concerns for some that this is a not very thinly-veiled warning to those who might donate to governor romney. here with us to dissect it, chris stirewalt, host of "power play" on foxnews.com. hi, chris. so kim strases l had this piece in "the wall street journal" a couple days talking about the president's, you know, she called it an enemies' list where he names, and as i say, shames a few big mitt romney donors, and she mentions that there's an executive order draft that the president put out about a year ago which is still circulating, i guess they're not doing anything on it right now, we don't know, but there's matching legislation working its way up through congress, one of which is expected to get a vote as early as may, they say, which would do what? would do what to the corporate donors? >> well, it would cause additional disclosure because the way that it works now, basically, is that if you as private citizen megyn kelly want

to give money to whatever political cause, whatever interest you might have, fine. and you just have to meet with the standard disclosure requirements that you have that differ for different offices or whether you're giving to an outside group. but if you wanted to do business with the federal government, it would mean that you would have to make an additional disclosure which would then put you on the list, and you'd have to be out there. you'd have to say, yeah, i did this. now, that's not a position that people want to be in if they're doing business with the federal government, especially if what they're doing is supporting the party out of power and supporting the challenger to the president who's in the oval office. if you're looking for his business, you don't want to be seen giving money to someone who's trying to knock him out. megyn: so if this goes through, corporations that want to bid on government business would have to tell the government which, for now, the democrats control, you know, the house -- i'm sorry, the senate and the white house, they would have to tell them that they were big mitt romney supporters if they were, and then a decision would be made about whether they got the

government contract or not, is that essentially how it would work? >> that's about the size of it. and what they're aiming at here, you know, the president -- there's a superpac that is in support of the president run by his staff, and there's a superpac in support of mitt romney run by people who used to work for his campaign, so these are sort of the shadow campaigns for both the president and mitt romney. what they want to do, what the president wants to do is smoke out those people who are donating to that pro-romney superpac and other republican-friendly superpacs and have them be disclosed, and i guess if somebody happened to notice that when they were coming up with contract awarding or appropriations, so be it. megyn: obviously, some of these corporations and these individuals behind them would have some hesitation. i mean, the campaign piece that the president's re-election team put out this week naming these eight individuals, these eight regular, private american citizens who donated to mitt romney refer to them as less than reputable, on the wrong side of the law, profiting at the expense of americans and on

it goes. so there's some risk. there's some risk in donating a considerable amount to mitt romney because the president's re-election team may name you and try to shame you. this is, this is what's happening right now. but is all fair in politics, chris? you know, i mean, the republicans have taken aim at bill maher, at some other, you know, warren buffett. he takes -- these are private citizens as well, you know, bill maher's not a politician, is what i mean. does it happen on both sides of the aisle? >> it does. but remember, when you're the president, you don't want to be seen as doing something that's creepy, you don't want to be seen as doing manager that looks like you are, there's an intersection between your executive power and with what you're doing in your campaign. and when you hear these issues echoed between the campaign and be from the white house, it starts to make people nervous, and there's this nixonian vibe that's going on. as you used the phrase enemies' list, no president wants to look that way, and the president certainly risks that here.

and the other thing you talk about race b, there are some other names that go on the obama donor list. jon corzine who is in big, big trouble over what happened to a lot of money at the firm he was running. the president's had to give back money from a couple of donors who were very unsavory, bill maher certainly continues to be a problem. so there is an additional downside other than seeming creepy for the president, it invites scrutiny on the people who give him money and whether or not he should be guilty by association -- megyn: but that's already out there. i mean, isn't that already out there? that's the question, whether the president is playing offense here or defense. >> well, i think that part of it is offense. but i think the biggest part here more than anything else is the deterrent factor for these wealthy individuals to say, look, if you end up hooked up with mitt romney, we're going to hold you up too. you will be subject to scrutiny, and if you give money -- which, of course, is their right within the constitution -- that's political speech says the supreme court, but if you

exercise that right, you're going to face a consequence for it, and then that's doubled up by this potential executive order that takes it to the business side. megyn: chris stirewalt, thank you, sir. >> you bet. megyn: another fox news alert for you now, a law enforcement source telling fox news that new york city is getting, quote, bombarded by suspicious items today. they are being left at office buildings and landmarks around the city, we are told. there are questions being asked about whether these incidents are tied to occupy wall street's may day protests. some protesters have vowed to try to bring this city to a halt today as part of protests set worldwide. the nypd is investigating. obviously, this is -- there are heightened tensions as well because this is the one-year anniversary of the killing of usama bin laden. so, you know, suspicious packages and so on at buildings in particular in new york city are taken very seriously. we do not know, we don't have a confirm whether they are tied to the occupy movements, but they

are having protests in over 125 cities today, in particular new york and some out on the west coast, so we will have a live report on that connection and what we know about the threat just a little bit later in the broadcast. we are also learning new details about five men arrested by the fbi's joint terrorism task force for allegedly plotting to blow up a bridge near cleveland, ohio. the suspects are facing conspiracy charges and attempted use of explosive materials charges. the men range in age from 20 to 35 years old. they are described as self-proclaimed anarchists who were planning to use violence to express their ideological views. the feds say the group outlined a number of targets before deciding on the high-level bridge. fbi undercover agents were involved. they say at no time was the public in danger. well, as we mentioned a moment ago, it is exactly one year since the death of the most-wanted man in the world, usama bin laden. a tense moment inside the situation room.

the final call to strike seen as a major gamble for the president and the world. but now that the al-qaeda leader is gone, is america any safer? our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington. >> reporter: well, megyn, with bin laden's death al-qaeda is weaker, but a year later, the network has diversified. >> despite the great progress we've made against al-qaeda, it would be a mistake to believe this threat has passed. >> reporter: current and former intelligence professionals say small-scale attacks where terrorists have injured more than 300 as well as the march shooting spree in france inspired by radical islam that killed three soldiers, a rabbi and three children are the next wave. >> future attacks against the homeland will be less well organized, less complex, less likely to succeed, less lethal if they do succeed. i fear, though, there'll be more numerous. >> reporter: and in a recent briefing to mark the anniversary

of the bin laden raid, senior u.s. intelligence officials told reporters that the al-qaeda members in pakistan now number in the low hundreds, but the group in yemen now has several thousand members. the most notable shift has been the growing strength of al-qaeda in yemen, somalia, north africa and also nigeria. this has been described as an arc of instability. >> to say that the war on terror is over, no, and we get concerned about their ferocious appetite for finding new ways to promote violence and terror around the world. >> reporter: and this explains the decision last week by the white house to intensify and broaden that drone campaign in yemen, megyn. megyn: catherine herridge, thank you. we have a startling report today on the air france plane that crashed into the atlantic ocean killing everyone onboard. the daily telegraph has published new details on a possible design flaw that could be to blame for the 2009 disaster.

and that could potentially still effect half of all of the planes in the sky today. it is a chilling report, and if you stay tuned for nothing else today, please, watch this. plus, a report just made public raising serious questions about the personal information google may have collected from millions of american households. also, exclusive details on a new survey on health care in america. the staggering amount of money that companies can save and say they plan to save by dropping coverage and pushing their employees onto federal health care rolls that are funded by the american taxpayers. that's three minutes away. >> it's going to be very, very exciting. [applause] but we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy. ok! who gets occasional constipation,

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megyn: fox news exclusive now, and a stunning new report by house republicans on the president's health care law and what it means for regular americans. in a survey of 71 of the fortune 100 companies, the survey finds companies could potentially save nearly a half trillion dollars over ten years if they drop coverage for their employees, even if companies have to pay fines as a result. chief national correspondent jim angle has more from washington in a fox news exclusive. jim? >> reporter: hello, megyn. the new survey finds the new health care law created some perverse incentives for employers to drop their insurance plans. listen. >> in a pure dollars and cents standpoint, it could not be more clear. you save a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars for some of these companies, by no longer providing coverage.

>> reporter: now, republicans on the house ways and means committee surveyed the fortune 100 companies about their health care costs. 71 companies with 5.9 million employees responded. even after paying a penalty of $2,000 per employee, the companies stand to save some $28.6 billion in 2014 alone by shifting employees to the government exchanges. and they'd save more than $422 billion over the first ten years of the law. >> penalties for the employers who drop coverage are very low, and the subsidies for the workers in the exchanges are very high. >> reporter: some analysts, though, argue that large companies would be reluctant to drop coverage. >> i think competition for labor is still intense, and to recruit and retain a talented work force you've got to provide generous benefits. >> reporter: now, megyn, the new exchanges would offer several choices of plans, and workers would get generous

federal subsidies which only phase out at about $88,000 in income, so the exchanges could be atrackive to both -- attractive to both employers and workers. that is especially true of small employers. many companies might be reluctant to be the first to drop coverage, but if a competitor does, others could be forced to follow suit causing a snowball effect. no one knows how many companies might drop insurance and shift workers to the exchanges, but they could pay the fine, save several thousand dollars per worker and offer to share part of the savings by paying higher wages making it attractive to the workers as well as employers. the higher cost of subsidies, though, would fall on the taxpayers. megyn? megyn: jim, thank you. joining me now for more on this, peter morici, former chief economist for the u.s. international trade commission. peter, it's a study that was commissioned by the republicans, the house ways and means committee. does that mean they have their thumb on the scale in terms of getting a result that doesn't

look good for the health care law? many should we be dismissive of this? >> oh, i don't think so. if there was a thumb on the scale, it was the president and his men in the congressional budget office in underestimating the cost of the national health care program when they were putting it out to congress. these are real costs, this is a real problem. the legislation will raise the cost to business if they continue coverage and give them dramatic incentives to drop it and push the cost of health care onto the taxpayer. megyn: so you're talking 71 of the fortune 100 companies, these are the biggest, most successful companies in the united states. these 71 companies employ 5.9 million people, that they -- it's just not worth their while to continue to provide employer-sponsored health care to these folks as opposed to just paying the fine that comes with not doing so. >> if you're the ford motor company and a smaller automobile company drops coverage and it then has lower costs, you're under enormous pressure to drop coverage as well. and so we'll see sort of a

stampede. industry by industry as one of the smaller competitors gets an advantage, the bigger competitors have to follow suit. and before you know it, the government has costs that are so high that it will have a lot of pressure for it to come up with some sort of government alternative, something like medicaid for all these folks, and we'll be in a single-payer system. megyn: so you're saying if there is a stampede, one after another these big companies bailing on employer-provided health care, pushing on to the exchanges, that the current system isn't going to get it done, that we will have to move toward single-payer? is. >> absolutely. because the federal government won't with able to afford the subsidies it's promising. think about it, a family of four with an income of $87,000 a year will qualify for some subsidy. the sheer number of people that are going to qualify would make this so burdensome for the government that they simply wouldn't be able to let them go to aetna or somebody like that. also these folks will get a

subsidy, but it won't be enough money to cover everything they need. there's going to be a lot of political pressure on the government to let them all into medicaid. they'll call it something else, but it'll be the briish health care system, here we come. megyn: you know, what do you make of the argument that we heard from one of the gentlemen in jim's piece suggesting they're not going to do this even though, you know, on a pure, you know, math basis it may make sense for them, they're not going to do it because they need to remain competitive to get the best and be brightest, to get the most talented workers, and part of that recruiting package is employer-sponsored health care? >> let's look at the major automobile companies. they are no longer offering their white collar employees any kind of reasonable pension benefits because they couldn't afford to. if your competitors drop health care because they're pressed in a business cycle and so they drop health care, once they've dropped it, they've dropped it. then they have lower costs, you'll be bound to follow suit as well, and before you know it, competition -- if anybody had his thumb to the scale, it was that gentleman because his

argument was quite polemic, not fact-based and kind of wishful thinking, hoping that it'll all work out in the end. megyn: you know, jim talked about at the end of his piece about how one of the counterarguments to that worry or to that argument that, you know, the employers, they'll need to recruit good people, so they're going to keep the employer-sponsored health care in place, he said, well, one thing employers could do is cancel your health care, make you go on the government exchanges, and then they save money by doing that, and they give some back to you, so you as the employee, you know, you get on the government exchange or, you know, the exchanges, but then you get sort of a kickback from your employer so you don't object. is that likely? >> i think you'll have to pay taxes on some of that kickback, but moreover, it would still put that pressure on the government system. the federal deficit can't handle this kind of stampede, and as a consequence there'll be pressure to create a government alternative with regulated prices and rationed care, and

it'll look a lot like medicaid. and at the end of the day, you will have a single-payer system. remember, the liberals in the house originally viewed this legislation as a step in the direction of having a british-style health care system. this was not an accident. this was purposeful design. this is what nancy pelosi was telling us about. let's get this passed, and then we'll find out what it really means. well, jim angle has just lifted the cover on that. this is what it really means. megyn: peter morici, thank you. >> take care. megyn: see you soon. we're taking your thoughts on it now, you can e-mail me here at kelly@foxnews.com. well, when it was first revealed that google drove around and collected private information from people's home networks -- do you remember seeing them outside of your house? the company said it was a mistake, and the problem was fixed. now a stunning new federal report indicates that google may have known all along exactly what it was doing and did for years. plus, president obama's

campaign says mitt romney never would have ordered the bin laden raid because mitt romney disagreed with going after terror targets inside of pakistan. is that an accurate portrayal of what governor romney said? we did the research, and we have the answer right after break. >> i'd just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into pakistan and take out bin laden. i assume that people meant what they said when they said it. a party?

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megyn: welcome back, folks, 1:25 here in the east, and there is a new federal report out today with some eye-opening new details on the controversy over google grabbing private and

personal data from your home networks. get out of here, google! it sent vehicles around to record images for its street view search function, vehicles that were also recording private data off of people's home wireless networks. google called it a mistake and said that it wasn't aware that this was happening. but now one company engineer says, really? trace gallagher live in l.a. now, trace, i don't want to hear anything bad about google collecting private data. we partnered with them on the debate, they gave us great ice cream sundaes, they were very nice people, and now you're telling me something bad. >> reporter: you and google are like this, megyn, you make up your own mind. the fcc says google did not violate any wiretapping laws, did obstruct this investigation, fined them $25,000. now privacy groups are outrages saying the fcc botched this whole thing and slapped google on the wrist. the deal is these cars you see here, they go around, right?

their street view cars take pictures of homes and businesses to use on the site. a google engineer wrote a software code that allowed the vehicles to go by and see what you were doing on the internet, your e-mails, your passwords, history, web sites. comforting, huh? megyn: not cool! >> reporter: the engineer wrote the software, and then he says he went to the senior managers of google, and he went to the employees and said, look, you are collecting and storing private data. well, the senior managers say they were never told, and the street view employees say they were never told. but remember, when the investigation first began, google said it was not collecting data and then said, okay, it was collecting some data, but only fragments and then admitted gathering e-mails and passwords but apologized. the company claimed it was inadvertently collecting all that stuff, and be now we know, megyn, that it was inadvertently collecting it for two years. these privacy groups say they're not going to let this down. i mean, they want congressional hearings to find out when google

managers knew this stuff was being collected and stored, megyn. megyn: if you already have g mail, they know your password anyway. but i guess this takes it one level above that. trace, thank you. >> reporter: sure. megyn: what do you think about it? kelly@foxnews.com. well, the politics over putting bin laden's death in an attack ad taking a new turn today. whether president obama's re-election team took mitt romney's speech about it out of context. what was left out? plus, the mystery baffling crash investigators. what brought down an air france jet in the middle of the night over the atlantic killing everyone onboard? a new report points to a potential design flaw in about half of the airplanes that in the sky today. they say that design flaw is being ignored and rejected and

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megyn: well, it has become the big political debate this week, and we've uncovered some new details about the president and his campaign's argument that mitt romney would not have given the order to kill usama bin laden. it all started when the obama campaign released an ad questioning whether governor romney would have gone after bin laden pointing out, quote: mitt romney criticized barack obama for vowing to strike al-qaeda targets inside pakistan if necessary. when challenged on the ad and whether it was appropriate, president obama at a joint press conference with the japanese prime minister yesterday said this:

>> as far as my personal role and be what other folk -- and what other folks would do, i'd just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into pakistan and take out bin laden. i assume that people meant what they said when they said it. that's been at least my practice. megyn: governor romney said yesterday that of course he would have given that order, and then we did some digging and found out as we mentioned to you yesterday that the criticism may not have played out exactly the way portrayed in that obama campaign ad. all right? so here is what, here is, first, the radio interview that mitt romney gave back in 2007 that it seems the president's re-election team was referring to. >> i do not concur in the words

of barack obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours, their country in a manner complete with bombing and so forth. i don't think those kind of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort. but certainly there is a war being waged by terrorists of different types and nature across the world, and we want as a civilized world to participate with other nations in this civilized effort to help those nations reject the extreme within them. >> [inaudible] >> i think his comments were ill-timed and ill-considered. megyn: and then there was more. but i want to bring in our panel, leslie marshall who's a fox news contributor and lars larson who is a syndicated radio host with compass media networks. mitt romney made those remarks back august 3 of 2007. here we are in, whatever, it was april 28th or so 2012 that the president's re-election campaign comes out with an ad suggesting based on those comments that

mitt romney would not have given the order to go into pakistan and take out bin laden. we went back and looked. two days after mitt romney said it would be ill-timed and ill-considered, those comments by then-candidate obama, he was asked about that criticism by george stephanopoulos at a presidential debate. watch what happened. >> governor romney, you said you didn't agree with obama's plan, you called it ill-timed and ill-considered -- >> so what do you do? >> a person running for president of the united states to say we're going to go into your country unilaterally. of course, america always keeps our option to do whatever we think is best, but we don't go out and say, ladies and gentlemen of germany, we reserve the right to come in and get them out. we don't say those things. we keep our options quiet. megyn: lars? did the president, did his re-election team take mitt romney out of context? >> yeah, they did. what they were talking about at the time, and i remember

discussing this on my radio show, is the fact that the candidate obama was saying we will go into any other country, and we will effectively wage war, we'll commit acts of war. they weren't talking about going after bin laden specifically, but now the obama campaign is trying to say, you see, that's what he was saying he would do about bin laden. at the time candidate obama was saying i'll act unilaterally, i'll go into countries that are at least allegedly our allies like pakistan, and i'll go in whether we've talked to them about it or not. that would be considered an act of war. can you imagine if some foreign country sent troops into our country and blew things up or dropped bombs on us? it's a whole different context that we're talking about here. megyn: leslie? what are your thoughts on it? >> well, first of all, lars, i would agree that on both sides when there is any kind of a campaign, especially presidential, there are things taken out of context like last november when mitt romney and his camp had an ad about the president making a statement in new hampshire, entirely

different words than what the president said in regards to the economy. you've got to be careful standing in the those glass houses throwing stones. with regard to what happened with bin laden, with regard to what the president did as a president and what mitt romney has said, one of the problems i have as a voter in looking at candidates if i were not going to vote for a democrat -- which i haven't always done, surprise, surprise -- i want to know where does this man stand on these types of issues. and one of the problems i have with mr. romney is it seems his answers change depending on his audience. his answer to mr. stephanopoulos very different, i think, than what he was saying on the radio because it was a different audience -- >> it was a different question. >> he was pro-choice, he's now pro-life. he was in favor of mandate in the state of massachusetts, he's no in favor of the mandate -- megyn: lars, was mitt romney inconsistent on the radio versus the debate? >> no. i think we're talking about different summits and different questions about different,

specific issues, and now president obama's trying to bring this forward and saying this is what he would have done with usama bin laden. to have somebody like bill clinton who passed on four different activities to kill bin laden to suggest, well, we know that governor romney would not go and kill bin laden is crazy. and the fact is the president is now taking his victory lap trying to claim credit for a gutsy maneuver. it wasn't gutsy to sit in washington and say kill bin laden because if that team had been unsuccessful and bin laden wasn't there, we never would have heard anything about this. it would have been one more of those secret operations that our men and women in the military carry out all the time, and we wouldn't have heard about it. there was even a memo written by then-cia director panetta so it would have insulated the president from any responsibility be this mission had not gone as well as it did. it did go well, and now the president's taking credit. megyn: leslie, did the president misstep in making this a shot at romney to begin with?

there's been a lot of criticism since he came out with that ad saying, you know, go ahead and take note. here we are on the one-year anniversary of bin laden's killing, something that, you know, you don't want to use the word celebrate necessarily, maybe you do, but something that all americans paid a lot of attention to and something for which a lot of us were very grateful. so take note of it, give credit to the seals, to the men and women of the military. don't put credit on yourself even though americans will give it to you and don't make it political. something arianna huffington called despicable, one of the most despicable things you can do, she said. >> well, i don't think it's -- i think it's despicable to say that anyone would exactly do this or that if they did not say that exact quote. however, i don't think, i think all's fair, unfortunately, or it's become all has become fair in a presidential election year. i don't think it's despicable for the president to point out what he has done that is favorable to the world and to the american people and has been

to the betterment of this country and the world with regards to foreign policy with a man that he is going to be running against, mitt romney, his camp, the gop, my buddies like lars on the right who attack his foreign policy. and he is in a fight. this is going to be a fight for this seat. this is going to be a nail-biter, and the mud slinging has begun. and it will not end, and mr. romney will sling some president obama's way, i'm sure. megyn: all right. leslie, lars, we'll have you back to debate that when it happens. like tomorrow. [laughter] thank you. >> thank you very much. megyn: coming up next, you have to see this segment. alarming new details about a fatal flaw that may have doomed an air france jet as it plummeted into the ocean in the dark of night killing everyone onboard. this fatal flaw potentially impacts half of the planes in the sky today. three minutes to the must-see story of the day. don't go away. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing

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megyn: well, brand new information about one of the world's worst aviation disasters. the deadly air france plane crash back in june of 2009. 216 passengers and 12 crew members died when flight 443 vanished off the radar while flying to paris from brazil. the official report set to be released by french investigators raising new questions about a design flaw in the control stick that is used in all airbus cockpits. keep in the mind airbus makes half the world airliners in the sky right now. it took five days before recovery crews found the wreckage and some of the bodies on the ocean floor between brazil and africa, and now trace has more on this possible design flaw in the airbus. trace? >> reporter: and keep in mind, megyn, it took two years before they found the black boxes, the

flight data recorder at the bottom of the ocean, right? so flight 447 was four hour into a ten-hour flight from rio to paris. it hit a thunderstorm. the captain went on a scheduled break leaving the deputy captain and a junior pilot in the cockpit. both had years of experience. the junior pilot was flying the plane. the cigar-shaped meters that measure air flow to measure air speed had frozen over, so the plane showed that it was -- those are the tubes -- that it was slowing down, but it wasn't. instead of leveling the plane off or dropping the nose, the pilot kept trying to climb. the stall warning sounded 75 times. the deputy captain finally realized what was going wrong and leveled the plane, but for some reason the junior pilot pulled the plane back up not realizing they were plummeting 11,000 feet per minute. the captain finally came back into the cockpit, you could tell there was confusion. from the cockpit voice recorder, put this on the screen. the deputy pilot says:

>> reporter: the plane hit the water about a second after that, and now they're saying look, thousand, at the left-hand side, that's the control yoke, right? that's the stick, that's what controls airbuses. they differ from boeing because in boeing both the pilot and the co-pilot can feel the pressure on the stick, megyn? in airbuses the other pilot in the plane can't feel the pressure so one doesn't know what the other is doing. that's part of it. airbus says absolutely not, we've been flying millions of hours and aviation experts agree that it was not the stick, but it's one thing they're looking at. megyn: wow.

trace, thank you. details about the factors that may have led to this tragedy are outlined in the telegraph newspaper. nick ross is a freelance journalist who wrote this comprehensive article. he is my guest now. nick, thank you so much for being here. >> hi, megyn. megyn: it looks like a joy stick, and is it you or the crash investigators who are now raising serious questions about whether that mechanism is safe? >> we don't yet know if crash investigators are going to accept this theory. it is only a theory. it is my theory. but, um, i have spoken to a lot of accident investigators not taking part in this french inquiry and to a lot of pilots, and a lot of them have these same concerns. megyn, one ought to say airbuses are safe, they are remark -- all commercial airlines are remarkably safer. they always argue, these two, about it. but maybe we can make them even safer still because the issue was why was there confusion in the cockpit? why was it not obvious what the

junior pilot was doing? megyn: the flight hit turbulence, there was a stall warning. when that happens, they need to put the plane downward to descend to pick up speed to avoid the stall. this junior pilot, instead, was pulling up. he was pulling up. and the co-pilot who was more experienced than he should have seen that and should have said don't do that. you say the reason, potentially, that that didn't happen, the oversight is because the one pilot didn't know what the junior pilot was doing. >> yeah. the junior pilot did mention -- we're in toga, huh? that means take off and go around, and that's what you do. you can't land, so you pitch the plane up 15, 16 degrees nose up, put the throttles on full, and you fly away and go around and try to land again. the problem with this aircraft is he did this at 36,000 feet, and it very quickly ran out of air. it was almost flying into space at which point although it's only -- the nose is only 16 degrees up, it's angle of attack

on the air is actually as though the plane was 30 degrees and then 40 degrees. the wings were damming the air like bull bulldozer blades, so it was really falling throughout the three minutes until it hit the sea. now, the question is why did the other pilots not know, and my view is this is unlikely to have happened. i can't say it wouldn't, but it's unlikely to have happened in a boeing because in a boeing you've got -- megyn: and the boeing mechanism is different, i understand. but airbus has said it was pilot error. the junior guy mishandled it. the senior captain was out of the cockpit, it was the junior and the middle guy who were at the helm when this craft was going down, and you could hear the senior captain as he came back into the cockpit at the very end, you heard trace report what he said last, talking about the pitch. the ten degrees of pitch and the recording ended. they say it was all pilot error. >> there's no question it was pilot error. was it all pilot error?

in other words, is there something we can do in the future to make these aircraft safer? and in a boeing you've got a great big stick in front of you like a steering wheel, and i spoke with pilots who call it house full and house empty. it's house full when you're climbing because these are right in your chest, and it's house empty when you're descending. with the little side sticks that are used in military aircraft and in airbus, you don't get that same sense. so although it's there on the instruments and, frankly, the other two pilots should have noticed on the instruments -- megyn: it's automated. >> they had panic going on. this was in pitch darkness, they knew they were falling. megyn: eight seconds to a hard break, i want to talk about to you about the panic on that flight and how they should have known. stay with us. o hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too.

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megyn: nick ross is with me still. the tate was june 1, 2009. you write in your piece as the airliner during a thunderstorm entered the worst of the weather, the junior pilot told the cabin crew to prepare for turbulence. in fact, eight minutes later everyone onboard would be dead. you say that junior pilot himself seemed spooked that night. why, nick? >> there was something called a st. elmo's fire which many people who work on the equator, certainly airline pilots who fly over there a lot are aware of. it can look very disturbing even in a big, commercial airliner cockpit. it looks as though it's in the cockpit, looks as though the cockpit's on fire, and you can often get a smell of burning as well, and he was pretty spooked by that, by all accounts. megyn: you talk about the people onboard that flight including parents who travel separately, one parent brings one child on one flight, there was such a couple split up onboard that flight as well as an 11-year-old boy, alexander, whose picture i

believe we have. talk about what you believe the one merciful aspect of this, what you believe the people onboard the flight went through. >> because the pilot who was actually flying the plane at the time had the nose up 6 -- 16 degrees, the plane hit the sea level, and although it was falling at an incredible rate, about 11,000 feet per second, the pressure compensation on these airbuses is very good. i think what would have happened is it would have felt like terrible turbulence. the plane was yawing to one side quite a lot. i doubt even if some passengers were panicking, i doubt that anybody was, you know, in that horrendous picture which i had pictured in my own mind, frankly, which is the plane was corkscrewing down for three or four minutes and it was terrible. i hope and pray that most of those people had no idea they were going to crash until the impact, and then they would have been killed instantly. megyn: the final takeaway as

somebody who's studied this crash on what was it, pilot error plus design flaw? >> it was, and i'm sure the interim reports and the official inquiry are right, it was fundamentally pilot error. i'm hoping that the final report when it comes out will include something about airbus design asking people to look again at these side sticks and saying should they give more feedback, tactile, sensory feedback to the other pilots so they can see if it is pilot error, what's going on immediately and not just rely on instrumentation. megyn: we reached out to airbus for a statement, so far none forthcoming. nick, thank you. coming up, an alleged plot by a top intelligence official accused of ripping off taxpayers. we'll detail it right after this break. maybe in vegas, if you know where to look. and us. so come on, give us a whirl. ♪

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meg already fox news alert. a top official within the immigration and customs

enforcement agency pleading guilty in a scheme that cheated taxpayers out of a a million bucks. i'm megyn kelly. we have new video of the former i.c.e. chief intelligence officer james woolsey admitting he conspired with four other employees to steal $550,000. the embarrassing scandal follows the gsa scandal. jeff neely in the bathtub. $800,000 of taxpayer money lost in that incidents. both incidents are casing questions about who is minding the store. >> reporter: this represents a huge breakdown. not just in the oversight of tax money. but here is the chief of intelligence at i.c.e. with top security clearances, terrorism and cartel intelligence trusted with america's secrets admitting to lying and stealing.

immigration and customs enforcement or i.c.e. is america's second largest investigative agency after the fbi *. its highest level was james woolsey who oversaw an $80 million budget and managed to steal part of that taxpayer money for himself. living the high life under the radar in an elaborate travel scam that allowed him to buy a new home and boat. court records said up to 7 i.c.e. co-workers traveled to washington where they claim to stay at local hotels but actually stayed sat woolsey's home in virginia. his living girlfriend and colleagues created false receipts. he then got a kickback for half the amount when the workers got reimbursed. he pled guilty to embezzling $188,000 in a scheme that

defrauded taxpayer ofs a half million dollars. >> in this case, these are intel officers, intelligence officers handling classified information. >> reporter: one of the i.c.e. agents involved say he wired to middle eastern account.. officials say he took multiple unauthorized trips there on a diplomatic passport. and in 2006 lied about his past but wasn't fired and kept his national security clearance. he pled guilty to a prison sentence of two years. but the fbi wants to know if this guy worked for a foreign government, if he was compromise, where the money went

and why i.c.e. didn't catch it. megyn: a fox news alert. presidential county mitt romney walking to the mics at a firehouse with former mayor rudy giuliani. >> it's good to be here with mayor giuliani. he's respected and admired business the members of this station. 11 men lost their lives on 9/11 from this station. this is a place of significance for the people of new york and also for the people of our country. i wanted to come here today and was happy to be here with the mayor and express our appreciation to the men and women who serve in the firefighters and first responders here in new york and acknowledge the special place that this is. i also remember well being with the mayor on december 24, christmas eve, 2001. just a few months after 9/11. the olympic torch that was on its way from greece, actually,

and then through atlanta, then coming to new york was brought into the city. we brought it in by boat. and the families of some of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy firefighters and police, families, joined us on that boat. we took the olympic flame and went out into the harbor. we stopped in front of the statue of liberty. we all sang god bless america together. there were hug and tears shed there. then we brought the boat back to the harbor, back to the dock, and took the torch. the mayor actually ran the torch that day across the ice at rockefeller center. then we lit a cauldron and it burned for a day on december 25. it's an honor to be here with the mayor to acknowledge these men and women who serve and rush

to danger when others are rushing away. on this day when usama bin laden was taken out. we admire the president and the intelligence community that worked on it for so many years to identify where he was and the members of our armed services, seal team 6 that took the extraordinary risk of going into pakistan and removing one of the world's characters. with that we are happy to take any questions you have. >> [inaudible] >> of course i would have ordered taking out usama bin laden. this is a person who had done terrible harm to america and represented a continuing threat to civilized people around the world. had i been president of the united states i would have made the same designatures president

made. i acknowledged this a year ago when this was announced that the president deserved credit and i would have taken that action myself. pardon? >> [inaudible] >> no, i think i said the same thing as joe biden it was naive of the president to announce would go into pakistan. we always reserve the right to go anywhere to get usama bin laden. i said that very clearly in the response i made. but many people believed as i did that it was naive on the part of the president, the candidate, to say he would go into pakistan. it was a fragile and flammable time in pakistan. i thought it was a mistake of him as a candidate for the presidency of the united states to say he would go in. rather than to say we reserve the right to go where we feel it's appropriate. certainly to track usama bin

laden anywhere he could be found. >> [shouting "mitt romney you are a racist"] >> you know, i think it's totally appropriate for the president to express to the american people the view that he has, that he had an informed role in taking on usama bin laden. i think polite sizes it and trying to draw a distinction between himself and me -- the mayor and i had a nice chat this morning. we talked about the progress the city is making. it's quite an extraordinary story about the number of murders down in the city. the economic revitalization of the city.

you have to look at what new york has done under this mayor. and under mayor bloomberg and say the city is just a remarkable place doing a superb job from everything he reported. there were numbers where he described the fact that the life expectancy of a new yorker is three years longer than the life spec and sif an average american. that's not something most people would recognize. but this is a great city. >> thank you very much, governor. thank you. megyn: there you have it. mitt romney being heckled in part by one new york as he visits engine 24, ladder 25 with mayor rudy giuliani. that company lost 11 firefighters on 9/11. mitt romney speaking to the issue of the day politically saying the politicalization by the president to the killing of

usama bin laden say it was unfortunate because it was a moment that brought us all together as americans and tried to comment on how he believed back in 2008 what he was trying to say was that it was naive of then candidate obama to announce we go into pakistan at a time when our relationship was fragile as opposed to criticizing the notion of doing it. it was the notion of saying it publicly. we played the sound bite where he said that which asked about the remarks to george stephanopoulos. he said he would have made the same decision as president. while governor romney visits new york we are getting breaking information from a police source that this city is getting bombarded by suspicious items today, and that they are likely tied to occupy wall street's may day protests. those protests we told but them

yesterday are aimed mainly at disrupting financial centers in major cities coast to coast, including manhattan. laura ingle is live in manhattan with the latest. >> reporter: a new york police department spokesperson confirms to fox three more suspicious packages were delivered to locations around new york city today on top of the 7 suspicious packages delivered to wells fargo, j.p. more dan chase, the mayor's office and city hall. all containing white powder and a menacing note that reads this is just a reminder, you are not in control. those envelopes were tested. they caused evacuations. it turns out the substance most likely is corn starch. but another cause for concern. the nypd's presence has been high all over new york city today. we were earlier at brian park. we are now at union square. as far as the arrests, we have

only seen one. we have tape of a man trying to block traffic. nypd put him under arrest and handled that situation. we want to give you a quick show around the crowd as the crowds continue to grow. there will be a march fleagd union square to wall street in just a few hours. we'll send it back to you. megyn: health and human services secretary kathleen grilled on the contraception mandate in the president's healthcare overhaul. she insifts it was blessed by constitutional lawyers. but we'll play you an exchange between miss sebelius and a republican lawmaker. >> why can government not -- >> what is the basis of that? >> the separation of church and state. >> it's the constitution. should government decide which religious beliefs are acceptable and not acceptable.

>> no, sir. >> why can they not do that? >> it's part of our constitution. need any help?

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>> i think the obama campaign ad that discusses that out of line. i was even more struck about it nature of the question and the opportunity it gave president obama which he took to make a political point in the middle of a bilateral press conference with the japanese prime minister. megyn: you think the president missed the opportunity to take the high road there? >> to say the least. he was given a softball -- i thought the prime minister's answer on the terrorism point was right on target. he said the death of bin laden does not end the threat of terrorism which is the white house narrative. megyn: that was john bolton reacting to president obama

taking a political swipe at his rival mitt romney during a press conference with the prime minister of japan. shouldn't presidential leadership be about setting an example? we put that question to michael reagan. welcome back. that's the question is whether president obama is injecting politics into more and more his event and whether that is appropriate. >> he has ever not injected politics. he's the constant campaigner. he has never stopped since he took the oath of office three years ago. yesterday it was embarrassing. he's there with the prime minister, they are having a joint news conference an uses that moment instead of leading, he uses that moment to take a swipe at mitt romney as if mitt romney would not have gone in after usama bin laden.

it's interesting the only person i know of that wouldn't have gone after him and stated i wouldn't go after him and that was joe biden, the vice president of the united states of america. the president,united states does not show leadership because he's in constant campaign mode. he seems to tell his -- lies or falsehoods with more passion and more believability than our side tells its truths. meg are was asked about that. it's not like the president brought it up himself. the reporter said what do you make of mitt romney -- he didn't use him by name. suggesting even president carter would have done that. what was he supposed to do? >> he could have stopped that halfway through when he was uplifting the seals and military, uplifting everything that worked together to that moment to get usama bin laden. he could have stopped it there.

and really shown leadership instead of using that moment to make a political point and taking mitt romney as he did completely out of context of what mitt romney was talking about at the time. he was saying back in 2008, 2007, during the presidential campaign you do not announce the things you are going to do when it has to do with a foreign country going into a foreign country. you play it close to the vest and wait until you are elected president of the united states of america. that was the point mitt romney was making. he took it out context to make a political ad and political statement in an area where he shouldn't have made it. the prime minister was talking about terror. talking about the fact that the terror reign is not over because of cyber terror and what we are facing today. worrying about those people reacting to usama bin laden being killed a year ago. megyn: john mccain famously

declined to go after president obama's connection to reverand wright. if president obama had taken the high road and declined to go after mitt romney the white house thinks they have mitt romney on. the question is, does the high road lead to losing? >> the high road -- who is he going after. is he trying to get conservatives to vote for him because he went after usama bin laden? our side wishes george w. bush would have gotten usama bin laden. but when you are president of the united states you are president to all the people. that press conference yesterday was about prime minister and president. about what was going on in japan and the united states of america. that's what it was all about. an should have left it right there at the presidential level.

not bring it in to a campaign level. save that for another time, another place. there are many of those -- well, many of those times that he has or he makes. this man has been on 11 -- 191 fundraisers so far and we are still counting. megyn: is this a function of barack obama or is this a function of the modern presidency and what it takes to win the election. >> the people want a president. and barack obama never has assumed the presidency in that respect. the reason i think he goes after mitt romney is because he has nothing to hang his hat on. can he hang his hat on obama-care? no, it's sitting in the supreme court. many states filed against it, don't want it. what about dodd-frank? that's another accomplishment that destroyed the banking and house industry? he's not hanging his hat on that either. the only option he has is to go

after his opponent. he is a great campaigner, he has a great smile, he has likability. if mitt romney wants to win he has to get that likability going in this favor and start questioning the president on leadership. say mr. president why don't you bring harry reid into your office and have him do a budget. it's been three years now. megyn: spirit airlines under fire after refusing to give this dying vietnam vet a simple refund. trace has the details after this break. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink?

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megyn: spirit airlines facing

brutal criticism for denying a $197 ticket refund to this man. a vietnam vet and former police officer who was battling advanced stage cancer and is too sick to travel. >> reporter: this is the airline that charges you $5 to print your boarding pass. he was flying from florida to new jersey to see his daughter before she had her surgery. his doctor told him not to fly. as for the refund, spirit said no way. here is jerry. >> they didn't even review my case. i got to speak to somebody in india who is supposedly a supervisor and he said flat out, here is what we'll do for you. we'll give you a credit so you can fly in the future which sort of really got to me. that set me off.

>> reporter: meekins said what do they want to do, fly my casket up to atlantic city. military groups are organizing a boycott of spirit airlines. what is spirit doing? they are doubling down saying still no refound quoting at spirit we treat all of our customers equally and with respect. that means our non-refundable fares are non-refundable for everyone. i think spirit might want a do-over in this case, but so far, nothing. megyn: a remarkable moment caught on camera involving health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius, the healthcare overhaul and the u.s. constitution. you will only see it right here. plus a florida judge asking jurors what went on during deliberations over a florida

millionaire convicted of killing a man while driving drunk. the judge cross-examined the jurors yesterday. wait until you hear what they told the judge about the verdict. >> before the trial was over, but started deliberating, did anybody ever say to you or in our presence or suggest that they heard enough evidence, they made their mind up and they were going to vote one way other other? [ woman ] oh, my gosh -- it's so good! [ kristal ] we're just taking a sample

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megyn: it's one of the most controversial measures in the mclaw. the mandate that employers provide precontraception coverage in some cases against their beliefs. kathleen sebelius says she believes the administration struck the right balance between religious rights and human rights. watch this extraordinary exchange. >> congressman, i'm not a lawyer and i don't pretend to understand the nuances of the constitutional balancing tests. if you are talking about the preventative services. >> you would agree it's a legal issue. the last time i was in the supreme court i think you and i were there the same day during the oral argument. this mandate is going to wind up in the supreme court. to me it is -- we talk about the

politics all we want to, i want to talk about the law. i want to talk about balancing religious liberty with whatever else you think it's appropriate to balance it with because you used the word "balance." which of those three tests is the appropriate test for to us use when considering religious liberty? >> again, congressman, i'm not going to wade into constitutional law. i'm talking about the fact that we are implementing the law that was passed by the congress and signed by the president which direct our department to develop a package of preventative health services for women. we have done just that with the advice of the institute of medicine and promulgated that rule. >> do you agree government cannot force certain religious beliefs on its citizens. >> yes, sir. >> why can they not do that? >> why can government not force ridge beliefs? >> what is the basis of that.

>> the separation of church and state. >> the constitution, first amendment. should government decide which religious beliefs are acceptable and not acceptable. >> no, sir. >> why can they not do that? >> it's part of our constitution. >> it's a legal analysis. for me this is not a political analysis it's a legal analysis. so before this rule was promulgated, did you read any of the supreme court cases on religious liberty. >> i did not. >> you would agree with me that our society has a come pelling interest, not just an important interest, a compelling interest in having an educated citizenry. >> yes, sir. when a state said you have to send your children to school until a certain age and a religious group objected because they did not want to send their children to school until that certain age, do you know who

won? it went to the supreme court. >> i do not. >> the religious group won. i think the state has a compelling interest in banning animal sacrifice. whether it's compelling or irrelevant is important for purposes of this discussion. when the state banned the animal sacrifice and it went to the spreenl court do you know who won that? >> i do not. >> the religious group won. i think the state has a compelling interest in having license tags on automobiles. when a religious group objected to having a certain license tag on their cars. it went to the supreme court. do you know who won? >> i do not. >> the religious group won. and most recently i think government has a compelling interest in avoiding gender discrimination. but this administration took to the supreme court a case where a

religious group wanted to decide who its teachers were even fit went gender discrimination. it was a 9-0 opinion. in favor of religious liberty. so when you say you balance things, can you understand why i might be seeking a constitutional balancing instead of any other kind? >> i do, sir, and i defer to our lawyers to give me good advice on the constitution. i do not pretend to be a constitutional lawyer. >> is there a legal memo you relied on? >> i relied on discussions. >> at least when attorney general holder made his recess appointments there was a legal memo he relied on. >> he runs the justice department and lives in a world of legal memos. >> the gentleman's time has expired. megyn: that is extraordinary. joining me to put it in perspective.

julian epstein, a democratic consultant who has worked on high-level campaigns and jay sekulow. gentlemen, that's -- you don't often see that happen. what just happened there, jay? what just happened? >> i think you saw the collision of hhs secretary who instituted a policy, did not consider the real constitutional issues involved, including religious freedom at the top. it's being litigated in a number of the courts. we have a case in st. louis. the idea that the federal government is going to tell the religious institution what they must provide when that provision violates their religious conscience is why the framers adopted the first amendment. and kathleen sebelius was clueless as to the ramifications of the decision let alone the basis upon which it was reached.

megyn: i want to get both your take on that. was that appropriate of him. does she need to know? she says i rely on the attorney general of the united states. >> she didn't have a written memo which is disheartening. what she did not know is the united states constitution specifically the first amendment ramifications of a decision that is probably one of the most controversial this administration has institute and i think it will end up in the federal courts and ultimately the supreme court fit has to go that far. i think she was clueless and that's unfortunate that. this has significant ramifications for religious liberty. >> as to the question of the appropriateness of the questions, the justice department, the solicitor general determines the constitutional standards the arguments one would make to support the policy. it's not the secretary of hhs. you would not expect the

secretary of hhs to have extensive an oh 8ed libbographys. i think there was a lot of discussion. but unlike some of the issues we debate. i have understanding and respect for the critics of your position on this. the rule that the administration adopted exempts religious institutions -- so-called conscience provision, it's catholic churches do not have to comply with this rule. >> but not catholic hospitals or universities. what we are talking about is when you have religious affiliated institutions like hospitals and universities, that are acting in commerce the way other institutions are, then the rule says that insurance companies that are -- if a

hospital is providing insurance -- and they are not required to in the first days -- but if they choose to provide insurance to their employees, then they must provide preventative services such as contraception. megyn: i'm interested in whether this is appropriate. you tell me, jay. was it appropriate to cross-examine the health and human services secretary on the constitutional basis for the law when you tell us -- tell us honestly. does somebody in her position normally rely on the attorney general or is she expected to know chapter and verse. >> she wasn't asked chapter and verse. she was asked who she talked to. hhs has a battery of lawyers. of course, an individual congressman has the right to ask the secretary of hhs who implemented this regulation with such far-reaching implications

whether she thought it was constitutional. they are sworn to uphold the constitution of the united states. it doesn't mean she has to be a constitutional scholar? >> let me tell you why that's wrong. the reason why that's wrong. if this does go up to the courts it's inappropriate for administration officials other than the justice department to begin oh piping on the arguments on the constitutionality. this is consistent with the case where native americans couldn't use parote and amish had to pay taxes. whether religious organizations have to comply with that law so long as it is not imposing undue burdens on their religion. >> you yourself acknowledged

that churches were exempted from it. the religiousally affiliated os, should they qualify for that exemption? of course they should. >> they have lots of non-affiliated employees. megyn: it took me back to law school. >> we need two segments on this one. megyn: maybe you have the feeling she had, you are out of time. see you guys. coming up next he was convicted in a deadly drunk driving crash. now the florida polo tycoon could be a free man. the judge cross-examined the jurors about their verdict. we'll show you after the break. >> at the time the verdict was rendered and it was a finding of guilt as was reflected in the verdict form, was that your

decision at that time?

megyn: "kelly's court" is back in session. a convicted florida polo tycoon could go free after being found guilty of drunk driving and hitting and killing a young man with his car. the judge grilling several jurors on whether they are guilty of potential misconduct. one of the jurors admitting he felt pressured to go along with the other jurors who he believed made up their minds before the deliberation. >> before the trial was over, but started deliberating, did anybody ever say to you or in your presence or suggest that they heard enough evidence, they made their mind up and they were going to vote one way or the other. >> yes. quite a few.

comment like, we know he's guilty, let's just seen it paperwork and go on. megyn: that's not good for those trying to uphold this verdict. joining me to discuss it. joey jackson and mercedes colwin. the defense was tipped off by an alternate jurors and now we have the actual jurors being cross-examined by the judge. that one, michael st. john got there and said to the judge, she is right. we did what she said. >> that's a problem. in these cases the 6th amendment plays very deep it says a number of things. but it says you are allowed a public trial. but more importantly a fair trial, and that's by an impartial jury. whenever you have an unsettling much that process and the jury has made up their mind not to take the process seriously it

becomes reversible error. mercedes will tell you judges repeatedly during the course of the rule are admonishing jurors, you are not to draw conclusions, say whatever i want to say until the deliberations. at that point you can be expressive of it. if there is any violation of that process after the fact, what is the remedy in a new trial. megyn: the defense wants this verdict thrown out. here is that juror once again speaking to the alleged taint in the jury. listen. >> i was trying to show them another side, and they got adamant with me and said, you know, i don't want to be here any longer than we have to. the guy is guilty and that's it. i didn't feel that the whole process was taken seriously. megyn: grounds for a new trial? >> not so. first of all, verdict remorse doesn't mean a new trial.

every single one of those jurors were polled after the verdict. is this your verdict, yes. they went down all of those jurors including mr. st. johns who was under oath and he says that was his verdict. the judge will say, i'm going to step back, i hear what you have to say, but i want to step back and look at the evidence. and the judge will look at the evidence and say was this alleged misconduct such a miscarriage of justice that it would have resulted in another verdict. here his testimony, all the evidence that point to one thing, that he's guilty. megyn: verdict remorse that jurors sometimes feel doesn't get you ground for a new trial. when i listen to that man's complaint, it sounds like they weren't taking it seriously. i felt like they were pressuring me and they had their minds made up. that happens. you go in the jury room, people

do form opinions during the course of a trial and it's not unusual for jurors to look around and say i think he did it. that's not improper. >> certainly it should occur going to deliberations. at that point people should state what their views are and you reach a decision. but when he was asked the question and jurors are polled as defense attorneys poll jurors after a verdict. he will say it was a very coercive environment and he felt intimidated and fearful of coming out and saying. that's why what we do as trial attorneys, we approach the bench if there is something the jurors wants to say. it's in that environment that a juror can be candid and say i have something to tell you. but when you poll a juror and they don't admit to things when there is a crowd full of people around within what do you expect. megyn: here is one juror telling a different story. >> before the deliberations

started during the trial, but during the deliberations, did you have any conversations with anyone or did you overhear any conversations that suggested that any one of the jurors had made up their mind and decide i heard enough evidence, i made my mind up, i'm going to vote guilty or not guilty. did any of that go on? >> absolutely not. >> i think the judge will say the verdict is going to stand. he's facing 30 years in prison if he doesn't get this reverse and get a new trial. megyn: incredible. joey, mercedes, thank you very much. we'll be right back. don't go away.

megyn: man's best friend become a hot button issue on the campaign trail as presidential pooch beau and governor rom numbers old dog seamus become a campaign issue. james rosen live in washington with more. >> reporter: presidential election seasons are silly seasons. it was inevitable we would see the battle of the doggy wars. beau appears in the new internet popup ad urging clickers of a mouse to join pet lovers on facebook. obedient fors can post alongside

photos of the president with beau, their own photos with their pets. one can take the dog thing too far, of course, as president lyndon johnson did with a beagle in a photo made famous in 1964. this caused an enraged snoopy to enrage goldwater. romney strapped aesmus in a crate and strapped him to the roof. something mrs. romney says the dog enjoyed immensely. and the president eating dog meet was reference.. >> thankfully we all agreed that families are off limit. dogs apparently fair game.

but i can take it. because my stepfather always told me it's a boy eat dog world out there. >> reporter: i was going to offer some more dog puns but i think i'll throw myself on the mercy of "kelly's court." megyn: is this an edward r. murrow moment? thank you, james. does aspirin even work on headaches?

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>>megyn: an e-mail "your beautiful eyes appear red, is there a problem with the lighting." they are up here. i'm megyn kelly, here's shepard. >>shepard: where is breaking news now, fox just learned a year to the day since u.s. special forces