weather to the professionals. you're friend, jd. >> it will be 71 degrees. feeling like summer on monday. >> live show next friday. go to "fox & friends" to sign up. >> bill: thank you, breaking news right now on the u.s. economy. state of the economy september jobs report just in. u.s. economy adding 136,000 jobs last month. a slight miss but pretty good. checking out unemployment rate falls to a 50-year low at 3.5%. more on what those numbers tell us inside "america's newsroom" later this hour. first, however, happening now on the hill president trump may challenge speaker pelosi to hold a formal impeachment vote or else the white house says it won't comply with the democrats' investigation and that's where the story may turn next. it is friday. good morning. i'm bill hemmer live in new york city. >> sandra: ready for this? good morning and happy friday.

i'm sandra smith. once again there is a lot to keep track of this morning. here is what we're following for you at this hour. 90 minutes from now the intelligence community's chief watchdog michael atkinson will testify before the house intel committee in a closed door hearing. >> secretary of state mike pompeo has until today to turn over documents related to the inquiry. >> sandra: the president expected to send nancy pelosi a letter demanding she hold a vote on impeachment or else the white house will not cooperate. here is some of what went down yesterday. >> they'll have to go on record now and say look, speaker pelosi, if you want to take us down this path you are putting in jeopardy the house majority you won last year. >> the fringe now runs the white house. remarkable aspects some of the core allegations the whistleblower have already been proven true. >> president trump: schiff has proven to be a liar. we've known it for three years. they've been trying to impeach

for three years. he is a stone cold liar. >> i think it is serious stuff. long-term implications on our foreign pollz. i want to hear from rudy giuliani and additional folks within the state department to put all of this stuff in context. >> bill: catherine herridge has more on today's testimony. andy mccarthy standing by with legal analysis. doug mcelway is live at the north lawn of the white house. good morning. >> things continue to move fast and furiously on the impeachment front. we're expecting as you said for the president to send speaker pelosi a letter inviting impeachment. he basically intends to call nancy pelosi's bluff and we expect that letter to mirror at least in part some of the letter that house minority leader kevin mccarthy sent to her yesterday which reads you've given no clear indication how your impeachment inquiry will proceed. do you intend to hold a vote of

the full house? to that pelosi responded there is no requirement under the constitution under house rules or house precedent that the whole house vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. the white house wants that vote for two specific reasons. without it, it maintains just as former federal prosecutor andy mccarthy wrote in the hill today the impeachment inquiry is a made for cable tv political soap opera. the second reason republicans want to put moderate house democrats who won in swing districts on the record when it comes to impeachment. and in another side that the white house is going into full battle mode when it comes to impeachment, the president made this extraordinary statement yesterday about pursuing the investigation into joe biden and his son hunter. listen up. >> president trump: likewise, china should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened in china is just about as bad as what

happened with -- with ukraine. >> to that nebraska senator ben sass a republican told an omaha newspaper hold up. americans don't look to chinese communists for the truth. the president is expected to board marine one for a trip to the walter reed medical hospital to visit wounded warriors. >> bill: back with you in a moment. >> sandra: now to capitol hill awaiting the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson to arrive for a closed door meeting for the house intel committee. we have more on that. >> good morning. the landscape has entirely changed since atkinson was on the hill before the same committee two weeks ago. the whistleblower complaint has been declassified. the white house has released the july 25th phone call and

democrats want more information from atkinson about the evidence he used to determine that the whistleblower's complaint was credible. republicans want more information about the procedure, whether it was followed. whether the whistleblower had direct or indirect knowledge of the phone call, and more specifically, they want information about the timeline. now that we have confirmation the whistleblower first reached out to the house-controlled intelligence committee prior to officially filing the complaint. and what we understand from our reporting is that we're now looking at a time frame of late july and early august and that matters because of congressman schiff's public statements about what he knew about the whistleblower. here is one if mid-september. >> we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower. we would like to but i'm sure the whistleblower has concerns he has not been advised as the law requires by the inspector general or the director of national intelligence how he is to communicate with congress. and so the risk to the

whistleblower is retaliation. >> the former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker was on capitol hill yesterday in a closed session for a transcribed interview. the video is late last night. that session went for about 10 hours. over the course of the day yesterday fox news obtained encrypted text messages shared between senior diplomats after the july 25th phone call where the president asked the ukrainian leader to investigate joe biden and his son. this exchange is from a top diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor and the ambassador to the e.u., gordon sund lund, a major contributor to the president's inaugural committee. i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. he said bill, i believe you're incorrect about president trump's intention. he has been crystal clear, no

quid pro quo of any kind. he wants to evaluate ukraine will do the reforms. i suggest we stop the back and forth by text. as you mentioned at the top of the show, there is this hard deadline today for compliance by the state department with the three committees oversight, intelligence and foreign affairs for ukraine documents and the reason that matters is that if democrats move ahead with drafting articles of impeachment, this could fall into that bucket of obstruction of congress. >> sandra: a lot to take in there. >> bill: certainly is. andy mccarthy, good morning to you. we're throwing a lot at our viewers, a lot is coming at us every day and hour. where should we put our eyes today? >> i think the best place, bill, would be capitol hill where we just heard from katherine. we understand the president is going to submit this letter to

the house. i think it's the right thing for him to do. the constitution reposes the power to impeach solely in the house, not in the speaker of the house, in the house. and it actually would benefit the house even though as speaker pelosi says there is nothing in the constitution that requires that they take a vote before they do an impeachment inquiry. if they want to go into court and try to enforce any information demands as i've pointed out, we don't have subpoenas at the moment. what pompeo has is letters from congress asking for assistance. if they want to go into court and try to enforce these information demands the first thing a court is going to want to know is has the house voted to have an impeachment inquiry? a lot hinges on that including how much expansion a court would give a president's claim of executive privilege and privilege over matters that are

in the president's duties under article 2. so i think she is right. they don't have to have a vote. there is nothing that requires them to have a vote. but if this is going to be real. if they really have grounds to seek the president's impeachment, they not only should have a vote because it's in their interest when they go to court to have a vote. they should be proud to have a vote. if they really think there are grounds to remove the president of the united states from power, then the house should speak as one as an institution and vote that way. >> bill: do you see a smoking gun lurking obvious or not. if you're the president all this what would concern you the most? >> i would be most concerned about the way americans are consuming the coverage. there is a lot of reporting that is simply inaccurate about what is going on. for example, this whole idea there is an impeachment inquiry. there is not. the idea there are subpoenas.

they aren't. this is all theater at this point. a lot of people are consuming it as if it were true on face value. i really think if i were the white house, what i would be worried about is breaking through that. >> bill: i'm not quite sure i'm entirely clear on what you're saying there. if you're the white house you're concerned about what specifically? >> i'm concerned, for example. let's take one thing. the term quid pro quo, right? there is always quid pro quo when foreign countries deal with each other. the issue is not whether there was a quid pro quo. it were bizarre if it wasn't an exchange. they are always pursuing their interests. was there a corrupt quid pro quo is the question here. was the president leveraging his power over foreign affairs exclusively to get the ukrainians basically to work on

the trump 2020 campaign. on the other hand, if what the president was actually doing was trying to leverage the ukrainians to assist in attorney general barr's legitimate justice department investigation into the investigations that were attendant to the 2016 campaign, that's not only normal, it is entirely appropriate. if it's pitched to the public as if was there a quid pro quo about 2016, what the public is taking from that is that the suggestion that there was a corrupt, improper deal. and that is brought to them in the context of being told there is an impeachment inquiry over it and that there are subpoenas pending demanding that the executive branch turn over information that it's withholding about this. >> bill: the way you frame that it's if the bill clinton matter came down to the meaning of the word is is.

you are describing whether it was 2016 or 2020. i want to get a better answer on that -- a more complete answer and we'll put you on pause here. we've got a ton of questions. hang on. back to you in a few minutes here. >> sandra: we'll have a lot more on all of this throughout the morning. republican congressman lee zeldin was in yesterday's interview in the room with former diplomat kurt volker. why he says the 9 1/2 hour interview blows a hole in the democrats' argument against the president. >> bill: that is all in the offing here. the whole question where you put your eyes is very important. in an hour 15 minutes our eyes are on the i.g. about 10:30 eastern time. around the same time the president will leave the white house. i imagine he will talk about the economic numbers. >> sandra: we'll see if he has anything else to say on the doings of the morning. >> bill: yesterday it was down to florida for the president heading down to that

battleground state pushing back against medicare for all and telling american seniors he will protect them from socialist destruction. details on the executive order. what it might mean for americans. how it might play in the election of 2020. >> sandra: one university taking dramatic action against hazing, banning all fraternities from campus. we'll tell you where it's happening and why. >> bill: the condition of those two dozen paratroopers injured in a nighttime mission that went wrong. the latest on that coming up. c. ...and earn a free night. because when your business is rewarding yourself, our business is you. book direct at choicehotels.com

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we get it. >> in many senses we have a presidential confession on ukraine. that's why we're moving so swiftly on that involving an upcoming election. taxpayer dollars that were appropriated and misused by the president and i think every time he confesses to a crime it limits the number of other witnesses we probably have to talk to. >> bill: some of the democratic reaction. eric swalwell after listening to 9 1/2 hours of testimony. want to bring back andy mccarthy. as i say hello again to you we're about an hour and 15 minutes from the inspector general going behind closed doors and one of the major headlines and the president leaving for walter reed. it said democratic demands test trumps impeachment strategy. great reporting. they make the case that the white house learned a lesson about cooperating in the early

days of the russia matter. they feel they were burned by that. but once they brought in giuliani and jay sekulow and started to stone wall and stop the operation they eventually were victorious. the article makes the case that that's going to be their strategy here. make congress challenge. if they concede they could lose. what do you think about that strategy? >> you know, i think a couple of things about it have to be sorted out, bill. i'm not satisfied that the president lost by cooperating. i think you have to bear in mind that we're dealing with two different kinds of inquiries. one was an investigation being conducted by a prosecutor which is a legal matter. and the other is what could end up being an impeachment inquiry which is a political matter. i think the president by cooperating with the prosecutors probably beat back

an attempt to charge him or at least cite him for obstruction because if you recall, one of the reasons that attorney general barr said that the prosecutors couldn't conceivably prove the president had a corrupt intent was because they cooperated with the investigators in that investigation. that may have saved him from a potential charge. if you look at the congressional investigation and the things that led up to the congressional investigation impeachment is a political remedy, not a legal one. and it makes perfect sense you would want to have a different public strategy because it's a very different kind of inquiry and played out in the court of public opinion in a way criminal investigations aren't. >> bill: i want to bring our viewers up to date. announcement from chi eve earlier today. ukraine top prosecutor says the

biden burisma case will be reviewed. the president on our program came out of the white house yesterday and dropped a bomb with regard to beijing and a lot of those on the left have seized on this comment, andy. just listen to this and i'll ask you about it next. >> president trump: a very simple answer. they should investigate the bidens because how does a company that is newly formed. by the way, likewise china should start an investigation into the bidens. because what happened to china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. >> bill: take that comment on its face. china should start an investigation into the bidens. is that out of bounds? >> well, i don't think it's something the president should say but i think it's more of a political blunder than anything else. let me put it this way. this reminded me and it reminded -- i'm not unique in this.

reminded a lot of people of what the president when he was a candidate said about hoping the russians would find hillary clinton's emails. the chinese communists, repressive anti-american regime in beijing is not taking its marching orders from donald trump. the president knows that. he is not making a request to the chinese. he is making a political argument to the american people about or at least suggestive of potential corruption by the bidens. the chinese are just what he is using to make the point. now, i think that's reality. but we know from what happened when he did this with russia, with that quip about hoping that they look for hillary's emails, they know how it will be used against him. we'll hear a year of how he asked the chinese to investigate is political opponents. >> bill: i'm out of time. a much longer answer that is required. we'll get into it next time.

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wifi up there? -ahhh. sure, why not? how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. >> bill: four paratroopers still in the hospital today after a nighttime military exercise went wrong in mississippi. strong winds in the middle of a training mission caused dozens of troops to land off target and in heavy trees. 23 were wounded. officials say none of the soldiers had any life threatening injuries. they're expected to resume the mission in the past 24 or so. >> sandra: september jobs report is out. 136,000 jobs were added and the unemployment rate that headline

number fell to a 50-year low. 3.5%. joining us now after the bell anchor connell mcshane. a couple things we're waiting on. the market opens four minutes from now. we'll see the reaction to the numbers we just got. the president is expected to depart the white house an hour from now. he could talk about these numbers, talk about the economy. we'll see. meanwhile, what is the reaction so far to what we heard? >> i think the bottom line reaction is that this number and these set of numbers are solid. it's a solid jobs report when you add 136 jobs in a month. most economists will say we need to add 100,000 plus every month to keep the economy humming along. by that measure it is still humming along. you have a 50-year low in the unemployment rate. that probably helps people's confidence to see that and say it's a strong economy we're in right now. maybe this can continue. at the same time, there is

literally something for everyone in this report because if you look deeper into the numbers, there is a sign or there are multiple signs of slowing. for example, retail lost 11,000 jobs last month. manufacturing lost 2,000 jobs. >> sandra: the time of year we normally see retailers adding. >> for the holidays. manufacturing economy is slowing. there were jobs lost there. the bottom line big picture. also wage growth. but it's growing was not up to what some economists were expecting. the bottom line picture the federal reserve, interesting to see what the president says about this if anything. the federal reserve will look at these numbers and make a decision. on the one hand they'll say job growth is slower. the average amount of jobs added this year is down 10% compared to last year. they'll say we have the unemployment rate at a 50-year low do we need to cut interests

rates. i think most people on wall street expect them to cut rates later this month. the odds seem to be slightly lower but nobody is quite sure that they'll cut rates two times by the end of the year. >> sandra: when you look at our entering the last quarter of the year you start to think about christmas, holiday sales, the stock market historically goes up in the fourth quarter of the year although the last few days you wonder what the next few months will look like. >> the first couple of days of the quarter were the worst start to a quarter since 2008. we bounced back and may do the same today. the conversation we just had adds to the narrative. this is a really, really uncertain time. wall street traders. you started off your career trading out in chicago. you know this. the idea that they are very good at assessing things they're familiar with. how much companies will earn. economic data. when you throw in politics at the level that it's here now.

some of it is overseas, brexit and hong kong but here with the impeachment inquiry the president is facing. not the odds have gone up he will be removed from office. nobody at wall street seems to look at it like that but how does it affect the 2020 race. is the president weakened in his race against his presumed opponent joe biden. is joe biden a weaker candidate and does it help elizabeth warren not looked upon favorably on wall street. they are looking at things they aren't great at assessing. predicting where the stock market will go in the short term has become more difficult because of that. >> sandra: a lot of uncertainty. connell mcshane. >> bill: a.g. bill barr saying to facebook not to use encryption in its messages and why he says -- his idea could help law enforcement. >> sandra: new fallout over the text messages that have now gone public showing how

diplomats reacted to president trump dealings with ukraine. congressman lee zeldin was in the closed door hearing and will join us live next. >> when you are making the claim that the president was asking for a quid pro quo with president zelensky, today is blowing a massive hole in the middle of that allegation.

>> he was very transparent. i don't know there was a single question that was asked today that he didn't answer. and answer fully, which is unique. and what we do know is there was definitely no quid pro quo. i mean, it came out over and over. it was asked probably 20 different times. >> sandra: republicans and democrats clashing over yesterday's closed door interview with former u.s. envoy to ukraine kurt volker.

he handed over dozens of pages of text messages showing him and other diplomats arguing if president trump was pushing ukraine to investigate his political rival. lee zeldin is a member of the house foreign affairs committee. you were in the room yesterday. what was your biggest takeaway. >> i didn't know ambassador volker before yesterday. i knew who he was but i had not met him before. he came across as candid, genuine. he was very well versed on ukraine and years and really decades of background here. he knew all the players, pronunciation of their names and the spellings. i thought he was a great witness answered all questions from the republicans and democrats. and during that -- basically put a dagger straight to the heart of schiff's fairytale impeachment story here with regards to the quid pro quo as you just played from that piece from mark meadows. he heard what i did as well.

and basically just destroyed, blew off that narrative with every answer he gave. >> sandra: how so? >> where to start. i'll give you one example. first off the allegation that ukraine would be providing some type of assistance with regards to an investigation in return for security aid. they had no idea there was a hold on security aid at the time of that call. as a matter of fact there was a lot of interaction with kurt volker that took place in the weeks to follow the july 25th phone call between the two presidents. >> sandra: who is they? when you said they had no idea. >> ukraine. ambassador vol ker was in pretty regular contact with the ukraine government. he has relationships with aides to president zelensky and he met with president zelensky right after the july 25th phone call. in the read-outs he received after the july 25th phone call

from not just the united states government but the ukraine government, ukraine had no idea that there was any type of hold on security assistance. it wasn't brought up. there was no concern about a quid pro quo in any way, shape or form. and then -- >> sandra: they knew they didn't have the funds yet, though, correct? >> they raised no concern whatsoever that -- there was no belief, there was nothing expressed that funds were not going to be received. as a matter of fact they're very grateful because not only was there approvals over the course of this year. they were expecting money, but there was also going to be additional funding in order to provide lethal weapons systems that the past administration wasn't willing to provide. the read-outs, the meeting with president zelensky, and then the follow-up -- the weeks that followed and all the interaction ambassador volker had with aides, they had no idea there was a hold on these.

>> sandra: including this september 9th text messages that i know you have had a chance to look through and read yourself. between bill taylor the top american diplomat in ukraine and the u.s. ambassador to the e.u. taylor suggests that the president was holding back the package of military aid to ukraine as a bargaining claim. as i said on the phone i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. there was a reply i believe you're incorrect by p president's intention. he has been clear no quid pro quo of any kind. why was taylor making the suggestion that there was going to be the withholding of that aid by the president until an agreement was made on behalf of ukraine to investigate the bidens? >> well first off your question highlights exactly why the transcript from yesterday should be released. not just drip by drip released

selectively cherry picking which texts to provide to the media and american public. the transcript of yesterday's several hour-long interview would be very great context here. bill taylor wanted aid to be provided to ukraine. he believed in the mission as did volker and others in the united states government. they wanted the aid released. what you saw from ambassador sunder lund immediately shooting down any type of speculation as to why there was a hold. ambassador volker testified yesterday that even they did not receive the reason as to why there was a hold placed at that time but as soon as that suggestion, that question, that speculation was made it was immediately shot down. there was -- the president made it crystal clear to other representatives who were part of this text exchange that there was no quid pro quo. that is not what this situation is. that's why that was shot down.

>> sandra: he seems to suggest in the text, how do you see it? i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. so somehow bill taylor was led to believe there was a plan to do that. does that concern you at all? >> once again, this is another reason why that transcript should be released. a great opportunity right now for adam schiff to provide to the american public to form their own independent decision and judgment is to provide the transcript. one of the things that came out during yesterday's hearing different meetings that took place with the president of the united states in the oval office meetings that took place with ambassador john bolton, with his counterpart in the ukraine. and who was in that room? ambassador volker was in that room time and again and you had -- >> sandra: before we go. we're short on time here.

pompeo. should he comply with today's subpoena deadline and turn over those documents that they're demanding? >> if he wants to that's fine. what i'm hearing the right move here and something that the administration is seriously considering doing is forcing the house to take a vote. process-wise yesterday we weren't able to get staff in. chairman schiff didn't want to allow members to ask question. he was discouraging it. we should have a vote in the house. if they want to have an impeachment inquiry. i don't believe we should have one. but if they want one there should be a vote. minority rights, subpoenas from both sides. the president should be represented by counsel. he should be able to present evidence. if they choose to comply today that's fine but really forcing the hand of the house i think is the right move here. >> sandra: got it. appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> bill: thursday night football game nail biter.

russell wilson fourth and goal. did you have have him in your fantasy league. seattle and l.a. l.a. trying to win at the end. 44 yard field goal. just misses it wide right. just misses it wide right. 30-29 the final. seattle wins at home. >> sandra: you reference the fantasy league. there is no fantasy league for me. are you doing okay here? >> bill: i needed that. >> sandra: that's what counts. all right. with the homeless crisis getting worse in san francisco a new op-ed arguing the push for compassion is doing more harm than good. we'll explain that. >> bill: for the 2020 trail president trump claiming democrats want to raid medicare. he now with a new plan to protect america's seniors. we'll tell you what that is about next.

>> president trump: today standing in solidarity with our nation's seniors i declare once again that america will never be a socialist country. will never be. [applause] (engines rev) with dodge power dollars buy any challenger, charger, or durango and get ten bucks cash allowance for every one horsepower. new pasta and grill combos starting at $9.99. only at applebee's.

>> sandra: amazing discovery in a photo. amateur photographer restored this image of buzz aldrin revealing him smiling at the camera. the photographer spent hours working on that photo brightening and darkening it until you could make out the face behind the helmet glass. this july marks 50 years since aldrin and the apollo 11 crew made the trip. since then only 10 astronauts have set foot on the move.

>> president trump: whether it's single payer or public option. they're all based on the totally same terrible idea. they want to raid medicare to fund what they call socialism. any socialists in the room? not too many. anybody? no, not too many in the villages. >> bill: president trump accusing democrat trying to obliterate medicare. it will expand the program's private insurance options. madam administrator. make your case. how will this change medicare to make it more flexible and user friendly? >> president trump is the great protector of the medicare program and the executive order was all about demonstrating his vision to protect and secure the medicare program. and he is building on the

tremendous success we've already had with the program. president trump's medicare program is putting money back into the pockets of seniors. we've lowered out-of-pocket costs for drugs and doctor's visits and last week announced the medicare advantage rates. historic lows. 28% decrease, a 13-year low. all his efforts on drug pricing are also working because the part d premiums have gone down. 13% decrease overall. and these are seven-year lows. this demonstrates all the great work that the president has done to strengthen and protect medicare program. >> bill: the note i got for your office. more plan choices and time with providers is what you're proposing. streamline the approval of therapies, eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and reduce regulation. in the meantime the back drop is his campaign for 2020. here is a sample of elizabeth warren and bernie sanders on

the trail. >> we need healthcare as a basic human right. we fight for basic human rights and we've got a chance to do that with medicare for all. this is our opportunity. >> we need a different system than the one we have right now. people want fundamental changes to a very broken healthcare system and they want to move to medicare for all and that's what we are going to do. >> i believe if i have it right with the exception of bernie sanders many democratic candidates want to give people the option of buying into medicare or public option but do not have in their plans the ob ligation or duty to buy it. take on that debate. >> all of these versions, whether it's medicare for all or the public option all -- what they are talking about is a government takeover of our healthcare system stripping 180 million americans from private

company. other countries who have tried these socialist experiments. reductions in care, reduced access, long wait times and rationing of care. president trump has a very different vision. he wants to strengthen and protect the medicare program. make it better for seniors. these types of options that we're hearing from people would eviscerate the medicare program and put our seniors in a situation where they're waiting in line for their care. >> bill: thank you for your time. wanted to hear you out on that. if there is a headline or takeaway from this, what is the administration's headline? >> the executive order, go through that in more detail. what the president is trying to do is give doctors the opportunity to spend more time with their patients by getting rid of burdensome regulations and wants to make sure our seniors have access to the latest technology and breakthrough treatments to improve their quality of life. the executive order directs us

to make these approval times faster and also wants us to double down on fraud and abuse. >> bill: some of the bullet points i pointed out. thank you for coming in seema verma, thank you in washington, d.c. and we'll see where it goes. thank you for your time. >> sandra: one midwestern university not taking allegations of fraternity hazing lightly. we'll tell you the drastic move one university just made. plus deaths linked to vaping continue to raise nationwide. what the cdc is saying about a dangerous outbreak of lung-related illnesses. and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. great. can you help us pour the foundation too? i think you want a house near the lake, not in it. come with a goal. leave with a plan. td ameritrade. ♪

[upbeat♪action music]

(pilot) we're going to be on the tarmac for another 45 minutes or so.

>> bill: word from the u.s. supreme court agreed to hear a challenge on an abortion law from the state of louisiana. a decision on the politically and socially charged issue expected in the middle of the presidential year 2020.

at issue is a state law in louisiana that would require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges for the patient at a nearby hospital. a federal appeals court had upheld the law even though a nearly identical statute from texas was declared unconstitutional by the justices three years ago in 2016. that will be on the docket. >> sandra: dramatic move by ohio universities. suspending fraternity on campus. >> homecoming at ohio university will not include participation from the campus fraternities. they have all been suspended while those allegations of hazing are investigated. all 15 fraternities are prevented from holding chapter meetings, participating in social and campus events. last may one was expelled after a freshman died.

allegations of hazing and drug and alcohol abuse. seven different fraternities on campus have been accused of hazing. it prompted the dean of students to suspend all fraternitys. it indicates a systematic culture. organizations and ohio university will not put at risk the health and safety of our students. students who live in the fraternity houses can stay there for the time being. the chapter presidents need to come up with a plan and timeline to get the fraternity chapters in line with the stated values of the community. >> bill: the watchdog over the intelligence communities, michael atkinson, arrived on capitol hill. new video now moments ago and in a few minutes from now he will be in a closed-door meeting. hearing starts at 10:30 eastern

time. expected to ask about the whistleblower complaint he deemed credible. we're watching it for any breaking news. the interview that occurred yesterday went nine hours and 30 minutes. we have no idea how long it will go today. michael atkinson is in the hot seat there and we'll bring you headlines, leaks, updates, whatever we get coming up next on "america's newsroom."

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to help the world keep advancing. >> sandra: fox news alert. the nation's top intelligence watchdog at the center of the

whistleblower firestorm is now on capitol hill. welcome to a brand if you hour of "america's newsroom," i'm sandra smith. i'm feeling good, how about you, hemmer? >> bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning. depositions, dare and deadline as democrats pump up the push for impeachment. three big things this hour. the intel watchdog michael atkinson in a closed door hearing on the whistleblower complaint. the white house expected to draft a letter for pelosi calling for an impeachment vote that may or may not happen today. >> sandra: democrats demanding documents that secretary pompeo. democrats issue a new warning. deadline is today. >> any effort the administration makes to obstruct our ability to get the facts on the president's effort to coerce ukraine into helping his campaign will only add to the body of evidence on a potential article involving the obstruction of the lawful functions of congress. >> what i'm hearing the right move here and something that

the administration seriously considering doing is forcing the house to take a vote. they want to have one. there should be a vote. there should be minority rights and subpoenas from both sides. the president should be represented by counsel. >> bill: lee zeldin a moment ago. adam schiff prior to him. mike emanuel. take it a piece at a time. >> good morning. house intelligence committee democrat says president trump should keep talking. he is only making the democrats' case. >> i do believe that as he continues to speak out, he is creating more evidence for both the intelligence committee and the house to take action for articles of impeachment. but what we do know now is that this is what he does on a regular basis. >> how republican leader kevin mccarthy is hammering speaker nancy pelosi because there was no vote launching this inquiry. pelosi insists a vote is not necessary that the point.

mccarthy writing without transparent and equitable rules and procedures the american people will forever understand the sham process for what it is, the fulfillment of a partisan goal to reverse the 2016 election. today lawmakers are hearing from intelligence community inspector general michael at kinson. he rayed concerns about the whistleblower and someone who taught to protect the individual who brought forward this complaint. >> i'm interested from hearing more from state department officials. looking forward to reviewing the transcript of mr. volker that happened yesterday. and today we have the icig and the intelligence community inspector general to talk further about what he knew about the whistleblower and some of the investigations that he made. >> former ukraine special envoy kurt volker spent 9 1/2 hours behind closed doors. republicans jim jordan and devin nunes gave him high marks.

the facts we learned under cut the narrative that schiff is selling. we hope the american people get to read the transcript of today's testimony and see the truth with the vast majority of congress back home in their district on recess some of the key committees continue searching for answers. >> bill: mike emanuel from the hill. >> sandra: let's bring in our a-team. juan williams and co-host of the five. there she is, welcome back to shelby holliday from the "wall street journal." great to have you back. ed rollins is hear. reagan 84 campaign manager and fox news contributor. welcome to all of you. what a moment this is. i think we say that almost daily now, ed. >> when i first went to washington i became part of the nixon administration and became part of the white house team doing impeachment. the only thing i would urge at this point in time. democrats will impeach him. them owe put it up. let's make it as open and

honest as possible and i think for the sake of the administration they need to get their case made. outrageous that a whistleblower was a c.i.a. investigator that starts this thing. it is not their role. it is very important counter point and point and be honest. the most serious thing congress will ever do. i think it's outrageous without having the process being open. you can't bring people behind closed rooms and then basically send out the republicans have talking points, democrats have talking points and the public is totally confused. fairness to the person who is testifying if he has something confidential but for a nine hour hearing they could have had most in the open. >> i would love for everything to be out in the open. it is true. we're getting some tidbits of information. what's interesting about the text message they corroborate more in the whistleblower

complaint. the whistleblower alleges that rudy giuliani was being briefed by the state department officials to contain the damage. it certainly looks like that based on the text messages we're getting. the whistleblower complaint alleges that ukrainian officials were led to believe a meeting or call with president trump and president zelensky would be contingent whether or not president zelensky would play ball. so these text messages corroborate that as well. we published a timeline video at the "wall street journal" detailing the interactions between trump's camp and ukrainian officials. when you look at this effort that goes back almost a year it just makes it clear how this is all about two investigations into the 2016 russia probe and into the bidens. it is difficult to ed's point about being open and having a coordinated defense, republicans are in a tough spot. they said it's about europe not spending enough money for ukraine and said it is about corruption broadly. it is really not when you look

at the interactions. it's about the bidens and the russia probe. >> sandra: juan. >> i was taken by ed's reminiscing about the nixon impeachment. >> not reminiscing fondly. >> ed said he was part of the team, part of the strategy team. >> that's right. >> what strikes me looking at this, you know, as a reporter on the outside is gosh, the trump white house doesn't have a strategy, war room if you will to deal with this. it really is president trump. president trump it seems is sort of unabashed in saying hey, i don't think there is a problem here. i don't think there is a problem with the phone call. he calls it perfect despite what the democrats are saying. in addition to which yesterday he says openly china, i would like you to get involved and do some research on the bidens. and it seems to me time and again what we're hearing not only from the president's mouth but now from the people at the

state department and again what we saw is that mike pompeo, secretary of state didn't want those people to be able to testify. think that's why kurt volker resigned so that he could participate yesterday in the hearings. but what we're seeing is that they are basically stonewalling this and saying there is nothing here. and they are saying that to their republican base. don't buy what you are hearing, don't buy all the timelines and the -- there is nothing here. will that work? i don't know. >> sandra: whether it comes to whether we see this vote or not andy mccarthy we had on earlier, ed and asked him about just that. the white house is almost saying i dare you to do this. >> they have the votes. they ought to put them up. part of the problem. president in his heart believes he has done nothing wrong. he watched too many robert deniro movies not enough brad pitt movies. it's style not substance. but a president has the right

to question foreign leaders and set things. we sit down and set things up. meeting with the chinese, north koreans or what have you. he saw there was corruption in that country and wanted it cleared up and make sure the new president was going to be okay and even though he didn't say you aren't going to get the military aid, it was implied. my sense is at this point in time is that impeachable and a crime? that's to be debated. i don't think it was. he doesn't think it was. >> sandra: i want to get the sound from andy mccarthy. >> i think she is right, they don't have to have a vote. there is nothing that requires them to have a vote. but if this is going to be real, if they really have grounds to seek the president's impeachment, they not only should have a vote because it is in their interest when they go to court to have a vote. they should be proud to have a vote. >> bill: where is that, juan? >> i think they're an independent branch of government on equal standing with the executive. congress of course. and you can't have the president setting the terms for

how the impeachment would proceed. the best argument from the republicans is there is precedent here in prior impeachment proceedings. there was a vote to start. but it is not required. and what nancy pelosi -- >> bill: everybody is away right now, two-week break meeting with constituents you think. are they holding town halls? i haven't seen anything that suggests they are. perhaps they are in different districts. >> joni ernst was. >> bill: is she trying to build a case and buy her caucus time so they can come back and say we got it, let's go forward? or hey, behind closed doors, we don't have it. we're not there. slow it down. >> they have the 218 votes. any time they want to put the 218 votes. they can impeach him on monday when they come back. they want to get enough evidence to make their case to the american public. i don't think they have the case at this point in time or will have the case. that's what they want to do.

>> nancy pelosi has said if they were to move forward with impeachment proceedings she wanted it to be bipartisan. she might be waiting for more information or to see if there is more republican support for impeachment as the facts come out. >> i'm a friend of nancy pelosi and known her for 50 years. there won't be a republican -- there won't be bipartisan support for this. republicans will support the president to the bitter end. democrats totally opposed to them. >> that's a power play. you are putting party over country is what you hear. where you said the president -- i say it, too, the president doesn't believe he did anything wrong. i think there is a fact-based case to say if you are seeking to get a foreign country to dig up dirt on your political opponent and interfere in the upcoming election that's impeachable. there is no crime in the statutes, right? no crime specific. but in terms someone saying that meets the test of high crimes and misdemeanors a lot of people would say. >> whatever the test is of high

crimes and misdemeanors has been debated since the start. >> bill: i don't no if it's on target. we're trying to project where it goes, right? it appears if you listen to the white house case they are going to make an argument that all these conversations were about the election of 2016. democrats will make the argument no, it is about an opponent you could face in 2020 and goes back to the bill clinton years what is the definition of is and what is the definition of a crime. the second point is if you read the a.p. piece from yesterday. encourage you all to read it. it makes a clear point where white house started cooperating in the mueller matter they started losing and when they fought back they gained ground. they make the case the white house will lose if they cooperate on this. >> they learned a lot about what they can get away with alluding to executive privilege.

if you look back a lot of these people close to president trump, steve bannon tried to claim privilege for the transition period. we saw then a.g. jeff sessions claim executive privilege before the president invoked it. they learned a lot what they could get away with. part of them fighting back is to withhold documents and withhold testimony. however, the president has said, you know, sometimes he changes his mind but he has said he wants to be transparent. >> bill: democrats have to get this thing done quick. they don't want to be in february and march going into a campaign season doing impeachment. their game plan try to get it out by thanksgiving. christmas come and go and have the trial in january. senate. which they aren't going to win. my sense is the white house strategy is stalling things not a bad strategy. >> that's exactly right. this is delay and stone wall. and hope that it gets to the court. the problem is with impeachment underway the courts are more likely to side with the congress and to do so quickly. >> if they declare it's

impeachment. >> she has declared it's impeachment. do you need a vote? it says you need a vote on articles of impeachment to go forward. but again this is an argument now coming from the republican national committee oh, public, look at these democrats. they are afraid to even have a vote to start. it's not required. >> bill: do you see this thanksgiving thing as possible or do you think it's a pipe dream >> i learned a long time 218 you can do it any time you want to. >> bill: are you convinced there are 218. >> probably. >> bill: what if something happens behind closed doors and they come out with evidence you don't expect and now you have mud on your face? >> they'll have mud on their face anyway. they could vote tomorrow or monday when they all come back. >> sandra: what are they waiting for? >> they were on target there is

a persuasion campaign. you have to get the public on board. you can do it as ed was saying but the thing is does the public think it was the right thing to do. impeachment is divisive and you'll hear from republicans oh my gosh they're going after an elected president. i think the president has used the term coup, treason. this suggestion is this is extra political, an attempt to unseat a duly elected president of the united states. if the american people believe that there will be blowback for the democrats. the democrats want to make sure they've made the case publicly. not behind closed doors, this is a necessary action for a president who has gone rogue. >> bill: i believe the next trump rally is october 17th. that's two days after the next democratic debate. if you're nancy pelosi you sit back and say how many people showed up? 10,000, 15,000? >> i promise you lots will show up. >> bill: where did it happen? how does he make his case?

i imagine the room will be electric and you have to calculate that. >> how much we learned in the past week. there is so much we could learn in the next couple weeks before that rally. so it's anyone's guess what we'll know and the way the wind is blowing. >> shelby, nice to have you back. >> congratulations on the new addition to your family. thank you all. >> bill: new twist in the jesse smollett matter. a judge will weigh possible bias for the empire actor who reported a racial attack against him. prosecutor dan webb made a $1,000 to state attorney kim foxx in 2016. matt finn has the story in chicago. put it together, matt. good morning. >> good morning, bill. as if there haven't been enough twists and reversals in the smollett saga. now at a hearing in a few hours the new independent special prosecutor in the case could be

yanked or he might end up recusing himself. dan webb is a former u.s. attorney here now the special prosecutor in the jussie smollett case. after consideration webb was assigned to investigate the entire smollett case from the start. the slate wiped clean. he can bring the same or new criminal charges against smollett or anyone he finds committed a crime including state attorney kim foxx and people inside her office. but now it's been revealed that dan webb gave a $1,000 donation to kim foxx in 2016 when she was running for cook county states attorney. webb claims he doesn't recall attending the fundraiser at his own law firm or cutting that check for foxx insisting his firm holds lots of fundraisers and it is common for attorneys to donate to prosecutors. so today at a special hearing dan webb could be removed or perhaps he might step aside. here is webb shortly after he was sworn in saying he acknowledges the importance of

his role. >> the truth is i have to go where the facts go and i cannot let politics dictate where i go and how i make decisions. i intend to expedite everything. the facts will take me where they take me. >> kim foxx says she continues to cooperate and adds a side note. smollett has resurfaced on social media. he continues to insist that chicago police and the mayor wrongfully accused him of a hoax. >> bill: matt finn in chicago. >> sandra: the stock market is on the rise and climbing as we speak. reacting to the release of the september jobs report. dow up 170. what does it say about the u.s. economy? >> the cdc reporting at least 1,000 cases of those getting sick from vaping. now there are apparently 18 deaths nationwide connected. so what next in this coming up.

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new numbers from the cdc

showing vaping illness cases have risen to more than 1,000 with at least 18 deaths. cdc saying it's a very concerning outbreak and the 18 deaths come from 15 states ranging from california to new jersey. >> bill: fox business alert now. september jobs report is out. employers added 136,000 jobs last movement unemployment rate fell to 3.5% which is the lowest number we've seen in 50 years. joining me now fox business network gerri willis. go ahead and grade the report. what do you think? >> the sentiment on the floor of the exchange has been so negative lately. the last couple of days we had that horrible manufacturing number, remember that? and so this was really the tell. this report is what they were looking at to confirm whether or not we're actually in a recession or going into, tipping into recession. they read it as no. they saw lots of positives in

this. most that number 3.5% the rate 50 years. you have to go back to the moon shot bill. >> bill: you are on the floor every day. the sentiment down there was not great. >> not so great. they really got surprised by the manufacturing number tuesday. we came back with the wednesday number on the service sector that was bad, not quite as bad but not good. services is basically lawyers, doctors, entertainment, everything that is not a hard core product. >> bill: how do they feel about that number now? >> i think you could read it another way. some traders will think we get rate cuts and we want them. the chances of a rate cut coming from the federal reserve is rising in recent days. >> sandra: time will tell because one day does not make a trend. we'll watch that. there is a big expected rate cut at the end of the month. meanwhile homeownership, interest rate. what is happening there and does it behoove someone to go out and buy a home today? >> these rates are coming down,

down, down. we saw housing prices go through the roof. nobody could afford a house, right? now rates are coming down, down. 1.25% from this time last year. if you've got a mortgage $300,000 mortgage that's $225 a month. that's real money for people and could make the difference between buying and not buying for some people. this is a big deal because for every house that is sold there is something like $63,000 additional money that's spent on the furniture, for the realtor commissions. what else will you do? upgrade. >> bill: home depot. >> the tale of the tape. the guy who paints our house is driving a bmw just saying. >> sandra: interesting indicator. now we have the new op-ed in the "wall street journal" from san francisco about compassion with the homelessness and if that's having a good or bad effect on the growing problem there. >> i've lived there for a long

time and saw the trend emerging that the city was doing more and more and more for people addicted to drugs, living on the street. they give them the needles to inject their drugs and show them how to inject. give them food, a place to live. as you see, many of these people choose to live on the street. it is a horrible situation with not just people shooting up on the street, but also all of the garbage that goes along with this. lack of safety. if you are walking down these streets, i've done this. you don't feel safe. in that very article you just cited the author says she bought i believe it's a woman bought fentanyl a block from the law school for 14 bucks. it was a first-time purchase opportunity, only $14. think about the price of entry, the cost of entry very low. >> she writes san francisco the city is conducting a three

decade experiment when society stops enforcing norms of behavior. it has done so in the name of compassion for the homeless. the results street squalor and misery increased while government expenses have ballooned. every one is on drugs and stealing. the whole >> this is not how you improve people's lives. spending money is easy. finding solutions is not. >> bill: get back to the floor. whatever you will do. awesome to see you. >> sandra: so much fun to be there. the fight for freedom in hong kong. authorities have new emergency powers. what the beijing-backed leader is now banning. >> bill: democrats going after impeachment. president trump calling on ukraine and china to investigate the bidens. is that comment out of bounds?

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>> sandra: fast moving developments in the impeachment fight rocking washington the inspector general for the intelligence committee who initially received the whistleblower complaint that set off the impeachment inquiry now testifying behind closed doors to the house intel committee. hans von spakovsky now senior legal fellow at the heritage foundation. good morning to you. first up the i.g. we will likely hear more later today. what do you expect to be revealed in that closed-door hearing? >> the i.g. is going to have to

explain why it was the policy and on these complaint form of his office that you could only file a complaint if you had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing inside the intelligence community. instead that was the policy at the time of the phone call between the president and the president of ukraine. then suddenly it changed and he accepted a complaint based on second hand knowledge and news reports. i think that is frankly bizarre and it brings up the question of whether this complaint was actually credible and something that the i.g. should have even have sent to the director of national intelligence. >> sandra: made it clear the whistleblower to him was credible and the information that he brought forward was being treated as credible. >> yeah, how can it be credible when their prior policy before

this has always been to require firsthand information? look, second hand information is hearsay and a good reason it isn't accepted in court anywhere in the country. it is unreliable. >> bill: we talked about that a week ago and another report suggested it wasn't the case. are you saying for the fact that's the way the law was written? >> what i'm saying is that's the policy of the inspector general and has been the policy of the inspector general. and that's the right policy. like i said, hearsay is unreliable and that should not be used when investigating what should be serious complaints. >> bill: just to be clear on this. not a law, policy. you're saying that is how the policy is written. >> that was the policy of the i.g.'s office. he changed it after he received this complaint from this whistleblower. >> bill: a couple of things here.

the interview that lee zeldin talked about yesterday. he said it blew a hole in the whole schiff story that had been out there publicly. how much did they learn from the i.g. today about what adam schiff knew and when he had the information? >> well, i don't know the answer to that because we don't know what kind of discussions adam schiff may have had with the inspector general and/or the whistleblower. those facts just aren't out there. i assume that's what they are going to be questioning him in depth about. they certainly should be questioning about it. >> bill: we just had this longstanding debate. all three panelists believe democrats have the votes and have the 218 to go forward. you live in washington is that a fact? >> i don't know if they have the vote but let me put it this way. look, nancy pelosi is correct that the constitution doesn't

require a vote but i think justice demands it. here is why. other than declaring war, the most serious undertaking that congress can engage in is impeachment. what they are doing is removing a duly-elected president and overturning the choice of the american electorate. that should not even begin until and unless they have a formal vote approved by the entire house and a resolution that lays out not only the evidence justifying the start of the investigation, but what the scope will be, what the rules under which it is going to operate, and what the timing is going to be. without that, it raises questions about again the credibility of what is happening in the house. >> sandra: nancy pelosi responded to that in this letter she wrote to leader mccarthy yesterday. she said the existing rules of the house provide house committees willful authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction including impeachment investigations.

there is no requirement under the constitution, she writes, under house rules or house precedent, that the whole house vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. >> she is right but look, this kind of vote was held when they started the investigation for richard nixon. it was held when they started the investigation of bill clinton. and as i said, this is such a serious undertaking with such substantial consequences that i think it's just simply unfair and wrong for her not to get the approval of the entire house and as i said, set out the rules and conditions under which the investigation is going to be conducted. >> bill: in early 1998 there were democrats voted with republicans in the house to proceed on the bill clinton matter, right? if you have zero republicans in 2019, what is the effect of that on the american people? >> well, i think the american people may question this. remember, with the clinton

investigation and the clinton impeachment it was very clear that even though it was obvious the president had actually violated the law, he had perjured himself in a deposition the american people did not believe his misconduct was serious enough to justify removing him from office. the republicans paid the price for that at the ballot box. in this situation i think is very similar. if the american people do not believe that the president engaged in misconduct or that it was serious enough to justify removing him from office, then the people who pushed forward with it may also just like with the clinton impeachment, pay the price at the ballot box. >> bill: thank you for your time. hans von spakovsky from washington, d.c. nice to see you again. hong kong leaders threatening harsher crackdown as protestors descend into the streets. facemasks will be banned in an

effort to stop violence and vandalism. we're live in hong kong with the latest. greg. >> we're seeing skirmishs all across hong kong tonight. pro democracy activists angry about the emergency moves. take a look and take a listen. people here in hong kong had a fiery response to the facemask ban and they've gathered in the streets to give a definitive answer. they are not taking them off. >> totally rubbish, total rubbish. >> very bad. >> why? >> we have freedom to wear masks. >> that's abusing their right and power. >> now the embattled hong kong chief executive utilizing an ordinance. now china firmly in charge. protestors took to the streets. activists were trying to get

the law repeals that carries a one-year jail sentence. it is impossible to enforce. fury, a step towards tyranny and others see it as a desperate attempt by the authorities to try to end four months of unrest. bill, again, as you noted this law goes into effect on saturday. guess what? there is a protest planned for saturday and probable clashes as well. >> bill: not going over well with protestors. back at home the bernie sanders campaign with an update on the candidate's condition. we have an update on what will happen for him in the next debate. >> sandra: the estranged husband of a missing mother of five looking to have the case against him dismissed and a gag order lifted. does he have a legal leg to stand on in either request? >> it's our position that the judge acted in ways that no other court in the united states ever has by basically imposing a prior restraint on

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>> sandra: senator bernie sanders is hospitalized recovering from a heart procedure. his campaign insists he'll be ready to take part in the next primary debate in 11 days in ohio. he was hospitalized after experiencing chest pain during a campaign event tuesday. two stents were inserted to open a blocked artery. he is hoping to be discharged in the next few days and plans to fly home to vermont. >> bill: dulos back in court, the estranged husband of the mother of five jennifer. criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor jonna spilbor. the gag order appeal issued by the stanford judge in the dulos case. what did they say on the gag order? on or off? >> it's been denied. the gag order is still on.

which no surprises here. as defense attorneys you never want to try a case in the media and i think what happened here, bill, is that this is really the fault of dulos's attorney. remember when he came out with the theory that gone girl theory and talking that up to the media? there really isn't anything to substantiate that and it compelled the prosecutor to say nobody should be talking about this. >> bill: gag order remains if place. >> sandra: both charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution in connection to all of this. they are not charged with murder. there are no grounds to charge them still with her disappearance or murder in her disappearance. >> that's what makes this case so strange. they are charged with tampering with evidence of what crime? of course everybody thinks there is some logical conclusion between an estranged husband having a court battle with the wife and the wife missing.

she must be dead and he must have done it. juries try facts. we don't have any facts yet to make that leap between is she dead and did he kill her? >> sandra: does he have a right to speed this along? >> yes, he has a right. most people in all states have a right to speed it along. once you are charged with any crime there is a finite amount of time the prosecution has to be prepared for trial. and if i were him, when you are a defendant in a case where they don't have a lot of evidence against you, the faster you can get in front of a jury the better. >> you would want to go to trial. >> sooner rather than later while there is no evidence against my client. double jeopardy kicks in and never tried for that again. that's why the prosecutor has not charged with murder. they have only charged with these lesser tampering offenses. if he is not guilty of those and they find a body, they can

charge him with murder later. >> sandra: making public the situation with the kids. initially with the grandmother and moved up to connecticut, right, to the family home where the mother did live with them. she was last seen dropping her children off at school that day that she disappeared. >> fotis dulos, his position is i'm not guilty of anything. i should be allowed to have access to my children. and i think they will put that argument well after all this criminal stuff is complete. >> bill: right now no evidence for murder. >> they have nothing yet. they can't even charge for murder. >> bill: the gag order remains in place. 13 minutes before the hour. >> sandra: a new battle online pitting security versus privacy. attorney general william barr asking facebook for quote lawful access to user data in order to help fight crime. is it a case of big brother gone too far? a texas judge igniting -- the

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>> sandra: a new battle over a secrecy versus public safety.

attorney general william barr asking facebook to postpone its plans to encrypt user's messages. you have our attention at facebook. privacy concerns. what about the encryption? what are they looking to do here? >> facebook wants to get it all into one system and encrypt it. end-to-end encryption. when i send a message to you the whole way it travels on the internet nobody can see what it is saying until it gets to your inbox. d.o.j. says we need some kind of back door access. what if people are talking about child sex trafficking or terrorism or illegal activities. we need to be able to see that and monitor that. and this is kind of what it comes down to is where do we draw that line of you have an expectation of privacy so long as you are following the law

but if you are breaking the law you don't? it's a really sticky situation. facebook is not the first to have to deal with it. >> bill: apple faced this in california. terrorist case, the government wanted access to the iphones and apple said we won't give you the keys to the kingdom. >> apple made a valid point. what apple has said and others say if we leave a back door into our encryption, that doesn't mean just law enforcement is going to get it. that means any hacker who can figure out what that back door is, is going to be able to get in. you also have -- you could have a situation where you have a couple of bad apples at the police department who say i'll get into my ex's messages because we have this special computer we can get into other people's messages. i'm not saying it's reason enough not to do it but a lot of things could become problematic. when you play this out all the way, what if you have people in congress talking with other

people in congress about private situations? do we want their conversations to be -- it's happening right now. >> bill: i am a doubter on the whole encryption. i don't think anything is really encrypted. just yesterday in this closed-door testimony we had quote, unquote, encrypted text messages that are now in print. so if it's encrypted how do you get access to it? it doesn't ever disappear. >> it doesn't ever disappear. we're all learning it in realtime with our digital messages. if it is on your device and travels to another device and is on another device it's in two places. someone can access it. if you grab my ipad and you know my code, you will be able to get in and read my messages for as long as my ipad is unlocked. if i send a message to someone and you get that person's device will you get the messages i sent that person. >> bill: barr is saying we want legal access on behalf of the

federal government to this information. >> do they want to get it while in transit. is this a fixable thing where facebook can say we'll look for key words. if we see key words that suggest nefarious activity we'll flag those and lower the encryption level and send them out to somebody else. there has to be a technology solution to this that ensures that all of our private communications. email is never private. whatever you do. don't put it in an email. >> bill: have a great weekend. >> sandra: thanks. >> bill: we have news from the president. >> sandra: he walked out of the white house a few moments ago. he will be heading to an event on his way out he stopped to talk to reporters and, of course, first thing to come up hemmer unemployment numbers taking a victory lap on that. mentioning that wages were up. and he said that we are very happy were the president's

words and talks about the letter to pelosi. we'll be issuing a letter. we've been treated very unfairly and he talks about china and the bidens. >> bill: also the comment about four pinocchios, as whether or not his committee had any contact with the whistleblower. it is ongoing, sandra. and we'll play that for you as soon as it's available. i think we're 10 minutes in. it could go 20 or 30. we'll find out after the break. chris wallace is on deck with a great hour coming up, guys. come back right after this at the top of the hour. as your life grows, so do your needs. ♪ and with bank of america and merrill, the benefits you get can grow, too. as a preferred rewards member, you can enjoy priority service and exclusive discounts... so your growing life can be more rewarding, too. ♪

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>> sandra: fox news alert. president trump left the white house or stepped out of the white house a few moments ago. stopped to talk to reporters. he is on his way to a wounded warriors event and he is still talking to reporters as we last understand a couple minutes ago. he has been talking for about 10 minutes and he has addressed a range of issues including something we're told he just said about investigating the bidens and his suggestion to possibly have china involved yesterday. he said investigating biden would not be tied to the china trade deal. that was said by the president a few moments ago. he talked about the letter to pelosi. we'll be issuing a letter. we've been treated unfairly. go over history to see how we've been treated.

he also talks about china and biden and the unemployment numbers this morning. wages are up. we are happy. takes a victory lap from the government report this morning. we'll have the president on video and play it back for you when he concludes. another fox news alert this morning in a big hearing on capitol hill at this hour. lawmakers hearing from the intel community's inspector general. that is happening behind closed doors as the white house prepares to challenge the impeachment inquiry. we're trying to keep track of it all for you on this friday morning. welcome to a new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm sandra smith. >> bill: president still talking. i.g. michael at kinson is behind closed door handling the ukraine whistleblower campaign. oversight over all the intelligence community. the i.g. for that unit. the president could send a letter to speaker pelosi maybe today demanding she hold that vote on the impeachment inquiry.

many people say democrats have the votes. word of caution, you never have the votes until you actually take the vote. republican lee zeldin earlier in our program here. >> we should have an impeachment inquiry. if they want to have one there should be a vote. minority rights, subpoenas from both sides. the president should be represented by counsel and be able to present evidence. if they choose to comply today that's fine but really forcing the hand of the house i think is the right move here. >> sandra: team fox coverage four. john roberts at the white house. we begin with chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge on capitol hill. >> good morning. the internal watchdog for the intelligence community michael atkinson arrived a while ago. he was last year two weeks ago and so much has changed in the last two weeks. for one the whistleblower complaint has been declassified.

the white house has released the july 25th transcript of the phone call between the president and the ukrainian leader. we now have confirmation the whistleblower reached out to the democrat-controlled house intelligence committee before they officially filed the complaint on august 12th. we've also had the release of text messages and just bear with me as i walk you through. the first set is from july. this is an exchange between kurt volker, the former special envoy to ukraine and an ambassador to the e.u. and a contributor to the president's inaugural committee. had breakfast with rudy this morning. teeing up call with yermack. most important is for zelensky to say he will help investigation and address any specific personnel issues if

there are any. the next text i want the draw your attention to is from september. these were encrypted texts between a top diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor, a gordon. as i said on the phone i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. the respond is bill, i believe you're incorrect about president trump's intentions. the president is crystal clear no quid pro quos of any kind. the president is trying to evaluate whether ukraine will adopt transparency that president zelensky promised during the campaign. meantime this morning democrats and republicans have different sets of questions for the intelligence community watchdog. republicans want to know more about the timeline. the outreach to the democrat-controlled committee and they are also drawing attention to the chairman's statements to the media about when he first knew about the

allegations. listen. >> we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower. we would like to. but i'm sure the whistleblower has concerns he has not been advised as the law requires by the inspector general as the director of national intelligence how he is to communicate with congress. the risk to the whistleblower is retaliation. >> the state department is facing very tight deadline. just about an hour from now to provide ukraine records to the three house committees, oversight, intelligence and foreign affairs. if they fail to -- i'll wrap it and send it back. there is too much more to continue with here. >> sandra: your reporting is excellent as always. >> bill: don't drown down there, okay? we'll throw you a lifeline. president trump says he will challenge house speaker nancy pelosi sending a letter possibly today demanding that she hold a formal impeachment

inquiry vote. john roberts has that aspect of the story now on the north lawn. good morning. >> good morning to you. that letter may or may not go up to nancy pelosi today. there is still a chance it could but it is beginning to look it may not go up until monday. the president himself you'll hear him in a few minutes confirming there will be a letter complaining he has been treated unfacial -- unfairly. it's all about corruption not a quid pro quo. he will dare the house speaker to hold an impeachment vote. it will not comply unless and until pelosi calls for a vote on impeachment in the full house. moderate democrats in red states on the spot and get a roll call of who is in favor of impeachment. fox news is told the letter will draw on many of the same themes as the letter house minority leader kevin mccarthy sent to pelosi. in the letter he writes you

have given no clear indication how your impeachment inquiry will proceed including whether key historical precedents or due process will be observed. do you intend to hold a vote of the full house authorizing your impeachment inquiry? pelosi wrote back there is no requirement under the constitution under house rules or house precedent that the whole house vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. the white house letter. the mccarthy let i have with me. the white house letter will really put that statement from pelosi to the test. republicans are making the case that until there is a vote in the full house authorizing an impeachment inquiry everything the democrats are engaged in now is nothing more than political theater. the president saying his call with president xi had nothing to do with an investigation of joe biden and here is one thing that people need to consider. president trump has said a

number of times that president xi is hoping that president trump gets defeated next november so that he can cut a trade deal or go back to the trade status quo with whatever democrat might occupy the white house after that. so why would xi want to undertake an investigation of joe biden? it doesn't make sense. >> bill: john, thank you. sort through it. john roberts north lawn. we'll play the president's remarks in a matter of moments. here is sandra. >> sandra: let's bring in "fox news sunday" anchor chris wallace. we await the president because he apparently is still talking to reporters. we'll have a lot for everybody once we do. chris, good morning. your thoughts on the situation as we look to wrap another week? >> well, i think it's pretty clear why the president is going to send this letter to nancy pelosi demanding a full vote by the house. first of all, as has been suggested, it is a way to put house moderates, there are i

think 31 house democrats who won in districts that trump won in 2016, put them on the record as to whether not for impeachment but for an impeachment inquiry, that's one. two, it gives a pretty good excuse to the president procedural excuse why he is not going to comply with the subpoenas that the house will issue for white house records. and he can say look, you have this illegitimate process and a third thing. if there is a formal inquiry that is voted by the house it would give republicans in the house more power. they would have subpoena power that they don't now have. having said that on the merits. you can argue yes in the previous cases of impeaching presidents there have been a full vote by the house. there is nothing in the constitution that says nancy pelosi has to do it. she is the speaker and has the majority. it is a simple case of power politics. >> sandra: she made that point very clear in the letter she wrote to leader mccarthy

yesterday. peggy noonan, "wall street journal" op-ed. it is assumed the house will impeach the president. how? quickly fail in the senate and not win in america. this cannot be one party doing its one-party thing. i think nancy pelosi knows that. we're left wondering what happens next with this. we'll hear more from the president in a second. to your point on that letter to pelosi, the president just said moments ago we will be issuing a letter. he says we've been treated unfairly. go over history and see how we've been treated. >> i think that nancy pelosi or at least prior to last week would have agreed with peggy noonan that this can't be a simple party line vote. one of the reasons she resisted efforts for, what, two years to try to impeach the president

and move against him it can't be a purely partisan effort. there has to be some republican buy-in. at this point there is 1 1/2 republicans who have supported the idea of an inquiry. amash of michigan completely in favor of it. an inquiry. and another republican who is sort of supported the idea. but at this point the republican party has held but not holding a vote at this point. the key is what democrats in this investigation are going to be able to find. there was damaging information from former envoy to ukraine kurt volker yesterday in that closed door hearing deposition but unless it gets stronger this will remain a party line vote. democrats can force impeachment of the president, which is basically an indictment and allegation on a party line vote. it will go nowhere in the

senate. they have to dig up more evidence if it will get a bipartisan buy-in. so far it hasn't. >> sandra: more words from the president that we're about to hear after talking about the letter to pelosi he said what i want to do, we have an obligation to look into corruption. what biden and his son did. they hurt so many people in the trump campaign despite all unfairness looking at corruption. one other big headline what he said after his suggestion china get involved yesterday. chris he said investigating biden would not be tied to a china trade deal. wanted to get your reaction to that before we let you go. >> well, he says that and of course he says that there was no tie in ukraine to the withholding of $400 million of aid and withholding of a presidential visit. the two things don't exist in complete isolation. particularly in the case of ukraine. the link between withholding the aid. the fact we have found out from

this top envoy kurt volker yesterday that the u.s. was working to try to get the man there on the left, ukrainian president zelensky to sign a formal pledge that he was going to specifically investigate biden, you know, sure creates some linkage but the president is going to say there is no linkage there. i'm asking a question. one last point. generally speaking if there was going to be an investigation it wouldn't be the president demanding another president do it and also talking about investigating his prime rival. it would be the f.b.i. or the justice department going to law enforcement officials inside ukraine and asking them and that didn't happen. it was the president to the president, which raises all kinds of questions. >> sandra: all right. i'm sure you'll have a lot of questions this weekend, too. "fox news sunday" with chris wallace, his interview. who do you have coming up? >> we have val demings, who is on the intelligence committee

and have a republican brad wenstrup and the key because the they're hearing from the inspector general right now. we'll have the latest on what they have found so far. >> sandra: i'm told i have to go. up against a hard break. chris wallace, thank you very much. >> bill: the president's remarks have concluded. he talked about joe biden the following way. haven't seen his poll numbers. said that biden was taken off the garbage heap by obama. i don't think he will win. runs about 23 minutes in length. we should have it after this commercial break. come on back. their mortgage at these near record low rates. one call can save you $2000 every year.

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>> sandra: fox news alert. you are looking live at the white house right now where the president just departed a short time ago. a little more than 20 minutes ago. on his way out he spoke to reporters and he went on like i said for about 20 minutes. a wide ranging discussion with reporters on the ground there. everything ranging from china, the investigation, the letter, to nancy pelosi. here is the president of the united states. >> president trump: so the unemployment numbers just came out and they are the best numbers we've had in over 50 years. the unemployment number is down to 3.5%. so that goes way, way back. we haven't had numbers like this in a long time. wages are up by almost 3%. that's a fantastic increase for everybody out there working.

we're very happy about those numbers. the stock market is substantially up as it was yesterday. and our country does well. europe is not doing well. asia is doing poorly to put it mildly. and we continue to do very well. we're the miracle. the unemployment numbers just came out, 3.5% unemployment and that is a tremendous number. the lowest in over 50 years. so very happy. i think really very important. again i'll say wages are up. when i was running, wages were nowhere. they were going down. people were having two and three jobs and making less money than they made 20 years before. now wages are up. we're very happy about that. one other thing having to do with poland. poland is a country, great people. we have a lot of polish americans living in the united states. i've just signed -- i will soon

be signing and signed certain preliminary applications. we'll be giving a full visa waiver to poland. that means people from poland can easily travel there and people from here can go back and forth. people from the u.s. and people from poland can go back and forth between the united states and poland. so they've been trying to get this for many, many decades. and i got it for the polish people in honor of the polish people in the united states and in poland. so we're very happy with that. >> four pinocchios by the post for lying. adam schiff. >> that's good. he should have gotten them 2 1/2 years ago. that's a nice question. let me shake your hand. come here. that's a very nice question. i figured that was a trick question, right? >> what does your letter to pelosi say?

>> president trump: we'll be issuing a letter. we've been treated very unfairly and very different from everybody else. if you go over any aspect of life you will see how unfairly we've been treated. we have done a fantastic job. everything to me is about corruption. we want to find out what happened with 2016 and as you know there is a lot of work going on with that. i don't care about biden's campaign but i care about corruption. his campaign that's up to him. politics, that's up to them. i don't care about politics. politics as i think i made clear and yesterday somebody asked me a question and i gave an answer. but always in the form of corruption. what i want to do and i think i have an obligation to do it, probably a duty to do it. corruption. we're looking for corruption. when you look at what biden and his son did and you look at other people what they've done. i believe there was tremendous corruption with biden but i

think there was beyond. beyond corruption, having to do with the 2016 campaign and what these low lifes did to so many people to hurt so many people in the trump campaign, which was successful despite all of the fighting us. despite all of the unfairness. we're looking at corruption, we're not looking at politics. we're looking at corruption. >> what did you say to the chinese about the bidens? >> president trump: i don't know somebody said a long time. was it in to 2017? you would have to tell me when. all i can tell you this, when i speak to foreign leaders i speak in an appropriate way. if you notice they don't mention the call that i had with the president of ukraine. they don't mention that. because it was so good. the only time they mentioned it was when adam schiff made it up. you talk about pinocchios, that should get 10 pinocchios.

he made up a story. it was a phony story, adam schiff. so they don't talk about that anymore. when this came out it was quid pro quo. well, there was none. also yesterday the ambassador who i heard was tremendous and a tremendous person, he was 100% for what we're saying, 100%. if you look he also said there was no quid pro quo. that's the whole ballgame. but now the democrats don't bring that up anymore because they lost. look. they never thought i was going to release the phone call between the ukrainian president and myself. when i released that call, they were jumping around like you wouldn't believe. they didn't know how to respond. then they found out -- then they found out that the call itself was so bad for them. it was a perfect call. there was nothing -- we handed that call out. we've handed the call out to

people and they say wow, this is incredible. we're very proud of that call. when i speak to a foreign leader i speak in an appropriate manner. now, we're also doing trade deals with china and we're doing deals with a lot of people for the country. so i'm not looking to insult people, i can tell you that. we could probably find that out. [inaudible question]. >> president trump: that has nothing to do with it. i want to do a trade deal with china but only if it is good for our country. it could happen. as you know they are very much coming over next week, as i understand it. i would like to do a trade deal with china but only if it's a great trade deal for this country. one thing has nothing to do with the other. >> do you want the house to proceed with an official impeachment >> president trump: they've taken away our rights the way they're doing it. if they proceed. they will just get their people

-- they're all in line. even many of them don't want to vote they have to follow their leadership. we'll get it to the senate and we'll win. the republicans are unified. the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. we beat the one that started immediately. we went through two years of mueller and that came out like a 10, perfect. a few days go by and they start this nonsense. this is just as ridiculous. so the democrats unfortunately they have the votes. they could vote very easily even though many of them don't believe they should do it. i do believe -- i do believe that because of what they are doing with pelosi and they're real leaders, aoc plus three. that's their real leaders. i believe they'll pay a tremendous price at the polls. we saw the first glimpse of it two weeks ago in a great state

north carolina. we saw a great, great glimpse of what is going to happen. because in north carolina we had two races. one gentleman dan bishop was down by 17 points with three weeks ago and he won easily. and the other man as you know greg murphy was up by a very little bit and won by a massive amount, someplace in the 20% or something, maybe higher. so i think you got your first glimpse of what is going to happen. and the big key is that i have to campaign there. but if you look at what happened in north carolina, two races, we won both of them and we won them easily. one was almost tied and the other one was a big, big lead and that one turned and the tie became a landslide. [inaudible question] >> president trump: i don't

know about mitch. i have a lot of respect for mitch mcconnell. i saw his statement and he thinks this is ridiculous. he thinks it's unfair. i saw his statement yesterday that he put out where he read my phone conversation and he thought it was a wonderful conversation. it was. but see, the democrats don't talk about that anymore. they try to go to other things. these people are looking for anything they can get because they know they will lose the election. we're in election season now. for them to be doing this now, it has never been done. [inaudible question] >> president trump: we're dealing with north korea. they want to meet and we'll be meeting with them probably being set up as we speak. we'll let you know. but north korea would like to do something, iran would like to do something. a lot of countries in a good

position. despite the witch hunt, which hurts our country and america. iran wants to do something, north korea wants to do something, and china would like to do something. [inaudible question] >> president trump: that you would have to ask -- is the justice department investigating joe biden? that you would have to ask attorney general barr. but i can tell you just as an observer, what i saw biden do with his son, he is pillaging these countries and hurting us. how would you like to have as an example, joe biden negotiating the china deal if he took it over from me after the election? he would give them -- wait. he would give them everything. he would give them everything. how would you like to have that? joe biden would just roll out the red carpet and give them everything. so again, this doesn't pertain

to anything but corruption. and that has to do with me. i don't care about politics. i don't care about anything. but i do care about corruption. and to have somebody take out a billion half dollars out of china who is totally unfit. he is unfit to have him get a billion and a half dollars, to have him and now i'm hearing the number of $50,000 a month. now i'm hearing the number of $50,000 a month is very low. it's a much higher number that biden's son was getting per month. in fact, it's much higher. for him to -- and for him as a total -- for him as a totally unqualified person to be getting hundreds of thousands a month is very, very sad. so again, is the justice department investigating that? i just don't know. [inaudible question] >> do the democrats have the

vote to impeach? >> president trump: i think they follow the leader. i give the democrats credit. a lot of them don't want it. you know that. a lot of them they call them trump districts where i won and then they won after when i wasn't running. i'll win them big. if you look at what has happened with my polls they're through the roof. you know why? because of the phony witch hunt. if you look at what happened with the fundraising. we've set a record, the republicans, because people are sick and tired of it. i got a call the other night from pastors, the biggest pastors, evangelical christians. they said we have never seen our religion or any religion so -- churches are joining, hundreds of thousands of people. you know that is to a large extent because of you and your partner the democrats. [inaudible question] >> president trump: i think this.

we have great -- we have a great relationship in the senate. i have a 95% approval rating in the republican party. i believe the senate and i haven't spoken to that many senators. but i believe the senators look at this as a hoax, a witch hunt. it is a disgrace. should have never happened. just like russia collusion delusion should have never happened. that was a witch hunt and just like that should have never happened. so i think in the senate, i think they feel that the republican party has been treated very, very badly. now, in the house they have the majority. they all vote with aoc and plus three. nancy pelosi is petrified of them. she is afraid she will lose her position. nancy pelosi will lose her speakership right after the election when the republicans take over the house. [inaudible question] >> can we talk about the text messages include holding off a

-- >> president trump: the one text message. i don't even know most of these ambassadors. i didn't even know their names. the text message -- the text message that i saw from ambassador sundland who is highly respected was there is no quid pro quo. he said that. he said by the way, it almost sounded like in general. by the way, there is no quid pro quo. there isn't. now for biden there would be. but listen to this. there is no quid pro quo. that was the text message that i saw and that nullified everything. >> have you asked foreign leaders for any corruption ingaitions that don't involve political opponents >> president trump: what i ask for and what i always will ask for is anything having to do with corruption with respect to our country. if a foreign country can help

us with respect to corruption and corruption probe, and -- i don't care if it's biden or anybody else. if they can help us. if biden is corrupt, if his son is corrupt. when his son takes out billions of dollars and he has no experience. he just got fired from the navy. when they do that, that's no good. so -- just to finish your question. anything having to do with corruption i feel i have an obligation to do that. >> is anyone advising you it is all right to solicit the help of other governments to investigate a political opponent. >> president trump: here is what's okay. if we feel there is corruption, like i feel there was in the 2016 campaign, there was tremendous corruption against me. if we feel there is corruption, we have a right to go to a foreign country and just so you

know, just so you know, i was investigated. i was investigated. me, me, in my campaign. i ran, i won. i was -- you won't say that, will you? i was investigated. i was investigated and they think it could have been by u.k. they think it could have been by australia or by italy. so when you get down to it, i was investigated by the obama administration. by the obama administration, i was investigated. so when these people talk -- as far as i'm concerned, what i want to look at and what we want to investigate anything having to do with corruption. [inaudible question] >> president trump: i view china as somebody we're trying

to make a deal with. we have a very good chance of making a deal with. we have had good moments with china and bad moments with china. right now we're in a very important stage in terms of possibly making a deal. if we make it, it will be the biggest trade deal ever made. if we make it. but i view china as somebody that we deal with on the world stage. i would like to get along with china if we can. if we can that's great. if we can't, that's okay, too. what we're doing is we're negotiating a very tough deal. if the deal is not going to be 100% for us we aren't going to make it. and i will -- and i will say this. i will say this. i will say this. china very much wants to make this deal. china is getting killed. the tariffs are killing china. what has happened is they have now 3 million loss of jobs, if you look at their supply chain it's a disaster.

companies are going to other countries including us. china right now is a total disaster. [inaudible question] >> president trump: no, no, no. let me tell you. i'm only interested in corruption. i don't care about politics. i don't care about biden's politics. i never thought biden was going to win to be honest. i picked somebody else a long time ago. and we'll see what happens. but i never thought biden was going to win. but i don't care. frankly if he won i would be very happy and an easy opponent. but i never thought biden was going to win. i don't care about politics. what i do care about is corruption. this whole thing is about corruption. this whole thing is -- this whole thing is about corruption.

[inaudible question] >> president trump: this is about corruption. this is not about politics. this is about corruption. and if you look and you read our constitution and many other things, i have an obligation to look at corruption. i have an actual obligation and a duty. [inaudible question] >> are you going to cooperate with the house? >> president trump: that's up to the lawyers. the lawyers have never seen anything so unfair and unjust. i've been president now for almost three years and i've been going through this for almost three years. it has almost become like a part of my day. but in the meantime we have the best economy we've ever had. we have the best job numbers we've had in 51 years.

the best unemployment numbers that we've had in a half a century. the best numbers that we've ever had african-american, hispanic american, asian american, women, everything. we have the best numbers that we've had in many, many, many decades. and you know what? people understand that. people are working, they are making money, if you look at one very important number that was just announced, wages up 3%. that's unheard of. that's unheard of. it's great. [inaudible question] >> president trump: i didn't hear you. [inaudible question] >> president trump: we're investigating corruption. we're not investigating campaigns. i don't care about his campaign. as i said, i didn't think -- i didn't think and i don't think

biden is going to win. i don't think. maybe to answer your question, when you say who is going to win? i would rather not make a prediction. i have a feeling about somebody. i didn't think -- i've watched biden over the years. biden is not the brightest person. i never thought he was going to win. i never felt he was going to win. if you look at his other two campaigns he was a 1 percenter. he got very few votes. he got taken off the garbage heap by obama. so it's one of those things. but i never thought that biden -- i didn't think biden was going to win. i guess everybody has a shot but i don't think he would be frankly my toughest opponent. and just to finish off, just to finish off, i don't think that he will win. i didn't think he was going to win and i don't think he is going to win.

[inaudible question] >> what do you think about facing elizabeth warren >> president trump: fine. she is a socialist and maybe worse than that. i haven't seen biden's poll numbers. look, joe biden was never going to make it, all right? he was never going to make it. he tried it twice. when i announced i went to number one day one and i stayed there the entire primary season. i never was off center stage. i was never given credit for that but that's okay. the only one that gave me credit was steve. [inaudible question] >> president trump: they were trying to set up a meeting. he wanted sanctions lifted and i said you must be kidding. we had -- rouhani wanted a meeting at the u.n. we did talk. i didn't speak to him personally. our sides talked.

he wanted sanctions lifted or partially lifted and i said no. [inaudible question] >> president trump: we're watching venezuela very, very closely. the people are suffering and we are watching it very closely. we are also giving big aid to venezuela. one thing. i'm going to walter reed hospital. we'll be giving out five purple hearts to unbelievably brave young people and i'm going to meet you. some of you are going over. so we can talk further over there. although when we're there i would like you to respect the process. we are giving out purple hearts to very brave people. wounded warriors, people that have been -- they are just incredible people. i will be back here in probably two hours. [inaudible question]

>> sandra: president trump there taking a victory lap on the jobs report this morning that showed the unemployment rate in this country dropped to its lowest level in 50 years. he then made the case that every time he speaks to foreign leaders he does so appropriately and reiterated twice there was no quid pro quo. john roberts was there and can wrap what we just heard, john. it was a lot and wide ranging. >> i think as much as what the president said this morning was really how he said it. the president was very forceful holding court for some 25 minutes. he is not afraid to talk about this stuff. but really driving home the point several times that this is not about politics according to the president. that this is all about corruption. they are going to send that letter up to nancy pelosi either today or maybe on monday basically daring her to have a vote on impeachment saying that they won't comply with any of the requests for information or

subpoenas for information unless and until there is a full vote in the house of representatives on impeachment. the president also saying that china and the trade deal have nothing to do with joe biden. there have been some reports that the president talked with president xi earlier in the summertime about biden and warren. you could just logically conclude that the president and president xi were talking about how are your chances for reelection next year? the president has said many times believes xi would like a democrat to get in the white house next november which is why china has been slow walking the trade deal. he said how would you like to see biden deal with china? he would roll out the red carpet. the president also talked about biden himself saying he doesn't believe he will be the dom knee. doesn't know what the poll numbers are. biden leads warren nationally by 2.2.

26.2 to 24. in iowa warren is ahead. the race is still pretty neck-and-neck. the bottom line here was that the president was saying this was not about politics. this was about corruption. now you can choose to believe him or not believe him. that's what he is saying this morning. >> bill: just watching the words beyond corruption. campaign of 2016. we're looking at corruption, not politics. low life hurt so many people on the campaign. that reveals, john, what potentially could be the defense of the white house on these charges, does it not? >> yeah. you know, this is something the president has not been able to let go. some of his aides have told me over the past couple of years, you know, he should just let it go. he is not going to. he believes he was duly elected president of the united states and did it without the help of russia. and he has been bound and determined since the night he was elected to prove that russia had nothing to do with the actual numbers on election night. and that is what the genesis of all of this was, rudy giuliani

has told me he talked to ukrainian officials initially on the 2016 front and they said by the way did you know about joe and hunter biden? this octopus has way more than eight tentacles and going in many directions. >> bill: he was asked the questions whether or not he thinks democrats have the votes. it is conventional wisdom by listening to everybody in washington that they believe they have 218 votes. that might be the case, john. but you never know if you have the votes until you actually take the vote. how much consideration is given to that? >> that's why the white house is sending up this letter. you can term it calling nancy pelosi's bluff or forcing her hand or whatever. but saying in a whip count you'll vote and actually voting when it comes to the floor can sometimes be two different things particularly for these red state democrats up for reelection in 2020. all of them in the house and some in the senate.

senator joe manchin and john tester have said they are concerned the liberal wing of the democratic party will go too far afield and hurt democrats' chances in the senate next year. a lot of concern about going too far particularly since the waters have been muddied to some degree by everything we've learned in the last 48 hours. >> bill: back to sandra with more. >> sandra: guy lewis joining us now. a former u.s. attorney who served with william barr at the justice department during the bush administration. thank you for joining us. we heard from the president for over 20 minutes there. he said they do intend to send that letter to nancy pelosi, the white house is demanding that the household a full vote on this impeachment inquiry. do they have to do that? >> they don't have to, sandra, but boy, oh boy, this reminds me of an old saying we had in prosecution which was the best defense is a good offense.

never go on defense. always stay on the offensive. that's clearly what the president has done. how many times did we hear him say this is about corruption, this is about corruption over and over and over again. and the letter to pelosi, it has nothing to do with a -- he knows what pelosi's position is. the letter is to the american people, to the jury, which is what this is all about. prosecution equals impeachment. that's what is going on here. so the letter is a direct letter to your jury who is the american people who are going to be calling those 218, those last few maybe hold-outs and say look, we don't like this. we don't like the process, we don't like the procedure, and it is not fair and don't impeach. that's what this is all about. >> sandra: part of the difficulty here is not everybody knows the law.

not everybody knows the rules when it comes to all this and from the letter to the impeachment inquiry and the need for a full vote to the president saying on the record just a few moments ago every time he speaks to foreign leaders he says he does so appropriately. he went on to clear up what he sees as an ongoing debate over that phone call with the ukraine. said there was no quid pro quo. he has called that call perfect and wonderful. only a minute left. where do you think everything goes from here as we wrap another week and await a new one? >> i think we're going to see again the house continue to try to prosecute that case, bring in witnesses, look at documents, issue subpoenas. but i have to tell you, the president -- this shows you the power of the bully pulpit. he can get out there and in a matter of 20 minutes just completely cut their arguments right out from under them and

you walk back and you say look, this is a man who has been falsely accused in russia, he is being falsely accused in this so-called whistleblower complaint. i don't know. i like the way he is defending this case. >> sandra: a lot we don't know still with all this. a lot of questions. guy lewis. we'll see where it goes. >> bill: might get more comments in the afternoon. deroy murdock on deck as our discussion continues. thousands that couf over the life of the loan, starting right away. with the newday's va streamline refi there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no points. you could lower your payment before you write your next month's check. make the most of your va mortgage benefits. refinance to a lower rate now at newday usa. refi now at newdayusa.com

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beyond corruption. having to do with the 2016 campaign. >> bill: one of the headlines a moment ago. the president doubling down to investigate the corruption of 2016. deroy murdock fox news contributor. hello to you. you were listening and watching. what did you take away from the headline? >> the president of the united states spent 20, 25 minutes answering question after question on this matter and did the same thing yesterday. he has been very open and out there and transparent. meanwhile joe biden has given one interview, one speech. you think he would be out there presenting his case and defending himself. he seems to be in the weeds. >> bill: he gave a speech in nevada and did an interview with nbc. i think two days ago. is there a reason to understand that? is he allowing the tide to wash in and out again? >> he could be hiding hoping it will wash past him. if i were biden i would defend

myself and offering his side of the story unless he think it's -- >> bill: you raise a point. debate on october 15, middle of the month in ohio. does biden get in front of this before then or does he take the chance or possibility of someone goes after him to clear it up during the debate or other democratic contenders on stage coalesce around an anti-trump message and give joe biden a pass? >> i think elizabeth warren has the opportunity to put the dagger in his back. do we want to spend the fall of 2020 defending a nominee who has all these questions about his son and deals in china and ukraine, was it corruption and obstruction of justice? >> bill: think about the answer you just gave right there. that's complex. the complications of the story does what to the american voter or viewer? >> i think that unlike watergate which was simple.

nixon covered up an effort to break into the democratic headquarters. the lewinsky case bill clinton lied under oath. this is the president of the united states on the phone with the president of ukraine asking him to investigate accusations on former vice president. talked to the previous president over there blocking investigation of a company on whose board his son served and paid handsomely. that's elaborate. >> bill: speaker pelosi would say the case is cut and dried. you look at the transcript and you can see that he was urging a foreign government to investigate a political opponent. that's the way she sees it. and that's the way most democrats see it. >> they can sell it that way. in order to present that, they have to present the facts. what was the investigation? it was about joe biden. impossible to bring it up without biden's name coming in and blows back in the democrats' faces. >> bill: what is your calculation whether they take a vote? do you think they're all in

line or still trying to figure it out? >> i think they're trying to figure it out. nancy pelosi fears the democrats in counties or districts that donald trump won are very nervous about going on the record voting for impeachment and having their constituents turn on them in 2020. i think she is trying to protect them and have the half inquiry, not official, but if it comes to a vote on the floor she is nervous it may not go through. >> bill: 31 districts represented, too. thank you very much. have a great weekend. >> sandra: president trump pressing for a full house vote on the impeachment inquiry saying a letter to speaker pelosi will go out upping the ante in the fight between trump and congressional democrats. we'll have more on that just ahead. 're not going to be competitive in the workforce that's waiting for them. since verizon innovative learning, students have hardware, connectivity, and quality curriculum.

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>> sandra: yeah. >> bill: as i like to say, "so, that happen." [laughter] >> sandra: commercial breaks. fun. >> bill: have a great weekend. >> sandra: i hope you have a great weekend. >> bill: i appreciate that.

check out the latest edition of "hemmer time." or member when we are the debate about ncaa 11 college players get paid? you know what my position was. these guys on the other side of the ocean compared to me. check it out online now. >> sandra: got it. "hemmer time." have a great weekend, everybody. "outnumbered" starts now. >> harris: it's a busy friday. fox news alert, president trump weighing in on a q prime center nancy pelosi and mouse as early today. he is daring her to hold a vote on the patient inquiry. they will not complain until a formal vote is held. a short time ago, the president predicted that vote will backfire on democrats big time. >> issuing a letter, as everybody knows we've been treated very unfairly, very different from anybody else. the democrats, unfortunately they have the votes. they can vote very easil