image, you'll be amazed by the snow above dodger stadium. how beautiful is that? have a great week, everybody that's correct. >> i'm shannon bream. in days donald trump will face a judge in new york and the u.s. will face a new political paradigm. >> this is unprecedented. >> this is burning down the rule of law. >> republicans react after word that former president trump has been indicted right in the middle of another run for the white house. we bring in one of the president's former lawyers to discuss legal strategy, as trump prepares for an unprecedented surrender.

we'll get reaction from bill barr who said the case is weak and could be a win for democrats. then on the hill and on the campaign trail, lawmakers and potential 2024 rivals walk a fine line. >> nobody's above the law. >> this is literally legal voodoo. >> it is a political prosecution. >> people want alvin bragg to testify. he said they are unlawful political interference. the white house is trying to stay above the fray. >> do you think the charges against trump are politically motivated? >> i have no comment. >> we'll get reaction from senators from both parties republican senator bill cassidy and republican senator joe manchin. plus the kremlin holds a wall street journal reporter hostage. >> the targeting of american citizens by russian government is unacceptable. >> republicans say past prisoner exchanges embolden putin to abduct more americans. >> they're going to keep doing it. attend of the day, they always

get something for it. >> the loss of six innocent co do anything to save the lives of children! >> but they remain divided over how to protect our kids. our sunday panel will take you behind the headlines of this singular week in washington. that's all on fox news sunday. hello from fox news in washington. it's the week for the history books. the indictment of a former president, a legal first. it's only just beginning to play out. we expect former president trump to appear in court as soon as tuesday. it's a first for u.s. politics as the republican presidential front runner faces charges and fallout. the early assessment appears to be that this may actually boost trump's campaign chance. but if he's the nominee, could cost them with those all important swing voters. in a moment we will speak with

one of the former president's lawyers in yet another investigation. but first, let's get the latest on the first of its kind court appearance we expect this week. hello, brian. >> reporter: shannon, the former president's team is set to fight the legal merits every step of the way, which could mean months of delays. as of now they tell fox it is still too early to talk about possible motions, but there's reportedly a discussion about requesting that this criminal case be moved from manhattan to more conservative staten island for fear trump won't get a fair trial. >> look, it would be better to get a change of venue. that being said, while i understand the political geographics of new york city and new york county, new york jurors are smart. they're gritty. >> reporter: jump's attorney joe tacopina said the former president is ready to fight, with zero chance he'll take a plea deal. trump allegedly face dozens of charges stemming from hush money payments made to porn star

stormy daniels in the presiden. trump's lawyers say the manhattan district attorney alvin bragg is stretching the law for political purposes, arguing the charges are meritless because payments were personal and never filed with the irs or sec. >> this is something that would have been made irrespective of the campaign. where is it a false by record? in his own personal files? >> reporter: still, the exact charges trump faces are unknown. so are the details about his arraignment on tuesday. while trump won't be in handcuffs, his attorney says it's possible he could have a perp walk and get a mug shot. that mug shot could affect his presidential 2024 presidential run. could actually help him? why? because his campaign says they raised $4 million in the day after he became the first u.s. president to ever be criminally

indicted. shannon. >> brian, thank you very much. joining us now jim trustee. he represents former president trump in the mar a-lago documents investigation, the federal one. welcome to fox news sunday. a lot has been made about the fact this is a, quote unquote, political prosecution. we haven't seen the indictment. there are chances when tuesday comes there's more to this cases than we know. no? >> it's conceivable. think about the grand perspective we have here. we're talking about what could be a sealed indictment which is completely consistent with how donald trump is treated differently than any citizen in this country. the starting point is, we should never have prosecutors acting out on political promises to target people. we are supposed to have prosecutors -- i was a prosecutor for 27 years. we were supposed to be judicious. figure out where does the evidence lead?

follow the rule of law. instead, we have people announcing, if you elect me, i'll indict donald trump. it's no surprise that when you have people breaking the ethics have suspectr willingness to lia witness like michael cohen makes in this case what we're guessing the indictment will look like, it will have legal frailties that will be subjected to a legitimate motion to dismiss early on. >> this is not the only one out there. this is the pending potential grand jury georgia situation, the federal investigation with the special counsel. you're working on that. now that there's been this historic change, do you feel like other prosecutors will be more willing to come forward and indict the former president? they won't be first ones. that seal has been broken. >> yeah. it's hard to know. look, i think most of the american public, whether you're a lawyer, a donald trump fan or

not. lot of people are recognizing the blatant persecution angle that's being pursued here. i'm not gonna crawl inside the heads of da's in georgia who have similarly announced that they want to indict president trump, or a doj led by an attorney general who had unprecedented press conferences to celebrate his raid on mar a-lago, something i have never seen from any prosecutor, state, federal or local in 35 years. it's hard to creep into their minds and figure it out. there is a commonalty here which is they are pushing the envelope legally because they decided to target a man and try to put charges on him rather than follow evidence and begin judiciously like your ethics tell you to do. >> president trump has a lot to say. talkin g

i think a fair minded judge is likely to recognize there's something fundamentally wrong that we're crossing the rubicon with this political persecution and thankfully, i suspect the indictment is going to be legally frail, and there'll be an opportunity for a judge to do

the right thing. you know, we wish prosecutors would do the right thing. but the judges are kind of the backstop on that. so my hope is despite kind of the hysterics at the moment, despite some emotionality and frustration, the president certainly deserves to feel that this judge will do the right thing when he's faced with significant legal motions. okay so you are going you're talking about things like motions to dismiss. there are other ways. this thing maybe never gets to trial. if you do get to trial, would you ask for a bench trial for folks at home that is essentially letting the judge decided this case instead of going to a jury. what do you think is the better route for the president? yeah i mean way too early for that. there's certainly some legal obstacles that we expect that there will be a problem for this prosecution if it gets that far, but, you know, i think it's really to figure that out. i mean, god knows anybody that's ever even watched the legal show would like the opportunity to cross examine michael cohen. you know, the grand jury in this case probably should have issued one indictment and that would be for cohen. perjuring himself once again in front of the grand jury, if you track with bob

costello had to say as a lawyer afterwards, so you know, i think the opportunity to expose the underpinnings of this prosecution and the frailty of their witnesses is a golden opportunity for anybody in terms of cross examination and showing the case really letting the truth come out. and right now, the truth is not anywhere close to coming out in terms of how this thing came together, or why michael cohen has told several different versions of the story, but in this case, it was enough if we think we know what we know about this indictment that it convinced enough grand jurors to vote yes, to make this case, proceed forward. if you do get to trial in any of these cases if there's an indictment in georgia or on the federal cases would you put president trump on the stand? i've got to imagine he's going to want to get up there and defend himself. well yeah, we're light years away from that and hopefully it's an academic question. frankly, but let me just say this, you know that we always talk about the president's strong personality, his resilience which is amazing to me. i mean, if i were him, i

would have retreated to golf a long time ago. but you know, at the end of the day, he's frustrated for the country, and i think that's starting to kind of creep out and resonate. he's worried that he is literally the first person subjected to this new model of upside down justice of political persecution. and you know it is you let the genie out of the bottle with this new mode of prosecution. it's not gonna go back by itself. it's going to be a problem for generations, and i think he's very aware of that very concerned and certainly has a strong voice. opposing it. but you know, we're a long way off before we start talking about legal tactics at trial well, given that he is a big proponent of the first amendment and enjoys expressing himself if there were a gag order in any of these cases, do you think he'd comply? i think he'd comply, but i also don't think it's going to happen. i mean, you're talking about, you know, one of the reasons he's being politically persecuted as he's running for president against somebody who who unleashes doj against him during the election season, so i think it would be very difficult

for a judge to impose a gag cult order on a person running for president. you talk about having a profound effect on this country. a gag order would do just that. >> we'll wait to see what comes after the indictment tuesday. thank you for your time. >> good to see you. >> joining us now former attorney general bill barr. welcome back to fox news sunday. >> thank you, shannon. >> a lot to impact here. we don't know about this indictment tuesday. is it fair to say you and the president have had a complicated at times. disagreement over whether you kit, whether he fired you. when it comes to this, you seem to agree this is a political prosecution based on what we know. >> based on what we know it appears to be. i think the american people see that. it's the very essence of the abuse of the prosecutive function which is pursuing a person rather than pursuing a real crime. >> do you know his critics say that, okay, every american should be subjected to rule and order and justice, and this

president, according to new york times editorial board, not surprisingly, they think he flirted with that. they say president trump spent years as a candidate in office and out of office ignoring legal norms and precedents trying to bend the justice department and judiciary to his whims and behaving as if rules didn't apply to him. as the news of the indictment shows, they do. piece in the atlantic talked about your time at the doj said you were seen as a trump lackey who politicized the justice department. did you ever feel pressure to bend the law or ignore it? what do you make of the president's critics saying this is all just catching up with him now? >> as i have said repeatedly, he never directly pressured me to do anything in a criminal case. he's out there tweeting all the time which made my life difficult. he was calling for people's scalps and from what he said after i left he was mad at me for not delivering scalps.

the idea that i was a toady was rostered by the mainstream media. there's not a case of that. the other thing about this, i think the case, based again on what's being reported, the case lacks any legal basis. it's pursuing somebody -- there's nothing inherently wrong or illegal about making a hush payment. they're saying he falsified the corporate record. but for that to even be a misdemeanor you have to be trying to defraud somebody. it's unclear who was defrauded. this is his own company. finally, and most importantly from the federal standpoint, the idea that this was a campaign finance violation is simply wrong. it's wrong on the law. >> so he is facing other cases. we've got special counsel investigating the mar a-lago, the documents, the january 6th leadup. as somebody who headed up the

doj, are you confident they can be neutral and they will be in this case? >> i hope they will be. as i have said repeatedly, i think the document case is the most serious case. i don't think they went after those documents to get trump. i think they actually wanted the documents back. what's at issue in that case is not the taking of the documents. it's what he did after the government sought them and subpoenaed them and whether there was any obstruction. i think that's the most serious one out there. the other one, i think the january 6th one, is a difficult case to make. it also runs into first amendment issues. where are you going to draw the line between legitimate first amendment activity, protesting an election and actually conspireing to undo an election. that's a difficult case to make. i'm hopeful the department will approach it properly. >> i asked you if the president

was your client, would you put him on the stand? i'm thinking if it goes to trial, he's going to want to defend himself. >> i'm not his lawyer. generally, i think it's a bad idea to go on the stand and i think it's a particularly bad idea for trump because he lacks all self-control. it would be very difficult to prepare him and keep him testifying in a prudent fashion. >> let me ask you about this back and forth, your legal opinion on the house committee legal chair. several are going to bragg's office saying we want answers on how you are using funding. we want you to testify. bragg's office fired back the latest volley. his general counsel friday saying this. president trump has directed harsh things against attorney general bragg and threatened on social media that his arrest in new york may unleash death and destruction. you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with mr. trump's effort to villify

the office. would they have jurisdiction or authority to call him in to answer these questions? >> that will be a constitutional issue. it's bragg that seems to me that's jumped into the federal arena. he's interfering in a federal election process. and his case is built on an alleged violation of federal law. he wouldn't be able to survive the statute of limitation and not be able to juice what is a misdemeanor into a felony without claiming that there's a violation of federal law. so he's the one that has essentially weighed into the federal arena. the real danger of this thing over the long term isn't so much narrowed to trump. it's now we have thousands of da's around the country, now that the rubicon has been crossed. any one of them can find federal candidates or federal office holders and so forth, can find some state law they want to pursue the person on and get

themselves into the national political arena. >> you have served this country as ag more than once. you've seen a lot in your years in washington and this country. does this feel like one of those moments that we have crossed a line that will make it kind of an historical marker about the before and after of these prosecutions? >> yeah. one would hope this would be nipped in the bud by people who have some judgment. you know, i'm doubting that. so i do think that this is a water shed moment and i don't think it will end up good for the country. part of the problem, of course, is the corruption of the media which has essentially contributed to the creation of a mob mentality in our country instead of being the restraint on mob thinking. they've essentially encouraged this kind of thing. >> we try to be that here on fox news sunday. mr. former attorney general bill barr, thank you for your time. we appreciate it.

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>> it is an understatement to say former president trump's indictment overshadowed everything else in washington. talk of it for weeks. that includes a republican senator's tense exchange with the treasury secretary over how to shore up social security. and it includes a democratic senator's blistering op ed about the white house plan for high profile tax credit. in a moment we will speak to the man behind that op ed skwraeuter joe manchin. first bill cassidy joins me. senator, welcome back to fox news sunday. >> thank you, shannon. >> all right. i want to start with news of the

president's indictment, the former president. a piece in the washington poef says this. it's perfectly plausible that the charges against trump prove damning, the process is handled with integtyty and a large swat of voters cannot accept that precisely but a one of our major political parties refused to acknowledge it as such. what do you feel as a republican to communicate out there to folks that we got to let this play out and it may be legit? we don't even know what's in the indictment. as of tuesday, we may. >> no one should be above the law, but no one should be a target of the law. as bill barr has said, this is less about the crime and more about the target. it has to play out. the this is set in motion. what's the particular problem is it's going to lead to political theater. theater that will distract from addressing the issues that are important to our country right

now that are not about just one person or somebody running for reelection as a da in new york. but rather about the future of our country, whether it's social security, inflation, crime on the streets. unfortunately, the theater will distract from that discussion. >> let me ask you. we've had defenses by a number of house gop lawmakers but not so much on the senate side. do you think we'll hear more? will we get a statement from mitch mcconnell on this? >> i cannot speak for mitch mcconnell. i will leave mitch mcconnell to himself. i wouldn't be surprised if they feel like i feel. it's wrong. no one should be a target of the law. this seems to be more about the person than the crime. kwroepbd on the other hand i think they would probably also agree we've got major issues affecting family gathered around the kitchen table and this distraction is from the urgency of those issues. >> the debt ceiling, the budget. the white house says they are

going to have negotiation. mccarthy said it's holding the u.s. hostage and riskingite hou president's budget is about protecting and strengthening medicare and social security. you say that's not exactly true, at least not a conversation about how to get there. here's a bit of an exchange with you and the treasury secretary couple weeks ago. >> then why doesn't the president care? >> he cares very deeply. >> then where is his plan? >> he stands ready to work with -- >> that's a lie. because when a bipartisan group of senators has repeatedly requesting to meet with him about social so that somebody who is a current beneficiary will not see her benefits cut by 24%, we have not heard anything on our request. >> okay. essentially calling the treasury secretary a liar there about the engagement from the white house. have you heard anything from the president about this very real

probl problem? >> the statement she picked up and read was a lie. she was not a liar. she was giving something that was a lie. number two, the president has a plan for social security. his plan is to have no plan. he and frankly president trump, former president trump, are both telling the american people that there is no issue with social security and you don't have to do anything about it. because i think they think it's a political third rail. the third rail of social security should be allowing it to get a 24% cut. that's what's gonna happen. we learned yesterday or friday that it's going to happen a year earlier than it originally was going to. that should be the third rail. we should be working to prevent that 24% cut. so far the leading candidates for re-election or election are refusing to acknowledge. >> the medicare hospital insurance trust fund we're told insolvent by 2034. here's the polling we just had. we asked people about how to get

our fiscal house in order. 71% of them say they want these programs to remain untouched. you know how democrats are going to play this. here is congressman omar talking about this. >> republicans have made it perfectly clear they do not want to govern. they would rather target vulnerable communities scapegoat minorities. they would rather gut medicade, medicare, social security, slash snap benefits and housing assistance that makes sure people have the housing and healthcare they need. >> so democrats are going to say you guys are going to rip apart entitlements. our polling shows people are afraid for those programs to be touched. you touch on the insolvency and the cuts that will happen if you don't act. how do you work to get a substantive conversation going? >> so, shannon, you put your finger on it. if 71% of americans don't want

social security touched, per the poll you just quoted, under current law, if we do nothing, those benefits will be touched. they will be mashed down by 24% because this president and the leading republican candidate refuse to take the issue on. oh, they're gonna be cut. people need their benefit, not just that they want them. for many, that's how they pay their bills. under current law it will be cut by 24% because neither of two leading candidates will take the issue on. that's frustrating. that is working against the interest of the american people. that's what we should be discussing. >> well, it is something you're bringing to the forefront. lot of people are afraid to touch it because they know how it will be used against them, even broaching the topic. we will watch to see what you do on this. cuts are coming if nobody does anything. senator bill cassidy, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> joining us now senator joe

manchin, democrat from west virginia. welcome back to fox news sunday. >> hey, shannon. good to be with you. >> you're getting a lot of attention for an op ed that you wrote. it sounds like you're having potential second thoughts about the deal you made to get the inflation reduction act passed. you say the administration is attempting to implement the bill it wanted, not the bill congress passed. have you discussed it, will you discuss it with president biden? >> i sure hope so. i have been discussing it with all of his, you know, basically administration. i'm very, very disappointed in how they have interpreted a piece of legislation. that is not how it was written. it's not the intent and it's not the agreement president biden and i had. so i'm hoping he intervenes. i hope he says we need energy. we have to produce energy cleaner than ever before, but we need an amount of it so we can be independent and secure as a nation. we can also invest in

technologies that will have energy for the future. we did both. and they're trying to now implement a bill, shannon, that we didn't write. it's a bill they didn't pass. just do our job. follow the law. do your job. >> i know one of the sticking points seems to be the proposed regulations with respect to electric vehicles about how much of that should be domestic production. the white house is gonna say they are relying on experts and there's a public comment period open to anybody who wants to weigh in. isn't that the protocol? >> the protocol would have been to implement the bill exactly. we laid out the bill and wrote the bill in a way that told you that was sourcing and processing and manufacturing. the whole purpose was to bring basically reliable supply chains to america, be able to manufacture the batteries and cars here to get the tax credits. that's what it's about. energy security. bringing down the cost of health

care, pharmaceuticals. we've done that. but if they don't implement it in a way that was written, they just want to throw caution to the wind. throw more money from the treasury in credits that are basically not going to accelerate how quickly we can be totally self-reliant in america. there's nothing wrong with us bringing manufacturing. we should not be dependent and relying on china's supply chain. i said i'm old enough to remember standing in line in 1974 to buy gasoline to go to work. i don't want to stand in line to buy a battery to run a vehicle. and waiting on it from china. that's what we're doing. that's what the intent of the bill was. >> to the point whether or not you got snookered in this deal. manchin wants to distance himself from the administration he enabled with the inflation reduction act and wants to distance itself from its results but that's impossible. the vote came down to manchin.

manchin negotiated its terms. manchin endorsed its policies and the lack of control the legislation had on biden's use of the bill. if manchin wants to talk about political malpractice, maybe he should look in the mirror. your response? >> that's ridiculous. from the standpoint, we write pieces of legislation. we expect the administration to adhere to the intent and how we wrote it. it's in the bill. read the law. so anybody who has that opinion has not read the bill. what we have to do now, we have a process. we can hold their feet accountable. we brought inflation. we've got more drilling going on. we're producing more oil and gas than before. we're more reliant on ourselves than we were on foreign supply chains. we can do all of this. this bill was written for one purpose, energy security, bringing down the cost of drugs, be able to pay down debt, which we hadn't done in 20 years. but now when they want to blow the cap off of it, i'm gonna

fight back and fight back hard. i would hope my democrat and republican people, friends in legislature especially, would feel the same way and work with us to hold the administration it was not throwing caution to the wind. we have run away inflation right now. we still have high inflation. we have a debt ceiling that's going to be crashing upon us. and we're not doing anything to address that. not even talking about it. >> some of the analysts will look at the inflation reduction act and say even cbo scoring and penn wharton. they will say this bill was never going to solve that problem. so even if we still have the problems now, does that lie somewhat at your feet for voting for this? >> shannon, the bottom line is when you have a chance to do something and make it better, when you have basically an administration going away from the dependable reliable fossil fuels that we have to have to run the country for energy security. when we are lying saying, maybe

we can take sanctions off iran. you're going to take sanctions off a country that promotes the most horrific terrorist support around the world and give them more revenue to do harm to humankind? we know we have to have our own reliable resources. we can do it right here in america. and we weren't doing it. i would say politically it might not be popular. i will do what i think i can and what's best for our country. i think we did a piece of legislation that will do exactly what it was intended to do. we have to make sure it administers what it was supposed to. the bottom line, we have brought down and put more product into the market. we have just done more leasing and permitting. we need a permitting bill that changes how fast we're able to get it this done and we have democrats and republicans agreeing that it needs to be done. we just got to put a piece of legislation that works. we've got to work together as the united states and not allowing the political diversity of this country keep pushing us

further and further to the extremes. that's what's happening. >> both parties to the far left or far right. you say you'll do what's best for this country. people think maybe that will mean a run for the white house. politico says you are not deciding on anything until the end of the year but you are refusing to rule out a. shl run on a third party ticket. do you rule it out today? is it still on the table? >> here's the thing. only in america do we start the next election the day after the last election. >> it's under way. >> i have not done that. it's under way. i'm going to do my job. i want to get this debt ceiling. i want to get this behind us, pay our debts. start trying to get our expenses down. we can do this. we can reel in the amount of expenses we have and the debt we're accumulating. for 21 year, shannon, we have spent more money in america than we have taken in. you can't run your house hold that way. but here we are.

we aren't doing our budget process done on time. that saves billions of dollars. i have got a lot of work to do. everybody is worried about the election. >> can a president manchin, though, better influence that conversation? >> well, you know, everybody is worried about who's running for what. my main concern, can we start a dialogue? people are wore out, shannon. they're tired. all we have is this bickering and fighting. can't we come together? if we can start a dialogue in the middle, can't we bring the extremes back to where they are supposed to be in a sensible reasonable weather. >> i'm going to put you down for not ruling it out. i want to get a quick reaction from you on president trump's indictment. >> sure. it's just a very, very sad day for america. very sad day. especially when people are maybe believing the rule of law or justice is not working the way it's supposed to and it's biased. we can't have that. abraham lincoln said a house

decided cannot stand. own on the other hand, no one is above the law yet no one should be targeted by the law. i pray whatever comes out, that they have done a thorough examination, a thorough job, as far as showing that the rule of law does work for all of us. and we just have to wait and see. very sad day. >> senator, thank you very much for your time. always good to see you. >> thanks, shannon. >> the former president's indictment puts his 2024 rivals in a complex predicament. next how the bombshell indictment news is reshaping the 2024 campaign. and the other stories including the arrest of an american reporter detained in russia. cole hauser is an award winning actor. beyond his impressive career, he is a proud supporter of the tunnel to towers foundation. i was able to spend some time with cole and his family to reflect on those who have sacrificed so much to defend our freedom.

you know, as i started to be more and more successful, i was like, how can i help? but when i heard of the tunnel to towers and i met brandon in idaho and his family, i was like, wow. there's actually a charity where we know where the money's going to go. you saw all the stuff we put in these homes? i was i was blown away. why should americans help tunnel to towers foundation? i mean, is there any better organization to help the people that has fought for this country and freedoms that we have? and you're going to join us on that mission. thank you. hey, i'm cole. hauser. i want you to join me in supporting our nation's heroes and their families. it's only $11 a month. go to t2t.org

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you're running for president? >> i'm gonna wait to see what percentage of the candidates get indicted. if it's over 25%, then we'll see. we're halfway there. you never know. >> possible candidate dropping a one liner about this very unusual primary season. time for our group. susan paige, fox news

contributor richard fowler, former chief of staff for vice president mike pence mark schwartz and director of the ronald reagan institute. welcome to everybody. okay. so let's start there. mark, this has very unusual predicament for potential gop runners in 2024. they've had to rush to the former president's defense. they are coalescing behind this guy they are trying to run against. >> sure. it also could be somewhat genuine. there's a lot of concern for people who look at a prosecution that a previous da passed over, prosecution the department of justice passed over. reality this da campaigned on a promise to prosecute donald trump. there's a lot of concerns. there's a real concern about what this precedent sets. are you going to have republican district attorneys say i'm going to charge a democrat for political gain? it's an abuse of the justice system. >> one of them who weighed in was florida governor ron

desantis, who is not running but many people think is edging that way. want to read part of his tweet. he said florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with the manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda. there was no extradition request. but does he get some points for his full defense of the man he may soon run against? >> i'm not sure trump will give desantis points for much of anything. >> not from him, but maybe from voters. >> i think he was trying to repair some ground that maybe had gotten a little dusty for him from his efforts to portray himself as somebody who gives you trumpism without trump. trump policies without trump chaos. so this is i think of all the candidates you can think of, the worst for him. it does not reshape, reshake up the field. it solidifies the republican field around the man who's been the front runner. now according to your poll has a 30 point edge over desantis. >> we can put that up.

>> that is a lot of ground for anybody to make up, especially when the front re indictment, but president trump had picked up 11 points since february. roger, do you think now that he's officially indicted we'll have potentially a perp walk, the whole thing? does it on gain him even more points? >> no doubt republican voters who were on the fence about president trump now will feel more beholden to support him. there's other polling we have to take into account. that's the impact of voters across the country in terms of their feeling about the presidency and key institutions, whether it's the justice system, presidency. it was down in the low 16%, 15% when we looked at it at the reagan institute. this whole circus is just going to bring those numbers down. that's a loss for the country. >> that loss of institutional confidence. we've seen that from a number of different agencies and the

presidency, certainly congress. congress gets beat up all the time. you are always going to have is a better approval rating than congress. but somebody who is also struggling, president biden. majority of folks, these are democratic primary voters, said they would rather see someone else than him. for comparison you can see president obama back in his presidency where 81% were like, yes, we love him. what does this president do? what is plan b? >> i think president biden is in an interesting situation. what was working in obama's favor, he had youth on his side. what we've seen the media do in biden's presidency is talk about the president's age over and over. >> but they love him. most of them love him. >> sure, you can say that. this ideal of him being older is the way the polls look the way they look. if you look at the entire political field, what you'll have going into 2024 is a presidential candidate likely on trial in new york and at the same time what you're going to have is president biden governing.

the question is what do the american voters like more? somebody who is governing and keeping the country afloat or a trial with a porn star and a former lawyer? >> there's no other name in that poll because there is no number two. there is no clear alternative to president biden. it's hard to beat somebody with nobody. biden has that going for him. also the argument he makes that he's the democrat who can beat donald trump. same argument he made four years ago. >> all of our polling shows he's upside down on all the big issue, inflation, foreign policy, immigration. president biden has got a lot of ground to make up. he would be running against those head winds. we know when people can't pay their bills and they are worried about crime, they tend to vote with who ever is in charge. this was another poll that was interesting. what's more important to your presidential primary vote, your views matching up with the candidate's. 73%. or whether they can win in november? only 18%.

what does that say to you? lot of people will be purist about the person they want and not so much how they shape up in the general. >> i think that's healthy if we are saying we're going to put issues first. so far in the conversation we've struggled from the media perspective to put issues first and it's much more a debate around personality. if we can have honest conversations about china, russia, the border, that will be healthy for republican primary voters. >> i think there's an interesting point happening. if you go to florida where ron desantis is the governor, he is putting issues first. he said he wants to ban book, take down disney world. >> wait. there's a lot more knew answer. he just won by 20 points. >> fair enough. i think if you talk to democratic voters in florida, they will say ron desantis stands on the opposite side of everything they care about which galvanizes them to engage in the

primary debate and creates a world where republican, if ron desantis is a nominee, how do you resonate with independents? >> to back up what mark was saying. it's about republicans focusing on issues. the question in the polling was about the primary. for republicans in 2024 to focus on issues is progress. >> if the issues are being the most anti-woke which is not an issue because we don't know what anti-woke means. >> the suite of issues mark outlined a bunch, china at the top of the list when it comes to foreign policy. it's good for republicans to be ebbing exploring issues rather than personalities. >> we will talk about china. stay with us for a quick break. issues about china's threat over the taiwanese president to the u.s. we'll discuss that. sometimes you're so busy taking care of everyone else you don't do enough for yourself, or your mouth. but eventually, it will remind you. when it does, aspen dental is here for you. we offer the custom dental treatments you need,

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>> what is your message to russia as they are detaining this wall street journal reporter? >> let him go. >> after russia arrested a journalist, russia denies the

charges. is that the right tone? >> let's see what he does. a real test for biden. terriblee united states, terrible news the world. evan is guilty of committing journalism. that should not be a crime. putin trying to get leverage with the united states. we'll see how president biden reacts to that. tough thing. these situations are horrifically tough for leaders. but this is outrageous and a return to the kind of cold war politics we haven't seen since then, seizing of journalists by russia. >> back in the '80s. wall street editorial board speaking out says this. thuggish leaders keep doing thuggish things if they think they will pay no price. the biden administration will have to consider diplomatic and political escalation. roger, what could that look like? >> it has to be more than a condemnation. could involve sending reporters from russia back to russia.

could also involve their ambassador being sent back to moscow. those are things that have to respond in kind and the condemnation is not sufficient. we have to recognize what's going on here. putin is feeling pressure with respect to his war in ukraine. gershowitz last article was about putin's economy tanking. he is censoring everyone in russia including foreign press. >> glad to get britney greiner back. that felt like a condition exploited by the putin administration. but we gave up the merchant of death for her. what bargaining chips do we have? that was a pretty powerful get for the russians. >> i get that. we know merchant almost at the end of his term. it was worth pointing out, in biden getting greiner back, you have a president willing to use all back channels to make sure americans come home safely. in this case where you have a

journalist there. journalism isn't a crime. it's part of chronicling history. i think it's important the biden administration use that same type of pressure. if you're questioning whether the biden administration will use pressure to bring them back, all you have to look at is how they brought britney greiner back. >> mark, paul whalen, american, is still there? >> all respect to richard, i applaud the biden administration for their stand with the ukrainian people. the reality is, the biden administration has been weak from day one. they have emboldened russia. the first thing was approve nordstream 2. putin saw the withdrawal in afghanistan. glad we got greiner back but the exchange for a known terrorist only encouraged putin to do this more. this is not something unique to him. it's what despites do across the globe, jail journalists. we should be kicking out all

ambassadors today. >> we have polling on how the president has dealt with different threats and adversaries. in every column you will see, with china, russia, north korea, iran. he is in a double digit deficit that he's been too accommodating with these. now we have this issue with china threatening retaliation for taiwan's president who is transiting through the u.s., meeting with key leaders. met with top house democrat, will meet with the speaker in the coming week. they're threatening us over that. >> we have to understand what's happening here. this is china changing their policy. they have ratcheted up increasing their aggression. everybody is expecting after the meeting between t taiwan's president and speaker mccarthy, we'll see additional aggression and intimidation from the chinese against taiwan this week. but the united states has to be clear here. this is what the polling indicates. we have to demonstrate to the chinese that it won't be tolerated. when china threatens taiwan, the

united states policy, since president reagan was in office, which supports taiwan and give them security in the form of security assistance. that has to be ratcheted up. can't be the thing we are seeing in ukraine where it's a slow drip. >> want to bring this back domestic. the week started off with the tragic shooting. six innocent lives taken, the shooter killed. immediately in washington the talk always becomes what more can we protect these kids. talk of gun control. this, senator john cornyn, one of the key democrats that -- saying some people like to use them for hunting or self-defense. they have a constitutional right to do so. there seems to be this obsession with the gun and not with the actual person pulling the trigger. susan, does anything move here in washington legislatively? >> i think to the astonishment of a lot of americans, there is no possibility of gun measures passing congress any time soon. but one thing that was notable

earlier in march before this last horrible shooting. president biden issued an executive order expanding background checks. in your poll seven out of ten americans supported that executive order. that included a lot of americans who do not is up por biden on almost anything else. that should be a message to politicians everywhere. >> quickly, mark, to the point of focusing on lot of things but not everything with respect to the shooter, the person who makes the decision to take these lives. >> i think, shannon, as a society, if we tell little girls they can be little boys and little boys they can be little girls, we shouldn't be shocked when there's a mental disorder problem. there should be focus much broader than a gun control issue. >> i think gun control is far bigger than what's happening in school shootings. in cities we have these talk about crime. mayors are dealing with the illegal guns. congress should do something because mayors are ham strung. >> thank you, panel. up next a preview of my just replaced podcast on one of the

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>> quick note, my podcast drops this morning. this week megan alexander joins me to talk about onee well

known maybe least understood marriages. just one of the stories in my new book out this week. that's it for today. have a great week. we will see you back here for next fox news sunday. paper being crumpled more paper being crumpled music: “i wish” by skee-lo boom! sound of paper balls landing in bins office workers cheering music stops why do we shoot baskets with paper balls? for the same reason we play scratchers from the california lottery. because a little play can make your day. logo scratches on

to with a look at what those kids are going to learn on their trip to hawaii and the partnership with a nonprofit group that made it happen and donation drive still underway to help a central coast community devastated by flooding what organizers say those flood victims need most right now and how you can help, plus i want them to hold people accountable. and not just lie and say you're doing a job and you're killing people. four deaths in a span of

six weeks. just this year.