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>> steve: it is 8:00 here in new york city. this is our final hour of "fox and friends" for the week. >> brian: we think. >> steve: no, it is. >> lawrence: could be breaking news. >> s >> steve: tgif, vice president j.d. vance is set to speak at that event, national prayer breakfast in d.c. any minute now as white house puts focus back on religion. >> ainsley: plus a crucial meeting at the white house today as president trump hosts ukraine president zelenskyy to sign that minerals deal. what is in it for you and your family? >> it ties us economically, politically and obviously with unbelievable interest in the future security of ukraine. >> brian: right. >> lawrence: good energy.

>> brian: i think so, too. partnership fbi is considering to get agents in top shape. here is a hint, it has eight sides. >> lawrence: that is great. >> steve: not the pentagon. >> brian: that is five. >> ainsley: oct gone has eight sides. >> steve: that's it. >> brian: why have a riddle if you are going to answer it. >> steve: you answered it. >> brian: she did. >> ainsley: you did. >> brian: president trump will host president zelenskyy, two y's at the white house this morning, two expected to sign a critical deal that could make the u.s.a. a lot of money and ukraine would prosper, as well. >> ainsley: lucas tomlinson is live at the white house with more. good morning. >> lucas: good morning. that is right, looming over this deal, what kind of security agreements are involved, one reason ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is coming here.

miners could extract rare earth minerals out of the ground in ukraine. we have a list of minerals in ukraine, include titainium used in f-35 bulk head, lingo for walls and engine parts. lithium used for batteries, electric vehicles, steel production and nickel used in jet engine production and cobalt used in rechargeable batteries and ev production. half these rare earth minerals are occupied by russian forces. gone is harsh rhetoric describing him. here is president trump yesterday. >> do you think mr. zelenskyy -- >> president trump: did i say that? i can't believe i said that. next question. >> lucas: zelenskyy is third world leader to come to the president this week. emmanuel macron finished monday and british prime minister keir

starmer visited yesterday. trump said he is optimistic about signing this mineral rights deal. >> president trump: we will sign the deal together, probably in front of media. we'll have a good conversation, we want to work with him, president zelenskyy, we will work with him and i think the president and i actually have had a very good relationship. >> lucas: hanging over today's deal is much larger peace deal to end russia's war on ukraine. mineral rights deal give united states access to half the minerals in the ground in ushg yoo. bigger question, how does the war end? there are historical models, korea,i ireland. british prime minister wants to see peacekeepers on the ground, kremlin says that is a nonstarter. >> steve: what if the rare earth and natural resources we want from ukraine, what if they are in disputed area and russia says

that is ours and ukraines that is our, there will have to be cooperation between the two sides. >> lucas: probably not likely you will get putin to agree to share in the bounty of those minerals. 50% of the minerals in ukraine, that is what president trump seeks today to recruit money and weaponry sent to ukraine, get a deal back. we heard from general jack keane, linkage think that ties america to ukraine. if american miners are on the ground, they would be protected. he wants peacekeepers. we heard from russia top diplomat who says he does not want to see peacekeepers on the ground. >> steve: i don't blame them. >> brian: we've asked ukraine to do a lot, not heard much from russia. they don't want 30,000 troops. you invaded in 22.

there has to be a reason not to do it. we can't take russia at their word. the other thing that general jack keane brought up, if russia decides they don't want a deal, okay. they will walk away from the table. he said trump comes back and says, you don't think ukraine will stay put, how about a fleet of f-16s, more high marks and get armed up from our allies. ukraine you are facing right now won't be the one you are continuing to fight and you are losing, you lost 900,000 s soldiers and north korean soldiers are getting killed and captured. >> lawrence: that is what people are missing of the negotiation to get zelenskyy to the table to agree on the air earth. he needed zelenskyy there, when he went back to putin and said, i got zelenskyy to compromise, i need something from you, as well. if putin does not want to negotiate, maximum pressure

hits. i don't think it will get that way. i think putin is fully aware of what is going on and will come to the table. >> steve: i think the negotiation that is ongoing, we have not heard from mr. putin yet, the fact last thing putin want is what u.k. prime minister yesterday said. europe wants 30,000 peacekeepers and america would back it up. russia doesn't want that and they don't want united states to provide intel and be backstop and provide air support. that is the negotiation. trump said yesterday, i think trust putin when it comes to a deal. he has a giant hammer hanging over his head. don't abide by this deal, you will have american support pronto. >> ainsley: the mineral deal, jack keane said this is a positive move for our country. >> certainly both sides had to compromise to get the deal, which is pretty normal and certainly something president

trump is used to seeing. why is it so positive? look, it ties the united states to ukraine for a generation in terms of exploration and mining for these rare minerals. it ties us economically, politically and obviously with unbelievable interest in the future security of ukraine. why? because if war continues, there is no exploration, no construction going on, no mining going on during a conflict, that is for sure. and putin, you know full well, does not like this deal. this deal is in the united states and ukraine's interest and that is what makes it a good deal. >> brian: so other thing he added at the end, yesterday there was talks in turkey with just below level of secretary of state and foreign minister and they came out and said we want ukrainian million man force down

to 85,000, we want instant elections to infiltrate them and they don't want any presence military international presence. those are nonstarters. if they are not going to budge off that, you think president trump was upset with zelenskyy last week, he will say, i gave putin great way to stop the war, he's paying tremendous price for and he decided not to take it. does he want to alienate president trump in first six weeks of his administration for next 3-1/2 years? light is not at the end of the tunnel. >> steve: it could be on the front of the train if he crosses this. last year we were telling us, lawrence went up to columbia university five miles north of where we're sitting. there were all sorts of occupations of the campus and whatnot and two days ago, suddenly we see something very similar at the sister college,

barnard college, next to columbia and it is a sit-in. essentially what they are doing, they were protesting the fact a couple of students were expelled for disciplinary reasons and didn't like it. >> brian: reasons are important, they interrupted a israeli class and were suspended. these courageous idiots with of coerred masks. i'm proud of standing up for what i believe in, just don't look at my face. >> ainsley: they want the students expelled reinstated at the school. >> lawrence: and jewish students on campus are saying they don't feel safe on the campus. >> ainsley: if you are jewish, would you want to walk through that? >> lawrence: they are blocking this them from attending class. here is a student. >> student protesters, have been assaulted by them before, they punched my friend johnny in the face, they are dangerous and

were invited to campus today to participate in the protest. >> lawrence: they are allowing this. >> ainsley: jewish students were told by friends, family and rabbis, don't wear your star of david. can you imagine if they said, don't wear your cross. >> brian: you should wear two. the governor had an event, the anti-semitic students showed up to so this spineless governor bailed on it. jeff lax, professor at city college, stands up for the jewish students on campus and has for years. listen to this. >> outrageous the administration is capitulating to the goons, they are goons. they are offering to meet with them and students are saying, we don't want to meet with you. they have crazy demands, want columbia to get rid of policies regarding discipline. it is outrageous columbia is

legitimizing these arousers. >> steve: they are legitimizing them and negotiating with emthis. after the sit-in, the proteflters who roughed up a school employee, they wanted amnesty for anyone involved in that. one thing i believe president of barnard said, i will sit down and talk with you, but two demands. one, public safety officer will be there with me and i'd like to see id to see if you are a college student here because you have to figure in that crowd yesterday, on the upper west side of new york, a lot of those people are not students at that college. >> lawrence: where is the emergency meeting? >> brian: where is the mayor? >> lawrence: kathy hochul had an emergency meeting about adams working with the president to get rid of illegals that are criminal aliens, where is emergency meeting from the governor to protect jewish students who want to go to

class? >> ainsley: are these people protesting because they think it should be okay for people to walk into a classroom in the middle of campus while those people are paying for a good education to walk into a class where they are teaching about israel and protest? >> brian: yes. >> ainsley: and disrupt, that is okay? >> steve: they did it last year and got away with it. >> brian: where is senator schumer, highest ranking jewish person, where are your guts, you should be embarrassed. >> ainsley: they don't want anyone to know their identity. >> brian: barry weis, and neil ferguson, joe lonsdale, big-time supporters, want to re. vaupper education, higher education and make it tuition free. first class came in this year, michael shellenberger is teaching a class this semester. i caught up with him, you'll see

the feature sunday night at 10:00 about what is going on on colleges and why they need a university of austin. >> university is supposed to be sanctuary for truth seeking and truth telling and it is in incredible universities in the united states have become exact opposite of that, censorship, cancel culture, self-censorship, professors are terrified to pursue the truth. to create a university going back to original roots as place of free thought. >> brian: that is what they want, they teach the classics, they don't tell you what to think. protest is not allowed and they live on the seventh floor of a building right near the university of texas. they go, do you miss campus life? not really. we all know each other, 40 or 50 people, first class ever. >> ainsley: according to gallup

83% of republicans have support for israel, only 33% of democrats. >> lawrence: why is that? it is crazy. jews in america were traditionally democrats and their party has turned their back on them. it is outrageous. any minority group, face this type of scrutiny, you can't learn in a classroom. they are targeting you. there would have been out rage. >> ainsley: a lot of jewish people in new york city voted for donald trump for this very issue. >> steve: i heard a woman defending the protesters. >> brian: she's a professor. >> steve: her logic was flawed. aren't we on the side of the truth? just saying. >> brian: pretty much anti-terror as a country, i thought. >> steve: 8:15 in new york city. new developments from out west in death of legendary actor gene hackman and his wife betsy arakawa, officials are calling

their death suspicious and hackman's daughter speaks out for the first timeout. >> lawrence: why are they saying it is suspicious, todd? >> todd: hearing from hackman's youngest daughter telling daily mail she had not talked to them in a couple of months but her father was in good physical condition. hackman, his wife and dog were found dead after a maintenance worker grew concerned after not seeing the couple for two weeks. a police affidavit revealing the couple's hands and feet showed signs of mummification. authorities releasing this 911 call. >> are they breathing? >> no idea, i am not inside the house, it is closed, i can't go in. she's laying down i see on the floor from the window. >> todd: detectives believe the circumstances surrounding the deaths are "suspicious enough in

nature to require a thorough search and investigation," although they have not said more than that. hackman was found in a room of his home and his wife was found in the bathroom. the couple's dog was found dead inside a bathroom closet, but two other dogs found alive on the property. the front door of the home was ajar, there was no sign of forced entry or theft. affidavit suggested the couple may have died due to some type of gas poisoning, the gas company did not find problems. there were no signs of trauma to the bodies. case remains open pending toxicology results. >> brian: you understand 95, 65 year old to die at same time. >> ainsley: and the dog. we heard it was in a crate, now in a closet.

mumified, why are they using that word? preserved? >> steve: decomposed. >> lawrence: to happen so quickly, that is different. >> steve: yesterday we thought it could be accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. gas company cooperating and checked lines and there were no malfunctions. supposed to have toxicology report back shortly and autopsy done. there will be a press conference this afternoon. >> lawrence: other two dogs survived. >> steve: they were outside. if dog is inside, nothing to eat for a couple of weeks. >> ainsley: could have been the dog found dead ate some of the pills, we don't know. one report says front door ajar. the maintenance guy calling was looking through the window and said i see a body on the ground, the door is locked, maybe the back door? i don't know. >> steve: lots of questions. >> brian: 18 after the hour, carley shimkus has rg other

stories. >> carley: in arkansas, ice agents arrested hundreds of migrants in joint operation targ targeting drugim kroos. agents arrested 472 people across the state over course of three weeks, 253 suspected drug criminals and 219 illegal migrants from 23 separate countries. officials say all illegal migrants will be deported. hollywood star and trump special embassy ambassador mel gibeson is blaming good afternoon gavin newsom and karen bass for botching the response. >> you deserve better. our firefighters deserve better. above all, people who lost everything deserve better. it is time for accountability, time for leadership that doesn't wait until it is too late.

>> carley: gibson wants a federal investigation. and take a look at this, companies combining ai with customizable human-like robots to keep people company throughout their day. >> like lego pieces that can be put together, put in a suitcase and travel with them. we want it to be someone's friend, boyfriend or girlfriend and building in ability for it to be romantic with someone. >> carley: whoa! one japanese company calling their emotional support robots. those are headlines, guys. >> ainsley: robot is your girlfriend, whole other level, could be your girlfriend. hair dresser doing her hair. hairspray. >> carley: putting flyaways down, make it perfect. >> brian: don't we have a loneliness problem in america. >> lawrence: don't go there. >> brian: why not have fake people be fake friends. >> carley: i was reading and

somebody said put our phones down, get away from technology and interact with people. >> steve: a robot, when i think of a robot, i think of roomba. when i look at that robot lady, that is a doll. that is a very expensive doll. >> brian: why reluctance to have a robot friend? y woo are calling strangers as psychology, isn't there phone number to call and get a psychologist? >> steve: i never called one. >> lawrence: you are completely trolling. you love controversy. >> brian: if i'm sitting in the middle of the midwest on a farm waiting for my corn to pop out of the ground and nobody coming to visit me. waiting for it will be popcorn. >> steve: it grows. >> brian: wouldn't you like a robot who understands you? >> steve: here is the thing, having been the former president of the future farmer of america for clay county. we have dogs.

we have cats. we have other family members. we raise pigs and cows and chickens. >> lawrence: not robots. >> brian: dogs are nice to you because they know you can feed them. >> lawrence: that is not true. >> ainsley: did you see the movie "her," did you see that? good movie. he falls in love with this lady through the computer and she is not real. scar let's johansens voice. >> lawrence: i find it depressing and sad. >> ainsley: it was really good. >> steve: because you have a dog to talk to. >> ainsley: restroom remember in castaway, his friend was the volleyball and he cried when he lost it. >> steve: a little different. there was nobody else left. >> brian: tom hanks would rather have a robot than a volleyball? >> lawrence: come on. >> brian: wouldn't be surprised if that is sequel. >> lawrence: water damage, could it survive water?

>> brian: him and a robot. >> steve: you are talking about benefits of having robot as companion, we have dawn kilmeade on the phone to give her opinion. what do you think about this, rather talk to -- >> brian: she has her boutique out working on her business. >> lawrence: she would get more time with the robot, she is working. i get dawn's trepidation. >> ainsley: she would have to snow plow, have to cook. >> brian: she wouldn't complain. >> ainsley: just -- >> steve: not saying she complains now. >> brian: not saying dawn complains. >> ainsley: what are you saying? >> brian: not sure, read the tease. went black. >> ainsley: j.d. vance is about to walk up national catholic prayer breakfast, we're waiting. >> lawrence: fox news alert. right now vice president j.d. vance speaking at national catholic prayer breakfast in wash washington, d.c., listen to the president. >> thank you, please take a

seat. i will say that even though i in my private sector days was technology investor in silicon valley, i have not figured out how to work my government com computer yet. 30 days in, i will have to wing it. i thought about what i wanted to say and that makes communication staff extremely nervous, they have no idea what i'm going to say. i talked to luke, my main communication guy and i said, this is all off the record, right? no one will say or know what i say today, i can say whatever i want and i'm sure none of you will leak to axios and none of our friends will stream it live. let me one, offer few notes of appreciation, first to maureen ferguson, who has become a great friend of mine and a great leader in this community.

she and her husband mike have been better and kinder to me than i deserve and my entire family has been the beneficiary of it. especially in finding places to send my kids to school at the last minute, i'm a procrastinator and maureen and mike have been helpful helping us navigate d.c. school environment for our young children. we are grateful to them. shoutout and note of appreciation to congressman chris smith from great state of new jersey, who i know received great award and we're grateful to his leadership and grateful for his friendship. he's a good guy. chris, i assume you are out there somewhere, i can't see you, congratulations, we're proud of you and proud to be here with you. thank mark randall, who hosted incredible breakfast for now what -- this is the 20th year, i believe, of the national catholic prayer breakfast and seems like we're doing good with

the national catholic prayer breakfast. this breakfast holds a special place in my heart. i came here last year as a very young senator, not knowing how much my life would change and i'm thankful to god and to the friendship of the people in this room for helping us get there. i think we have turned a new page in washington, d.c. and we are going to take advantage of the opportunity god has given us. [applause] >> i want to say a couple of words just about trump administration policy because while you're certainly not always going to agree with everything that we do in president trump's administration, i feel very confident in saying that between protecting the rights of pro-life protesters, between ensuring that we have an opportunity to protect rights of the unborn in the first place and importantly protecting religious liberty of all people, in particular catholics, i think

we can say, president trump, although not a catholic himself has been a good president for catholics in the united states of america. [applause] >> now we know, of course, last administration liked to throw people in jail for silently praying oud of pro-life clinics. they like to harass pro-life fathers of seven, often catholic fathers for participating in pro-life movement and last administration wanted to protect taxpayer funded abortion up to time of birth. every single issue in 30 short days, donald j trump has gone exact opposite direction and i'm thankful for that and i'm sure every single person in that room is thankful for that, as well. [applause] but i actually want to talk about a couple of other things, in particular, one of the most

important parts of president trump's policy and where i think president trump's policy is most in accord with christian social teaching and with catholic faith, more than any president of my lifetime, president trump has pursued a path of peace. we very often ignore the way in which our foreign policy is either an instrument or an impediment to people all over the world being able to practice their faith. we know and i learned in this breakfast last year, i believe there was nigerian priests being persecuted and trying to protect their flock, we know some of the biggest groups that are persecuted all over the world are christians. trump administration promises you, here at home with our citizens or all over the world, we will be biggest defendeder of right of conscience and policy will fall to benefit of

catholics in particular all over the world. [applause] but i would say, my friends, it is not enough simply to protect rights of conscience, to pursue funding opportunities and grant making opportunity to protect right of people to engage in religious conscience, we have to remember oftentimes biggest impediment to religious liberty are not from malice but through carelessness. one thing i'm most ashamed about, in united states of america sometimes it is foreign misadventures that lead to eradication of christian communities all over the world. when president trump talks about the need to bring peace, whether in russia and ukraine, whether it is in the middle east, we of course have toeck are niez that as a policy oriented toward

saving lives and carrying out christ's most important commandments and an effort to protect religious liberty of christians. over past 40 years, it's been christian communities who bear brunt of failed american foreign policy and that is in my view, perhaps the most important way donald trump has been a defendr of christians, he is oriented toward peace, we have done so much in past 30 days and will work for peace all over the world in remaining four years of president trump's term. i think that is an important thing. [applause] >> now of course, we're not always going to agree and i'm sure there are people in this room who agree or disagree with some of our views on foreign policy, on any number of issues.

the one thing i will promise you, you will always have an open door with me and with the president. i think you have already seen that. if you haven't, please come and bring your concerns and some of you have brought many concerns to me over last 30 days. your that a boys, part of being a good presidential administration for people of faith all over the united states, part is listening to people of faith when they have concerns. i think it is important and i make this commitment to you in front of god and in front of the television cameras back there, we will always listen to people of faith and people of conscience in the united states of america. you have an open door to the trump administration, even and especially maybe when you disagree with us. please use that opportunity, communicate when we get things right and when we get things wrong. that is my solemn obligation and my request. i've learned with -- during the

campaign, i got secret service protection and now bumped up now that i'm the vice president of the united states. i live in a bubble and wherever i go, i'm surrendered by armed agents. only way to keep me honest and know what is affecting real lives of people all over our country is for you to talk to us. please consider that open door an invitation and also a request. and i will say that i believe maureen and maybe this is wrong, that i'm the first catholic convert to ever be vice president of the united states. [applause] >> i appreciate that. i appreciate you guys clapping because it turns out there are some people on the internet who don't like catholic converts. in fact, some catholics appear to not like catholic converts,

i've learned hard way. gross majority of brothers and sisters in christ have been welcoming and charitable and for that i'm grateful. i wanted to reflect on that, on being a catholic and particularly catholic convert in public life in the hopes maybe it would provide some wisdom or some guidance or interesting stories for those who are enjoying your breakfast. one thing i try to remind myself as a convert, there is a lot i don't know. when i was a kid we called new converts to the faith baby christians. i recognize i'm a baby catholic. there are things about the faith i don't know, i try to be humble as best i can when i talk about the faith publicly because i'm not always going to get it right and i don't want my inadequacy in describing our faith to fall back on the faith itself. if you hear me pontificating

please recognize it comes from place of deep belief but also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time. and you know, i say that, of course, i don't try to comment on every single catholic issue, i try not to get involved in the war between progressive catholics and as michael c carlioni said, sometimes they pull me back in. sometimes i can't help but spout off, i am a politician, afterall, ladies and gentlemen. the thing i have tried, i've tried to remind people of and the thing i try to remind myself of, what attracted me to the christian faith and attracted me to this church in particular, is the recognition that grace is not something that happens

instantaneously, god works over long period of time, many years and sometimes many decades. i think when i was a kid, my assumption is that grace is something where holy spirit would come in and solve all of our problems. i learned the hard way as a catholic in part by following the sacramental life best i could grace is very much a process, god works in us overtime and makes us closer to him and makes us better people in the process. when i first became a catholic, i would probably go to confession every other week because i would fail to go to mass every other week. and things have come up, you have business trips, you have kids that would get sick and i just remember this process of thinking, okay, if i don't go to church this week, i'll have to go talk to some stranger about everything bad i did last few weeks and that process worked in me better discipline, a much

better prayerful life and i am batting probably like 95% of sundays that i go to mass. so this i think one of the geniuses -- [applause] >> thank you. i think this is one of the geniuses of our faith, it etch toos us through repetition in some ways and it forms us through a process of course that is at heart of mystery of faith that somehow by practices sacraments even imperfectly as i certainly do, god transforms us. i'm imperfect a christian as any person in this room, i do feel god is trans forming me every single day and that is a great blessing of our faith and glat blessing of following the sacraments i try to do. thank you for welcoming a convert into your ranks because i certainly benefit from it and my family does, too.

the second thing that i take from my catholic faith is a recognition that the deepest and mostortant things are not material, not gdp, not numbers we see in the stock market. the real measure of health in society is safety and stability and health of our families and of our people. we are in the business, of course -- [applause] we are in the business of president trump's administration of producing prosperity, that prosperity is a means to an end. that end is the flourishing of the life of every single citizen in the united states of america. that is whyy woo care about these things. i often remind myself that there have been times in the past where the gdp numbers were maybe moving in the right direction, stock market moving in right

direction, but united states of america losing life expectancy. what catholic church calls me to do is say if stock market is doing okay and people are literally dying and losing years off their life, we have to do better as a country. christianity at the root teaches public officials to care about deep things, important things protection of unborn, flourishing of children and health and sanctity of marriages and yes, we care about prosperity, we care about prosperity to promote common good of every citizen in the united states of america. [applause] >> when i think about deep things that really matter, there was something amazing that happened to me in november of 2024. all my friends were there, all my family was there, gathered

together in a great moment of celebration and of course i'm talking about when my seven year old chose to be baptized into the christian faith. [applause] >> and he is at school, so won't see this. as amazing as it was to win the election in november of 2024, as amazing to know that president trump would become president again and would get toish mr. so many good things for the american people, the thing i was most excited about in november of 2024, week after we won the election, my son chose to be baptized in the christian faith. here is the basic idea and for those of you, of course, y'all mostly are cradle catholics and we do water baptism of infants in catholic church very early on. as many of you know, i'm part of an inter-faith marriage. my wife coming to church with us

every single sunday, she is not catholic herself. the bargain we have struck, we will raise our kids catholic, we will let them choose the moment they want to become baptized. if that is terrible sack lig blame it on the scheme. but my seven year old elected to become baptized and it was proudest moment maybe i've had as a father. he took it seriously. he wanted to know what are right things to say, why is this important? it was an amazing thing to see my seven year old working through these things himself. when i talk about deep things, important things, that is what i'm talking about. of course we care about our economic indicators and of course we care about the wages of our citizens. we care about those things, when our people are doing better,

they have moments that promote flourishing that all of us believe is the very core of a good human life. that in my case was watching my seven year old son become baptized. i will never be perfect, i will always try to remind myself goal of our public policy is promote common good and i will fight for that every single day that i'm a public official. that brings me to the final observation i would like to make. as a christian, catholic convert in public life, is that sometimes it is bishops don't like what i say. [applause] >> and i'm sure by the way, sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong. my goal is not to litigate when i'm right and when they are wrong or vice versa. my goal is to maybe articulate the way that i think about being

a christian in public life when you also have religious leaders in public life who have a spiritual duty to speak on issues of the day. the way i try to think about it is the catholic church is a kind of technology. it is technology that was developed 2000 years ago and it is coming into contact with technology that is 10 or 20 years old, that social media. i try to remind myself of is that the clergy are important spiritual leaders. you will hear people say, we'll let clergy talk about matters of the church, we can ignore them when it comes to matters of public policy. i think that is wrong way to look at it, not right way for me. what i try to remind myself of, we are not called as christians to obsess over every social mediterr

media controversy that implic implicates the catholic church. we should take a page out of the books of our grandparents who respected our clergy, who looked to them for guidance, but didn't obsess and fight over every single word that came out of their mouth and entered social media. i don't think that is good. i am not counseling you, i don't think it is good as christians to constantly fight over every single controversy in the church. sometimes we should let this stuff play out and try to live our faith as best we can under dictates of our faith and dictates of our spiritual leaders and not hold them to standard of social media influencers because they are not. [applause] >> and i think -- that brings me of course to the last point that

i want to make, which is that as you probably seen publicly, the holy father, pope francis has criticized some of our policies when it comes to immigration. again, my goal here is not to litigate with him or any other clergy member about who is right and who is wrong. you obviously know my views and i will speak to them consistently, i have because it serves best interest of american people. what i want to do instead is remind and i talk to a lot of conservative catholics and progressive catholics, too. i think sometimes a lot of conservative catholics are too preoccupied with their political criticisms of a particular clergy member or the leader of the catholic church and of course i'm not telling you that you're wrong because sometimes i even agree with you. i think that what i would say is that it is not in the best interest of any of us to treat

religious leaders of our faith as just another social media influencer. that goes in both ways, if i can be so bold, incum bant on religious leaders to recognize in social media, people will hang on every word they utter even if that wasn't their intention and even if a give declaration wasn't meant for consumption in the social mediaigea. everyday since i heard of pope fra francis's illness, say a prayer for the holy father. yes, i was certainly surprised when he criticized our immigration policy in the way he has. i also know that the pope, i believe that the pope is fundamentally a person who cares about the flock of christians under his leadership and he's a man -- [applause] >> he's a man who cares about

the spiritual direction of the faith. i say this because everyday me and my children have said a prayer for the holy father and we pray for his health and we pray for his comfort as he deals with what appears to be a pretty serious health crisis. while yes, some of our media and our social media influencers and some of us fellow catholics, i think try to bring the holy father into every culture war battle in american politics, i will always remember the holy father whether he makes his way through this illness and i hope he does. i will remember the holy father in were maof -- march of 2020. at a time of incredible stress for the entire world, the height of the covid pandemic. none of us knew how bad it was.

we heard reports from italy of people dying in mass on ventilators and personally i had just welcomed our second child into the world and so, when the covid pandemic happened, i had a three-week-old baby and went to dick's and bought 900 rounds of ammunition and walmart and bought two bags of rice. i sat with my rice and ammunition and said, we are going to wait this thing out. and into that void when a lot of people did not know how bad it was and thankfully the pandemic is not as bad as the worse predictions. it was quite bad, not as bad as worst convictions. the holy fath er gave a sermon that i return to consistently because it was incredibly

meaningful to me at the time and remains meaningful today. if you will forgive me, i hope you will be okay with me reading an excerpt of the homily pope francis gave. when evening had come, which of course is from mark chapter 4 verse 35. the gospel passage we have heard begins like this. for weeks it has been evening, da darkness gathered over streets and cities and taken over our lives filling everything with deafening silence and distressing void that stops everything as it passes by. we feel it in the air, we notice it in people's gestures, their glances give it away. we find ourselves afraid ask lost, like disciples we were caught off guard by unexpected turbulent storm. we've realized we're on the same boat, all of us fragile and

disoriented, same time, important and needed. all of us called to row together, each of us in need of com comforting the other. on this boat are all of us, just like those disciples who spoke with know wo voice saying we are perishing. we, too, have realized we cannot go on thinking of ourselves only together can we do this. it is easy to recognize ourselves in this story, what is harder to neighborhood is jesus attitude. his disciples are alarmed and desperate, he's in the stern in the part of the boat that sinks first. what does he do? in spite of the tippist he speaks on soundly trusting in the father. this is only time in the gospel we see jesus speaking, when he wakes up, he turns to disciples in a reproaching voice, why are you afraid?

have you no faith? let us try to understand and what does the lack of disciples faith consist as contrasted with jesus' trust. they had not stopped believing in him, in fact, they called on him. we see how they call on him, teacher, do you not care if we perish, do you not care that jeshg sus is not interesting in them, does not care about them, one thing that hurts us and our families when we hear said, do you not care about me. it is a phrase that wounds and unleashes storms in our hearts and would havic is thatten jesus, too, he cares about us. when they have called on him, he saves his disciples from discouragement and storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers false certainties around which we constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities and shows

us ho you we've allowed to become dull and feeble very things that 94ish and strengthen our lives and communities. temptest lays bare, prepackaged idea what 94ishes people's souls, all attempts that anestitize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly save us but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive memory of those who have gone before us. we deprive ourselves of antibodies we need to confront adversity. i think that is an amazing phrase. that what we do so often in our lives, in our public life and private lives we deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity. that is how i will always remember the holy father, great pastor, as a man who can speak the truth, the faith in a very

profound way at a moment of great crisis. so i would ask all of us, if you would join me in this prayer for pope francis, name of the father, the son and the holy spirit, almighty and generous god, thank you for your charity, please grant mercy upon pope francis so he may be restored and guide us in watchful care. bless doctors, nurses and medical staff with wisdom and capability so that you may work through them to renew the health of your shepherd through christ our lord. amen. i think that as i conclude my remarks here, i'm not ever going to be perfect. i am not every going to get everything right. what i will try to do is to try to be the kind of leader who hopes, who helps our shared civilization build those true antibodies against adversity.

if the holy father can hear us, i hope he knows there are thousands of faithful catholics in this room and millions of catholics in this kourp praying for him as he weathers his particular storm. god bless you. thank you. ♪ ♪ >> carley: you just heard vice president of the united states, j.d. vance talking at the national catholic prayer breakfast talking about his faith being first catholic convert as vice president, going to church 95% of sundays. he talked about the abortion issue, making a commitment to catholic church and people and christians. if you don't like something, communicate with him and he'll listen. bring in rachel campos-duffy and charlie hurt, "fox and friends" on the weekend. rachel, devout christian, what did you think of that speech from our vice president? >> rachel: wow, it was a love

her to catholics, truly. i will say this, catholics love converts. he joked a lot about converts. he is an amazing convert and doing amazing putting forth a message and pointing out policy in line with our christian values. he said donald trump is the best president for catholics and christians. what stood out for me, his message of peace. jesus christ is the prince of peace, our administration, donald trump is orienting our foreign policy toward peace and he also pointed out something that does not get enough attention, which is when our foreign policy wages war and regime change, often it is these ancient christian communities that bare the brunt of our mismanagement and our adventures abroad that don't benefit us and hurt ancient communities.

we saw that in iraq, for example. we saw christian communities decimated and seeing it in syria right now. i thought that was beautiful, as well. really quick before you go to charlie, i'd say pro-life policy, he chose j.d. vance for his first public appearance to be at the right to life march. when he was there, he did more than show up, he taught pro-life community what to do next. roe v. wade has been overturned and then j.d. vance stood up and said we need to orient pro-life policy is family policy. our government needs to create conditions so that people want to get married, want to have children and that is the most christian, beautiful pro-life thing we can do. i think he's giving them a pathway forward. >> ainsley: you brought up pro-life movement, before we get to you, charlie, let's play a sound bite what he said about

that. >> i feel very confident in saying that between protecting the rights of pro-life protesters, between ensuring we have an opportunity to protect rights of the unborn in the first place and importantly protecting religious liberty of all people, in particular catholics, i think we can say that president trump though not a catholic himself has been incredibly good president for catholics in the united states of america. now we know, of course, last administration liked to throw people in jail for silently praying outside of pro-life clinics, they like to harass pro-life fathers of seven, often catholic fathers, for participating in the pro-life movement and last administration wanted to protect taxpayer funded abortion right up to the moment of birth. on every single one of those issues in 30 short days, donald j trump has gone in the exact opposite direction and i'm thankful for that and i'm sure

every single person in this room is thankful, as well. >> ainsley: charlie, he talked about the election and said in which 2024, we were thinking, they won and he became vice president, he said most important moment in his life was november 2024, when his seven-year-old son decided to be baptized in the faith. what were your thoughts about his speech? >> charlie: j.d. vance gives a lot of impressive speeches and i guess i was expecting your typical prayer breakfast speech here. that was one of the finest etch spoos -- >> ainsley: and off the cuff. >> charlie: it was off the cuff, things he had thought a lot about and thought a lot about his son's baptism. the thing that kept striking me about this is, these -- this is important things that we should be talking about today and it is such a radical change from the idiotic, stupid moronic things

we've spent last four years having to talk about, stupid things like gender ideology and george floyd and masks and open borders, idiotic things. you have donald trump and this guy come in, in particular this speech, what he talks about here, this is what matters to us. these are important issues. i know something particularly because i've heard rachel say many times, health of nation is not measured by gdp, it is measured by health of people's faith and health of people's self worth, the value of life and he talked about those things. there wasn't a dry eye in that room when he talked about his son's baptism and then of course to me, even more touching in some ways was him talking about pope francis who he has a lot of political differences with, i have a lot of political differences with him, talking

about beauty of his pastoral care during covid-19 at that moment. what a invocation. >> ainsley: yeah, so nice of him to pray for our pope and the whole room prayed for the pope. we all did. i was watching this. rachel, you always say something i love, you say my job is not to get my children into harvard, it is to get them into heaven. our nation should be measured on god, when i'm watching him, i'm thanking god we've come back to our faith as a country and have leaders who believe in him and we share the same faith. he said most important factor for our country and safety, stability and health of our families and our people. he gets it. me grew up in blue-collar family and grew up and went to ivy league school and then became vice president and he gets importance of god. it was refreshing to me.

>> you're right. the idea the president was elected. the moment he remembers the most in november is his own child entered into the faith. he talked about balancing that act of, you know, his wife is not a catholic. he is a convert to catholicism. he sort of walked through his own steps in catholicism not getting used to the idea we're obligated to go to church every sunday. but -- and i love that he talked about that unity, bringing us back to unity within all of us. if you are catholic and you are a conservative catholic, you understand exactly what he is talking about. there is a lot of differences but ultimately we're christians. >> ainsley: absolutely. god bless america. we'll watch you all this weekend. >> bill: thank you, ainsley, good morning and this is a significant day in the march to a potential peace deal i