it has meant that people that have been in the armed services serve on the armed services committee. those voices are important. having veterans that have been on the front lines were led men and women into battle, the armed services community is important. it's also important for others that have had different experiences and different legacies who have been refugees because of military action abroad. i think those connections are important. i think there are people that worked historically, a retiring member that has worked to connect the #metoo movement oddly with the sexual assault crisis in our military as someone who made those connections and a lack of justice. the workers and workplaces generally with the lack of justice who are sexually assaulted. it is a lot we can do in that regard. mari: thank you for providing a few examples. with that, we that, we are takig audience questions. feel free to raise your hand, and we will bring the mic over. please note if you will be asking it of all of our panelists or an individual, and please try to keep it concise, so we can answer as m

it has meant that people that have been in the armed services serve on the armed services committee. those voices are important. having veterans that have been on the front lines were led men and women into battle, the armed services community is important. it's also important for others that have had different experiences and different legacies who have been refugees because of military action abroad. i think those connections are important. i think there are people that worked historically, a retiring member that has worked to connect the #metoo movement oddly with the sexual assault crisis in our military as someone who made those connections and a lack of justice. the workers and workplaces generally with the lack of justice who are sexually assaulted. it is a lot we can do in that regard. mari: thank you for providing a few examples. with that, we that, we are takig audience questions. feel free to raise your hand, and we will bring the mic over. please note if you will be asking it of all of our panelists or an individual, and please try to keep it concise, so we can answer as m

house armed services committee member mike gallagher joins us live. >> sandra: we begin with a fox news alert to kick off "america reports" on this friday. white house getting good news on the jobs market but will a massive spending plan send the economy into another tailspin, making an already bad inflation problem even worse? hello, everyone. i am sandra smith in new york. >> jon: i am jon scott info john roberts. the labor department says the u.s. added 528,000 jobs last month. the on employment rate also falling slightly to 3.5%. >> both numbers beating expectations. wages are still largely out of step with the rising inflation. now more than 200 economists, 230 to be exact, warning democrats their social spending bill will make high prices in this country even worse. >> jon: senior economic advisor jared bernstein joins us. first, congressional correspondent chad pergram has the latest on the spending bill. >> good afternoon. democrats say this bill will help with inflation. more than 200 economists warn congressional leaders that the u.s. is in a dangerous crossroads. they argue t

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i think we need to make sure people who serve on our armed services committee reflect the full diversity of life experiences of our caucus. people have gone to committees where they are comfortable. i want to emphasize, those voices are important. people that have been on the front lines, it's important but it's important to have others who have had different experiences and have different legacies. who have been refugees because of military action of god for example. i think those connections are important. i think they're people who have worked historically. i would identify jackie spear, a member who connected the #metoo movement and somebody who has drawn those lines and made connections. generally with the lack of justice. there's more we can do in that regard. >> thank you so much for providing a few of those examples. with that we are prepared for audience questions. our team member has the microphone. raise your hand and they will bring the mic over. please note if you will be asking it of all of our panelists or an individual, and please try to keep it concise, so we can answer

chairman of the house armed services committee and florida republican congressman mike waltz, also on the house armed services committee. gentlemen, thanks for your time. i like to started these bipartisan interviews for some common ground. and what you two agree on. you can choose your topic. congressman smith, first to you. >> well, i think ukraine, congressman waltz and i went on a bipartisan co-del met with vols and battle in kyiv what they are doing to russian impasse. very united in giving ukraine the support they can get to fight off the russians. president zelenskyy is right this war doesn't stop until putin is stopped and pushed back and we agree on getting all the help we can to ukraine to do it. >> bret: i want to play a soundbite, congressman waltz, before i get to you on. that was and it's about ukraine from the defense department today about the effort to get military equipment in there and what's happening. >> we're trying to be very deliberate about what systems we think makes the most sense for ukraine to have. these also have to be symptoms that ukraine itself can su

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ways and means committee, armed service committee. >> we do have a broad jurisdiction. we will look at a lot of this. six weeks ago i asked dr. birx was the witness. >>>> she is the one with the scarf. >> i asked her a question. i asked her first question. i said when the biden administration told us the vaccinated could not get the virus, were they guessing or lying? response was amazing. she says i don't know. i said you're telling me our government could have been lying to we the people? she said i would like to think they were hopeful. so it was a guest, a lie or a hope? you think about this whole -- homeland security they were going to set up a disinformation governance or did -- governance board. they shut it down. the fact they were doing it and it begs the obvious question, who is the biggest purveyor of disinformation? it is the federal government. how many things have they told us? when they want to tell us what is disinformation when in fact -- i always do the virus. remember when biden said he had a plan? biden said he would never impose a vaccine mandate an

he's chairman of the house armed services committee.ou. >> first of all, so folks at home can understand this, what is the potential damage in your view to national security of the contents of what was held in mar-a-lago. is it a real risk? >> there is the actual contents of the documents, which contains from what we have seen what was reportedly taken, you know, classified information, or information we don't want other countries to know, and this information has been lying around donald trump's hotel room for over a year now. who has had the opportunity to come in and look at it? just reading an article in ""the new york times" about president trump's propensity to show classified information to whoever he had been with at the time. so who has seen it and what they have done with it? what does this say about not just this bunch of information, but how president trump and his team treated classified information while in the white house? what else is out there? it is important to understand that what this does is it potentially betrays

. >> oversight committee, ways and means, armed services committee want to look at the debacle of the exit. >> will you be charged -- in charge? >> we will look a lot of this, there is a select committee on the coronavirus. think about this. i asked her a question. first question, direct question, dr. birx, with by demonstration told us that the vaccinated could not get a virus with a guessing or lying? her response was i do not know. were you telling me that the government could have been lying to we the people? she said i would like to think we are hopeful. i saved as a guest, lie, or a hope? the thing about homeland security that was going to set up the disinformation governance board. >> i think they set it up and then shut it down. >> they shut it down, think goodness. the fact that they were doing it, based off this question, who is the biggest purveyor of misinformation? it is the federal government. how many things have they told us? it is scary when they want to tell us disinformation when in fact -- remember when biden said he had a plan? biden said he would never do a vacci

i'm on the armed services committee and the foreign relations committee and there's nothing more classifiede u.s. nuclear program. >> you are on the armed services committee. you can explain to our audience, this doesn't necessarily mean it has to be nuclear codes, but any information -- >> no. >> about nuclear weapons american or otherwise. >> right, exactly. we have intelligence about our own capacities that we wouldn't want to share with adversaries. we also have our own assessments of adversary's capacities we would not want to be public. this could be very, very damaging in the wrong hands. somebody could try to make money by selling this kind of information. i mean, it's -- you know, again, this is the opening stages of an investigation. we have a criminal system in this country where everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so search warrants and investigations and gathering information and indictments aren't the same as a conviction. but it shows the level of seriousness with which the fbi has to treat this matter. >> today happens to be the fifth anniversary of charlotte

. >> harris: armed services committee member senator marsha blackburn, the great state of tennessee, is in focus. we begin with senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot live in london, greg. >> harris are absolutely right, taiwan is under fire or at least the area around it to the day after pelosi's visit there. trying to conduct live fire precision missile strikes on selected targets on the waters nearby taiwan. 11 missiles were launched just today. drills say the last four days are clearly because of the pelosi stop china claims are one in its own. some of the six target zones over the maritime border that are close to the coastline, china had threatened to fly missiles over the island and through the air space. taiwan is on high alert with military on the move. moves include ships, planes, helicopters, also calling the drill irresponsible, and invasion of a territorial space licensed shipping has been disrupted. the u.n. says ronald reagan care aircraft carrier group remains deployed and the water southeast of taiwan secretary say warning china once again against increasin

me move on to an area that you know, well sir, at least around your position in the early armed services committee talked about ukraine. figures are certainly growing as russian forces are striking near europe's biggest nuclear power plant. ukraine is worried that russia may be planning some kind of a military operation to plant. and also plans to potentially divert the power that is created by that facility, to criminal efforts and also to russia. they knew president zelenskyy, who is managing ukrainians to be vigilant, because russia could do something, quote, particularly cool before ukraine's independence day. that is this wednesday. what are you watching, form and how much of a threat does this power plants pose, in your mind, not just for ukraine to greet her greater europe? >> to the top weather you did mention there, agreeing with ukraine sort of reclaiming the momentum in this conflict. you've seen the strikes in crimea, we have seen the russian forces, which are degraded horribly and slowed down everywhere they are attacking. and we have seen the ukrainians getting back to territory. so

being on the armed services committee, but it's a huge problem with them being right there at taiwan, we have to let china know. joe biden has to be the guy to let china know do not cross this line. he said it once. he tried to back off of it but we got to keep pushing that narrative that we will stand up for taiwan. jackie: president obama was notorious for drawing red lines and allowing or the leaders to cross them. that is not a surprise to me biden is handling it this way. many people say ahead of nancy pelosi's trip, his issue of his statement, rhetoric put out there, not being on the same page, not necessarily being a unified front is certainly part of the problem. how do you get the party to come together on this issue? you know, even nancy pelosi going oaf and not asking any republicans to come with her indicates there is some division here at home and so without being unified in that way, how do we send that message abroad? >> we can't do it the way we're doing it. i learned in my former profession of being a coach for 40 years, organization is a key to winning. we have no or

now with the political impact with the member of the house armed services committee, great to see you shocking week for everyone. what is your overall reaction? >> some of the speculation coming out with classified documents is a ridiculous and irresponsible. i served in a previous white house before serving in congress and the notion a president of the united states would have some type of nuclear warhead design just sitting around in a box, you saw speculation on the sunday shows today that could have been the names of russian sources or images of spy satellites. the president gets intelligence and analysis. this speculation is shaking up to be a russia hoax two.zero where you have an irresponsible media outlet with spending anonymously sourced information throwing it out there but what is so disturbing is it is repeated all over the world with foreign news media outlets and then the president that this administration is something that they will resist going after a predecessor with a politicized justice department and the future political opponent. look at the january 6 committee n

andy kim, andy kim is a member of the foreign affairs committee and the armed services committee among other leadership roles that he plays. and we were very informed by his participation and his commitment to work together. so this is special for us because the u. s. republic of korea relationship is special to us and we want at over time, i've been here before met with members of parliament in the past. and we want to strengthen that inter parliamentary role as we work together as countries. i do want to say that is a matter of special pride to us in the congress a previous visit. well, it was b pre cove, it 2015. we were able to take pride in passing the legislation. we live in the congress relating to comfort, the comfort women, legislation. it was, you know, it had its, shall we say friends. and it had some doubters about we were not in doubt about that. i just mentioned that because when we talk about security, we know what that is when we talk about economics. that's clear. when we talk about governance, it's many things. it's shared values. it's about fighting the pandemic. it'

state department under president obama and a member of the foreign affairs as well as the armed services committee. he served as our diplomat on the trip. we miss him here but he is available to answer questions you may have. the beautiful diversity of our trip, imagine this, the beautiful diversity which is itself evident. andy kemp's parents born in korea. respect, culture, country and different views so imminent for all of us on the community. but some of it directly connected in that way. the purpose, as i say, was to talk about the sense of economy and governance and the members will talk about some of that. but we think them --thank them for their response to can dem russia for their invasion of ukraine. we thank them for their leadership and standing firm as i call it from participating in some of their meetings and reaction to their execution for their leaders there. it was remarkable to see. of course we talked about in terms of governance we talked about covid, we talked about climate change and the rest. though we had specific issues that related to their countries that we can talk abou

we have jim inhofe, been in armed service committee for a vor very long time, his son was a fighter pilot died in a terrible crash, real clear defense: he said you hear it all the time. -- >> let's be clear, he says: >> he said they are not telling us what they spend, but he goes further and says . -- >> that puts chinese defense budget 604 billion in 2021. when you add russia, spends about the same as britain or france, combined they spend more than we are, he points out labor costs and other costs are less, what else? china. bbc, m15 and others warn: >> they never had a joint appearance before. >> christopher wray said china is biggest threat to our security, interfered in politics, m15 head said his service more than doubled its work against chinese activity in last 3 years and had to double it again, they are running 7 times as many investigations related to activities of communist party of china compared to 2018, and fbi wray warns if china too were take taiwan it would represent one of the most horrific business disrespecttions the -- disruptions the world as seen, what else? it is

i wanted to point you to the comets of michael waltz, congressman from florida on the armed services committee. critical of the speakers trip here here is what he had to say on fox news. [video clip] >> here's the big difference from priors, we have had these -- with these chinese over visits from taiwan. the difference then from now, acton, a new and we knew that they couldn't do anything about it military. now, they believe that they can do something about it let harrell he, they can match us. they -- he has told his military to be ready around 127 to defeat us. that is the game changer and why we have to wake up as a country, versus the speaker of the house, then it is trade routes, it is critical minerals, then it is our pharmaceuticals that they are manufacturing. then, they dominate the world. host: how might this change u.s. policy toward military policy toward the area? guest: well, i think there is the hope and expectation that there will be increased, renewed arms sales that the administration will move away from that decision. that there will be greater opportunity for exercises. on

joining us now, texan republican congressman who is on the house armed services committee.sman, this attack on the daughter of putin's very close ally, dugan, any idea who is responsible? >> you know, john, right now we do not know. it could very well be a russian internal affair. there is a lot of competition. a lawless state to really begin with. it could be an internal dispute, we just do not know yet. >> driving the car that he was expecting to be driving. they are not any tears in ukraine over her death either. she publicly suggested that the massacre was staged and she basically suggested that the takeover, it was completely justified. >> it does seemed like her father was definitely the target. may be the wrong place at the wrong time driving the wrong vehicle. a lot of the wrong views as far as the world affairs and russians involvement in ukraine. >> i want to talk about afghanistan. it has been one year since the withdrawal. listen to the former green beret >> a slap in the face to every veteran out there, myself included. getting american and allies out. biden st

you know, if you look behind you, the armed services committee really big. right? so, i mean, 11 thing to think about it is also the committee structure, right? i mean, kevin is talking about the complexity and you know, there's some things that can be done with simplification, but the there's a lot of things that congress has called on to legislate on and think about and oversee and i think if you had larger, larger congress, you might have the potential for more committees and subcommittees to that. there just has to be a level of specialization among members of congress. you know that it's really hard to be a generalist given all of the things that you need to be thinking about. so having a larger member having having more members might allow for more potential for people to really focus on particular subcommittees which you know where you could develop some real expertise. like there's a certain amount, you've just got to trust each other and delegate to each other to to really solve some very hard and tricky problems >> dr allen did you want to weigh in on thi

. >> joining me now is arkansas senator tom cotton, the senate armed services committee, a committee senator . you just heard the tone and the substance of the state department spokesman, china must be really scared. they don't want to read too much into this. your reaction to. well, again, this is joe biden's longstanding record of weakness and appeasement going back not just the last 18 months, but the last 50 years. of public life. remember, he was celebrating china's rise for decades, even before he had reason to do so to help his son out in business. he also criticized ronald reagan for saying that russia was an evil empire or for fighting communists in places like nicaragua or cuba. this is who joe biden is . he believes that america is not exceptional, that america should not be the leader of the free world, that we should not stand stand proud, proudly defending our interests and advancing the cause of our freedom around the world. and they take advantage of it just like vladimir putin in ukraine, just like china has started to in the last month. running all these war games a

florida congressman michael waltz member of the house armed services committee and highly decorated formerltiple tours in afghanistan and africa. great to have you in "focus" today. as i hear special forces experts then and now talk about what was coming, what part of the predictions and the warnings from a year ago have now come to fruition. what pops? >> well, look at where we are a year later, harris. girls in afghanistan can't be educated. women can't leave their home. much less hold a job. the entire country is in a massive famine with historic food insecurity. our allies are being hunted down by the taliban's intelligence director. i had the relative of one of my interpreters strung up behind a truck and drug around his village to send a message. there is a small resistance to the taliban regime but the state department. biden's state department has denounced them and now here we have al qaeda senior leadership living openly in kabul once again. so, you know, we could spend the next hour talking about what the problems are and while i am thrilled to see al-zawahiri dead, absolutely t

part of the wider tour she is having through asia as a member of the senate commerce and armed services committee, senator blackburn is meeting with the island's top security official as well as the foreign minister this is part of her three-day stay today, she stressed the importance of strong economic ties between the u.s. an and taiwan she said a few things that are sure to annoy beijing. she would support taiwan as they push forward as an independent nation blackburn's comments are contrary to official u.s. policy and that is the u.s. does not support independence for taiwan which china believes is part of its country. president xe said this reinforced the determination to defend itself. this comes as taiwan is p proposing a double digit increase in defense spending brian, china's response has been relatively muted especially compared to speaker pelosi's visit they have been threatening unspecified counter measures >> all right unspecified counter measures, eunice any hint of what those could be? >> reporter: not so much up until now when they threaten counter mesasmeasures, i guess t could m

neil: real quickly, congressman, i know you serve on the armed services committee. of course they moved a battleship near sri lanka. that has the indians upset to put it mildly. they're taunting taiwan. we have joint military exercises between ourselves and south koreans planned we're told for next week. this is getting messy. doesn't take much for a false trigger, does it? >> no. that's an important point to make but i think the chinese are watching what happens in ukraine. they're seeing the west push back. they're getting a little louder. there is also a new president in south korea who is very pro-america. so they're going to get loud but hopefully the president doesn't back down, the exercises happen and china sees that, you know taiwan, it cannot be taken by china. i mean xi's promise to his people, it can't happen. 94% of the high-end semiconductors there, supply chain crisis we have had will look like a kid's playpen. we'll do everything we cannot to let that happen and china should know that. neil: just to be clear, sir, that if china were to try to seize t

he's a member of the house armed services committee former green beret commander. u for your service to our country. you saw combat firsthand. you served multiple tours in afghanistan. why have you decided in your campaign for reelection are you highlighting this issue? >> well, because joe biden as commander in chief in the middle of this crisis stood before the american people and lied to them. he -- yeah, he said that his military advisers never told him to leave 2500 troops behind and continue support the afghan military and prop up the government yet the very military commanders that he said never advised him that have testified that no, in fact, they did. he said that this wouldn't be a sigh gone with helicopters and that's exactly what happened. our nato allies agreed. we know that not to be true and i think the most damaging to our national security now for the entire world to see is he said that al-qaeda would not be back in afghanistan and yet we have the leader of al-qaeda living in the taliban's number two guest house and the un saying thousands of forei

>> with that, we bring in congressman mike gallagher a marine veteran that serves on the armed services committee. very good to have you with us today. there's a piece in the post today -- "new york times," and they talk about two competing blocks that are forming in the world. so just to black off from this visit for a moment and look what's going on in the world. the world is breaking into two competing blocks. democracy versus autocracy. russian, china and iran are the anti-u.s. block. what if all three countries decide to confront the u.s. soon in an effort to overwhelm the american ability to respond? could that happen in your assessment, congressman? >> well, i think for the better part of a decade, china, russia and iran have been waging a in cold war. we've been complacent. where i might disagree with the piece, i don't think dividing the world to autocracies to democracies makes much sense. the biden administration did that and alienated our partners that are not perfect democracies. in the middle east, there's many countries that don't fit that mold that we have to work with. but there'

the lead republican on the house armed services committee calling it a weak-kneed response that will vite more aggression. retired u.s. arm my lieutenant bob mcguinness joins me now. your thoughts on appeasing china, hoping that they will back off. >> yeah, there's no intention by president xi to back off. he's standing on the 20th party congress for a third term in office. he's made it very clear, charles, since 2013 when he took over at chairman that taiwan will become part of mainland china once again. a break-away province he labels it. he's promised to do it through negotiation, which may not happen, but certainly through force. the display of 11 ballistic missiles surrounding taiwan and also in the economic zone of japan is a very clear message to not only taiwanese and taipei, but also to people in tokyo and washington. the chinese are serious against taiwan. >> charles: not only are they serious, i was struck by the advancement that they have made with their missile capabilities. the missiles that flew over taiwan for the first time, one hit targets that u.s. -- the agis comba

house armed services committee member mike gallagher joins us live. >> sandra: we begin with a fox news

congressman jim banks from indiana, republican study committee chair and armed services committee member. great to see you. first of all your top line thoughts on where we actually are going now that the truth drip, drip, drip is coming out about what's in the bill. >> it should be illegal to name a bill something it doesn't do. one of many cases the democrats get away with this. like the affordable care act to the inflation reduction act, this is misleading to the american people and there should be a rule in congress that makes it against the rules of the house or the senate to do what the democrats have done this time again. so i'll tell you one thing i did do. i introduced a bill in congress with senator rick scott that would require the cbo to measure the inflationary impact on all of the bills we passed. the cbo tells us how much it will cost but doesn't measure inflation. when i introduced it in the house and senator scott introduced it in the senate the democrats shot it down. they don't want it to be measured by the cbo. in cases like this it will show their bills actually make

the read on this from the member of the senate armed services committee, alaska senator dan sullivan.a's belligerence has been on display for quite a few years. feels like the message they're sending is we can compete with you on the battlefield. how unnerved should we be? >> look, charles, i think what you're seeing in the taiwan strait, what you're seeing in ukraine by russia is this new era of authoritarian aggression led by xi jinping and vladimir putin. they're increasingly isolated, increasingly dangerous. they base their actions on historical grievances. they're paranoid about their democratic neighbors. and we're willing to use military force. what we need to do is show strategic resolve, confidence, but recognize that this new era of authoritarian aggression will be with us for decades. we need to play to our strengths. we have a lot of comparative images relative to the dictator ships in these two countries. incredible natural and resources and our network of allies, our dynamic economy. what the biden administration needs to do is play to these. let me give you a big one. t

i'm on the armed services committee -- there is nothing more classified than the nuclear program. this can be very damaging in the wrong hands. somebody could try to make money by selling this kind of information. >> look, donald trump for his part claims he declassified all these documents, but even if that is true, do you agree with senator cain about the national security threat these document could potentially pose, and might some of them be beyond something that could be declassified in a sense? >> well, let's spend a second on donald trump's defenses. in the last 72 hours the defense has been i didn't do it. barack obama also did it. and the latest defenses, oh well i just magically declassified these things. again, it's the typical donald trump playbook, where he sending us running after ridiculous ideas. but let's spend a second. like senator cain, i spent a lot of time around the most highly classified information as a member of the intelligence community. whenever i have access to that information, i go to a special office building in the capital, that has heavy bulletpr

what were dealing with on the armed services committee where i sit is misinformation going out from every angle what is going on communicating, what russia, ukraine. you hit on that is one of the key challenges that we're going to face in the next phase of owego wanted the world. i love your perspective on that. >> i appreciate that, for me it's going to get worse. the russians have spent the lasg three decades perfecting operation. for more information it is a domain just like air, land stays in place. period will know what they're going to do, they don't the military capabilities they used to have. with finding out right now in ukraine. has to be controlled and information.n right now were talking about are they pulling troops back. >> no, they're not. you can't believe anything that they say. i remember i want to say it was 2015 or 2017 when the russians were deep in syria. the russians put out a notice that they were leaving syria and you saw all these planes leaving the syrian air base and g everybody's like all my gosh the russians are leaving. the planes were going back i to russia

ohio, the top republican on the house intelligence committee and also a member of the house armed services committee. thanks for joining us. you say you think it's important that pelosi travel to taiwan despite the pressure from the chinese government and discouraging words from the biden administration. why is it important? >> you've seen most recently from nancy pelosi this world of travel that focuses on this issue, as he described in her "washington post" op-ed, where she went with ukraine, met with zelenskyy in kyiv, now she's gone to taiwan. in both she's called out russia and china, aggressors and self-identified adverse to the united states from both of them. what we're seeing though, here, is pelosi, even with criticism from the white house of taking these steps to do so. i'm hopeful this is going to be an opportunity, that when she comes back to washington, we may be able to have a bipartisan initiative to put -- restore some of the cuts to defense spending that pelosi has been leading in the house, to look at ways to strengthen our military. she made strong statements in the op-ed. i thin

senator kirsten gillibrand of the armed services committee joining us with more on that next.'re watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rts" on msnbc. g your healthcare provider if an oral treatment is right for you. oral treatments can be taken at home and must be taken within 5 days from when symptoms first appear. if you have symptoms of covid-19, even if they're mild don't wait, get tested quickly. if you test positive and are at high risk for severe disease, act fast ask if an oral treatment is right for you. covid-19 moves fast and now you can too. (vo) you can be well-dressed. you can be well-mannered. (man) oh, no, no, after you. wahoooo! (vo) you can be well-groomed. or even well-spoken. (man) ooooooo. (vo) but there's just something about being well-adventured. (vo) adventure has a new look. discover more in the all-new subaru forester wilderness. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (driver) conventional thinking would say verizon has the largest and fastest 5g network. but, they don't. ♪ ♪ they only cover select cities with 5g. so, for me and the

joining us now is joe cirincione, nuclear expert, former member of the house armed services committee. brittani's agent released this statement today -- goes to prove what we have known all along, that brittney is being used as a political pawn. so we have talked previously about the potential for this severe sentencing, nine years in a penal colony. can you actually tell us what's that mean? i'm not actually familiar with what a penal colony in russia is actually like? tell us. >> most of the prisons in russia actually are penal colonies, over 600 colonies -- they have all from joe stalin's forced labor camps. prisoners there are no longer have to break rocks, do mining, but they do manual labor. making uniforms, for example. it is a harsh environment but not a brutal one. they do get decent food and theirs a fair amount of accessibility to them. they are harassed by guards, so brittney griner can expect to have guards harassing her, trying to provoke her, trying to perhaps commit camp infractions that can be used to to increase her sentence or at least deny her parole. so this is no

now is tennessee the senator marsha blackburn, a member of both the senate judiciary and arm services committees thanks so much for being here. >> good to see you, sure. maria: so the fbi or returned three passports of president trump's this past week. obviously, not a very organized sweep of what he were looking for if they took passports, which they should not have. your thoughts on what was behind that raid. >> well, maria, we still do not know exactly what they are up to. we know that it is broad and has been far-reaching going for documents anywhere between 2017-2021. it wasn't a focused raid, if you will. what we do the know is that the9 tennesseans i'm talking to say if they can do this to president trump, they can do it to me. we do know that biden and his crew have a history of doing things that are out of the odder their. you can look at the russia collusion hoax and how they still don't want to let that go and say that it was all cooked up by hillary's campaign. and we do know that doj and the fbi chose not to raid hillary clinton's home and get the server. they didn't raid the homes

joining us now, washington congressman adam smith who chairs the house armed services committee.e you. as a committee chair, you have access to sensitive information. what rules do you have to follow when you look at that information? >> the biggest rule we focus on is don't talk about it after you've seen it. obviously at the top, you can't take it with you to an unsecure place. i think as remarkable as all of this is in terms of a former president having this search warrant executed against him, in terms of what the fbi and justice department are doing, there's nothing unusual about it at all. this is exactly how the justice department would have to respond to a situation like this. as has been documented, sandy berger and some others have been in a similar situation. the president took documents out of the white house that he shouldn't have taken out of the white house. the fbi had to get them back. they've spent a couple years trying to do that which led to this. the most remarkable thing is the way the republican party has reacted to this, vilifying the fbi for doing their j

he serves on the house armed services committee and is a veteran of the war in iraq. thank you so much for being with us this morning. you're reaction when you heard the news yesterday from president biden that al zawahiri has been kill and as we were discussing this morning, the effort that led up to the day that was years in the making. >> i was happy to hear it. i spent about 7 months fighting in al bar against al qaeda and their alleys and to see one leader go down, i felt like justice had been served for people that were hurt on 9/11 and for people around the world. and so this is a good start. it was a very difficult mission. i'm glad the president decided to go forward with it. it also is a great credit to our national security apparatus as well as the cia who have worked hard to create a mission that would minimize collateral damage which is extremely important nowadays. all around, i think this is a great victory for the united states. this is not ending al qaeda but disrupted al qaeda. >> we've heard a couple of views of this victory objectively for the unit

also a member of the house armed services committee. congressman, always a pleasure to see you.n of 20 million people that are determined to have a democracy and to not have that crushed by china as had happened in hong kong. one country, two systems until beijing said no, there's only going to be one system. the taiwanese are prepared to defend themselves,democracy. >> the chinese weren't exactly thrilled when you visited taiwan. clearly they were not happy with nancy pelosi's visit, continuing drills. what do you think china is trying to accomplish, and is there a real danger that china may actually invade taiwan? >> certainly china is trying to establish a new normal in which the taiwanese people are further constricted economically as well as diplomatically. the united states has been very clear since 19 -- over the last 43 years that, yes, taiwan is part of china, but it has its own right to determine what its future is going to be. that's what our trip was all about, to make it clear we're supporting the taiwanese. they asked for additional military equipment and we should

let's turn now to texas congressman mark veasey, he's ready member of the house armed services committee. congressman, welcome in. and the holes it comes to the house, and we expect things to play out of this inflation production act actually passes the senate today, will you return from recess to get it passed the house? >> we will return from recess and we will get it passed the house. i think we will actually pick up some republican votes on this bill. and i think that we are going to like it. >> when we say that about the republican votes? >> just because, if you think about some of these provisions, particularly some of the energy provisions, we have had some support for some more moderate republicans, things like energy efficiency, products for consumers. i don't know that -- everyone is concerned about the price of prescription drugs, so being a was negotiate for the price of prescription drugs and keep those numbers down, that should be something that would garner bipartisan support. like some of the more recent pieces of legislation that you have seen. so i think i am feeling re

i've spent a lot of time on asia pacific as well, almost a decade working for the senate armed services committee and other capacities so i followed this as well. i think the only thing i would add to what's been said is that this is a politically tense time right now for president xi, he looking for a fall to continue being head of the party and he's very sensitive to any country making him look weak. >> how far could president xi go in terms of taiwan and helping russia in ukraine? >> so, look, xi jinping does not want a war right now in the thai taiwan strait. he wants stability. there is always a risk that something can escalate. the other shoe to drop is, as you suggest, going to be sales of drones to russia. right now russia is largely using turkish drones and iranian drones and if they had chinese drones, those would be better. and i think that we're likely to see that. the conundrum that xi jinping is in is he used nationalism as a glue to hold china together and encouraged them to see them through this prism. and there's an expression, it's easy to get on the back of a tiger and hard to

he now serves on the house armed services committee. congressman, the russia experts all say the same thing. this is one woman, one person that got caught up in the u.s.-russia relationship and being used as a pawn. this is another way for russia to try to stick it to the united states. >> yeah, absolutely. this is brinksmanship at its worse, this is what our adversaries try to do, this is why having a clear message from the white house is so critical. our adversaies are emboldened by weakness and deterred by strength.this is exactly why we need strength from this white house. look, when it comes to hostage affairs, when it comes to having a clear message to our adversaries, we can't go down this slippery slope. unfortunately this is what the white house is doing. >> so they say or john kirby and the state department says they made clear terms and put forth a prisoner swap. two people in exchange for a russian arms trafficker that is due to be released from prison in about a year from now. they haven't heard back. what do you make of th