to cozying up to the stars? >> we know of the president's whiteness, it's there. >> caution. you are about to enter the no spin zone and "the factor" begins right now. >> hello, everyone. i'm laura ingraham in tonight for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us. president is back on the job and giving his version of the economy. that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. barack obama surprised everyone today by actually appearing in washington. after a few days of hollywood scmoozing and a week after the department of labor released the worst job numbers of the year, he held a short press conference and had this to report. >> the private sector is doing fine. where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. >> what? the economy is growing at only 1.9% and the truth is there are 552,000 fewer americans working now than when he took office in january of 2009. and we've now had 40 straight months of unemployment above 8%. this is not fine by any measure. it is shocking and it's unacceptable. after republicans jumped on his remarks, the president tried to clarify them later in the day admitting that the economy is not doing fine but maintaining that the private sector has seen momentum. look, the bottom line is this -- the president measures economic strengths by how big the government is but he has it backward. government won't have tax revenues to hire people if the private sector doesn't add jobs. so he bemoans the fact that state and local governments are struggling and he issued this demand to the hill. >> congress should pass a bill putting them back to work right now. giving help to the states so that those layoffs are not occurring. >> issuing ultimatums especially when your party doesn't control both houses of congress is not leading. it's grandstanding. which is what he was doing yesterday in las vegas. >> congress can't just sit on their hands. so my message to congress is -- let's get to work. i know this is an election year and that's not lost on me. but at this make or break moment for america's middle class, we can't afford to have congress take five months off. >> of course, he said this just a few hours after he himself was working hard at a private breakfast with young hollywood stars such as diana angron of "glee" and zac braff of "scrubs." he attended a celebrity fundraising bash, one in san francisco and a number in befler i hills. there's a big day of pretend going on here, folks. he pretends both he and the economy are working and he hopes that voters don't catch on before november. even ferris bueller had only one day off, not an entire year. we need mature leaders in both parties to work together on critical issues. perhaps most critical -- how to avoid the fiscal cliff that awaits us at the end of the year. taxmageddon, here we come. i don't know what's worse. his pretending that the economy is working when it's not or him pretending he's working when he's not. that's the memo. top story tonight, two other views on this. joining me now are democratic media consultant steve murphy and daily caller reporter michelle fields. ok, steve, you heard what i had to say in that talking points memo. where did i get it wrong? >> well, in two different places. first of all, let me start with where you got it right. congress and the president need to work together to avoid this fiscal cliff. the president tried to do that all through last year. you know that. and the republicans walked away from it which is why we're in this situation right now. he was telling the truth about the private sector, about business. they could be doing a lot more to carry their own weight in this economy. their value is measured. it's palpable. it's not political rhetoric by the stock market and it's doubled in the last three years. the stock markets have almost doubled. they have $2 trillion that they're sitting on on the sidelines. they won't put into play and the president is right. over 4 million jobs have been created by the private sector in the last 27 months. >> so this is acceptable to you? >> the president -- look, the president -- >> is this acceptable for you? >> from a political perspective, he misspoke -- when he left the impression that he thinks the economy is going fine. >> forget about that. michelle, you can jump in here and i hear what steve says there but last year, whether obama or -- did or didn't walk away from talks with john boehner, john boehner disputes that by the way, whether he did or not, we're in a new year. in fact, we're in the sixth month of a new year and we see the president with the "glee" people, with ellen, with "scrubs" actors and having a great time at unlv and wagging his finger and saying congress do something, but the bottom line is congress is not dominated by democrats. you have to give a little and take a little now. >> look, this president is so out of touch with the american people. this president has spent more time campaigning than his five predecessors combined and a third of his time is spent at fundraisers schmoozing with people like george clooney, people on wall street, sarah jessica parker so it's no surprise that he thinks that the economy is doing just fine because he's completely out of touch with americans. but if you go and ask those 23 million americans who are out of work and can't find a job, and ask them how is the economy doing? they will tell you the truth. that it's lousy and that this president is out of touch. >> the media reports on this press conference today and this is not from conservatives, it was a disaster. he comes out and he makes the statement about the private sector. that was not a complex statement. it wasn't like really he misspoke, he said the private sector is doing fine. that wasn't misspeaking. i actually think he believes that. and i think -- >> yes, he does! because he's not with the american people. >> it's a fundamental misunderstanding, is it not, about how the economy works. i don't know if he simply doesn't understand if it's too complicated for him, i don't know. but to say -- to say that local and state governments aren't hiring, steve, why aren't they hiring? why aren't they hiring? >> that is not the issue. they're not hiring because they have had to dramatically curtail through this recession. >> why? >> why? because they have to balance their budgets every year. and they don't look very far down the road. >> tax revenues. >> they don't look very far down the road and they've had laying off teachers is a horrible thing. >> talking point. >> for the economy. >> guess what happens when we don't have money, when the economy is growing at 1.9%, i don't care if it's a republican in charge or democrat in charge, the numbers don't lie. at some point, 1.9% is going to catch up with us, right? >> those numbers don't lie. private sector job growth has been strong over the last 27 months and offset by a necessary -- >> you have got to be kidding me. private sector jobs -- >> it's exactly what the conservatives want to have happen. >> the private sector job growth has been strong for the last 40 months? >> 27 months. >> it was the worst in a year. >> you know statistics very well, laura, that's one month. >> i can't believe that today, democrats would think that this was the way they wanted to go. that you want to go down in history as being remembered as the party who came out at a time like this and could only produce 1.9% economic growth. >> or the true -- >> do you want to tie your stock to that? >> have one of the strongest economies in the world right now. >> how long is that going to be the case? >> along with china, russia, they're all dropping -- their economies are in deep trouble and we're doing a good job holding up. >> go ahead, michelle. >> the irony in all this is today, he put the blame on europe. on the european economies and that they're doing really bad. well, they're doing really bad because they were using stimulus and policies to try to pump money and to try to save the economy. that's why they're in a bad situation and now those are the same policies that obama wants republicans to pass. i mean, it's completely ironic. >> steve, are you -- do you really think that this is working? i mean, honestly, between us chickens here, is this really working what he's doing? is it working? >> yes. >> campaigning all year long, absentee president, democrats are freaking out that this guy is going to lose in november, are they not? >> every day in washington, republicans will put him down. >> he's the president. come to washington, he's in washington when he wants to be. >> he's in washington most days. >> wait, with the new york giants today. that's right. we appreciate it. next on the rundown, more turmoil in the democratic party as bill clinton is now forced to apologize for disagreeing with president obama? and cory booker is reportedly cast to the side. is comedian chris rock the guy that president obama wants in his corner? wait until you hear the comic's latest outrageous comments about the campaign just moments away. >> laura: in the impact segment tonight, a political reversal. bill clinton took a lot of heat recently for saying president obama should keep the bush tax cuts in place. something obama has vowed not to do. now, president clinton seems to have changed his mind saying president obama is, in fact, doing the right thing. >> i support his position. but we really were -- i'm very sorry about what happened yesterday. it was what i thought something had to be done on the fiscal cliff before the election. apparently, nothing has to be done until the first of the year. >> laura: syndicated columnist charles krauthammer analyzed president clinton's flip-flop. >> psychiatry, there's a term that you get a raving lunatic, excuse me, psychotic who comes in the door and makes no sense, you say he's speaking in word salad. this is word salad with a vinaigrette on it. i think you can sort of look at him and you know that he's saying -- essentially, he's doing with a wink and a nod i'm under duress. don't pay any attention to what i'm saying. >> laura: like a hostage tape. with us now, fox news contributor lany davis, a former special counsel to president clinton. first of all, i'm so glad you're here on a day like today because it's, you know, your old boss is it's in the news again. he raises a lot of money and he's so popular. and he says what i think a lot of democrats on wall street also believe is that these tax cuts should be extended. that, you know, we cannot throw any more monkey wrenches into this economy, especially when we have taxmageddon happen at the end of the year and the fiscal cliff as they describe it in the treasury department so what happened with this clinton reversal? >> first, let's put it -- something on the table. the debate that's going on right now including people like myself, cory booker, ed rendell, harold ford, with the obama campaign are about tactics. they're not about policies. so president clinton supports, i believe, the policy of taxing the wealthy at a greater amount than the rest of us. and disagreed with the bush tax cuts. i think what happened is that he was looking at the issue of the timing of increasing taxes at a particular moment in time meaning now. and that's where, i think, he probably regrets interjecting what looks like a difference between -- >> laura: is there a smarter democrat out there than bill clinton? >> i don't think so. >> laura: do you think that he says something about tax cuts and timing, do you think he means it? >> there's no doubt that he means it. he did say in what wasn't a reversal but explanation that he thought it needed to be done before the election. on policy, when you look at what bill clinton and i and a lot of other people including cory booker who apparently has been denounced again by people out of the chicago headquarters. >> mayor who said it was nauseating the attacks on private equity. >> we all agree with president obama's proposals -- policies. we're disagreeing with the tactic of attacking bain rather than telling people what your ideas are that are better than mitt romney's so this is a tactical argument, not a policy argument. >> laura: i beg to differ. i believe that mark halprin's piece is getting at something deeper. he wrote a piece in "time" magazine that says democrats believe that president obama could lose in november and they're very concerned. >> true. >> laura: and i think when you look at this, you look at the bain capital attacks and the railing against profiteering on wall street and so forth, that goes to the heart of the president's understanding of the free market, does it not? and from cory booker to bill clinton, bill clinton gets an enormous amount of money for his global initiative from private equity people, cory booker, has seen new jersey in part transformed because of tax revenues that have come in from private equity. these men understand how the free market works and they made their statements and now cory booker, as you said, has been kicked to the curb saying persona non grata. how dare you cross the obamas on the issue of bain capital? how dare he? >> it's difficult to understand, it's a tight election and we are concerned and the economy hasn't bounced back the way he'd like. i think barack obama has been doing a good job. he should be telling his story better. >> laura: what story is that? >> the story is under difficult, difficult circumstances, probably the worst deck that's been handed any president since roosevelt inherited what hoover hand him. i think he has a good story to tell about what he has to do and i support the health care measure and i support many other things that he's done. he's just not telling that story as he should. >> laura: do you think it's a story telling problem? i think it's an economic and fundamental lack of understanding on his part. let me tell you what happened in the last week to the democrats under barack obama. wisconsin recall. defeated. blow to the unions, massive. terrible jobs numbers last friday. clinton expressed. democrats and republicans pursuing a possible leaks investigation on capitol hill led by dianne feinstein, leading democrat on capitol hill. press conference was a debacle today. this is working? >> you have any good news? >> laura: that's one week, lanny. if you're a democrat, tying yourself to this, at some point, if this thing goes down in november, and you all have put all your eggs in the obama basket because what he's doing, not whether he's a good guy but what he's doing is working, doesn't that imperil the entire democratic party and history, we see it written that when it came point in time for liberals to lead, this is what they delivered. >> first of all, i'm a liberal democrat supporting barack obama and i think this has been a bad week for us, the economy numbers you could have thrown in as well to add to the bad week. the fact is the polls show that mitt romney is tied given all that you just said, can't emerge ahead and barack obama has to turn to explain his vision for the future. all bill clinton is saying is let's talk about the future, not the past. >> laura: the fundraising with the hollywood celebs, would you advise him to tone that down and back that off a little bit? >> you know, democrats identify with hollywood and mitt romney has identified with wall street and both of them don't matter to people. people want to know where do you stand on jobs and the economy? and both of them have to be positive and tell us what their ideas are. not attack them. >> laura: it's great to see you. thank you so much. directly ahead, the perils of being a celebrity president. while mr. obama rubs shoulders with the hollywood elite, one of his biggest supporters makes some crazy comments. we'll play them for you in just a moment! >> laura: in the unresolved problems segment tonight, the hollywood high wire act. president obama seems to have most of the entertainment crowd in the palm of his hands. they give him lots of money. hold lots of fundraisers and talk him up in interviews. but sometimes, even when they're trying to help, stars say the darnedest things. big obama supporter chris rock running around promoting a movie where he plays the voice of a zebra was asked which animal he'd most like to be. >> i'll take the zebra. you know, you know, he's got -- >> in honor of our zebra president, you know, black and white. white and black. that sounded like a jefferson -- that souned like george. i love our president but he's black and white. he appeals to all! and that's what i'm going for. >> good. have you mentioned this to him, by the way? i wonder how he would react to that. >> i don't know! >> the analogy that you're making here. >> you know. we've known of the president's whiteness, but it's there. it's there! i saw the other day the mormons, mitt romney's crew, they believe black people were the devil until 1978! i'm not making this up. right? right? right? we black people have to look this stuff up. 1978! >> laura: so all of this courting of hollywood really worth it? joining me now from ft. worth, texas radio star and hollywood actress jeanine turner and from los angeles, entertainment reporter genie wolf. ok, ladies. chris rock, you know, he's always fun and he'll say lots of things that other people wouldn't get away with saying. but is this opening up kind of the can of worms for president obama? i'll start with you jeanie out in l.a., he comes off a series of fundraisers and lots of hollywood celebs and they're celebrities, they say things that, you know, regular people don't say and usually get away with it. does this hurt him? >> most of the time, they're pretty good communicators. in the case of chris rock, he blasts everybody. i mean, look, he blasted romney's religion. he blasted president obama but let's remember chris is funny. he doesn't mind offending but he's very strategic. it's funny that he told the zebra joke because, as you pointed out, his movie "madagascar 3" opens up this weekend so he doesn't care if he's made you angry and i think he knows better to think that he'd make president obama angry, what he cares about that they ran the madagascar clip and they publicized his movie. >> laura: i don't think that madagascar clip is that outrageous. it's typical chris rock and that's the kind of humor that he engages in and a lot of people like it. there are other things that have been said by people like bill maher, we know what they are, will i am has said that obama is not a magic man and country -- he doesn't have some freaking plan. this is kind of core stuff, alec baldwin. we know alec baldwin is always get in trouble and sean penn said the tea party wants to lynch people. does this end up making him less -- look less presidential in the end? >> i don't know if it makes him look less presidential. i don't know that it really -- look, he goes to hollywood, president obama and he gets to raise a lot of money with the celebrities. but in the long run, i don't know that it's going to help him with the american people. because the american people are looking at their paychecks and the unemployment and all the struggles that we've had over the past three years since he's been, you know, in the presidency so i think that's more important than anything else. i think obama has a fun time in hollywood and raises a lot of money but there's a lot of hypocrisy, you know, just those comments that you mentioned, bill maher can say something. and all these people can say these outrageous things. can you imagine if a conservative had said the zebra comment? it would have been by the door a national scandal. >> no, it would have -- yeah, i think a white person saying that would be obviously condemned and should be. but i mean -- >> he's a comedian. and i think, look, jeanie, when you look at what happened in hollywood over the last few days, in and of itself, it's not surprising. bill clinton raised an enormous amount of money in hollywood. john kerry raised some money in hollywood. that's what democrats do. the problem is you have the split screen of the icbm being tested by russia today, flexing its military muscles. you have a terrible jobs report just a week ago. terrible jobs numbers for this country. so the president is eating this lobster with zach braff and meanwhile, the rest of the country are like where is the jobs? that's the problem. not that he's raising money really but there's a disconnect. >> well, the young voters wish they were sitting there meeting zach braff. i think they were open about the fact that they weren't just going after money in hollywood. what tonight do is court the young vote and remind young voters that don't watch shows like this but pay a lot of attention to very smart spokespeople and very good communicators in hollywood so it's easy to make fun of him hanging around with the stars but i think he's done some good things for the campaign and i think it's ok to have a little fun. come on, chris rock, it's humor. chris rock is -- >> laura: it looks immature and in the end, the country is on the brink and the president looks frivolous and immature. i'm sorry. >> let me tell you. >> laura: we are on the brink and he's having fun. i'm glad he's having fun but the rest of the country isn't having that much fun and i think this sits badly with people. i don't think it sits well. you close it out. >> it would help if all of us were able to step back and have a bit of a sense of a humor and a laugh about this and then roll up our sleeves and fix things. >> laura: we'll have a sense of humor and laugh when our country is saved. that's when. great to see both of you, ladies. plenty more ahead as "the factor" moves along this evening, hysteria in the liberal ranks as dems worry this could be curtains for the obama candidacy and the president said he's offended by the suggestion that his administration is responsible for national security leaks. but what's he doing about the leaks? 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[click-click] [♪...] >> laura: in the fridays with geraldo segment tonight, is the left starting to run scared? moveon.org is sending out a fundraising letter dripping with desperation with a warning that obama could lose. political reporter mark halprin said democrats agree and the unions are getting downright hysterical. listen to the head of the local civil service union in milwaukee. he was licking his wounds and lashing out after the failed wisconsin recall election. >> you'll never see this -- >> joining us from new york, geraldo rivera whose show airs sundays at 10:00 p.m. ok, geraldo, i think this should be a no gloat zone for republicans in wisconsin. i mean, they have their fun. they could celebrate the wisconsin recall election. that was a big one for them. but on the flip side of this is the democrats, right? because they see union influences eroding, even "the washington post" writing about that this week and it seems like even moveon.org is very concerned that the president is in real trouble. >> i think you have to divide the situation, the reaction to tuesday's trauma in two parts. i think unions, big labor clearly suffered a devastating blow on tuesday. i think unions will never be the same. as they reel, you know, from this blow, we can assess whether or not they will still be the significant voice they have historically been in democratic politics but i think they are really staggered and i believe that history will mark this as really the end of a whole trend where unions disproportionately certainly at the public service sector, you know, wielded their clout. they don't have much clout anymore. now, the other point, moveon .og and the panic that seems to be setting in most of the communities, following last tuesday's rally and scott walker's triumph, mitt romney in half the polls is leading the president so liberals are suggesting, hey, whatever problems we have with barack obama, whatever criticism we have of the fact that he didn't withdraw from afghanistan immediately, that he didn't push for a single payer in the health care plan, let's put those aside. let's get re-energized, let's get ginned up again because he could clearly lose to mitt romney. he's a fine candidate, romney is. he has, you know, his negatives and the president's negatives kind of equal out. so it's a real horse race and so i think liberals are right -- right to be very concerned their man could lose. >> laura: cnbc has a poll out today that shows that romney is leading obama and the question of who is better to handle our economic challenges so that came out late today. others saying similar things although it's very tight still. and geraldo, if you're a liberal today, and you're looking at this -- the political reality as it is, romney has his own challenges, obama obviously has his. is it not concerning to people that in the end, liberalism will be judged by obama's performance. in other words, the ideas after november, if he should lose, after november, doesn't that set liberalism back? if everybody puts all their eggs in the obama basket here, maybe he wasn't experienced enough to grab the liberal mantle and run with it. >> you said a lot of things there. first of all, before we overstate the panic on the left, we have to point out, you point out, i think correctly, that romney on the economy is now drawn even or even ahead of the president in terms of the people's feeling that he's competent to handle the grave situation that we are in. on the other hand, liberal enthusiasm for barack obama is building again. it's back up to 93%. enthusiasm for mitt romney among republicans is only up to 75% so they could be a kind of a catalyst, wisconsin could be used as a catalyst for groups like move on and you call it the nuts roots nation, net roots nation, the big progressive convention going on right now in providence, rhode island, there could be a feeling that come on, we got to get together and, you know, he could receive, for an example, more of these small loans. the social media could be ginned up again so i don't think it's time to panic yet but i think there's real concern that unlike with john mccain, this is a real candidate who has a solid shot at winning and right now, this is a horse race. >> laura: yeah, let's move on to this other fun topic, fun but disturbing, i guess, to some people who follow the pageant world. miss u.s.a. decided she doesn't want any part of miss u.s.a. anymore and the miss u.s.a. pageant and she has pulled herself out. donald trump comes in and says hey, hey, hey, sweetheart, watch what you say about us. she claims the contest was rigged. tell us very briefly. >> you have miss pennsylvania in the u.s.a. contest. she says that she heard from miss florida that there was a list of the five finalists even before they picked the top 16, you know, quarterfinalists on the television program and she says that's why she quit because it was a rigged contest. donald trump because he's so thin skinned and because he is a bully, he said wait a second, she's a liar. she's ugly. she never could have won. she never should have gotten in the race. he's suing her because she said the contest was rigged but more importantly, what she did, laura, excuse me, is she said that prior to withdrawing because of the rigged election, she withdraw because she refused to compete with a transgender contestant and she wrote a letter to the pageant and i'm quoting from her letter she -- "i refuse to be part of a pageant system that's so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principle as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it." she really withdrew because she didn't want to compete against a transgender person. not because she saw this fixed, that's why donald is suing her. i think he's overreacting. >> laura: we'll see. i don't know if he's a bully. i like donald trump. >> george will, jon stewart. seth myers. rosie owe o'donnell. he goes after everybody. >> laura: good to see you. when we come right back, the president gets defensive when he's asked about national security leaks and the accused fort hood shooter sticks the thumb into the eye of the u.s. military court. we'll tell you what's happening and what happened [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. >> laura: thank you for staying with us. i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. in the factor follow-up segment tonight, continuing questions over the recent spate of national security leaks. we told you yesterday that a bipartisan committee of congress is investigating. today, president obama addressed the issue and grew indignant at the suggestion that the white house was somehow responsible. >> we had mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks that had leaked, they will suffer consequences. the notion that my white house would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. >> joining me now, ambassador nancy soderburg, former deputy national security advisor during the clinton administration. great to see you again. how are you? >> i'm great, thank you. >> laura: the president addressed this issue today at the press conference and i try to put myself, believe it or not in his position. when something like this series of leaks comes out over a relatively short period of time and they are sensitive. this is sensitive information. i think, gosh, i'd be really angry. and i'd express it. did you sense anger on his part today? i didn't see that. >> yes, this is a president who has done more to crack down on leaks and prosecute people who have leaked than anyone. >> laura: how so? how so? >> they've been investigating people who have been leaking since the day they took office. >> laura: not very good at it, then. >> very hard to do. the author of the "new york times" story that triggered many of these concerns said himself, i've been working on this story for 18 months. and it's not like someone just called me up and said hey, here's a really good piece of information. having been at the white house and handled national security information, it is one of the most serious responsibilities you take. i do not believe, though, that people willie nilly leaked this information. i think the president is right to be pretty angry about it. >> laura: he didn't seem angry. i would express that anger as a sort of shot across the bow of anyone else who was thinking of releasing information. and it would be one thing if some of the information was detrimental to the president's own image but you have to admit that pretty much every piece of information that's come out has made him look pretty good. >> it's because it's a good story and that's partly why you're getting those shots. >> laura: not for that agent who is in jail for 33 years now. >> well -- >> laura: because his name is out. >> they're talking about the president's war on terror which has been dismantling al-qaida. he got usama bin laden. it's a good story -- >> laura: using a lot of bush's old tactics i might admit. >> and changing a the lot of bush's tactics as well. this is a president that has gone with a radar screen the top of al-qaida. the worst thing you can do is go up the leadership of al-qaida, this president will capture or kill you. there's a political thing going on, too, people don't want to talk about the record of success for this administration. having been in government while leaks were going on, you never know where they come and trying to guess them is very difficult. >> laura: "the new york times" says a high ranking white house official, a top ranking obama administration official. >> i haven't seen that. i mean, i think that -- >> laura: i believe that. >> the president is unequivocable that he's authorized no leaks and i don't believe anyone in the administration. remember the valerie plane thing. >> laura: glad you brought that up. the media was ballistic over one individual whose identity was revealed and it ended up being richard armitage but this was a scandal upon scandals. they made movies about this. >> rightly so. you should never reveal classified information. this is not a good idea and it's not something that this administration would authorize. and when this -- it will be exhaustively investigated and when it comes to truth, when the truth comes out, it will be very -- absolutely and i think the president supports that. the hill is going to look at it. but you have to look at the big picture. the story that's unveiled here is extraordinary. this is an administration that is protecting americans by making sure that al-qaida is decapitated, dismantled. >> laura: are we hurt by the release of the information? the story right now is people aren't going to work with us because their identities might be compromised because somebody in the white house is leaking information i guess to make the president look good. >> we don't know that anyone in the white house is leaking information. >> laura: somebody at the very top level -- >> you don't know that. >> laura: someone who has access to classified information about what's happening in iran and what's happening in the kill list. somebody who knows the kill list doesn't have access to the president? >> they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. be careful assigning blame. you do not know who leaked it. >> laura: do you think a kill list is known by someone not in contact with the president? >> i have no idea. clearly does. who leaked it, you don't know. be careful not to put blame until the investigation -- it should be investigated and whoever did it should be in jail. >> laura: i hope that's right. great to see you. up next, the accused fort hood shooter disrupts court proceedings today. we'll tell you what happened and one of the most startling commencement speeches ever. >> none of you is special. you're not special! you're not exceptional. >> laura: great. right back with it. >> laura: in the back of the book segment tonight, accused fort hood shooter showed up in court today for pretrial motions, his appearance was brief. the judge delayed everything because hasan is sporting a beard that is a clear violation of army rules and according to the judge, a disruption. he stands accused of killing 13 people and wounding 43 others in that 2009 rampage at fort hood. his trial is currently scheduled for august so fox news launched an investigation to find out what really happened and why the administration labelled the attacks a simple case of workplace violence and fox talks with survivors of the attacks who can't believe it happened. >> you can lose your security clearance in the army for having bad credit and be kicked out of the army but you can't lose your security clearance for talking to a member of al-qaida through e-mail? it doesn't make any sense. >> laura: joining us now is fox news chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge whose investigation with bill hemmer will debut on "fox files" next friday night at 10:00 p.m. katherine, i've been so interested in this case from the very beginning. we've heard precious little about major hasan since this horrible shooting took place. weird stuff happening. the request for a neurologist and so forth. tell us about it. >> what we did in this five month investigation which is really the debut episode of "fox files" called "the enemy within" and what it shows you with these first hand accounts, investigators who have never spoken before is there was a series of really dropping the ball. not only by the f.b.i. but also by the army and i think i speak for the team and also for bill. in the five months we looked at this, there were moments you felt you wanted to weep because it was so tragic and it was so avoidable at so many points along the chain. >> laura: political correctness from what i gather you found out really was a driving, the failure to alert authorities that this guy might be a problem. tell us about the p.c. aspect here. >> i think one of the most stunning things in our investigation is that when major hassan was in the army, he would give these class presentations and at least twice, he justified the use of suicide bombings and he also justified some of the writings of usama bin laden. yet, none of this appears in his performance reviews. and what you see is this scene where his supervisors seem more worried about hasan and protecting him from his bad behavior and promoting him upwards than actually dealing with the problem and showing some real leadership. no one wants to call it violent islamist extremism. >> laura: this administration doesn't call it that anymore. they say they're countering violent ex extremism but they won't say islamic extremism. >> you raise a good point. it took them the better part of two months to call it terrorism. they said it's an act of violence to promote a political end. i got this letter from the defense department and it talks about dealing with fort hood in the context of workplace violence. major hasan did not have an anger management problem. it's something bigger than that. >> laura: talk about the 10 to 20 e-mails you referenced to anwar al-awlaki. when you're sending e-mails to al-awlaki, one of the most sought after terrorists, american born in the world, what? i mean, how -- how did that be allowed to stand? >> we exclusively spoke to people who are revealed all those e-mails and looking at this american cleric for the better part of three years and the question is not so much what was written in those e-mails but question is why was an army officer having contact with this known terrorist? and what you see in his personnel reviews is that they seem to justify the military, why he was doing it. and there's just -- you just feel devastated by it. >> laura: i cannot wait to watch. thank you so much. pinheads & patriots on deck with a shockingly blunt high school commencement speech when we come back in over two. >> finally, pinheads & patriots. it is not every day that a high school commencement speech catches our attention. but pay attention to this english teacher's speech to the class of 20r 2012. >> none of you is special. [chuckles] >> you are not special. you are not exceptional. contrary to what your u-9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every corpulent dinosaur, the nice mr. rogers and your batty aunt sylvia, your paternal caped crusader has swooped in fosave you, you are nothing special. the greatest truth is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. the sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you are not special. because everyone is. >> you can decide if his message was on the mark or a bit over the top. and a quick reminder, father's day is right around the corner. check out bill o'reilly.com for lots of great gifts for dad. the restore usa map, permanentized copies of "killing lincoln," all available on bill o'reilly.com. and dad would love to see bill and dennis millener person. tickets are available for the bolder, fresher show on june 23 in chicago. more information on bill o'reilly.com. and do not forget to check out the hilarious paperback edition of my new york times don't seller, of the eye zing. pick up a copy at your local bookstore or at my web site, and you can join laura 360 and read up my shut up and blog postings and the radio stations that air my daily radio show. thanks for watching. i'm laura ingram