to make sure that we blow the whistle on actually what your views are. >> i support the measles vaccine. i support the polio vaccine. >> are you a conspiracy theorist? >> that is a pejorative, senator that's applied to me. mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions about our interest. >> you talk about government should not tell a woman we can she do with other body. >> i have always believed every abortion is a tragedy. >> what is your prescription to help make america healthy again. >> we need to fix our food supply. >> jason riley, the "wall street journal" columnist and senior fellow at the manhattan institute. matthew continetti, fellow at the american enterprise institute and "u.s.a. today" white house correspondent francesca chambers. we are just not at institute. anyway,. >> fox news institute. >> bret: talk about this hearing today what you took away from it

and what his chances are. >> democrats were already pretty opposed to him. you heard what they had to say in those clips. and that's what they have been saying leading into this. they are also pretty convinced that unless bill cassidy or someone else comes out of the woodwork here to vote against him, even with the three republicans, you know, who voted against pete hegseth the other day and, therefore, needed j.d. vance to be a tiebreaker that he would get passed. >> bret: saw online, jason, that there was a lot of fowngz on the spending of pharmaceutical companies, lobbying lawmakers, specifically the senators on this hearing. and you look at the chart, and it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars every year. this is a shakeup move. he's clearly said some things in the past that those senators pointed back to. >> some things in the past? >> bret: a lot. >> you know, if kennedy had been nominated by democrats to be hhs second. how many republican votes do you think he would be getting?

probably not very many. you know, trump sort of brought this on himself. we know is he transactional politician. he said get out of race and i will give a position in my administration. here we are. but, i also want to put things in perspective here. hhs is not a top tier cabinet post. it's not secretary of state. it's not attorney general. most americans probably can't name the person kennedy would be replacing but last name that people know. and he will have a platform and he is a person who has spent a lifetime spreading misinformation and enriching himself and trial lawyers by spreading this misinformation. we are trying to restore faith in government and faith in public health after a pandemic. i think we can do better than kennedy. >> bret: matthew, at the same time, he did help president trump with independents and some suburban women. the make america healthy again was very popular. when you talk about food and the

things that kids are eating, concern about disease, there -- it moves the needle. >> well, i think it's precisely because we had the pandemic. and we had the experts during the pandemic be shown to giving us false information to prescribing social policies such as the lockdowns and the school closings that americans really rebelled against and now have caused such devastation to our students as we are seeing in scores just released today that have given rise to this movement, the make america healthy again movement that r.f.k. leads. so, he enters this nomination vote from a very strong position because he has an independent constituency, bret. a loyal following. and also because he has many bizarre beliefs, in many cases. but there is always going to be a group of people that agree with one of them. you add them together i think you have a winning coalition.

i don't see any signs from this hearing that republicans are ready to buck the president this time. >> bret: yeah. the question is you have tomorrow, the hearings for kash patel and tulsi gabbard. you know, you look at the writings of, you know, various newspapers, "the washington post," gabbard faces close vote, her approval by the senate intelligence committee to be director of national intelligence is far from assured, according to two congressional officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the controversial nominee. she definitely doesn't have the votes right now to advance out of the intelligence committee said a senate aid. we heard that, too, about others that eventually did. but, it seems like tulsi gabbard is the focus. >> she was always seen, based on what i was hearing from my sources, arrests the one or one of the ones that would be the most difficult to get across the finish line. she doesn't have the same relationships with republicans as some of trump's other nominees, and that's part of what is going on here. even if they were uncomfortable with some of the past

statements. they felt like knew them better as a person than they know her. that would also be the case with potentially kash patel or r.f.k. as well. here is senators on kash patel. >> getting kash patel into the position to deal with the national security crises and threats that we face here domestically is absolutely critical. >> i want to hear that mr. patel is going to go in and in a fair and eble tillable manner. i don't want to hear that he is going to go in like a small earthquake and destroy the institution. >> mr. patel is not remotely prepared to serve as fbi director. he's a conspiracy theorist, a hard right idealogue and openly hostile to the free press. >> bret: when the tide seemed to turn is when trey gowdy came on this show and said he advocated for kash patel to shake things up in the fbi. obviously the fbi has been under attack for all the moves that have happened over the last pew years. your sense about how this is going to go tomorrow? >> i think that are some issues

with kash patel, but of the people we're discussing tomorrow, i don't think he is the biggest concern. for republicans in the senate, frankly, i think i would go back to gabbard as being a much, much bigger concern. you talk about her relationships with republicans, one of the reasons is because she has this history of opposing policies, including the trump administration's first term policies when it comes to a lot of foreign affairs. she opposed trump getting out of the iran nuclear deal that obama got into. it's been disastrous. she opposed the killing of soleimani. she has sided with guard snowden a spy who gave secrets to russia and china and our enemies and she is going to be the head of 17, 18 intelligence agencies nothing in political history that tells me she is up for this job. that will be the focus here. senators want to hold their powder for her and give a pass

to patel and others i think they would be right to do so. >> bret: strong letter to follow from jason tonight. up next, the confusion over the trump federal freeze, and then a ♪ now this is taxes. file free in the app by 2/18 when you switch to turbotax do-it-yourself

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>> we are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse.

>> when the trump administration announced this awful directive on monday night, we knew immediately it was shortsighted, disastrous, cruel and dumb. it is clear that president trump and his minions are feeling the heat. >> bret: s "the washington post" wrote it this way saying white house reverses course rescinds freeze on federal grants. the white house order freezing federal grants became public on monday caused mass chaos and confusion across washington. the trump administration withdrew the order a day after federal judge in washington, d.c. temporarily halted its administration until february 3rd. karoline leavitt saying it's not a rescission of the freeze, matthew, it's a rescission ever the original omb order which they say was sloppily written, that created confusion. bottom line, where are we? >> well, look, bottom line this was the first real pushback the trump administration has received since taking office on january 20th. and i think it's the exception that proves the rule, bret.

what's different about this trump administration than the first one is that so many of these executive orders are coming out swiftly and they are coming out very well prepared and well-planned. and so this omb memo that caused such confusion yesterday seemed to have slipped through that process. but i think in a way it highlights how effective the other executive orders have been. on the very day that the democrats were seizing this issue of the omb memo, trump signed a landmark order banning gender transition surgeries for minors. and we're not talking about that because that's an issue where trump has the law behind him and the public opinion. >> bret: yeah. it's obvious that democrats have been searching for something. and this was their something. it was always said that republicans pounce on big moments and the media writes it like that. this clearly was democrats pouncing and they had three press conferences. they thought this was it. doesn't seem like it's going to last that long but we will see.

>> there is still some confusion though about what effect as you pointed out the difference in the statements versus rescinding them the memo itself versus rescinding the order there. and a court is still going to have to decide, the white house says that essentially the executive orders that the president has already signed, those can all go through. and that fundamentally what they are telling agencies is you need to implement funding that is in line with his other executive orders that he has already signed. >> bret: if your funding dei or transgender something, something, something. we have the right to look at this and scrub it and see. >> this is absolutely within the discretion of the executive to scrutinize these things. and not just push shoving money out the door without caring where it's going and frankly it's what trump was elected to do. people are tired of waste and fraud. he has to be more detailed in what he is going after. what is included and what isn't included that was something of a self-inflicted wound. >> bret: order prohibit federal

schools teaching crt or gender ideology. order prioritize federal funding for school choice. memoranda to prepare migrant facility at guantanamo bay. we talked about that earlier. order to combat anti-semitism. task force to plan america's 250th birthday celebrations. this is today. you wrote a piece that he's doing a ton. but you got to be true also these are executive orders. next executive can come in and reverse them. what i like that he has done laken riley bill. legislation, that's more lasting than executive orders. that should be the model for this administration going forward. getting legislation passed. >> bret: laken riley's mom was very emotional about that today. panel, thank you so much. ♪ >> bret: finally tonight, a special day. >> it was amazing. we were -- i mean, we are out there on the ocean every day. all of us were taking pictures at our drone like we were all very blown away and it was a really memorable encounter that

i won't forget for a long time. >> bret: take a look at this. this is a miles long cluster of more than 1500 dolphins seen swimming across caramel bay in california nearby whale surveyors were mesmerized because this type of dolphin typically travels in group only 10 to 30. this is 1500. researches said it looked like the animals were having a big party. tomorrow on "special report." confirmation hearings for president trump's nominees to run the fbi and the nation's intelligence community, we will bring those to you live and have a wrap up at the end of the day. remember, if you can't catch us live set your dvr 3:00 p.m. on the west coast and 6:00 p.m. in the east. thank you for inviting us in your hongt. that it for this "special report," fair balanced and still unafraid. "the ingraham angle" is next ♪ >> good evening, everyone, i'm laura ingraham. this is ng