cheryl: chris swecker, what a shame. thank you so much for being here, chris. we'll be right back, everybody. morikawa on 18. he is really boxed in here. not a good spot. off the comcast business van. into the vending area. oh, not the fries! where's the ball? anybody see it? oh wait, there it is! back into play and... -oh no, it's in the water. wait a minute. are you kidding me? you got to be kidding me. rolling towards the cup, and it's in the hole! what an impossible shot brought to you by comcast business. let's go boys. the way that i approach work, post fatherhood, has really been trying to understand the generation that we're building devices for. here in the comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home wifi solution for millions of families, like my own. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪ cheryl: well, futures are trading higher this morning on the second trading day of the year, stocks closing lower yesterday to kick off 2025. let's bring in asset management president and chief invest

. >> joining us now former assistant fbi director, assistant fbi director chris swecker, chris, thank. the first thing that comes to mind is what cracks in the system, potentially happened given the amount of technology that he used presence on social media that he talked about, his hate for the country. and his commitment to isis. you see that he is using these glasses although he wasn't connected to the livestream. i'm just curious what would the fbi be looking for? >> yeah. lawrence, there was an extended glide path if you will planning -- radicalization and planning in this case. i mean, he traveled to egypt. he traveled to tampa. he went to new orleans twice. he planned an arson, ieds, vehicle ramming, guns, firearms. very elaborate attack. maybe not a skilled attack but very elaborately planned one. all along the way there, there are opportunities to, you know, to detect red flag if you will. when you see this level of radicalization. this level of commitment and i saw it if you have ever been to a suicide bombing -- and i have been to many i was in iraq in 2003 doing just that

former assistant fbi director chris swecker joins us now. big hearings coming up and system big appointments. off the a good start with john ratcliffe and pete hegseth. i mean, it's off to a good start, but we've got some big ones like kash patel. >> yeah. and i tell ya, talking to current fbi people and my colleagues who have recently retired and retired in the last, say, ten years or so, they are starving for good leadership. they've been, a lot of the agents have been keeping their heads low just doing their job which is what they should do, but they need the proactive dynamic leader, you know, one who is apolitical and is going to get them back to the core mission of arresting bad guys, conducting intelligence operations and preventing terrorist attacks on our u.s. soil. we've had four years of open borders. so much has happened, and there's so much remediation that has to take place because of that. it's complicated their mission so much. rachel: do you think kash patel gets in, and also once he does or if he because, it's been a cesspoo

chris swecker is a former fbi assistant director in the criminal investigation division. former acting secretary of homeland security. good evening to you both. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. chris, to you first. it's interesting this moment because christopher wray, the fbi director, had been on capitol hill multiple times in the last year and had warned congressman and lawmakers. i believe that the terrorist threat level we are contending with right now is at whole another level. and here we are today, what is take away right now it could be even more strident about the threat, particularly given the open borders over the last four years. terrorist cells come across those open borders. the fbi has and the intelligence community at large have been in a prevention mode since after 9/11 they have consolidated their resources and task forces and joint terrorism, you know, jttfs across the country. joint terrorism center in d.c. or just outside of d.c. they are sharing the information they are in a prevention posture. whenever a terrorist attack does happen though, it

for more on this, joining us now is chris swecker, a former fbi assistant director. nk you so much for coming on today. we just are the fbi say they don't have any positive link between what happened in vegas and what happened in new orleans but there are sure a a lot of coincidences lining up. based on your prior experiences, what is this telling you, a coincidence or a link there? >> it is good to see the fbi has brought out the a-team here in handling the coordination of these two attacks, and yeah, there is enough, they are keeping an open mind, you can tell that. there are some commonalities, as you know, the car-rental site, these two may have served, one active-duty green beret, the other, jabbar separated from the military and had some personal problems but they serve the same military base, fort bragg in north carolina, what used to be known as fort bragg in north carolina. i think it is an open question. there is symbolism to both targets. both of them are sort of perceived to be las vegas and new orleans, sort of the hedonistic decadent systems of the unite

, donal hardin, and the former fbi assistant director for the criminal investigative division, chris swecker. great to see you both under these just horrible circumstances. donal, first to you, i just want to know what your takeaway is as as this information and these this video comes in. >> well, this is an individual who is typical got in in town a few days before started doing what we call pre-operational surveillance, surveilling the locations, possibly getting a plan together. and, you know, and the fact that he was inspired by isis comes to no surprise to people like me. isis has been inspiring individuals for the last decade to do this. just this type of attack over the last ten years, we've had nearly 20 attacks that have taken the lives of almost 200 people and injured hundreds more. and so this this is part of the isis playbook to inspire people online, to get them to do these very low tech attacks. and, you know, it keeps on happening. >> chris, you know, we know the fbi has the suspect's three phones and two laptops. that's probably a big reason why we know so much about more abo

david: chris swecker, thank you for your service, chris. good man and we appreciate you coming in. have a good new year. and judge marchan having donald trump facing sentencing 10 days before inauguration, but no jail time. what is this all about? republican congressman mike waller coming up next. mike lawler coming up next. >> president-elect trump slamming new york judge marchan after he denied to dismiss charges against him in the hush money trial, instead announced trump will be sentenced next week, just a few days before inauguration day. cb cotton is in new york with the latest on this. c. b. >> hi, david, well, president-elect donald trump's sentencing is yet for january 10th, 10 days before his inauguration as the 47th president. so trump has the option to appear in person or virtually. presiding judge marchan says he favors what's considered a lenient sentence and unconditional discharge, which means trump would get no punishment, fines or prison time, but the conviction would still stand and give trump the chance to appeal the case. trump's spokesman called the entire cas

. >> griff: just a few minutes a ago, -- bring in former assistat fbi director chris swecker.u can address the assistant special agent duncan saying this was not terrorism after the mayor came out and said she had been in contact with the white house and this was a terror attack. >> this was an intentional planned suicide attack using a vehicle and a gun and a rifle, so labeling terrorism at this early stage turns on the motivation of the killer here. we don't know the motivation yet. fbi is correct to not make that call. it is really a secondary issue anyway. they have plenty to do there, get command set up, they have marshall casualties to deal with, they have to get to the location they came from, find out if there are co-c co-conspirators. it takes civil hours in a nightmare incident to get organized. if you label it terrorism is a secondary issue. >> joey: i understand what you are saying, my question it's just as much a definitive answer when you say this was not terrorism and you don't say, we can't confirm, we can't say. she decided to address terrorism aspect and did

and jonathan fahey, former deputy assistant secretary at the department of homeland security and chris sweckerer fbi assistant director. thank you so much for joining us. -- rich, let's go first. what can local and federal law enforcement do to ensure safety at these upcoming events? >> well, starters let's look at new orleans and the leadership on display there does anybody have any confidence that the chief of police in new orleans has any idea what is going on there. you obviously did not take that threat seriously enough to provided a aquatic barricade protection. putting a police car in the middle of the street and coming on tv and saying that you're surprised that your security plan was thwarted by this terrorist. the guy is a mass murderer driving around with bombs looking to run people over you're surprised your one car in the middle of the street could drive on the sidewalk. they need to get professional people in there going to take this seriously enough to bring this n. what is going to do the job. you don't have barricades and bowl bollards. dump truck, cement mixer. how about some

and chris swecker. what do you think about that, getting the national security folks in place?gas and new orleans -- we know las vegas was not a terror attack, but in both of those, chris, what do you think about that? >> i think it is important but i don't think the agency is going to slow down in their investigations or what they do every day, but it will be good, speaking from the perspective of the fbi, to get a good, strong leader in their and start down the road towards focusing back on international terrorismn the context of what we are talking about here because the fbi i believe took their eye off that ball over quite a while and focused primarily on right-wing extremists. i will be very happy to see the fbi get back to the gumshoe worker counterterrorism again and go after these international terrorism groups, particularly after these four years of open borders peered. >> edward: randy, you works 24 years for the las vegas metro police department. there is a lot of coincidences related to these, especially when you look at the timing of the attacks, but they used the