>> lawrence: this is "fox and

fri friends". investigators head back to the potomac river to look for clues this morning, president trump is demanding review of aviation industry and defense secretary pete hegseth doubled down here on "fox and friends." >> i don't care about your background, or skin color, i want the best, i need my flight to land safely. >> ainsley: president trump holding a round-table after students receive a failing grade on the nation's report card. kellyanne conway will be in attendance and gives us a preview. >> todd: meanwhile, grammy awards of this sunday and brandon lake is dropping by after getting nominated for multiple awards. ♪ ♪ >> brian: there you go. remember that. >> ainsley: new song features jelly roll. >> lawrence: also a friend of

the show. >> brian: also losing a lot of weight. final hour of "fox and friends" starts now, put something on. >> ainsley: fox news alert. search crews returning to potomac river this morning to look for more aircraft components after the deadly mid-air collision near reagan airport. >> brian: investigators find cause of the deadly d.c. crash, they are trying to get to the bottom of that. president trump is warning review of dei. lawrence >> lawrence: peter doocy. >> peter: president trump ordered review of all firing over four years covering joe biden's transportation secretary tenure, that is pete buttigieg. >> president trump: he's a disaster, he was disaster as

mayor. he ran his city into the ground and he's a disaster now. the department of transportation, government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. he runs it, 45,000 people, ran it into the ground with his diversity. >> peter: pete buttigieg says despicable, we had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights it our watch. president trump oversees military and faa. his first act was to fire and suspend key personnel that keep our air safe. that is something defense secretary pete hegseth addressed further. >> environment in which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as president

pointed out yesterday, better be best of the best. i don't care background, race, gender, if they are rich or poor, i need them to be good at their job and my flight to land safely. >> peter: there have been a ton of changes from federal hiring from trump's first term to biden to trump's second term. the president believes dei mraiszed unqualified workers over safety. >> do you know the names of the 67 people killed and you are blaming democrats and dei policy and air of traic controller. don't you think you are getting ahead of the investigation? >> president trump: i don't think so. the names of the people on the plane, you think that will make a different? these are people who lost their lives. we will be giving a list soon, we are in coordination with

american airlines, and with the military. i think that is not a very smart question. >> peter: ap is reporting in control tower on wednesday night one air traffic controller was doing a job typically assigned to two people when this collision happened so staffing was not normal. the president and his team is arguing staffing has not been normal because of what they say are unfair hiring practices. back to you. >> brian: i also heard they said two people were doing the job of four, not just one person doing double, at least two people doing double time, peter. >> peter: sometimes that happens normally because of shift change or somebody has to get up to go to the bathroom, we don't know. was this person at the end of a 10-hour shift and doing two jobs the entire time. that is something that may take a month for ntsb to fill us in

on, that is how long they say the report will take. >> brian: "washington post" had a story yesterday they had a near-miss couple of weeks ago. >> peter: there was aircraft avoidance alarm going off, that is how close another airplane the day before, according to "washington post," had an issue. >> ainsley: if you read that new york times article talking about this and staffing shortage and one person doing job of two, its they work so many hours, some of them because of job shortages, some people work six days a week, 10 hour shifts, which is unacceptable. >> brian: in a job like that. >> peter: something else this investigation will reveal. 24 hours or so before this mid-air collision happens, somebody presumably in the tower

heard that a plane had to go around again because they almost crashed into another helicopter. did anybody respond in any way to that report or was everybody so burned out that they put it in the inbox, we'll get to it, we don't know. >> ainsley: we couldn't see closeup in that video where you see the crash, but everyone this morning when we were getting ready for the show, they said if you watch the video, it looks like the helicopter went straight in, straight into the large plane. and didn't look like they pulled up or down. >> lawrence: you got one person doing the job of two. >> brian: and black hawk flew outside the approved flight path. someone said to me, there should be four, they fly with three. if you have eyes out the side of the window, i'll bet anything,

the plane hit on the other side. >> lawrence: i want someone to explain to me. black hawks can move quick. i don't know if this is the reason for this. but if you have shortage of workers and only one-third of jobs are filled, why are you rejecting application based on identity or whatever. why would you do that and put our safety at risk because you want a quota system? >> ainsley: last year there was a lawsuit last year, a thousand people said they tried to apply for jobs as air traffic controllers and they were denied because of race. >> brian: some were told to retire early during the pandemic and now up and we don't have enough. congr >> ainsley: and a congressman said they needed 30 inside the tower and they had 19, not 30, 19. >> brian: everyone wants quick

answers, one thing you can learn before final tally, our goal is to hire 5000 new traffic controllers. i want every major airport to report what optimum level of controllers is and what you have and department of transportation can act immediately. >> lawrence: pete hegseth was on the show saying they will get to the bottom of this and review every aspect of this issue c, let's watch. >> i don't know how the staffing occurred in that air traffic control tower and sounds like there was a shortage. the environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president pointed out, better be highest possible standard. the best of the best, who are managing multiple flights, a flight a minute and managing radio traffic. i think the closest analogy to

military service is pilots or air traffic controllers. i don't care what background, what race or gender is, rich or poor, i need them to be good at their job, i need my flight to land safely. same thing to the defense department, to the military, i don't care about your background, gender or skin color, i want the best. when the president says merit-based and color blind, he is right across government. he is correct to point out faa or flights should not be about anything other than excellence. it has been made clear across our services and commands, it is merit only, thatten moos we get the best of the best and that is what taxpayers and american people expect and deserve. in the business of war fighting, defense department is in, if you don't have best of the best, you lose people and that is why this is so important. >> ainsley: we talked to defense secretary pete hegseth on

trump's order to send criminal migrants to gitmo, take a listen. >> no one will wait on the defense department, we're a key element of mass deportation. as we identify criminal illegals military leaning forward to help with moving them out to their home country or someone else in the interim. if they can't go somewhere right away, they can go to guantanamo bay. migrant facilities, in the '90s, there were migrants housed there because it was a transit point in the caribbean. i knew of those places when i was there. you can get thousands of individuals in tents, secured in places at guantanamo bay. we could have hardened criminals, hardened gang members with violent criminal past in

transit. we are preparing options for the depension facility that are basically super max prisons there at guantanamo bay to be used to house them. we don't want to put our personnel in danger in know t transit, use them. american people have been suffering under open border and invasion under joe biden and we've said enough is enough, they're going home. guantanamo bay is a perfect know trasit point to temporarily house the worst of the worst until we move them back to their home country, president trump made clear better be prepared to take them robustly and soon. >> brian: a lot going on, that shows we're not stopping. when you scoop up tda guys and venezuela doesn't want them back and there is hesitation, we talked about maybe sudan taking them for mob money, we stick them in gitmo. put them on a military plane and

drop them. then worry about how to get them off there, we don't want them coming back. isn't that deterrent? if i get caught in new york, i will get stuck playing dodgeball with mohammad is lunchtime. >> ainsley: rachel miyazaki and charlie hurt, good morning to you. >> lawrence: good morning. >> rachel: good morning. >> ainsley: congratulations on sean's confirmation, saw you and your beautiful family there in d.c. talk about this, gitmo issue, we were just talking to pete, what do you think about this, rachel? >> rachel: look, first of all, i think donald trump and pete hegseth and michael waltz and everybody involved in this mission of taking hardened criminals like tren de aragua to gitmo are dead serious. this is important, they will do it, it is important signal.

they are making deals with el salvador and their megaof had prisons down there. brian, you are right, this means we can get them out of here and many will self-deport if prospect is you end up at gitmo or mega-prisons in el salvador. i think this is important and we need to remember, the purpose of the u.s. government is to protect the american people. right on the border, mexico, it is turning into a narco state before our very eyes and has over the last four years. this criminal activity coming through has embolden cartels, many winding up here and creating networks and god bless donald trump for cleaning up our country. >> lawrence: charlie, i think people are underestimating amount of criminals in our country here illegally. new york city alone, not including gotaways.

i talked to director of ice, 60,000 criminal migrants, not people that broke the law coming across the border, they came here and committed a crime. >> charlie: that is why this issue became such an important issue, central issue of the last election. donald trump is the only president that has any record of actually trying to address it seriously and doing something about it. obviously you start to address it and people recognize what new priorities are and we want to take it seriously and people s start to self-deport. nobody reads press about illegal immigration more than people trying to become illegal immigrants in this country. talking about gitmo, and rachel, i think is exactly right about this. mexico has turned into a failed narco state, has been for a while. we spend so much time, treasure, personnel all around the world

trying to make friends around the world when we have two of the or at least one of the biggest problems with our neighbor directly to the south and the idea that we allow mexico to exist as an enemy of ours as opposed to an allie of ours in this be prosecute, whether drugs, illegal immigration or whatever it is, it is really unconscionable and takes somebody looking with fresh set of eyes the way donald trump is and i think pete hegseth is, willing to look at the problem and say, we want to solve this and for once and for all, make it so we don't continue dealing with this problem. >> brian: big story about president trump putting tariffs on mexico and canada. "wall street journal" has a story his aides are pushing back saying let's get commerce secretary in and omb and let us

negotiate more. with your show, you are in touch with central and south american issues, do you feel a delay might work in our best interest? >> rachel: i saw last week that we saw high level diplomacy occur on social media. it was done on x. you know, colombian president said i'm not going to do what you want me to do, donald trump. donald trump said, oh, yeah, i'm going to do this. the colombian president put his tail between his legs and offered his own plane to take the illegal criminals back. i don't think this is business as usual. donald trump knows how to handle this. situation in mexico is grave. president of mexico, like the president before, these are communists in bed with cartels. cartels control 40% of land mass in mexico. that is a fact. these governments basically

claudia shinebaum, told donald trump, you can't operate on our territory, this was in reference to donald trump saying we want to clean up the cartel situation there. he called them terrorists. she said you deal on your land, we'll deal on our land. she has deals with these people because they are in control, they have never been richer or more powerful thanks to human smuggling operation that joe biden allowed to happen with open borders. they controlled our border and donald trump is saying, no, america controls the border and we don't want a narco state as a neighbor. we'll see what happens, i think it will be done on x. >> brian: that is why rachel has a four-hour show on the weekend. a lot to say. >> rachel: sorry, guys. >> lawrence: we love it. see you tomorrow. >> ainsley: and her husband just nominated -- >> lawrence: confirmed now. >> ainsley: confirmed now.

day 1 hit the ground running auz transportation secretary because of the plane crash. more headlines. secretary of state marco rubio about to kickoff overseas trip tomorrow to advance president trump's foreign policy agenda. marco rubio will spend several days visiting panama, guatemala and dominican republic and meet with leaders to promote regional cooperation and shared interest. hot topics include illegal immigration, fights trans national criminal organizations, countering china and deepening relationships. some people in the united states are using tiktok to track ice raids. axios says users are posting videos with phrases like q winter boots, found a sale, it is getting slippery, the videos are coming from multiple states, virginia, maryland, north

carolina and michigan. >> brian: reason to ban it. tiger besh was killed in the new year's day terror attack in new orleans, getting a surprise from his favorite franchise. >> hang down in the super bowl. >> oh. >> it is in new orleans and we understand, so if you are up for it, you're there. >> i told them if we make it, i promise i'm going to take you to the super bowl. i love nothing more than to still take him. >> brian: that is great. ryan quigley was seriously hurt and says tiger will be at the game with him in spirit. super bowl 59 next sunday, chiefs rematch with phil philadelphia. it is on fox. coverage begins 1:00 p.m. eastern time. best sports department in the country, maybe ever, fox nation is giving you, the viewers

behind the scenes look at "fox and friends." here is a look at what you see when you watch the show on fox nation. watch. >> yes, hi. >> how you doing? talking football, steve. >> steve: great. >> guy talk. i had a couple meetings and people said what is the show supposed to be and there is total silence. [laughter] >> steve: they decided they wanted to do more traditional morning show. we had a nationwide contest, name the new show. we're having a contest to change fox express, send entries. we got thousands of entries from across the country. great names. breakfast in bedlam. we have a new name, folks, no longer fox express, here's "fox and friends". >> brian: ed mcmahon was a friend of the show, on all the

time, his daughter worked here. i started in epa 97 and steve started in '96. >> ainsley: was there not e-mail? >> brian: we had tapes. get that tape of afghanistan invasion, physically get a tape and bring to the control room. >> lawrence: you can see the color correction of the tv, low grade definition, hd, now 4k. >> brian: we were convinced nobody was watching. we would thoroughly forget we were on the air. there would be nothing in the prompter. >> lawrence: what has changed about the show? >> brian: everything, i think 9/11 changed everything. we used to take random people off the street and put them in. that changed. if the show -- it was fun, it really -- we talked to somebody else and things got serious and

we realized we had to establish ourselves. >> ainsley: brian will tell me, we did an interview with borat in irk ca. we go back on youtube and find it. >> brian: incredible. >> ainsley: crazy things. >> brian: not sure he would be booked again. >> lawrence: check it out on fox nation. >> ainsley: school choice getting a leg up with the trump administration. >> lawrence: kellyanne conway will attend a roundtable with the president today.

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comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. >> brian: president trump issued three executive orders to restore american education, one targets end of indoctrination in k-12 school, the other pushes to combat anti-semitism on campuses and expand school choice across the nation. later today fox news contributor kellyanne conway will participate in a roundtable at white house where president trump is expected to premiere. she joins us now. this is an idea that has a game plan behind it. what can we expect? >> kellyanne: it does. so brian, there are 12 universal school choice programs in our

state. there were zero when president trump left office first time. he allowed states to flourish. we have millions who live under school choice program, so we know it is effective and increases school safety and performance, happier kids who are ready for high school. in the ecca, educational choice for children act we have 150 c co-sponsors in the house, 32 in the senate. i was with tim scott and bill c cassidy and you saw people from across the political spectrum, religious spectrum, they want kids to have a choice where they go to school. parents rights reanaissance continues. it started with president trump when he allowed parents to take

$10,000 per year tax free to help them choose the best school that fits needs of their children. president trump reauthorized d.c. opportunity scholarship program which helps kids in the city where i live, he got 10% of the vote, he knows kids deserve a fighting chance. presidents clinton and obama vetoed that twice in office and their daughters went to one of the finest schools in town. brian, i want to call on democrats to come onboard with ecca, educational choice for children act. our kids are failing because we are failing our kids. parents are saying give me a right to say where my child goings to school, it is choice of school and curriculum, we have a great chance to pass this. gone are days 15,000 or 20,000 school choice recipients ecca

would provide 10 billion to two million students. what our governors have been doing, many will be in the room today, sarah huckabee sanders, and what they are doing with universal school programs, it proves that this works. last point, brian, we had people 60 years ago, adults standing in school house doors refusing to let kids of color in school and now adults are refusing to let kids of all backgrounds out of failing schools and let money we pay to follow the kids and allow their parents to say this is the best school to fit my child's need. it is national school choice week. fact he's having this round table shows his commitment. >> brian: i hope he brings the cameras in. first term there was gun

control. let's hear debate and find where action is. thank you for the preview today. straight ahead, hhs secretary nominee r.f.k. jr. in the hot seat and democrats try to grill him on covid vaccines and more. marc siegel will tell us how he thinks it went.

(giggling) you go to sandals to get really, really close, (giggling) to the caribbean. we should do this every morning. sandals valentine's sale is now on. save up to $1,000 and get a sandal-lit dinner for two. when you're in the military you're really close with your brothers and your sisters that are in the military with you. and when you get out of the military, you kind of lose that until you find a new family. we can talk about our struggles and the things that we did overseas and not everybody can do that. adam! how's it going, brother? we live pretty close to each other. so he's always coming over. when i go to jack's house, we watch a lot of football, hang out. we go outside the friendship has kind of grown into a family i was talking to some vet■s last week amazing how we have these houses where they can come over because they■re in chairs too. carpet and wheelchairs don't mix very well. tunnel to towers, they got rid of all that.

they redid my whole bathroom i thought they were just going to do the upgrades. but the surprise to me was they paid off the entire mortgage. when they told me they're going to pay off my mortgage, i cried. please visit t2t.org >> ainsley: r.f.k. jr. continuing criticism of nih and defending his position on vaccinations. >> vaccines do not cause autism. do you agree with that? >> as i said, i will not go into hhs with any preordained. >> simple question, bobby.

studies all over the world say it does not. what do you think? >> if you show me those, i will, as promised to chairman cassidy, i will apologize. >> that is a troubling response, the studies are there. >> lawrence: dr. marc siegel is fox news senior medical analyst and joins us with more. how did he perform over the last two days? >> marc: pretty well. they were fiercely attacking him, democrats and bill cassidy from louisiana were all over him. he defended himself pretty well. the issue with vaccines starts with this. public confidence is all-time low right now. when president trump came out with operation warp speed, he could have won a nobel peace prize. instead democrats attacked him and then they turned around and started mandating it.

people did not neighborhood understand. r.f.k. jr. is reformer and disrupter and if he puts more spotlight as hhs secretary on the need to continue to study these things it is possible public confidence might be restored. from the doctor's office i'm a believer in vaccines. i look per patient, what am i looking at, what is risk and benefit? i see benefit in childhood vaccines. point with r.f.k. jr., you can never have too much studying and when is last time they were studied and have more transp transportation transparency in government. >> ainsley: do you think it he will be confirmed? >> marc: it is tight. i worry about democrats and bill cassidy, i don't know. cassidy is the key vote. >> ainsley: there are democrats that said they were thinking about voting yes for him.

john fetterman and maybe bernie sanders. >> marc: even cory booker. >> marc: bernie sanders is being tough on him, there is possibility he will get that vote. leaning toward thinking he will be confirmed. lawrence and brian have a bet on this. i think republicans are trying to show support for the president's choices. look at pete hegseth, i know him as a friend, i can't believe hows great he was on this show. >> lawrence: what do you make of the criticism on him? he is a disrupter, they are trying to make it seem like him bringing to light about health is a conspiracy. our kids are getting sicker, we are having when it comes to food here, it is different. >> marc: huge. his best moment was not yesterday, day before he said big pharma and big food are going to come after you. he is saying 20% of children is

obese. nih spend on childhood disease, what are they spending on self-imposed disease? r.f.k. jr. said, i don't care who comes after me, i'm not backing down. that reminded me of rr.f.k. >> ainsley: i'm here for the public, not for me. new report claims federal workers are living in fear and chaos as president trump disrupts the status quo. >> lawrence: kayleigh mcenany reacts with that next.

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>> janice: we are watching dca, the airport where we had a ground stop, but things lifted now. a lot of airport airplanes and light rain. the rest of the northeast, rain, ice, freezing rain and snow for interior sections of parts of upstate new york to new england. it is going to be messy today.e. better day saturday. not a lot of snow, it is no nuisance weather and will cause travel issues. that system across the east. west coast, we have an

atmospheric river for parts of central california, fire hose of water moving into the same area, over a foot of rain along the coast and feet of snow in the mountains much flash flooding is a risk, especially in the burn areas. i wish we could get rain in southern california. extreme warm-up across the south. temperatures in the 70s and 80s for the weekend. that is something we'll be watching. over to you. >> ainsley: president trump warning federal workers they must show up to the office or they'll be fired. >> president trump: if people aren't coming to work, if they are not going to report to the office as per the date, everybody knows the date, then they'll be terminated. >> you are not concerned if people take that offer there could be shortages.

>> they will be replaced with competent people. we have a lot of competent people in this country. >> ainsley: federal workers are gripped by fear and chaos as trump disrupts status quo in government. "outnumbered" co-host kayleigh mcenany joins us. why are they fearful and why is there chaos? they just have to go back to the office? >> kayleigh: i'm glad there is fear, there was resistance from within. they were meeting with obama-era staff about how to undermine president trump. now here is trump 2.0, saying a lot of us will stay out of spite, we're here for ever how long we want. i don't think so. >> ainsley: trump pardoned a lot of pro-life protesters, grandparents, mothers, catholic

priest, holocaust survivors convicted for nonviolent protest at abortion facilities. you sat down and received exclusive interview from some individuals, tell us about that. >> kayleigh: they were lovely, paulette, jean, grandmother of six and eight and william goodman couldn't get toilet paper for two weeks, according to him, other inmates say trans inm inmates get lipstick and hairspray. jean marshall, i said, would you do it again? she said yes. listen to this >> kayleigh: what were other inmates like? did they treat you well? >> pretty fair to us. later we had a bible study going and couple of the women joined and they were enthusiastic and

thankful. one of them said now i know why i wound up in prison, so i could hear this bible study. >> kayleigh: wow, did you ask yourself why god? >> no. i was so thankful to god he could use me, one vessel of goodness if there was something left. >> ainsley: what was her story? how long did she go to prison and why was she there? >> kayleigh: she was assisted to three years, she said she engaged in no violence, she was a nurse. her sister is paulette, they love deeply, peaceful at heart and want to protect babies but sent to prison by the government. in william's case, the government admitted, you did not commit violence, they used ku klux klan act, so he goes to

jail for no violence for protecting the unborn. >> ainsley: that is weaponization and that is why donald trump won because we're sick of this, tired of it. watch the full interview today on "outnumbered." i'll be watching, fascinating. christian music star brandon lake nominated for two grammys, he's here with a preview. let's check 234 with dana perino for what is coming up. >> dana: unfortunately we have recovery operations underway in d.c., under worsening weather conditions. we learn more about the lives lost. heartbreaking stories. more hostages to be released today, will the scene be chaotic? israel's ambassador to the united states joins us ahead of the visit to washing and is gitmo a place for illegal aliens? joey jones will be here on that. we have a busy day, will make

the most of your time and see you here at 9:00.

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time gram' award winner and christian music superstar brandon lake keeping busy since this summer. the peak of his career, receiving two more nominations at this sunday's grammy awards. >> ainsley: brandon joins us now and congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> ainsley: we're honored to have you every time. we love your music. have gotten us through the ups and downs of lives. how do you feel about this? >> great, so honored. christian music is less than 1% of music consumed in the world genre-wise, to be nominated for two more grammys. having won five now with different people i work with is just a dream come true and feels like god's favor. i'm very grateful. >> lawrence: more folks are learning about you but more people in the industry more mainstream are collaborating with you and you are working with jelly roll who talks about his faith all the time.

>> i was super inspired by his story. he was performing at the cmas a few weeks or months ago and watched him lead the world in worship with a song called "i believe." i was in tears. something is happening. the lines are blurred between christian and country and god is trying to infiltrate every again and i'm grateful for jelly and this song resonates with "hard fought hal -- >> how do you interact? when the grammys come in. do you get the respect among our brethren? >> yeah, i would say it's mixed. i think that's one of the things i feel called to in the

christian industry and ccm. i feel like christian culture was leading in art at one point and i think maybe we've taken a back seat. i believe our message is the most powerful message. i think we need to dig deeper lyrically and try to present something that with excellence and that's really what i'm trying to do. not saying i get it right all the time. i want to see our industry leading again. there is respect but we have a long way to go to prove to the world that we should be the leaders in art in general. >> ainsley: so exciting the growth of christian music among millennials and younger listeners has grown. last year in 2024, 45%. why do you think that is? because there is more christian music available, people are excited and on fire for the lord, what is it? >> i'm experiencing, the darker it gets and we're in a dark season, the brighter the light

will shine and people are so desperate for truth and authenticity and something real. nothing more real than god. and i believe that holy spirit is just up to something and he is looking for people that will say yes and that will create this art and worship and i just think left and right like jelly and so many other people i'm finding that are sick of fake and sick of something that is just getting them by. they want something that is going to make them alive and fully alive and that's jesus christ. >> brian: your guitar is right over your shoulder to the right hanging on the wall. >> i have 18 here. my wife hates it. >> ainsley: you go to his website brandon lake.com and download his new song coming out on february 7th. we'll watch on sunday. thank you. >> brian: join me on radio, everyone. >> bill: here we go live