Transcripts For FOXNEWS America Live 20100722

started furiously e mailing one another discussing how best they could work together to make the mccain-palin ticket look bad. we will talk live with one of the reporters who has turned up those emails, it's all in writing. brand-new reaction breaking now from sarah palin on "america live" right now. we start with this fox news alert, major new developments in just the past few hours concerning shirley sherrod, the usda, and the white house. first we are a waiting the white house press briefing, robert gibbs expected to come out in a short time and answer more questions about this story. and we could hear whether president obama will respond to shirley sherrod's latest request, demanding to speak with him directly about a story that has dominated washington and beyond this week. sherrod, of course, is the former usda employee, department of agriculture that is who says she was forced to resign her job two days ago because of pressure she says from the white house. that pressure coming after a tape surfaced showing sherrod making what appeared at first to be racist remarks at a naacp dinner this past spring. it turns out the comments were taken out of context. that left sherrod's boss doing some apologizing yesterday. >> i've learned a lot of lessons from this experience in the last couple of days, and one of the lessons i learned is that these types of decisions require time. i didn't take the time, i should have. and as a result a good woman has gone through a very difficult period. and i'll have to live with that for a long, longtime. this is a teachable moment for me and i hope a teachable moment for all of us. i think it is important to understand that each of us represents this department, each of us represents the administration, and the president, and that we've got to be very careful about our actions and our words, and we have to make sure that we think before we act. i did not think before i acted. megyn: while we wait for the white house press briefing james rosen picks up the story from our d.c. bureau. >> reporter: the most important element in shirley sherrod's media blitz this morning appearing on three networks, this network excluded is that there may be a job within the agriculture department that she would be willing to take. she may have softened in her stance when she told one interviewer yesterday i would love to sue, i'm going to talk about it. she stands vindicated after the full posting of the 43 minute speech. she was urging racial unity to help the poor not encouraging african-americans to discriminate against white people. sherrod at one point accused all gop opponents of president obama of being racist. in addition to the question of whether sherrod will return to the obama administration equally unresolved is exactly who played a role in what has been admitted by the white house to be sherrod's wrongful termination. she stands by her claim that cheryl cook repeatedly told sherrod that it was the white house that wanted her out. tom vilsack, her boss denied that says the white house played no role in sherrod's dismissal. yesterday sherrod said she still supports president obama. today she said she doesn't know whether he is fully behind her. this is one conversation she wants amid this racially kha*rpblgd episode to have with the nation's chief executive. >> i'd like to talk to him a little bit about the experiences of people like me, people at the grass root level, people who live out there and rule america, people who live -- live out there in rural america, people who live in the south. i know he does not have that kind of experience. let me help him a little bit of how we think, how we live and the things that are happening. >> reporter: sherrod says she hasn't seen in writing the offer to return to the usda. that offer involves sherrod her serving as an outreach officer with anti-discrimination issues. she indicated a stronger preference for going back to work with the usda to work with farmers in rural georgia. megyn: james rosen thank you. we are waiting to see if there are any new developments in the new white house press briefing that will take place right here with press secretary robert gibbs. gibbs was asked yesterday about how the white house and the media handled this situation, let's take a listen to what he said. >> based on incomplete information and based on the decision that was made on incomplete information the white house was supportive of that decision. obviously new information came to light, and that's why the review is being undertaken. members of this administration, members of the media, members of different political factions on both sides of this have all made determinations and judgments without a full set of facts. i think that is wholly and completely accurate. i think without a doubt miss sherrod is owed an apology. i would do so certainly on behalf of this administration. how did we not ask the right questions, how did you all not ask the right questions. how did other people not ask the right questions. megyn: the administration now under fire from both the right and the left, in particular the left, and you can bet that there will be more tough questioning of robert gibbs today at 1:30 when that press briefing begins. you'll see it right here. and now an "america live" follow-up. new developments involving a threat against comedy central and the creators of "south park" for a depiction of the prophet mohammed. an american man behind it appeared in federal court hours ago on charges that he aided an al-qaida-linked terror group. they accuse him of trying to join the organization that killed 70 people in uganda who were watching the world cup final. trace gallagher has more information. set the stage for us, trace, who is this guy. >> reporter: he's a 20-year-old guy named zachary chesser. he grew up in virginia, now he's being charged with providing material support to al-shabaab, linked to al-qaida, believed to be behind the bombings in uganda that killed 70 people. he tried to fly from new york to somalia and go through the al-shabaab boot camp so he could become a foreign fighter. he also had contact with anwar al-awlaki along with the fort hood shooter, the christmas day pwao*pler and the time square bomber. zachary chesser is also the guy who threatened the lives of matt stone and trey parker. they were planning to depict the prophet mohammed in a bear suit but it never aired. he went on a website and posted that the creators would end up like theo van go -- vangoh, who was a film maker. they say this guy is another example of home-grown terrorism. he grew up in virginia, he went to high school, was on the crew team there. then he went to george mason university where he studied foreign language. it was after high school that he became involved in the internet, he started blogging about radical islamic causes. that's where the whole transformation authorities say happened. now he's in jail. he law erred up -- lawyered up today. megyn: wow amazing. stunning new poll members here on "america live." they are not good for president obama. nancy skinner weighs in on the new numbers that have bad news for the president but very good news for a former president. and just when you thought it was ancient history, the highly devisive healthcare debate over the public option is back. we'll tell you why democrats are pushing this issue again and why they would be doing this so close to the midterm elections. can this be helpful? new jersey governor chris christie taking on unions to save his state's ballooning deficit. new developments in this epic face off. stay tuned. >> you're not compensating me for my education or experience. >> then you know what then you don't have to do it. the simple fact of the matter is -- [applause] [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. transform plain old ribs into these fall-off-the-bone honey bbq ribs. the secret's in the sauce, made with campbell's french onion soup. for these delicious ribs and dozens more sizzling summer recipes, visit campbellskitchen.com. megyn: it appears to shirley sherrod has gotten her wish. she wanted to speak with president obama and that she has done. president obama reached out to sherrod this morning. he called her on the telephone at 12:35. it says that they spoke for seven minutes. we are quoting the white house here, they say, quote, the president expressed to miss sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days. he emphasized that secretary vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday and in his work to rid the usda of discrimination. the message goes onto say that the president told miss sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and that the president hopes she will do so. you heard james rows even -- rozen a bit earlier, the position she was offered at the usda was not the exact position she had before, it was something else. now the details are perhaps she will be placed in a position where she would be able to head off certain discrimination issues in the usda, that's been a problem for that agency. perhaps she would be able to help with that, and she's expressed an interest in working with the farmers. we don't know whether she is going to take this job or some other job or not. we'll see what the white house says about this in more tee tails on that conversation at this 1:30 press briefing that we are waiting for right now. another fox news alert, awaiting a judge's decision right now on two big lawsuits challenging arizona's immigration law. one of them includes the justice department's attempt to block enforcement of this law which is set to take effect just seven days from right now. here is a live look at the courthouse where the judge is weighing the matter. a decision could come down any moment and our william la jeunesse is live outside of the court how. he is standing by and will bring us any updates just as soon as we get a ruling out of that court. new concerns for the administration today as new numbers show president obama's popularity slipping yet gay. that according to a new gol up poll. former president bill clinton is now polling better than barack obama. he is well liked by more americans than our current commander-in-chief. look at the numbers. 61% view bill linton favorably compared to 52%. nancy skin eris a syndicated radio talk show host and my guest now. we've been seeing this every day. all these polls, president obama's approval ratings are continuously going down into the low 40s according to the polls that we talked about here yesterday. now we see our former democratic president bill clinton is polling significantly above our current president. what does it tell us? >> what bill clinton said, megyn, it's the economy, stupid. he created 22 million jobs and remember his first real act was to actually raise the top marginal income tax rate because the deficits were so big and that sent the bond markets rallying which led twofpb the greatest periods of economic growth. forget about everything else that happens, people had jobs and they felt good and now president obama's challenge is that he inherited really a wreck, almost a melt down of an economy, and now we're somewhat facing the same things. do we let the tax cuts expire and try to get to the deficit so that bond markets feel good so that growth picks up or are we going to go and play politics and say we're going to cut taxes and dig ourselves in a deeper whole. megyn: does it reflect any opinion about the two men and where they govern from phreut i can tee? because bill clinton rightly or wrongly i think is perceived as having governed more as a moderate democrat especially after he lost the house in the midterms back in 94 and he moved a bit to the center. barack obama is perceived by many on the right as governing from the left as a liberal president. and we've seen in the past year his support eroding in particular among the independent dents. we looked at a poll yesterday that showed a year ago july pace 09 president obama's support among independents was 52%. now, nancy it is at 38%. >> yeah, i think those independents really moved over to barack obama because of the choice between bush and obama and they were worried about deficit spending and that was something that they didn't like about president bush and president obama came along and said we're going to create a sound fiscal environment, going to invest in alternative energy, and so those independents that are concerned about the economy are the people who are sliding away and it's because this recovery is slow. it's taking a longtime. megyn: but listen, that's what i'm trying to get to, is it because it's slow or because they don't like or believe in the message -- methods he is using to fix it? >> well, all right i will hand you that a lot of people have labeled it socialism and it's not socialism. but that constant sort of haranguing and using that word socialism has hurt him absolutely. using that word, it was president bush that started the rescue package with tarp and the bank bail outs, and this was a crisis unprecedented. so the moves that he had to take, the stimulus moves, and the recovery moves were of necessity, they weren't socialism because he had a preference for socialism it was because we had no other choice. megyn: you know, most people know that these independents are critical to anybody's chances of retaining their presidential seat and through a lot of these other elections. so my question is, are they buying that? i know that is your position that he had to do it, he had to pass the stimulus and he had to pass healthcare and financial reform, but i don't know that these independents agree with you. >> well i'll tell you they are critical to the vote. here is what is going to have to happen. come election time they are going to have to take this administration's snapshot of where we were, exactly the situation we faced, the economists would agree with them and alan greenspan is among them now in the moves that he took and is planning on taking and say do you want to keep going on this recovery independents or do you want to go back to exactly what dug us in this hole? i don't think they've done a really great job of doing the snapshots, here is where we were, this is what we've done and this is where we will be, so people have a sense of keep plowing away at this and we will finally dig out of this hole. megyn: how long will it go over when the bush tax cuts expire. >> great. megyn: and the independents and others get hit with increase of taxes if they make $250,000 a year as a family. 36% to 39%. we're talking about dividend income getting taxed more by double digits. >> any time we're going to face politics, the politics of this aren't good. but the key is as he said during his campaign it's people who make over $250,000 and the reason we have to do it, let them expire and sunset because in fact we do have a deficit. that's why we put a sunset clause in in case we had deficits at this point then we could fix it. well we do have deficits. i think the independents care about the deficits. obama has to stress the reason it is happening to the wealthiest americans is to help our long term sustainability to help get under control our deficits then i think people -- cool minds will prevail hopefully. megyn: we talked about on "happening now" in our last hour there have been top democrats both in the senate and house coming out recently and saying the opposite of what you just said saying the deficit is the reason we actually need to extent the bush tax cuts because you need to encourage the wealthiest people to spend and to continue creating jobs. tph-pbs see always a pleasure. thank you so much. you should heard the breaking news, president obama has now called shirley sherrod the usda employee who was forced to quit after under pressure from the administration after they rushed to judgment on whether she had made racist remarks. now we are ten minutes away from the white house briefing. robert gibbs was on his heels yesterday, folks. what will the whitehouse press core do today? how will he handle this. we'll watch this together as the news gets made. governor chris christie has aeu tabgtded national attention for attempting to close an $11 billion gap. this effort in new jersey has put cristie on a collision course with some state unions. new details concerning that man and his mission right after this break. >> you go to your teachers union representative today and you ask them if they are willing to support higher kr-pbgss from the teachers union members across the state of new jersey and you'll get a faster no than anything else you're going to hear. >> but that's the issue going on here. i'm chef michael, and my dog bailey and i love to hang out in the 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[ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. chef inspired. dog desired. award winning body wash. tone enriching ribbons. two separate ribbons. the white cleanses. the gold moisturizes with a touch of mineral shimmer to enhance skin's tone. olay tone enriching bodywash. for skin that shimmers. it's like hardwiring the market right into my desktop. launch my watchlist -- a popping stock catches my eye. pull up the price chart. see what the analysts say. as i jump back, streaming video news confirms what i thought. pull the trigger -- done. i can even do most of this on my smartphone. really, it's incredible. like nothing i've ever experienced. trade free for 60 days on redesigned power e-trade pro. >> let me finish. >> in times of economic crisis this whole argument is over the fact that i ask people to not take a raise for a year, to pay 1 1/2% of their salary towards their benefits. and your union has said that that is the greatest assault on public education in the history of the state. that's why the union has no credibility. stupid statements like that. megyn: new jersey republican governor chris christie has gone out much his way to be clear. he wants to save the state of new jersey money an expects the unions to help. especially the teachers' union. why is the governor so focused on the teachers' union. >> reporter: the budget and taxes, taxes, new jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. high taxes have been a big issue there for years. they caused one governor to be bounced out of office. they recently faced a $1 billion budget deficit. the governor has been taking on the unions. the teachers association. he wants teachessers to take a one-year pay freeze and cut some of the benefits they have. he criticized those benefits. some teachers have not had to kick in for their healthcare costs. now he has signed a lou that changed some of -- signed a law that has changed some of that. they will now pay 1.5% of their salaries for their health plans. among the issues he wants to have the right to is to curb the payouts for unused vacation and sick time as well as furlough public employees in times of budget problems when they need to. megyn: do the unions feel they are being treated unfairly? usually union numbers is a subject of a negotiation contract essentially. >> reporter: the unions say the attacks against them are unwarranted. we talked to the executive director of the union. he says that he understands the economic issues that they want to be part of the solution, they are not the problem. he says unions are not to blame, the benefits are not to blame for the budget problems in new jersey and he says the teacher benefits in his have you are not too much. >> reporter: are the benefits too much? >> we are talking about the average teacher salary in new jersey for this year is approximately $65,000. when you put it all together. teacher salaries in new jersey are well below the mean or average salary of private sector. >> reporter: they will face another projected budget deficit. if anyone wants to see more on this story go to foxnews.com/live shots. >> that is a theme you will see continue into the mid terms and beyond. what is going on with bp? this company has been caught for the third time in recent days digitally altering pictures of oil spill recovery efforts. what is it doing? why would it risk new damage to its reputation for this? we have a full investigation. plus there is this. we thought it was ancient history. they told us it what is dead. but one-third of the u.s. congress is ready to move forward with an effort to add a so-called public option to the healthcare overhaul. see what that means next. folks, there is a new way to get fox news wherever you are. you can get the brand-new fox news android app to see fox news alerts and stream videos from your favorite shows like this one. you go to foxnews.com and click on the science technology link. don't go away. thanks to aarp, we can have more nights out. and i can get more laps in. ♪ our card lets us head to the beach more often. and lets us barbecue more often. my new glasses help me see everything. the new website helps me do everything. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. megyn: 34 minutes after the hour and a warning from north korea. the communist nation calling on the u.s. to back off on new sanctions or plates entire region in -- or place the entire region on megyn: mortgage rates hitting new record lows. freddie mac says the lower rates have done little to boost the struggling housing market. >> we'll have what we need to hold the insurance companies accountable. i contend that whatever we have coming out of this bill will hold them accountable and they will be crying out for the public option when we finish. megyn: that was house speaker nancy pelosi talking about one of the contentious, devicive issues in the healthcare debate. 128 house democrats are saying they are ready to move forward with a new push to pass this very contentious measure, the most con 10 shus in the whole healthcare -- the most contentious in the healthcare debate. mike, i hadn't heard about your mikeonline.com. >> you thank you for mentioning it. megyn: the public option? the public opening that could not get through the senate that even joe lieberman drew the line at and fell apart entirely when they took their first shot? it's coming back? >> i stopped trying to get into the heads of democrats who seem to be hell bent on a suicide march. it's incredibly contentious and volatile. it's why president obama said there will be no public option it's why democratic leaders said we can't touch this. so why 128 house democrats would move off the cliff and try to resurrect this thing americans reject wholeheartedly. but november is $just around the corner and these democrats will have a heavy price to pay. megyn: why would they do this so close to the mid-term elections? they must think this has a polical advantage for them. >> it does have political advantage in one single instance. as a liberal when the healthcare debate was going on, one of the things we wanted was the choice of options. we wanted that there. but in the long return it didn't happen. we'll continue to fight for that. but there is more going on than just the healthcare issue. what we are saying is we can offer you a program that will pay for itself. in fact save $68 billion off the current deficit. save money. the same amount of money the gop offered in their health plan many months ago. megyn: that's their argument. lynn woolsey from california, she is the one who is saying it will save $68 billion between 2014 and 2020. and she says that's the reason why we need to push this through now because of the deficit. >> you guys expect me to come on your show to express my opinion, but i'm tempted to just sit back and let rob represent the view of liberalism that a public option would lead to an efficient well-oiled machine that would pay for itself. most americans understand what a public option means. we understand what nationalized healthcare means. but if the democrats wants to continue to go down this path i say let them. november is just a couple months away and they will lose in droves. they will loss the house and they might lose the senate. this is a grim reminder of how out of touch the democrats are with the american public. americans didn't want obama care and the they shoved that down or throats. megyn: rob picks up on a them our own president set south many years ago back in 2003 he was caught on tape praising single pair system. this came back to haunt the democrats during the healthcare push saying we know what you are saying you want now, but what you are pushing us toward is single pair. this is what boik said in 2003. listen to this. >> i happen to be a proponents of single pair healthcare. we may not get there immediately. first we have to take back the white house and take back the senate and the house. megyn: when you have the president on record saying he likes single pair. now he's taken back the white house and the conscious, the democrats have. and he's pushed through universal healthcare, healthcare reform and he's appointed berwick who loves the british healthcare system which is essentially socialized medicine. now the democrats are pushing for this. does this help tamp down the fears by some that this is where the healthcare reform is taking us? >> let's beware of the slippery slope. democrats and liberals want it and will go after. but when we offer a program that can save at the same time money off of our deficit we ask the gop -- we ask all those sitting back saying anything you want to do but do not do anything to raise the deficit. we are putting something forward that will not only save money, but provide access to healthcare. megyn: what about that, mike? they say it will save $68 billion. >> let's stop the massive tax increases and the drunken sailor spendersing the obama administration has done. a single payer socialized medicine. rob, keep it coming. tell us how liberal you are and this is what liberal democrats wants. and we are going to get rid of liberal democrats in november and 2012. get rid of this radical lip rat democrat who is in the white house. >> as a liberal democrat i'm an american and i want to make sure all of us are taken care of healthcarewise. let's cut the deficit by all the money that was raised over the last eight years of the bush administration. step up and swing the bat and see if you can come with us. >> music to my ears. megyn: a bad situation today getting even uglier. folks in one california down almost ready to riot when they find out their town manager is take down close to $800,000 a year. normally town managers get $100,000. now they want him fired. wait until you see what that is going to cost them. new reports today suggesting that from the moment john mccain introduced sarah palin for the first time, a group of liberal journalists, many of whom were supposed to be objective, started plotting about how to discredit palin, mccain and their white house run. we'll talk live with one of the folks who found these emails. we'll show you the emails in writing what they said just ahead. >> governor sarah palin of the great state of alaska. but to eat on the run and to eat whatever happens to be around. heavy greasy food that's hard on my diet and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. activia light, with bifidus regularis, helps regulate your digestive system in two weeks. mmmm. activia light is not light on taste! and with only 70 calories activia light helps make it easier to watch my weight. it helps me feel good and look good too! ♪ activia since our beginning, we've been there for clients through good times and bad, when our clients' needs changed we changed to meet them. through the years, when some lost their way, we led the way with new ideas for the financial challenges we knew would lie ahead. this rock has never stood still. and there's one thing that will never change. we are, the rock you can rely on. prudential. megyn: the house of representatives beginning its vote on a bill that could extend unemployment benefits for thousands of americans. the president is expected to sign this if it passes. new concerns about obesity in america's children. a group of childhood specialists in ireland and england have decided parents of obese children show a failure adequately care for their children and they want obese children to be put in foster care in some instances. an idea that actually has some support here in the united states. dr. ablow the theory is they are unwell and uncared for, the spairnt do nothing to help them. child services would step in and remove the children and take them to foster care. when you have a child who is morbidly obese, why should the situation be different. >> in case of neglect and abuse, this is a form abuse, we should take these children and the state knows better, let's place them in foflter care. and they cite evidence that say kids lose weight in foster care. that's evidence this is the right path. megyn: they have done this in 20 cases in great britain. and lest our viewers think this is a british thing. this is a child, his name alex draper. and he grew to be 550 pounds by the age of 14. that's when law enforcement stepped in and charged the mother with neglecting him. dr. ablow, you have a child who is 14 years old and reached 555 pounds after the authorities have stepped in and said to his mother you are endangering his health, she said she was too busy with work. i can see the argument. >> for outlying cases we don't need new laws or special provisions. in a case in which somebody reaches 550 pounds. it speaks for itself. this is a kid at risk for diabetes and hypertension. this is a mother who perhaps wouldn't go to doctor's appointments. there can be neglect and abuse in the context of obesity. i worry, however, that this is essentially opening a pandora's box to assert that so beesity -- and we talked before about the fact that public schools in massachusetts are sending home body mass index measurements on all children regardless of whether parents endorse that concept. so where is the line that will be drawn? is 20, 30, 40 expoun pounds cond overweight any fear that could literally happen. megyn: the order thing this may not account for, there is a fat gene in some families where even despite good eating habits people gain weight and it's not necessarily the fault of neglectful parents. about it's a disturbing trends. certain circumstances, yes. by 20 cases in great britain. thank you, doc. the president has talked with the usda employee shirley sherrod who says the white house forced her to resign this week without any good cause. the white house briefing could start at any time. as the news gets made, we'll bring it to you. new accusations that bp photo shopped this picture of bp recovery efforts. what is it doing? trace gallagher knows. he has our investigation right after this break. bounce dryer r and asked to try it out and then answer a few questions. the biggest thing was that it's effortless. you stick it and forget it. by not putting in the dryer sheet, it's one less thing that i have to do. but ordinary manual brushes can leave up to 50% of plaque behind. that's why you want an oral-b por brush. inspired by dental tools, they clean away plaque in ways a manual brush can't. fight plaque with oral-b power. megyn: there is trouble brewing in the atlantic not far from the bahamas and it brought work to a stop at bp's ruptured oil well. if this bad weather does move across the gulf coast it could mean a two-peek delay in finishing up the relief well. the cap is a temporary solution. there are storm warnings in effect for southern florida as well as the bahamas. those areas getting heavy winds and rain. now the latest in a series of public relations blunders for bp. the company admitting to doctoring yet another photograph posted on its web site. this latest one an image of the horizon rig disaster site. what is going on with this? so it's -- now we have seen a pattern just as bp -- they are not the center of the news, the still stopped. they are doing the cleanup. what are they doing? >> reporter: it's the second picture this week that bp acknowledged was doctored. it's not even good photo shopping. this is amateur. this is a picture of a helicopter supposedly flying over the site of the cleanup. except when necessity photo shopped it, they forgot to take outs the tower of the ship. this helicopter is not flying, it's sitting on the deck of a ship. they photo shops all this water in instead of the deck of the ship. here is my favorite thing. if you want it to look like it's flying, the altimeter hasn't moved. here though you can't see it, it says that the door of the helicopter is still open and by the way, the ramp is still out. and the pilot is still going over his preflight checklist. this is the original photo we want to put up for you. this is what it was supposed to look like. you see the deck of the ship? all that stuff was photo shopped out. the key here, is it significant? not really. but bp is trying to convince the world they are honest. they are also trying to convince the world they had nothing to do with the release of ma a hi, the lockerbie bomb. honesty is what they are banking on and what they do is photo shop insignificant pictures and put them on their web site. >> reporter: they put up the original pictures. they are trying to say it's an honest mistake. bit' the third time in the last couple weeks it has happened. megyn: mistake? it's an elaborate mistake. that white house briefing is about to begin. they do administrative stuff in the beginning. we'll bring you the news just as it happens. james rosen with new details on the white house phone call to the woman at the center of this usd sarks scandal. a critical hearing in arizona we are awaiting a judge's decision on a salute challenging that law. will it be struck down just a week before it's supposed to go into effect? stay tuned. male announcer: introducing the world's first 100% custom, invisible, digital, and fully programmable hearing aid, loaded with today's most advanced hearing technologies, including our new sophisticated noise reduction system. this amazing new invisible hearing aid custom made, allows you to talk comfortably on the phone, sounds natural. - the quality of sound is excellent, and yet they're, you know, the size of a thumbtack. announcer: to learn more, call: today. megyn: the future of arizona immigration law hangs in the balance. a federal judge is hearing arguments from the aclu and the justice department, both of whom are trying to stop this law from going into effect. i'm megyn kelly. this of course is the lay that authorizes police to check a person's immigration status if the police have stopped that person law any and if they have reason to suspect person is in the country illegally. william lajeunesse is live at the federal courthouse in phoenix. what is the latest today? >> reporter: the courtroom is packed with 150 people including 30 lawyers arguing this case. there is a gallery overlooking that. there are 7 lawsuits but they boil down to two. the aclu and other groups are arguing that senate bill 1070 results in racial profiling, then this afternoon we'll have the federal government arguing the federal government has sole and eminent authority when it comes to immigration law. the state is arguing the aclu and its 24 plaintiffs don't have standing in this case because they haven't been harmed yet because the law has not taken place. and they are arguing that as a result those motion or those cases should be dismissed. they just ended arguments on those motions and now they are moving on to call for a preliminary injunction held by the federal government as well as the aclu that maintains this will result in racial profiling and will hurt legal immigrants who live here. the judge was kept calculation of one part of the bill. she says the bill looks like the cops have the right to determine immigration status. and the aclu argues that should be left up to the courts. the state is going to maintain, we are not doing that. that's up to the border patrol or i.c.e. we are going to call them, or they will come down on pick them up. but we won't be involved in deportations. the aclu argued on the issue of standing that innocent people will be hurt. let's say someone is riding in a car and they are not the one speeding but they could go down that road to determine they are an illegal person here be they are innocent and it's something that would not have otherwise occurred had it not been for the state law. i want to show you around outside a little bit as well. there is a lot of street theater going on. you have got 180-degree view. i'm on one side of washington blstleds. here you will see the cops on this side. most of the cameras are on this side. you will see people with signs saying things like stop the i.c.e. terror. you have a group with a crucifix and a picture of the virgin mary saying pray fors *. we are not immigrants, we are human beings. we'lll not comply, brown and proud. you have a mix of people protein 70 and 5-1 against the law. that's what it look like outside the courtroom. these people are playing for the cameras. but this will continue. we should get a break in one hour and the federal case will be heard this afternoon. megyn? megyn: thank you so much. one big supporter of arizona's new laugh is ready to enforce it. sheriff arpaoio is ready to jail them in tent city. temperatures can reach 135 degrees in the summer. he says our troops overseas live the same way. >> they are living in tents in afghanistan and iraq fighting for our country. these people are all convicted, they are doing their time in these tents. megyn: the sheriff says he will keep violators of the immigration law in tent city and also the ease of deportation. fox news alert press secretary robert gibbs saying shirley sherrod has accepted president obama's apology. the president talked to sherrod on the phone. they had. >> phone tag last night, couldn't get ahold of her. he reached her this morning. had a 7-minute conversation and here is what gibbs said earlier. >> the president expressed to miss herod -- is it accurate to say he apologized? >> yes. >> did he lobby for her to take her job back or to take the new job? >> that was not what the call was about and not what happened on the call. obviously the president said as the readout discusses, she has a unique set of experiences and unique opportunity to continue using those experiences to help people. that's what he said to her, and obviously the decision about what she is going to do is up to her, and i think she is supposed to talk with the department of agriculture at some point. >> reporter: she did accept his apology? >> yes. >> reporter: maybe i missed this. why couldn't she have her old job back? >> i would point you to the usda in terms of their handling the job discussions with miss sherrod. megyn: the usda official -- whether we'll hear from the usda today or not we don't know. james rosen has been following the story closely. he joins me live from washington. we learned a little bit more about that conversation. shirley sherrod wanted to speak with the president, that's why this happened. reporter: she got her wish. but just in the last hour as we learn about this phone call, a new mystery as arising and it may be the most baffling and infirating. the whole affair the white house operators depicted in countless documentaries able to track down anyone on the planet, twice last night failed to reach shirley sherrod so the president of the united states could speak with her. forgetting she was seen sitting on a cnn set clutching her cell phone. shell cook, the department undersecretary agriculture for rural development was able to call letter four times monday to demand her termination but the leader of the free world could not depend on the white house operators for the same swift service. when they finally spoke it was only because sherrod returned the white house message. he was in his private west wing office. not the oval office. the president according to the white house expressed his regret, apologized about the events of the past several days. emphasized secretary vilsack was sincere in his apology and his determination to combat discrimination at the agriculture department. the white house says it told miss sherrod this misfo misfor e can present her with an opportunity to continue her work. one final note. mr. gibbs tells us that the president did not invite miss sherrod to the white house. megyn: what about the cheryl cook. the woman who called her and said you have to pull over to the side of the road and resign immediately. is the usda going to make her available? have they spoke on that? have we heard from her at all? >> reporter: we have not heard from her. two points, number one, robert gibbs was asked yesterday if cheryl cook would be made available for journalists to question her and he referred us to the usda. fox news put in a request with the usda to interview cheryl cook and we have not heard back. megyn: we have a delta flight circling an airport in atlanta. just moments after takeoff this plane reportedly blew a tire. flight 1457, it was headed to portland, maine when the incident occurred. trace gallagher -- you are a pilot, trace, is that true? >> reporter: i haven't flown for a while. but this plane is a 737-800. the important thing to remember, portland oregon it was going to. it blew a tire on takeoff. it contacted memphis center. thousand this plane 737 normally carries 165 passengers is circling the airport at 13,000 feet. they are trying to dump some of this fuel. they blew a tire. it was heavily load. now they have to lighten the load before they land this thing. we are being told by the faa they are trying to land in 10 minutes. they want to fly around and burn a little more fuel. but you have got a blown tire so that compromises the rest of the tires. depending on how hard you lands and how heavy this plane is, that's the key indicator here. the good thing about atlanta hartsfield airport, it has some of the longest runways in the country and emergency facilities there. you will see the trucks gather on probably the longest runway. the tower will clear all these things off so it has plenty of room to touch down as lightly as possible. you will see the plane come in. instead of landing normally they will come in and try on hover above the runway for as long as possible so they can touch down as lightly as possible. and try and bleed off as much speed from the aircraft as possible using up as much of the runway as they can. we don't exactly know how many passengers are onboard this flight. these things are fairly routine when they lands, but there is always that uncertainty. if you blow one on takeoff, you can blow another on landing. we also don't know which tire it was. was it a nose gear tire? a side landing gear tire? megyn: how important is that. >.>> reporter: if it's a nose tire it will have to touch down very gingerly. if it's one of the other tires they can support that. if it's a nose tire, that's very important. i'm not sure if they are going to get a helicopter shot up to get this thing coming down. begin the many circling at 13,000 feet. so the odds are that a helicopter wouldn't be able to pick it out anyway. but as it gets closer to the airport they will have a shot of this thing flying in. the 737-800 means it's designated for a longer haul flight and it can go from whrants to portland. we are monitoring it. and everybody on that plane and in the air traffic control tower at atlanta taking a close look at this things -- this thing. megyn: this is a commercial jetliner delta airlines circling because it blew a tire on takeoff. they are burning its off right knew. passengers are onboard the plane and waiting for this emergency landing. and trace saying they will most likely use the longest runway down at the atlanta airport. we are now told they will be attempting to lands in approximately 20 after the hour. it's almost 13 after the hours right now. we'll go back there live in advance of that. so we'll be on the news just as soon as that happens. this has happened before. i'm not going to say the many routine. but we have seen this happen before. we have seen many flights land safely with this problem. back the trace as we get breaking news on that. fair and balanced, not so as much. on the very day sarah palin was announced as john mccain's running-mate, we are getting word some so-called journalists were already plotting against her and the mccane-palin ticket. we'll show you the emails. as when deal with the massive environmental disaster in the gulf horrifying new images of another spill where people are literally swimming in crude. also pull nothing punches. many democrats have the same opponent in this years elections. his name is george w. bush. 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[ female announcer ] with aarp you get so much more out of life. discover the best of what's next at the new aarp.org. built with quality and backed with the best coverage in america including a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. that's 40,000 more miles than ford. chevy silverado half-ton. a consumers digest best buy and the most dependable, longest lasting full-size pickups on the road. now get 0% apr for 72 months on 2010 silverado half-ton models witan average finance savings around $5,800. megyn: a delta commercial airliner is circling the atlanta hartfield airport. moment after the plane took off it reportedly blew a tire it was headed from atlanta, georgia to portland, maine when this incident occurred. now we are less than 3 minutes away from what we are told is the time they will attempt to land this airline. it's a boeing 737-800. delta flight 1457. we are moments away from the time this pilot we are told is expected to try to land this aircraft. jon scott fox news anchor and pilot is here to help put this in perspective. this is not completely unpress dented about it is out of the ordinary. >> reporter: the airplanes blow tires, especially in weather like this. tires height on takeoff and occasionally this kind of thing happens. but what can happen when you bring a heavy airliner inner to a landing, what comes in -- they will come in on the main greer, now you have got one less tire to take the load. so very offen you can blow all the tires when you are landing a plane that already has one tire missing. that's when all hell can break loose. megyn: we don't know if the tire that blew is on the nose of the aircraft or on the side. >> reporter: on the main gear you have on a 737 i believe you have four wheels per side, four tires per side. so you have got quite a bit of rubber to take the load there. up on the nose gear, when that comes down, if you blow a tire there, your landing zets squirrelly, but much of the steer can is done with the vertical stablizers. megyn: if it is the nose gear how difficult a land can is that for an experienced commercial pie loot which we assume this flight has. >> reporter: i think most pilots would prefer to land with stricken back gear. if one of them itous in front your steering will and lot more tricky. megyn: how dangerous is this? we don't know how many passengers are onboard. but these folks visibility to be scaredd these folks have to be scared. >> there are a lot of redunn dan redundancies built in. if they lose too much rubber and you start getting steel on concrete that plane becomes a lot harder to steer. it could slide some of the runway and at those speeds you could have problems. megyn: trace, what do we know? did we just learn something? >> reporter: john was just saying this could be a nonevent. you saw a bowing 737 delta flight land. the faa was telling us that was the flight without incidents. you can see the camera has anded over. while apparently we -- i don't know if we can rerack that tape. the plane we just saw land, the faa is telling us that was it. that was the 737-800 flight 1457 that blew the tire has landed without incident right as jon scott said this will be a non-event, the plane landed right behind it. they didn't give us a heads up. you talk about -- it came down -- the faa confirmed the atlanta airport is confirming it has in fact landed safely. we haven't seen any of the fire trucks leave that area. we don't hav have a great perspective. you see one of the fire trucks going out right now. they are going to go out and check this thing outs. they will leave that plane out there for a while to make sure everything is good. there they go. that may be it right there. taxiing in. i just don't know. we are trying to wing this. normally we have helicopter shots of this. megyn: it's good news. they are saying it is the case. jon, these pilots have a lot of air time under their belts when they get to fly for a company like delta. >> there is training pilots have to undergo where they go to simulators two or three times a year and practice this kind of thing. megyn: do we have a new sully on our hands. >> it's not quite the same. you know the passengers were applauding this time. megyn: jon scott, trace gallagher, thank you. we have just gotten word the house passed the bill that will extend the unemployment benefits. we expected this to pass and it has. it was held up in the senate for 30 hours. it passed. now we expect president obama will sign it forthwith. now to the battle for control of congress. it seems the democrats are a new message or voters. do you want to move forward with them or go backward to bush? mr. obama making the argument over and over begin the is the gop and president bush who got us into this economic mess. >> the last thing wanted to do was spend money on a recovery package. or become involved in the auto industry. or prevent the chance of wall street banks. particularly those whose irresponsibility has created his crisis. nearly a decade of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires led to a little more than sluggish growth, a shrinking middle class, your paychecks -- you had a previous congress and a previous administration that left a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit wrapped up in a bow that turned surpluses into deficits as a consequence of a whole host of irresponsible policies. these problems that we confronted didn't come out of nowhere. megyn: responding now, karl rove, former senior visor to president bush and a fox news contributor. the democrats continuing to mention the name your former boss as we lead up to these mid-term elections. is that effective? >> no. the proof is -- they have been doing its for the last 17 months and their numbers have dropped. this is the kind of rhetoric the president has blamed his predecessor and said it's all his fault and not the current president's fault. the american people are voting on what's happening today and what coming. they found the president wanting with answers. the problems that he has got are of his own making. he is the guy who ran up his deficits and made extravagant promises about the stimulus bill. he is the one who pushed through cap and trade through the house. he pushed through a very unpopular healthcare bill through the congress and the american people are going to hold he and his party responsible for that at the november election. megyn: we talked with nancy skinner and we talked with her about the independents. the latest quinnipiac poll shows 5% last july to 38% now. and she said they are upset about the economy, but it's just not this president's fault. it was president bush who signed tamp, it was president bush who had eight years of overspending. it's this president, she said who is getting us out. >> first all let's set the record straight. president bush reduced discretionary spending. president obama asked for in the middle of the fiscal year a 12% increase in the discretionary budget not counting the stimulus bill it was his $862 billion stimulus bill. it was his bailout of the car companies, his bailout of the banks. it was his bailout of fannie and freddie, the two institutions most responsible for turning a mine 'downturn in the business climate into a roaring worldwide crisis. it was president obama who opposed when he came into the senate to the reform fannie and freddie. the american people have heard these arguments. they have been maring them since january 20, 2009. president obama is uncharacteristic for each chief execute yifers. he came into office blaming his predecessor for everything bad and it hasn't worked. this is a gamble. they can't find anything to say good about their own record or enough things bad to say about the record of members of the opposition party in congress. so they have to go out and attack the guy who is not even on the ballot who has been gracious and quiet during last year and a half as a courtesy to his successor in office. megyn: apparently the message is not working. this is a commission by third way. they asked the people, are you buying this? four more years or two more years of these house members. if you elect republicans, is it more of george bush's policies? one in four said if republicans took back control of the house it would mark a return some george bush's pop is. they seem to be looking to the currents white house and the current leadership for a way out of this economic crisis. the white house has respond in part by saying we are work on it, but also saying there is so much we can do so quickly. you have got to give us more time. >> there 143 million people working in america when he came in to office. there have $139 million people working today. we are down 3.8 million jobs since he came in. even his own web site recovery.gov says the stimulus bill at the cost of $445 billion has quote funded 682, 370 jobs. i checked the web site before i went on air. the american people on some level may not know the specific numbers but they get the general direction. what this guy has been trying to do has not worked and they will hold he and his party responsible at the polls in november. megyn: we are seeing a rift between some of the house democrats and the white house. they don't seem to be pleased with the support they are getting from president obama as they head into these mid-term elections after voting on tough issues he wanted to get through. you have seen robert gibbs and nancy pelosi in a bit of a rift. she called him politically inept when he projected she would lose her majority in the house. >> that's symptomatic of a bigger problem. the president has bad relationships with some in congress. to start with they have take and lot of tough votes and they don't think they have gotten credit. they don't think he's doing enough for them in the elections. he can't do much for them. his poll numbers are dreadful and his fundraising abilities are down. there was a fundraiser in missouri and they had to discount tickets to fill otherwise vacant seats. there is a bad chemistry between the president and democrats in congress. there is not the good chemistry a chief executive needs to have for the leadership of his party in congress starting with nancy pelosi and harry reid who said some ugly things about the president. they appreciate he returned the white house to their hands, they don't see him as effect effective leader or legislator when he was in the senate. megyn: your boss' name gets mentioned an awful lot these days. he's probably down in texas wondering why he's still the punching bag. it's been almost two years since the moment that changed our political scene forever. >> governor sarah palin of the great state of alaska. megyn: but just today we are getting our first look at the emails a group of left-wing journalists starting sharing the moment they heard the palin announcement. we are going to show you these emails and tell you which publications they are work for, these journalists. right after this break. the story of the california town where town officials get paid like wall street bankers. the taxpayers are about to teach them a lesson of their own. stay tuned for this. au new chipy made with reese's peanut butter cups are here. our real chocolate chips... and reese's peanut butter cups... crammed into one exciting new cookie. so now, more than ever, there's a lotta joy in chips ahoy! you struggle to control your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. megyn: a tropical depression taking aim at the gulf of mexico where it could stall efforts to stop the oil spill and kill that well. court action for the virginia man who once threatened the south park creators over their depiction of the prophet mohammad. he stands accused of trying some join al-shabab. >> governor a * of the great state of -- governor sarah palin of the great state of alaska. megyn: as soon as john mccain announced sarah palin as his running-mate, our next guest says a group of liberal journalists were planning an assault to take down the gop ticket and elect barack obama. jamie, thank you so much for being here. for our viewers who are not familiar. this is part of your ongoing investigation into this group called journo lift. journal sifts, pun dits, opinion makers, straight news reporters who leaned left and were talking about politics. conspiring in their coverage to detract from the mccain-palin ticket. >> it was a list serve of 400 journalists, academics, think tankers. fit was just a list serve it's fine. but it seems to be evidence they were trying to shape the media debate. the current story is what they were discussion after palin was picked by john mccain as the running-mate. as soon as it happened they started to strategize what to say exactly about sarah palin. one person chimed in and said you know we should say this is sexist, typical gop tokenism. one of the most telling thing was daniel levy, a middle east expert received this is the time for the non-official campaign to jump in. i think by non-official campaign he was referring to those on the list to shape the debate over palin. megyn: you see there is a couple things i want to go through with you. you receive the elitism from the media that we see so often about sarah palin. it did manifest in the coverage. jeffrey too birks n in the new yorker said what a joke. i always thought that some part of mccain didn't want to be president and this choice proves my point. welcome back admiral stockdale. clearly criticism of rose per os perot's running-mate. then they strategize about how to hurt the ticket. is is an example from ed kilgore. he where is the criticism of her meaning palin needs to be ideological. not just about experience. if we concede she is a maverick we have have done john mccain an enormous service. it's not just bloggers and pundits, it's so-called straight news journalists. >> exactly. at end of the article you see the culmination for this. joe klein who writes for "time" magazine writes at the end something to the effect of hey, guys, take a look at my latest post on "time" magazine, this is a culmination of what this august list has been talking about. someone has been admitting he has been influenced by what was being discussed on this list. megyn: which he doesn't disclose in his pieces. you mention this attempt to talk about whether the pick was sexist. the moment he introduces her. the left wing journalists are conspiring how can we describe the pick itself as sexist. the first female republican nominee for vice president ever, they want to spin it to 80s's a sexist pick. there is a guy from jonathon stein, he says that's excellent. if enough people on this list write that the pick is sexist you will have the networks debating it for days and that negates the single thing that palin brings to the ticket. so it's one thing, jamie, to have somebody from mother jones magazine saying that, but there is input, there is exchange between folks like this and regular reporters who are suppose to be covering this race in an objective way. >> it's not so much it's just list serve of these influential people. there seems to be some coordination. daniel levy who is on the list serving in this discussion, this think tanker on the middle east seemed to think this group could be considered a non-official campaign. that's not appropriate when you are talking about journalists. megyn: they can say the thing the official campaign can't say. they could get the rhetoric out there. one of the journalists who was supposed to be a straight news reporter is ben adler. he and a couple others who were supposed to be straight journalists brought up the topic of sarah palin's son who has down's syndrome and talking about how that was going to play. he raises the points. doesn't leaving that -- it seems like he known the say said baby, doesn't leaving said baby without its mother while she campaigns weaken the family values argument? or will everyone be too afraid to make the point? he is fretting over whether people will be reluctant to criticize her for being a bad mother while she is out on the campaign trail. >> i don't think they would make that criticism if it was a man running who has a down's syndrome baby. i think that's pretty unfair, especially when her husband took care of the family when she was campaigning. i don't think that was -- that tonight self cannot be said. megyn: what has sarah palin said about this? >> she has spoke to our reporter jonathon strong and said this is more evidence there is this campaign against me, something she felt from the beginning and it just shows they were out to get her from the very start. megyn: i can understand her feelings have read some of those emails. jamie, you have been. doing interesting work at the daily caller *. thanks so as much for coming on. megyn: a fox news alert from our colleagues at the "wall street journal." they are reporting the senate's cap and trade energy bill is dead. they are quoting senator harry reid saying it is shelfed indefinitely. the house passed this then it stalled in the senate. a lot of the house members up for reelection weren't happy about that. they didn't want to take that vote only to have the bill go nowhere. now they are saying the senate majority leader harry reid has shelved the legislation, it's officially dead. that's an interesting development. you are not going to believe this. we have new details about this delta flight with the flown tire. it turns out according to the airport which originally said that it has land not is saying no, it hasn't lands. flight 1457 was headed from atlanta to portland, maine. no, it was portland, oregon when the incident occurred. we were on the airing to and you were telling us the airport confirmed the plane landed. now they are saying, no it hasn't. >> reporter: they called us back and said we were tracking the wrong plane. they were tracking the wrong plane. how many planes up there with blown tires? we don't know. the faa says the plane should land sometime in the next few minutes. this is a 737-800. it masses a blown tire. it was blown on takeoff. memphis turned the plane around and said go back to atlanta hartsfield and land there. the plane has been burning off fuel the last hour because it took offloaded to fly to portland, oregon. we still don't know nor dots faa know -- nor does the faa know exactly which tire was blown. if it is one of the side tires you are talking about four on each side. but there is only two tires in the front. the nose wheel only has two wheels on it. if one of those is blown, it puts a whrots of pressure on that remaining tire which would make it more difficult for the pilot to land that plane. they will land this thing on the longest runway to give they the most room possible to touch this thing down as slowly as they can. if it is the notes cone, to try and ease it down as lightly as possible as close to the middle line as they can get if for some reason the plane does make some kind of a move at the end. these things are very routine. the pilots go over these time and time again. but we are still waiting for this. we are hoping to get a helicopter shot from our fox afilliate any time. when it comes in we'll track it for you. megyn: i don't know what we are seeing. but i thought i saw a plane land behind you. are these runways open or closed? maybe you can figure that out. in the meantime, i'm joined on the phone by robert mark, a former corporate pilot and editor of jetline.com. i think the average person who has been up in an air lean is thinking about their experience. they are circling around trying to blow off fuel and the pilot will have to make an emergency landing. how much danger are they in? we don't know which of these planes if any is the affected plane. we are trying to pin this down. >> i'll tell you right away. it's always a concern when an airplane blows a tire. under most weight conditions it needs four. but there is a safety issue with the file. they want to make sure there is as little as possible to possibly ignite if the airplane does leave the runway. i'm sure inside the cabin people are quietly panicking. no one likes to hear the pilot come on the phone and say we have a problem. for the pilot we never look at this too routinely. because you just never know for certain what you think is wrong is really the problem. megyn: how do you maintain calm in that situation. when you are the pilot and responsible for what could be a couple hundred lives on there, what is he doing now? he's circling around trying to burn off fuel. does he talk to them and try to keep calm? >> the captain will talk to the people but the captain will also be talking to the first officer and making certain they have everything organized. so that the captain will fly the airplane, he or she will land the airplane and say if this happens, this is what we are going to do. about that happens, this is what we are going to do. megyn: will people are to get into the brace position as they land. >> my guess is they will. if it were my airplane i would have people do that. we don't know exactly what caused the tire to blow. we don't know it's not more than one tire. we are surmising at this point. most captains are going to err on the side of caution and say this could be much worse than we think it is. it's better to plan for the worse and have it come out as no big deal at all. megyn: obviously the airport is open. we have seen a couple planes land during the course of our conversation. so clearly they haven't shut down the airport. is that unusual? >> no, it's not unusual. atlanta is probably a good choice for this to happen. the emergency equipment is superb. but delta has four parallel runways. they can put the airplane on one of the parallel runways. even if they have to shut that runway down it won't affect the traffic flow too much. jon scott back here with me. the airport now correcting itself saying it's not over. that plane has not landed. you brought your trusty model. what can you show us. >> the 737 i believe is the most popular aircraft in the sky. there are a lot of them flying and landing right now. the 737 is three rows on each side it's a common airplane used for a lot of short haul commuters. it doesn't usually go transatlantic, certainly not transpacific. i'm remembering some years ai have got to was a blown tire that actually caused the demise of the concord. the concord was on its cakeoff role. blah a tire, bits of the tire got ingested into the engine and punctured the fuel tank and that led to people being killed. not so much the situation on the 737 brand-new the engines are well in front of the where the wells would be on this plane. megyn: but they are behind the wheels of the nose of the plane. they are not likely if this is nose -- a nose tire, there is not likely to be any rubber coming off of that nose tire that will get into the engine it's a concern. megyn: do it change the way -- most our viewers have flown and land on planes before. does this change the way he needs to bring that aircraft down gently the slope and so on? >> he will try to bring it down as softly as possible and just kiss the runway so you are just putting the bare minimum of load on those tires as -- when a plane comes in it is actually literally lighter than air. as soon as it touches the runway, the load increases on the tires exponentially. so he will want to make that as smooth and soft as possible. megyn: what are you trying to prevent. it doob female pilot. but as the pilot brings that plane down, what are they trying avoid. >> they are trying to after he void blog out more tires. if this is on the main gear in the back, four tires per side on a 737. they are trying to spread the load among the remaining good tires in such a way that the blown one is not going to be a factor. but what you don't want to do and what can happen in these situations is now you have got say 7 tires carrying the load of 8, and they start to blow because it's hot. if you blow all of the tires on one side, that plane can lurch one way or the other and then all of a sudden you are off in the ditch and that can a be problem. megyn: it seems odd the airport would be open. maybe we are seeing runways that are open and this plane will come down on a different runway. does that seem safe to have the runways open when this plane is going to come? >> he's in a holding pattern burning off fuel as you noted. when they get ready to bring this plane in they will probably hold all other air traffic. about it generally won't be a long hold i would think. megyn: i'm getting in my ear we are being told they will bring this in for a landing before 3:00. that's our latest information. we are within 8 1/2 minutes of when they expects this pilot to land this aircraft. we have seen planes come down before to lands when they couldn't get any landing gear down. that's a separate emergency. and they landed. they land on the belly and we have seen that happen successfully. that would seem more dangerous than this. >> i'm expecting this will be a non-event because that's why you have multiple tires. if you blow one, you are got others to carry the load. but bad things can happen even in the most mundane of circumstances, and that's what we are on the lookout for. megyn: trace gallagher -- the remember we cover these with such interest is virtually every american has been in an aircraft and has had an interest when these things happen. and also a fear, let's be honest. it's so fair, plane travel despite the fears of people like yours truly is the most safe way of travel. when you see something like this it is extraordinary. are we getting more information from the airport, trace? >> reporter: we expect this plane to land sometime in the next five or six minutes. but as jon was saying, we go back to lax, the jetblue plane coming in. remember when the nose landing gear was actually turned 45 degrees. it just was kinds of turned there and they had to come in and lands that thing on the back wheels and then so lightly touch it down. city scraped, the tire came off and it scraped along the runway. but the plane never veered off that center line. so as john was say, these pilots are extraordinarily talented at landing these things ever so gingerly. we expected to land in the next 4 1/2 to 5 minutes. we don't 10 yet know which tire it is. is it one of the side gear or is it the nose gear of the plane. the nose gear would be trickier, the side gear would be better -- megyn: we don't know how many people are onboard. >> reporter: we only know they carry between 150 and 180 passengers. it's a little bit longer. it's a long-haul 737, but still do not have an exact number of passengers. we have gotten very little information. atlanta first set they thought this thing had landed. that's from atlanta hartsfield airport. then they called back and said we were tracking the wrong plane, it's has not landed. the faa said sit will land at 15 after the hour, 50, now they are saying the top of the hour. so while this plane is circling burning off some fuel the communication went agencies involved and the media has not been fabulous. we still don't know yet exactly which wheel it is. megyn: their priority is not to keep us updated. >> a big component of what's going to happen today is a crosswind. it will hit the tail on one side or the other and cause the nose to skew. it's why some landings are rougher than others. the pilot has to do a lot of rocking to keep the plane level. if it's a calm day in atlanta, i wish i could get on the computer and collect went conditions. it's a lot easier to bring that thing in nice and smoothly and not have to stuff it down on one side, one set of landing greer or the other. megyn: there was an infamous tape where the plane cartwheeled and exploded upon landing. sioux city, iowa. >> the engine had come apart basically in midnight. severed the hydraulic lines and the pilot had very little control over that aircraft and did a magnificent job of bringing it down with some survivors. megyn: a very different situation than what we are looking at now. robert mark is still with me. jon was talking earlier about the heat and the role that that probably played in this plane busting a tire upon takeoff. how dangerous is that? how common is that. >> i'm not sure if i understand your question, the heat of the takeoff itself? megyn: the heat in atlanta, does that play a role in tires blog blowing out. >> they are like tires on cars. they have a useful life. they check them to make sure they don't see weak spots. about it can always happen at the last minute that perhaps on the prior turnaround just before the airplane took off it came in. maybe they were on the brakes a little heavy, that could have been enough to have a tire let go. megyn: is that immediately as its happen.the pilots would have known. >> you would feel it during the takeoff roll. i'm surprised they don't know which side of the airplane this is on because it would be fairly easy to determine whether it was the main gear or the nose gear from the vie braitions. they are sitting right on top of the nose gear and the mains are 50 feet behind them. the vibration is completely different. my biggest concern is we are all talking as if it is a blown tire. we don't know that for absolute certain. we don't know when that tir ripped out -- when that tire ripped out, we don't know it hasn't done some other damage along the way. it may be absolutely routine. but nobody in the left seat or right seat of that airplane is going to be thinking like that when they make that final approach. megyn: i called you a former pilot. you are currently a pilot. >> thank you. no one told me about that. megyn: my apologies on that. jon scott, i'm getting this from trace. it says it's 92 degrees in atlanta with winds at 8 miles an hour. which would mean what? >> it shouldn't be a big factor. even if the wind were crosswind to the airplane. 8 miles an hour not a big problem. if it's more aligned with the runway it helps the pilot bring that plane in because you can have a slower air speed. the wind is helping lift the wings. megyn: do they foam the runway? >> they used to do that but they found it did more harm than good. they will have the foam trucks ready in case there is some kind of a catastrophic problem here. in case it goes off the runway and were to break apart. that kind of thing has happened. recent continental airlines accident a year and a half ago in denver. a plane was trying to take off in a severe cross-wind. got pushed off the runway, cracked open and caught fire. that is a possibility here show would say not likely. megyn: we now believer we are within a couple minutes of the affected plane attempting to make its landing. we were told about it air it would be attempted before 3:00. it's now 2:59. this is the flight out of the atlanta airport delta flight 1457 that was going from atlanta to portland, oregon when reportedly it blew a tire on takeoff. we don't know how tbait how badt is saboing 737-800. we don't know the number of people onboard. they have been burning off fuel for the better part of 45 minutes over that, i should say. and they are attempting to bring this plane down safely. these pie loots are within moments. that's the -- these pilots are within moments. shepard smith will have continuing coverage of this situation in atlanta, georgia, thanks so much for being with me.

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