fox national security correspondent jennifer griffin there with us.s interesting, when this forum happens, you've got impeachment and everything else going on in washington, but at the same time you've had a shooting at pearl harbor, we've obviously now had the shooting down in pensacola. how much is the question of the saudi military training, what happened in pensacola overshadowing the larger conversation out there? >> reporter: well, leland, i just had a panel with four heads of the army, navy, air force and marines, and i asked them that very question because we started with the news. we are here the talk about the national defense strategy and shifting the focus from the middle east to the fight against china and russia in the future and future technologies that are going to be needed. but this shooting has been leading many of the discussions, and the issue of whether the u.s. can afford to continue training aviation officers from other foreign countries. there are about 5,000 training in the u.s., foreign nationals training in the u.s. right n

>> john: jennifer griffin at the pentagon tonight. thanks. the united states naval academy has cleared two mid shipmen over wrongdoing over the use of hand gestures broadcast in a football game last week. several groups cried foul over the gestures calling it a symbol of white power. today the naval academy found the two were merely playing the circle game, which has been played for decades. in tonight's democracy 2020 report, the democratic national committee is raising the bar for qualifying for the next debate in january. this after the final democratic debate of the decade that saw fewer candidates on stage giving them more time to go after each other. correspondent peter doocy with our report tonight from california. >> at the last debate of the year, nobody really laid a finger on joe biden. >> the first debates, i've had a target on my back. >> rivals went after mayor pete for fundraising. >> the mayor recently had a fundraiser held in a wine cave full of crystals. >> this is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pa

jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with more. a, navy broke army's recent winning streak on saturday, winning the long rivalry 31-7, but now both of the service academies have opened an investigation into what appeared white supremacy signals made by several cadets and midshipmen standing behind this espn reporter before the game. the okay symbol with three fingers pointed upside down symbolizes the letters wp for white power, the anti-defamation league added the gesture to its database of hate symbols in september. a spokesperson for the naval academy issued the following statement. u.s. naval academy officials have appointed a preliminary officer to conduct an internal investigation into the hand gestures made during the espn college game day broadcast prior to yesterday's army-navy game, based on findings of the investigation, those involved will be held appropriately accountable. it would be inappropriate to speculate any further while we are conducting this investigation. the superintendent of west point added the u.s. milita

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national security correspondent jennifer griffin joins us now with the latest on both, jennifer.nk you, chris. it u.s. officials not yet willing to call this terrorism. overnight the navy released the victims names, all american. joshua watson, mohamed hatem, and scott walters, a recent navy academy graduate reported to flight school two weeks ago. he saved many lives by telling first responders where the shooting took place after being shot several times. the shooter as saudi royal air force officer, 1 of 852 saturdays being trained in the u.s. right now. used a handgun with an extended magazine to target americans in the pensacola naval air station classroom. the fbi is aware of anti-american tweets posted on twitter under the shooter's name. at least six outings were detained near the attack site, one is said to have been videotaping. not all the news involving the middle east was bad this weekend. princeton grad student held captive by iran for over three years were leased in a prisoner exchange for an iranian scientist. >> i think it was a great thing for iran. i think was g

jennifer griffin has breaking news on the story left and right. e reagan library in simi valley, california where leaders are gathering for the national defense forum, jennifer. >> neil, the details coming out about the case in pensacola continue to be extremely surprising. six saudis had been arrested at the scene and we're hearing reports that three of them were videotaping the aftermath. we now know that the shooter, bought his handgun, a glock, .9 millimeter gun with an extended magazines and four to six other magazines with him bought the handgun locally. we've been reporting that guns are not allowed on the base so the question how he got the gun on the base is going to be part of the investigation. the defense secretary has already spoken to members of the senate armed services committee who are calling for additional security and screening of foreign nationals who come to bases like pensacola. but you have to remember, this is a very old program bringing pilots from other foreign nations, allied nations, n.a.t.o. nations to train at pensaco

the event held at the ronald reagan presidential library in simi valley, california, and our jennifer griffinown bret baier sat down with the defense secretary and asked him about the recent shooting in pensacola, florida, and what the motive might have been behind the saudi aviation student firing and killing three americans. here's the defense secretary, mark esper. >> no, i can't say it's terrorism at this time. i think we need to let the investigators, the fbi do its work and tell us, get us the facts, and we'll move from there. >> reporter: esper also ruled out any more large troop movements to the middle east despite news reports to the contrary. >> multiple reports out there about additional forces heading to the middle east to counter iran. that happening? >> no. those are false reports, i don't know where they came from. we've deployed 14,000 troops since may of this year, but right now i'm not looking at any major deployments coming up to the region. >> reporter: i hosted a panel with the joint chiefs about how the military needs to pivot away from the middle east to focus on china

national security correspondent jennifer griffin is there with the details. ifer. >> both the army in the navy have cleared its midshipmen and cadets of making alleged white supremacist hand gestures on television during last weekend's army-navy game. statements released by west point and the naval academy after a thorough investigation concluded that the cadets and midshipmen were playing something called "the circle game," a 40-year-old game involving hand gestures that have nothing to do with race. if the person you make the hand gesture two looks, you are able to punch them in the arm. "the investigation which included a review of video footage more than two dozen interviews, and background checks by naval criminal investigative service and the fbi determined that two midshipmen, freshmen, were participating in a sophomoric game commonly known as the circle game with west point cadets during the live broadcast." the investigation found no evidence of racist intent. the armies west point superintendent issued a similar statement, the individuals involved in

. >> bret: peter doocy with a golf voice and i welcome you to the reason we are here, and jennifer griffine with me onset. with a beautiful brock drive, air force one, jen and with a start with you, you start to thd it's not the determined yet that florida politicians including saying that it is and what about this and the fact that some of these and other countries are sending people here to train at u.s. bases. >> this is not a new program and as i said, the fbi did not determine as terrorism, but a saudi national forces, saudi air force, and the way the program's is that the saudi government will do the vetting. at least on their best and the brightest, the top generals. if only more than a dozen soltis and a few hundred are down ther, it's an 18 month program, but the vetting goes through the saudi government and the state department signs off on it. tonight, other governors called on the defense department to do it do job to review to see how they're being trained as pilots and being screened. and they had to respond so a lot of debate. this is an old program, i've say, coming here si

national security correspondent jennifer griffin digging into this, good afternoon. >> few ever believe. was winning in afghanistan, "the washington post" fought three years to have these candid interviews about what these generals and u.s. officials knew about how the u.s. was not succeeding during the 18 year war. the post and others are comparing it to the leaked documents known as the pentagon papers which showed the u.s. government lied about the u.s. winning in vietnam. the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction interviewed 600 people. those interviews were never supposed to be made public. the top u.s. commander general scott miller is slated to breathe congress and closed sessions today and tomorrow. miller is the 17th general to them in afghanistan. more than 775,000 u.s. troops had deployed to afghanistan. of those, 2300 were killed and 20,589 were wounded in action according to the pentagon. the distortions began in the early stages of the war. "we didn't have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking, one key general said. the current secretary of def

jennifer griffin as the president defense chief. >> is it time to leave afghanistan? >> we have a mission in afghanistan that is to ensure that no it never becomes a neve for a terrorist. until were confident that that mission is complete, we will retain a presence to do that. >> sergeant first class beyond apartment and ended daughter zoe , go fund me page has been established to raise money for the family. >> thank you so much. >> benjamin that yahoo rushed t a bomb shelter after a rocket through fire into a southern israeli cd last hour. he was taken off the stage. live from our middle east bureau . what more can you tell us right now? >> we can confirm that at least one rocket was fired from the gaza strip into southern israel till the israeli prime minister was campaigning in that city. he was quickly rushed off the stage by members of his securit team. right now we are working our sources inside the gaza strip t try to determine who exactly fired this rocket. the prime minister on prime minister on his way offstage made a statement that he is taking to twitter t

most talented fighter pilots in the world and as you mention, the fbi according to my colleague jennifer griffin at the pentagon, federal investigators now confirming the shooter is a saudi or was a saudi national who was there at the pensacola naval air station for training, authorities also now looking into the possibility that this could be terrorism related. governor ron desantis should be appearing before the microphones here shortly, we are expecting supposed to be a 1:30 p.m. eastern time press update, but it is currently delayed right now. the naval air station of pensacola is of course home of the blue angels and there is a crime scene they are on the base and remains essentially in lockdown just clearing out one building at a time. according to the navy, not only is the shooter dead, but also to others were found dead on the base allegedly killed by the gunman and a third person died on the way to or at the local hospital. so for total debt including the gunman and eight people are being treated for injuries and that includes two sheriff's deputies involved in the gunfight. they said t

i want to bring in jennifer griffin, normally at the pentagon but today is in california and you are the one to basically break the story about this person being a saudi national. we know he was training in aviation. we don't know how deep he was in training. the question now is how to take it in and how was he not properly vetted to prevent this from happening, what more do you know at this hour? >> these are all good questions and as you heard from the officials of the press conference, they don't want to talk too much about the background when they know the name of the shooter who was a saudi student studying aviation at the pensacola base, but they don't want to give too many details because they don't want the witnesses, their memories to be clouded and social media to take off in these reports from the scene, still interviewing witnesses. we have a statement from the acting secretary of the navy who just received it from the navy, it says "our entire navy and marine corps team is struck and deeply saddened by the attack within our own naval family over the past several days at

there also and pete's talks and jennifer griffin asked the president's defense chief if u.s.orces should pull out. >> secretary esper come as a time to leave afghanistan? >> we have a mission in afghanistan that is to ensure that it never against becomes a safe haven for terrorists. until we are confident that that mission is complete we will retain a presence to do that. >> i gofundme page has been established for sergeant first class goble for his family. >> our thoughts are with his family. thank you so much and merry christmas. >> for more and all this let's bring in don dreamer, former navy intelligence officer. thank you very much for talking to us. first i want to get your reaction to officials of the pentagon considering pulling west troops from west africa. apparently it's part of a strategy to shift focus to potential threats from russia and china. interesting development to talk about. >> merry christmas to you and to all of our troops around the world. refocusing and redistributing troops to something the pentagon does on a continuous basis. we hear a lot about wh

a panel hosted by jennifer griffin at the reagan library. >> they put significant emphasis on missileof their missiles as well as the signature of those missiles can reduce. hypersonic's are of course in play or will be in play increasingly high numbers of ships. they were on a very steep trajectory in terms of capabilities and numbers. >> we tend to think about troops crossing the line of departure or the first kinetic shots fired. those shots are already flying. we are already in conflict, however you want to characterize it, with the russians and others. >> earlier today u.s. ally japan announced it would be sending warships to the persian gulf is well to guard those commercial vessels. >> think you'll come a discussion on this later on in the show. >> a fox news alert. 2 minutes and 40 seconds from the opening bell on wall street. futures pointing hire. does the santa claus rally give us another record today? we are live on the floor as the bell rings. >> plus nancy pelosi how are you holding back articles of impeachment from the senate, what's up you and the speakers movement how