happy in grease and france with the way their leaders have been dealing with the financial crisis of the last few years. sound familiar? in france voters dumped long-time president nicolas sarkozy, a center-right leader who's been working with germany and europe to cut the fat in eurozone budgets. his replacement? francois hollande, a socialist who wants a big increase in stimulus spending and is already promising an end to the recent budget cuts. fox business network's stuart varney is anchor of "varney & company" on fbr, and, stuart, old hollande in france says this 62-year-old retirement age has got to go. you should be able to retire at age 60, no more austerity, we should be doing what any civilized country does, and that's tax the rich. 75%! that's the future for france? >> where would you like me to start, megyn?

okay, the europeans are saying we want to change direction; no more austerity, no more of these cuts. no, we want a new stimulus program. we do not wish to reform entitlement programs, we want to go backwards. that what is now politically popular in europe. the problem is, that has grave associations of problems for us over here because it means more debt in europe, more debt over there means more borrowing over there. that means a longer and probably deeper recession than the one they've already got. so when you translate that to over here, it means that slow there means probably slowdown here. it means there's less confidence in the global economy, that's not good news for america. and because we are going down the same road, it points into which direction we are going in, and that is a slowdown. megyn: there was a deal between france and germany for some austerity measures in europe. is that off?

>> it looks like it, yes. there will be a meeting very soon between angela merkel and francois hollande. now there, used to be a deal between the two, between germany and france, that we would go with the austerity route, really tighten that belt all across europe, get deficits in order, and that's how we will proceed. that deal has been broken. francois hollande does not want to get the deficit under control this that way. he wants to start spending more money. and as you said, he wants to roll back changes to entitlement programs. he wants to roll it back to 60 as the retirement age, not -- megyn: how are they expected to work until 62? in his defense, that extra two year, that's a tough two years, stu. i mean, 61 and 62, shouldn't they be in the old age home by that point? >> sarcasm is a low form of wit, as you well know. [laughter] the point is, you can't afford this. people are living much longer.

life expectancy in france for a female is close to 80 years at age. you retire at 60, you've got to fund someone's pension and health benefits for more than 20 years. the point, you can't afford it. they're going to go deeper into debt, and that moves their debt crisis a few years closer. megyn: which effects us, as you pointed out in your first answer. there are reports today that the wealthier french who makeover a million euros a year are now looking into moving to your former home across the channel in london, in england. is that true? >> yes, that is accurate, yeah. what they propose, what hollande proposes in france is for a 75% tax rate on incomes over a million euros. it's already about 50%, they want to make it 75%, so what do rich french people do? they have the option of moving, and moving to london is a good option because they're usually in the financial business,

london is a financial center, so move and pay a much lower tax rate at the top level. megyn: can't we just call him president hollande? >> no, you have to pronounce it correctly, francois hol land. megyn: also a slow form of wit. >> that was shocking, shocking. [laughter] megyn: i actually enjoy it when my guests insult me. thankfully, it happens a lot. i give them so much fodder. as we mentioned, the policies of this new socialist president in france sound similar to what we've heard out of washington when it comes to stimulus spending and tax hikes and the issue about budget cuts. just ahead, we will look at the french approach and the american approach side by side, see what is similar, what is not and what is worrying economists today. well, an american hostage is now begging for his life, saying he will be killed unless president obama meets

al-qaeda's demands. in a new video, warren weinstein asks president obama to act quickly, saying his life is in the president's hands. as a matter of policy, we do not show videos released by terrorists. mr. weinstein was abducted last august in pakistan. dominic di-natale is streaming live from islamabad with more. minic? >> reporter: hey there, meg. the hostage, warren weinstein, is begging president obama to respond to al-qaeda's demands to stop drone attacks in the likes of pakistan, here in afghanistan, also in yemen and somalia as well. he made a very, very pointed, very personal message saying, um, if i live, if you meet the demands, if i live, i will hope to rejoin my family and also rejoin my children, he said. my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters, alluding to the president's own family. very much a surprise amongst people, it appears that he had a

script prepared for him, but they were really trying to pull the heart strings really of both president obama and the american public with something like this. we're not entirely sure whether al-qaeda have -- [inaudible] they claimed twice, from the video there's nothing to indicate he's specifically with al-qaeda militants, but it's highly likely. he was taken in the eastern side where al-qaeda doesn't have a huge presence, but we think it could have been criminals that took him to the northwest provinces where he's, where he could be currently being held. the sad news for the family, however, is he's ailing with a heart complaint. he's been getting medication, but he's by no means getting any better at all. his family back home will be, no doubt, distressed by seeing him on the video. megyn: we apologize, we lost dominic's stream, so went with the phone. a little tough to hear, but hopefully you made out the details. also details in an

investigation surrounding a kentucky derby murder mystery. this is like something out of "law and order." police are searching for witnesses in the death of a track worker. he's a 48-year-old man, and his body was found just hours after the race, four barns away from the stables of the winner, i'll have another. eric shawn live in our new york newsroom with more. >> reporter: yeah, megyn, this is a strange and tragic case. the body of a churchill downs track worker was found dead a barn in the aftermath of the kentucky derby. perez is from guatemala, he was a horse groomer at the track. police as of now say there does not appear to be a connection between his death and the derby itself. but his body was found at 5 p.m. sunday morning. police say his injuries are consistent with some type of altercation and, get this, they they there were actually several altercations at the track that night. >> it's a situation we have to

kind of work backwards, and that's what we're trying to do. we know there were some altercations prior to. was he involved? we're not sure. we're trying to get individuals who may know what happened, get those individuals to speak to us to find out if he was involved or not. >> reporter: about 200 like perez live full-time at the track. police are trying to find out exactly where perez was, what he was doing. among those they've interviewed are his 19-year-old son who also works there. police don't know how long his body was in the barn or if that was the exact spot where mr. perez was killed. an autopsy has been completed today, the coroner's office tells fox news there were injuries on the body, but they are not releasing any details. as of now the police call it an isolated incident, certainly a tragic situation after that great race. megyn: wow. eric, thank you. well, a big controversy is brewing on the georgetown campus

after that school invites secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius to speak. sebelius the obama cabinet secretary that american bishops are blame anything part for what they call on the war on religious freedom. so why would a catholic university invite her to speak? the catholic league's bill donahue is here, and he is not happy. plus, you'd think that after denying a refund to a dying war vet spirit airlines would want to lie low, but wait until you hear what the airline is doing now. and a lawyer for one of the accused 9/11 plotters angering families of the victims saying all women at the tribunal should stay covered up so as not to offend the terror defendants. she wants respect to be paid to them. we'll speak live with one unhappy family member later this hour. >> there was somebody dressed in a way that, um, was, um, not in keeping with my client's

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megyn: a new high-profile court battle between spirit airlines and the federal government. spirit suing over the government's airline passenger bill of rights, arguing today that that measure is illegal because it interferes, they say, with pricing and services. the company generating some bad publicity in recent days after it denied a refund to a vietnam vet who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. the ceo wound up saying he would pay for it himself, but they've also taken a hit for planning to charge some passengers $100 each for their carry-on bags. well, a high-profile commencement speaker sparks outrage from catholic leaders across the country. church-affiliated georgetown university announcing one of its

speakers will be health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. she is considered one of the architects of president obama's signature health care law which has ignited a firestorm in recent days thanks in part to its controversial contraception mandate. that effects catholic-affiliated schools and hospitals which catholic bishops have denounced as an attack on religious freedom, and it effects catholic universities like georgetown. the cardinal newman society has posted this petition in protest of the university's decision, but the university is not backing down. bill donahue is the president of the catholic league, and, bill, we asked georgetown for a statement on this, they said, well, she's not speaking at commencement, she's going to speak at the annual student and faculty awards event. is it a distinction twowt -- without a difference? >> it is, and can they know it. they ought to correct their web site, i saw it this morning.

this is about a war between the catholic left and the bishops. they're angry toward the bishops because they're tilting towards republicans. believe me, if anything, thai overwhelmingly democratic, and they have been for a long time. the it is true they've stood up against the mandate forcing catholic nonprofits to pay for abortion-inducing drugs in their insurance plans. because of that, it's perceived their anti-obama, and now they're saying bring it on, fellas, because we're after representative ryan -- which they just got finished blasting about a week or so ago -- but they like kathleen sebelius. i don't even know if this woman is a catholic, and the reason i say that, you can be excommunicated in the catholic church either by yourself or the church. in terms of the former, when you are in grave violation of all the central teachings of the catholic church, the catholic church regards abortion to be intrinsically evil. it's not like jay walking or lying. megyn: it's not like birth

control either. >> that's right. and the last three archbishops in kansas city have called her on the carpet, she was asked point-blank by one of them is there one single restrictive abortion legislation that you ever endorsed, she said, no. her best friend was the partial-birth abortionist who was taken out, and she raised money for him. in other words, it's impossible to be more pro-aworse than kathleen -- abortion than kathleen sebelius. megyn: we did do research, and be certainly he was a contributor to her campaign, and she did veto a lot of legislation that would have restricted certain abortions including even in the third term of pregnancy, so she is, obviously, not a pro-life person. and that's, you know, one of the reasons i'm sure president obama put her in that position, because he is a pro-choice president. your point is that's all well and good, but what is she doing speaking at a catholic university? >> that's just it. they knew this all along, they know exactly what her status is, and she's being rewarded.

i've had this debate with catholics on the left all the time. the catholic church regards racism to be evil. i would condemn them if they brought a rayist to speak -- racist in to speak at any of their catholic exercises. that's why they will not condemn, they will never condemn a pro-abortion catholic from speaking at a catholic university because in their hearts they're not really opposed to abortion. now the cardinal, who's a great man, the archbishop of washington, he's going to come out with a statement, no doubt, he's going to have to put out an interesting statement about the position at georgetown. now it's out in the open. the showdown is already occurring. many. megyn: what is the harm if somebody like kathleen sebelius goes and speaks? they've had fresh nancy reagan to mother teresa to kathleen sebelius, al gore, i meerntion they've had people on all sides of the political aisle come in

and speak to graduates at commencement or commencement-related events. where is the harm in having these differing points of view? >> i think if somebody were incidentally in front of abortion rights, somebody like rudy giuliani -- megyn: he was also there. >> right. but he's not known for wearing abortion rights on her sleeve. sebelius is known as the champion of abortion rights. she's not just happening to be in favor of a woman's right to choose, so to speak. and the timing here is all deliberate, it's all calculated. this is, basically, to take on the bishops -- megyn: who, we talked about, are organizing this massive two-week protest in june if administration doesn't back down, and now here we have a couple weeks before that kathleen sebelius is going to go to georgetown university. >> they have no neo-nazi clubs or skinhead clubs on campus, nor should they. they have two pro-abortion clubs at georgetown university. they wouldn't bring in an

anti-semite, they wouldn't bring in a racist, but they're bringing in a pro-abortion champion, and they shouldn't. megyn: bill be donahue, thank you. >> thank you. megyn: well, the united nations is now weighing in on one of america's most iconic monuments. why the u.n. wants america to surrender the mount rushmore monuments and who they want us to give it to! plus, a former attorney general now weighing in on a memo that he says would have allowed the administration to protect the president from blame if bin laden raid had failed. >> you better believe that if anything else had been encountered and the mission had failed, then the blame would have fallen on mccrearp. [ woman ] oh, my gosh -- it's so good! [ kristal ] we're just taking a sample

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megyn: a troubling story out of phoenix involving a woman accused of faking cancer to get breast enhancements. police saying jamie toller lied to her family about having breast cancer, then collected more than $8,000 from fundraisers for her, quote, treatment. investigators say the 27-year-old spent the money on the new implants and that her medical records show she never had the disease. she's currently free on bond and being charged with fraud and theft. well, in washington there are new questions today about a push from the obama administration intended to keep women from earning less than men. in part by promising to make sure that everyone gets equal pay. we took a closer look at some of the bureau of labor statistics that raise questions about the math here. chief national correspondent jim angle is live in our d.c. bureau. far be it from me to introduce a story that's going to result in lower pay for women, jim, but you're telling me a lot of my

fellow women already make more than their male counterparts. >> reporter: well, that is true, megyn. this is a fascinating story really, and it will be part of the debate coming up in a few weeks when yet another law is introduced by democrats to insure equal pay. look, the bureau of labor statistics says women only make 77 cents for every dollar they make. president obama often talks about equal pay for equal work. but the government figures have nothing to do with equal pay for equal work, they simply measure the pay of all women as a group versus the pay of all men as a group, and men and women often make very different choices. listen. >> women are deciding not just what's great for their career, they're deciding what's great for their kids. there's no question that there is what some scholars call a motherhood penalty, that is that when women have children, it reduces their earnings over time. >> reporter: now, not only that, megyn, but government figures don't take into account all sorts of other differences. listen. >> the cardiac surgeon and the

person who is checking out at a superintendent, they are being compared as if they are equals. >> you might have a woman that works 35 hours, you might have a man doing the same job that works 50 hours, or he travels more in that job. >> people who work 44 hours per week make 50% more than people who work 34 hours a week. >> reporter: now, women want jobs with more flexibility so they can have time with their children which often means no overnight travel or working weekends. they also tend not to take dangerous jobs that pay more such as working in this an oil field or a coal mine or a steel mill. there is one very interesting fact here that many analysts find persuasive, megyn. that is that young women who do not have children actually make more money than men of the same age. >> women who have never been married and never have had children earn more in the workplace than men. that is, they work 117% of what men earn in the workplace. >> reporter: now, farrell, who

was once on the board of the national organization for women in new york, lists 25 variables that effect what kind of workmen and women choose. he and other researchers say women's pay is more a function of personal choices than any discrimination against female workers. megyn? megyn: jim, thank you. >> yes, ma'am. megyn: well, the agenda of the new socialist president-elect in france sounds familiar to some of what we've seen in the united states in recent years. just ahead, we'll take a closer look at the french approach and the american approach to fixing the economy side by side, and we will talk about just how similar they are. plus, a u.s. army nurse dies in the middle of a skype conversation with his family. now new details are being revealed in his death. and they have waited nearly 11 years for justice. now, outrage from the families of the 9/11 victims after a female attorney for one of the three co-conspirators requests respect for her client's

religious beliefs. one of those family members joins us live in just a bit. >> i dress in, it's called -- [inaudible] and i dress that way when i meet with my client at all times. he's never seen me dressed like this. and it's out of respect for his cultural and religious beliefs.

megyn: welcome back, 1:31 in the

east. we are tracking a couple of developing stories this hour, including a drop in what it costs to fill up at the gas station. the national average for regular sits at $3.85 a gallon according to the lundberg survey, a drop of 7-cents in the past two weeks. of course it is still two bucks a gallon more than where we were three years ago. americans are continuing to get bigger. a new duke university study predicts a full 42% of all americans will be obese by 2030, almost half the country. 10% will be at least 100 pounds overweight. and a new government report shows highway deaths in the united states reaching an all time low compared to the number of miles driven. safety experts say that is because people are driving less and using seat belts more. president obama quick to congratulate france's president-elect francois hollande.

he invited him to the white house ahead of the g8 economic summit at camp david later this month. already some economists and political commentators are pointing out these two men have similar approaches to the economy. for example, both leaders favor massive stimulus programs. they both oppose austerity programs and aggressive budget cutting. both leaders want to inch grease the top tax rates on their citizens, and one more thing that may be making some investors squirm, the leaders of france and the united states are both proposing a special tax on banks. joining me now to discuss it brad blakeman former deputy assistant to president bush, and dick harpootlin, chairman much the democratic committee. there are sometime hrart similarities between them. what does it tell you. >> maybe obama will start

speaking french to us all soon. look, megyn, what works in france doesn't work for america, it's not going to work in france at all. it's not big government that they need, not soaking the rich, which is exactly the prescription that barack obama has told us he wants to run on. it's the power of the individual. and we are not like france, we don't want to be like france. we don't want to be like greece or for that matter any other country in europe. we want to be americans, we want to be what we are, and that is we are a country where government should be subservient to the people. government should do for the people that which we cannot do for ourselves and nothing more. i think obama has a playmate for a couple of months with the french new president but americans will reject that type of policy. megyn: is it damaging, dick, to the president to have people drawing that association, because -- listen, you can argue about these policies, i think most americans don't find it shocking and horrifying to see a retirement age go from 60 to 62, but as this president-elect did

he wants it to go back down to 62 to 60. that is not something barack obama has said but does he get tarred with that brush? >> i think the comparisons are skewed and i'd point out that that is france, as brad has just said, and thank god we don't live in france, it's a different government, different attitude, different history. and i don't think the american people would buy what this guy is talking about. there are some similarities in how you get out of the economic problems we are in, or they are in. you can sake two different approaches. in england they took a very tough conservative government approach and cut budgets, slashed spending, and they are now into their double-dip recession caused by massive layoffs of government employees. so that may not work either. i think the moderate sort of middle of the road approach, that barack obama has taken of stimulus, combined with a rational tax policy that is based on helping reduce the deficit, and he's proposed

massive cuts in government, and increasing retirement age for social security for people i think 55 or younger, so, you know, we both -- i guess the people in this country that eat pate and drink champagne, you know -- megyn: that doesn't make us french. >> brad go to one of those lobbying meetings. >> i don't below to lobbying meetings. >> if you did it would be pate and champagne, trust me. megyn: could this be a risk for republicans, because what if this guy francois hollande takes over in france, does his socialist properties and they do well and it turns out to be a boon for france. >> it won't be able to help obama, obama won't be president. this guy is a newly elected president who has to learn on the job and barack obama is our president an stands for election

in a few months. the basic theory behind the french president's path to prosperity doesn't work, it's not going to work today and hasn't worked in the pass. soaking the rich and relying on government from cradle to grave is not a good prescription for what ales us in america. what we need to do is get government out of our way, inch leash the power of creativity and ingenuity of the individual and you'll see our country take off again. it's not the government taking money from the people and spending it themselves, it's people spending their own money and pig a reasonable rate of taxes. megyn: whichever way this goes, dick it is likely to be raised by one party or the other in some debate, on the trail comment, right? if this guy turns social lis and it doesn't work romney will capitalize on it and will say that is what president obama wants for us. if it's the reverse barack obama will say they raised taxes 75 pefrz on the top easterners in france, didn't workout too bad will he over there.

to some extent it will affect us over here. >> you need to look at mitt romney as governor of massachusetts, big government. before obamacare was popular, tax the rich, increase the size of government, low job creation rate. that is what -- that's what this race is going to be about, not what happens in gay paris, it's going to be what happened in massachusetts. megyn: does anyone here care when they see the top income easterners in france if they are about to pay 75% in taxes, to the point where now some according to stu and the online reports are talking about moving to england, because they don't want to pay 75% in taxes, does anybody here watch that and care about it politically in connection with our election? >> i think they will care when the comparisons are made between what the french prescription is for success and what obama's is. they are very, very close. megyn: he wants to raise the top tax rate to 39.6%. >> he does. it's a matter of degree and

intent. this president wants to soak the rich. he believes that the robin hood theory of economics works, if you take from the rich and give to the poor. there aren't enough rich if you took a hundred percent of their income. you need to unleash the powers of the individuals. bill clinton says there is a trillion dollars sitting on the sidelines because people have no confident dense and there is no sure a tee in our laws, tax laws or business laws. if we were able to do that i think we'd get out of our mess. it's not the government telling us what to do. megyn: one of the argument against soaking the reufpl has been that they'll leave. they don't want to sit around been be soaked if they don't have all the loopholes that they used to have when they were paying those rates decades ago. what if they don't leave france? it takes a lot to make somebody leave their home country, their native country and go live across the channel or across the pond. what if they don't leave and they start paying and we see improvement in france's economy. >> again, i don't think we'll see it in this cycle but let me remind you, all of us, unless you're kin to sitting bull.

megyn: who might be you referring to. >> probably the lady that is running for senate in massachusetts. >> came here, because if we didn't like what was going on at home, whether it's england or france or germany or wherever, russia. so, please, french folks, you think you're being taxed too much we'll give you a 39% tax rate here, come on. megyn: i think you're both going to miss carla br u.n. i. >> trust me, we are. i think she is in a couple of movies, woody allen put her in a movie. megyn: she was, she looked great. >> we'll be seeing her but not nick so much and that doesn't hurt. megyn: see you [speaking france ] megyn: coming up, chip burlingame was at the control of american airlines flight 77 before it was hijacked and crashed into the pentagon at roughly 345 miles an hour. one of the lawyers for the people who planned that

highjacking this weekend asked her client be shown a little respect from chip burr link game's sister and others. that sister, debra burlingame is here. plus the united nations says the u.s. needs to give up a great american icon? what is up with this? trace gallagher has the details. ♪ this land is your land, this land is my land from california to the new york islands, from the redwood forest -- ♪ -p are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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megyn: anger and frustration from some of the families of 9/11 victims after a female attorney for one of the accused terrorists, this is a man behind 9/11, wearing traditional muslim dress in the courtroom, the attorney was, asks that the women at that hearing respect her client by dressing as she does i does, quote, more

modestly. >> i dress this way when i meet with my client at all times. he's never seen me dressed like this. and it's out of respect for his cultural and religious beliefs, and i dress like that in court because that is what is required of me. there was somebody dressed in a way that was not in keeping with my client's religious beliefs. megyn: meantime the suspects have repeatedly been disrupting the hearings with outbursts of prayer, shouting at the judge and on it goes. deborah bear link game's brother was the pilot aboard the plane that crashed into the pentagon. she is the founder of united families for a safe america. we want to get your reactions,

miss boorman is a cook county public defender sent down there to represent one of these terrorist. she wants you and others like you, family members in attendance to respect her clients by wearing traditional muslim garb in that courtroom. >> she was calling for, quote, cultural sensitivity. will he she is doing it on behalf of the man whose religion told them that they must go and kill 3,000 infidels, so i'm wondering if she would be, you know, amenable to that. but let me tell you what is really going on here. by the way, she wasn't addressing people in the gallery, she actually was even more galling was her remarks were pointed to the prosecution side, the navy jag lawyers in military uniforms, she was saying that that uniform is immodest. a doj lawyer was wearing very corporate suits. these are knee length, nothing not modest about it from our

standards. here is what is going on here, megyn, she has a client who is manipulating her. these attorneys have a very bad relationship with their own clients. these defendants, these jihaddists, these people have admitted, have expressed a desire to plead guilty. megyn: we are not jumping to c conclusions saying they are terrorists. >> for procedural purposes we have a pretense of a presumption of innocence, in the real world you and i don't have to pull that when we are talking about them. she -- the defense attorneys in this case are dealing with problem clients who view them no different than the prosecutors across the aisle. they are all part of an infidel system of justice they don't recognize or respect, including her. they view her in the same exact way. so these lawyers have had a hard time getting their clients to even meet with them, much less work with them, and this is her way of trying to build a rapport and a trusting with him.

meanwhile, he's reducing her to a laughing stock. this sends a message to his gentlema jihaddist breath even all over the islamic world even in their cells they are taking control of the infidels in the courtroom. megyn: criminal lawyers have to defend very bad guys, including suspected terrorists and there is a place for that in our system and we need to have that in our system. this takes it to a life dent level, going out there and demanding respect for ksm and the other two, to the prosecution saying take off your military uniform andres more modestly because i want you to respect the man who you miss prosecutor you say killed nearly 3,000 americans. >> forget about her, she is the useful idiot, they are really mocking her as well. from their point of view, this is their way to manipulate the system. think about what she said in court.

she said, when they are dressed imodestly, these women, these jag lawyers, very professional attorneys, they are forcing our client to sin, to violate their religion. megyn: she says it's a distraction and when you are trial for your life you shouldn't be distracted. >> they weren't distracted when they were putting together this plot all around this world and in the western world. they were focused in san diego, new york, and new jersey, they were really focused. that its bogus. remember they know they are not going to get jag attorneys to put on a headscarf. the whole point of it is to rub our faces in the fact that they got a western lawyer to stand up and ask -- and demand that alaah, their god be respected. the attorney for ksm stood up in the voir dire of the judge which is done in a military commission. megyn: that's standard. >> actually asked him what his religion was as if anything other than islam was going to be somehow a case for having him

removed from the case. megyn: one of these defendants got up and turned around and faced some of the family members in the back, and smiled and gave him a thumb's up to the victim's family members. >> it's not clear to me that he would have known it was a family member. megyn: the mocking that they are doing. how are we supposed to react to that, debra so we don't give them what they want? >> here is how we react. by the way it must be said that moussi did it all the time and the judge had to slap him down, just like colonel paul did in this courtroom. how do we react to it? by understanding what it is. this is their way of saying we do not recognize your system and we're going to continue to insult and disrespect you. so it is hard for family members to see the people who killed

their loved ones, 3,000 of their fellow human beings, in the name of allah, have an attorney stand up, and american attorney stand up in a court of law and ask the prosecution who is trying to get justice for our loved ones, that is gallin. this is more gentleman had and you have to view it that way. it's more gentleman had. megyn: keep perspective on it. >> yes, that's what it is. megyn: we appreciate you being here as always. we are taking your thoughts on twitter, follow me on megyn kelly. it would appear that president obama was greeted by a hr-rpblg and enthusias enthusiastic crowd during his initial campaign launch on saturday. maybe not. instead i g heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilos isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw!

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america's most eye coining monuments, now the united nations claims the national memorial is built on sacred land

and should immediately be handed over to native-american control. trace gallagher has more live from our west coast newsroom, trace. >> reporter: hey, megyn the united nation's human rights commissioner spent 12 days in this country talking to native-american leaders. he went to six states. alaska, washington, oregon, arizona, south dakota and arizona. he also met with government officials in the nation's capitol talking about this. his report is not going to be out until the end of the year, but the deal is, the conclusion is that he believes that america is still oppressing native-americans. for example he says in the northwest native-american tribes say restrictive laws are limiting their access to much needed hunting and fishing areas. in the southwest tribes are concerned that mining activity are contaminating drinking water. and native-americans also feel like they have no control over their sacred lands, including the black hills of south dakota

which is where mount rushmore is. the seiux tribe has the right to the land, congress took over that land again and the supreme court ruled that that seizure was not legal, and so now they get compensation. we contacted the state department, or the interior department, rather, they said contact the park's department and the parks department sent us this response, quote, i'm sorry but this is happening so quickly that at this point we have no comment on this. this report, by the way, is not binding by any stretch, megyn, but it does carry a bit of influence when it comes out at the end of the year. the u.n. wants all this land given back to native-americans. megyn: can we put the statement from the interior back up there? that says a lot. what does it say? >> reporter: it's from the parks department. it says i'm sorry but this is happening so quickly at this point we have no comment. in other words, the report is not out, they just got wind of this story and they are not really sure how to react. megyn: we'll look forward to the update there.

trace, thank you. >> reporter: okay. megyn: there are new concerns for an iranian pastor today who is fighting for his life after he convert towed christianity in a muslim nation. while his situation appears to have just got even a whole lot worse. and president obama has been criticized for take too much credit for the killing of osama bin laden. now a former attorney general weighing in on reports of a ph*epl owe that allegedly outlined a way to blame the commander as opposed to the commander-in-chief if the raid had failed. >> you better believe that if anything else had been encountered, and the mission had failed, then the blame would have fallen on ma crav mccraven. by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas...

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geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. megyn: fox news alert on new questions about the president's position on gay marriage and how it could impact the 2012 presidential race. not just that, but other so-called wedge issues. brand new hour of "america live," welcome, everybody, i am megyn kelly. the period of time's top

surrogate -- the president's top surrogate, vice president joe biden, turning the debate to gay marriage right before this latest gallup poll giving governor romney a sharp edge over president obama when it comes to handling the economy. romney with an eight-point edge whereas you can see the edge was president obama's. a while ago. here were mr. biden's remarks. >> comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexuals are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. megyn: in a conference call with reporters today, david axlerod drove that wedge even deeper, criticizing governor romney's position on gay marriage. chris stirewalt is host of "power play" on foxnews.com. so they just went after jay

carney on this at the white house press briefing saying what's the deal? you put the vice president out there on the sunday talk shows, well, you never know with joe biden, but they say it's no accident what he says. is the white house trying to telegraph to the lesbian and gay community that the president believes, and i just want to show the viewers how the attempted naildown on carney went moments ago. >> so doesn't he owe them or owe voters in general his direct response and just stop dancing around the issue and telling voters will he or won't he support gay marriage in a second term? >> the president said his personal views on this were evolving. the president does have, as you noted, significant support in the lgbt community, and that's because of his unparalleled record in support of lgbt rights. that includes the fight to repeal successfully don't ask, don't tell. it includes signing hate crimes legislation that includes lgbt

persons. and it includes ending the legal defense of the defense of marriage act, it includes insuring hospital visitation rights for lgbt patients and their loved ones, and i could go on. his record on lgbt rights is simply unparalleled. megyn: he didn't say anything new, evolving is what we heard about barack obama, but he did use it as an opportunity to list the president's record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transjend or rights. is it? >> how today education secretary arne duncan was on television, and he also came out and said that personally he was in favor of gay marriage. the evasive answer that jay carney gave is much more typical of what you'd expect, and it would be in keeping, it would be consistent with what we have heard from the obama administration and the campaign which tells us that what the vice president was doing, and if you notice it carefully, sort of parsed words. that did not seem like a blurted

utterance. the language was carefully chosen. this seems like it's a play here to try to shore up support among gaj lesbian voters and donors, but also, more importantly, to talk about an issue that could cause some trouble for mitt romney with some suburban voters and, maybe most importantly of all, is not about the economy. megyn: why would they pick that issue? that issue of all issues when, you know, karl rove was credited with using that himself as a wedge issue to get george w. bush reelected in 2004. i mean, the presumption back then was the country didn't want gay marriage, so if you went out and said, oh, you know, the democrats are going to approve gay marriage, you want to get out and vote against him, and he was credited with picking a winning strategy back then. have things changed so much in the country now that using it on the democratic side could work? >> well, it's a little different now, no doubt opposition has softened on gay marriage, but what's going to happen in north

carolina tomorrow. all the polls, every indication is that north carolina will be, i believe, the 32nd state out of 32 to have it go on the ballot where voters said, no, where they said they wanted to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. so this is a risky play for the obama campaign, to be out there and try to wink at gay voters and say, look, after the election we're going to have more flexibility, we're going to help get you what you want. the other reason they think it's good, i suspect, is that it's a way to try to draw mitt romney into a trap and see if they can get him to say something either that antagonizes supporters of rick santorum and other social conservatives and puts him in an awkward place with his base and drive that wedge between romney and them. megyn: he's already taken his position, i mean, mitt romney's positions have already been stated in the 25 debates we had. [laughter] the latest rasmussen poll, chris, look at this. they asked the country how do you see barack obama in terms of

his, you know, liberal, conservative, whatever. 43 % of those polled said they view our president as, quote, very liberal. then they asked the voters themselves, how do you see yourself? how are you? 9% see themselves as very liberal. nine. so 9% say i'm very liberal, and 43% say mr. obama is very liberal. i mean, there is risk to him in going the social wedge issue route to try to win a second term. >> giant risk. and, remember, the president's biggest problem is the economy. his second biggest problem is that people think he's too liberal, and that isn't just that rasmussen poll. polls across the board say that a plurality of americans think the president's too liberal. it's a huge problem for him. that's why he's trying to maintain where all of his friends are pro-gay marriage, he's evolving and, jay carney's right, he is the most pro-gay

american president in history, but he's stopped short because he knows what support for gay marriage could do to him in states like north carolina, virginia, ohio, pennsylvania. megyn: interesting, chris, thank you. >> you bet. megyn: new questions about the optics in the kickoff this past weekend of the president's re-election campaign. mr. obama launching the start of that campaign at a rally in ohio on saturday at the college out there, ohio state. it was an arena with 20,000 seats. we're told they filled only 14,000 seats whereas they had raised expectations of possible overflow on the crowd. some pointing out a far cry from 2008 and the standing-room-only crowds that the president sold out to many tombs, that his stadiums sold out to many times. coming up, a debate about whether the president has an enthusiasm gap or whether this is much ado about nothing. new developments on some high-profile corruption charges from a small town in illinois.

a former financial officer in dixson pleads not guilty to wire fraud. rita crumbwell, accused of stealing more than $53 million from the city which has a population of only around 15,000, $53 million from 15,000 people. the prosecutors say she had been transferring money from dixen's taxpayers to a secret account since 1990. then they say she was using those funds to buy luxury homes, cars, jewelry, even started up a horse-breeding business. she and her attorney have refused to comment on the case. well, we're getting new poll numbers showing how people feel about whether osama bin laden's death is being used in a political manner. according to a new poll by "the hill," voters are split about evenly about whether the obama campaign has politicized the bin laden raid too much. now a newly-revealed memo today shows what some are suggesting

were steps by the obama administration to shift the blame away from president obama if the mission to kill bin laden did not go as planned. here's the former attorney general of the united states, michael mukasey. >> there was a memo from leon panetta that described the authority that was given to mccraven, and it was to proceed according to the risks, only according to the risks that had been outline today the president, and if he encountered anything else, he had to check back. and you better believe that if anything else had been encountered and the mission had failed, then the blame would have fallen on mccraven, that's what that's about. megyn: so who is mccraven? admiral bill mccraven, the man in charge of that operation, and our own gregg jarrett has been taking a look at this. >> reporter: president obama's campaign ad may brag about his decision to kill osama bin

laden -- some say it does -- but a recently-disclosed memo from then-cia director leon panetta allegedly shows a political back-up plan, spare the president, blame the military if mission fails. here's the memo. quote,: the timing, operational decision making and control are in admiral mccraven's hands. there, >> reporter: now, according to former u.s. attorney general michael mukasey who served in the bush administration, also presided over many terror trials as a federal judge, he says that kind of language means that if f the mission went wrong, the fault would be admiral mccraven's, not the president's. >> that was a highly-lawyered memo. >> wow. so you're saying this was designed to protect the president politically. >> i think there's going to be

more that comes tumbling out about that escapade, but so far that memo is enough. >> reporter: in an op-ed in the "wall street journal," mukasey argues abraham lincoln would never have done such a thing. >> i chose abraham lincoln not on my own, but because president obama said that was the person he wanted to emulate. so i figured it was reasonably just to go to abraham lincoln. >> uh-huh. >> the night after lee surrenders, lincoln delivered what turned out to be his last speech from the window of the white house. he rejected taking any credit for it, put it on general grant and the troops, and then talked mostly about the problems of reconstruction and in favor of black suffrage. >> he actually did the opposite. he stood up for general george mcclellan. >> he, earlier in his career, stood up for mcclellan and for his defense secretary who were being blamed. he said, no, no, the blame should be mine. one definition of a great leader is somebody who takes less

credit than he should and takes more blame than he should, and that's not what we've got now. >> reporter: mukasey also cited general dwight d. eisenhower of a statement accepting full blame of the invasion of normandy's failure. such examples are worth mentioning every time president obama claims bin laden bragging rights. now, we did reach out to the white house for official reaction, no official response as yet. megyn? is. megyn: all right. when we get it, we will bring it to you. gregg, thank you. new concerns for an iranian pastor who may be facing a death sentence for converting to christianity. now his attorney has been locked up by the government for nine years. why? because he's defending this guy, at least that's what the reports say. jay sekulow has been fighting to bring attention to this pastor and his plight, and jay joins us live with the latest disturbing developments out of iran in three minutes. and sometimes people make bad choices when there is a camera around.

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megyn: well, new worries today for the iranian pastor facing the death penalty for becoming a christian. iran's government had assured the world that he would not be put to death despite the death sentence. but now his lawyer has been thrown in jail for defending him. leaving the pastor without legal representation and once again putting him at risk. the american center for law and justice has been fighting for the pastor's release, and a man you know well, jay sekulow, is chief counsel for that group. he's here live to discuss this case. so it is not a good sign that the iranians have now thrown the

lawyer on these trumped-up charges. you tell me, jay. >> here's what you've got, i mean -- the charges, by the way, against the lawyer, megyn, were, basically, incitement against the regime, publicity against the regime so, you know, they're basically turning him into someone that's violating national security. the underlying approach they've taken to this is that his representation of the pastor -- and others in similar situations -- is subversive to their regime. now, he's not in jail yet, although the order came down last week saying you will get a nine-year fine, a nine-year sentence, ten years of disbarment. and the problem here is, you know, if this was the united states and the lawyer got in trouble, well, you know, we're in manhattan right now, there's thousands of lawyers that can represent people. that's not the case in iran. this lawyer gets incarcerated and is disbarred, that leaves the pastor literally defenseless inside of iran. you know -- megyn: who's going to step in and fill his role when they see what happened to this guy? >> no one.

and they've got a political situation going on in iran, so you would think during this process that they would back off of these kind of human rights violations, but be instead they're kind of doubling down. now, the good news is -- if you can see good news in this -- is the global outrage on this is really reaching a fever bed pitch. -- fevered pitch be. megyn: oh, yeah, you can see iran's buckling. >> well, they're not, but they will. at the end of the day, i believe the pastor walks and so does his lawyer, and here's why. they have to do business with governments. they don't do business with the united states, but they do business with brazil, with the event u., they do business with germany. this becomes a diplomatic approach that has to be given here. we can't run into a court and get him, you know, sprung out of jail. we can't file a writ of habeas corpus -- megyn: jay sekulow can't run over there and be acting counsel. >> we cannot. but the attention that you've brought to this, the attention -- there's two million people a day getting this tweet

for yousef. understand, he has no idea that he is known around the globe. megyn: really? >> it's very limited what information can go to him, and every conversation his lawyers had with him, of course, is monitored by the regime. the good news in a horrible situation, and i'm not going to deny this is a difficult situation, as long as the pressure keeps up, that regime can't pull the trigger. megyn: there's too much attention. why this guy? we were just talking before the segment, and you were saying there's a decent-sized underground christian population, we described it earlier, you have to make the election at age 15, and he elected christianity, but they haven't put somebody to death for that in iran according to our research since 1990 or '91. why this guy? >> actually, unfortunately, you're not going to find out about it every day, but they do it all the time. the real tragedy of this is yousef, the pastor himself, is symbolic of a much deeper

problem. twelve christians were tried and convicted on easter sunday, same thing. it's against the regime. they view christianity as a political movement, and this is ridiculous, but that's how they view it, and anything that is subversive in their view to their regime they want to eliminate. so christians are being arrested and executed every day. it's true, there's no reported execution, but do you know when you find out if a person's been executed? when the body's delivered. they don't give notice -- megyn: there wasn't a huge outcry back in 1991. you're trying to make sure there would be now. what are the odds that iran -- i know one of our top administration officials described ahmadinejad as a rational actor -- >> but he's not. megyn: actions like this suggest otherwise. >> he's not. he's not making the decision here. megyn: how are we to make any predictions about what they're going to do? >> this case is decided by the ayatollah himself, and while he's not rational, he's politically a lot more advanced -- although dangerous deny than ahmadinejad, and he's

much more powerful. he has the authority to release this pastor and the lawyer's sentences -- megyn: where would they go? you were so guy to get this guy actually released. >> that would be his call. it's similar to the situation we just saw in china. this is their home. i mean, iran is his home, they've got a church, they minister to people. his conviction is very strong about his faith. unfortunately, the government is trying to not only squelch the faith there, they're trying to eliminate the leaders of these churches. this is what this is all about at the end of the day. megyn: and now anyone who defends him. >> in their mind you get rid of the lawyer, you stop all of this. our communication capabilities change, our ability to negotiate with governments change, so if you can get rid of the lawyer, you end up getting rid of, in their view, the problem. i think the reality is that's already done. thai not going to be able to do that -- they're not going to be able to do that. but yousef is a symbol for the persecuted church in the iran which is significant, and it's going on every day. like i said, went on on easter where 12 of them were convicted.

again, it's called crimes against the regime. what are they doing? having a church service. thank you for covering it. merck -- megyn: thank you, sir. we appreciate it. here's the image the media chose to use from the event, but here's a different view of the same stadium, this time in a picture taken by a romney staffer. what's the real story? is there a lack of enthusiasm? we'll have a fair and balanced debate. plus, folks in russia responding to vladimir putin taking office. we're live in moscow next. ests the health of our cells plays a key role throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin, designed for many of men's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants

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megyn: well, a fond farewell to a beloved actor from television's golden age.

actor george lend si has -- lindsey has died, goober pyle on the andy griffith show. his numerous credits include appearances on gunsmoke, mash and many others. george lindsey dead at 83. well, in moscow vladimir putin is back as the president of russia, and on the very same day the former kgb officer took the oath of office, protesters took to the streets. riot police were out in force, too, clashing with the demonstrators and rounding up more than 100 of them. amy kellogg has more. >> reporter: hi, megyn. well, this inauguration gives vladimir putin a third term in office. this term will last until 2018 and, you know, the way things have been looking, megyn, a lot of people just assumed he would be a shoo-in for a fourth term as president which would have

made him president until 2024. but the way things are looking you saw those protests, that is less than assured at this point. what is certain is that vladimir putin was sworn in today as president of the russian federation with the formalities taking place in st. andrews hall. you could say it looked more like the setting of a core nation fit for a czar rather than a president, but these people have complained russia has become more of a corruption monarchy than anything else, and we saw protests once again yesterday and today that became violent. 400 people detained on sunday, a further 150 today. some had speculated that putin's tolerance for some of these protests would wane once he was re-electioned, and it appears that may be the case. putin had blamed western agents for protests like these on earlier occasions, and his rhetoric during the campaign was not in the spirit of the reset policy.

but observers say this may have been a bit of posturing during his campaign season and now that he's back in office, the u.s./russia relationship will fare all right from here on in. >> i think it's going to be stable, i think that both countries understand they need each other, and both countries understand that possessing the biggest nuclear arsenal together, basically, puts a certain responsibility on them. >> reporter: now, megyn, people say that russia really needs foreign be investment and foreign technology to bring its forward, to develop adequately, so there is some expectation that putin will put in place some mechanisms to make that environment more hospitable to foreign investors. but how that will actually work out is far from clear at this point. putin has promised democracy in this term, he's promised some reform but today he named the former president, medved jeff, as his prime minister, so things

are going to look somewhat the same though with switched roles. medvedev still needs to be cob firmed. that's the latest from here. megyn: all right, amy. thank you. there is now a civil lawsuit in connection with a christmas day fire in connecticut that killed five people including these beautiful three little girls and their grandparents. the lawsuit was expected, but there are some real surprises, namely who it goes after and who it doesn't. can they blame the death of these children on the city? kelly's court takes on this case just ahead. and president obama holding a big campaign kickoff in ohio over the weekend. this is the image the media chose to use from the event, but here is a different view of the same stadium, this time it's a picture taken by a romney staffer. so what's the real story behind this rally? the romney camp wants us to believe that it shows a lack of enthusiasm. we'll have a fair and balanced

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anarchists -- remember this? -- with ties to the occupy movement pleading not guilty to all charges today. they are accused of attempting to take down a bridge near cleveland. and a federal judge in philadelphia considering a request for a liability limit in the wrongful death case stemming from a duck boat accident in which two tourists died nearly two years ago. the tug and duck boat operators want to put a cap of just over $1 million on the case. look at that barge going over the duck boat. and folks in eastern japan cleaning up after a rare tornado strikes near tokyo. at least one person was killed, 30 more for injured. were injured. well, the administration has taken questions over the last 48 hours about the president's big campaign kickoff in ohio and two different views of that event. this is the picture from the associated press that many in the mainstream media have been circulating.

it looks like a large, enthusiastic crowd behind the president. but then look at this picture, tweeted out by a romney campaign staffer at the same event. many empty seats suggesting a lukewarm reception for the president. we're told the stadium was only 70% full, a very different story from the overflow crowds of 2008. but what does that tell us? joining me now, david webb, host of the david webb show on sirius xm's patriot channel and co-founder of tea party 365, and sally kohn, fox news contributor. so this was made an issue by the romney campaign, and then david axlerod got in on the action, is this a big deal, isn't it a big deal. the obama campaign pointing out that he sold out an event in virginia, but that was only 8,000 seats but did not sell out this event where they were 4,000-plus seats short of capacity. david, what does it mean? >> probably bad planning. look, you're running a campaign,

the optics are important. i a -- i put a lot of importance on the topics. that tells us something about how the media's going to portray the campaign. obama has a problem. five million people left the work force, labor participation is low, one and a half million estimated college students look around -- megyn: this is at ohio state, this was at a college. >> right. where's my future, and when we look at the unemployment and the loan debt they're burdened with, their concerns are on economics, and obama hasn't addressed it. megyn: you know, sally, he sold out the one in virginia, but i remember being at the democratic national convention this '08 and the greek columns and the enthusiasm was unbelievable. it was unbelievable. >> right. megyn: i remember saying they'll never be able to match this on the republican side, and then we went to the republican convention, and sarah palin got them just as fired up.

>> she still did. david and i agree about something, it'd be better to talk about policy than these silly issues, and, clearly, the romney camp -- megyn: does this signify a problem in the president's -- >> well, it's two things. number one, the president has 25 straight months of private sector job growth, so the romney campaign wants to focus on anything -- megyn: he needs audience growth. >> second of all, look, there were 14,000 people in that stadium. 14,000 people. the closest mitt romney can get to those numbers is when he's firing people. he hasn't had more than 3,000 people -- [laughter] >> oh, come on. >> look, in february -- i don't know if you have the picture, but in february romney had an event where he had only 1200 people in a 65,000-person stadium. they've got an audience problem, and they're trying to retend like -- megyn: and let's just point out at this point david axlerod sent out a tweet mocking mitt romney, so is it tit for tat? fair is fair? >> you know what this is? this is pettiness, this is silly.

romney started it, but it's petty, it's silly -- megyn: no, romney didn't start it. axlerod -- >> they sent out the picture of this rally. megyn: wouldn't you do it if they did it to you? >> we can do one of two things, we can defend it or say, look, on the substance of the issue, the president right now if you look at the pure numbers, the president has more enthusiasm from voters than -- megyn: how about that, david? looking at the pure numbers, can mitt romney fill a stadium of 14,000 people, even if it's 4,000 short of capacity? >> this is the reality of politics, you throw the right band, you bus the right people in, you do whatever you can to fill the stadium. i want to go back to the numbers. i said the numbers in the beginning, that's what we have to look at. when you look at how the president and romney match up, they're pretty much in a dead heat -- megyn: but they need enthusiasm. barack obama needs enthusiasm, and so does mitt romney. >> thank you. megyn: both have been criticized for not having it. >> that's correct. >> and you're a college student and you look and you go how am i

going to get a job next month, and where's the economy? you're not going to go, mitt romney did this. your going to look at the administration. if you're the administration in charge d. megyn: you might just sit at home. >> that's an excellent example because, of course, among young voters while on some polls they're looking pretty close, among young voters the gap is huge favoring the president -- megyn: but enthusiasm, we're talking about. my point, you need to get 'em fired up. that's what barack obama did back in '08. >> that's right. look, and i have to say it is early. if we're comparing '08 apples to -- megyn: dnc convention is not the same. >> right. we don't want to lose sight of the fact that mitt romney has never drawn a crowd of more than 3,000 people, period. megyn: is that a fact? >> yes, he has, he's drawn larger crowds than that. here's the reality. hope and change have meant rhetoric and reality. he's blaming the guy who was never in charge for the problems

while he's in charge. and, america, are you were bettr than you were $5 trillion ago? megyn: axlerod came out and said over the weekend, look, first of all, he says, look, 14,000 is 11,000 more than the largest crowd mitt romney's ever drawn, and then he says the fact is republican enthusiasm has dropped precipitously partly because of what we've seen from governor romney, it's all negative. >> well -- >> well, there's negative in this campaign, and it's going to get even worse. america, here comes one of the most negative, divisive campaigns in american history. but the other thing, people have to go to work. college students and a lot of the people, let's face it, the takers that are out there, a lot of them have time to go to obamaallys. on the conservative side, they're hard -- >> oh, so now we're going to suggest that the red americans are better americans than blue americans? >> no, it's about the fact about who's at work -- megyn: the workers and the taker, does that make you feel better? >> we are going to see these

attacks especially because the romney campaign's on the ropes for two reasons. the economy is getting better under the president's leadership, and second, the republicans have a massive enthusiasm gap. they know their base is not fired up by mitt romney, and that is -- megyn: how does this happen, though? i only have another minute, but how does this happen? these campaigns, right? they're normally well-handled and well-run, and you make sure that doesn't happen. you have it at a smaller stadium -- >> 77%, again, 14,000 is nothing to sneeze at, but of course you didn't want them to show a single empty seat. megyn: have it in a venn view that's only 10,000 -- >> an excellent point. >> historic republican a14,000-person showing for your campaign launch event six months before the election? i'll take those numbers. >> so let's go to the unemployment numbers when you might have job growth, but you don't have enough job growth. those people are the ones they should be worried about getting attention from. and face it, we didn't meet the numbers in april, labor participation is low.

3 to 1 people are discouraged or have left the work force over new jobs. those people have time to vote, and they're voting on the economy, not on hope and change. megyn: she really wants to mock you,. >> now you're caring about the unemployed people. [inaudible conversations] megyn: all right, guys, gotta go. thank you both so much, sally, david, all the best. coming up next, a sad story that's taken a strange legal turn. you remember this christmas today tragedy from just this past year? look at this house in stanford, connecticut. a family's three daughters, all three of their children were killed in this fire. the mother was in the house, she managed to live. her parents were also in the house, they died. five people dead, the mother manages to escape, and now she is suing not the man who improperly, allegedly discarded ashes from a fire, but the city of stanford saying it was responsible for the fire. we'll take a close look at that right after the break. ♪

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megyn: well, kelly's court is back in session. on the docket, a christmas day tragedy in connecticut which has now sparked a lawsuit. matthew badger lost his three young daughters when fire raced through the girls' stanford home. they were staying with their mom. it was christmas. 9-year-old lily and twin girls who were 7 years old, sara and grace. they were living with their mother, they were there with their mother on christmas night along with her parents. even though the house was being renovated. and while there was a smoke detector system in the house at the time, it was not hooked up. so the father who was not in the house on the night in question is now suing the city of fan stanford alleging negligence claiming the city did not properly oversee that construction leading to the death of his three girls. joining me now to discuss it, arthur aidala and mark eiglarsh, former prosecutor, now defense

attorney. this case is so dark, it's so disturbing, these three little, beautiful girls and their grandparents, and the mother is the one who lives. they say the fire started, um, mark, because the contractor who had been working on the house allegedly disposed of ashes from a fireplace near trash, and there was really no chance of these five members getting out of the house. >> right. megyn: how does the father now step in and sue the city? >> well, he's arguing that the city owed a duty, which the city does, to make sure that the house is safe, and they breached their duty by performing inspections on this home, granting permits, leaving everybody to believe that the house was safe to live in when it wasn't. this was a fire trap waiting to happen. an accident just waiting to occur because while there were fire detectors there, they were not hooked up. megyn: and that's the question, arthur, whether the city had an obligation not to allow a

certificate of occupancy or an okay on a permit for construction when they knew that people would be living there, and smoke detectors would not be hooked up. but did they know? >> okay, so here's the bottom line. they write in the paper, and mark just quoted a fire trap waiting to happen, according to published reports what happened was on christmas eve there was a fire in the fireplace, and the contractor was also the boyfriend, the new boyfriend of the mother. and the girls were concerned -- this is, i'm not, i would never joke about this -- that when santa claus came down the chimney, he was going to get burnt. so the contractor/boyfriend takes the hot coals out of the fireplace, places them in a bag and puts them in a -- >> big mistake. >> there's a big difference between a fire trap waiting to happen and taking burning embers and putting them in a bag and disposing them improperly. how far are we going to go with having the government literally in our homes? many i mean, yes, there's

certain steps that government should take to make sure we're step, but there's also a agree of responsibility, and putting burning embers in a bag with people sleep anything the house, it's ridiculous, it's preposterous -- megyn: i mean, with all due respect to that man, how is it not all his fault, mark? >> it went be 100% his fault. no question he bears responsibility. again, i live in south florida, we don't know from fireplaces, but anytime i've gone skiing you leave the burning coals, the embers in there, you don't take 'em out, and if you do, you don't put 'em in a paper bag and put them by the house so it can catch on fire. but what you do in a civil lawsuit, you bring in all potential parties who may bear responsibility. he would be at the same table -- megyn: but he hasn't done that, and there's no funny business going on. apparently, this mother and the father had filed for divorce, or she had announced she wanted a divorce, and they were separated, and she had this boyfriend who did the thing with

the embers. but the father of these three little girls who's, clearly, not at all the, he has not yet sued that guy -- >> he hasn't sued anybody. he put the city on notice, and he's going to join the boyfriend in at some point if he does file this lawsuit, for sure. megyn: but now they say, arthur, that the insurance company has said it should not have to pay the claims because they believe that the boyfriend has misrepresented the work that his company was performing on the house. >> which is -- the insurance company, they're the investigators here, they're the ones who were financially liable. so this is going to be a very fact-specific type of lawsuit. it's going to be fact-specific based on what did the contractor actually do, what did he say that he did if it's different than what he did, when did the city come and inspect -- megyn: i only have a minute left, less than, but how can you sue the city over smoke detectors that weren't installed or working? we could have so many -- >> i agree.

you've got to base this on personal responsibility and just personal common sense. otherwise every house is going to have an inspector in the house 24/7 to make sure even if i have a smoke alarm and the battery goes dead and i don't replace the battery, the same exact thing could happen. megyn: right. quick last word, mark. >> maybe, and, again, it's all fact-sensitive, maybe because they didn't check to make sure it was wired, they signed off, okay, we'll permit. that's got to be the basis behind this lawsuit. megyn: it's going to be tough because there may be immunity depending on the facts. guys, thank you both so much. coming up, a south african safari ray vegas takes a horrific turn after this 60-year-old cozies up with cheetahs! ok! who gets occasional constipation,

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megyn: well, sometimes the presence of a camera leads people to make bad decisions.

and that could be what happened to this woman who decided she just had to get her picture taken right next to two cheetahs in a petting pen on a south african game preserve. trace gallagher has the story of what happened next. trace? >> reporter: yeah. from scotland, she was down in south africa vacationing with her husband. that pen is all enclosed, and she went in there with her husband to pet the cheetahs. it all started off fine, and then she noticed one of the cheetahs was attacking a young girl. she went to help protect the young girl who had cuts and scrapes and punctures, and the cheetahs, as you see, began attacking her. her husband kept taking pictures. yeah, there's blood on her neck, you can see it now. he kept taking pictures, the cheetahs went after her. your hair flying, clearly the cheetahs are on top of her. she had puncture wounds, a bad

cut up on her scalp, finally, some park employees and some guests pulled the big cats off of her. she said, look, at first it was fine and then it became very serious very quickly. she also thinks the cheetahs were not being aggressive, they just got excited, and they're very strong, they have a tendency to cut very quickly. but a woman in oregon saw this story and said, look, i was at that same game preserve three years ago, and those cheetahs attacked me as well, and she can't believe the park let other people in there. the park says they believe they're very docile normally, and they're trying to figure out what happened. megyn: well, two questions, number one, why do they let people inside that area and, number two, why is the husband taking pictures of his wife as she's getting attacked? >> reporter: that was question one for me, why don't you drop the camera, and i'm guessing the husband probably got some grief because i think i probably would for keeping the camera rolling. megyn: you think? you don't necessarily want to intervene between the cheetah

and the spouse, but maybe go get some help. >> reporter: yeah, exactly. and i would hope my wife wouldn't take shots of me while i was getting eaten up -- megyn: and then release them to the media. surprising new testimony in the edwards trial as the lawyer for heiress bunny mellon takes the stand, what he's saying about the nearly $1 million mellon gave to edwards and what edwards said about it. a live report straight ahead. ÷

>>megyn: and we will take your verdict on today's court. follow me on twitter. thank you for watching, everyone, "studio b" starts now with shephard smith. >>shepard: the news begins anew, on "studio b," three major white house officials have voiced support of gay marriage. the president is backing a different plan. did the senior staff go rogue? are they trying to signal a shift in white house policy? details on that ahead.