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Fox News Sunday 8/31/25 FULL END SHOW | FOX BREAKING NEWS TRUMP August 31, 2025
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00:00Fox News Sunday.
00:08Hello from Fox News in Washington.
00:10We begin with a look at some of today's top stories this Labor Day weekend.
00:14Ten-year-old Harper Moiske and eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel are being remembered today
00:18as worshipers hold their first Sunday mass at Annunciation Parish in Minneapolis since Wednesday's mass shooting.
00:25Fifteen other children were injured as well as three adults.
00:28China and India are pledging to be partners, not rivals, at an economic summit that also included Russian President Vladimir Putin
00:37and more than 20 other world leaders.
00:39The statement comes as U.S. and Indian relations have become strained over tariffs.
00:44No ticket matched all six numbers in last night's Powerball drawing, pushing the jackpot to more than $1.1 billion,
00:51the fifth largest Powerball prize in history.
00:54The next drawing is set for tomorrow night.
00:56In a truth social post, President Trump last night criticized Democrat Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker over Chicago's murder rate
01:04as the governors repeatedly said there is no crime emergency in the city.
01:08In a moment, we'll bring in the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Pirro,
01:12who's been stepping up efforts to bring down crime here in the nation's capital amid protests and backlash.
01:18But first, let's get to Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson at the White House.
01:22Lucas, Shannon, in his post, President Trump called Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker weak, empathetic.
01:29And if Trump does order the National Guard into Chicago, the city's mayor has ordered the police not to cooperate.
01:38We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government.
01:47During the president's last public appearance Tuesday, he hinted Chicago could be next.
01:54Does everybody know Chicago is a hellhole right now?
01:56I'm willing to go to Chicago.
01:58After deploying more than 2,000 National Guard and federal law enforcement agents to the streets of the nation's capital,
02:05reducing violent crime by 30 percent, according to the White House,
02:09the president thinks this model could be repeated in other big cities.
02:13One of his top aides put it this way.
02:16It's a simple choice.
02:17You either side with civilization or you side with anarchy and violence.
02:21Not everyone is on board.
02:23Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says while he welcomes more federal agents, including the FBI,
02:30he does not want soldiers on Chicago's streets.
02:33You call up the National Guard when you have an emergency.
02:36There is no emergency here.
02:37Governor Gavin Newsom says he's ready to deploy what he calls cities.
02:41At first, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser scoffed at the idea of President Trump taking over the D.C. police force.
02:49This doesn't make sense.
02:50The facts on the ground don't support this.
02:53She provided an update a week later.
02:55We greatly appreciate the surge of officers.
02:59The difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge and last year represents a 87 percent reduction in carjackings.
03:14The White House says since those reinforcements have been sent to the streets of the nation's capital,
03:19there's been over 1,300 arrests and over 140 illegal guns taken off the streets.
03:25Shannon.
03:25All right, Lucas Somlinson reporting from the White House.
03:28Thank you very much, Lucas.
03:29Joining us now, Janine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
03:33Welcome to Fox News Sunday.
03:35Good to see you.
03:35Good to see you, too, Shannon.
03:37Okay, so let's start here.
03:38On the way out the door, here's what your predecessor said about how things were going in D.C.
03:43Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years.
03:53So how do you respond to critics who say this is way too heavy handed?
03:57You know, people in uniforms on the streets looking militarized here in D.C.
04:01It's an overreaction.
04:02It's a distraction.
04:03You know, what's interesting about this, Shannon, is that President Trump has literally changed the safety landscape in Washington, D.C.
04:13And I often wonder, in answer to your question, whether, you know, who is the person who says, you know, crime is low enough for us to handle?
04:22Who decides what is acceptable?
04:24If we go from intolerable to unacceptable, does that mean we should pat ourselves on the back and say, let's just leave town?
04:33No, that's not what President Trump is about here.
04:35Washington was one of the most violent cities, not just in the United States, but in the world.
04:41So let's not let's not pussyfoot around this whole thing.
04:45We've got individuals who are being shot, stabbed, beaten and brutalized and arrests are not being made.
04:50In the last year and eight months, 45 black teenagers, minority teenagers have been shot and killed with firearms.
04:59You know what the clearance rate is, Shannon?
05:02The clearance rate, meaning how many cases have been solved, is 29 percent.
05:06That means that 70 percent of the murderers of African-American teens, all of them killed with guns, are still out on the street with their guns, continuing to do what they do.
05:18And so for all those people who say, oh, crime is down.
05:21Isn't this great?
05:22That's nonsense.
05:23What we need is to recognize that the first order of government is a protection of its people.
05:28And President Trump is willing to make sure that D.C. has the resources, that D.C. has the determination.
05:36And all of us, both in the United States Attorney's Office, are doing the best we can to put together the most solid cases.
05:43And so far, we've had 1,528 arrests, 156 guns taken off the street, which means they can't be used to shoot and kill other people.
05:54Last night alone, 76 arrests, five guns seized.
05:57If anyone has a problem with that, then, you know, they're not in compliance with 80 percent of the 81 percent of the American people who think crime is a major problem in large cities.
06:10Yeah, well, I'm curious as to what you found when you walked into this new position as U.S. attorney in the office here in D.C., because all of these things have to work together.
06:18The men and women in uniform on the streets, they're out there.
06:21They're trying to put together cases.
06:22They bring them to you as prosecutors.
06:25You've got the mayor.
06:26How was all of that working together?
06:28And have you made significant changes?
06:31Look, the most important thing we can do, Shannon, is work together.
06:34And I am working together with all my partners in Washington.
06:37This is about crime.
06:39This is about protecting the public.
06:41You know, they talk about the shining city on the hill.
06:44Well, this shining city on the hill is upside down.
06:47And Trump is doing President Trump is doing everything he can to re or reoriented to be that shining city on the hill.
06:55And what that means for me, when I came in, I found a D.C.
06:59Council laws that protected and coddled young people.
07:03If you're 15, 16 or 17 years old and you shoot someone, but they don't die.
07:07I can't prosecute you.
07:09You go to family court where you end up being, you know, the purpose is rehabilitation.
07:13And what you've got carjackings.
07:16It's like up, I don't know, 200 percent in a short period of time.
07:20And then these young kids, they're punks.
07:23They end up torching the cars afterwards.
07:25And I can't prosecute them.
07:27I can't arrest them.
07:28We've got a D.C. Court of Appeals that issues decisions that are so out of line with even the Supreme Court and judges sentencing people for possession of illegal guns and letting them go.
07:41I had a 19 year old who shot someone on a public bus with an illegal gun.
07:46The judge under the D.C. law gave the person probation and said, why don't you go to college?
07:51This has to be changed.
07:53And we've got our work cut out for us.
07:55And I am determined with the prosecutors in my office to work with the police, my prosecutors working around the clock in this surge.
08:03We are working with the police to put together these cases to make sure that when they go to court, they get a conviction and that there is a sentence that is consistent with the acts that are occurring.
08:14If President Trump didn't do this, Washington would continue to be one of the most violent cities in the world.
08:20And anyone who is against it is about politics and not about safety for our fellow citizens.
08:25So you talk about getting to court, getting your prosecutors together and getting these cases together.
08:29But here's the headline from The Washington Post just days ago.
08:32It said, D.C. judges and grand jurors push back on Trump policing surge.
08:38There's at least one high profile case where they're making a lot of headline news about the fact that you couldn't get a grand jury to indict.
08:44So how does that factor into what you're trying to do?
08:48Well, I mean, clearly, I know the case that they're referencing and there's not a lot I can talk about in terms of grand juries.
08:54But what I can tell you is this, you know, there are a lot of people who sit on juries and they live in, you know, they live in Georgetown or in Northwest or in some of these better areas.
09:04And they don't see the reality of crime that is occurring.
09:08And my office has been instructed to move for the highest crime possible, consistent with the law, the statute and the evidence.
09:17And in that one case, in that particular article, we were on point.
09:21But the grand jurors don't take it so seriously.
09:24They're like, you know, whatever.
09:26And my job is to try to turn that around, so normalized in D.C. that they don't even care about whether or not the law is violated is the very essence of what my problem is in D.C.
09:39And that is to turn this ship around, as President Trump has directed, so that the people in D.C., the minority community who were hurt the worst by crime, who were crying for help, are finally heard.
09:53And that's what I'm there to do.
09:55And that's what my job is.
09:57And I don't really care about these people who say, we don't need you or you're going too hard.
10:03My job is to protect the victim.
10:05And that's what we're going to do.
10:07We're going to make the criminal accountable.
10:08We've got to change that, D.C.
10:10counsel.
10:11These statutes have called for a ceiling of convictions within five years.
10:15That means if you hire someone, you're not going to find out whether or not they've been convicted of petty larceny or theft.
10:21Or if you have a dance class, you can't find out if the person applying is a pedophile.
10:26All of this is lunacy.
10:28And we're changing it.
10:29And it's not easy, Shannon.
10:31No, there's a lot of work in a lot of big cities.
10:33And the president's talked about Chicago.
10:35There's a ton of resistance there and them saying they're watching what's happening in D.C.
10:39Obviously, we're a federal district, so it's different than another city as far as some of what the president has the authority to do.
10:46But here's what Gavin Newsom says about what they're doing.
10:49He is doing crime suppression teams, but they'll use state officials.
10:53California Highway Patrol.
10:54Here's what he says.
10:57He's doing things to people, not with people.
10:59It's a point of profound and consequential contrast.
11:03He's the fact of militarizing American cities.
11:07So to that point, President Obama also weighing in on X, saying this in part, expanding use of our military on domestic soil puts the liberties of all Americans at risk and should concern Democrats and Republicans alike.
11:19So what about those concerns?
11:21You know, they're both laughable.
11:24President Obama to come out and make a comment on Chicago, a city that is his city, that has been one of the most violent cities in America, that has shootings and killings frequently since I can remember.
11:38Every weekend there are shootings in Chicago.
11:40What are they doing about it?
11:42What they're doing is they're turning to politics and they're turning to anything anti-Trump, as opposed to saying we want to join the president in his effort to protect the American people.
11:54We recognize and applaud President Trump for what he's doing.
11:57President Trump could sit back like they did and do nothing.
12:00But, you know, the president is not doing something to the American people in these cities.
12:05He is protecting them.
12:07You speak to any of the crime victims that I speak to, any of the parents of murdered kids and teenagers, then you'll get a sense of how disappointed people are in these leaders who'd rather play politics.
12:19And when Muriel Bowser, the Democrat mayor of D.C., can say violent crime is down by 50 percent because of this surge, you want to criticize that?
12:28You want to say they don't deserve to come in and protect our people?
12:31Well, we want our people to be victims of violent crime and we don't care about it.
12:36Shame on them.
12:38Well, we are glad that you and the mayor seem to have a very good working relationship as somebody who's worked and lived in D.C. for 20 years.
12:44Always happy to see crime numbers going down.
12:46U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro, great to see you.
12:49Thank you so much.
12:49Great to be with you. Bye.
12:51OK, as D.C. crime rates continue to drop in the wake of President Trump's deployment of the National Guard, blue state leaders appear to be taking notice.
12:58So more on how Eric Adams and Gavin Newsom are launching crime crackdowns of their own while vowing to fight any federal attempts to get involved.
13:10If these mayors choose to not address the crime rate President Trump is going to, he made a promise to American people.
13:15And that's why he's sitting in the Oval Office.
13:17American people put him in there because he promised America safe again.
13:20That's what he's doing.
13:20This country needs to wake up to what's going on and not just the authoritarian tendencies, but the authoritarian actions by this president.
13:28This cannot be normalized.
13:30An escalating war of words between the White House and California Governor Gavin Newsom, among others.
13:35Newsom slamming President Trump's use of the National Guard to deter crime here in our nation's capital,
13:40while at the same time deploying his own crime suppression teams to the Golden State's most dangerous cities.
13:45And he's not the only Democrat taking action.
13:48Let's talk about it with our Sunday group.
13:50Susan Page, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief.
13:52Fox News contributor Molly Hemingway, Kevin Walling, Democratic campaign strategist, and Real Clear Politics White House reporter Philip Wegman.
14:00Welcome to you all.
14:01Okay, so I want to play a little bit also from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is sending out a thousand officers there.
14:08They're going to be deployed to make sure they're on the ground, not behind a desk somewhere, not in a precinct.
14:15They're going to be on the ground.
14:17And we've identified what we call hot spots, known areas where violence normally take place.
14:24And that's the, those are the areas we're going to focus on.
14:27So Molly, blue states, mayors, governors, they're getting in on the action.
14:32They don't want the feds involved, but they acknowledge there's crime.
14:34Yeah, when President Trump deployed the National Guard here in Washington, D.C., it immediately resulted in decreases in some of the serious crime problems that have been plaguing the city.
14:44And other jurisdictions noticed how that, how well that worked.
14:48And they also understood, they read the polls and they saw that decreasing crime is, happens to be something that nearly everybody supports politically.
14:55And so they, they quickly realized they too could do this.
14:58This is after years of defunding the police, decreasing the number of police, like in Washington, D.C., we've decreased the number of police by hundreds.
15:06That was an intentional policy by our city council to make the streets less safe.
15:10And they've also made it much easier to commit crime.
15:12These policies are now harming the Democrat Party.
15:15And so I think that's why you're seeing some mayors roll out.
15:18We mentioned the polls and the one from AP North got a lot of attention this week.
15:21So we'll put this up when people were asked, how much is crime a problem in big cities?
15:26Eighty one percent say major, 18 percent say minor, one percent say not a problem.
15:30So, Susan, essentially ninety nine percent of people think it's a problem.
15:34Yeah, that one percent.
15:35Who are they?
15:36Not a problem where they are.
15:37Yeah, probably the criminals.
15:39You know, I agree with Molly on this.
15:41This is you do not want to be the politician who says crime is not a problem, because even if crime is going down and it has been going down in D.C., it's still a problem.
15:49When you have any crime, it affects some people.
15:51And President Trump once again has shown his really his smart political instincts.
15:57And Democrats are just now trying to figure out how to respond to it without looking like they're in favor of crime.
16:03Well, and that gets to this point.
16:04Jonathan Cowan, who's the president and co-founder of the think tank Third Way, he's quoted in this NPR piece saying this.
16:11Democrats are still climbing out of the hole that was created by too much silence and too much support for defunding the police.
16:18He said, adding that the consequence of not immediately rejecting the idea, quote, tarred the Democratic Party broadly across the country with a personal crime.
16:26Yeah, I mean, Shannon, to Susan's point, you know, American people like to see action and are frustrated with the high lack of high situation of crime in that poll and respect what the president, I think, is doing speaking as a Democrat.
16:39Now, the National Guard is not the long term solution here.
16:42Obviously, it's a surge of resources.
16:44What happens after that 30 day period with the Guard?
16:46That's the period in which the president can call up those resources.
16:50And what happens in these other cities?
16:51I think Democrats are now getting smart on this issue.
16:54Obviously, you talked about Gavin Newsom and this chip, the highway patrol program surging those resources because we've got to flip the script on this because it has hurt us as a party over these last couple of years.
17:05Well, I'll date myself, but I wonder if Ponch is going to be out there with a good remake of that show.
17:10If you're old enough, you know what I'm talking about.
17:13But, Philip, what about this idea that the White House kind of likes the optics of this?
17:17The Democrats are at least appearing in some senses to look like we don't want your help.
17:22We have this under control.
17:23While people who live in their cities say, no, we want the help.
17:26The White House is loving this because regardless of the motivations of these Democratic mayors and governors, the end result here is more policing.
17:36And I think the White House sees this in a similar vein to the border.
17:39Remember Donald Trump's argument about the border.
17:41It was you don't need new policies.
17:43You need a new president.
17:44It's similar here in that the White House doesn't think that there are new policies that are needed.
17:48Instead, in D.C., they're throwing the book at some of these criminals, 1990s broken window theory policing.
17:55And what that allows the White House to do is to go to L.A., go to New York, go to Chicago and say, this is a question of will.
18:01Why aren't you making your cities more like Washington, D.C.?
18:03Why did you let it get this bad?
18:05So while there's some frustration with how Democrats handle this, have handled it, how they handle it moving forward,
18:10James Carvel of the old school guard of the Democratic Party is upset with the party for all kinds of other things.
18:16He's talking about this summer D.N.C. meeting where one of the very first things that happened was a woman who is Minnesota's Democratic Farmer Labor Party treasurer
18:25and self-described indigenous queer woman was talking about starting the meeting with we are on stolen land.
18:33Here's what Carvel thought about the D.N.C. making that part of their message.
18:36It doesn't exist to acknowledge the more unpleasant parts of history.
18:43It doesn't exist to make people feel good.
18:46It exists, get this through your head, to win elections.
18:51And what is Ken Martin doing doing that?
18:53You don't have but one job, Ken.
18:55It's to win.
18:57You're supposed to try to win f***ing elections.
19:00So, Kevin, what about his frustration there?
19:02This comes, you know, a week after that memo that came out that said,
19:04quit using words like birthing person and chest beating and that kind of thing.
19:07I mean, he has been relentless the last couple of years in talking about this.
19:11Sure.
19:11I mean, I'm with James Carvel in the fact that, you know, his his comment about Ken Martin should just focus on winning.
19:17That's what the D.N.C. is doing.
19:18And as we've seen in the last 40 elections since November, Democrats have either won 39 of those elections or increased our standing in those elections,
19:27including that Iowa state Senate election that we saw a 20 point flip from November's result with President Trump winning that district to that Democrat breaking the supermajority in the Iowa Senate.
19:38Joni Ernst deciding not to seek reelection, obviously, in Iowa.
19:41So the D.N.C. is focused on winning elections.
19:44I think anything else is a sideshow and a distraction like this story coming out of Minnesota.
19:49Well, and Susan, they're feeling good about the midterms at this point.
19:51They're feeling optimistic about 2026, although we're not really sure who's calling the shots for the party outside of Ken Martin as the leader of the D.N.C.
19:58I think the D.N.C. is irrelevant at this point.
20:01And I think Washington congressional leadership, the Democrats all still seem to be wandering in a wilderness about how to respond to Trump.
20:07But where you see some energy with the party is like that Iowa states in an election, which the D.N.C. does not deserve credit for winning.
20:14It was a reflection of unconcerned by voters in that district to unexpectedly flip after going for Trump in a big way just last November.
20:23And it's these big state governors in California, in Illinois, in Maryland who are articulating the case against Trump in a way that Washington Democrats still are not.
20:35Well, and probably looking towards 2028 in many of their cases.
20:38There's all three of them.
20:39Yes, exactly.
20:40It is.
20:41It's never over.
20:41OK, panel, don't go far.
20:43The IDF officially declaring Gaza City a combat zone as the White House strategizes with Israel about plans for a post-war Gaza.
20:51Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, Republican Senator Bill Haggerty and Democrat Congressman Jake Auchincloss,
20:57they join us to discuss America's role in some incredibly complex foreign policy challenges.
21:01They're next.
21:02The military expanding its operations in Gaza City this week, calling it a, quote, dangerous combat zone.
21:11As Israelis call for the release of the remaining hostages, Fox News national correspondent Jeff Paul is on the ground in Tel Aviv with the very latest.
21:18Hello, Jeff.
21:20Hi, Shannon.
21:21Well, yeah, there are now 48 hostages who are believed to still being held in Gaza, 20 of which who are still alive.
21:28That number changing after Israeli forces confirmed they recovered the bodies of two hostages who were kidnapped back on October 7th and killed shortly after.
21:39One of those men was killed at the Nova Music Festival as he tried to help people escape.
21:43That is Idon Shtivi.
21:45The other, Ilan Weiss, was a resident and a security member of Kibbutz Beri when he was killed.
21:51His wife and one of his daughters were also kidnapped but eventually were released.
21:55Now, both of their bodies were recovered.
21:57As the IDF continues to build up its forces in and around Gaza City, Israel announced it will soon reduce humanitarian aid coming into parts of northern Gaza
22:06as they prepare for a complete takeover of that heavily populated area.
22:11The IDF also confirming it killed the Hamas spokesperson Abu Abayda.
22:16Israeli forces have urged civilians in Gaza City to move south, saying their evacuation is inevitable.
22:22But Palestinians living there say 22 months into this war, they feel that no location is safe.
22:29We have four martyrs.
22:31They struck our tent while we were sleeping at night.
22:33We had done nothing wrong.
22:35We don't know what they want from us.
22:38Meanwhile, in Europe, Russia's war in Ukraine continues.
22:41Two days after Russia launched an airstrike on Kiev that killed 23 people,
22:46Ukraine says the Kremlin launched a large barrage of drones and decoys as well as missiles on Saturday.
22:51At least one person was killed, 28 others injured in the Zaporizhia region.
22:58Now, despite this ongoing conflict,
23:00Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still pushing from some sort of trilateral meeting with both the U.S. and Russia.
23:08He's also calling on in a meeting this week that will hopefully bring both President Trump back to the table
23:13as well as European leaders to try to figure out a way to end this war.
23:17Shannon.
23:17All right, Jeff Paul reporting from Tel Aviv.
23:19Thank you very much, Jeff.
23:21Joining me now, former ambassador, now a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Senator Bill Haggerty.
23:26Welcome back to Fox News Sunday.
23:27Thank you, Shannon.
23:30Okay, so let's start here.
23:31We had been told the next step in this process was going to be a meeting,
23:34hopefully between Putin and Zelenskyy.
23:36The president has given a deadline for that.
23:38Here is French President Emmanuel Macron talking about this.
23:42He said on Friday, if that doesn't happen by Monday, this agreement to a meeting,
23:46the deadline set by President Trump,
23:48it means President Putin has once again played President Trump.
23:51So what should President Trump do if we get to that deadline tomorrow and Putin blows through yet another one?
23:58Well, let me make this statement very clear at the outset.
24:01President Trump is doing something that Joe Biden never attempted to do,
24:04and that's trying to bring an end to this war.
24:06And he's putting pressure on the situation on multiple fronts.
24:09Look at the economic front.
24:10He's putting secondary sanctions in place with India right now.
24:13We've gone into full production here in America,
24:15putting America in a place to actually supplant Russia on the energy stage.
24:19That puts economic pressure on Putin.
24:21If you look at it from a military standpoint, from a security standpoint,
24:24Trump just approved the sale of 3,500 cruise missiles to Ukraine.
24:28Guess who's paying for that?
24:30The Europeans are paying for it.
24:31Netherlands, Norway.
24:32This is taking the pressure off the American taxpayer,
24:35putting it back into Europe, which is more proximate.
24:37And let's not relieve President Macron either.
24:40Europe is responding to the pressure that President Trump is putting on him again.
24:43Economic pressure, security pressure.
24:45And I think the options for Putin continue to narrow.
24:47Things are not going well in Russia.
24:49His economy is not doing well.
24:51And as President Trump continues to mount pressure,
24:53the Europeans can also step up.
24:54I think that's the way to approach this.
24:56Not to hope for some sort of benevolent turn by Vladimir Putin,
25:00but to put him in a position where he has to make a deal.
25:02So is he simply buying time, though?
25:04As the President has said, numerous deadlines, red lines,
25:07all of those things of the past few months.
25:09At what point does he say to Putin, no more?
25:12Well, at every point, what you've seen is President Trump narrow Putin's options.
25:17What we did see was Putin reach out, come to American soil in Alaska, an impressive American flyover.
25:24Putin is seeing, again, his options shrink and diminish.
25:28President Trump is moving him in the right direction.
25:30I think that we need to give President Trump maximum latitude here.
25:34He's the one negotiating this.
25:35And I think we need to give him the ability to put maximum pressure on Vladimir Putin.
25:39Yeah, you've talked about secondary sanctions may be a way to do that,
25:42going after these countries, doing business with Russia.
25:45There is a measure sitting in the Senate.
25:46We've talked about it many times on this show.
25:48It's got 80-plus co-sponsors.
25:50Why are you not one of them?
25:52Well, as I said, I'm in favor of giving President Trump maximum latitude to exert maximum pressure.
25:59He has the constitutional authority.
26:00President Trump has the constitutional authority to handle this foreign relations issue.
26:05I want to see him, rather than being constrained by actions that we take in the Senate,
26:09I want to see him have maximum latitude to get this negotiation taken care of.
26:14Okay, when you come back from recess, there are a lot of pending domestic matters waiting for you.
26:18I want to talk to you about this one.
26:19This week, HHS Secretary Kennedy is going to be before the Senate Finance Committee,
26:24where he'll face a lot of questions, a lot of turmoil at the CDC.
26:27There are questions of whether the director has been removed, fired,
26:30whether only the president can do that, whether she's going to resign.
26:33Others have left in protest from CDC.
26:36One of them saying this, their desire, meaning the administration, to please a political base
26:40will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and their adults.
26:45Now, you're not a member of the Senate Finance Committee,
26:46but what questions do you think the secretary needs to answer right now?
26:51Well, I think first and foremost, we need to keep in mind
26:54that the CDC director and the staff were not elected by the American people.
26:58President Trump was elected by the American people,
27:00and one of the main mandates was to clean up the deep state operations.
27:03And the CDC has been at the epicenter of a deep state failure.
27:06Look at their failures during the pandemic.
27:08Now, President Trump has the ability to hire and fire those that serve under his administration.
27:13If this new director isn't capable of delivering,
27:15I'm glad that he's realized that early on and is making the necessary changes.
27:19Those who resign in protest probably are resigning
27:21because scrutiny that's much deserved is now being applied to the CDC.
27:25All right, another issue that is bubbling up in the Senate is this issue of these pocket rescissions.
27:29So if the president decides that he wants Congress to do a rescission,
27:32that money is frozen for 45 days.
27:35The thought being right now, these latest rescissions he's proposed,
27:38that's going to run through the end of the fiscal year,
27:41kind of doing an end run around what Congress would have to do there.
27:44So hearing from Senate Appropriations Chair, your fellow Republican, Susan Collins,
27:48the senator says this, that the GAO has concluded that this type of rescission is unlawful.
27:53Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.
28:00So where are you on these so-called pocket rescissions,
28:02which do this end run around Congress's ability to make the final say on these appropriated funds?
28:08I just voted in support of the last rescissions package that came through.
28:12I think the American public is sick and tired of continued wasting funds,
28:17taxpayer funds on programs that don't serve America's needs.
28:19If you look at below the surface of this, it's $5 billion.
28:23I think it's a good idea.
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