trey: good evening and thank you fo >> trey: good evening and thank you for joining us, i'm trey gowdy and it is sunday night in america. hamas released some hostages taken during the october 7 attack on israel, including a four-year-old american child, which may have you wondering what depraved group takes a four-year-old child in the first place? hamas does. the same group that orphaned that child by killing her mother and father. people of good conscience celebrate the release of that child, many still remain, deprived of life, liberty and likely humanity. hamas did not release hostages because it is the right thing to do, hamas only did so in exchange for palestinian prisoners and ground in the ground invasion in gaza. as fighting resumes, mediations are still ongoing. how do you even begin to negotiate with a terrorist group? joining us is hostage negotiator don o'shay. you negotiate when e side doesn't seem to value life the same way the other side does? >> >> it is a challenge but the problem is terrorist organizations, this is how they negotiate with the west and the reason that hamas grabbed over 240 odd hostages and have this leverage knowing this was going to be the only ward they could play and played it very well and ceasefire is for hamas and allows them to retreat. , we arm and refit and reengage in the next phase of idf offense and i have these negotiations were not across the table between israel and hamas and why it's a challenging process going forward. synergy home you know, my wife and i were in israel about 18 months ago and our tour guide told us a story of israeli soldier taken and israel exchanged 1,000 prisoners, some of whom had been sentenced to life for one single israeli soldier. so for those of us who will never negotiate over human life, you have. how do you know what the life of a soldier or american 4-year-old, how do you know what a life is worth when you have trading it? >> well, that is the challenge because that's set -- that sergeant was held for five years and released for as you said over 1,000 prisoners, many of whom were equipmented of capital crimes and the rest. it shows the level of how important every life is in israel. every citizen of israel for 1,001 reasons and we know what they've gone through. the holocaust and everything and they've been attacked and targeted throughout their entuss tense and that's why they value -- existence and that's why they halleluiah life so high. hamas doesn't value life and use their own people as human shields and what we're dealing with in the latest war of gaza and shows the level of difference between those in the west and those in israel that value human life and those like hamas where life is a commodity and spent at will and executed and murdered at will, which is what they did on october 7. trey: i cannot imagine nerve nucleus gauching when you can't agree on the -- negotiating when you can't agree on the value of the currency. before i let you g the fighting resumed in gaza. i'm assuming that's not a good sign for the state of negotiations about current hostages, but maybe i'm wrong about that. >> well, the challenge is if hamas is not wiped out, what happened on october 7 will happen again. time and time again, israel has to deal with it. it happens on average every ten years in a major conflict and they're fighting for their very existence. netanyahu needs to finish what they startedded, which is to wipe hamas out but the challenge is, yes, it puts the hostages back in grave resident and can it -- the calculus of the next batch of hostaging coming out will argue be much higher and l value proved to be worth so much and the price to get the next hostages is a higher sticker price. trey: dan,'shea, thank you for your service and joining us on a sunday nigh. >> my pleasure. >> how do we balance the joy some hostages were release with the reality it was barbaric to take them in the first place. tempering the good news of freedom for some and remembering many are still in captivity. outrebounded do you see depravity up employees and personal and not be forever marred by it. the safety of a 4-year-old child without forget hog made her an orlikowski fin. joining us now is dr. ratan treating freed hostages and there's physical needs and emotional kite logical needs and how do you find those kinds of injuries. >> what's happening in israel and we're treating over and on behalf of those treating them that returned and mental states being conjured and have no precedent in medical literature. we feel that we have to row write the textbook of post-trauma. you have to remember as far as you know, the red cross has not visited nor assisted those who are held captive and there is evidence of severe physical and mental abuse. those held captive are subject to starvation and physical abuse and they were being held in unsanitary conditio conditions d exoteric psychological abuse inflict the on them including separation from family members, separation of siblings, separations of children from their mothers. they were held in solitary confinement and spent long days in total darkness until they developed severe hallucinations. children were forced to watch brutal videos and threats to harm them even after being released and forced to the rced use of psychiatric drugs ds and other substances. it is clear to us now that we must release hostages and the cruelty is inhumane and intolerable and some of the hostages are in a bad mental state and might even hurt themselves and we now start with integrity physical and mental rehabilitation and required in the treatment of those released from captivities. some of the home comers look fine and happy and physically fine. we know that most of them suffer from severe post-traumatic symptoms and painful memories and entering into the social active sate state and feel they're in captivity and they return to the understanding they've been released and experience difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep and suffer from nightmares at night. they report fear and hypersensitivity to sound and light and some of them developed severe depression. depression trey: what some of these folks saw before they were taken captive, the bashism and the heinous nature of what hamas did and they're unseen injuries and for some it will be a lifelong sentence, their victimhood will be a live long seasons and thank you for treating them and taking care of them and we'd love to have you back to check on their progress. have a good sunday night. more weapons are being sent to the area and both defensive and offensive weapons and the chaos on capitol hill is aif he coulding funding and perhaps the management of this conflict. the war in eastern europe, continues even if it doesn't make the news like it once did, ukraine continues to trying to fight off russian aggression. joining us is fox news national security correspondent jennifer griffin. jennifer, thank you for being here. let's start with whether or not in your judgment the u.s. mail tear is being stretched -- ill mare is being stretched -- military being stretched thinly because of soldiers, weapons or money on capitol hill. >> there's no soldiers involved in the conflict of ukraine or israel for that matter in gaza. what we are seeing being stretch second-degree that supply lains and that -- lines and having to resupply two different conflicts and the burn rate of the ammunition and the shells that are needed in ukraine and the gaza strip for israel as well as missile defense systems and all those intercepters, you're seeing that the pentagon is keeping up but just barely. if the funding is not resolved on capitol hill, right now we're at the reagan library in sim, valley for the tenth annual reagan defense forum. one of the reasons they hold it every year since the beginning of december is that is when they're such a fight in congress over the funding of the defense budget. this year's defense budget is a whopping $886 billion and still being fought over. if they don't get that money, if they don't get those weapon in jeukraine, russia will win and that's a strategic defeat for the united states, trey. trey: hill tearing promotions moving at a snail's pace and may be generous in the senate and is the war in the middle east going to do anything to break the impasse? >> it's been frustrating with the top military officials and the officers families being affected by tommy tuberville's hold on the military promotions and talking about more than 3000 families and officers being affected, but it's not just that, it's leaving open gaps in terms of top leaders of the u.s. military. right now the head of the nsa, the person in charge of cybercom has not been confirmed and being joined by democrat ron wide and these positions are getting politicized and national security is being held hostage and so it's really slowing down the ability of the pentagon to do business and be able to stave off these increasing threats >> what's also interesting is the survey that the reagan defense forum did this year and annual survey for the past five years and found one of the more surprising findings and found that 59% of americans still support funding military aid to ukraine and you don't hear that in washington. this was a very scientific survey, and it just shows that americaamericans explained 40 ys after and explain what had they get by supporting democracies willing to fight autogreats and providing military aid and weapons to protect freedom, they're in support of that and that message needs to be heard in washington. trey: before i let you go, i have to comment on that point you made, the middle east divert as lot of attention and i understand that. but there's still a war in eastern europe and ukraine trying to repel what most of us call an invasion. is your judgment the u.s. will continue to help ukraine? >> i think that the majority in congress, i think if you ask congressional leaders on the armed services committees, on intel committees, they want to support ewe vain and they're even the house speaker and you've heard mike johnson say he plans to support ukraine and the money needs to start flowing and the aid needs to continue if ukraine stands a chance against russia. >> the income basketball jennifer griffin and thank you for joining us on a sunday and look guard to our next visit. >> thank you, trey. trey: coming up, hunter biden will come to cap holohill but there's a catch and do u.s. surveillance programs work and should they be reauthorized and john lee rat cliff joins us next on ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. trey: welcome back to sunday night in america. hunter biden under indictment and criminal investigation and criminal investigation so one might think he would decline an invitation from house republicans to come testify. biden's attorney abby lowell said biden will come for a public hearing but will not sit for a private deposition. why would someone be willing to chance a public hearing but not a private interview? i think i know. there's also growing attention on the reauthorization of what's become a continuevert whys surveillance program and a prop problem with the program or those administering the program? former director of national intelligence john lee ratcliffe. welcome. biden was a public hearing and the house was a private deposition. tell us the difference between everything. >> well, trey, there's a big difference. you and i both now from experience which goes a long way in tieing hunter biden's activities to joe biden in a sniff nerve nucleus near yous or spect cal and done live on national television and members use time to grand stand and witnesses know they only need to stall the clock or bob and weave and not make admissions for a five minute period of time and clock stops and new witness starts all over. you or myself or other members might have as long as an hour to cross examine a witness, confront them with their conflicting statements or corroborating evidence to the things they've done and that's in the case of hunter biden what's really necessary and one transaction alleged here is hunter biden is official with associations with the chinese communist party received $5 million into a corporation and hunter took 4,000 and transfers to his own corporation and took $150,000 and transferred to joe biden's brother james biden is wife sarah and then sarah biden then transferred $40,000 to now president joe biden. >> going through and confronting him takes time and deposition is the only way to get to the truth. trey: you were part of almost every high profile hearing i can remember and you were a trial attorney doing death penalty cases before yocking to congress, would you rather have five hours or five minutes. >> trey, our investigation when you and i were on the committee together into cross fire hurricane, more appropriately known now as the russia collusion hoax. as a result of our ability to have hours questioning witnesses like jim combmy, peter stroup, lisa page and all of those folks ultimately every single single fbi and doj official involved in league issue of surveillance tools and a fake dossier created bay political opponent against the trump campaign resulted in each one of those people being terminated or resigning in disgrace from the fbi or department of justice, that only took place, trey, because of the depositions that we took over the course of hours. none happened because of any five minute questioning by any member of congress. no one is that skilled to be able to get those kind of admissions under oath in that short period of time. trey: all right, before i let you go, you mentioned surveillance programs. do you think they should be reauthorized and should they be reauthorized with significant reforms in >> i do. look, i was as you know before congress this week briefing the house intelligence and judiciary republicans on this very issue, the problem they're wrestling with, trey, is it's just as we talked about with cross fire hurricane and other instances where the fbi, the department of justice, the cia, others have piceoused these national security tools, but as dni, i use the same tools to brief the president of the united states on threats from china, iran, russia, mexican cartels, and to give him an accurate threat picture and to keep americans safe as commander in chief. they absolutely must reauthorize section 702 but they should do so with the kind of reforms and department of justice and intelligence community from misusing in the past. trey: foreman dni and u.s. attorney and great state of texas john lee ratcliffe, thank you for joining us on a sunday night. >> great to see you. trey: coming up, we'll break down the newsom desantis debate as democrats began to worry that president biden might be the only person who thinks the economy is doing well on i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and 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collapse of a week-long troops. the u.s. is stepping up pressure on israel to do more to protect civilians. lloyd austin says minimizing civilian casualtieses and crucial to israel's long-term success against hamas. covid is driving up hospitalizations as winter virus season ramps up. the virus is responsible for 15,000 hospitalize agszs. colder weather and travel is blamed. flu, rsv and pneumonia are ticking up. i'm anita vogel, back to sunday night in america. n the rise. trey: welcome back to sunday night in america. it's good when governors with different views debate. there may have been ultimately tearier motives for -- ulterior motives for ron desantis and gavin newsom to get together and should be a debate on what government is do and should do or state or feds or local government or you, our country is in great conflict right now. conflict which may be unsustainable. conflict might be good for business and reward those that make money off fear and anger, but it is not good for you. or the country. contrast is what we need. tell us what you believe and why you believe it and let us decide who has the better vision for the country. part of the debate was about the economy and president biden proudly call it is bidenomics, but the numbers don't look great for that as a winning issue, not right now at least. to be fair, are republicans wise to telehealthcare without a clear vision on what they'd change and how. >> leslie, everybody expects me to show my favoritism to charlie hurt and i'll trick him and start with you. people saw a pretty vibrant governor with decent hair and is that going to help democrats while they're questioning whether the current candidate, current president is too hold to run? >> i don't think the debate changes the needle on anything and argument that hillary won three out of three with tram and certainly with john kerry and bush back in the day and neither kerry or clinton were president. and neither, i think gavin newsom was spot on when he said one thing we have in common is neither of us will be the 2024 nominee. i think that not only to be true, but the numbers show that to be true. look, i woke up this morning and said i know what i'm going to say and know what chaily will say, love you, charlie, but desantis kicked newsom's butt and all over twitter and republicans going i don't like california or gavin newsom but i understand why californians like him, wow. gavin newsom isn't running and ron desantis is. when you look at numbers even had miz own state as my governor pointed out, he's not doing well and this. trey: charlie, you're moderating a debate between two leading political figures and what's your role of government contrasted withture and have the community and individual. what would you ask if you were -- in you had the nation's attention and two leading political characters, where would you go? >> well, i think that's a great question. i think i would prone start with immigration to answer your question. i thought the questions that sean hannity asked were perfect questions. they were great questions and they were about the issues that people care most about. they were about crime, they were about taxes, they were about illegal immigration. all of that stuff is fantastic. but what i thought was so fascinating about it, and leslie's right, i do think that ron desantis did a better job, but the reason i think he did a getter job is because he was talking about the issues. >> he was answering -- talking about his philosophy about governing, you know, a red state compared to a blue state. weather i thought was so interesting is the degree that gavin newsom strained himself to never talk about any of the issues w. he did talk about the issues, literally shawn hannity would put a smart and hing facts about crime or immigration or californians fleeing the state and he was trying to score cheap points off ron desantis instead of actually defending his philosophy. and the answer to that is they can't defend their nosofio. their philosophy is suicide. trey: you raised a point and that's my frustration with what call debates now and they're one linerliners and i mean, whey was boring and people don't want day long debates but these are serious issues. one of which is healthcare. leslie, much to the republicans chagrin, obama care has proven more popular than they thought. why bring it up as an election issue when there's so many other things that are currently not going well in the country, why would republicans want to bring back up health cut rates in unless there's a republican placement strategy? >> i don't know. i mean, i'm not a republican, and maybe that's one of the reasons because they always want to point to democrats saying this isn't working but they never have a plan saying in is our plan and this is the plan that would work. pulling healthcare from people whether it is a thousand, a million, 10 million+, which we have on obama care, is stupid. it's unwise, and i would even argue it's immoral. they have to get things right, the republicans not only with regard to healthcare, social security, medicare, but certainly abortion. one of the things i love that nikki haley said and i'll always give her props for is we can be pro life and pro woman at the same time. i want to say something to charlie's point though and i find it interesting. you know, ronald reagan was a republican here from the state of california and when he was president, and when he was elected president, the state of california had the highest homeless population and had the highest gas prices. just like now was brought up in the debate last night. something else i would add is governor newsom governor of california and ron desantis governor of florida, joe biden comes from delaware, i never saw anybody looking at delaware and trying to compare that state with the rest of the country. when somebody becomes president of the united states, they don't govern as president on a federal level with 50 state z a they do with one date because they're different and that's the thing thing and as a californian, and i'm a copted californian, i'm from masasetts, i'm a boston girl, you can cannot compare. i'll say two things, ron december and even shown, i love them. , what you didn't show and, guys if you google this, there's as many people coming to california as leaving. interestingly enough from texas. you cannot compare populations and can't compare realiz realiz, and -- real estate prices and thatat feeds into homelessness n many parts of the country was there was a lot of omissions last night that would have brought more clarity to some of the issues and lastly i think my governor did speak to the facts and he wasn't holding up pictures of feces. trey: charlie, before i let you go, ron desantis is smart, he's thoughtful, he's also way behind. do you think his performance helped him catch nikki haley first or catch former president trump? >> ron desantis' problem is on the campaign trail, he doesn't connect with people. the people that love him the most are florideans that benefits from his policies in florida and he has a great record and that doesn't necessarily translate to voters that don't live in florida. that's his problem now and going to be his problem going forward. trey: charlie hurt an and leslie marshal, always collegiate and civil with one another, which i appreciate. see you soon. >> thank you. trey: lawmakers on both parties heading for the exit. is the job as bad as it looks or some other explanations for it? fox news radio political analyst dives into congress' year end stretch next on sunday night in dear moms and dads, what you have achieved here today is going to help us and our futures. it is why we're coming up on stage to collect your diplomas. mom, love you always. vo: when you graduate, they graduate. visit finishyourdiploma.org to find free and supportive (car engine revs) adult education centers near you. (engine accelerating) (texting clicks) (tires squeal) (glass shattering) (loose gravel clanking) in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to a $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yep, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network and that powers more businesses than anyone else. learn how you can get $1000 back for your business today. comcast business. powering possibilities. trey: welcome back to sunday night in america. unindicted and undefeated, that's how you want to leave congress and people are leaving for a variety of reasons. some just don't like it and want to spend what's left of life doing something else. some want to jump before they're pushed and some leave to run for other offices, and some are just tired of cross country commutes to work in one of the least popular lines of work in the world. regardless of the reasons, there's an exodus from the house with more to come and >> in january seeming an especially daunting month for those who do remain. we have ewish insider and josh it's great to see you again. members leave for different reasons and some leave because they can't be chairperson anymore and even among those staying and i rarely. >> that's right, trey. it's one of the most dysfunctional and not a coincidence in the last month a record number of lawmakers are hanging things up and looking for a new line of work and some because of age and higher political office but a lot of very effective lawmakers around for awhile and folks like derrick kill merri bowl and democrat from washington state and on the fast track for hiring leadership positions or a rep from ohio one of the more respected kind of deal makers and pragmatists on the republican side. had a lot of good years left and dysfunction and division, and just the, you know, the stress of -- and the reward system now where you get nor attention from going on social media rather than cutting the deals and passing the laws that are so important as part of the job. you are seeing the brain drain, trey, where some of the most talented and pragmatic lawmakers are saying the heck with it. i'm going to look for another line of work and congress isn't for me. trey: i think, josh, you put your finger warily on it and seniority used to matter and congress used to matter and all seems geared towards social media and you get literally more attention fighting your own side than helping your own side these days. >> that's right, trey. the names that get the most media attention are the least effective legislators but they chant some power because they dominate the media conversation. you have aoc on the left that doesn't do much legislatively but commands our kind of mind space politically. on the right, marjorie taylor green, lauren boburt and the chaos that got kevin mccarthy from the speakership not too long ago. chaos has been the name of the game on capitol hill and like you said, trey, the incentives, you get more of a reward when you act like an extremist and attack your own colleagues rather than doing the work that voters sent you there for. so it's really -- even the folks sticking around are frustrated that so little gets done and there's so much just partisan bickering rather than constructive bipartisanship. trey: josh, i hope you're sitting down because what i tell you may shock you, republicans took down another republican spending bill so republicans took down another republican and training bill and what's going to happen in january and speaker mccarthys lead r for l fans and margins going for republicans next year. >> yeah, this is a story that's just a bit of headache for the republican party but they have this majority but haven't been able to do anything with it. it's getting narrower now that george santos and going to get expelled and he was a stain on the republican party and there's a lot of divisions in the republican party and it's partly personal but also ideological divide and republicans willing to cut more deals and understand there's a divided government that the democrats control the white house and the senate and're another side of the party not believing and thinks a max mullist position is the way to go and hard to reconcile those two tides and half of the party is spottive of ukraine and other a half to defund it and there's a divide that has to be settled before the election. trey: who needs narcose. we'll watch the house republican conference in 2024 and see a lot of inter-nesting fighting. josh, kraushaar, you'll be there to cover it all. thank you for joining us on a sunday night. >> thanks, trey. trey: up next, can christians be foster parents or do they have to choose between what they believe and what the biden administration believes? a group of republican attorney generals is wondering and one of those a gs, andrew bailey, joins us right after the i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. trey: welcome back to sunday night in america. what app awesome thing to do to open your home, your family, your heart to other people's children to prothighed them with a safe, loving place to live. >> there's over 300,000 children in the foster care system and they're ruining that too and joining us is founderser and adoptive parent and missouri attorney general andrew bailey. welcome, mr. attorney general. tell us s about this proposed re by hhs that prompted you and some of your colleagues to start asking questions. >> well, this is another chamath million of president biden's attack on religion. he wants to relegate christians to second class citizen status and deny them opportunities to open their hopes to children most in need. we're fighting back and i'm proud to partner with 18 other like minded states and put a stop to it and supreme court rejected this certification requirement by president biden knows he's not going to be allowed to use foster kids and attempt for a radical left wing transgender ideology. trey: you're a better lawyer than i am. it seems to me this proposed rule wants to make sure that foster parents do not interfere? gender choices that children are making, which i find stutug because children can't sign contracted and get married and have tobacco or alcohol and biden administration thinks they're mature enough to pick a gender. it's a first amendment and practical problem and stat statute applies for foster parents and they need to be allowed to parent consist with their values and in the best interest of the child, not in the best interest of the rafah cal left wing agenda. >> mention the supreme court's weighed in on this and i thought they had. give our viewer as sense that this should be settled but apparently it's not settled law according to the biden administration. >> that's synergy home state attorneys general are critical in the fight and we'll do it through litigation and in 2021, united states supreme court decided this issue and in the case of fulton v city of philadelphia and said the government can't refuse to certify foster homes in exchange for foster homes violating core religious beliefs and violation of the first amendment and biden knows that and it's settle law but it takes a brave men and women in public office in the state attorney general to fight back and hold them actable and fighting to protect the kids most in need of home homes and y wife and i have been foster parents that adopted kids out of the system and my heart goes out to these kids. they need love and care and perm nancy and open homes. not a radford dallas cowboys left wing agenda being -- radical left wing agenda being pushed by washington dc. trey: you put your finger on it mr. attorney general and admittedly i get distracted on sunday mornings but i'm sure the great commandments are love god and love your neighbor as yourself and love ago child doesn't mean letting that child do whatever he or she wants to do. just seems like they're making it really, really hard for good people with religious beliefs that want to get involved and do something that's admirable with being a foster parent. thank you and your wife and family and thank you for writing the letter and shedding light on it on a sunday night for us. >> thanks for covering this important story and for having me on. trey: yes, sir, mr. attorney general. take care. and thank you for spending part of beyond a reasonable doubt sunday -- part of junior sunday with us. hope you have a great week ahead. find us online at gowdy america or on the trey gowdy podcast and good night fro >> carley: the u.s. launching a