howard: joining us now is jennifer griffin who covers the pentagon for fox news and, jen, the presidenteneral, glad he's gone, insists he was fired. how unusual is it that jim mattis would choose this moment to accept the atlantic's ini have thattation and say the president is trying to divide us? >> it's extremely unusual, and i can tell you there's been a lot of soul searching here at the pentagon among active duty four-star generals and others about how to handle this week's, this week's actions by the president and the threat to use the military in the street against protesters. i can tell you that there was a lot of, this was not an easy decision for someone like defense secretary -- former defense secretary mattis, a four-star general, and also admiral mullen and others. but he really, by mattis coming out and describing president trump as a threat to the constitution or general john kelly e to come out and back mattis and say we need new leadership in the white house, it really shows how very deeply concerned the top levels of the military are. and in some ways, they gave cover t

jennifer griffin is still with us at the pentagon. jennifer is you may remember covering stories all over the world for us. in jerusalem years ago over the wars. i've seen many a protest and also many actions to try to control crowds, and you are dealing with the national guard's guardsmen perspective. jennifer, talk about this scene and what they may be trying to do with additional manpower on the streets. >> bret, when you heard the president on the call with the governors today, there was something he said that didn't make a lot of sense to us here at the pentagon. he said general millie is in charge and presented us with rows of national guard overwhelmingly bring out the national guard that it could suppress these protests. clearly last night with the protesters breaking into st. john, sending fire to the historic church across from the white house and i saw the general in the crowd and just looking at the video monitor and you heard it -- you have the rows of guardsmen and then the horses, the d.c. police behind. it is that they

jennifer griffin picks up the story. jennifer? >> the pentagon was caught off guard this week it by "the new york times" report. leaders were not involved in the white house discussion and it took several days to find any mention of the raw intelligence about the russian bounty progr program. candidate joe biden blamed the president who said he was not briefed even though officials say it was written and his presidential daily brief in february. >> he should have immediately contacted our joint chiefs of staff and gotten them all in one room and said okay, what are we doing to prevent this? the idea that somehow he didn't know or isn't being briefed, it's a dereliction of duty if that's the case. if he was briefed and nothing was done about this, that's a dereliction of duty. >> close to midnight last night we received a statement from the pentagon, "the department of defense continues to evaluate intelligence that russian operatives were engaged and maligned activity against united states and coalition forces in afghanistan. he h

we will speak with him and just a moment, but first jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with hisirst got to know him through a group of military veterans called no one left behind. they have lobbied for years, congress and the state department to bring translators who risk their lives for u.s. troops to safety in the u.s. today one of those translators finally became a u.s. said to seven. he was sworn in by the active deputy secretary of homeland security. >> i want to recognize him who served eight years as a translator alongside troops in afghanistan. he saved the lives of five american soldiers. >> he worked alongside the 82nd airborne facing threats from the taliban for working with u.s. troops. he arrived seven years ago after waiting three years for a visa. 18,000 afghans who worked for the military are awaiting visas. the special visa was started in 2009. each year congress has authorized 4,000 visas for this group. it has bipartisan support. a recent state department report suggested the backlog has been made worse because there's only one person at the state department t

jennifer griffin has that story for us at the pentagon. jennifer? >> secretary esper stood alone at the podium. his first briefing since the president began mulling whether to invoke the insurrection act. the defense secretary has come under fire by former top military officers for using militarized terms. he said it was a poor choice of words. >> it's notice a phrase focused on people. certainly not on our fellow americans. in retrospect, i would use difference words. >> responding to criticism that he allowed the military to be used as a prop for political purposes. he said he didn't know where they were going when he followed the president and defended general milley saying they were rerouted from the ops center to the white house. >> i didn't know we were going to the church. the president takes a pool with them. i stay apolitical. it was not a military decision or action. >> esper said the national guard did not fire rubber bullets or tear gas in lafayette square. the park police say they fired smoke canisters and pepper balls which the cdc say

national security correspondent jennifer griffin as the latest from the pentagon. od evening, jennifer. >> good evening. a moscow court sentenced paul whelan who once served as a u.s. marine reservist to 16 years of hard labor in a russian prison camp. during his sentencing today, whelan stood in a plexiglas blocks holding up a handwritten note reading "sham trial" and asking president trump to take decisive action. secretary of state mike pompeo demanded his immediate release. "the united states is outraged by the decision of a russian court today to convict a u.s. citizen paul whelan after a secret trial will with secret evidence and without appropriate allowances for defense witnesses." >> it's a mockery of justice at least by american standards. by my standards as a lawyer trained in the united states. >> whelan travel to russia to attend a friend's wedding and was arrested in december of 2018 in moscow after another friend met him and handed him a usb flash drive that allegedly contained classified information. his twin brother said it was a set up by a russian

>> bret: jennifer griffin at the pentagon, thank you.p next, as las vegas reemerges from the lockdown, the huge steaks for a possible coronavirus treatment. first, around the country, fox five in atlanta as a judge rules there is enough evidence to try three white men for the murder of an african-american man in south georgia. repeatedly boxed in by two pickup trucks as we try to escape, shot three times with a pump action shotgun. one of the men was heard saying a racist lawyer as he stands over the body. the california desert specifically, followed by thousands of aftershocks. the u.s. geological survey says wednesday's quake hit a fairly shallow depth around 6:30 p.m. and was centered just north of the small city and this is a live look at orlando from our affiliate fox 35, one of the big stories there tonight, the nba's board of governors reportedly set to approve a plan for 22 teams to restart the season at the walt disney world resort. the proposal calls for an eight game regular season schedule before the playoffs there. that's th

jennifer griffin shares his story. >> today i became a u.s. he worked for years as a combat translator alongside the 82nd airborne facing threats from the taliban for working with u.s. troops. he arrived in the u.s. seven years ago today he and his family were rewarded for his duty. he has two children became u.s. citizens. acting dhs secretary ken cuccinelli oversaw the ceremony. >> during his service he saved the lives of five american soldiers. >> one was this american soldier. >> there were two taliban behind him to kill him and i shot at the taliban. >> 18,000 afghans who worked for the u.s. military are awaiting visas. despite bipartisan support, they have had to lobby congress on the state department to honor the special immigration program that authorizes 4,000 visas a year for those who helped the u.s. military. a recent state department inspector general report suggested that the backlog has been made worse because there's only one person at the state department overseeing the program. >> it took three years to get my visa. this proc

national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with more on this. el and a one time u.s. marine service who attended a friend's wedding in december 2018 after a friend met him at the metro hotel and handed him a usb flash drive that allegedly contained a classified names of russian intelligence agents. his family and lawyer say it was a set up by the fsb, russians modern kgb service. mike pompeo demanded his immediate release "the united states is outraged by the decision of a russian court today to convict a u.s. citizen paul wheel and after a secret trial with secret evidence and without appropriate allowances for defense witnesses." a moscow court as he mentioned sentenced him to 16 years of hard labor and a prison camp, and his brother explained how he was entrapped" he was convicted of espionage, but it was the russian legal system that was found guilty of and justice. gaining his own promotion, we will look to president trump who alone can act to bring paul home. we hope that he will do so swiftly." the lawyer says the russian government has fl

we begin with national security correspondent jennifer griffin at the pentagon. how is the military responding to the idea, jennifer, of going to action on american streets? >> defense secretary mark esper has ordered thousands of active duty troops including military police units from for brag and a battalion from the 82nd airborne to stage in d.c. at andrews air force base. this video shows the d.c. national guard arriving at the white house. i'm told that unless the president invokes the insurrection act, which many top pentagon leaders have argued against, the active duty troops cannot deployed legally. military planes landed last night carrying the troops. attorney general barr who i'm told by a senior administration authorized the u.s. the use of force to remove protesters in front of the white house last night, just issued a statement praising the reduction in violence thanking defense secretariry esper and general milley by name, promising a larger law enforcement presence tonight. bill? >> bill: what are you hearing from the pentagon? >> commanders and re

defense official told jennifer griffin that all 900 activity duty military police brought to bases aroundnot in d.c. proper are following the 82nd airborne back home. the pentagon gave orders for them to return home. 4500 national guard will remain deployed in washington, d.c. that's breaking news. let's get to this. >> [shouting]. >> george floyd can't be allowed to die in vain. >> harris: that's been a tough week for new york city mayor bill de blasio who was booed off stage in a memorial service in brooklyn, new york. the nypd is cracking down on curfew violations following a week of looting and violence. bill de blasio says he understands their frustration. >> the crowd was angry and hurt and doubted whether this could be change. you will see change in the city. you will see change in the nypd. we simply have not gone far enough. >> harris: this comes after governor andrew cuomo and former new york city mayor rudy giuliani went after de blasio's handling of the rioters and the looters. >> the nypd and the mayor did not do their job last night. i believe the mayor underestimates the sc

forces in afghanistan or its sources tell "fox news" jennifer griffin did administration hopes to bring the total number of troops in the country down the 5000 by this fall. president trump's repeatedly called for an end to u.s. troops on the ground in afghanistan. he said the troops that are there now are being used more as a police force instead of a fighting force. jon. >> mark meredith, thanks. just a short time ago white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany responding in a statement quote the cia director national security adviser and the chief of staff and all confirm neither the president nor the vice president were briefed on the alleged russian bounty intelligence. this does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence that the inaccuracy of "the news york times" story. erroneously suggesting president trump was briefed on this matter. the pandemic politics. why presumptive democratic presidential nominee joe biden believes the coronavirus crisis could help him win that help white house. up next the promises he is making to voters. hey, can i... hold on one second... su

our scholarly jennifer griffin is reporting all 900 remaining active-duty troops outside d.c.but over 5,000 national guard troops remain in d.c. and some don't have a place to say. members of the guard evicted from a d.c. hotel. "evicting utah national guard personnel from their hotel after a late night shift is shameful, petty decision by mayor bowser. the words "black lives matter" have been painted here next to the white house, big protests are expected this weekend but she hopes they remain peaceful. back in the studio. >> live in d.c., luke, thank you. for more on this let's bring in former missouri state highway patrol captain rod johnson, appointed by the governor to take control of security operations after the ferguson protests back in 2014. thank you for joining us here. he walked with those protesters back in 2014 in ferguson and you got a lot of pushback for doing that, you believe that police officers should walk with protesters today but not just to build relationships, talk about that, if you will? >> it's not just to build relationships, it's about hearing thei

our colleague at the pentagon, jennifer griffin, has

or corrected any part of the story, suggesting that the president was briefed by it, our own jennifer griffins of getting information from what happens in the pentagon and nsc, says we can confirm that the nsc did recently meet to come up with a menu of responses to russian actions but they did not brief the president on it, because as you say, it wasn't confirmed. >> yeah. the nsc is not the president. the accusation made by both the democrats -- i read majority leader hoyer's press release, basically putting all of this on the president and saying he hasn't taken any action? he wasn't even briefed. so they're already saying that he didn't do the things he shouldn't have done as president and he didn't know about it. he wasn't officially briefed about it. already this is political issue where you have intelligence insider feeding information to "the new york times" when even our intelligence community can't agree upon it. david: can we find out who that insider is? >> i hope so. but i can guarranty you it will take matter of time before the information is out there but i would love to know w

our jennifer griffin reports that the president did want to see some 10000 troops deployed in the u.s. cities to prevent additional acts of violence. defense mark, didn't think that was necessarily a good idea. we did see a smaller number of national guard troops brought into dc. now things appear to be changing. the present tweeting that i have just given an order for national guard to start the process of withdrawing from washington. now that everything is under perfect control. they will be going home they can return quickly if needed. the protesters showed up last night and anticipated. also hearing from the former joint chief who says what we evincing with the military on domestic matters can have an impact on law enforcement. >> should be get into conflict in our own streets, there's a very significant chance we can was that trust that is taken us 50 plus years to restore. that is what is in place right now. reporter: president trump is also criticizing the former colin powell after he announced on cnn earlier today that he is trying to support joe biden for the presidential cam

jennifer griffin is reporting all active-duty soldiers have been ordered home but over 5,000 national guard troops remain in d.c. and some don't have a place to say. mike lee expressed outrage over guard members from his state being evicted. "evicting utah national national guard personnel at gmac from their hotels, after a late night shift risking their lives is shameful, petty, discrediting decision." the words "black lives matter" have been painted here, expecting large demonstrations this weekend, she hopes it will all be peaceful. >> bill: as do we. nice to see you today in washington. stunning jobs report today. did you see how many jobs we added? how many of the experts said we would lose. here to break it down plus president trump calling it the greatest comeback in american history, chris wallace on deck to size that up coming up this. veterans: you know mortgage rates have fallen to 50-year lows. but did you know that your va benefit lets you easily refinance to a lower rate? one call to newday can save you $2000 a year. with newday's va streamline refi there's no income ver

we are also hearing from jennifer griffin on this russian bounty story that's based on a conversationerts who are following this very, very closely confirming that the russians were doing this, confirming that the bounty on american soldiers' lives was very much in place. what's not clear is whether the president ever knew about it or the high-ranking security officials knew about it or dismissed it and never passed it along. we just don't know yet. that will do it here. here comes "the five." ♪ >> jesse: i'm jesse watters with dana perino, dan bongino, capri cafaro and emily compile. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." another weekend of lawlessness in america as violence continues to spike in democrat run cities. in new york, 18 people were shot in 24 hours. a mob hurled bottles at police. 62 people shot in chicago, 15 fatally including a 10-year-old girl and a boy

jennifer griffin's life of the pentagon with more details. >> good morning.eeks ago in the marines announced they were ordering all confederates and the bowls the confederate flag removed from marine installations the army stop short of doing the same. that changed in the wake of the george floyd protest. they are trying to understand those feelings in the army secretary is open to considering changing the names for these bases and for confedera confede. at fort rucker, fort benning, fort gordon, camp beauregard, fort bragg at fort hood, fort a.p. hill, fort lee and fort pickett, the last three in the state of virginia. the decision follow others from service chief last week condemning racism in the wake of the flight killing. "racial division erodes that trust. it we need to work harder to earn the trust of mothers and fathers who hesitate to hand their sons and daughters into their care. the nation's top marine explains his decision to order the removal of confederate symbols back in april. "we are a war fighting organization. we depend on dividing us and t

jennifer griffin reports they advised the president not to use the insurrection act.d 1,600 paratroopers as a precaution. they staged outside the nation's capitol. in the end they were not needed and never came inside d.c. today most of the national guard troops started leaving town. attorney general bill barl denied the president wanted 10,000 activity duty troops. >> that's completely false. sunday night. >> the president did not demand that? >> no, he did not demand that. who a former chair nanl of the joint chief of staff said it could have been a dangerous move. >> we have a military to fight our enemies, not our own people. our military should never be called to fight our own people as enemies of the state. reporter: early this morning the words defund the police were painted on 16th street. two days staffed mayor bowser ordered black lives matter be painted here, too. tomorrow bret baier will sit down with attorney general bill barr and that will air on "special report." i'm told the rnc convention could be held in jacksonville, florida. jon: protests in minnea

sources tell fox news' jennifer griffin they hope to bring the total number of u.s.ountry down to 5,000 by this fall. president trump has repeatedly called for the military to end its involvement in afghanistan. he says troops are being used as a police force, not as a fighting force. arthel? arthel: mark meredith, thank you. eric. eric: arthel, new information is now being reviewed about that explosion that rattled iran's capital yesterday. the government claimed that huge blast came from an industrial gas tank. but some newly-released satellite images show that it came from the same area where it's believed that iran has an extensive underground tunnel system and secret missile sites at the par chin military base complex. how do we find out what really happened? dr. rebecca grant, military analyst, president of the independent research. doctor, your betting odds, gas tank, ballistic missile fuel or a ballistic missile warhead? which one? >> i'll take option two, eric, ballistic missile fuel of some kind. that was a huge fireball, and it could very well have been ca

what the president is really saying here about the possibility of using the military, our own jennifer griffins a few moments ago that general milley is not and it seems to contradict. what does this really need to make meaning? >> i think people are losing all perspective. he's talking about invoking the resurrection act which is a law that allows a president of the united states to federalize the national guard and use the act which is a law that prohibits using the military domestically and allows them to use the army to quell insurrections and protests. as has been a law that has been used by presidents thomas jefferson, grover grover cleveland, dwight eisenhower and lyndon johnson. in 1992 george h.w. bush used it during the los angeles riots over the rodney king beating. president john f. kennedy used the law twice, in 1962 at the university of mississippi when james meredith was becoming the first african-american there, andy kennedy used it to crackdown on segregation. this is a law that has been used by many residents and in many situations and look at the pictures right there on your

national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with the latest from there.tagon would prefer no to send out the national guard, but 400 members of the dc national guard have been called up and are now at the dc armory on standby to protect monuments if needed. u.s. federal marshals as you mention have been called in as well, even though this is not admission they are trained for, the interior secretary asked fo the reinforcements. >> i requested that from the secretary of defense, that the national guard to be available to us to begin to protect the monuments. >> we will protect the monument and we will do it with dispatch and severity. >> always calm last night at th recently renamed black lives matter plaza in front of the white house because dc is not estate, the defense secretary can call up the national guard, but unlike those 5,000 mobilize earlier this month, these soldiers we are told will not b armed. on wednesday night, protester and violent near the white house , the american flag was burned, dc police say they arrested nine people after they igni

. >> ed: he has obviously been through a lot but looking good, jennifer griffin live at the pentagon.ood morning. >> the plane carrying michael white landed at dallas international airport at roughly 2:00 a.m. this morning. >> i do want to extend my personal thanks to president trump for his efforts both diplomatically and otherwise, making america great again and i look forward to what's going to happen here in the future. >> are only rich edson was there when white was transferred to american officials in switzerland. the state department envoy created wow completed the transfer. >> getting back into shape. >> in july 2018, said he was visiting a girlfriend and i ran he met online when the authorities arrested him. in march 2019, he was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges he consulted iran's supreme leader and posted private photographs on social media. >> associating with the iranians is never a linear process. there's a lot of stops and starts, have to be very patient. this is a regime that has been taking americans hostage for 41 years. and our diplomacy has been successf