Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom 20170606

Shannon a lot of plates keep spinning. Im shannon bream. The president will meet with republican congressional leaders this afternoon to talk healthcare and tax reform as the senate hits crunch time to repeal obamacare. Bill a lot of washington looking to thursday and the testimony, the fired f. B. I. Director james comey when he sits down in front of the Senate Intelligence committee. Shannon big week ahead in washington john roberts joins us from the north lawn. Good morning. In the meeting with house and Senate Republican leaders this afternoon at 3 00 in the roosevelt room in the white house, the president making a big push to get his legislative agenda on track. He was on message on twitter this morning for 55 minutes. The first tweet of the day the president saying big meeting today with Republican Leadership concerning tax cuts and healthcare. Were all pushing hard. Must get it right. The president and his legislative shop are making a big push on healthcare and tax reform. His legislative director mark short walking us through it last night. The immediate goal is to get repeal and replace of obamacare soon. Theyre hoping to get it through the conference process and put a bill on the president s desk before the august recess or at least slamming up against the august recess. Theyre getting the house and senate ramped up for tax reform and hope to have language on a bill by labor day and get it done sometime in the fall. Unlike healthcare that wont attract democratic support, they hope to get support for tax reform reaching out to blue dog democrats who tend to be more on the conservative side to get on board with tax reform. One interesting point that short made last night when he was briefing us was while they would like to get a deficit neutral tax reform bill passed, he says the prime focus, the most important goal is to get tax cuts done so that they can spur businesses and get the economy growing. It may be they throw out the idea of overall tax reform to go for tax cuts. One of the potential stumbling blocks that many republicans are worried about is the fact the president seems to keep going off script and off message with his tweets as he did yesterday. He was on message for 55 minutes this morning. And then he tweeted this out, quote, the fake Mainstream Media is working so hard trying to get me not to use social media they hate that i can get the honest and unfiltered message out. Truth be told, though, there are a lot of republicans in this town would like to see maybe a little more filtering going on when it comes to the president s tweets, shannon. Shannon i believe it was call for less drama down the street at pennsylvania avenue. The white house is staying quiet on the russia investigation. The former f. B. I. Director will be talking on thursday. He will be. The white house yesterday made a lot of use, Sarah Huckabee sanders in the briefing when she said the white house would not exert or invoke executive privilege when it comes to james comeys testimony. They wont stand in the way of him going before the Senate Intelligence committee. Experts i talked to said they might have a case to invoke executive privilege saying that the conversations between james comey and the president likely were covered even though comey is no longer a federal employee. It may have been hard to make it on the merits of that case and assert executive privilege in this case. One of the Big Questions with his testimony, how much will james comey be able to say in public . He has had conversations with robert mueller, the special counsel assigned to the russia Investigation Called deconfliction wanting to make sure whatever comey says in testimony to the Senate Intelligence committee doesnt conflict with the investigation that mueller has ongoing and the question is how much fireworks on thursday. Shannon a focus on that. All right. Byron, york, good day to you and good morning. The trump sons are pushing a new business idea and it its the greatest hoax of all time. I was there throughout the campaign. We have no dealings in russia, we have no projects in russia. We have nothing to do with with russia. To me its without a question reads and smells like a witch hunt. His family has been the biggest defenders and they are today. What do you make of that knowing comey wont be blocked on thursday . Comey day on thursday is kind of turned into comey week which is a media frenzy already going about this. It is not surprising to see some prepushback from the white house. They are really going to the very core question of all this, which is the question of whether donald trump or any of his associates colluded with the russians to try to influence the 2016 election. Theyre saying there is nothing there. And by the way, a lot of people who know a lot about the investigation have said they have not seen evidence of that so far. So thats the core question. But remember, there are lots of other questions about what was Michael Flynn doing, what was paul man a fort doing and other people in the trump camp doing. There will be a lot to talk about. The white house is probably smart to start pushing back before it happens. Bill lets talk about whats happening today. Republicans going to the white house and mike pence said this yesterday about healthcare and reform and what they do with obamacare. This has been contested for some time. A considerable amount of time that some would argue. The Vice President said the following. Watch. Not going to rest until we repeal and replace obamacare with the kind of healthcare reform the American People reserve. Bill it goes to the forefront at a time when the clock is running. Go. Time is short. After today there are only 30 days left on the house calendar before the august recess. To make it happen, the senate would need to pass something this month before the july 4th recess. Then they would have the take what they have in july to put the two bills together and pass them. I spoke to one senator this morning who simply said that was optimistic. Its a very optimistic schedule. If they dont get it done by the august recess you are into september. Remember that spending bill they passed that would avoid a shutdown and fund the government through september 30th . Well, september 30th isnt that far away. They have to get Appropriations Bills going. Of course, they all really want to get to tax reform on the republican side. These things are stacking up fast. The next few weeks are critical. Bill did that senator put odds on it passing . Is it 50 50, greater or less do you think . The senator believes there will be a serious bill that is not some sort of ceremonial bill that they can put out for a vote and it will fail and they can all say they tried. It will be a serious bill that they try to pass the senate with at least 50 votes plus Vice President pences vote. No odds on it but they have to make a serious effort. They cant be seen as blowing this off after having talked about it for seven years. Bill were watching here. Thank you, byron. Big vote there in 14 days. Special election. Thank you, byron. Shannon they said they would fight to catch the leakers and now the department of justice has charged a 25yearold federal contractor withs upon age saying she leaked a classified report to the press. Reality winner was arrested and charged over the weekend. The news came after an online news site published a classified report on alleged russian hacking. Were working to confirm whether her arrest is connected to that specific story. She served in the air force and spoken out President Trumps policy and showing support for Bernie Sanders. I dont care if youre a republican or democrat. What administration. When you have classified information you cant put it out there just because you think it would be a good idea. I want people in handcuffs and i want to see people behind bars. Shannon the next hour of americas newsroom well have a live report from washington on winners arrest and that top secret. Bill reality winner, where do you come up with that name . Apparently the leaker went to a newspaper or publisher and the publisher went to the f. B. I. And said is this true or not . Thats when the f. B. I. Had the fingerprints and the investigation went forward. A lot more to learn about this. Shannon the sworn affidavit is interesting with how it played off by a crease in the paper they could tell it was copied and scanned and it led them to her. Bill 10 minutes past the hour. Rex tillerson saying the middle east needs to come together to find a solution for terror threats out of qatar. Were hopeful the parties can resolve this through dialogue and we encourage that. That they do sit together and find a way to resolve whatever the differences are that have led to this decision. Bill this is growing by the day. Did the president s big speech in saudi arabia give the gulf states the courage to cut off ties to terror . It could be possible diplomatic crisis for the u. S. But john bolton with his take on this and what we need to understand. Thats coming up next. Shannon breaking news in the fight against isis. As u. S. Backed forces take aim at crushing a key stronghold in the fight to wipe out those terrorists. The developing details were just getting them in and bring them to you in minutes. Bill President Donald Trump doubling down on his demands for a travel ban. Is the social media habit hurting him in the courts . What do you think . Fair and balanced debate on that momentarily. Social media for the president is extremely important. It gives him the ability to speak directly to the people without the bias of the media filtering those types of communications. We cant stay here why . Terrible toilet paper ill never get clean way ahead of you. Charmin ultra strong. It cleans better. Its four times stronger. And you can use less. Enjoy the go with charmin. To err is human. To anticipate is lexus. Experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. Experience amazing. Shannon u. S. Backed Syrian Forces launching a major asize on the city of raqqa. It was one of the first syrian towns captured by isis way back in january 2014. It has been used as the capital city for the Islamic State. It comes after months of preparation by the u. S. Led coalition of kurdish and syrian fighters. The effort to reclaim the city could be long and deadly but could also be a major turning point in the battle against isis. Bill cant come quick enough. U. S. Leaders urging saudi arabia and six other arab countries to resolve their differences with qatar. Those countries cut ties over the weekend saying the qatar government has supported terrorism. President trump tweeting this about the move today. During my recent trip to the middle east i stated there could no longer be funding of radical ideology. Leaders pointed to qatar. Look. John bolton, former u. S. Ambassador. A lot to go through here quickly. Give us a sense strategically why is this so important . There has been a split within the gulf cooperation council, the six Oil Producing monarch east on a number of key issues for some time. This is the strongest step that the saudis have taken to date against one of the kind of dissenting members qatar. Not only with their funding of terrorists, but also their policy visa vaoe iran and the Nuclear Weapons program. They share a big natural gas field with iran. Theyve been of the gcc members probably the most open to dealing with tehran and most supportive of the tehran regimes nuclear efforts. So this is something that has bothered the other arab states on the peninsula. Bothered the egyptians. I think the decisive step of cutting off air and sea traffic and land traffic across the saudi border is a strong signal from the other gcc members. Bill President Trump is taking partly credit for this. Charles krauthammer characterized it this way last night. This, i think, is egypt, saudi arabia acting together saying we now have an umbrella of American Protection, a president who supports us. Well have to end this game. The way to end it is to say to the qatar, you arent free agents. They were playing both sides and it has to declare itself. Bill a key phrase. An umbrella of American Protection and match that with the tweet from earlier today. Is there truth to that that the president gave them the cover to the forward . I think his visit could have behnke. Which was the chicken and the egg, who knows, the saudis are saying we are prepared to do this and he said yes. Whatever the sequence its in play now and it is something where any effort to cut off funding, whether by governments or by private individuals in the gulf arab countries. Cut off funding for terrorist activities. Reduce support with cooperation with iran. Bill we have a significant air base. Former defense secretary said this about that. Qatar is the only country in the region that allows us to land b52s. Transitioning away from there would be expensive and it would be very complicated operationally. And you run the risk, if you say okay, were going to shut down part of it, you run the risk that qatar government says okay, why dont you just get the hell out all together. Bill would that happen . I think its unlikely. The United States on this issue should be silent publicly and work behind the scenes but help advance what the saudis are trying to do. Bill lets talk about samantha power. Former u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. You were one as well. When this issue comes up in front of james comey on thursday, why is the question about why she requested the unmasking of american names potentially so important, if indeed it happened . Its rare to ask for a name to be unmasked in an Intelligence Report and you have to have a good reason for it. And if it is a good reason, its normally approved. If its for a political person that is completely illegitimate. She wouldnt ask nsa to unmask a name for a political purpose. It would be for something else. There are good records of these requests and what action was taken. If in her case or susan rices case or anybody elses case there is a political pattern here its a serious abuse of power. Bill did you ever ask for the unmasking of a name when you were in that position . Not when i was u. N. Ambassador. When i was undersecretary for arms control in International Security i did dealing with proliferation, i did it a whopping 10 times in four years. And for joe biden and chris dodd and john kerry it was a big issue in my confirmation hearing. Lets see if they think its a big issue now. Bill you said political. Did you ever do it for political reasons . No, i said i would be happy to have the names and intercepts put on the public record. Bill come back in two days. Shannon, whats next here at 20 past . Shannon one of the biggest issues on the qatar issue. It hosts u. S. Military assets in the war on terror. A member of Israels Parliament will join us. Bill we now know two of the terrorists previously known to police and mi5. Was nothing done to stop the attacks three times in three months in england. We get the identity today of that third killer. Police have asking community to help. When someone give us some kind of information, it just taken away. Break through your allergies. Try new Flonase Sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. It delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. Most allergy pills only block one. New Flonase Sensimist changes everything. Over hereno ver here dog barking whoever threw it has to go get it. Not me somebody will get it. dog barking anyone can dream. Making it a reality is the hard part. From the b2 to the upcoming b21, Northrop Grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world. And were looking for a few dreamers to join us. But youve never had em quite like this. At red lobsters lobster shrimp summerfest, the lobster and shrimp you love are teaming up in so many new ways. Like new coastal lobster and shrimp, with a lobster tail with butter and herbs, sweet, smoky bbq red shrimp, and shrimp crusted with. Get this. Cape cod kettle chips. Or try lobster and shrimp overboard. A dish this good. Makes you this hungry. Its the highlight of the season, and cant last. So hurry in. Shannon British Police identifying all three attackers responsible for the carnage in london. 22yearold Youssef Zaghba believed to be an Italian National of moroccan descent. He was stopped there heading to syria last year and italian intelligence informed british authorities. He was reportedly charged at one point with International Terrorism but it was dropped. Khuram shazad butt known to the police and mi5. No intelligence suggesting the London Attack was being planned. He appeared in a local news documentary dialed the jihadis next door and seen praying with a group of radical muslims. Finally Rachid Redouane was from a neighborhood in east london and on police and mi5 radar. Andrew peek joins us now. When we talked on sunday we didnt have all these details about these three. Now it seems like for at least two of them there were interactions with authorities who had legitimate concerns about them. Thats right. A couple of things jump out at me. One the deportation laws in the u. K. Are horribly broken. This moroccan italian suspect only about a dozen people in britain have been deported over the past 10 years. It points to for me a real inability to the authorities when they get a terrorism suspect to send them back to italy, morocco or wherever. Shannon a dozen in 10 years . From 2005 to 2015. The last data we have. A real hole in their security. Shannon thats a shocking number. You know the conversation were having here on this side of the pond. People say its not compassionate. Bigoted to want restrictions and deportations and want to be more tightly controlled about our border. How do we have that conversation while also acknowledging the realities about Security Issues . Right. I think its much easier for us than it is for the u. K. We have a smaller Muslim Population from which terrorist recruits from isis can be drawn. I think we have a Stronger Political culture that is willing to talk about issues of National Identity much more than the british are. But what the british dont need and where i think theresa may went off the rails last time when she made her statement on sunday was a call for new laws. Britain has passed a new Counter Terrorism law every two years for the past 15 years. The police have all the authority they need. What they need at the political level is just the will to carry out some of these actions. The most notorious imam is britain is only jailed 15 years after being linked to 9 11 and lack of political will. Shannon one of the friends of the suspects became concerned because his friend was watching these youtube videos all the time and he reported it to authorities and nothing happened. We know they have thousands of cases and impossible to track every threat. That seems like a direct report. Thats exactly right. The labor opposition to the tories who are competing in the election coming up here very shortly would say that the tories, this is a direct result of the tories Cutting Police by 20 during the six years theresa may was home secretary. However, thats a misnomer. The real core here is mi5 and mi6 who have 12,000 to 13,000 personnel and the issue there. It has to be increased. They simply have to have more officers and they have to increase funding because as you there are 3,000 open investigations. They simply have to follow up on each and sumon the political will to send people home or put them in jail as needed. Shannon several comments my dr. James mitchell. He talked about how Political Correctness will be used against the western world and they said they were counting on that. People dont want to be viewed around the world as being bigoted or discriminatory and they also, when people are tracked down, theyll be able to push back and say if you want to look at my community or my mosque, my religious freedom. They use our freedoms against us in the western world. Thats right. You saw in the video jihadist next door that aired several times on fox how dicey this is at the street level. You have the police doing the right thing saying were following up on well detain you for the purpose of a search and immediately the suspected terrorist in this attack starts claiming Racial Discrimination. If youre an average beat cop thats dangerous because the best case is you find something on these guys and the case goes upstairs. More likely youll get a complaint for Racial Discrimination in your promotion file and frankly administratively youre kind of screwed. Shannon tough call for our men and women on the front lines every day. Bill were learning the sons of President Donald Trump are about to launch a new venture. What theyre up to that might be coming to a town near you very soon. Also thursdays hearing, will it put to rest comeys dismissal . What we expect to learn with jay sekulow minutes away. You wont win the investigation regarding james comey in the press. Youll win it with great lawyering but you wont win it through tweeting. Bill russian leaders claiming one of the countrys jet fighters have intercepted an american bomber. Russia radar spotting an aircraft flying along the border of russian airspace. Realized it was a b52 strategic bomber. It escorted the u. S. Bomber until it was further from its border. Twice last year russian jets and u. S. Planes came within feet of each other near russian airspace. Thats pretty close when you are flying. No word from military officials yet on that. The president s power to exert executive privilege is very well established. In order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence committee President Trump will not exert executive privilege regarding james comeys scheduled testimony. Shannon the white house wont get in the way of james comey and his testimony on thursday. A lot of folks say they couldnt have. Comey has talked about the hearing with special counsel robert mueller. How much will he be able to reveal. Jay sekulow is here with us. Theyve had conversations. This is what judge napolitano had to say about how it may work. The last thing a prosecutor wants is a potential star witness in another environment under oath testifying where the prosecutor is not there. That tells me bob mueller knows what jim comey is going the say and has approved what jim comey is going to say. Whatever he says wont jeopardize the investigations that mueller is running. Shannon how much could it limit what well hear from the former f. B. I. Director . It can limit it significantly. He is testifying as a witness as the former f. B. I. Director. I find it troubling that the special counsel is letting him testify at all. If he is a witness using in an investigation why would you put your witness up to be examined . James comey is not exactly the most credible witness. He had to correct his testimony before the United States house and senate on three separate occasions, one of them was a significant statement talking about tens of thousands of emails going from abidens computer to anthony wieners to find out it was less than a dozen. So he is not a credible witness and he is discussing his testimony with the special counsel. I think this points to what well see thursday. Basically not much. I dont think there will be a lot he will be able to say. James comey has to be very careful on what he says. Let me emphasize one last thing here. 18usc4 says if you know of a crime being committed and dont report that to the authorities, which means for james comey to walk across the street to the department of justice you commit a crime. The fact is if he felt he was being there was an obstruction to justice he had an obligation to report that, he did not, case closed. Shannon that will be number one question. The f. B. I. Declined to turn over socalled comey memos if they exist. Reported through Anonymous Sources to this point. Current House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz think congress should be able to get to them because theyre federal documents if they exist. If they exist they are federal documents. How did the staff get their hands on his private memos . I would like to ask that. How did the f. B. I. Director do a private memorandum. Allowed that staff to leak it to a newspaper . I think while he is testifying with the special counsel. What doesnt look right here . Everything looks wrong. Thats the truth. This whole thing is a setup. Im afraid to say that the memos would be selfserving at best. May not exist at worst. But what theyre doing is trying to paint a picture here. The left better be very careful. If i was on that committee i would bear down on james comey and ask him first you are under oath again, director, former director comey. Three times youve had to correct your testimony. If you and i had to do that we could be facing jail. Incorrects testimony. You swear to tell the truth. Shannon the Senate Judiciary committee. During that time there was an interchange people have made a lot of note of. When pressed on whether someone had tried to interfere with him in the investigation he said no. Some say he was only referring to the Justice Department. Others saying it sounded that was an opening for him to say if he felt he was being pressured by anyone at any point. Do you think he will be able to explain that away . He will have to try to explain it a way. I tell you this. Even if what the president said was true it would be a big bag of nothing. That is not obstruction of justice by threat or coercion. Thats that doesnt rise to the high level of obstruction of justice. I go back to what i said at the beginning. If james comey really thought there was an obstruction case to be made he had an obligation to report it to the department of justice. He didnt do it. Thats it. Case closed right there. He could testify he better be very careful. He is under oath again. Maybe theyll give him another chance to correct his incorrect testimony but he better be very careful what he says here. Shannon we know that you along with us and our viewers will be watching every nuance carefully on thursday. Thank you. Bill House Speaker paul ryan and former president george w. Bush visiting the Adaptive Training Foundation in dallas founded by a former nfl player to help former athletes and military members who have lost a limb or suffered the effects of other injuries. Ryan called the visit a very humbling experience. Shannon nothing like that to put things in perspective, right . Any complaint that you have about your day, looking at those heroes and what theyre experiencing. Bill when those guys walk in its like hey. Have a great time. Nice to see. Shannon President Trump not backing down from his belief that a travel ban, his words, is absolutely necessary right now here in the u. S. I dont think the president cares what you call it. Whether you call it a ban, whether you call it a restriction. Everybody wants to get into the labels of it. The bottom line is he is trying to protect the citizens of this country. Shannon how President Trump is firing back at critics of the policy and what he is asking the department of justice to do about it now. Bill also trump team said it would go after the leakers. Now they have one. 25yearold federal contractor charged under the act. Well ask about the consequences if found guilty. It is a priority. Weve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made we will seek to put some people in jail. That wasnt fair to any of us. I was covered. I tried lots of things over the years. But i didnt give up. 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If you love something set it free. See you around, giulia shannon new details about yesterdays deadly shooting in orlando. The alleged gunman planned and carried out his attack targeting specific people at his former employer. The shooter identified as john neumann. The individual was armed with a handgun and a knife this morning. There is no indication that he used a knife on any of the victims, but shot five innocent people this morning and then turned the gun on himself and killed himself. Shannon the 45yearold gunman had recently been fired from that company. Every time he puts something out there he gets criticized the media all day every day and two weeks later he is proven to be right. Bill donald trump junior defending his father against the media critics. Today the president tweeted this. The fake msm is working so hard trying to get me to not use social media. They hate that i can get the honest unfiltered message out. Thats it for that one. Stand by, more. Rich lowry, a Fox News Contributor and pablo bill if i would have relied on the fake news i would have had zero chance winning the white house. Look, the media had a bad weekend, rich. He is not going to stop. He will never stop. It is very powerful tool if used properly. The problem is very often he has shot himself in the foot with his own twitter account especially yesterday where on the socalled travel ban. Probably none of his millions of followers unless Justice Anthony kennedy is following trump on twitter. Thats the voice that will matter. Trump needs to play to him and his sensibilities and stoking this issue with tweets wont help him win over Anthony Kennedy and win this extremely important case. Bill let me come back to the travel ban. Pablo, weigh in on the media issue here. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about it yesterday, too. She said he can reach 100 Million People at one time. Thats certainly the case. Unfortunately donald trump has picked a fight that i dont think he can finish. Its one thing to pick a fight with like the sort of democrats or the partisan construct win washington to pick a fight with the entire media is not working out for him. He needs to work a lot more to create messages because i think that one of the things that the Mainstream Media is doing is starting to recognize these arent just tweets but messages from the president of the United States. These are officials messages that will be catalog for history. My concern would be for the tweets regarding the travel ban, theyll be printed out and used as billboards for isis recruitment abroad. Bill here is the travel ban now. Thats right, we need a travel ban for certain dangerous countries not a poiltically correct term that wont help us protect our people. Listening to your answer i was going to ask whether its helping or hurting. The tweets arent helping. Proper judicial reasoning. You dont look beyond the four corners of the policy. This policy is justified in the black and white letter of the immigration law. There is no question about that. Weve seen activist judges look beyond the four corners and go to things he said during the campaign and say this makes this policy illegitimate. You hope the Supreme Court is better than that but very often it isnt. Smart clients bill his son argues he puts an opinion out there and two weeks later he is termed right. Smart clients let the lawyers talk for them in court. Donald trump needs to be a better client in this case. Bill pablo, i know you think its hurting him. I agree that the policy is badly delivered. 19 randomly selected coequal members of the Judicial Branch were queried whether or not this travel ban or muslim ban or restriction on the worlds brown people, whatever you want to call it. Bill how about just failed state ban . You dont have acting governments in libya, yemen, somalia. There are a lot of failed states that arent on that list. The last time we had an attack 16 years ago most of the attackers were from saudi arabia and they didnt make the list. 19 members of the judiciary were queried. 16 said it was unconstitutional. Youre contradicting yourself. Youre saying it is a muslim ban and not including saudi arabia. You said its a ban on all brown people. It does not include all countries with nonwhite populations. This is absurd. You guys are so hysterical and over the top on this thing. A 90day temporary pause that allows better vetting procedures. The courts have even blocked the better vetting procedures. This is a shiny object the president is pushing forward. Blunt said how extreme vetting can be just as effective in lou of a travel ban. The court blocked that. Like i said before. We need to shift our rhetoric away from muslim ban, travel ban and call it unconstitutional. You call it a muslim ban. Plus you are supporting the extreme vetting that was blocked by the courts. The president of the United States say call it what we want to. I say call it unconstitutional. The judges are finding it. You say our laws are unconstitutional . It is. Bill were out of time but well be continuing. Pablo, thank you very much. Rich, thank you. 10 minutes before the hour. Shannon u. S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions speaking in atlanta right now at the National Law Enforcement conference on human child exploitation. That organization focuses on training or investigating and prosecuting crimes against children. Many hot topics out there for a a. G. Well monitor that and bring you any news as he makes it. When did you see the sign . When i needed to create a better visitor experience. Improve our workflow. Attract new customers. Thats when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. Yeah now business is rolling in. Get started at fastsigns. Com. Shannon a new push for single payer healthcare here in the u. S. Some blue states considering legislation that would provide governmentfunded healthcare for all residents. California could become the first to enact such a change. Were live in los angeles to talk about more how it would work. Hello, william. Because obamacare is broken, california and others are saying we should maybe adopt the european model. Residents pay the state and the state provides care regardless of income, occupation or health status. I believe we should move toward a medicare for all single payer program. From Bernie Sanders to nancy pelosi. Single payer before you were born. The idea is catching fire. Single payer with government paying all the bills directly to doctors, hospitals and drug companies. If you look at the financing of a single payer system, what youll find is it saves money if its done right. No insurance companies, no waste, no middleman. Why every other country in the world pays 2 3 less. Several states proposed them this year. One passed in the California Senate that would make every resident legal or not eligible for coverage, no premium, no copayment, no deductible. The lure of that simplicity. The idea of single payer of the government running everything will be there and i think a lot of conservatives are worried if the republicans fail to replace obamacare with a system thats better the calls for single payer could grow. Problem is to control costs the government simply denies care meaning consumers will not get all the drugs or care they need or want. And because there is no competition, they have no choice. A number of states have tried to set up single payer and abandoned the effort because the taxes involved were too high. Thats the problem. So the cost is about 400 billion. More than the state budget here. So this proposal has a long way to go but it is where democrats are nationally. Putting their political eggs. Half of all House Democrats in congress have cosponsored a single payer bill. Remember those words in 2020. Bill in light of all the talk on healthcare it will come out of the white house with Republican Leadership today. Trump white house has vowed to track down the leakers. Now a 25yearold Government Contractor is the first charge under the Trump Administration. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge working her sources and what were learning about the suspect. British police revealing the identity of the third killer from saturday night as we learn much more about the other two. Were big and significant warning signs missed by police in london . That answer moments away. New roads and bridges. New mass transit. New business friendly environment. New lower taxes. And new University Partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. Learn more at esd. Ny. Gov shannon the Trump White House vowed it would find leakers and now they say theyve got one. A top secret report on Russian Election hacking leaked. The accused leaker an american intelligence contractor busted. The suspect charged under the espionage act could face years behind bars in a federal prison. Welcome to a new hour of americas newsroom. Bill what a story, huh . Im bill hemmer. 25 years old, her name is reality winner, possibly the first leaker to face prosecution under the Trump Administration. The classified document in question suggested hackers penetrated further into the u. S. Voting system than earlier disclosed. This in the days leading up to the election last november. Shannon senator rand paul talking about the collection and leaking of secrets earlier on fox friends said this. We cannot live in fear of our own intelligence community. Yes, absolutely from top to bottom we need a reform and we need to go in and say the American People need to have oversight. Something has to change. Shannon Catherine Herridge is live this morning in washington good morning, catherine. What can you tell us about this contractor . According to the f. B. I. Affidavit the 25yearold contractor worked in augusta, georgia and last month gave a report to reporters. She printed an improperly removed classified Intelligence Reporting which contained classified National Defense information and was dated on or about may 5, 2017 and unlawfully retained it. A few days later winner then transmitted the Intelligence Reporting to an online news outlet. Last night on the story the republican chairman of the house government Oversight Committee weighed in. You can see the problem. They have hundreds of thousands people with security clearances that can do that. There are supposed to be safeguards in there. When we talk to the state department and the department of justice and the nsa they assure you they have the safeguards. How many times do we need to see this story happen . When confronted by the f. B. I. On saturday she admitted to taking the report, retaining it and mailing it to reporters not authorized to receive it. Those are the elements required for a violation of 18usc79 36789 shannon if its accurate and legitimate this document, how serious was the russian hacking attempt . The document first report evidence by the intercept website is based on recentlyacquired data that suggests Russian Military intelligence known as the gru executed a cyberattack on a u. S. Voting Software Supplier in august of last year and days before the election hackers launched a phishing campaign. The nsa data doesnt change the intelligence communitys conclusion the russian effort did not alter votes but the Intelligence Report does conflict with russian president s Vladimir Putins statement that the allegations have no basis. Shannon thank you. Bill breaking news on the london terror attack. The identity was released of the third terror suspect. Seen far right here. 22yearold Youssef Zaghba. One of three attackers who killed seven people and injured more than 40 others saturday night. Authorities now trying to piece together exactly what happened and learn more about the attackers and David Lee Miller is reaching out to his contacts on the ground in london with more. David lee, the latest from Central London. Bill, a moment of silence was observed all throughout the u. K. Today in memory of the victims. But at the same time angry voices now being raised, many wanting to know why at least one of the attackers was not stopped by authorities. As has been widely reported in various media such as cnn, abc, bbc and seen around the world, although not confirmed by london police, 27yearold Khuram Shazad butt was featured in a Tv Documentary only last year. In this documentary seen by more than one Million Viewers butt can be seen unfurling the isis flag. Police commissioner here says there was no intelligence to suggest that saturdays attack was being planned. Police say they were aware of butt but that he was not a priority. He was moved to a lower echelon of importance. There are multiple reports of people notification authorities about butts radicalization. One former neighbor says that his wife notified police that butt was trying to radicalize children. Listen. Police are asking community to help to get information or whatever suspicious, you know. And when someone give some kind of information, it just is taken and put away. Authorities have now identified the third attacker, 22yearold Youssef Zaghba. His father is moroccan, mother italian. In italy was stopped last year trying to fly to turkey and go to syria. They kept u. K. Officials informed of his movements. That report raising more questions about to what extent, if any, he was on police radar here in the u. K. And lastly, bill, in an effort to try and prevent similar attacks from taking place, authorities are now installing on many bridges here in london the type of barriers that could prevent another car from plowing into pedestrians. This now as the country prepares for a general election slated to get underway in a little less than 48 hours. Bill thursday it is. David lee miller live in Central London on scene. Shannon and here at home top Congressional Republicans are heading to the white house meeting with President Trump and Vice President pence to discuss efforts to get the legislative agenda back on track before summer recess. Healthcare reform is still a top priority. President trump and our administration are working every day with members of congress and we wont rest until we repeal and replace obamacare with the kind of healthcare reform the American People deserve. Healthcare reform built on consumer choice, free market principles and statebased innovation and respect for the doctor patient relationship. Shannon good morning, guy benson. Not long ago we had the Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell saying i dont know how we get to 50 votes on healthcare and senator burr said he thinks its unlikely a package actually gets done. Those words to people who have been waiting for years for the gop to get this done and voted those folks in last fall. Not too happy. And they shouldnt be. Republicans campaigned on very few united messages over the last seven years, the premier of which was well repeal and replace obamacare. The house did their part. They took a real risk, i think, politically putting their names on a bill that has to be changed in the senate. For the senate to let this thing flounder and wither on the vine i think is just not acceptable to republican voters. And its not like this is some sort of hypothetical political problem. Obamacare continues to disintegrate. We saw in the last few weeks blue cross blue shield. One of the few remaining carriers participating in the law pulling out of major markets like the kansas city area and the entire state of nebraska. So people, real consumers across the country are being harmed by raising prices that keep going up not just outofpocket costs but premiums as well and fewer and fewer choices as the risk pools continue to get more toxic and unsustainable. This is a problem for people that needs to be fixed. Republicans raised their hand and choose us to fix it. For them not to do that and abandon that task with all the other distractions flying around. It would be a massive betrayal. Shannon there has been a working group in the senator. Gop senators have been asked to turn in their ideas by tend of this week. They wont litigate it in public. They want to get a cbo score before they move forward. This meeting today with the president and Vice President , how do you think it impacts or moves things forward . Can it and will it . You would think generally the president and Vice President coming to capitol hill would move the needle. A lot of the lack of focus is a direct result of everything happening down pennsylvania at the white house. Its supposed to be infrastructure week at the white house. I have gotten the press releases. Instead we have the president in a war of words over twitter with the mayor of London Attacking his own Justice Department over a travel ban, quote, unquote, that he himself signed and so of course comey coming up on thursday, his muchanticipated testimony. Im not sure that the political situation lends itself to focusing on a legislative agenda here in d. C. But again, thats congresss job and i think to some extent paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell would love to do a legislative track over here and let the drama play out at the white house. Thats not exactly how politics works in practice. Shannon i believe they have used the words drama to describe what is happening down pennsylvania avenue. Today theyll talk tax reform and pushing hard and have to get it right and the back drop of the looming debt ceiling as well. A busy time in washington guy benson, thank you very much. Bill Homeland Security hearing getting underway, ron johnson, the republican senator from wisconsin examining the departments budget request for next year. Secretary john kelly will give testimony and the senators will have a number of questions in light of the terrorist attacks from around the world and what were learning out of london. Well watch that for headlines and bring them to you. You were with secretary kelly on saturday night in washington, d. C. When the whole london thing was going down. Shannon he talked about the fact that one of the things he learned when he took over dhs, he is a military guy, decades in service. He said i was so blown away how fantastic the people of dhs are and no idea what theyre dealing with every day. A lot of praise for them. Isis is claiming responsibility for yet another attack this week. A deadly siege in melbourne, australia. Bill were getting new reaction from the white house and President Trump on the situation unfolding over the country of qatar. How his overseas trip and call for unification might be spurred action from seven countries. Shannon the big story of the day. An nsa contractor leaking information about russia. This information gets put into the Washington Post and gets put into the New York Times. Im saying what is going the happen when im dealing on the middle east and when im dealing with really, really important subjects . So tell us your big idea for getting the whole country booking on Choice Hotels. Com. Four words, badda book. Badda boom. Let it sink in. Shouldnt we say we have the lowest price . Nope, badda book. Badda boom. Have you ever stayed with Choice Hotels . Like at a comfort inn . Yep. Free waffles, cant go wrong. I like it. Promote that guy. Get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. When you book direct at choicehotels. Com. Book now. Bill isis claiming responsibility for another attack. This time at a deadly siege in melbourne, australia. That gunfire continued for sometime. Police shooting and killing a somali refugee after he killed a man and held a woman hostage. He had a Violent Crime nat history. The offender has been inside the apartment with the hostage. Police were outside. They formed a plan, a special Operations Group were in position. The offender confronted them and fired at them and the special Operations Group members fired back killing the offender. Bill isis claiming responsibility saying the attack was launched because australia has taken part in the u. S. Led Coalition Fighting isis in raqqa, syria. President trump things are being leaked. Its criminal action. Criminal act. Ive called the Justice Department to look into the leaks. Those are criminal leaks. Theyre put out by people either in agencies i think youll see it stopping. It is a priority. Weve begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made well seek to put some people in jail. Shannon the Trump Administration has been making their feelings known when it comes to constant intelligence leaks. The doj charging a 25yearold from georgia under the espionage act. Reality winner, a u. S. Air force veteran with top secret clearance working for an intelligence contractor arrested after a top secret nsa report on Election Hacking was leaked to a website. Judith miller is here. Having head through the affidavit that went with the initial complaint. When they confronted her she admitted to everything and knew what she was doing. This has been such a top headline story. Do you think theyll make an example out of her . She could face 10 years in prison. Theyll try to do that. This administration has been trying to shift the subject from Russian Investigation or whatever is potentially embarrassing to the leak of classified information. Now, as somebody who has received more than her share of classified documents that have been leaked i can tell you this is going to continue. On in every on. Administration. It drove president obama crazy. Theyre using the same 100year law against this 25yearold contractor. Theyll try to make a terrible example of her. Shannon about how many people who handled classified information are employees versus contractors. There are 60,000 people that work for the nsa. Fewer than 5,000 are employees of the government. Do the math. 55,000 private americans employed by many, many, many contractors hired by the federal government. They all take the same oath and have the same security clearance and laws that regulate them but Different Levels with ease they can get things out of the building. Shannon you think the leaks will continue when you have that many people not employees of the federal government and have different access to information and releasing it. Do you think it means this doesnt close down any time soon . I think news organizations have taken precautions to protect leakers and leakers have gotten smarter how to get information to us. But lets make no mistake about this. Everything we know about the Russian Investigation we know pretty much because of leaks. Leaks resulted in the pentagon papers and watergate. Leaks tell us what governments dont want us to know. We use that information responsibly. Not publishing things that would really damage or expose sources and methods but to get information to the public that they have a right to know. Shannon there are a lot of people who look at the leaks who said some of the information has been leaked has been worse than the underlying issue. If you talk about whether the president being accused of sharing information with the russians in the oval office, the release of the information he allegedly shares, released information about people and sources and methods and people will say why would the press leak that information if thats what theyre complaining about is so detrimental . Whats important to remember news organizations have discussions with the white house all the time about information that might be compromising to sources and methods and in the case of the intercept, for example, the story that was on the online news service, they went to the government and the government told them what to excerpt, asked that. It happened all the time at my former newspaper, the New York Times. I believe it happens here as well. Shannon the conversations continue. You know this was part of the frustration the president had with former f. B. I. Director james comey. We have to go now. You think there is something comey it will give him something to talk about other than the other russian hacking we know about. Bill 21 minutes past the hour now. Congress and the republican majority. Today the white house meets with gop leaders to move the legislative agenda forward. The first topic today is healthcare. The truth is the American People are struggling under the weight of the failed policies of obamacare and it must go. Bill what comes of this meeting . Were live to washington in a moment to find out. Shannon the Trump Organization is adopting the president s focus on america to promote a new business project. Will that strike more controversy . We have details just ahead. That College Experience that i had. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise does your mouthg prescripoften feel dry . S, a dry mouth can cause cavities and bad breath. Over 400 medications can cause a dry mouth. Thats why theres biotene. Biotene can provide soothing dry mouth relief. And it keeps your mouth refreshed too. Remember while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isnt. Biotene, for people who suffer from dry mouth symptoms. Bill Trump Organization putting America First in its News Business venture. The president s sons donald junior and eric are guiding their fathers real estate empire announcing plans for a new threestar hotel chain called america idea featuring artifacts of american culture. Three of those hotels are headed for the mississippi delta with one already under construction. The real america. To be able to go in there and cater to them as well i think its a beautiful thing. Between eric, myself, we stayed in every one of these hotels in every Little Market in the country and we saw there was a void missing. I think were excited to try to fill it. Bill Melissa Francis joins me now. Apparently the idea was borne out of the past campaign traveling throughout parts of the country and said the holiday inn and comfort suites not cutting it for a lot of folks right now. I put my business hat on. Divorce it from the idea that being trump. It is a genius idea. You know if you go out there and a lot of places in america there isnt a straight forward, quality option to stay in a hotel, three star middle market where you can go in a city thats not new york and not las vegas and someplace you normally think of. Where you would go and need a hotel to stay. They were out on the trail and they always have their business hats on. They looked around and said here is a market that isnt being served. You have often said his genius is in his marketing. He found a market and he knows how to market to that market. Bill i read where they thought the ideas that they were seeing were too cookie cutter. This will be different. How so . I dont know about that. It will be a little cookie cutter in the sense the theme is america, americana. Thats whats working for them. Theyre pitching to this group. They realize the trump brand used to be sort of aspirational. People think of it as highend. If youre highend and youre staying at the four seasons and doing that sort of thing. The group that really relates to him, the people that are very straight forward, work hard, want value and want honesty, this is an honest deal, very straight forward. Thats how they are laying it out. The other smart thing. This is how he does business. He doesnt risk his own money and builds the hotels himself. He licenses his name and lets someone else take the risk. Thats what he realized when he went bankrupt and came back smarter than ever. Bill he is financially invested in the family business. Donald junior was asked whether or not there was a conflict of interest. Here is how the question and answer went on that. What do you think critics may say, american idea. Are you trying to make money off politics . Nothing to do with politics but off a hotel brand there is an underserved market. More companies could do better by being a little more patriotic. Bill there will always be critics. Critics will criticize this family no matter what they work. If they stop working theyll criticize them for being lazy. They cant do anything right. I dont see anything illegal about this. The the New York Times made a compelling case that the clintons this is very legal. It will be for the voters to decide if they feel like this family are they opportunists or this is the american spirit and making money. Thats for voters to decide. Bill President Trump said his name wont appear. They will know its the organization. A business opportunity, theyll take it. I dont see how you make the case there is anything illegal. It will be up to the voters to feel in theyre comfortable. Bill first one in mississippi. Ill be in at 11 00. Bill jon scott and happening now now. Among the guests today a texas congressman talking about the efforts on the reboot on the president ial trump agenda. See you then. Whats next, shannon . Shannon top lawmakers are headed to the white house today trying to get the legislative victory in congress they so need. Bill also this will be mustsee tv when the fired f. B. I. Director james comey sits before the senate panel on thursday. Senate intelligence committee. Could this be the hearing that puts the russia matter to rest . Former Deputy Assistant attorney general tom dupree is on deck to answer that. You have to explain why is it you publicly testified under oath there was no political interference . Thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy to get back to doing. What you love. Ensure. Always be you. Times up, insufficient were on prenatal care. Es. And administrative paperwork. Your days of drowning people are numbered. Same goes for you, budget overruns. And rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. Were coming for you, too. For those who wont rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. Optum. How well gets done. Bill there was some doubt, there is no more. The white house saying it wont seek to block the former f. B. I. Director james comey in his testimony on thursday before the Senate Intelligence committee. Jay sekulow explaining what he wants to hear when this happens on thursday. How in the world did james comey then the f. B. I. Director do a private memorandum, got it to his staff and allowed the staff to leak it to a newspaper . While he is testifying and discussing his testimony with the special counsel. What doesnt look right here . Everything looks wrong. Bill tom despres assistant attorney general. Welcome back here. What do you think has changed since we spoke two weeks ago that youre watching . A number of things. The first is, of course, as we all know the f. B. I. Director, former f. B. I. Director is going to have his day in the spotlight this week. Were all going to be awaiting with a lot of anticipation to hear what his story is. The other thing thats changed is the white house is now confirmed they arent going to assert executive privilege as a way to block comeys testimony, which in my view is the right decision. Bill okay. Was there any doubt about that or i think there was doubt in the sense that executive privilege is a robust doctrine, it is available to the white house, an exercise of judgment and discretion on the part of the white house whether they wanted to assert it here, so i dont think it was an obvious answer as to what to do. That said, i think it was the right decision because for one thing it avoids a divisive battle with congress and another i think it will expedite the ultimate resolution of this investigation. Bill you think it will advance it and you get answers as to whether or not this continues or not . Here is my prediction. A lot of people have said he wont give up much. Either side can cherry pick whatever they choose in order to say see, this is the end of it or it should go forward. What is your view on that . I think your view is correct. Each side will find aspects of his testimony they like and aspects they dont like and try to downplay. Whats good here is that its a step toward transparency to put in all the chips on the table and let the cards fall where they may. If they exerted executive privilege we would have been in more monthslong battle and going to the courts whether he could testify in the first place. It would have put the day of resolution off by several months. Bill one of the things we dont know about this is how it will go. You have your view, i have mine. We can ask a thousand people and get a thousand different answers. When you get into an investigation. John barrasso was here yesterday and put out a suggestion when he said the following. I think these hearings were having will be so informative. They may find things the Obama Administration has done. That candidate clinton had done. Americans want answers to this but this cannot be all consuming. Bill the obama and clinton comment. I didnt expect to hear that. How do you answer that when that question comes up . Well, i think what is interesting about this is that there are some on the hill, probably largely democrats, who are going the try to keep an extremely narrow focus on this hearing because what they are primarily interested in is hearing exactly what the president said to comey. On the other hand, i think there are folks who quite properly are going to see thursdays hearing as an opportunity to conduct a slightly broader inquiry. Not just what about the president and comey say to one another but issues that arose during the prior administration. This is an opportunity to question comey about issues that are of importance to the committee, about the prevalence of leaks, about a variety of things beyond the narrow issue of what did he say to the president. Bill thats why were watching. Thanks for coming in today. Tom dupree junior. We have full coverage of the testimony on thursday. Shannon and i will be here with special coverage starting at 9 00 a. M. Eastern time and joined by Chris Wallace and many others thursday morning at 9 00 a. M. On americas newsroom. An hour to ramp up and at 10 00 the hearing begins and well see what happens. Shannon as much as were looking forward to this. There is a bar in washington, d. C. And they will have the hearing on with the sound up. They noted that for what theyre calling the comey hearing cofeve. Well serve russian vodka and f. B. I. Sandwiches. Lawmakers working hard to get the agenda back on track with Top Republicans heading to the white house to meet with the president and Vice President. Now here to discuss is mike emmanuel. A packed agenda. Time is ticking away. Youre right. Significant deadlines are on the horizon and pressure is building to get big things done. President trump is calling this afternoons meeting a big meeting discussing healthcare and tax cuts. The president says theyre all pushing hard and must get it right. The meeting is expected to include paul ryan, Kevin Mccarthy from the house and Mitch Mcconnell from the senate. The white house and allies want to improve the nations infrastructure and try to get some democrats on board. They see there is benefits to their states and districts i think we can bring them on board. Infrastructure is one of those policy issues that brings democrats and republicans together. There is american bridges and highways. Democrats say theyre eager to do infrastructure but dont like the Trump Administrations ideas how to pay for the projects. Based on recent reports the entire focus of the president s infrastructure this week is on privatization. That sounds like a nice word. But when you scratch beneath the surface it means much less construction and far fewer jobs. Schumer is warning the infrastructure plan will be go for the financers but not for average americans. Shannon thank you, mike. Bill 20 minutes before the hour now. Major battle underway stepping up the fight against isis in syria. Remember raqqa is the headquarters. This is where it began for this group. A long and difficult fight expected to end in a victorious campaign. An update on that from general jack keane coming up. Shannon kuwait stepping in with the situation with qatar. Could it work out to americas best interest . We have a large base in qatar ourselves. Its a Strategic Asset to us and, you know, all of these countries are countries we have a relationship with and we want to keep that. Shannon diplomatic Crisis Brewing as arab states cut ties to qatar. Unexpected development coming shortly after President Trumps visit to saudi arabia. Is there any connection . John bolton last hour on americas newsroom said this. This discussion between the president and top saudi and other arab officials during his visit could have been key . Maybe the saudis said were prepared to do this and will you back us and he said yes. Whatever the sequence its in play now. Shannon michael oren is the former israeli ambassador. Always good to have you with us. Fresh off his trip to the middle east the president is celebrating what he says is now fruit from that trip. I want to read you some of his tweets this morning. During my recent trip to the middle east i stated there can no longer be funding of radical ideology. Good to see with the saudis. What do you make of this move to cut off diplomatic ties, travel, trade, those kinds of things with qatar . Great move, shannon. The moderate arab states are drawing a line in the sand. Theyre saying to qatar either youre with us or with the radical islamic forces. Qatar is a primary backer of hamas that controls the gaza strip. Theyve fired rockets at israel. We have no sympathy for qatar. Were with the arab states and saying youre with us on this side of the line or with the bad guys on the other side of the line. Shannon the accusation is they support terrorist groups and iran and its leaders there. There are there is an israeli officials have said qatar is a pain in the blank. I dont want to attribute that to you. Would you share that assessment . Its been a pain more than a blank. A pain in many places. Nothing to joke about. Qatar has a lot of blood on its hands whether as an ally of iran, the principal backer of hezbollah and complicit in the massacre of a half million syrians. A lot of blood. The gaza strip, a brutal islamic jihadist regime in control. Qatar is backing the forces of darkness and evil in this area of the world. It is more than a pain. Its a serious danger to countless lives in our region. Shannon you have written extensively about the peace process, the roots of israel. In addition to the excellent book you have a piece out talking about the 50 year and 100 year anniversaries and important ones that israel is celebrating. From that piece we have this quote, while the war certainly shaped the modern middle east it alone cant account for the contradictory ways israelis and palestinians can commemorate it. There were events that preceded events of 1967. Your thoughts. 67 war was transformative for the entire middle east. We have peace with egypt and israel and israel and jordan because of that war. We traded tear information for peace. Free access to the holy sites of jerusalem for the first time in years. Jews werent allowed to play at the western wall where President Trump recently visited. That wouldnt have been possible before june of 1967. We have the u. S. israel strategic alliance. Which didnt exist before 1967 and today is the deepest and most multifaceted alliance the United States has had with any foreign nation in its post world war. Its israel. It shaped the entire middle east. Thats not the reason why the palestinians havent come to the negotiating table for eight years and why they turn down offers of twostate solutions in 1937 and 1947, in 2000 and 2008. Im sore eave there is a lot of history. They turn it down, palestinians independence not because israel won the six day war but because of 1917. 1917 the British Government recognized the existence of a jewish people with a right to its homeland in this area. And the palestinians have rejected it ever since. Shannon they have. We would love to talk to you more about the embassy issue as well. Good to talk with you today. Come back soon. Bill it is perhaps the best known church in the world. Notre dame cathedral. There is an Incident Police have responded to. Given the tension thats really gripping europe at the moment given the attacks in manchester and london over the weekend. We want to try to figure out if there is more to come here. This is our Sister Network sky news and have coverage as well. Want to dip in quickly and see if we can learn something from notre dame in paris. They are not trained not to shoot not to kill. The shoulders. The airport in paris recently where someone tried to take a gun off a soldier and they were shot dead. They were shot dead. That will be the default setting of a soldier. Not of a policeman. Good news is that the intelligence will be able to be extracted from this individual and it is all going on at a time when the socalled Islamic State, so often the general inspiration behind some of these attacks, if not the direct thunder and organizing of it is itself under enormous pressure in iraq and syria and repeatedly been making to its followers and fellow travelers possibly inspired the murderous rampage we saw over the weekend in london. Its unclear. Very strong links by the perpetrators there to known radical organizations that actually predate the Islamic State. But when these groups such as Islamic State or al qaeda are on the back foot in their Home Territories militarily we tend to see an upsurge in attacks, no matter how low tech, around the world. That has been a pattern before and after the establishment of the socalled caliphate in syria and iraq. Bill sky news reporting on that. Fox news producer in paris as well. I want to read this. It is coming right from the city. Confirmed by Police Headquarters area sealed off. A man with a hammer attacked a policeman defending himself shot him. Policeman shot twice, aggressor is on the ground. Not confirmed if he is dead or wounded. Tourists are urged to stay away from the area of notre dame. Important detail of what the anchor was describing. Raqqa is under significant assault. Those who believe isis that considered raqqa its home could be taken back by u. S. Led forces at some point perhaps in the next couple of days or weeks because this is an area that has been under a lot of pressure. And were waiting to get more military news as to whether or not the u. S. Led coalition is making more progress there. General jack keane is watching all of it. Well bring him in in a moment. The a. P. Is reporting a security operation is underway near Notre Dame Cathedral urging passersby to stay away from the area. Police department in france tweeted about the operation a short time ago where its about nine minutes before 5 00 in the afternoon. Not a lot of information in that tweet but an official did not offer much more information other than knowing that large number of police have responded to the area near the river seine after a string of islamic extremist attacks in recent years. Were working that story through the a. P. And our team on the ground in paris and sky news that reports this now. From the sort of attacks weve seen now. Its difficult to get hold of firearms and ammunition here. It opens up the groups to being penetrated by security services. The reaction time in a sense is not as important as the capacity of those reacting to deal with the events. So while it took eight minutes it was all over in eight minutes. There wasnt a gun battle because the police overwhelmed the attackers who had knives. Robbie is inside notre dame as we speak. Are you safe . Yes, were safe. Tell us what happened. Basically everyone inside was [inaudible] and theyre saying the police are trying to assess whats going on outside. Who told you you needed the stay where you were and are you just wandering around the cathedral . Have they put you into a particular area . We are in the aisles of the cathedral. It was the security of the cathedral. How many people are inside at the moment . Probably a couple thousand i think. And how calm are people at the moment . Everyone is calm. Everyone is calm. There has been an announcement going on now asking everyone to stay calm until they know whats going on outside. When did you first become aware of what was happening . I suppose it was about 15 minutes ago when we tried to leave and they said no one was allowed to leave at that time. Did they tell you why . They said there was a Police Incident outside and that no one could leave until the police said it was safe to leave. Did you hear anything . I didnt, no, but a man i spoke to said that he came in from outside and heard gunshots and a crowd of people were running at the same time. And the people that are there you say everyone is quite calm and they are sitting in the aisles, at least for now . Are you being updated as to what is happening . Yeah, theyve been doing announcements in english and french and telling everyone to stay calm until the police tell them whats on. Youre feeling okay . Yeah, yeah, fine, yeah. Everyone is calm here. Trying not to panic. You are on holiday at the moment . Yeah, we are just here for a short holiday, yeah. You take care and everything is under control outside so nothing to worry about. Im sure they will be letting you out before too long. Its nice and cool where you are. Stay relaxed and well try to update you and give you call back to let you know whats going on in a short time. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Thank you. Quite calm under the circumstances. There is a french expression for the british, cold blooded not in a negative way but a stiff upper lip among the french and british something that crossed the channel in these dark times. The authorities know how to behave in such circumstances. A couple thousand people trapped inside Notre Dame Cathedral. The horror story would be people getting in with firearms but now we hear a single attacker with a hammer. Bill sky news continues its reporting there. Our producer in paris with a lot of similar information, a man with a hammer attacked a policeman, was shot twice by police. Aggressor is on the ground. Dont know if dead or wounded. The public has been driven away from that area. Very popular on the outside of the church. On the inside theyre locked in for the moment. Benjamin hall working the story out of london. You think about the level of tension that rips across the continent when you have the incidents in london on saturday night and now notre dame today. They arent taking chances. Thats right. One after another after another and such iconic locations. Notre dame one of the major Tourist Spots of paris. 10, 15 minutes ago there were reports of gunfire and panic in the area. The whole front of notre dame quickly evacuated and stories just coming out now of what happened. It appears that a man has attacked one of the policeman there with a hammer and they responded very quickly shooting him. Were just hearing he is not killed. He is only wounded. That Quick Response time one of the things that differs from the u. K. Here there are so many armed police and soldiers in paris and are ready for an event like this. What were hearing from eyewitnesses this was dealt with very quickly. The man is wounded. Shot twice by police. The whole area was evacuated and now people are being told to shelter inside notre dame. It seems at the moment as if this situation is under control. They will, of course, have looked at the events in london recently and been on heightened alert. Not to mention its ramadan at the moment and a sense of heightened alertness. They are no longer is surprise. The situation seems to be under control. One man attacked a Police Officer with a hammer is wounded, not killed. And so thats the information were getting for you at the moment. Bill more context for the french people. Last year when we covered nice last year and then in paris in november again and Charlie Hebdo seemed to kick things off in that country. The french government and its military is changing. Are they changing fast enough for the people to have the confidence in their leadership and military now . You know, a lot of people were very pleased with the responses from the french government after some of these attacks. They put these extra armed patrols on the streets. You have to remember in europe its easier for people to get hold of weapons because of the open borders, weapons come back and forth faster and more easily. Something dealt with quickly. Looking at the response here that seems to be the case. You are right. One after the other at the other at a time like this and as you said you and i have both watched them happen. It is something which is going to keep happening, we feel. The police in paris certainly with special units set up to patrol these areas in particular have responded incredibly quickly. Bill Benjamin Hall is working that story along with David Lee Miller and greg palkot given the attacks in london on saturday night and maybe its been taken care of outside of notre dame. These are iconic places where these are happening. You think about westminster in london. The London Bridge from saturday. Notre dame in paris now and so on and on it goes as we go forward into the month of ramadan. Shannon many have been featured in terrorist videos saying were coming for you and they do use places like notre dame as one of their top targets. It is populated with thousands of tourists along the river there. It is a target not only to hit the french but those who would be visiting from the western world and around the world. Hopefully its isolated and taken care of. A man with a hammer shot twice. When there are developments well bring them to you. We have to run. Jon fox news alert and continuing reporting out of paris just outside of one of the most famous sites and all of Christian Durham Notre Dame Cathedral. A man attacked a Police Officer with a hammer. That man is shot twice by the Police Officer, lying on the ground. We have been told he has been taken away and he is apparently going to survive the incident. There is the aerial video not far from the river, Notre Dame Cathedral. A Police Officer on duty is attacked by a man with a hammer. Melissa there is a heightened response to these incidents right