griff: the investigation into last night's crash of a medevac plane carrying six people is underway. in addition to those on the

flight, one person who was in a car was also a killed. philadelphia officials saying 19 others were injured. welcome to "fox news live," i'm griff jenkins. let's go to philadelphia for the very latest with nate foy if sand thing by continuing to report from -- standing by continuing to report from there. nate, what can you tell us? if. >> reporter: hey, griff. so officials at the state, local and federal level continue investigating, and you mentioned the newest numbers. we knew going into the day that six mexican nationals died upon impact during that crash last night. we now know that another person, unfortunately, has passed away in their car surrounding the impact strike. and hen on top of that -- then on top of that or, 19 other people sent to various hospitals throughout the city, their conditions right now not exactly known, but what is clear is they did not have a lot of time to the react at all. take a look at this.

[inaudible conversations] [background sounds] >> reporter: can't imagine the terror there, griff. the plane was in the air for about 30 seconds before it crashed. what also happened quickly for the people onboard, the company involved, jet rescue air a mans, has a history of problems. they had another deadly crash in 2023 in mexico. five people died after the pilot overshot the runway. but their managing director says this medical jet showed no signs of trouble at all. listen to this. >> this airplane is a workhorse. it's been working the past few weeks, everything is okay. and there was no indication of any problem whatsoever. >> reporter: now you can see, of course, we have a big problem with the ntsb, faa, atf, tate and locals all investigate investigating. you see the wreckage from the jet here, and the wreckage of a

neighborhood in northeast philadelphia. the explosion lit homeses and cars on fire. firefighters put out five fires in total, and they're still trying to to understand just how much damage there really is. listen to this. >> the area of impact, that a area is roughly 4-6 blocks. and we also a have debris in remote area. it's a very widespread area, and we are still trying to understand the entire scope. >> reporter: transportation secretary sean duffy received an update from the ntsb today, and officials here locally said that number of 19 injuries could fluctuate, and they're still also a gathering more information. something that could possibly help as the sun has come up today and we've been able to see more of the impact zone through choppers overlooking the area, griff, is that it doesn't hook like there was a particular structure that was hit directly.

so as terrible as this was, it appears that it could have been even worse. we'll send it back to you. griff: tragic and such an insightful point. nate foy live for us in philly, thank you. recovery efforts continue this morning on the potomac river here in washington after a mid-air collision between the plane and a blake hawk rell copter -- black hawk helicopter this week, this after the ntsb revealed the black boxes from both aircraft have been recovered and evaluated at the ntsb lab. grady trimble live with more. hi, grady. >> reporter: hey, griff. and the black box from the helicopter in particular will be critical in this investigation because if that helicopter was, in fact, flying higher than it should have been, the investigators will be able to use that black box the tell. to tell the. >> the black hawk was too high. it was above the 200 limit by double.

it shouldn't have been there. and there were some other mistakes made too, and i pointed them also, and i was right on all of them. they'll still do an investigation just to check it out. >> reporter: the ntsb is not responding to president trump's comments that dei hiring of air traffic controllers during the biden administration played a role in the crash, but it does tell us it's interviewing the air traffic controllers who were working at the time of wednesday's mid-air collision. >> we'll go back and looked at their past probably 72 hours, even 2-3 weeksful we'll look at their training, their hiring, everything. what they probably ate that day. but it is not one point that tells us everything. it's layered into a lot of other information that's very critical. if. >> reporter: the ntsb has begun removing debris from the potomac river bringing in barges from virginia beach to help with that process. that will help not only those crash investigators, but with also d.c. fire crews who continue recovery efforts today.

at the time of the last update, they had removed 41 of the 67 victims from the water. we also know that more than 100 family members are here in the d.c. area receiving briefings from the if ntsb, d.c. fire and the d.c. medical examiner's office. also want to point out some reporting from if my colleague, matt reedy, griff, and that is it looks like as of now the flight that american airlines operates between wichita and here in d.c. which, of course, was the same route that this fateful plane was flying, that flight is expected to resume tomorrow. but when it does so, it will operate under a different flight number, american appears to have retired the flight number of wednesday night's flight. griff? gy griff grady trimble live from reagan national airport, thank you. all right. for more on both plane crashes, let's bring in former pilot and aviation attorney arthur the rosenberg. arthur, thank you for taking

time. we appreciate your insight. and let's just get your initial reaction. we've all seen the horrific crash in philadelphia around 6:30 last night. what do you make of what may have happened? i learned from covering the washington crash as a reporter in going to the ntsb briefings, they a say that in all investigations they kind of look at three things, the human element, the machine element and the environment element. we think that a it was cold but not particularly harsh environment at night. we now just heard in nate foy's report from the jet company that there was nothing wrong with the plane, so could this be human error? >> yeah. so the ntsb looks at man, machine, weather. i think the post dispositive piece of information we have now are the film that was a a captured. what i saw in that film, and i kind of juxtapose that with the

radar data which is available now. so what do we know? we know the plane was climbing out, was in in the air about 40 seconds, had reached about 200 knots and about 1600 feet. when you pick up the film that we have of the crash sequence, it looked like all forward movement of this learjet 55 stopped. it was proceeded -- preceded momentarily as a big flash, probably an explosion. the plane nosed over almost. vertically and went down within seconds and hit in north philadelphia. so it devolves down to this: what could cause an in-air explosion like the one that was captured on the film. one of two things or both. one, this was an air ambulance. there were oxygen tanks onboard. we don't know specifically what the oxygen tanks were, although some were captured on the ground, and they looked like simply compressed air which can

be incredibly flammable if those tank it is are punctured or collide, and number two, yes fuel. the back of this leer 55, mere the engines there are fuel bladders. if the engine had a failure through a turbine blade that punctured those bladders, it could cause a massive explosion. either way you slice that, i saw in-flight if explosion if seems the most likely cause would be oxygen tanks or a fuel tank and tragedy that followed. griff: you're touching on something that chris bauer, aviation expert in our last hour, touched on. that is this rapid descent that we saw. here's a little bit of what he said. i want to see if you agree. >> iting -- it looked to me like it was initially accelerating normally but then it stopped. it seemed to have leveled off and then it started a descent. ultimately wound up descending

at over 11,000 feet a minute. by griff do you agree with that and would an explosion if account for rapid descent like that? >> yeah. so what he said objectively, i completely agree with. what i'm kind of, like, drilling down with is what could cause that the based upon available information. and for me, there's only two things. massive explosion if caused by an oxygen explosion, probably a tank onboard, oxygen tank, or perforation of a fuel bladder in or near the engines. once that happens, the engines flame out, there's no forward movement which accounts for why the forward movement visually in flight as a captured on the film seems to show the plane basically stopping in mid-air followed by the fatal plunge to the ground. so the ntsb is going to do their full investigation, but i would note for your viewers that this plane is registered to the mexican authorities.

this is not the united states' registered airplane. griff: right. >> standard procedures are different in the two countries. as far as the maintenance of this plane, i would say -- i would be very interested as a plaintiff's lawyer the know what they did to that plane when it was the on the ground in north philly. they refueled it, was the refueling done right, was there any maintenance if done to the engines, what was done? we mow that there was a massive explosion, now we have to find out why. griff: we do. and, arthur, just in the last 20 the seconds or so i've got, just your insight on what you think may be the cause of crash here in washington. >> yeah. well, for my money, the bottom line here is you have a black hawk helicopter which meandered into the air space of the american airlines plane. it was half a mile outside the corridor it was supposed to be in and at least 100 feet above the altitude. they clearly didn't see each

other. the air traffic controller's job on this, for my money, was terrible. i think he was preoccupied with getting a flight if on and off the main runway, runway 1 at reagan which is the busiest runway in the united states of america. they normally have two controllers, one handling the military, one handling civilian. this controller, we don't know who he was or what his prior schedule was, but i think was overlooked and in that instant of time when his attention was diverted to the civilian aircraft, this tragedy happened. griff: a tragedy, indeed, and we'll find out more. the ntsb telling us yesterday they have begun interviewing the air a traffic control witnesses that were there. we'll see where it leads us. arthur rosenberg with, thank you for your insigh, as always. >> thank you for having me. my pleasure. griff: we have a fox news alert. president trump says a u.s. airstrike has killed a terrorist leader in somalia. lucas tomlinson live in west

palm beach with the very latest. lucas, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, griff, president trump says he ordered multiple drone strikes against an isis leader and other terrorists inside somalia, and he had a message to isis. it reads,es quote: we will find you and we will kill you. the president also reacting to this latest plane crash, this time in philadelphia, taking to truth social last night9 and posting, quote, so sad to see the plane go down in philadelphia, pennsylvania. more innocent souls lost. our people are totally engaged. paris responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. more the follow. god bless you all. and here's president trump on the tariffs he wants to impose on canada, mexico and china. >> tariffs don't cause inflation, they cause success. if they cause big success. we're going to have great success. there could be some temporary, short-term disruption, and people will understand that. i had that when i negotiated some of the good deals for the farmers and, unfortunately,

those deals have been led astray by biden and his people because they didn't enforce the deals. >> reporter: here's trump's former secretary of state and cia a director, mike pompeo, on those tariffs. >> i think some of the risk of inflation that people talk about is likely overstated. some of this will end up being absorbed by the producers. and to know exactly where the economic risk will pall is difficult to know in advance -- will fall is difficult to know in advance. >> reporter: td economics says these looming trump tariffs on canadian oil could increase gas prices by up to 70 cents a gallon. canada supplies about 60% of the crude oil the u.s. imports. trump wants to produce more oil domestically. last night president trump's special envoy, ric grenell, posted this photo showing six americans freed from venezuela and returning to the united states. trump reacting to the news saying in part, quote, it is so good to have the venezuelan hostages back home and very important to note that

venezuela's agreed to receive back all illegal aliens encamped in the u.s. including gang members. moments ago, griff, the white house also releasing a statement saying president trump just received a call from egypt's president. it says in part, quote, president el sisi expressed his confidence that president trump's leadership could usher in a golden age of middle east -- [audio difficulty] griff: wow. all right, lucas tomlinson live for us with that that breaking news. thank you, lucas. ♪ griff: peen if while, hamas has released three more hostages under its ongoing ceasefire deal with us el room. -- israel. among them are an american-israeli dual citizen as well as the father of one of the youngest hostages still in captivity. trey yingst joining us live from if tel aviv with the latest. hey, trey. >> reporter: good afternoon. another hostage release took place today with three additional people being freed from hamas if captivity. among them, keith siegel, an

american citizen who was released from the gaza port. you can see in this video here hamas parading him across a stage. he was taken with his wife. he was released during the first ceasefire. we do know another man also was freed today from southern gaza in the city of khan yunis, and his wife and two young children were kidnapped on the 7th of october. his wife and young children haven't been seen since. you will notice scenes that were far less chaos requesticked today. israel had threatened hamas with pausing the release of the palestinian prisoners if the hostages were paraded through a crowd again. the exchange took place for 183 palestinian prisoners, and we are getting a new statement now from the white house. karoline leavitt, the press secretary, saying, quote, today americans celebrate the return of american-israeli citizen keith siegel and two israelis held captive since october 7th, 2023.

president trump and his administration is have worked diligently to secure their release and are committed to freeing all remaining hostages. as we look forward here, we do expect a similar release to take place next saturday with more israeli hostages freed from gaza exchanged for palestinian prisoners. griff? griff: trey, the emotion in those videos of reunification after more than 400-something days in captivity are touching. trey yingst live in tel aviv. trey, thank you. as secretary of state marco rubio visits panama, his first stop, there is concern over china's presence and growing influence in the region. that's next. ♪ but with 6-times the data. can your smartwatch do that? introducing kardiamobile 6l, the fda-cleared ekg that provides six-times more heart data than any smartwatch. and it detects three of the most common arrhythmias in just 30 seconds, including atrial fibrillation, bradycardia and tachycardia.

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for millions of families like my own. in the average household, there are dozens of connected devices. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. griff: a showdown is looming over the panama canal and newly-minted secretary of state marco rubio is headed there. as you can see, the united states, panama, there is the canal. but let's zoom in just a little bit more, and you can see the chinese, a chinese-owned company on both sides of that canal are owned. now, china does not own or operate the canal, but they own ports at either end, here in balboa. that's the port where we find steve harrigan. steve, what can you tell us about where you are?

>> reporter: griff, it's pretty interesting. i'm standing right now in what used to be the american zone where u.s. engineers lived during the time that the u.s. really ran the canal here in panama. but just across the street from me is that balboa port that you were talking about. that is owned by a hong kong private company. now, panamanian officials say they had nothing to do with running the canal, but secretary of state marco rubio says there's not a whole lot of difference between a chinese private company and the chinese government. if push comes to shove, they need to cause a chokepoint in the canal, sink a ship, devastate the u.s. economy, they will do so. is that's the real issue rubio is coming here to solve. president trump has gone even further. he says china a controls the canal, and he has really issued a warning. panama will not get away with it. so we have the u.s. secretary of state making his first trip the a close ally and yet between the u.s. and its ally, panama, all options including military are on the table.

griff, back to you. griff: great reporting and insight as always, steve harrigan for us in panama city there. steve, thank you very much. now, for more on this let's get in gatestone institute senior fellow gordon chang who is all a too familiar with this. and, gordon, as steve a the just pointed out -- steve just pointed out, the secretary of state, marco rubio, decides his first flight is right down there to panama city, to the panama canal. and as we pointed out with steve, gordon, you have this very important canal, one of the busiest waterways in the world. but on both ends in balboa and in cristobal you have chinese companies, holding companies that own those ports. how much of a concern of chinese influence is this, and what do you make of the fact that the new trump add administration is so intent on engaging here?

>> this is absolutely critical because china can shut down the canal at will. and it could do so through those two port operations at both ends of the canal, as you point out, because they are run by hutchison which is a hong kong company, but in china's system they cannot ignore or disobey an order from the party. but also we have other chinese enterprises in the zone. and and just to give you an example, china is now building the fourth bridge over the panama canal. right now they're just abutments in the water, but in a year and a half from now there'll be steel over the waterway. china can bring that bridge down, and we know what can happen because if in march in baltimore when a ship hit the peer of the francis scott key bridge, it closed the port of baltimore. well, china can do the same thing in any number of different ways. griff: well, and, gordon, obviously we've talked about the two ports in the panama canal, but to your point for our

viewers, let's broaden it a little bit. look at all a of these ports, key places down, africa, you've got the suez canal, wow got european, you've got the english channel, the singapore straits, a number of ports controlled or owned by the chinese. and this began decades ago. the i maritime silk road, as some have referred to it. were we not paying attention, and is this something that the trump administration is now able to catch up to, or are we too far behind? >> well, we weren't paying attention. it's never too late to do manager. but, you know, in -- something. in our own hemisphere, we have chinese ports all throughout south america, central america and the caribbean. and one of them is within 87 miles of the florida east coast. that's in freeport in the bahamas. and china, of course, has extensive operations in cuba which are mostly military, so we

have a region which is closer to china thans it is to the united states. -- we saw that when biden was humiliated when he went to peru last year. so this is really the first time that that we've had a president who is focused on diplomacy in the western hemisphere. and that's a really good thing, because these threats are critical. griff: well, and to your point for our viewers, so cuba here, and you're talking about the influence of china. that, of course, now the gulf of america. exxon and their shareholders referred to it as that. perhaps with time it'll change. but you talk about really the entire not just panama, but from colombia all the way up through central america there is a number of chinese-controlled entities there that may cause problems. how successful will the administration, should the administration expect to be in trying to wane or wean off some of that influence?

>> i think that trump -- well, first of all, mexico, canada, countries in the region is are taken us for granted. and trump, who is willing to use american power and exert leverage, can change this. this will be a long-term process, but we can do it especially because, ultimately, these countries depend more on us than they do on china. although china has extensive trade relations with them, those easy to change. and so for a long time, you know, we have just ignored what we call our backyard. and china right now has extensive operations throughout it. griff: i just want to take you to one other place, gordon x that's this. here in this area, this is the darien gap. the dangerous space between colombia and panama. i've gone through there at the height of the border crisis during the biden administration. thousands come through. many from places like venezuela, south america, but also known terrorists.

do you suspect that part of the trump administration's intent of sending rubio the panama on the first trip may also involve some of tapping -- tamping down that gateway of the global migrant flow that comes through that dangerous darien gap? >> absolutely. the biden administration if built infrastructure to facilitate migrant flows through the darien gap. especially the san vicente camp in panama at the north end of the gap. by the way, the trump administration is no longer going to fund that and, more important, we've got to remember that war correspondent michael ya who's now in panama if has been reporting that the chinese are starting a road through the darien gap. the darien gap prevents a lot of migrants from coming to china because it's almost impassable. but with the chinese, they are going to reconnect south and central america through the darian darien gap.

and if that's the case, that gives migrants a much easier path into the united states, and china is facilitating that. griff: gordon, why does it come as no surprise that even the chinese find the darien gap being a place they've got to go through? gordon chang, as always a, great insight. we shall continue to follow secretary of state rubio's trip down there, have you on comment, and we'll see where it goes. thank you very much. >> thanks, griff. griff coming up, president trump's cabinet nominees, where do they stand in the senate confirmation process? we'll tell you, that's next.r cl ♪ they're conquerors and champions, and what matters most to them matters most to us. it's no wonder we have a 4.9 out of 5 client satisfaction rating. ameriprise financial. it's time to feed the dogs real food in the right amount. a healthy weight can help dogs live a longer and happier life. the farmer's dog makes weight management easy with fresh food pre-portioned for your dog's needs.

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people onboard the medical flight who we now know was a little girl, her mother, a doctor, a paramedic, a pilot and a co-pilot all were from mexico. and so, unfortunately, seven total deaths that we know about so far. shriner's, a nonprofit children's hospital that treats kids for free, confirms it was treating the little girl for a life-threatening condition. we're waiting to learn how that little girl, how old that little girl was and what condition she had, but shriner's is primarily known for treating kids with orthopedic issues. that child was finally done with treatments there and was heading back home to tijuana, mexico, before the tragic crash. and the philadelphia mayor also confirms they now know of 19 people being treated in area hospitals, but authorities are really emphasizing that the number of deaths and injuries will likely go up. here's the payor with earlier today. concern mayor earlier today.

>> i happen to be a praying mayor, and i know that prayer works. and if -- the most powerful thing that that you can do if you're home right now, if you're anywhere across the nation or in the commonwealth or the city and you're saying, what can i the do to help, offer a prayer for our city. now is the tame that we need it. >> reporter: horrible situation over in philly. and the mayor says that anyone displaced from their homes as a result of this how old call the red cocross. -- should call the red cross, anyone that sees debris or other evidence should call 911, and there are local mental health services available for anyone who needs it. griff? griff: yeah. and dr. nicole saphier earlier on the program talking about the chairmans of what a may be fallout in that wide debris area, some 4-6 blocks. madison scarpino, thanks very much. >> reporter: thank, griff. ♪ griff: president trump's cabinet is taking shape as the senate has confirmed eight of his

nominees so far. seven with bipartisan support, but land mines are ahead. senior congressional correspondent chad pergram has more. >> reporter: a trifecta of turbulence. the most pitched nomination battles lie ahead as the a senate tangles with confirming fbi director nominee kash patel, director of national intelligence nominee tulsi gabbard and robert p. kennedy jr. to run the department of health and human services. >> president trump has selected poem of intelligence with, people who are -- people of intelligence, people who are articulate, they're unflappable, they defend themselves and they're willing to fight. >> reporter: vice president vance warning republicans who to oppose the president's nominees. >> you don't get to make these decisions. president trump gets to make these decisions, and he alreadies d -- already has. >> you learn a lot about people. you see who's really answering questions, and you see who

cardiologies -- dodges the questions. >> reporter: consider consternation over rfk jr. for chairman bill cassidy. >> there are issues, man, um -- ultra-processed food, obesity, we're simpatico. >> reporter: but cassidy's also a doctor. he worries about a kennedy's past opposition to vaccines. >> aye been struggling with your nomination. >> reporter: maine's susan collins could be a swing vote on tulsi gabbard. >> i have not made a final decision. she responded well to my questions. >> reporter: democrats doubted whether gabbard would protect the nation's secrets after he lauded one of the biggest raiders of american intelligence. >> she couldn't call edward snowden a traitor. what message would that send to allies around the world? >> reporter: kash patel is likely the easiest to confirm if republicans stick together. also up for vote soon, chris wright for secretary of energy and doug collins to run the rah v.a. both should score bipartisan

support. griff? griff: chad pergram live on the hill, thank you. well, for more on the confirmation hearing, let's bring in today's political panel. with us now, prospective strategies' ryan taylor and the president of corcoran treat group president, brad howard. brian, brad, thank you very much. let's get to that. now, we are going to go into these nominees, but i'm hearing reports just now the dnc is electing their new chairman. the person to lead them forward. and, you know, i think it's no secret that in the blistering november if elections the dnc has really taken its lumps. democrats receiving -- and i'm looks at you, brad, i'm coming to you first -- [laughter] >> yeah. griff: americans view the democrat party unfavorably. you have an emboldened trump, and most of my friends in this

city of more than 30 years are pretty deflated about the direction things have gone. so we had on the ballot to lead e the dnc three middle-aged white guys, ben winkler, ken martin and former baltimore -- or maryland governor martin o'malley. we're learning that ken martin, the -- >> minnesota. griff: -- chairman of the minnesota democratic party, what's your reaction to this? >> first of all, it's a huge feat for him because there were actually, i think, eight or nine candidates. those were the three main ones you spoke about. you know, i was at the dnc meeting where they kind of debated one another. there's not a lot of difference in policy. this is an interesting dnc chair race in the sense that no one -- there wasn't the moderate and the progressive. what this is about is who is best equipped to rebuild the party because our brand is spiraling. weave -- we've got to do something to bring back the role of the dnc which is to support democrats around the country.

the party leaders, hakeem jeffries, the leader in the house, he's the one that can retake the house in 2026 and give us the leverage of power and a full unified control of government. ken marthe if, huge win. -- ken martin. first ballot. he's got experience running the minnesota party which has some experience in winning, and he was able to cobble together very early endorsements, and that carried him through the end. griff: one more follow-up on that, brad, because as i understand it reading in the "wall street journal" this morning, ben winkler, the wisconsin candidate, had the backing of jeffreys, pelosi and schumer. is this a bucking of the party bosses? >> yeah. remember who is voting here, right? these are democratic party chairs from around the country. these are democratic party insiders, and they are very knowledgeable about the candidates, very knowledgable about the specific thing they want out of the dnc. you know, those endorsements can help gain momentum. at the end of the day, these people probably already had a

their minds made up. most of those endorsements came in the last two weeks. griff: great insight, and i'm sorry to turn the -- but, i really wanted to get it. and, ryan, i assume you don't have any dnc insight, so i'll turn you to the confirmation hearings. president trump has had quite a lot of success with nominees going through. but now we have these three that seem to be under scrutiny, rfk jr. with, tulsi, and, of course, kash patel. senator josh hawley says he's a little concerned about votes for tulsi. here's some of what he had to say. listen. >> i'm worried by what i hear from some of my republican colleagues. i'm worried that her mom -- nomination may be in jeopardy. and i'm just worried about what that will mean. griff: ryan, are you worried about a tulsi or any of the others? >> i'm not, no. in fact, i think all three from this past week, rfk jr., kash patel and til i gabbard, came

out stronger in -- tulsi gabbard, came out stronger than they were going in. i think they demonstrated a couple of things; one, that they are committed to america first policies and that they are extremely competent. and president biden -- excuse me, president trump put these nominees in place because he values competence over political party. and i think all three demonstrated that kind of expertise and strength and commitment to his administration. griff: if they don't pass, ryan, will it be trouble for whoever votes existence them in the eyes of president trump -- against hem in the eyes of president trump? >> what you have seen from senate republicans and senate majority thune in the past two weeks is that they are ab able to get through president trump's nominees. i do not believe that that we're going to face any issue there. i do believe that they're going to get confirmed, so i'm not worried about that. griff: brad, we're tight on time because there was so much breaking news today, but if you had to pick one or more than

one, do you see trouble for any of these the -- >> yeah. i think tulsi gabbard's the one many trouble, the difference being she doesn't have a social media following or personality the way the other two do. rfk jr. has an incredible from file, so does kash patel. he doesn't -- griff: but he was a democrat congresswoman. >> exactly. she doesn't have the kind of base support that the other two have. so i think she's in the weaker position, and i think her answers on ed snowden were terrible and disqualifying for a lot of republicans. are. griff: great insight, as always. thanks for joining us today. all right. meanwhile, multiple top officials at the fbi have been orders to retire, resign -- orders to retire, resign -- ordered to retire, resign or be fired. next.p liy, ♪ ♪ okay. bottom line? well, the bottom line is this is an amazing value. what? get two pairs of progressives and an eye exam starting at just $159.95 at america's best.

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griff: president trump's shake-up at if fbi is underway as the doj orders the firings of some of the bureau's top brass. other agents and employees told to either retire or quit.

madeleine rivera is here live with more. shake-up is an understatement. >> reporter: it is. and what's interesting here, griff, is this appears to affect koj prosecutors and -- doj prosecutors and rank and file agents. acting director brian driscoll sent a note to staff saying the acting deputy attorney general told him eight a senior fbi executives are to be terminated by specific dates millions these the employees have retired beforehand. he also wants a list of current and former fbi personnel assigned to january 6th and a maas cases. that is a massive record, that includes driscoll himself as the investigation into the capitol attack was the biggest investigation in the history of the justice department. the order of terminations and the reports to oust fbi agents came on the same day top justice department officials ordered the firings of prosecutors who work on january 6th cases. bove says the trump administration is looking to the end, quote, the weaponization of the federal government which some republicans support.

>> donald trump talked about this on the campaign trail, that they were going to clean out the rot that is in the department of justice, in the fbi. and so this is the beginning of that process. >> reporter: democrats say the firings undermine the independence of the justice department. the fbi agents' association also said dismissing hundreds of agents would weaken the fbi's ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats, griff. griff: that's such a great point, madeleine, because we had former fbi agent nicole parker on this program, and she said, listen, there are so many great agents who have devoted their lives to protecting the cunninger we can't lose them. -- we can't -- this country. >> reporter: and david spunt, our justice department correspondent, told us he spoke with a source who said, look, a lot of these rank and file agents are following leads and getting orders from their supervisors. this could potentially affect thousands of people across the country, griff. griff: hopefully we don't lose many good men and women in the fbi, because we're going to need

them. madeleine rivera,ing thank you thank you very much. meanwhile, president trump signing sweeping executive orders to expand school choice. that's next. ♪ ♪ a little something, dad? oh, umm. hi. walt rolled his 401k accounts into an empower ira and it's grown nicely. so i say, let a gramps be a gramps. okay, just promise me it doesn't make a lot of noise. (engine roars) (♪) go, baby! go! (♪) thanks, grandpa! get good at money. so you can be a little bad. empower. you don't hurt cause you're old. you hurt because your mattress stinks, which makes our job a lot easier. sleeping on purple improves your energy by 20%, which is awful - for us. it's very good news for you. get up to $900 off a mattress and base. visit purple.com type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone.

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♪ ♪ >> the president believes american education should focus

on cultivating patriotic citizens who are ready for the work force. and this action will help get schools a back on track and defend fundamental parental rights in education. griff: president trump signing an executive order that would give taxpayer dollars to parents to pay for schools they pick as national school choice week comes to a close. for more let's bring in american culture project senior fellow corey deangelis. corey, what do you make of this executive order, and what does it mean for millions of parents and their kids across the country? >> yeah, look, trump is showing the entire american public why he won the parent vote by 9 points back if november. he is the leader of the parents' party, and he's going to to the make education great again. this executive order puts wind at the sail ises of the school choice momentum that's already happening in red states in particular. just this week tennessee became the 3th republican--- 13th republican-led state to go all

in on school choice, passing a universal education freedom act for families to take their child's education dollars to the cool that a works best for them. this is can -- school that works best for them. this is really good timing on the part of trump, but also we had on wednesday the nation's report card scores came out showing decades of learning loss. we spend about $20,000 per student, per year in this country in the public schools. that's 52% higher than the average private school tuition. so this is a great news from trump. this is going to cause more competition which is a rising tide that lifts all boats. when people have more choices, when families can vote with their feet, the public schools crash their a heads a little bit and say -- scratch their heads and say we're going to treat them as u.s. customers, not as the enemy, but as partners in the relationship. and they tart to put that money towards the classroom, towards the teachers that are doing a good job, and everybody else is better off because of it.

griff gruff but, corey, randi weingarten says this is a direct attack on public schools. >> look, the money doesn't belong to the government-run schools. the money belongs to the parents and the taxpayers. it's for the kids. education funding is meant for educating children, not for protecting a particular institution it's time to fund students, not systems. and guess what? the public schools are going to be fine. there's a lot of great public schools out there, and families are going to continue to send their children to those institutions. so randi weingarten's just worried about her knot of $500,000 -- north of $500,000 a year paycheck, and she's worried about the money that she's going to funnel to the democrat party which is a wholely-owned sub subsidiary of the teachers union. her union funneled 90% of the campaign contributions to the democrat party in 2024. that's too bad for randi, but great news for parents, kids and

even teachers. griff: that's not the only executive order the president signed this week. another sought to get critical race theory out of curriculum -- curriculums. corey deangelis, thank you for taking time to join us. >> thank you. griff: that's it for us, "fox live."0 journal editorial report igrs e journal editorial report igrs e nextne. i'm griff jenkins, thanks for watching. ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to 7 hours. ♪

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