revolution movie, pastor greg laurie, had dinner with him. so excited to talk to him. we have read his tweets on the show in the wake of the tragic shooting in nashville. he's coming on. it will be a great message of faith and hope to cap off a grim news cycle today. thanks to everyone. don't forget to dvr the show. now here is "america reports." >> speaker mccarthy offered a very different way forward. he's proposed deep cuts that i believe are going to hurt american families. >> came back to the president and i said do you not believe that there's any money being spent in government that's wasteful? >> fbi, dea, border patrol, 100,000 teachers, and supporse . there would be 30 million fewery we cut veterans, it's a lie. >> sandra: any moment now president biden is set to speak on the looming debt ceiling deadline. he has just landed in new york and will be speaking shortly. he is expected to take direct

aim at republicans yet again. hello, welcome everyone, i'm sandra smith in new york. hi, john. >> john: we made it to wednesday, top of the mountain, long slide into the weekend from here. i'm john roberts in washington and this is "america reports." in a rare news conference the president said he felt yesterday's meeting with congressional leadership was productive, but speaker mccarthy proclaimed there was no new movement and warned time is running out to avoid an economic catastrophe. >> sandra: complete coverage begins now. steve danes is standing by. >> john: our senior congressional correspondent chad pergram live on capitol hill. do democrats really know what republicans would cut? >> john, not really. congress funded veterans programs and meals on wheels late last year, that's why republicans believe democrats are trying to scare people about potential cuts. >> are those cuts that you guys talk about with the v.a., that's not real money, because it's not

an appropriation. we are funded through the 30th of september. >> sure. and if they put out a budget resolution that spells out exactly what they would cut, we would have more clarity. all we have now on the clarity of republican priorities is the default on america act. >> democrats say if the gop would produce a budget they would have specifics about what republicans intend to do. regardless, the gop wants to curb spending back to levels before the pandemic. but democrats ask if the goal is to balance the books, why not raise taxes. >> republicans did this massive tax give away to millionaires and the rich and they don't want to pay for it. why cuts, why can't it be revenues. joe biden has plan to reduce the deficit by $3 trillion. a mix of cuts and revenues. so the framing you have is wrong. why just focus on cuts, why not on revenue. >> passing anything will be a challenge by early june, especially with the tight vote margin in the house.

many conservatives only want the bill the house approved last month. >> we are not giving in, we are going to cut this government and it's what the american people deserve. we are not budging and the speaker has our support. >> congressional and white house aides meet today and tomorrow. the president and congressional leaders talk again on friday. house speaker kevin mccarthy needs parameters by next week. john. >> john: chad ber gram getting us underway. >> sandra: montana republican senator steve danes, sir, thank you, welcome to you. we have the live picture up of where the president will speak, he just landed at west chester airport. ahead of his remarks, set this up for us. he is making very bold claims about where republicans are going with their spending cuts. you just heard it from a bunch of democrats there. i'll ask you point blank, are

you seeking to cut veterans benefit? >> that is absolutely false. this is propaganda coming from the white house. look, here is where we are at. we are three weeks away from june 1st, secretary treasury yellen says we face defaults on the debt. catastrophic massive turmoil in financial markets, not just the united states but around the world. house republicans under speaker mccarthy acted. they acted early, acted responsibly. they passed, they passed a bill that would raise the debt limit in exchange for some responsible common sense reductions in spending. what they are proposing here is taking back $60 billion of unspent covid funds. they are talking about welfare reforms to make sure that able-bodied americans work instead of receive welfare. put work requirements in place. these are very simple, straightforward, common sense

reforms. again, the republicans were early and responsible, contrast that to joe biden who for 90 days has been silent giving speaker mccarthy the cold shoulder. the white house has been late and completely irresponsible, they are politicizing this. i'm proud of speaker mccarthy. joe biden needs to come to the table and negotiate a bipartisan agreement to avoid this looming cliff the united states is headed towards if we don't do something before early june. >> sandra: in addition to the claims that republicans are going to cut veterans benefits, biden and other democrats are also claiming, put it up on the screen, they say you want to shrink federal grand programs to local police departments, cut the dea and border patrol staffing, they are making the case that republicans are going to worsen the fentanyl crisis making finding addiction treatment more difficult. is any of that true? >> it's false. look, what they are doing, they

are conflating a debate going on versus the looming debt ceiling crisis. what they should be debating are the parameters speaker mccarthy and the house republicans just passed. they are not talking about clawing back $60 billion of unspent covid dollars, they are not talking about work requirements as part of welfare reform. why, because that's the truth. and that's what's contained in that bill that the house just passed. >> sandra: ok, so president biden during these hours yesterday made the claim that there will be 8 million job losses as a result of the republicans' plan here. put up the gop debt ceiling proposal so people know exactly what -- where things stand heading into this. the republicans want to cap the federal agency's budget growth at 1% for the next decade, ok. new work requirements for welfare republicans are pitching, rolling back new irs funding, blocking student loan

relief, repealing green energy programs, rescind unspent covid aid as you just mentioned, senator. the president and his team are making the case that republicans' plan will result in massive job losses. have you anticipated the overall economic impact or the unintended consequences of the republican plan? >> well, look, the biggest threat to this economy going forward is massive federal spending and $31.5 trillion of debt. republicans are doing something responsible. they are still talking about net increases in spending, if you look at that plan, they just want to curb the amount of increases in spending. and any person i talk to on the street back home in montana, if you ask them, do you think there are ways we can get the federal government to be more responsible and efficient in spending, they would say absolutely yes. what you have is this liberal agenda of the white house who are now telling falsehoods, telling lies to the american people because guess what, they

are cornered right now. for 90 days they gave mccarthy the cold shoulder. now they have to come to the table and negotiate. and this has been irresponsible of the white house and they are playing -- they are playing with live fire here because failure to act will lead to destablization of our financial markets at a time when banks already are having some struggles because the high interest rates and inflation caused by this administration. >> sandra: i'm just going to note this speech, unlike his previous speech, happening during market hours, dow off 221 points, the markets will be watching where the president goes with the speech, and a poll to see where the american people stand as far as their confidence and economic leaders over the past year, certainly it has gone down for federal reserve chairman powell, tasked with ta taming inflation. gop leaders in congress confidence has gone down by the

smallest margin there. senator daines, appreciate you joining us ahead of the president's remarks. thank you very much. >> john: one case where a loss is a win, i guess. houseover sight committee chair james comer says judgment day for the biden family. more details of foreign business deals and saying the biden family raked in more than $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies. david spunt is live at the justice department. a specific allegation involving the cia aired today. tell us more. >> yeah, that's right, john. that's involving the hunter biden laptop. remember that came out in october 2020, shortly after the election, the presidential election. 51 former intelligence officers signed that letter, house republicans say they have evidence they believed that people inside the cia may have actually helped propel that letter and use it as a talking point for the biden campaign. the white house is essentially calling this ridiculous and a

distraction, but back to what house oversight chairman comer announced today, relating to the biden family business dealings. hunter biden's name was mentioned a lot and some of the overseas business dealings. now, comer and his team showed what they claim is evidence the biden family and associates set up 20 companies and made more than $10 million with companies with foreign ties. 50-minute news conference, 5-0, allegations that money went through multiple accounts before landing into biden family bank accounts over the years. and hunter biden, memo includes financial transaction information as a result of four bank subpoenas thus far. >> if it looks complicated, it was made to be complicated so you could not follow the money. >> the white house pushing back in a tweet, saying comer is asked for a single joe biden policy they believe has been

unduly influenced, he could not name a single one, incredible. john, that's the latest from the justice department and from the probe on capitol hill. >> john: look forward to more. david spunt, thank you. >> sandra: brownsville, texas, a presser is happening. >> entirely state effort, this is texans serving texas. so, again, you've got some soldiers and airmen who are literally serving in their back yard, whether it's el paso or here in the rgv, so our heart's in the mission and we will do our best for the people of texas. just say that that's only a fraction of our capability that you just saw. we are doing marine operations with small water craft. we have small uass flying and control, and a wealth of medical communications capability. engineers who have been placed over 70 miles of concertina wire

or c-wire since the operation began and making other improvements for the security of the border and they have been working hard over the last week as we look at the title 42 expiring. so with that, i think i would like to get in some questions. >> i'm so sorry, repeat your name. >> brigadier general matt barker. >> brigadier general, with the 500 additional troops you are talking about, are those the ones governor abbott announced, 545 he announced earlier this week or separate and additional. >> that is the same group. they started deploying on monday morning and we received our last courses here in mcallen yesterday. >> 545 are here? >> no, they are around the border. >> as for your qrf, is this the first time or how many times have you used the action force on the u.s.-mexico border in the past? >> i'll have to check when we used it on the border. that force is a standing force

that is specially trained for civil disturbance operations, so any time, you know, we look like it might be a civil disturbance, those forces are ready to go. that's a core guard mission, always has been. >> any concern based on the amount of people on the other side of the border that there could possibly be a disturbance that may warrant that kind of concern? >> what we always keep our ear to the ground and have information sharing with our law enforcement partners, especially department of public safety and municipal agencies. if we do think there is a credible threat, obviously we will reevaluate. but we are well prepared for contingency. >> what would you say is the biggest challenge at this time right here in brownsville? >> i would say just the volume of the problem as we have discussed. it's been growing and you've seen some of the totals as opposed to what we have seen historically, and that's why we are taking proactive measures

with barriers and additional forces to explain that migrants should go to the port of entry and not do the dangerous crossing in other ways. >> when title 42 is lifted tomorrow, sir, what's the alternative -- [inaudible] >> the welfare of my soldiers and airmen is always my foremost concern. so i don't have any fears but i'm just going to be looking to redouble my efforts. the state is given me any resources i need to look out for my soldiers and airmen and so i just have to make sure i'm quarterbacking the plan and getting those resources into place as quickly as possible. >> general, what would you say is the best case scenario in 12 hours and the worst case scenario in 12 hours? >> i think you are going to see -- you are going to be very proud of some texas soldiers and airmen holding the line and that's all i'll say about that question, ma'am. >> brigadier general, two questions here. how many of the quick response force military police were

deployed for this specific reason and what will they be doing? deploying c-wire, blocking people like we have seen dps troops to go, can they put hands on people, deputized, what are the logistics of the team? >> the team is here to prevent, deter and if necessary interdit illegal activity. obviously my soldiers and airmen are empowered whatever they need to defend themselves. short of that, we are looking to our department of public safety partners who are obviously authorized if they see criminal activity to act on that criminal activity and at that point my soldiers and airmen on the ground will follow the guidance of dps to assist with those apprehensions, to include the necessary level of force to make the apprehension. >> but you are willing to use force in these apprehensions? >> yes, the necessary level of

force on the same gradient that law enforcement does and we follow their cue on that. and these particular soldiers are specially trained in those techniques, in the authorities and in terms of what they are going to be doing i think you'll agree just the deterrent presence of that professional force will motivate out there i think will have the desired effect. >> what was the size of the force? >> i don't want to get into specific dispositions of forces, they are part of the 500 we talked about earlier. >> do you have any confidence the latest crackdown measures will do anything to alleviate the strain your men and women are facing this week? >> i would hope so. that's a question for the federal government. we are just doing our best here to deter and interdict with the resources in the state of texas. >> one more question if somebody's got one. go ahead, sir. >> [inaudible]

>> i can't think of a specific instance, there has not been a large request for the state of texas, you know, the federal authorities are down here doing their thing. we did -- largely it's separate efforts with the border patrol processing. >> do they ask you to do things today? >> no. >> thank you. >> all right, everybody. we appreciate it. if you have clarification or follow-up, i'm available afterwards. we will not be doing break-out interviews. >> sandra: we thank the brigadier general matt barker giving an update and taking questions from reporters on the ground, the deployment began on monday he said, texas will hold the line, you just heard from the brigadier general. commenting even some of the soldiers that will help protect the border for some of them this is literally them serving in

their back yard, many of them from el paso and some border towns. bill melugin is near the scene in brownsville. what are you seeing down there right now, and obviously a big take-away from all of that, there are big plans for the next 35 hours to prepare for this likely surge after title 42 is lifted. >> well, sandra, just moments before the brigadier general started talking, a quick reaction force of texas national guard soldiers that showed up decked out in riot gear and they walked behind me, behind the levee where we have been showing you the constant images of the huge migrant groups crossing and headed to the river as an effort to block illegal crossings. and we have been watching a much more increased posture from the state of texas. for the first time ever in my coverage of the border crisis, first time i've seen this, video from todd bensman, a journalist,

showing texas dps and texas national guard soldiers at the edge of the river physically blocking migrants from entering the u.s. after they crossed over illegally. you can see they have the razor wire, people standing there with kids, they expect to be let in but this time the texas national guard and dps said no, they physically blocked them. they would not let them go in. and again, this is the first time i have ever seen this. typically they take them into custody and just hand them off to border patrol and they let the feds handle it. but you can see the migrants look confused. wait, we are not being let in? texas is blocking them and greg abbott tweeted a response to this video saying great work by his troops and his dps soldiers and took a shot at biden saying biden sent 1500 troops to the border to do paperwork, i sent troops to get stuff done and illegal crossings. there are illegal crossings

elsewhere. take a look at the drone video in brownsville, talking about the levee, what they are trying to block up. we shot this late yesterday afternoon early evening of an enormous group of migrants who crossed over illegally. hundreds upon hundreds of them. this line is so long, the camera never stops panning and the rio valley sector overrun, and they have 7600 migrants incapacity and the capacity is 165% of what it should be, and we'll show you where it's coming from. on the mexican shoreline, look at all the trash, rubbish and clothing left on the mexican shoreline down there with the migrant camps, that's where they have been crossing. then the camera will go to the u.s. side of the river, more trash and clothing and a constant line of hundreds of migrants crossing over illegally in a flow that never seems to stop. this video we shot late

yesterday afternoon, the texas national guard is here now trying to block this, doing the best they can with the quick reaction force, again with troops in riot gear. lastly, the other side of the state in el paso also seeing a massive surge, take a look at the drone video, this is from 3:00 a.m. this morning in el paso. several hundred migrants who crossed over illegally there into el paso's lower valley, the last two days alone, cbp sources tell me they have apprehended 10,000 plus each day, highest ever totals recorded, numbers we have never seen before. and out here live, listening to secretary mayorkas' press conference in a plan of the post title 42 world, and saying well, if they come illegally they will be placed into removal proceedings. just because somebody is placed into a removal proceeding does not mean they are going to be removed. sometimes it does.

under this administration, a large majority of the time removal proceedings under title 8 mean you are released with a court date, nta, a notice to appear and sometimes the court dates are years down the road. we have talked to migrants who have their court dates as far out as 2026. back to you. >> sandra: a lot of activity around you there, and it's just going to be quite something to watch as you see the clock ticking 'til 42 ends. bill, to your point what has happened in the last 24/48 hours at the border, only expected to get worse. thank you to you, and thanks again to the brigadier general for the presser there. thanks, bill. >> biden promised a new approach for immigration, humane approach, this is not humane. they failed to provide infrastructure. >> live in cuba is too difficult and practically does not exist anywhere in the world.

only one very strong dictatorship. >> i've been travelling from colombia for seven months and spent three months planning this, three months before i could come. >> john: that's from el paso, texas, hit especially hard by the migrant surge. shelters there stretched beyond capacity leaving migrants to sleep out in the streets. bring in former acting ice director tom homan in el paso. what are you anticipating tomorrow, and i ask that question now that we have discovered the news that in each of the last two days, new records were set by the number of people crossing the southwest border. more than 10,000 each day. so, if they are doing that before title 42 comes off, what's expected to happen tomorrow night at midnight? >> well, first of all, it's three days, john, they busted 30,000 in three days. this is historic. i've done this for 35 years, and it's insulting to see that we handed this administration the most secure border in my lifetime, immigration was at a

45 year low, down 83% and this is what we have? i went downtown el paso where you are filming right now, and i saw hundreds just walking the street. i saw one deficating in a parking lot. this is -- this -- mayorkas gets on there and says the people will be moved, they don't qualify, he's lying to the american people f. we are getting 10,000 now, i can only imagine after title 42, 15,000 a day. right now, 29,000 in custody at the border patrol stations. they are overwhelmed. the plan, at 29,000, when they start mass releasing people. mass releasing people many not even processed and there was a time in the administration we put them on -- now you can't even put them on atd, and they have the gps capability away from the equipment so they can't even find the people when they want to find them. this administration is doing the complete opposite of what they

are telling the american people, it's a sham. >> john: i wanted to ask you about that, there are reports because of the overcrowding situation there will be releases of people on to the streets of some of these border towns and the biden administration is planning to release some migrants who according to dhs "have been vetted" into the united states without being placed into the tracking system. so, we may never know where these folks are going. and let me come back to that drone footage on that levee in brownsville we have been showing for the last week or so, first with griff jenkins and now bill melugin, and we made the comment, tom, this looks like a port of entry. but this is illegal immigration, and when you take a look at the people who are lining up there in the levee to be processed by customs and border protection, to a large degree, those are single men. do those fit the typical profile of asylum seekers? >> no, they don't.

and what the viewers need to understand, based on immigration court the last ten years, it has not changed under this administration. nine out of ten, okay, nine out of ten of those people will never get relief from the u.s. courts, they don't qualify. what happens if they show up in court or don't, order of removal. and the secretary said today those that don't qualify will be removed. my question is to the secretary, out of the 2.5 million you released to the united states, 90% lost their case, how many has ice removed n close to 0 because i have friends in ice command and they are not looking for them at the direction of the secretary. and with all the people released we don't know who they are and not tracked by any atd capability, no gps, there are thousands of empty ice beds. thousands of beds already paid for by the taxpayers sitting empty but they would rather release them because they know,

90% get order removed and the report says if they are not detained they get order removal, only 6% leave. that's what this administration is doing. >> john: mayorkas as you know, tom, has said time and time again the border is closed. he made the claim again today despite the pictures we are looking at. >> we are making it very clear that our border is not open, that crossing irregularly is against the law, and that those who are not eligible for relief will be quickly returned. do not listen to the lies of the smugglers. this is what will happen to you. you will be returned. >> john: other than tom, the area along the rio grande, the pictures back up, the texas national guard has actually closed the border and denied people entry into the united states, is it safe to say that mayor as has relinquished control of the border to the

mexican cartels? >> we are the strongest nation on the face of the earth and don't have operational control of the southern border. criminal cartels in mexico do and he gave it to them. this man lies under oath, embarrassment to the position he holds this. is on him, all of this. he took the most secure border in my lifetime and created this. this is on him. and i've said for two years he needs to be impeached, the men and women of the border patrol don't respect him. the men and the women of the border patrol, thank god for the state of texas -- governor abbott should be the secretary of homeland secretary. he's done more to secure the border than anybody. >> john: i think he likes being governor of texas, at least for the moment. good to talk to you. thank you so much, appreciate it. >> you've got it. >> john: a lot more ahead on this as well, sandra, throughout the afternoon. >> sandra: just -- the numbers

we are talking about are incredible here and we'll have a lot more reaction coming up in cities they are not border towns, chicago, new york are dealing with this massive number of migrants being sent to the cities. raymond lopez in chicago, he's witnessing firsthand with the migrants taking over the police stations, living there, sleeping there. some of them showing up sick, needing medical attention. charlie is reporting on how in new york city there are reportedly plans to take over the very historic roosevelt hotel right here in midtown manhattan where some businesses are saying we are already struggling to get people who have been working remotely back to work and now you are going to do this, they are going to have a hard time. he's hearing, he'll report on that. as of april 27th, and look at the last two days, few weeks, as of april 27th, more than 5 million border apprehensions under this president. up to 2.7 million in the u.s.

under title 8. ok. kur current immigration court backlog, ten-year wait in some jurisdictions. and plans under the administration to not keep track of them once they come into the country? this is an incredible moment that we are watching happening before our eyes. >> john: a huge cash cow for the mexican cartels. a rough calculation, 5 million people have entered the country illegally during the biden administration, cartels charge an average of $5,000 a head to get people across the border. if every one of those 5 million paid 5,000 to the cartel, that's $25 billion. i mean, that's hard core drug money and they don't have to worry about the mexican authorities coming to crack down on them because the mexican authorities clearly turn a blind eye to this. we are also going to talk with congressman henry cuellar a

democrat, he has problems in his district, mcallen to laredo, he says the biden administration has done too little too late to take care of the situation. we look forward to speaking with him later. >> sandra: and while all of this is happening and the count down is on for 42 to be lifted, a live look at valhala, new york, president biden plans to give a speech where he will target republicans and call them out for various things you just heard a republican on our show say are not true. where do the debt ceiling talks go from here and what exactly does the president say a few moments from now. we'll be listening. the doug holtz-eakin and jason furman here ahead of the remarks. >> john: james comer says follow the money when it comes to the biden family alleged schemes.

but is it enough to implicate the president himself? marc thiessen has a few thoughts on that. >> we have learned through this committee's own investigation indicating to me the whistleblower's allegations are consistent with our independent findings. th cpap every night. but now that i got the inspire implant, it's making me think of doing other things i've been putting off. like removing that tattoo of your first wife's name. inspire. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com. my name is brian delallo. i teach ap and honors economics in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. financial well-being to me is knowing that i can be free to do the things that i love to do. i hope when i retire someday, they say, that guy made this place a special place to come to school and gave as much as he could to help the community.

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everything in his past, from his education to religion, and now lied with some financial crimes. what we are getting into today in the federal indictment, tell you he was hit with a 13 count indictment, charged with fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements in the case. they say he used political contributions to line his pockets, illegally apply for unemployment benefits during the height of the pandemic and lied to the house of representatives just to name a few, john. so, growing calls for republican house speaker kevin mccarthy to expell george santos but it's not up to the speaker as santos has only been indicted, not convicted. right now, mccarthy says he's withholding judgment and will not urge santos to resign and history shows expulsion is unlikely as both sides of the aisle are watching closely. >> the charges just came out, we just saw some of them this morning. in america there is a presumption of innocence but they are serious charges. he's going to have to go through

the legal process. >> literally committed a crime in order to get into congress. it is completely absurd for him to continue to be a member of congress and walk the halls of congress while being charged with a crime. >> john, santos said he's not going anywhere. he announced he will run for re-election the other day. he faces up to 20 years behind bars, and if he will talk to the media, have to see if he walks down the steps behind us, john. >> we'll keep an eye on it and get back to you as soon as that happens. thank you, sandra. >> sandra: fox news alert, back to the border. brand-new video just into the newsroom as the border crisis worsens before the end of title 42. you can see the count down clock there, one day, ten hours left 'til that happens. and exclusive video from brownsville, texas, quick

reaction force of texas national guard soldiers with riot gear, they have just arrived at a major illegal crossing location in brownsville. bill is told this is part of texas governor greg abbott's new specialized texas border response force meant to repel mass crossings. that video just in. >> john: and as we saw a little while ago from other video that bill brought us, let's put that back up on the screen as well. texas national guard, unlike the u.s. military dispatched in an administrative transportation role, the texas national guard is right there behind concertina wire denying people entry into the united states. these folks have waded across the rio grande, trying to come up the riverbank and the national guard is saying no, you can't come across. the last time, sandra, we saw anything like this, was back in october of 2021 when border patrol mounted on horseback were using their horses to keep haitian immigrants from getting

their feet on u.s. soil. of course we know the controversy, the ginned up controversy as it turned out, that resulted from that. dhs secretary mayorkas was asked about this action earlier today in his press briefing. and he seemed to say this is a matter for the doj to decide. so, i'm wondering if the federal government is going to refer this matter to the doj and i wonder if the doj will tell greg y can't do this. we'll see. >> sandra: every time i look more closely at this videos coming in to us, john, it's like the camera zooms in, you see babies, toddlers, the man in the yellow there, he's got a baby in his hand. you'll see another baby in her mom's arms there. these are incredibly dangerous journeys these people are taking and doing so with babies and toddlers a lot of the times we see the video come in. >> john: what's the reason why they are taking the journeys, by and large it's because the cartels put the word out that

the u.s. border is for all intents and purposes open and when you take a look at the pictures from the levee in brownsville from the illegal migrant lined up before a pop-up tent for processing with asylum claims, that would seem to give credence to what the cartels are saying, you can just walk into the united states and they pay the cartels handsomely to get them to the border and then across. we have seen sometimes that the -- the river crossings themselves are coordinated and choreographed by the cartels who put them on rubber rafts or lead them in a wading trek across the river. so the reason why most of those people are there according to our sources is because the cartels take their money and they ship them toward the border, and you have to wonder if the cartels were not involved, sandra, would that many people try to get into the united states. >> sandra: and the situation we are in now the national guard has been deployed by the texas governor and we images of

migrants pouring over the border, that's brownsville, texas on tuesday there. meanwhile, john, president biden as we continue to mention, is set to speak any moment now on the debt ceiling talks as the clock is ticking for him and speaker kevin mccarthy to make a deal. econ panel joins us now, jason furman, and doug holtz-eakin. looks like the lead-up to the remarks is on, we just saw the governor of new york kathy hochul speaking a short time ago. it was interesting, douglas, i asked my team to open me up so i could hear kathy hochul speaking during the commercial break and she was making the case this is republicans saying we should walk away from our bills, talking about letting us reach the debt ceiling, defaulting on our debt. you can make the case the democrats have made the case to do that in quite a few different scenarios. but that's not what's going on here. republicans say they want to pay the bills but they want some

sort of spending limits. where does this go, doug? >> well, i mean, i think all the moral outrage should be put aside. in the end, no one disagrees we have to raise the debt limit, we need a law to do it, the house passed a bill that is not going to pass the senate. the senate takes up the house passed bill and consultation with the white house figures out what can get to the white house the president is willing to sign, and they will be talking with the speaker of the house, means the groups that sat down on earlier this week should sit down again and figure out what the bill looks like and do it quickly. the good news, they are going to meet on friday. my hope is it will produce a piece of legislation, pass the senate, the house, the president signs and we move on from this. >> sandra: jason, senator daines was on with us a short time ago and he was refuting the claims that the republicans want to cut veterans benefits, shrink the federal grant programs to local police departments, worsen the

fentanyl crisis. why are they making these claims that republicans are simply saying are not true? >> look, we know that the bill that passed the house would result in cuts in things. >> sandra: cuts to veterans benefits, does it say that? >> you know, we don't know what it would cut. >> sandra: they are saying they know. >> top line number and the more you protect one thing you have to cut something else. there need to be cuts, need to be cuts, you should own that and say fine, we need to cut government spending and the problem is when you don't say where it is. but yeah, they should negotiate, lower spending than biden wants, higher spending than the republicans want, and there's no reason to have a whole lot of drama and brinkmanship to get there -- >> sandra: and if the meeting had happened sooner than later we wouldn't be here today,

douglas. >> right. yeah, i mean, the meeting took months to follow up from the initial meeting, the bill passed the house a while back. i don't understand the delays. everyone knows the danger of a misstep that would cause the u.s. to miss a payment, no one wants that. so, it would seem to me the right thing to do would be to working 24/7 on the piece of legislation that can be supported by both parties in both houses and signed by the president. that's all this is, and that's supposed to be business as usual in washington. so it's time to put aside the theatrical and do the job. >> sandra: and important we look back at a moment in time similar to this and just some of what we saw play out then. listen. >> but we cannot come to agreement on that hardship that they want to place on the middle class by reducing what government does. >> the bottom line is, we are

not going to raise the debt ceiling unless there is real reform, real reductions in spending, and evidence that we mean business now, not kicking the can down the road. >> for those who reflexively oppose tax increases on anybody, a lower credit rating could be a tax increase on everybody. >> sandra: and we know what happened next, jason. why was the political posturing ok for them then? >> look, i spent a lot of time in the room with eric, i respect for him. i don't remember him once saying you need to repeal the affordable care act in order to raise the debt limit. he hated the affordable care act, he knew it would be an issue on the ballot in the next presidential election. the house has said the climate bill, you need to repeal it. that's not really a serious thing, it's not a serious offer. i get you don't like it, there should be a presidential election to help decide that question, but you know, just a difference in terms of the seriousness this is being

approached this time than last time. >> sandra: douglas, quick final thought. >> well, if they haven't offered as a nonstarter, what is needed is a counteroffer and we have not had one. time for a counteroffer and serious effort to pass it through the senate. >> sandra: well, that's a perfect set-up. will we hear a counteroffer in the coming minutes. we'll have the president's remarks live here from new york in just a moment. thanks to both of you, appreciate your time. >> john: and another breaking story, house republicans revealing what they say is more evidence of biden family criminal schemes. with us to discuss is marc thiessen, senior fellow, former speech writer for president bush and fox news contributor, lead-in was so long. >> lots of time. >> john: if what james comer and his colleagues laid out today is true, it would illuminate a much wider scheme than previously known and a lot occurring while joe biden was still the sitting vice president. >> no smoking gun but lots of

smoke. what they did was very clever. they got the receipts and the way they got the receipts is instead of going through the front door by subpoenaing biden and the biden family members, which would have gotten resistance from the white house, they went quietly through the back door and subpoenaed the records of all the business associates doing all the money laundering, what it looks like it was and they found they had created about 20 companies, llcs through which to funnel this money and about $10 million went to biden family members. >> john: it's not chump change. >> that's real money. now, and they went to joe biden's son, joe biden's brother, joe biden's brother's wife, beau's widow, hunter biden's girlfriend for a period of time, hunter biden's ex-wife, his current wife and his grandchildren. and receipts, bank records, i don't think it's so easy for the biden white house to just dismiss it as a political expedition, it's not just

allegations, we have the money trail. >> john: you got ahead of me. what the house spokesman ian sams said previous to what happened this morning, said congressman comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless while refusing to conduct the so-called investigations with legitimacy. he has hidden information from the public to pick narratives as his overall personal narrative. the receipts are out there now. house oversight committee website, 40 pages of memos that include some bank transfers on there. so, he's made this information quite public. >> absolutely, and on top of that, why the web of llcs? if it's a straight honest business deal, hunter biden offering a legitimate service to price, why isn't there a legitimate payment? it trickles down through the web

to nine members of the biden family. as andy mccarthy said, it looks like classic money laundering. and why, if hunter biden is doing business with the foreign countries, why is he not registered as a foreign agent. that's what paul manafort was convicted of, and we could see an indictment, political report says the white house is bracing for an indictment of hunter biden. >> john: see if it could go beyond that. what james comer said last month about potential criminality, said there is not going to be anybody left for a christmas picture if the department of justice did their picture and went in there and indicted anyone with fingerprints involved in the influence peddling scheme. today he said the words not ethical, he did not say criminal. so even though as you point out there's a lot of smoke, we don't know where it was fired from. >> we have to find out. and it's not the smoking gun, there is smoke, there's a lot of evidence here, it's now enough it has to be taken seriously. a lot of work to uncover this.

the problem of course is comer should not be the only one digging. you would think the media would be involved as well. if this was -- take out the name biden and insert trump family, nine family members doing that. >> john: across every newspaper in america. >> exactly. a bit of a double standard here. >> john: great to talk to you about that as well. see where it goes from here. sandra. >> sandra: gaza militants firing hundreds of rockets into israel responding to attacks targeting palestinian militants and israeli defense forces are now striking back. trey yingst is live on the israel-gaza border with the latest. hello, trey. >> sandra, good afternoon. sources telling fox news at this hour that talks are underway for a ceasefire but no agreement has been reached so far. this after more than 300 rockets

were fired from gaza into southern and central israel. here is what it was like last hour. right now more rockets are being fired, you can hear the explosions behind me, the iron dome -- this all started early tuesday morning when the israeli military launched a series of strikes against islamic jihad inside gaza, killing three senior commanders and ten civilians. we did ask the israeli military about the new operation and the collateral damage. >> we are sorry for any women or children or civilians not involved or dead in this

situation but we have no other way to fight against terror, especially islamic jihad, hiding with women and children. >> right now in the distance we can hear the buzz of drones. israeli military is responding against targets inside gaza as the region braces for a long and violent night ahead. sandra. >> trey yingst live, thank you. john. >> john: fox news alert, valhalla, new york and westchester, here is president biden talking about the looming debt ceiling deadline. >> lifelong educators. champion of the next generation. mike lawler is here as well. mike's on the other team but you know what, mike is the kind of guy, when i was in congress, the kind of republican i was used to dealing with, not one of the maga republicans which i'm going

to talk a little about. i don't want to get him in trouble by saying anything nice about him or negative about him, but thanks for coming, mike. thanks for being here. this is the way we used to do it all the time. [applause] and i want to acknowledge all the state and local officials as well as president belinda miles, thanks for hosting us. madam president, my wife teaches full-time at a community college in northern virginia, and she has been teaching for a long time. she says two things. one, community college is the best kept secret in america. they are. and two, equally as important, any education -- any state that educates us, any country that educates us is going to outcompete us, it's a simple proposition. a big debate about protecting america's hard-earned reputation as the most trusted reliable nation in the world about how we

fix the long-term fiscal health of this nation. debate enormous implications of the american economy and quite frankly for the world economy and it's not hyperbole, the world economy. important for the american people to know what's at stake. this is not just a debate in washington, the decisions we make are going to have real impact on real people's lives and that's what i'm here to talk about today. so let me tell you a story about what's going on. there's a very extreme wing of the republican party in the house of representatives referred to themselves now, i've been calling them this a while, they refer to themselves as the maga republicans and have taken control of the house, they have taken control, they have a speaker who has his job because he yielded to the maga element of the party. they are doing the best, to the best of my knowledge, what no other political party has done in the nation's history. they are literally not fig

ratively, holding the nation hostage threatening to default on the nation's debt unless we give in the demands what they think we should do with the budget. incredibly damaging. he says take the funding how we fund government back to what the levels were in 2022, before the omnibus bill and they exclude any cuts in defense. we are going to go back to spending, we spent in 2022. but we are not going to make any cuts in defense which we spent in 2023, 2023, you may remember the state of the union i got a republican colleagues to agree somewhat spontaneously [laughter] [cheering] to protect social security and medicare from any cuts. remember, i said let me get this straight.

you are not going to cut medicare, not -- that's right, i said well you know you are on camera, they can see you. [laughter] well, so farther not cutting social security so far. and not only do they rule out any new revenue, still determined to make permanent the $2 trillion tax cuts due to expire, the trump tax cuts, without paying a penny of it. here is what that leaves us with, basic sort of math. it leaves us with the requirement to cut 22% of everything else in the budget in order to meet the requirements they are demanding that we live with the 2022 budget numbers. speaker and republicans don't like that i point that out. but that's not my opinion. it's just basic math. and here is what it does. it makes huge cuts in important programs for millions of working and middle class americans,

programs they count on. according to estimates, the republican bill would put 21 million people at risk of losing medicaid, including 2.3 million people here in new york state and 78,000 people right here in westchester county. it's devastating. it's not right. republican plan would cut federal law enforcement officers, 30,000, including 11,000 fbi agents, 2,000 border agents, dea agents and so on. they have cut -- that's -- in order to meet the requirement, risks shutting down 375 air traffic control towers, including five here in new york state like westchester county airport, don't have enough personnel and i've long believed we have many obligations as a nation, but you've heard me say this before, apologize for repeating it, but we only have one truly sacred obligation, we

have many obligation, one sacred obligation and that's to equip those we send to war and take care of them and their families when they come home. it's a sacred obligation. for real. [applause] and that's why i fought so hard and so proud to sign the bipartisan pact act that takes care of millions of veterans exposed to toxic materials and take care of their families as well. my son went to iraq for a year, was one of the healthiest guys in his outfit, came back with stage 4 glioblastoma, lived less than a quarter mile from the burn pits, and you saw the trade towers and the firemen and exposure to toxic chemicals. under the republican bill today, they would cut 30 million veterans healthcare visits. the way they do that, that's including nearly 2 million healthcare visits for veterans

in new york state, because not enough personnel. not enough personnel. the difference between the 2022 budget, which they want to get back to and the 2023 budget, i increase the funding for the veterans administration by $22 billion. and the reason i did it -- [applause] -- and the reason i did it and probably some of you know these folks, the number of, you know, more veterans are committing suicide than are being killed in battle and so they pick up the phone and they call the v.a. in their area, i need help, well come in in six weeks, come in in whatever. we ended that. we ended that. now they want to go back to the levels where we cut those folks that now