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♪ ♪ >> ainsley: good friday morning to you, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast, friday january 31st, last day of january. get straight to the fox news alert. as investigators are heading back to the potomac river to look for more clues this morning president trump is demanding a review of dei in the aviation industry. we will bring you all the latest developments. >> lawrence: plus, america first is back. and the president says could kick in tomorrow about. >> brian: new report reveals federal workers are living in fear and chaos. closed quote. as president trump disrupts the status quo in the government. >> people aren't coming to work and they are not going to come into the office, then they are going to be terminated. >> brian: just like that. second hour of "fox & friends" starts right now.

do you read anything, lawrence? oh, you do. >> lawrence: just a little bit. >> ainsley: you weren't paying attention? >> brian: to a fox news alert. search crews are returning to the potomac river this morning to look for more aircraft components after the deadly mid-air collision two days ago right here reagan national airport. >> ainsley: data black boxes recovered from the passenger jets. >> lawrence: mark meredith is live in potomac park with the details. hey, mark. >> mark: lawrence, good morning to you. you are right. the investigators will be back on the waters right behind me a few hours from now. they have had patrol boats out there making sure the debris field is safe and secure. of course so many questions about the evidence that they will be sifting through. however lawrence they will say quite a bit of time before they are able to say with any certainty what caused this mid-air collision that, of course, killed so many people just 48 hours ago. >> we are all here because this

is an all hands on deck event. and we're here to assure the american people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. we are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy looking at the facts. >> mark: one thing they are looking at whether or not there was appropriate staffing inside the tower reagan national at the time of the crash. report obtained by the associated press the position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic. meaning the number of staffers inside. but officials say, again, still too early to say. flight tracking app. shows the american airlines jet sergei 700 was between 200 and 400 feet. just seconds away from landing at reagan and it was oncology firmed reports about the helicopter involved may have been too low or either too high. they are still looking at the altitude there.

also investigation. overnight we learned investigators have recovered the flight data recorder as well as the cockpit voice recorder of the regional jet. understanding they are still looking for the one on board the helicopter. now in a government lab for evaluation. as for the airport itself. we have seen things get back slowly to normal operations. hundreds of cancellations. today some cancellations, just minimal delays. some was asking about what about today what are we going to see on the water. still unclear because the weather is so much worse today. yesterday it was fairly calm out here a little breezy today. we are expecting heavy rain and winds kick up about 25 miles per hour. that can make a difficult job even tougher for these people having to sift through the wreckage. brian, lawrence, ainsley? >> brian: mark, i heard that one, they were trying to get the plane out and trying to hunt for survivors. they say the first responders were nauseated by the smell of jet fuel along with what they were dealing with. do you smell jet fuel. >> i personally don't where we

are. i was talking to a source over at joint base yesterday they were telling me the jet fuel concerns absolutely were there. obviously in the wake right after the crash right afterwards for the first responders yes that would make sense. i know as of yesterday, 11:00 a.m., that was a concern. where we are, no. i have not smelled jet fuel. brian, this is interesting, also, very morbid to have to say that, there have been reports about baggage that is washed up along the shore of the potomac, other personal effects like that. the local governments around here not just d.c. but even down river have warned people do not touch it. do not try to move it. instead, just call investigators, they want to protect as much of this evidence as they can. >> brian: it's not theirs. they should leave it anyway. >> lawrence: also, mark, have all the bodies been recovered? i know we have been getting identities of many of them but have they all been recovered? >> lawrence: lawrence, my understanding is that no. not all of the bodies have been recovered. certainly possible that not all of them will be recovered. i believe the numbers i saw as of last night when i left at 10

was about 47 or so. we will hope to get update possibly later today from investigators. >> ainsley: mark, how are they recovering them? just wearing certain suits so they can get in the cold water? are they going down to the bottom trying to find bodies? >> mark: my understanding is that the water itself was actually fairly shallow and many of the bodies recovered were actually and again, this is very morbid to have to talk about they may have still been strapped to their seat. where the fuselage walls where they were able to get to people that those passengers, my understanding, they were able to get to fairly easily. obviously, yes, there are some tough conditions out there. it's cold. it's obviously wet. but there are a team of people that are designed to do just. this and my other understanding is that they are going to remove the debris today to a different position. now weather contingent. but the idea is they have to move it out of the way of where they're right next to the runway. >> brian: thank you, mark. >> lawrence: while investigators work to find the cause of the

d.c. crash. president trump is ordering the review of dei and aviation warning it may have played a role in this tragedy. >> ainsley: peter doocy is at the white house with the details of this story. peter? >> peter: good morning. president trump is saying he thinks he inherited a transportation system made less safe by the last transportation secretary pete buttigieg you know how badly everything is run since he has run this department of transportation? estate a disaster. he was a disaster as a mayor. he ran his city into the ground and he is a disaster now. the department of transportation his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, he runs it 45,000 people and he has run it right into the ground with his diversity. >> peter: buttigieg responded to that despicable as families grieve, trump should be leading, not lying. we put safety first, drove down close calls, grew air traffic

control and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. president trump now oversees the military and the faa. one of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. that is something that white house officials dispute. and you look at the full screen, there have been a lot of changes in federal hiring practices from trump one to biden to to trump two. the president is saying dei hiring practices prioritized placing unqualified workers in jobs over safety. >> do you know the name of the 67 people who were killed? and you are blaming democrats and dei policies and air traffic controllers? don't you think you are getting ahead of the investigation right now? >> no, i don't think so at all. i don't think the names of the people you mean the names of the people that are on the plane? you think that's going to make a difference? >> does it comfort their families hear you blaming dei. >> people who lost their lives.

if you want a list of the names we can give you that we will be giving you that very soon in coordination with american airlines. we are in coordination very strongly, obviously with the military. but i think that's not a very smart question. >> president trump knows more about the players involved in this mid-air collision than we do. and we just don't know exactly right now what he knows about the players involved that is helping him reach this conclusion that he thinks that dei practices contributed to what happened. back to you. >> brian: peter, were astounded by the level of communication? i mean, i was blown away. >> ainsley: we don't normally see the president in the briefing room. >> lawrence: cabinet members. vice president. >> brian: ntsb. amazing. >> peter: took us three and a half years to get joe biden into the briefing room for any reason it was after he was already -- he had already said that he wasn't going to run for anything anymore. but, president trump want to --

and it's not just because this happened pretty much literally in his backyard, like within view of his balcony from the white house residence, he just is showing us that he wants to have his fingerprints on every big national story. and this is something that he and his team, sean duffy and pete hegseth, their first hours on the job are going to have to deal with immediately, to make people feel safe. it is a change. i think the way this used to work for the last couple years, we would probably get a lot of lower level communication staffers briefing us, doing a telephone background briefing, something on zoom where we faces but use names say we got information on background. whereas trump is doing it essentially upside down. start with the people at the top. this guy is in charge of the pentagon. this guy is in charge of the transportation department. i am the commander-in-chief. this is what we think. and so, and now, they are going to let us know in real time what

they are going to do. big change. >> brian: let you do a story. and actually complete it by 6:00. >> peter: well, yeah, if your job is to cover what the president says, it helps a lot if the president says a lot. >> lawrence: something. >> brian: thanks, peter for breaking that down. >> lawrence: appreciate it. >> ainsley: peter was talking about dei we heard the president saying that might be an issue here. the faa national outreach program under obama for disabilities and district problems. there is also a lawsuit from last year, 2024 that alleged that the faa turned away nearly 1,000 air traffic controller applicants solely based on race. >> brian: that is insane to be low on people in a high impact job and to turn people away. >> lawrence: go ahead, bri. >> i was going to say troy nehls was on with you earlier and he said this about the air traffic controller situation.

keep in mind, the federal government is running the reagan airport. watch. >> the dca which is the reagan airport where this took place, their air traffic control staffing shows that they need 30 personnel to operate that air traffic control tower. it's a very busy airport. they say about 19 currently on staff. we have a staffing issue at the reagan airport, dca. dca very busy airport. we have # hundred flights inbound and outbound each and every day at reagan airport. and overall, i believe our record, our safety record is the gold standard. but, when we have an issue like this. it needs to be addressed. it needs to be some oversight from congress. we need to make sure that if these airports are struggling with air traffic controllers, they bring it to our attention. and we can try to encourage more younger people to get into that field. >> lawrence: i struggle with this dei stuff. i covered dei when i ran campus

reform. maybe it had the original intent was good. but it's gone way too far. i understand organic diversity. i understand that some people at one point in time in history or maybe today were denied jobs because of their race, sexual orientation or whatever. i understand that. but why are we trying to get people with mental disabilities to work air traffic control? i mean there is a place for them in society. but a lot of the diversity push just doesn't make sense. it's not a value of diversity in air traffic control. it just doesn't. the one thing that we need to focus on is the person qualifid for the job? does their diverse background bring them some additional information to the job? but just hiring people to meet different metrics doesn't make any sense to me. i'm sorry. >> brian: last thing i would say reminds me of the story we had the l.a. fires where that fire chief was saying we want to know -- we want people to know that if you in a fire someone

save you comes in to look like you. no i would like somebody who is good at saving people. >> lawrence: i just don't want to burn. >> ainsley: i want to live. i don't want to burn to death. nbc has a story the headline is fear and chaos grip federal workers as trump rapidly remakes the government. donald trump has said as you know we have been covering. they wants to end the work from home practices. so he offered the deferred resignation where you get paid through december if you resign by february 6th. only 6% of federal workers working full time in an office. that's why he is doing this. democrats say we are living in fear. everything is so chaotic are you fearful about lower taxes and price breaks or paying taxes on tips or social security or working overtime. are you fearful that donald trump is going to get rid of

criminal illegal aliens? why are you scared? >> brian: if you are a federal employee worried about their future well, because, donald trump asked elon musk to cut 2 trillion out of the budget. they accused donald trump of the first four years of not cutting like he did. tax reform, i believe, was working to do that. bring more revenue in. but they never got to the tax cut because the pandemic. so what he's doing now is to look at the 2.3 million people working for the federal government. they all got emails saying can you quit, we will give you six months which by the way is way too generous, i think. come to work, you are fired or take the six months and just write in your subject line say resigning. so, that -- you should be if you are not doing a good job. if you like your job and doing good at your job, can you keep your job. this is part of a whole of government push to lien it out and bring budget in line with $36 trillion in debt. you should not be fearful unless you're coasting. if you are coasting in your job, be fearful. but this is -- elon musk

sleeping in the office on the couch like he did with tesla. trying to fix it. he is trying to fix the government 9 way he did spacex. >> lawrence: something is obviously going wrong, ainsley. we just had americans die because it wasn't properly staffed. and they weren't focusing on the right thing. other agencies are going through something similar. it's just not a harsh job or a deadly job that could cause death. but other harms are happening in the government currently. >> ainsley: so sad we have to figure it all out this way. breen. >> brian: brian meanwhile straight ahead one of the highlights of my week general jack keane live on the things that matter most in war and peace. ♪ driving the first love out to the levy ♪ living life with no sense of time ♪ i go back to fill up the 50-yard line ♪ a blanket, a girl, some raspberry line

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>> brian: fox news alert. the black boxes containing crucial recordings have been recovered from both t the amerin airlines flight and military helicopter from d.c. the nominee for secretary of army saying this as the pentagon investigates the crash. >> it's an accident that seems to be preventable. i think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to

take training risks? and it may not be near an airport like reagan. >> brian: right? here to react fox news senior strategic analyst general jack keane. we know it came from fort belvoir, your thoughts about what we know. did the blawk need to be there during that congested time? >> well, first of all, these mid-air collisions that take place, i mean they are the most frustrating accidents because you just know that that is preventable accident for sure. and one that takes place out an airport where a plane is on short final. you either have a procedural problem or human problem or both for something like that to happen. obviously, another airplane has no business flying into the landing path of an aircraft at an airfield. so that's obvious. listen, i have a lot of faith in the ntsb and the military accident investigation. i spent almost four decades

involved with aviation accidents. and they do get to the bottom of this. and understand what happened. and the second thing that is very valuable. is they do make sound recommendations on how to mitigate this in the future. and obviously there is a lot of congestion at the d.c. airport. and the d.c. environment around that airport. but, so our audience understands, they were executing what is referred to continuity of government mission. and that means if we're under attack, or there is an attack that's imminent. it's a decision is made to move the senior leaders out of the government out of the d.c. area to bunk erred complexes, that are deeply buried. >> brian: yeah. >> in maryland or virginia. and we did that on 9/11. 75 to 100. they practice that and they have to practice it obviously from where those senior people would be leaving and obviously to where they are going. and they have to do it day and night and under different

conditions. so yes the mission is legitimate but can things be done to mitigate the congestion and reduce the risk? i'm confident the ntsb is going to have something to say about it. >> brian: all right. the other thing and we know they are moving forward with the hostage swap on phase 1 in israel. we know netanyahu was furious the way our hostages, his hostages being treated as they leave gaza and criminals are being let out in the west bank. it's maddening. but i want to move on to ukraine, if i can. but it just changed. we have north korean troops being moved off the frontline. ukraine is missing people and it's killing morale. and the other thing is ukraine has destroyed the russian command without post in kursk. so where do you think this war is at as we get set to getting close talks? >> well, both sides are having, you know, significant losses in personnel and equipment.

russia overwhelmingly have considerably more, 30,000 a month on average and 100 to 150 tanks and armored vehicles and only replace about 25 of those a month, quite staggering. going into these talks, certainly, we have to make sure that the ukrainians' hands are strengthened. putin doesn't want to come to the negotiating table without major concessions. everything is on the line for putin. so our audience understands that. this is a war he was supposed to win in a couple of weeks. his whole regime, presidency, is on the line here. he is not going to give up taking over ukraine. he will go a temporary peace agreement with the idea he will rearm with china, iran and north korea helping him and then at some point reattack. that's -- that is where his head is and if we are going to cut a deal with him, then we have to strengthen ukraine's hand to help with that deal and somewhat

zelenskyy will insist on look at it, if we go a peace agreement i know this guy is going to attack again. you have got help me with my military in the meantime. >> brian: yes. >> china, iran and north korea are helping him. so there's a lot ahead for general kellogg and his team to deal with here, certainly. the conditions leading up to this, we got make certain that ukraine, the assistance they are getting continues to come and we have been told it may have been cut off as a result of this friday. and certainly, an exception should be made so that flow of arms and munitions and other things continues. >> brian: i have good news for you, general, i just confirmed with the highest reaches of government that aid is not cut off to ukraine and, in fact, it might increase unless we get closer to a settlement, unless there is a settlement. so there you go. that's very positive. all right. >> that's good breaking news, brian. >> brian: absolutely.

so, big relief because ukrainians are fighting like warriors. i do want to draft 18-year-olds. the average age is 41. you draft 18-year-olds. we do it in this country and around the world. and the ukrainians are tough enough to really make a difference. real quick. on israel,en are you as down on a phase 2 being successful as you were last week? >> phase 2 is really challenging, so people understand. that means israel has to withdraw permanently from gaza. the hamas in theory is supposed to disarm and eventually a new governor nance takes over. there is no pathway, i think, ahead for that to be accomplished. i think this meeting coming up with netanyahu and the president is really important. that's going to be on the table. but here's the big one. what to do about iran. do we try to work a deal with iran for them to dismantle their nuclear program or do we take it down? i think prime minister netanyahu

would like to get this over with sooner rather than later, knowing iranians will fudge on any negotiated deal like they have done in the past. so those negotiations are going to be very important. the third thing is normalizing relationships between saudi arabia and israel. is that still a realistic pathway. so this discussion that's coming up, i think, is very pivotal that the president has invited prime minister netanyahu as the first international visitor. war is raging in the middle east. and the two of them head together what to do about it makes a lot of sense. >> brian: general always great to talk to you. great to see gaza and israel yesterday. he is the negotiator there. it's just so great to see people really putting their foot on the gas. general jack keane, always educational. thank you. >> great talking to you. brian. you and the team have a wonderful weekend. >> brian: yep. speaking of the weekend one nation coming up big show at 9:00. >> thanks everyone for watching. governor ron desantis will tell

us why he is vetoing an immigration bill in florida. jorge, the superstar how he feels about the situation. where the democrats go from here. joe manchin and what about the get america healthy again movement? bonny horry, the food babe will be joining us and boomer esiason better athlete than me and wants to talk about the super bowl. coming up on the 15th fox nation streaming live in jacksonville on stage history liberty and laugh. brian kilmeade.com as well as march 22nd in st. louis. see you in person, straight ahead, good news. and a lot of breaking news. for the first time secretary of defense pete hegseth joining us live to discuss dei, gitmo, and the state of the world

>> lawrence: we're back with a fox news alert. investigators working around the clock to find the cause of the deadly mid avery crash in d.c. >> brian: meanwhile president trump is ordering a review of dei in aviation. warning, it may have played a role in the tragedy. >> how badly everything has run since he has run this department of transportation? he is a disaster. he was a disaster as a mayor. he ran his city into the ground. and he is a disaster now. the department of transportation government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. he are ups it 45,000 people and he has run it right into the ground with his diversity. >> brian: kind of extraordinary to watch the president come out along with the secretary of defense, secretary of transportation multiple times. yesterday and speak up often because of this tragedy that took place a couple of days ago. here to react the secretary of defense first time as new position pete hegseth. pete, i winner it was under

different circumstances. >> ainsley: good morning. >> good morning. >> brian: what have you found out the last 24 hours you could tell our audience we had two pretty experienced black hawk pilots, right? >> that's right. three. and good morning to you all. it is a tough way to start. we have tried to be lean forward and be as transparent as possible while also respecting, of course, the families of those affected, the 64 in that civilian airline and then the three soldiers who have been notified. the next of kin have been notified and being careful about that as well. three black hawk pilots on effectively an annual night qualification run. there is a corridor there that is utilized near reagan national airport that the military uses for exercises that are routine but, as you know, guys, nothing is routine in the military whether it involves a training exercise or real world in this particular case. they were qualifying on a night flight, which included night vision goggles. now, we don't know is whether

the goggles were engaged or up. and anyone that's been in the military knows you might use them. you might flip them up while flying. if the qualification was a night flight, they could have have been used. a lot of ambient light. a lot of things happening around reagan. there could be depth perception problems. again, that's speculation. our investigation will tell us more. we also don't yet have the black box from the black hawk. when we do we will get a sense of internal communications, that might tell us exactly who was piloting that black hawk. you had a captain in training. a chief warrant officer 2 as an instructor. and then you also had a staff sergeant in that black hawk as well. who was talking? who was on the comms? who was piloting and what, if any, confusion was there at the i understand? we are looking at altitude. and the president was clear about that. someone was at the wrong altitude. the investigation will help us understand that was the black hawk too high? was it on course? right now we don't quite know. what i want to tell your viewers and the nation is we will get to the bottom of what happened

here. it's completely unacceptable in our nation's capitol or anywhere. the military trains and it trains robustly. we're not going to stop training. even though there is a pause on this unit on this exercise, which is an important one, and we should have that pause until we get to the bottom of this. >> lawrence: yeah. pete. >> we have to train and train safely. something like this can never happen and completely unacceptable. >> lawrence: mr. secretary, one of the requests that the some people are making get rid of this program as well. assuming the helicopters with the planes in the sky. but this can't -- you guys can't get rid of this because according to the reports, this was a are the path the continuity of government, which is the protection if a president or, you know, something catastrophic happens, you guys got to get them to safe locations so you just can't get rid of this program, right? >> yeah, lawrence. without getting into anything that's classified. there are many things that happen in and around the capitol that ensure in a contingency, in an emergency, our government is

able to continue to operate. and what happened in this particular instance was one of those types of flights. i mentioned at the press conference yesterday. a continuity of government. there are other aspects to what is done there. you need to train as you fight. rehearse in ways that would reflect a real world scenario. ways to do that that mitigates risk. that's our job at the defense department, at the u.s.a. army make sure we are mitigating risk which training is happening, especially when it's around civilian aircraft. we need civilians, those traveling to our nation's capitol and elsewhere to know they're safe when landing at reagan or anywhere else. first and foremost for us at the same time how do we make sure we train as owe bustly as possible. as safely as possible to ensure if, unfortunately, there were a real world event where things needed to happen. we could respond to it. day or night. and that's why night vision goggles are trained none that scenario, day or night has to be trained for. >> ainsley: let's talk about dei, what was happening in the

control tower. we talked to congressman troy nehls he said at this airport, which is the busiest runway in our country, they needed 30 personnel inside the control tower. there were currently 19 when this crashed. and then there is a lawsuit that alleged that the faa turned away nearly 1,000 air traffic controller applicants solely based on race last year. and then there is a report that the faa launched a national outreach program for dei which included a push to hire workers with severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems. when you're a mom and you're dad, you are putting your kids on the plane or flying as a family, that's unacceptable. we don't care your race. we want to make sure whoever is in there that it is fully manned and we want to make sure they are qualified. >> completely unacceptable. ainsley, you are exactly right. i don't know exactly how the staffing occurred in that particular air traffic control tower. and it sounds like there was a shortage and the investigation will tell us more about that. but the environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president

pointed out correctly yesterday, highest possible standard. the best of the best who are managing, you know, multiple flights -- i mean a flight a minute and managing radio traffic. i think the closest analogy to military supervisors, guys, is pilots or air traffic controllers. i don't care what background they come from, what their race is, what their gender is, if they are rich or poor. i just need them to be good at their job because i need my flight to land safely. the same thing applyst to the defense department, to our military. i don't care about your background, your gender or your skin color. i want the best. that's why when the president says merit-based and colorblind, he is exactly right across government. so he is correct to point out at the faa or on our flights it should not be about anything other than excellence. that's it. excellence. i don't care the color of the skin of the pilot on my plane or air traffic control. we for too long under biden

cared about those things. emphasized those things. pushed real or perceived quotas, at the defense department we are ending all of that it's been made very clear across all of our services and commands, it is merit only, and this means we will get the best of the best. and that's what our taxpayers and the american people expect and deserve. and in the business of war fighting, which the defense department? , if you don't have the best of the best, you lose people. and that's why this is so important. >> brian: all right, so if we can -- and by the way people say on the black hawk, ideally you like a four-person crew with two in the back being able to look out both sides of the helicopter. does it bother you that it was a three-man crew? >> it's a good question, brian. i have been in many black hawks some of which had three, some of which had a whole squad in the back. some of which had four. that is a part of our investigation. i want -- your viewers and everyone else to know we are leaning forward on as robust accountability and transparency as possible. >> brian: that's why you are

here. >> that's why we are here. that's why we announced we were in real time talking about it why i talked about it right away in my office. we don't want the american people to feel like things are being held back that we can then therefore disclose. that is part of our investigation from c.i. d, from army aviation, what were the circumstances by which that flight was exactly where it is, the people that were there. the communications and the altitude and as soon as we know that, you will know that. >> lawrence: so, mr. secretary, there has been some pushback and i think there some people within the inside that are putting out information that doesn't represent you or the president because they try to when you ended dei in the military tried to say you didn't want the tuskegee airmen which is about their merit. i know you, but some of the people don't know you. it was trying to cut your legs out before you can even get the program out. the tuskegee airmen have nothing to do with dei but they use this as a way to discredit the movement. right? >> that's exactly right. the tuskegee airmen are an

example of courageous merit of the greatest americans and their ability to overcome and accomplish incredible things because of their skill, courage, and acumen. what you are referring, to lawrence, is something i like to call malicious implea metropolitan station. >> lawrence: yeah. >> okay. we'll do this but we will do it in a i think that tries to make you look bad by canceling things. >> lawrence: that's right. >> make the public think you are against a certain race or you are radical in your implementation. that's why we were very clear on that. thank there i will say this. building at the pentagon a big building with a lot of people in it. the vast majority of folks we have interacted with or spoken to are thrilled, are excited about the opportunity to get rid of these programs that have been divisive, that have divided units, that have created formal or informal quota systems. that's gone. and ultimately equality carries the day. as you know equality is different than equity. equality means everybody has equal shot.

equity means equal outcomes. that can't work in the military. tuskegee airmen we will salute and elevate we want every as much as men to do what they did. that's very different than dei program. >> ainsley: have you served military. assigned to gitmo you have a lot of experience we talked about that when you were on "fox & friends" often. now trump is making a move to prepare gitmo for 30,000 criminal migrants. tell us more about this and what your opinion is. >> yeah, ainsley, it's a smart move. it's the perfect place. i say that as someone who spent a year there with a platoon guarding detainees at the detention facility. sort of two parts to this. first, as we have said from the beginning, no one will wait on the defense department. we will be a key element of expulsions and mass deportation. as we identify criminal illegals in our country, the military is leaning forward to help with moving them out to their home countries or someone else in the interim. now, if they can't go somewhere right away, they can go to

guantanamo bay. there is two aspects to it. one, the migrant facility. going back to the 1990s there were tens of thousands of haitians and cuban migrants housed there because it was a transit point in the caribbean. and i knew of those places when i was there. and those we're going to stand unfairly quickly. can you get thousands of individuals in tents, secured in places at guantanamo bay. there is also the eventuality that we could have hardened criminals, hardened gang members with violent criminal past in transit. if that is the case, we are preparing options for the actual detention facilities. the detention facilities that are basically super max prisons there at guantanamo bay to temporarily be used to house them. we don't want to put our personnel, any americans at risk in transit. so if you have those existing facilities, let's use them. and we will use them to serve the interest of the american people who have been suffering under an open border and invasion under joe biden and we

have said enough is enough. they are going home. so guantanamo bay is a perfect transit point to temporarily house the worst of the worst until we move them back to their home countries who as president trump has made it very clear better be prepared to take them robustly and soon because they sent them here, sent criminals, opened their jails, affect the our people. the president is reversing that guantanamo bay will be a part of that. >> brian: you don't want to be caught prohibitive in the transportation and housing. we know how much it's costing us now to keep khalid sheikh mohammed alive. we will see about that. pete, we know -- excuse me, mr. secretary, we know that the drug cartels have been declared terrorist organizations. and if you find -- and we know al-qaeda, we are going to hit them. i don't care if you are in somalia, sudan or in syria. if we find that they continue to fire at our border patrol and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as the secretary of department of education, are you permitted now to go after them in mexico or

wherever they are? >> brian, i don't want to get ahead of the president and i won't, but that's ultimately going to be his decision. but, let me be clear, all options will be on the table. if we're dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations, who are specifically targeting americans on our border and we're finally securing our border, we have been securing other people's border for a very long time. the military is orienting swa shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border. that is something we will do and do robustly. we are already doing it. should we -- should there be other options necessary to prevent the cartels from continuing to pour people, gangs, and drugs and violence into our country, we will take that on. so, the president will make that call. i will work with him in that decision-making process. ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the american people. >> lawrence: so, mr. secretary, there hasn't been much time for

you to celebrate your nomination. you have to hit the ground running. you have got a plane crash with one of your helicopters there. you're tackling dei within the organization, trying to get recruitment. what other priorities do you have in your tenure as secretary of defense? what are those main goals? >> thanks for the question, lawrence. i mean, we are restoring the warrior ethos, you mentioned it, readiness, recruiting, ripping out the things that are detrimental to the force. we are going to rebuild our military, we're going to work with congress to make sure the dod is properly funded. but that we are using those funds wisely. that includes things like a pentagon audit. taxpayer dollars come to the dod that will be spent properly. we also need to ramp up to ensure we are prepared with the most robust capabilities possible. learning from other conflicts, to move to future conflicts. to understand how we orient toward future threat. and that's the last piece. we're going to make sure we orient properly toward emerging

threats and reestablish deterrence. so, we're rebuilding the military but also reestablishing deterrence. what happened in afghanistan with the debacle is unacceptable. what happened with the invasion of ukraine under joe biden unacceptable. what happened on october 7th unacceptable. all reflections of weakness. peace through strength is back at the pentagon. our enemies will know that we mean business. and we're going to lean forward to ensure those want to american interest and security understand where we stand. our friends know we are there standing with them. i have been on the phone with foreign ministers of defense. behind the scenes this entire time. reaffirming those connections. you know, we have been clear the communist chinese are a threat not just to the region but to the world. we will lean forward in making sure they see that the president is a master at negotiations in international relations. he's going to talk to foreign leaders. we will make sure he has the options to orient and then responsibly end wars as well in

other places around the globe. so, it's a new day at the pentagon that reflects the america first agenda of this president. and we're going to treat every day with urgency. every day as if we have the lean forward and be prepared to defend the american people. >> brian: pete, mr. secretary, you are in a unique time in which silicon valley actually wants to help the pentagon as opposed to stop. help the pentagon move us forward while we try to expand our industrial base. >> ainsley: pete, congratulations. just confirmed last friday this is our first interview with you. >> absolutely. >> ainsley: mr. secretary. >> brian, can you always call me pete, that's okay. i love you guys. thank you. >> brian: i want to show the respect that you have earned. >> lawrence: that's right. >> ainsley: that was quite a fight. and you won. >> lawrence: secretary of defense pete hegseth. thank you, sir. >> brian: do you realize by him coming out. i said this earlier. and sean duffy secretary of transportation the showing respect to the american people. people voted for them and those

who didn't. can you debate but not run from you. i saw secretary austin only at ceremonies. only when he had to mumble his way through the mask during the pandemic. >> ainsley: after his surgery mia. >> brian: after his surgery he disappeared. people think you are blowing off the press. when you blow off the press you are blowing off the country. we don't know what you are thinking. why is everything shrinking? how did you feel about the recruiting going to the toilet on every branch of government? we still don't know. >> ainsley: i think the word that comes to mind is transparency. when this plane crash happened. >> lawrence: yes. >> ainsley: all i thought about is we will get answers with this administration we will find out what happened and do their best to prevent this going forward in the future. under joe biden, even the drones, that's a great example to describe what we used to see and what we're seeing now. because donald trump gets into office and he says let me see what happened in new jersey. those drones, those were from the faa. those were safe. that was research. what did joe biden say? we don't know. we don't have any answers. >> brian: while walking away from the podium.

>> ainsley: exactly. >> lawrence: i appreciate the speed as well. one thing -- there is going to be some p bumps in the road. i know that. moving forward with it. politicians and cabinet officials make these promises and they don't stick with it. they are out there moving fast and i get so sick of politicians being evasive. let us know what is going on. we will be graceful along the way things, you got to come bang and correct it when you know something and it's not national security. let us know. i appreciate them putting out information quickly and rack lit. even if it doesn't make the departments look well. >> ainsley: something else that pete is doing, donald trump has ordered pete hegseth's department of defense and the education secretary linda mcmahon to come up with a strategy to end indoctrination in our schools. so that your 3rd grader doesn't learn that she can be a boy. it's too early too teach kids

that it gets confusing. >> brian: 1619 and crt. >> lawrence: also got to change what is happening in the schools that directly impacts the recruitment. you need students to love america if we want them to lay their lives down for america and that's great. >> brian: recruiters got to get into the high schools. >> lawrence: that's right. >> brian: some of them don't want to see it in san francisco and others. all they want to do pitch when you got career days you have to have the military presence there and disappeared during the pandemic. that played into it, too. i read general mac masters book and he was a three star. he could not get respect from kelly and mattis because they had 4. some people are not going to look at pete and go you are a major. and i know pete is not going to be intimidated by it. there is going to be reluctance in the pentagon because you haven't put the 40 years in. >> ainsley: some people say i respect you and i want your opinion how do you think i should handle it. >> brian: a lot of times they don't do it to your face. i'm going to ignore. i'm going it do my own thing. by not doing anything, you are going against orders. so i'm just saying i know that

those are some of the headwinds. you got media that is going to look for him to fail, obviously. certain media, especially. and then you are going to have people go i need to see stars on your shoulder and that's too bad. >> lawrence: i will tell you what i was encouraged with, brian. in the interview the secretary said the majority of the people, the overwhelming people in that building support him and support the new mission of the president of the united states. there are some people in there that are going to be detractors. he wrote a whole book about the mess that's in that building going to have to clean up. going to be people fighting with him. it's not going to be all on his shoulders, that's what i was praying for honestly. that he has people there that are going to support him and not try to undermine him every step of the way. >> brian: my prayers were answered i got talk military for 40 minutes general jack keane and pete hegseth. i can go home now, good night, everybody. >> lawrence: we got one more hour, brian.

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>> lawrence: this is