Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom With Bill Hemmer And Sandra Smith 20190312

The message is wisconsin, we wont forget about you this time. Clearly wisconsin is one of the states that Hillary Clinton did not visit, did not campaign in in the final days of the 2016 campaign because democrats thought they had it in the bag and donald trump, of course, stunned the Democratic Party by then winning pennsylvania and then adding wisconsin and michigan for good measure. And clearly this they messed up on that and it was not just the lack of appeal of Hillary Clinton. It was also that the party was not paying enough attention to the industrial upper midwest. Bill its a good town. Hope they come to fox, too, by the way for the longawaited debate. It is not the end of the conversation, byron. More to come on that. Nice to see you today. Thank you. Sandra u. S. Aviation experts have joined the crash investigation of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 as australian and singapore join a growing list of countries grounding boeings popular 737 max 8 plane until the investigation is complete. Trey yengst is covering it live for us. Boeing released a statement overnight saying they plan to update Software Systems on boeing 737 max 8 planes no later than next month. The company added they have dispatched a team to the crash site and hope to understand the cause of this accident. This as at least 10 countries that Airline Carriers grounding their max 8 planes as an extra safety precaution. Yesterday the faa issued a continued air worthiness notification to boeing. That means the federal Aviation Administration believes these planes are safe to fly in despite new fears following that Ethiopian Airlines crash. Sandra trey, as for the investigation, where do things stand right now . We know its a quickly developing situation. Sandra, right now the american faa and ntsb have dispatched teams to ethiopia to work with investigators there to determine the cause of this crash as families of the victims gathered at the site to pay their respects to the victims. Both the black box and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and analyzed to determine more facts about the cause of this crash. Airline official did say that one of those flight recorders was damaged during the crash. This could make it more difficult for those investigators to find the necessary information. Sandra. Sandra what a story this is as we wait to hear and learn more. We know they have the black box, it has been damaged a bit. We have the audio recordings from the cockpit. Hopefully we learn more soon. Bill flying public has a lot of concerns over this. Rightfully so. Well see what the airline says and well follow it based on these countries making these decisions overnight. Now an arizona sheriff with big concerns about the border. Check it out. Were sitting down here fighting this fight on the front line and listening to these politicians attack our president. You know, whether you agree with him or dont you have a president who is supporting Law Enforcement and fighting for border security. How Border Agents are gearing up for a record surge at the southern border. 180,000 migrants expected by may. National Border Patrol Council President brandon judd will tell us what you need to know coming up live in a moment here. Sandra as we follow that story on the border wall 77 Million Dollars worth of cocaine just seized. Well tell you where authorities made that discovery. Bill brandnew interview President Trump saying socialism may be great to campaign on but it is unrealistic to govern on. In a moment is he right . The white house will stop by to discuss that. America is like a ladder and the people ahead of us help us up the ladder. We have an obligation to turn around and help other people behind us. A lot of these people seem to want to knock the ladder down. Will it feel like the wheend of a journey . P working, or the beginning of something even better . When you prepare for retirement with pacific life, you can create a lifelong income. So you have the freedom to keep doing whatever is most meaningful to you. A reliable income that lets you retire, without retiring from life. Thats the power of pacific. Ask your financial professional about pacific life today. Was a success for lastchoicehotels. Comign badda book. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com sandra authorities discovering nearly 3200 pounds of cocaine at the port of new york and new jersey. Take a look at this. Federal agents finding the drugs at a shipping container that arrived from columbia last month calling it the biggest cocaine bust at the port in nearly 25 years. The drugs had an estimated street value of 77 million. Were sitting down here fighting this fight on the front line. Whether you agree with them or dont at least we have a president who is supporting Law Enforcement, who is fighting for border security. Cartel dont have rules theyre playing by. When you say there is not a problem there is a problem and the cartel has no problem crossing any of those lines. That was mark lamb addressing a dire situation on our southern border. The Border Agents are geared up for a record surge. Brandon judd president of the national Border Patrol council with me now. Welcome to our program here. Thanks for having me. Bill a bit of delay in the satellite. 180,000 migrants will arrive here by the month of may. That will be a new record, sir. What are we going to do about it . This is a dream come true for organized crime for the criminal cartels. What theyre able to do is able to distract us, push these individuals across, take our resources out of the field, and tie up our hands in order to create these gaps in the border so they can push their higher value products across the border such as this cocaine bust you just saw in new jersey. These are the types of things that are if we do not get control of the border, were going to continue to see more fentanyl, more deaths in the United States. We have to control the border and these migrants are being used as pawns. Thats the reason why this is so important. Bill do you think the government could stop this if the government wanted to . I know the government can stop this. It isnt rocket scientist. All we have to do is put the resources on the border. We need to get behind those individuals that actually want to secure the border. If we were if we did that we would actually do what needs to be done. The simple threat that these individuals will be held in custody pending deportation proceedings. We saw that dropped the numbers exponentially. Thats what we need to do. We need our politicians to have the political will to say we need to secure the border once and for all. Bill more unrest in the first five months than all of last year. The numbers are astounding. Guatemala, honduras, el salvador. What is the big difference between this year and last year . The major difference is that Everybody Knows that they can continue to exploit our loopholes. If you go back to 2017, when we had the big drop, it is because everybody thought if they crossed the border illegally they would be held in custody pending their deportation or asylum hearing. Thats not what happened. The catch and release Program Continues and while that continues that will be the magnet that draws these individuals here that says all i have to do is break the law. There will be no consequence. I will be let go pending a hearing that i dont have to show up to and then i can disappear into what obama coined as the shadows of society. And thats what is happening with these individuals. Bill that kind of explains the next number here. Fewer than 20 of thoefs who seek asylum are granted asylum. What happens to the rest . Do they just dissolve . Yeah, what happens is they just dont show up to their court appearance. They disappear and then youve got the politicians saying well, these are not criminals. They only cross the border illegally. Lets not go after them. Thats the message that is being sent worldwide that we do not have the political will to enforce our immigration laws. And if we dont have that will to enforce our immigration laws, nobody is going to be scared to violate them. Bill why do you think weve failed so miserably on this for decades . Well, i have my theories. I think that its all due to politics. Youve got individuals that are going to play to their base. They care more about their reelection bid than what they do this country and thats frankly whats taking place right now. Bill sorry about that. It is likely the reality. Brandon judd, thank you for your time, sir, good to have you back on our show. Thank you for coming back here. Sandra the British Parliament getting ready for a make or break vote on brexit just hours away from that. How will it impact us at home . Bill stunning new individual owe on the powerful storm creating chaos for drivers and first responders. What happened there. Well explain and let you know details coming up next. Your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. All of you. How you live, what you love. Thats what inspired us to create americas most advanced internet. Internet that puts you in charge. That protects whats important. It handles everything, and reaches everywhere. This is beyond wifi, this is xfi. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity, the future of awesome. Bill dramatic video, wild storm in germany. Dash kam video capturing the moment when part of a roof crashed on the street below. Hit a passing car happening in cologne in western germany. Oh, man. Car was covered in debris. The driver and passenger were not injured. Firefighters had to pry them out of that vehicle. Cologne, germany, its beautiful. The cathedral is extraordinary and thats why you go. Also known as cologne. But the driver and passenger are okay. Thats enough. Sandra now on to this story. British parliament facing a critical brexit vote in hours as theresa may said she secured new help from e. U. Leaders in an effort to rescue her plan. Benjamin hall following all this from london this morning. We could see some movement on this today. What do we expect . Well, hopefully some movement. Remember, it is just 17 days until the u. K. Is supposed to leave the e. U. And still no arrangements or agreement in place to define the relationship between the two moving forward. Political wrangling and no consensus and the vote will be tough late today. Last night Prime Minister theresa may was in brussels trying to get lastminute concessions from e. U. Leaders that might get the backing of the British Parliament in the vote today. She claims she got them. M. P. S were clear legal changes were needed to the back stop. Today we have secured legal changes. Now is the time to come together to back this improved brexit deal. And to deliver on the instruction of the british people. But britains top lawyer, the attorney general in the last hour appears to disagree saying that these new concessions to domainly with avoiding a hard border between ireland and Northern Ireland in the event of no agreement are not legally binding and the u. K. Could, if it agrees, could be trapped in the e. U. Indefinitely. If todays vote at 3 00 p. M. Eastern doesnt pass, there are very few options left. Delay brexit, try to get more concessions, unlikely. On march 29th the u. K. Crashes out of the e. U. With no deals in place and some say that would mean huge economic disruption. Theresa may lost her last vote two months ago by 230 votes. Biggest loss in parliament history. Seeing if she can get past the post and move forward getting out of the e. U. Bill the white house calling for a return to fiscal sanity. Washington has a spending problem and it endangers the future prosperity of our nation for generations to come. Bill the record Budget Proposal setting up another showdown on the hill. What will happen next. Well talk to a top member of the president s economic team. Kevin hassett is here to respond from the north lawn. Sandra brandnew reaction coming from the zoo and woman involved in the jaguar attack over the weekend. How the zoo plans to keep it from happening again. Plus did you see this . Exchanging blows. Bill fight night in the nba. The raptors big man comes out swinging. He is a big man. Check out what he did in a moment. It wasnt the only drama last night, either. Come on back. Because no one gets an opinion on why you shave or how you show your skin. Ensure max protein. To give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. straining ill take that. cheers 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. In two great flavors. My dream car. It turns out, they want me to start next month. She can stay with you to finish her senior year. Things will be tight but, we can make this work. Now. Grandpa, what about your dream car . This is my dream now. Principal we can help you plan for that. Bill rocknroll down on the floor. The new york stock exchange. The opening bill 9 30 on tuesday morning. See where we go today. Good move yesterday for the dow despite jittery news from europe. We have the pressure from boeing and speaking of boeing, moments ago malaysia suspends all boeing 737 max 8 flights in and out of the country after the two crashes over the past five months. Meanwhile the u. S. Economy seems to be doing pretty well. You listen to Jerome Powell on 60 minutes. Not a lot of head winds facing our economy. Sandra you heard that from the white house, powell at the federal reserve. The trade deal is a big uncertainty. You try to imagine where we would be today if that actually got done. A little bit of a loss out of the gate. Bill once it is in all likelihood maybe we give a little sale off there. Apple had some big numbers yesterday. Amazon had big numbers yesterday. They really drove the markets. Off we go. Sandra the Budget Proposal. This is another fiscally responsible and common sense spending plan from President Trump. The president has continually called for fiscal restraint and will persist in his efforts to end the wasteful spending. Sandra the white house defending its proposed budget with the Administration Setting a high bar for the economy banking on deregulation and tax cuts to boost Economic Growth. Lets bring in kevin hassett. Chairman of the council of economic advisors. I know youre always willing to play with us here and dig into these numbers. And there is a lot you have way too much fun with this for it being some knee deep numbers here. Lets get into it, though. You look at the Budget Proposal and you heard the acting director saying we have a spending problem in washington does this budget tackle that problem . The budget absolutely does tackle the spending problem. I think in the end the budget deficit problem is one that will depend on growth. Last year all the critics were saying there is no way donald trump delivers 3 growth and growth last year was 3. 1 exactly what we said. Even below the top number and the details everything was about exactly what we said. We say well have another year like that this year. Spending the out of control. The president has a good plan to get it under control. In the end the deficit will be affected most by what happens to revenues and growth. If we get a few more years like we had last year everything will be much, much better than say the cbo forecast. Sandra thats the problem for some critics of the proposal. Washington post talked about the Economic Growth projections that the white house is putting out there are simply too rosie for this type of proposal. Let me run the numbers by you. The white house is projecting 3. 2 growth in 2019, average of 3 growth over the next decade. That is far greater than the other forecasts out there including the cbo, 2. 3 this year, 1. 7 and 1. 8 over the next decade. I know mark sandy is a good friend of yours, the chief economist at moodys. He is saying there is no chance the white house is going to get this kind of growth. To that you say what . Mark made a bet with another friend a few years ago and i think mark owes money to lindsey. The barack obama had a rosey scenario. The average error for them where they were higher than what happened was 1. 4 over their entire term. Next year we could be a minus 2 and have the same numbers as the obama guys. There is this sort of democratic policy Industrial Complex that said its not president obamas policies that making the economy weak. It is something we cant control and you blew wealth people. The rust belt state people no hope. Manufacturing jobs are never coming back. That is not Donald Trumps message. I think democracy works. They voted for the president and he has delivered policies that made these people prosperous. Sandra 3. 2 growth this year is your projection. Thats right. Sandra some democrats are describing this as a gut punch to the middle class. This is John Yarmouth of kentucky, the House Budget Committee chairman. Listen. To name it a budget for a better america have to wonder have they given up on great . Apparently they have. But he also, the subtitle is promises kept. There are many promises that he made in the campaign that were broken by this budget. One of those being cuts that he would never touch medicare, which he does in this budget. Sandra he is describing this budget as a recipe for american decline. I have to say yarmouth is a standup guy but i disagree with him on this. Lets think about all the things weve done not just for the middle class but for people in the bottom. The bottom wage growth, bottom 10 of americans 6 1 2 . Hispanic wage growth absurdly high. Fastest weve seen in a long time. Spanish wages above 50,000 per family. Real wage growth, manufacturing jobs. Were helping the middle class. The idea its a gut punch if we continue to do that is just incorrect. Sandra i want to move on to socialism because we have quickly seen that develop as the target for republicans on democrats and here is the president in the breitbart interview talking socialism. He says, quote, you have to be very careful. Socialism is easy to campaign on but tough to govern on. When you tell people free medical, free education, no more student loans, all the Different Things you say is a great thing to campaign on but 10 years later the country is down the tubes. What is the message from the white house right now on growing talk of socialism and socialist policies on the left . Generally what happens historically you get a country in decline, things arent working, you get some royal family that has run them into the ground and the socialists come in and offer a better vision of the future compared to the tow tall aryanism theyre fighting against. Here we have a booming economy. Ridiculous no one would have expected that bottom wages would have been growing so much except for us. No one would have expected the people who lost their manufacturing jobs would be getting them back. They are. It is really odd. Think about it this way. Iowa and New Hampshire have two of the lowest unemployment rates in the country right now. People will go into those states and say guys we should blow up the system and be socialist . It seems interesting to see what happens. Sandra there is quite a crowd down in texas over the weekend for that south by southwest festival. A lot of the candidates took to the stage. One prominent congresswoman ocasiocortez said this about capitalism in one of those interviews. Listen. Capitalism isnt to me its an ideology of capital. It puts capital the most important thing is the concentration of capital and it means that we seek and prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above all else and to me that ideology is not sustainable and cannot be redeemed. Sandra we only have a few seconds left. Listening to that chairman of the White House Council of economic advisors, how do you respond to that . Well i think again wage growth at the bottom was really high because there are all these jobs being created in the u. S. People need a job to have a wage. People need a factory to work in and growing factories to have wages grow. Capital and labor are not at war with one another the way the socialists say capital and labor need to work together. Were working to make capitalism better every day. Workers needs jobs and socialism chases the jobs away. Sandra we had a few seconds and you did it for us. A Big Conversation and big debate in this country now. Bill take a wrap, huh . Change is coming to the arizona zoo where a woman was attacked by a jaguar. She hopped the fence to take a selfie. Jonathan hunt joins us from the west coast bureau. What is the woman saying . Weve all seen the aftermath video by now and now weve heard from the woman who got clawed. She talked to cbs news only giving her name. She admitted she leaned over the barrier that separates human visitors from the animals cage and therefore got too close to the cage. There is about a fourfoot gap between the wall where visitors are supposed to stand on the side of the cage. It would have been a very long lean if that is indeed what it was. Nevertheless, lee ann says, quote, i was in the wrong for leaning over the barrier. But i do think maybe the zoo should look into moving their fence back. Anybody can reach out. Im not the first and if they dont move the fence im probably not going to be the last. And she went on quote, i never expected this. I feel like were all human. We make mistakes. And i learned my lesson. She has also apologized to the zoo, bill. The jaguar will not be euthanized because after all, it did exactly what a wild animal is supposed to do when approached by a strange creature. Bill what are the changes we mentioned . They havent given any details of the changes. Theyve simply committed to doing it. Listen here. We are absolutely going to change the exhibit to insure that we do our part and everything we can to make sure our guests are safe and nothing like this can happen. Now it would seem likely they might move back the lower barrier as one safety measure if only to further demonstrate to humans it is less than smart to try to get up close and personal with an animal that can run at around 50 miles an hour, can pierce a skull with one bite and long are sharp claws to put a grip on prey such as humans who come too close to their cage. No word whether the zoo intends to give an i. Q. Test to visitors. That might be wise in my book. Sandra monday night was fight night in the nba after the raptors ibaka and i can see this video for potion. Ibaka shoved him and there was a fight on the court. Both men ejected from this game. Utah it was Russell Westbrook versus a fan getting into a Heated Exchange of what westbrook called a racial and inappropriate comment with the thunder star cursing and threatening to beat up the man and his wife. The fan says the back and forth started off as friendly until he talked about the raps on westbrooks knees. Are you up on all these games . Bill a little bit. Knicks have the worst team in the nba but still a fan. The jazz handed out a placard to all the fans who came in there talking about their behavior and responsibility inside the arena. Perhaps we havent heard the last of that story. Stay tuned. More divisions in the Democratic Party. Speaker nancy pelosi breaking with the radical left over impeaching the president. Former assistant u. S. Attorney Andy Mccarthy has thoughts on that and what you need to understand about all the important legal developments that are on the docket for this week. Andy is next and plus there is this. She should be scared. The Democratic Party of alexandria ocasiocortez has no future. It really does not. And i hope pelosi does rein them back in. Sandra congressman dan crenshaw says Speaker Pelosi has real problems with freshmen democrats. The ateam will take this up. Bill liz warren versus facebook. The social media giant caving in on a request. Well explain the back and forth and what went down in the end. Charles payne on that coming up. Whooo want to take your next vacation to new heights . Tripadvisor now lets you book over a hundred thousand tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world like new york from bus tours, to breathtaking adventures, tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book Amazing Things to do. And you can cancel most bookings up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund. So you can make your next trip. Monumental read reviews check hotel prices book things to do tripadvisor the best simple salad ever . D great tasting, hearthealthy california walnuts. So simple, so good. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. Bill nancy pelosi slamming the breaks on talk of impeachment saying she is opposed of it for now to the dismay of many democrats. Andy mccarthy. How are you doing . Good morning to you. Here is the quote from the Washington Post. She says im not for impeachment. Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there is something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan i dont think we should go down that path because it divides the country and he is just not worth it. I dont know how that goes over with people like tom steyer, what do you make of her comment there . There is a little Good Cop Bad Cop going on. Pelosi wants to carry the message to the public that no, no, no, we arent here just to impeach trump. We have important work to do. While thats going on under the radar Nadlers Committee and schiffs committee will go about the business of trying to dig into anything that could conceivably in their minds be a high crime and misdemeanor. To some extent im sympathetic to this. I wrote a book about impeachment called faceless execution. I argued even if you have a thousand impeachable offenses, impeachment is essentially a political process, not a legal one. If you dont have a consensus in the country that cuts across partisan lines, it doesnt have any prospect of success anyway. I think she is trying to carry that message while the other guys go about the business of what this has been about all along, which is not impeachment, it is to make the president unelectable when it gets to 12 or 15 months from now. Bill the word bipartisan was interesting. Unless you get republicans to buy into it, it will be seen as a political exercise. Sarah sanders asked about a pardon for Paul Manafort. Here is the exchange from yesterday. Why hasnt the president ruled out a pardon for Paul Manafort . The president has made his position on that clear. He will make a decision when he is ready. Here is whats important. Manafort before a judge tomorrow. Tell our viewers what you believe is important as i stack this up. Michael flynn has a status report this week, roger stone i think will get a trial date this week. What do we need to Pay Attention to as we bounce between judges and courtrooms over the next four days . I think with manafort, bill, the important thing is the judge last week gave what was mostly deemed to be a life sentence. I think as we discussed he did that precisely because he knew that the judge who was going to sentence manafort come will slam him. I would expect to see him get a very heavy sentence. At the same time i really think this is winding down. If mueller was building to a conclusion that involved some kind of conspiracy involving espionage and the president , you wouldnt see all these people getting sentenced or charged with things that are merely process crimes that dont have anything to do with an espionage conspiracy. Well get news on individual cases but this is drawing to a conclusion. Bill you are saying its winding down. Thats the phrase i hear from you. The Mueller Report is about to conclude. I think so. Bill, if youre building to a big case, then you get the underlynx to come in and they dont plead guilty to process crimes but conspiracy saying here is what i did with the russians, here is what the president did and manafort and page did. We never heard anything like that. Thats how a prosecutor builds to a big case. You dont get everybody to plead out to lying to the f. B. I. Bill good to see you. Come on back soon. Thank you. Sandra yet another country now getting involved in the ethiopian crash. Grounding more jets. This time the u. K. Is putting a stop on the boeing 737 max 8 plane that was involved in that ethiopian crash. The very latest on this is that u. S. Aviation experts are now getting involved in that investigation. Well have more coming up. I call it my comfortable future plan. Its our confident forever plan. Welcome to our complete freedom plan. Its all possible with a cfp professional. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. Find your certified financial planner™ professional for a nasty cold, take new dayquil severe with vicks vapocool. [a capella] whoa and vaporize it with an intense rush of vicks vapors. [a capella] ahhhhhhhhhh new dayquil severe with vicks vapocool. Sandra alarming u. N. Report showing a nearly 50 surge in measles cases worldwide. The centers for Disease Control says so far this year 228 cases have been confirmed in 12 states. Dr. Marc siegel joins us now. What is happening with the spike in cases of the measles . Its a huge problem. Actually you said up 50 last year in the world. There were 110,000 measles deaths in the world. It has particularly hit the countries of brazil, ukraine and philippines and the reason is for lack of vaccine compliance or vaccine availability. You are seeing in the states you showed here in the United States its the same problem. It is vaccine compliance. You know why . If people take the mmr vaccine their protection against measles is 97 . We need 90 to protect the community to get a community immunity. The ring of immunity and thats why children really shouldnt go to school unless theyve had that second mmr shot. Sandra thats the big one. You usually get that before youre 5 years old in the states. So specifically this growing surge of measles cases poses a big threat to children. Theyre making the case they would be the most affected by this worldwide. They are the ones who get it is most and die from it. We see cases of brain swelling going on. 1 in 1,000 cases of brain swelling and less have it and dont know it and have developmental problems later on. Huge problems. The other problem with measles we dont talk about enough is that it is contagious even when you dont know you have it. You think ill stay away from that person with that bright red rash or the red eyes. You dont get that until day four. So you have the sniffles and you were just saying in your house there were sniffles all over the place. Your kids were vaccinated against the measles but if youre in a house that wasnt they could have the same sniffles and bam they get the rash. By the time they got it they spread it to everybody around them. A very contagious disease for people who havent been vaccinated. Sandra what would you attribute this rise in cases to . You know, in the underdeveloped world it is clearly due to not enough vaccine availability. In the u. S. There is no excuse. It is due to this idea in certain states you can just philosophically you dont want it. I can understand exemptions for medical reasons and maybe for religious reasons, not philosophical reasons. Theyre trying to get rid of that in Washington State now. Sandra brazil had no measles cases in 2017. Look at venezuela. Cases in venezuela are traveling to brazil. Bill fox news alert. Secretary of state mike pompeo accusing cuba and russia of propping up venezuela. The u. S. Now pulling out its embassy. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Call usaa to start saving on insurance today. Sandra the very latest on the boeing and grounding of several of the 737 max 8 aircrafts around the world. U. S. Aviation experts have gotten on the ground there. Theyre now involved in the investigation. In the wake of that we have seen several countries ground these planes that they currently have in operation. The latest to join in on that china was the first, u. K. Has now said theyre grounding all of these jets involved in that crash. Well continue to see what happens here in the United States. We have not seen that action take place just yet. Bill watching another one cross. Almost like every hour we see another country follow suit. Norway is doing the same. The word out of Norwegian Air by way of copenhagen, denmark theyll ground their 737 max 8 as well. Well see what boeing says throughout the morning. Sandra first to this. Democrats divided as nancy pelosi puts the brakes on impeachment setting up a new fault line without the radical ranks of her party. Welcome to her hour of americas newsroom. Bill im bill hemmer. Good morning. Pelosi putting herself as odds with the liberal freshmen in her party saying that President Trump isnt worth the Political Risk of an impeachment. Pelosi blinks. Not only the freshmen objecting. One Top Democrats disagreeing saying that impeachment is inevitable. Impeachment Means Nothing if you dont use the power. And begin the process. So to me its not a question of whether, its a question of when and probably right now is not the right time but i think at some point it will be inevitable. Bill mike emanuel live from the hill. Where do things stand . Good morning. We expect Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take questions from reporters any moment now. Expect a lot of questions on this. Here is what she told the Washington Post. I am not for impeachment. Impeachment is so deviceive in the country. Unless there is something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan i dont think we should go down that path because it divides the country and he is just not worth it. Some high profile freshmen like alexandria ocasiocortez disagree. However, she told the Washington Examiner, i wouldnt say she is completely concrete. Should the Mueller Report drop and we see something, i wouldnt count anything out. A leading illinois democrat says this could change. What she is saying is lets not be distracted by these everyday pieces of information that are coming up. Until it all comes together. If Robert Muellers report shows a clear violation of the constitution and clearly shows that President Trump has gotten away of democracy thats impeach able. Thats a whole other story. Expect more reaction. Bill what do you hear about the budget blueprint from the white house . Whats the reaction on the hill, mike . Sandra Senate Budget chairman, a republican senator saying i look forward to working with my colleagues and the president to curb federal overspending and help bring our deficits and debt under control. On the other democratic leader Chuck Schumer is picking it apart. How about this one . 1. 5 trillion in cuts to medicaid. 845 billion in cuts to medicare. 506 billion in tax credits that are cut, which help lower income americans afford insurance. Not only is this cruel, it is hypocritical. Schumer suggests this budget blueprint would be devastating to the middle class. A lot of lawmakers still going through the fine print. Bill a big day there. Sandra move onto the breaking news coming into the newsroom now. The u. K. Civil Aviation Authority issuing instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights on boeing 737 max 8 in u. K. Airspace. U. S. Aviation experts are teaming up now with the global investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash. Doug mcelway is live in washington as things are quickly changing. A growing number of Airlines Ground the boeing 737 max 8 the manufacturer is standing by its airplane and so is the faa. Yet both entities are acknowledging that changes are being made to the software that controls the max 8s Flight Control systems. The changes will be made no later than april. Aviation expert described how the 737 max 8 has bigger engines that necessitated them being moved farther forward on the wing changing the handling characteristics of the max 8. It behaves differently than earlier versions of the 737. Bill when you apply full power to the airplane it drives the nose up. What boeing did to counter that is they automated it. In the event of it might be pilotinduced oscillation. They said the max Flight Control Operations Manual outlines an existing procedure to safely handle the unlikely event of erroneous data coming from the sensor. The pilot will always be able to override it using electric or manual trim. Consider some pilots are not as well trained as pilots in the u. S. In the meantime senator Dianne Feinstein and congressman defastio are both calling for the plane to be grounded domestically. I would think twice about getting on the plane truthfully. I wont be dishonest here. The initial data is very similar to indonesia in terms of the unusual climb and the dive and that. Statistically the plane is very safe. Over 350 are in operation worldwide or were before all of these groundings. They made thousands upon thousands of flights with no mishaps before these other two and there are serious questions about the training of some pilots in the mishaps abroad. Sandra part of that key part of the story was the day before that flight took off, they made a key change because of pilot complaints on board that aircraft. This is the story well continue to follow. Thank you, doug mcelway. We continue to dive into the story. Later in the hour well talk to an aviation consultant, a former pilot and get his thoughts on this breaking news. There is risk involved in maintaining our Political Freedom and our lives. But we are taking on this specific endeavor and this International Aid which keeps us going. Bill Opposition Leader juan guaido talking to fox business saying he will invoke the constitution allowing the congress to authorize Foreign Military intervention. Mike pompeo ordering all diplomatic staffers to leave the country. That means the embassy will close. The u. S. Will withdraw, he writes. All remaining personnel from the u. S. Embassy this week. It reflects the deteriorating situation in venezuela as the diplomatic staff of the embassy has become a constraint on u. S. Politics. Charlie hurt, tom bevan publisher of real clear politics and leslie marshall. When you pull out people from your embassy it gets your attention. It really is real. It is a tragedy beyond our ability to fully come pro hend comprehend at the moment. A travesty what happened to the country over a short period of time. You cant help but put it into a context the politics of what is going on in this country where you have a lot of People Democrats talking about socialism and wanting to adopt socialism. Ive always felt like it was always good having russia there to remind us of what a terrible idea socialism is. This is another good reminder of what a terrible idea socialism is. Sandra and just how far could we or will we get involved here is the big question . I think were doing the right thing actually. I dont agree with some of my fellow democrats with what the president is doing. Right now i think this is a powder keg and the military are the politicos who wont get money from maduro will turn on him and it will become more violent than it already is. When you look at countries like germany, france, canada, we are o e not seeing what were seeing in venezuela. A lot has to do with the leadership. Maduro what he did or didnt do. How he constrained all democratic organizations in that country. How he oppressed people that were trying to protest and the amount of corruption and the amount of money that he pocketed and the payouts. That to me speaks more like incredibly rich country. A country are Tremendous Oil wealth just destroyed. Unrecognizable. It is a tragedy. No good options for the United States. Were doing, i think, the best we can given the circumstances. I dont think the Trump Administration really wants to send get involved militarily at all. Despite the invitation by the Opposition Leader. Sandra ilhan omar stepped in with a tweet on the Current Situation there and wrote this. Trump and abrams cannot be trusted to tell the truth about what is happening in venezuela. We must continue to question the narrative they provide and promote dialogue instead of intervention. Certainly its important to question all of our leaders, but he is president , he did get elected president. She is not president and she didnt get elected president and i think that most americans have a lot more faith in his judgment about these things than they do in her. Bill you mention moscow. Soviet union no longer around. Mike pompeo is drawing a similar conclusion. He thinks there are nefarious actors at play, russia, cuba and more. Has created this crisis. It, too, for its own reasons is thwarting the venezuelans People Democratic hopes and dreams. Moscow, like havana continues to cover maduro and disregard the interim president guaido. Russia vetoed the u. N. Resolution in the Security Council on february 28th. Bill a lot of this is at play right now. The president did an interview with breitbart and talked a lot about socialism. The headline. Seductive socialism would send the country down the tubes in a decade or less. When you tell people free medical, free education, no more student loans, all the Different Things that you say its a great thing to campaign on but then 10 years later the country is down the tubes, its gone. If we look at our own country the same things were said by many leaders with regard to two programs that we have that are socialist, if you will in nature. Medicare and social security. If you look at the polls, not just democrats want free tuition, not just democrats want healthcare for all even if they dont want medicare for all. This appeals to many americans. They feel when you are in a nation like we are that is so wealthy that these are things that should be provided to the public. Bill his best line well give you everything you want and a rollsroyce in everyones pocket. Trump has great political instincts and understands the nuances here. I think he is rightfully trying to set up the 2020 election as a contrast. Sharp of a contrast as he can get between the socialist policies, whether democrats want to call them that or not thats how trump will brand them. And his version of america which is he is reducing regulations, cutting taxes, trying to fire up the economy. A contrast that works for him in the long haul. He knows that. But he has no illusions about the fact it does play well among some folks including independents and he will have to make the case. Sandra the 44th mayor of the city of chicago rahm emanuel talked about the democrats hard left turn and how it could reelect the president. Here is the headline. How not to lose to donald trump. A winning 2020 candidate needs three things. He writes this. Earth to democrats. Republicans are telling you something when they scheduled votes on the green new deal, medicare for all and 70 tax rate. When theyre more eager to vote on the economic agenda than we are. Are we letting the political battle play out on their turf rather than on our own . Im loath to agree with rahm emanuel on everything but he is exactly right. This is the situation democrats are in. This is a referendum on socialism versus American Freedom and ingenuity. The difference between this year and four years ago among the differences is that you have you also have nancy pelosi talking about trying to scrub any impeachment talk. It is all exactly the same thing. You have the Party Leaders trying to pull their party back towards the center and you have the far more exciting characters dragging the party farther left. Very vocal. Does it scare that you that agree with rahm emanuel. How the party being pulled to the left is whats happening in 2016. Bernie or bust. Bernie pouting. I was looking at him at the dnc and bernie is not up there. I cant vote for hillary. It split the party. Well have a repeat of that in 2020. We have different players. It will come down to the aoc group and the bernie supporters over joe biden supporters. So i do think that i worry that pulling the party too far left is going to alienate the moderate centrist democrats, independents and republicans disillusioned with trump. Sandra he said we shouldnt abandon our priorities and details them. He then wrote but we shouldnt fall for trumps sucker punch. Its an interesting piece. Rahm is also very smart and savvy political strategist. He is on the mark with this. The one hope i think democrats have is that all the progressive types. Bernie sanders, while his ideas were radical he bragged theyre now mainstream in the Democratic Party. Seven or eight running to the left it provides an opportunity for biden or klobuchar to win the democratic primary because everybody else is splitting the vote. Bill i think youre in the same position. Democrats are in the same position they were a couple years ago. Thank you, nice to see you. Sandra senator Elizabeth Warren slamming facebook for taking down ads she ran about breaking up the big tech giants and facebook caved. Charles payne is next. Bill the latest chapter. While the debate of border funding is heating up. Tom homan is live coming up shortly former acting ice director. On making it easy to get your windshield fixed. With safelite, you can see exactly when well be there. Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace i had a few good tricks to help hide my bladder leak pad. Like the old tunic tug. But always discreet is less bulky. And it really protects. cause it turns liquid to gel. So i have nothing to hide. Always discreet. But when i started seeing things, i didnt know what was happening. So i kept it in. He started believing things that werent true. I knew something was wrong. But i didnt say a word. During the course of their disease around 50 of people with parkinsons may experience hallucinations or delusions. But now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. The only fda approved medicine. Proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinsons. Dont take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. Nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementiarelated psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinsons disease. Nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. Tell your doctor about any changes in medicines youre taking. The most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. We spoke up and it made all the difference. Ask your parkinsons specialist about nuplazid. Neighbors. Loved ones. Living with diseases like cancer, epilepsy, Mental Health conditions and hiv. Maybe youre one of them. But new medicare rules could deny access to the latest, most effective therapies. Therapies that keep them healthy. Are medicare cuts that save less than one percent worth the risk to millions of patients . President trump promised to protect medicare. We need him to keep his word. Veteran homeowners fantawho need cash. With home values rising all across the country, nows the time to use your valuable va home loan benefit. Newday usa can help you refinance and get 54,000 dollars or more and lower your payments by 600 a month. And since theyve been granted automatic authority by the va, newday can say yes when banks say no. So if youre a veteran homeowner who needs cash, nows the time to call newday usa. Go to newdayusa. Com or call 18004209803 bill senator Elizabeth Warren going after facebook unlikeing it for a while and facebook made a reversal. The story. She puts some ads on facebook saying break up facebook. Facebook took the ads down because they said she used the facebook logo and then they later put them back on. Whats happening . Someone put a tag on my back saying kick me ill take it off. We went through this in third grade. Kick me, okay, no problem. Keep it there. Of course they want to take it off. But i will say, you know what . This whole attack she is going after im not too concerned about facebook being broken up. I believe some of her other targets. Ive argued this the last couple of years i wouldnt be surprised to see some efforts to dismantle amazon or google by some administration. Theyre so big and powerful. It is not about consumers not getting best prices, it is about anticompetitiveness. Well see what happens. Sandra in the same week she was asked if she was asked if she was a democratic socialist she said she is a capitalist and believes in the markets but does believe in breaking up some of these technology giants. How does wall street perceive her calls to do that . If she were elected president it would be a serious issue. Ultimately we have never needed to have any of these companies broken up. The marketplace does take care of that eventually. And even though amazon and google i think could be major targets no matter who is elected in the future, even those will eventually find competitors. There will be rivals to them. The marketplace could take care of this. Bill who do you think is willing to take them on . Of all the president ial candidates. Bill who will step up and do it . Warren would do it, harris perhaps, someone like that. Listen, despite all of his runins in amazon you never heard trump breaking them up and not were losing billions of dollars with the u. S. Postal service. Bill the comment from breitbart. I dont like the idea of people coming in and going on welfare for 50 years and talking about illegals. Thats not what they want to be able to do and it is no good. He was referring there some studies out there that show a large majority of Illegal Immigrants go on public assistance and stay on there at least for a generation and it is very costly. This is not necessarily new. You may not hear any president speak like this about it but its a concern that a lot of american taxpayers have. He put it out there. Of course nancy pelosi is calling this whole thing cruel in the first place his budget. He has other ideas like something democrats are against. A food box that 16 Million People would get. It has cover 81 of people on food stamps. Here is the thing. When food stamps first started in 1939 it was the same sort of program. You got stamps that you could buy anything for Household Goods and 50 cents you bought surplus food from the federal government and it was things that beans, rice, corn meal, eggs, fresh eggs. So it had a twoprong impact. You helped the american farmer, you also helped the consumer. It wasnt spent on things like potato chips. No one wants to be honest but a lot of the money now food stamp recipients receive are spent on nonhealthy items. Democrats talk about food budgets all the time. If you care about nutrition it is an idea to think about. Bill we shall. Sandra charles payne. Bill walking down the hall with the kick bill sign ill take it off for you. Bill get it on video or it doesnt count. Sandra charles payne. Bill aircraft groundings around the world. One country after the other in the wake of the deadly ethiopian plane crash. The faa is not mandating any action regarding the aircraft here at this time. Were watching those developments. Stay tuned for more coming up on that. Sandra plus from the border federal agents arresting hundreds of migrants trying to cross into arizona. The startling number of migrants next. Bill the new budget request from the president including money to secure the borders. The crisis intensifies. Is it dead on arrival, the proposal . Former acting ice director todays headliner tom homan is live coming up next. I know my border sheriffs. Im 70 miles off the border. I can wrangle up 5 to 10 bodies and 300 to 500 pounds of marijuana. It is an issue were dealing with. Your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Were finally going on the trip ive been promising. Because with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. So even when she outgrows her costume, well never outgrow the memory of our adventure together. Unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. Only when you book with expedia. Sandra federal agents arresting nearly 750 migrants trying to cross into arizona. That section of the border has seen a 230 increase in family apprehensions this year. We have complete coverage for you. Former acting ice director tom homan is standing by. These large groups are part of the surge that began in 2014 with more Central Americans than mexicans. More families than single men. Were now monthly apprehensions across the border are the highest in 11 years. Because of gridlock, animosity, partisanship in congress one agent told me this morning its like a runaway train and no one is applying the brakes. Many requiring medical attention. 750 over the weekend walking through vehicle barriers over the Colorado River or scaling fences. Then just a few miles east of that through the son or yeah desert, a mexican highway runs parallel just 20 yards from the border. Agents are seeing more Central Americans. Definitely a crisis where hundreds of people are crossing the border unimpeded. Would having a border wall here prevent that . Infrastructure helps and thats a tool. We know it is one of the things that can slow people down or keep people out. Even though mexico is offering asylum to Central Americans seeking safety migrants say the u. S. Offers more opportunities, higher wages, a Better Future for their kids. Despite warnings about being deported Central Americans know thats not true. In the days, weeks, shelters are full theyll be released. Here is some video from el paso and mcallen where agents are apprehending 900 people per day. Nielsen said make no mistake the problem is getting worse. Congress offered her no help getting around what she calls outdated laws and poor court decisions. Sandra thank you. Bill thank you, william. We believe in appropriate security measures, 2,000 mile wall is a monument to stupidity not just vanity. To stupidity. It doesnt solve the problem. It is pure political theater. He creates these side shows, the political theater, this political grandstanding. The democratic governor from california gavin newsom slamming the president s request for more money for border security. That was the request in the budget. Tom homan, former acting director of ice and fox news contributor. Thank you for coming back here today. One correction. I dont think the president is looking for 2,000 miles of a border wall. He has been clear about that. What do you think about the governors comment about political theater, sir . He should have watched william la jeunesses story just then. Look, you cant argue the fact of what shap evening on the border. This isnt political theater. It started under president obama. He thought it was an issue. Now its worse. Gavin new some is the last person anyone wants to listen to because of the sanctuary city policies. He entices this type of illegal activity because he wants to give them free medical care, free college tuition, sanctuary status and abolish ice. The last one anybody should listen to on how to secure the border. Sandra what is your message to him and other politicians who seem to continue to take this on and take the president on on this issue and agree it is political theater and that this is not a crisis situation . They ought to put politics aside and do what theyre supposed to be doing. Protecting american lives and the sovereignty of this country. No down side on securing our southern border. No down side on less illegal immigration and less drugs and back rolling the criminal cartels that smuggle these people and no down side on saving lives. Two children died recently after they crossed the border. Doctors without borders came out. 31 of all women get raped coming through central america. Ive seen in my career hundreds of People Killed by the cartels who died making this journey. It is just not about protecting the country or about securing our border. It is about saving lives. William la jeunesse covered it well in his statement saying even they say they come for better lives and opportunities. Not one mention of fear and persecution when they claim that. Bill they come in greater numbers than before. By may 180,000 migrant families from guatemala, el salvador, honduras. Why is it happening in such great numbers now, tom . Because congress has refused to close the loopholes. These cartels are smart. They have sell their product. They can sell the products. Half of the United States, half of congress doesnt want to secure the border. Half of Congress Wants to abolish ice and believe in sanctuary policies. Im not trying to be a politician, im not running for office but name me one thing the democratic leadership has offered to slow this surge down, to save lives coming across the border. They have offered no fixes. The only one thats offering fixes here is President Trump and every time he tries something he gets sued. I think they think sooner or later theyll beat him down and throw up his hands and go home. That wont happen. He is trying to do what he is supposed to be doing and wants to secure the border. Sandra he is asking for 8. 6 billion for the wall in the latest Budget Proposal. Safe to say you dont think he will get any democratic support . I think he will get some. I think the more and more we tell this story especially here on fox news and you guys keep showing the videotapes and what is happening on the border there has to be some in that party with some common sense saying we have to do something. We have to secure our border in some way. They might not agree on 8 billion. I can guarantee it. But i would think the American People have to be loud about this. Were under attack, see what is happening. People need to reach out for their politicians to secure our borders. Not only illegal aliens, drugs, ms13 and gang members and criminals are part of it. Not all but part of it. Lets protect our homeland first. Bill you mention ms13. Arresting 560 members of ms13. Where did that happen and how was it busted . Theyve been all over ms13. Theyre part of interpol. The game is on. Ms13 is under attack by Law Enforcement all over the world. I know the president talks about the great work ice has done and the f. B. I. Has done. But they have to understand ices relationship is with police and interpol. This is an attack to dismantle this organization. Im glad to see it. I was elated we have worked together to attack this most heinous criminal alien group. Bill led to the seizure of guns, eight countries, 560 arrests at the end of february. You know about that . Yes. Like i said. If taking the guns out of the hands of killers is a smart thing to do. Ms13 is not attacking this country. Theyre attacking Law Enforcement. They stepped over the line they have the full focus of international Law Enforcement. They are in trouble. Sandra we appreciate that. Thank you. Breaking news coming in on the boeing backlash. President trump now weighing in on that deadly crash where eight americans were killed. All this as more and more countries are grounding the jet model involved in that crash. What investigators are very specifically looking for at that crash site and what is being done to keep flyers safe around the world straight ahead. It is never one thing. It is always a multiple combination of factors that lead to a catastrophic accident like this. Billions of mouths. Billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . Painful flossing . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. And need money for your family . Newday usa can help. We earned a lot of va benefits with our service. But the va home loan benefit is a big one. If you want to use it to get cash, call newday usa. And dont let less than perfect credit hold you back. Even if youve been turned down for a va loan by your bank, call newday usa. Theyve been given automatic authority by the va, and they can often help veterans when other lenders wont. By refinancing up to 100 percent of your homes value, you could take out 50,000 dollars or more. You could use that money to pay Credit Card Debt and other expenses, plan for retirement, and get back on your feet financially. Need money for your family . Call newday usa right now and use the va home loan benefit youve earned and deserve. Go to newdayusa. Com, or call 18338446701 sandra a growing number of countries are grounding the boeing 737 max 8 after its second deadly crash in five months. U. S. Experts join a team of investigators to find out what is happening here. Jp tristani is with us. A horrible situation. Our u. S. Aviation experts are on the ground to investigating what exactly happened there. What is your biggest takeaway from this similarities of these two crashes and what were learning now . What i have to see is what type of training did those pilots go through with the 737 max in the simulator that could duplicate that Software Problem that occurred in these two flights. Probably in the turkish flight as well as the lion air flight. To me it goes back to what were those pilots trained like and why would it not have occurred with the aircraft operating in the United States which the two airlines that have somewhere close to 100 aircraft operating . We have no incidents whatsoever. Bill what does that tell you . It tells me the pilots may not have been trained in the maneuver. On takeoff you have three checklists for a pilot. Abnormal, normal, emergency. That emergency breaks down the first an immediate action item. On takeoff thats critical. If that immediate action item is not done exactly right, you dont have much time to survive in actual fact. That aircraft is climbing out, accelerating at 280 miles an hour and if that nose goes full forward i dont care if youre at 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, you dont have if this tail plane, this horizontal stabilizer is whats driving that nose forward and if it gets to a limit that its impossible, pilots cant pull it out. Bill if youre a pilot facing the scenario youre describing is the software telling the pilot something they have not seen before and they dont know how to react or is it a question of time in saving the flight . First of all it should have been in the pilots manual. Should have been in the simulator and third, during your check ride it should have been demonstrated as an emergency along with other emergencies that you go to complete your training. Sandra a manual did go out after the lion air crash. It didnt prior to that. A manual was issued. Additional training was not. Do you think that additional training should have been given to all these pilots taking on this new model aircraft . There is a disagreement with that. Boeing says it was in the manual. I would have to agree with them. Test pilots and boeing company a reputation thats unparalleled. What came out later when the lion aircraft occurred they put out a directive reinforcing the training required for the pilots in this type of thing and what could occur. The aircraft going up and starts to increase its angle of attack more than normal heading towards a stall and this device now shoves the nose forward. Now if you get a wrong situation that happened in lion air and that keeps on going down the pilots could not pull it off. Sandra we dont know if this is what brought the plane down. Were waiting for the outcome of the investigation. Normally i wouldnt speculate too much. If i had to narrow down the dots and compare it to lion air i will go for speculation thats exactly what occurred. Bill lion air was in indonesia five months earlier. American, united and Southwest Airlines fly this plane. Bill do you think based on what you think you know that these planes should be grounded at home, too . Not at all. I climb into a 737 max 8 tomorrow. So long as it had united, southwest or American Airlines on the side. Bill whats the difference between you and london and from beijing and other countries . Im hearing about it from a lot of second force carriers. I flew in europe and asia for nine years after Eastern Airlines went down. The training of pilots is considerably different. For instance, Ethiopian Airlines is one of the Biggest Airlines in africa, yes, with 100 airplanes. Thats chump change next to america. I class them as a second tier. Do they train their pilots in their simulators or do they contract them out to someone elses simulator like other airlines . Now you have a problem of cost of training. It is very expensive to train pilots in simulators. And so a small force airline may cut down the Training Cycle and as a former simulator instructor you dont give the pilots as much lee way which is normal on american carriers. Sandra spring breaks are coming up and people are worried about what theyre hearing and seeing that happened here and checking to see if this is the particular model airplane theyre flying. Should there be fear about boarding one of these planes . Absolutely not. Look at the record. The airplane has been flying since may of 17. I cant troll through my sources where pilots talk off the record and find out that southwest or american has had incidents where the pilots have encountered this and the company is trying to hush it up. Pilots dont talk like that. They dont worry about the bean counters. Pilots dont worry about what the reputation is. If there is a danger theyll say it. Sandra but that did happen with this plane that crashed, the ethiopian airplane that crashed. The pilots in previous flights. This was a very young airplane, the pilots before that encountered problems. They reported those problems. A change was made to that airplane the day before it came down. Then you have a maintenance problem. Was the maintenance doing the corrective fix . They were fighting the aircraft on landing. Then they took off with it because maintenance signed it off as being corrected. Bill what would be the problem if boeing said lets take a 48 hour pause . Why not go ahead and do that . That would alleviate a lot of people concerned about things like this but it would be damaging to a brilliant reputation because there was no statistical facts in the United States. You are talking about two different countries, two different types of training procedures, and two status of airlines. Bill so their decision has to be the training that is being conducted on behalf of Ethiopian Airlines or the lion air is inadequate, that must be their early conclusion. Thats no surprise to me. That would be easily done. Theyve said the pilot flying the aircraft had 8,000 hours . What was his copoil ot flying . In the reports that ive got he had Something Like 200 hours. The copilot. Bill you are a great guest. I havent seen an eastern air model plane in years. I brought it in for show and tell. Sandra very helpful. Thank you. Bill mma champ macgregor in trouble with the law again. This time not cool with a fan. Well tell you why coming up next. Beneath the duvet im begging you. Take gasx. Your tossing and turning isnt restlessness, its gas gasx relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort. Fast so we can all sleep easier tonight. Do i use a toothpaste that whitens my teeth . Or one thats good for my teeth . Now i dont have to choose. From crest 3d white. The whitening therapy collection. Now with charcoal or coconut oil. It gently whitens. Plus, it has a fortifying formula to protect your enamel. Crest. Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. Sandra fox news alert. A nationwide College Admissions cheating scam reportedly involving some of the countrys most wellknown actresses and some are among those involved. The suspects allegedly paying bribes to get their kids into some of the elite colleges including yale, stanford, georgetown and usc. Breaking news to us. Were just getting this in. Bill im looking to wake forest, usc, georgetown. Well see what happens from this. The coaches were involved as well. Breaking news. Well sort it out and get back to you in the meantime Conor Mcgregor wasnt happy with a fan in florida. Carley shimkus, hello. I dont want to see this guy in an alley. The morale of the story, dont take a picture from Conor Mcgregor. He was leaving a hotel in miami. A fan wanted to take a picture with him. Instead of taking the picture he grabbed the guys phone, stomped on the phone several times and walked away with the broken cell phone. His lawyer calls it a minor incident involving a cell phone. Lawyer spin for you. In my opinion minor incident involving a cell phone is accidentally breaking somebodys phone screen. This is the lawyer trying to cover for him who is already in major trouble from a previous fight that took place in october. He still cant fight. Bill was he trying to throw a chair through a bus . Yeah. He got in major trouble for that one. This is all a pattern of behavior but you think about Conor Mcgregor. He is a fighter for a living . Does the behavior really surprise you . Sandra i think you can do one for a living. I dont know. I dont claim to know his history at that well. He had family with him, didnt he . He said on instagram released a statement and said patience in this world is a virtue i continue to work on. I love my fans dearly. Thank you all. This could be considered publicity. He is the face of his form of fighting but also the guy was just trying to get a picture with him. You want to treat fans with respect. Bill cant fight if youre behind bars. I think the lesson is just count to 10. Will you do that . I agree. He needs to do that a little more. Sandra i do that every day. Thank you. Back to one of our top store eefs this morning. Speaker nancy pelosi dropping a bombshell and breaking with the radical ranks of her party on impeachment. Alan dershowitz will join us next. One of the benefits we as a country give our veterans is eligibility for a va loan for up to 100 percent of your homes value. Thank you, admiral. So if you need money for your family, call newday usa. Call 18338446704 need cash . At newday usa, veteran homeowners can get 54,000 dollars or more to consolidate high rate Credit Card Debt and lower their payments by 600 dollars every month. Go to newdayusa. Com or call 18338446704 sandra fox news alert. A nationwide College Admissions cheating scam reportedly involving some of the countrys most wellknown actresses and chief executives. According to various reports Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin are among those involved. The suspects paying bribes to get their kids into elite colleges including yale, stanford, georgetown and usc. We expect a briefing on this at the bottom of the hour. Well bring that to you and bring more to you as it comes in. Fox news alert from venezuela. The u. S. Pulling all diplomatic staff out of our embassy as a political and humanitarian crisis there intensifies. Welcome back to americas newsroom. Im sandra smith. Bill good morning. Hour three. Im doing great. Im bill hemmer. Opposition leader juan guaido considering Foreign Military help as the country hopes with the violent protests, Food Shortages and widespread Power Outages as washington blasts countries still supporting the maduro regime. Cuba is the true imperialist power in venezuela. The cuban government provides political cover for maduro and his henchman so they may stay in power, russia, too, has created this crisis, it, too, for its own reasons is thwarting the venezuelans People Democratic hopes and dreams. Bill mike pompeo there, strong words. John roberts picks up coverage from north lawn. Lets begin with you. Good morning. Remember back in january the United States pulled some of its diplomatic personnel out of venezuela. Late last night they said the u. S. Was pulling all remaining personnel out of the u. S. Embassy in caracas saying it reflects the deteriorating situation in venezuela and diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on u. S. Power. Maduro still trying to cling to power. The sense the tide is beginning to move in guaidos collection. A lot going on below the surface. We always wish things could go faster but im very confident that the tide is moving in the direction of the venezuelan people. And will continue to do so. It doesnt take much for you to see what is really going on there. The circle is tightening. The humanitarian crisis is increasing by the hour. One of the things the members of the National Assembly have to decide for themselves is whether they are willing to grant members of the maduro regime amnesty or if they would seek to prosecute them. Some of the military leaders im told may be willing to step away from maduro if they are given guarantees that they can hang on to their wealth and either leave the country or stay on with whatever new government emerges. U. S. Imposed sanctions on a russian bank for doing business with venezuelas state oil company, the Treasury Department is readying new sanctions against banks that do business with the maduro regime to try to increase the measure on him to go. One of the big unknowns here is whether or not cuba, which you heard secretary pompeo talking about, may put pressure on members of the military who remain loyal to maduro to arrest juan guaido. If that were to happen, there could be blood in the streets. One of the other open questions is if maduro leaves and some form of democracy returns to venezuela, what will that look like . Because over the last few decades venezuela not been exactly known for having rich representative democracy. Bill sandra nancy pelosi putting the brakes on talk of impeaching the president and upsetting some progressives in her party. In an interview with the Washington Post pelosi explains, quote, i dont think we should go down that path because it divides the country and he is just not worth it. Congresswoman ocasiocortez tells the Washington Examiner i happen to disagree with that take but she is the speaker. I think well see. Lets bring in Katie Pavlich editor of town hall. Com. We will see. At least for now some disagreement within their own party over how to proceed with talk of impeachment. As the democrat majority leader steny hoyer said we have 62 democrats with new seats in the house, not just three. Nancy pelosi has had a tough time over the last couple of months with her new congress being able to legislate and getting they have this distraction of the impeachment talk. She is looking at the numbers. Polling shows impeachment for the house is at the bottom when it comes to priorities. It is a politically sensitive topic and nancy pelosi is looking at the new seats she has. We have seats we have to hold onto that we flipped in florida, michigan, minnesota, kansas and iowa and if were not going to legislate based on what people sent us here to do instead act as activists like aoc, omar and tlaib have done they will be in trouble in 2020. Sandra meanwhile, for some in their party impeachment is inevitable. This is House Budget Committee chairman john yarmuth. A democrat from kentucky on that. Impeachment Means Nothing if you dont use the power. And begin the process. So to me its not a question of whether but when and probably right now is not the right time but i think at some point it will be inevitable. This is also the line you heard from jerry nadler the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee saying look, we believe the president obstructed justice. We believe there are grounds for impeachment. We have to find them. We have to go through the evidence and why were holding all these hearings in the next two years and why theyve issued a number of subpoenas to 80 plus individuals, individuals close to President Trump or people involved in organization efs he was part of. The trump foundation, the trump organization, of course, those are things theyre looking into. Right now might not be the time and nancy pelosi may be putting the brakes on it now. Lets not forget if President Trump wins reelection in 2020 four more years of democrats if they keep the house being able to go down that road. They may be saying put the brakes on it now for political reasons to try to win the presidency but i wouldnt shelf it completely. Sandra steny hoyer of maryland seems to side with nancy pelosi on the issue. She is hitting back at some of the more visible freshmen members of congress for the push to impeach the president. These three year. Ocasiocortez, tlaib and omar. He said we have 62 democratic members, not three. Sandra the bottom line here, sandra, in order to impeach a president you have to have evidence that you can present that the president did something wrong. He committed a crime. At this point there has been no evidence presented by the special counsel of that. There has been no evidence presented through the house of that. So in order to do that they do have to have evidence to present to the American People. I will give nancy pelosi credit. It has to be done in a bipartisan fashion. Because of the split nature of washington, d. C. They havent found anything to put on the table to say high crimes and misdemeanors have been committed. Lets not forget, either. This is not a new concept. Right in 2017 after President Trump was elected a number of House Democrats introduced articles of impeachment. It went nowhere. Congresswoman tlaib is saying she will reintroduce the articles of impeachment in the next couple of weeks. This is something theyve been trying to push as a narrative. They think now they have power in the house nancy pelosi is trying to pump the brakes politically. It shows that americans dont want this to be priorities. Lots of democrats were elected in nonfar left districts that democrats will want to hold onto when it comes to keeping the house in 2020. Bill interesting to watch it all play out. Katie pavlich. Good to see you. Thank you. Bill another alert from boeing. They have a statement out now. The 737s ill read it. Three lines here. Safety is boeings number one priority. We have full confidence in the safety of the max. We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions they believe are most appropriate for their home markets. Well continue to engage with them to insure they have the information needed to have confidence in operating their fleets and important to note that the federal Aviation Administration is not mandating any further action at this time and base i had on the information currently available we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators. The statement from boeing. Now, the u. K. Grounded all their 737 max 8 jets after the plane crashed in ethiopia over the weekend killing 157 on board including eight americans. There are growing calls to take more action. Trey yengst is watching that now as he picks up the story in jerusalem from there. Trey. The story is developing by the minute. Right now were learning that two Turkish Airline flights headed for the u. K. Have turned around due to the new ban in the United Kingdom from max 737 planes landing or taking off or flying over the countrys airspace. At least 10 countries with Airline Carriers are grounding their 737 max 8 planes as a safety precaution. President trump weighed in on twitter saying airplanes are becoming too complex to fly and relying more on technology than pilot skills. Boeing did release a statement overnight saying they plan to update Software Systems on board the 737 max 8 planes no later than next month. The americanbased company have dispatched a team to the crash site in ethiopian to try to help their team understand the cause of the accident. Yesterday the faa issued a continued air worthiness notification to boeing. It means the federal Aviation Administration believes the plane is safe the fly. Despite new fears following the ethiopian crash earlier this week. The american faa and ntsb have joinld investigators at the crash site to try to determine what caused this deadly crash. Bill, on capitol hill bipartisan pressure is growing on the faa to ground all of these 737 max 8 planes in the United States. Both senator Elizabeth Warren and senator mitt romney released statements calling on the faa to halt these flights within the United States. Bill thank you. Developing story here. Thank you for that. Just looking at this, sandra, from berlin. The country is closing its airspace to boeing 737 max 8 planes. Sandra planes currently in the air are turning around because countries wont let the plane into their airspace and this from the Flight Attendants Union is now requesting the faa open an investigation into the boeing 737 max. So they are warning not to jump to conclusions on the matter but they at least are requesting a further look into it. Bill on the statement here from boeing that we read it concludes. I think this is significant. The faa is not mandating any further action based on the information currently available. We dont have any basis to issue new guidance to operators. The suggestion there and talking to our aviation expert. They believe the issue is with the pilots and the level of training inside the cockpit and how boeing manages this. Sandra boeing stock continues to get hit. Down 6 today. The biggest weight on the dow. Concerns are growing and a lot of things changing around the world. Fox news alert. New information coming in on the College Admissions cheating scandal. More than 50 people were charged including two actresss. Felicity hoffman and lori laugh lynn. Bill President Trump pushing for a boost in border spending. Democrats say it is dead on arrival. Another showdown over the border. New reaction with white House Appropriations member Chuck Fleischmann coming up. They heard testimony on it over and over. A smuggling crisis, humanitarian crisis, drug christs and Law Enforcement crisis. 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If we do not get control of the border were going to continue to see more fentanyl, opioids and deaths in the United States. We have to control the border and these migrants are being used as pawns. Thats the reason why this is so important. We need our politicians to have the political will to say we need to secure the border once and for all. Sandra lets bring in congressman Chuck Fleischmann from the House Appropriations subcommittee. Appreciate your time this morning. Looks like this is setting up for quite a showdown. Where does it go . Thank you for your question. I think it goes to continuing funding the border wall, continuing to Fund Border Security. There is no question i have been all over the southern border. It is a crisis of tremendous proportion. We need to readdress it in the new fiscal year in 2020. A lot of macro impediments. Large impediments such as sequester and budget control act but we need to Fund Border Security in america. Sandra does it have any chance of passing in a democraticcontrolled house . Absolutely. There is no reason we will get border funding and i will tell you why. The democrats have other priorities than we do but we have the senate, we have the white house, the democrats only control onethird of the process. So if they are going to want to get their other domestic spending needs addressed, they will have to compromise as they did last time on the wall and on border funding. It will get done. Sandra he is calling for more funding for the wall and defense and calling for 5 cuts to nondefense spending which would affect a lot of the executive departments and agencies. Is the president asking for more money and cutting in the right places here . Well, we test the executive branch, the president , with the job of coming up with a budget. Thats a framework, thats just a start of the process. The house and senate will weigh in. Obviously as a top ranking appropriateor in the house in the minority i will be weighing in. Well get help on the senate side as well. I think its a step in the right direction. Ultimately we will have to sit down, work through each and every appropriations bill and move forward. Bear this in mind so the American People know the fiscal year starts october 1st. So we dont operate on a calendar year. It is october to october. A condensed process. I think we can get it done. Sandra were hearing a lot of the opposite from democrats who have torn into the Budget Proposal. Former acting ice director thomas homan talked about the crisis at the border and what were seeing from democrats, the pushback. Watch. Name me one thing the democratic leadership has offered to slow this surge down . To save lives coming across the border. They have offered no fixes. The only one offering fixes is President Trump and every time he tries something he gets sued. Sandra many of them have made it clear they do not like the Budget Proposal. Surprised to hear you so optimistic because of the amount the president is asking for for the while. Final thoughts. Sandra the democrats are posturing and trying to play indicate their base. We have to realize the American People are our base. We have to keep this country safe and secure. The situation at the border is a crisis with a capital c, i think the president has done an outstanding job in this regard. I will join him and help him in building the wall and making sure that we have border security. I have think our friends in the senate will do that. If the democrats want any of their initiatives to be addressed theyll have to accede on this issue. Sandra appreciate your time this morning. Bill 20 past the hour now. Actor Jussie Smollett due back in court today charged with lying to police and staging an attack on himself. What his lawyers are saying prior to that hearing coming up in a moment. 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Reportedly involving two wellknown actresss, university coaches, and chief executives. Among those charged actresses fell is tree huffman and Lori Loughlin. We know those two actresses are involved. Over 50 people in all. Awaiting a News Conference with federal prosecutors. Molly line is live in boston. Dozens of people from College Coaches to hollywood actresses, parents, exam administrators have been arrested that involved exam cheating as well as bribery. The scheme aimed to help students get admission to elite institutions including yale, georgetown, stanford, wake forest and the university of southern california. 50 defendants named including those two actresses, folks may recognize names and faces, Lori Loughlin for her playing a role in full house and Felicity Huffman among those desperate housewives. Prosecutors are revealing a racketeering conspiracy. Coaches received bribes. Parents bribed administrators and coaches. One key player in this. A man named william ritzinger charged with racketeering conspiracy. The owner and operator of edge college and Career Network a forprofit College Counseling service and served as the ceo of Key Worldwide Foundation which he was running as a purchase ported charity. The conspiracy involved bribing exam administrators, bribing University Athletic coaches helping those in with lesser ability and using the facade of the Charitable Organization. Sandra. Sandra molly line as we await the f. B. I. Press conference shortly. Bill Carley Shimkus with us on more details. Here is what appears to be the headline. They paid an admissions consultant 25 million over a period of eight years the label their children as athletes to increase the possibility that they would be admitted into these superior education institutions. Thats right. Essentially their kids in this case may not have been up to snuff in terms of athletic ability. Mom and dad according to prosecutors paid off College Coaches to accept their students. First reports say that fake profiles bolstering these kids athletic abilities were created online to make them look like Good High School athletes and also talk of people taking tests for students to get them into these elite colleges. Were talking about a lot of money here, 25 million between 2011 and 2019. I just checked on twitter a couple minutes ago. Lori loughlins name trending already. It might be a little too early to say this but i do believe she could become the face of this controversy because she does have such a clean cut image and seeing her get into trouble like this is pretty surprising. Bill Lori Loughlin from full house. Felicity huffman from desperate housewives. It appears as if their strategy was to label them as athletes. It would increase the possibility the students would be admitted to these schools. Thats right. It seems like they would want them to become athletes but also maybe there is athletic aspirations for these kids as well. I hear your point there, though. Maybe it would be easier for the kids to get admitted into these highprofile schools if they are also athletes on the side. Bill dont look at my sat score, look at something else. Georgetown, stanford, ucla, university of texas, wake forest and yale. Both loughlin and huffman are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and Honest Services mail fraud. Bill theyre getting ready for the press conference. When it happens. 44 people, some said to be College Coaches involved. Quick work on that and thanks to molly line as well. Sandra keep our eye on that press conference. Fox news alert on the brexit battle. British parliament set to vote on the Prime Ministers new plan. What happens if it fails . Bill nancy pelosi coming out against impeachment. How is her position sitting with members of her own party . Depends on who you ask, right . Does it mean impeachment is really off the table . Thats coming up. Pelosi wants to carry the message to the public that no, no, no, were not here just to impeach trump. While thats going on, under the radar nadlers and schiffs committee will go about the business of trying to dig into anything that could conceivably in their minds be a high crime and misdemeanor. Sandra u. S. Attorneys office now holding a press conference after arresting actress Felicity Huffman, charging Lori Loughlin others involving a we have charged three people who organized these scams. Two sat or act exam administrators. One exam proctor, one college administrator, nine coaches at elite schools, and 33 parents who paid enormous sums to guarantee their childrens admission to certain schools through the use of bribes and fake academic and athletic credentials. Central defendant in the scheme, william singer, will plead guilty to charges ever racketeering, conspiracy, money landering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. He allegedly ran a College Counseling service and something called the Key Worldwide Foundation. Between roughly 2011 and 2018, wealthy parents paid singer about 25 million in total to guarantee their childrens admission to elite schools including yale, georgetown, stanford, university of southern california, the university of texas, ucla and wake forest. Beyond enriching himself singer used that money to bribe college officials, division 1 coaches, college exam administrators to secure admission through fraud. Singers foundation proper ported to be a Charitable Organization but was a front singer used to launder the money that parents paid him of which he would then take a portion and dole it out as bribes to coaches and others. More specifically, with respect to the s. A. T. And a. C. T. Scheme, numerous parents paid singer between 15,000 and 75,000 to have someone either take the exam for their child or to correct their childs answers afterward all to achieve a sufficiently high preagreed score on those tests. Singer accomplished this by paying defendant mark ridel, also charged today, to take or correct the exams and by bribing two exam administrators, defendants Nicki Williams and igor to allow this to happen on their watch. They paid 10,000 per student. To facilitate the scam singer counseled parents to take their children to a therapist and get a letter saying that because of purported learning disabilities or other issues the child needed additional time to complete the a r a. C. T. Or s. A. T. Once the companies who administered those exam agreed to the extra time singer arranged for the child to take the exam individually with one of the proctors he had bribed at a location in houston or california. Beyond that parents also paid singer money that he then used to bribe coaches and administrators to designate their children as recruited athletes for various schools. In return for bribes, coaches would use slots that their schools had allocated to them. Worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles that singer had identified. Singer worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles for their kids including fake athletic credentials or honors, or fake participation in elite club teams. In many instances, singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports. Other times singer and his associates used stock photos they pulled off the internet photo shopping the face of the child onto the picture of the athlete and submitting it in support of the applications for these children to elite schools. In one example, the head womens soccer coach at yale, in exchange for 400,000, accepted an applicant as a recruit for the yale womens team despite knowing that the applicant did not even play competitive soccer. The student was in fact admitted and afterward the students family paid singer 1. 2 million for that service. In addition to the standardized test scam and College Admissions scam singer also arranged for someone to take Online High School classes in place of certain students so that those students could submit higher grades as part of their Overall College application packages. The parents payments to singer for these services were made at least in part as charitable contributions to the sham charity that singer had set up. At his direction, employees of the charity sent singers clients acknowledgement letters falsely confirming that no goods or services had been exchanged for the donation. It enabled to parents to mask the true nature of the payment but also take the tax writeoff at the end of the year. Today we have charged 33 parents nationwide with hiring Singers Group to defraud Testing Companies and various universities. These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege. They include for example ceos of private and public companies, successful securities and real estate investors, two wellknown actresses, a famous Fashion Designer and the cochairman of a global law firm. Based on the charges unsealed today all of them knowingly conspired with singer and others to help their children either cheat on the s. A. T. Or a. C. T. And or buy their childrens admission to elite schools through fraud. The clients paid him anywhere between 600,000 and 6. 5 million for the service. The majority paid between 250,000 and 400,000 per student. This case is about the widening corruption of let College Admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud. There can be no separate College Admission system for the wealthy and ill add there will not be a separate criminal justice system, either. Every year hundreds of thousands of hard working, talented students strive for admission to elite schools. As every parent knows, these students work harder and harder every year in a system that appears to grow more and more competitive every year and that system is a zero sum gain. For every student admitted through fraud an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected. The parents charged today, despite already being able to give their children every legitimate advantage in the College Admissions game, instead chose to corrupt and illegally manipulate the system for their benefit. We arent talking about donating a building so that a school is more likely to take your son or daughter. We are talking about deception and fraud. Fake test scores, fake athletic credentials, fake photographs, bribed college officials. As you can see from the various charging documents unsealed today in this case, the investigation was complex and extremely laborintensive. Two defendants will plead guilty this afternoon. As i mentioned before william singer will plead guilty at 2 30 today in this courthouse. And john vander moore, the head sailing coach at Stanford University will plead guilty at 3 00 p. M. I want to thank the four prosecutors in my office who were assigned to this investigation for their extraordinary work on this case. The lead prosecutor eric rosin is with me today and thank the f. B. I. And i. R. S. For their professionalism and skill in the investigation and takedown of this case. The takedown today involved over 200 federal agents nationwide who arrested 50 people in six states and on both coasts. With that ill hand things over to the special agent in charge of the Boston Office of the f. B. I. Thank you. Thank you, andy. Once again my name im the special agent in charge of the f. B. I. Boston division. Operation varsity blues culminated early this morning when approximately 300 special agents from the f. B. I. And the i. R. S. Criminal investigations set out to arrest 46 individuals across the country for their roles in an international College Admissions bribery and money landering scam. So far 38 individuals have been safely taken into custody and seven are working towards surrender. One is being actively pursued. Another four are expected to plead guilty here in boston. Two later today and two in the coming weeks. We believe all of them, parents, coaches and facilitators, lied, cheated, and covered up their crimes at the expense of hard working students and taxpayers everywhere. Our investigation began last may after we uncovered evidence of a large scale elaborate fraud while working an unrelated undercover operation. Following 10 months of intense investigative efforts using a variety of sophisticated techniques, the f. B. I. Uncovered what we believe is a rigged system. Robbing students all over the country of their right at a fair shot to getting into some of the most elite universities in this country. We believe everyone charged here today had a role in fostering a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven Playing Field for students trying to get into these schools the right way through hard work, good grades, and community service. Unfortunately what many students didnt know was that the odds had already been stacked against them by corrupt practices including but not limited to bribery, falsification of athletic profiles, and near perfect s. A. T. And a. C. T. Scores that were fraudulently obtained on behalf of other students when in reality they were far from perfect. Make no mistake, this is not a case where parents were acting in the best interests of their children. This is a case where they flaunted their wealth, sparing no expense to cheat the system so they could set their children up for success with the best education money could buy, literally. Some spent anywhere from 200,000 to 6 1 2 million for guaranteed admission. Their actions were without a doubt insidious, selfish and shameful. And the real victims in this case are the hard working students who did everything they could to set themselves up for success in the College Admissions process but ended up being shut out because far less qualified students and their families simply bought their way in. Whats also cause for concern is how this was even allowed to happen in the first place. Evidence weve obtained shows that trusted coaches and administrators manipulated the systems their universities had in place to accommodate students with fake athletic credentials, some of whom did not even play the sports they were recruited to play. It strikes at the core of the College Admissions process at universities across the country and the alleged mastermind behind it, rick singer, offered a variety of cheating options as part of a widespread conspiracy to enrich himself while also facilitating cheating on s. A. T. And a. C. T. Exams, recruiting applicants onto athletic teams in exchange for bribes and concealing the nature and source of those bribes. There is no telling what their school of thought was while carrying out this conspiracy. Todays arrests should be a warning to others. You cant pay to play. You cant lie and cheat to get ahead because you will get caught. This was a complex and demanding investigation and it was charged accordingly. The use of the rico statute signaled the magnitude of the criminal enterprise and seriousness of the crimes. I would like to personally recognize the investigators and prosecutors who pursued this case. However, our work is not done. Our investigation continues. And we will continue to find and stop those who arent playing by the rules because as you can see in this case, the impact on everyday people is real, has consequences, and broad ranging effect. My sincerest appreciation for the tremendous work done by the United States attorney and his team as well as my thanks to special agent in charge Christina Oconnell and her folks at the i. R. S. Criminal investigation for their partnership and support. It was truly a team effort. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. I would like to thank u. S. Attorney and f. B. I. Special agent in charge for the opportunity to address you here today. Im Christina Oconnell, special agent in charge of the i. R. S. Criminal division of the boston field office. Today agents alongside the f. B. I. Arrested dozens of individuals for their role in a nationwide scheme to exchange bribes for College Admissions. At the center of this sweeping Financial Crime is william rick singer. Singer and the others arrested today conspired to not only make and receive bribes but to also funnel those bribe payments through a Bogus Charity founded by singer. Utilizing this charitable business facade he was able to conceal the true source and nature of the bribe payments. Then to further the false legitimacy he advised parents making the bribes they could deduct the payments as charitable donations on their income tax returns. I. R. S. Criminal investigation and f. B. I. Traced over 25 million in bribes wandered through this alleged charity founded by singer. Overall, our investigators also revealed the true objective of those involved was not charity at all but greed. Criminal investigation will continue to collaborate with Law Enforcement partners in the United States Attorney Office on these complex investigations to insure the honest american taxpayers receive the message that i. R. S. Criminal investigation will never let financial corruption will win. It appears to be a conspiracy nationwide in scope. There are several connections to the boston area. Fake test scores were submitted to boston college, Boston University and northeastern. Two of the defendants live in the state. A lot of the conspiratorall activity, phone calls, meetings, did happen here. And we frankly had the resources and the sophistication to take on a case of this magnitude. [inaudible question] we dont know the total number. This is still ongoing. So the 33 parents that we have charged, their children were able to get in somewhere. There are more than that but im not prepared to give you a total. [inaudible question] there are two aspects to that question, there is what is the reaction of the schools they go to . We leave that to the schools. That is not my bailiwick. As to charges against them, were still considering that. It is not an accident that there are no students charged in these charging documents. The parents, the other defendants are clearly the prime movers of this fraud. It remains to be seen whether we charge any of the students. What degree did the students graduate in percentage of students that got in fraudulently, went on to graduate and get degrees . I dont know the answer to that question. [inaudible question] ill speak more broadly. There were two kinds of fraud that singer was selling. One was to cheat on the s. A. T. Or a. C. T. And the other was to use his connections with division 1 coaches and use bribes to get these parents kids into school with fake athletic credentials. Some parents took advantage of one. I think miss huffman took advantage of one of these, the s. A. T. Cheating scam. Some took advantage of the other and others both. No pattern that way. [inaudible question] i cant comment on that. [inaudible question] what i can say, the first lead in the case came during interviews with a target of an entirely separate investigation who gave us a tip that this activity might be going on. [inaudible question] i think he began in the College Counseling business years and years ago and built up his connections over time. I think beyond that i cant really comment. As you can tell from the charging documents, the recruitment part were relationships he had established. [inaudible question] how involved were the students and how much did they know what was going on . That varied tremendously. When you look at the complaint affidavit that is long. Youll see instances where its important to parents that their child not know that this had occurred. In that kind of instance the student would take the exam and someone working for singer would come in afterward, correct enough of the answers, submit the exam and in some instances the child did know and there is an instance in the complaint affidavit where a particular defendant and his daughter are on a Conference Call with singer to discuss the scam. There was a pretty wide range of how parents tried to play this and singer, i think, attempted to accommodate whatever the parents wanted to do. Coaches taking the bribe. Was it for personal gain or going towards the Athletic Program at the school . It was both. There is at least there is one coach who did not take any of the money for himself. The other coaches all took some money for themselves. Some took all of it for themselves. But most it appears gave some portion to the Schools Program and took some for their own use. Was this case tied to you mentioned another case. Was it the jerome allen case . No, it was not. You said bcu where victims of this admissions fraud. Can you elaborate. They all received test scores that were artificially inflated through the cheating scandal. One of the defendants it appears entered a quid pro quo with singer where singer would help that defendant student commit fraud and in exchange the parent would help one of singers other clients with admission to northeastern university. Youll see that in the complaint. No evidence the schools knew anything about this, what he was doing . I think thats an important distinct to drau. It appears the schools are not involved. It appears that in all of these instances with the exception of one usc administrator who we have charged, the coaches were allotted slots for athletic recruitment. The coaches worked with singer meaning they accepted bribes, singer gave the coaches sufficiently impressive fake athletic credentials. The coaches used those athletic profiles to convince everyone else internally it was a good recruit for the team. The person was admitted and the coach pock pocketed a bribe. The statutes that we charge people under all have very high statutory maximums but the actual oh sentence someone might face we dont know that. Its very premature for that. Some of the bribes are substantial. Bribes between 250,000 and 400,000. I should say donations to singer from which he made these bribes of College Coaches. So it is a little premature to say what ranges of sentencing. As you guys know and as you can see in the complaint affidavit we do occasionally flip targets and they wind up cooperating. I cant comment whether any of these people will. The investigation remains active these are not the only parents involved. We suspect these probably arent the only coaches involved. So well be moving ahead to look for additional targets. [inaudible question] did singer work for any of the universities before. Did he start that way where he got involved in this world . I do not know the answer to that sitting here now. Im not going to comment on that. You said he is planning on pleading guilty today. What has been the conversation, what has led up to that, obviously . He didnt hear about these charges this morning. Can you shed any light on that . I cant shed a lot of light on that. Most is confidential. The obvious is that we identified singer some time ago and he has decided under a plea agreement to plead guilty to racketeering, among other charges. You knew that already. Thats all i can tell you. [inaudible question] i dont remember what the provisions of plea agreement will say about sentencing. You will be able to see that yourself, it will be docketed. You mentioned that the schools were not involved except for the one administrator. Are the schools under investigation and part of your ongoing investigation. The schools themselves right now are not targets of this investigation. As you can see from the charges weve brought, the investigation was very broad. We have charged a lot of people. Throughout the investigation and our investigation of each of these targets we have not seen the schools as coconspirators with this activity. How long has this investigation been underway. A little over a year. A little over a year. [inaudible question] it varied. Some simply never showed up for the athletics. Some pretended an injury and i think some played briefly and then quit. [inaudible question] beyond whats in the complaint affidavit i cannot tell you. Are any students still currently enrolled, children of these parents that you charged or are we talking about past . As youll see there the charging documents most of this activity is fairly current. So i assume cant tell you directly that the vast majority of the students admitted under false pretenses are in these schools and enrolled and active students. [inaudible question] i dont know the answer to that. I can tell you that based on what ive seen in the charging documents i dont think thats the case. I think they got admission. I dont think they got separate athletic sklarships. What singer was good at doing was calibrating the fake credentials to be realistic but not so impressive as to invite additional scrutiny. [inaudible question] i dont know the answer. One of the defendants is still being actively pursued. [inaudible] one defendant is in hawaii and so its a time difference. Question, there are rules governing what times of day federal agents can make arrests. So you cant show up at 2 00 in the morning and arrest somebody. So thats what it accounts for. [inaudible] questions he was just a really smart guy. So if i understand your question correctly, he did not have inside information about the correct answers. He was just smart enough to get a near perfect score on demand or to calibrate the score. So singer would discuss with his clients what kind of score theyre looking for. If your daughter took the s. A. T. On her own the first time and got a particular score, retaking the exam if her score goes up too much that would invite scrutiny. Singer would discuss with parents what singer would disch parents what kind of score was impressive but not too impressive and then would instruct to attempt to get that story. And he was good enough to do it. [and distant question] im not sure how much of that is public, so i will air on the side of not answering that. In the charging document, which is in a public, youll find whatever im allowed to stay. On that point. But i dont remember