Treated for Prostate Cancer happening around christmas and new years time. The decision to keep the president and others in that period in the dark for days. Secretary austin spent several days in Intensive Care and transferred authority to his deputy but didnt tell her why and didnt inform the white house immediately. This is the first time he will answer lawmakers questions in public and keep an eye on that coming up right now. He has picked a beautiful spot. Disrespect to brownsville residents he has chosen to waste his trip looking at absolutely nothing. This trip is just so pointless. Bill we spoke to a bounceville resident earlier today as President Biden gets ready to leave the white house making a rare visit to the southern border. His second as president. The same day as former President Trump will be there as well. Brandnew hour begins now. Dana has the week off. She is back on monday. Im bill hemmer. Welcome to thursday. Hello, gillian. Gillian im gillian turner. Its quite a split screen. The Tale Of Two Cities featuring two candidates both seeking a second term in the oval office. Brownsville is where agents have apprehended 46 Illegal Immigrants in the past five days. In eagle pass where President Trump is 2100 apprehensions in five days. Bill in brownsville 76,000 migrant encounters from october to january. The same period in the Del Rio Sector where you will find eagle pass there was nearly 169,000. Gillian more fox team coverage. Bill melugin is at the ready in eagle pass. First we go to Griff Jenkins kicking us off from brownsville. Good morning and it is quite a tale of two Border Cities here. Were told the president will come, meet with front line border officials like the Border Patrol chief, ice, other officials that are in this area. Hear directly from them about the chaos and crisis at the border. But karine jeanpierre, White House Press secretary says it is not about politics. However, we know and expect the president to blame republicans. Now, you mentioned the very low number of migrants coming to this area. Fox just moments ago shot video of about 100 migrants that crossed in this very area. Take a look at this video. You can see migrants being processed, most of them are from central america, but i spoke to one of them who said it was venezuelan migrant coming. That raises a lot of interest because of what we saw happen tragically with the student killed at the university of georgia. Now, lets show, though, the comparison of where bill melugin is in eagle pass and myself. You see that in the last five days over 2,000 there and as you point out, gillian, less than 50 here, 0 on monday. Now we talked a little bit about jose ibarra, the venezuelan migrant that killed the Nursing Student allegedly at the university of georgia. I was able to speak to chief owens of the Border Patrol. He is reacting to that tragic murder and the crisis. Here is what he had to say. Listen. These are the types of tragedies that they keep us up at night. No Law Enforcement officers wants to see Something Like this happen to our communities. This is why we need to have an Immigration System that works. Now we can show you what it was like nine months ago may as title 42 ended here in this area called camp monument. You see hundreds of migrants crossing. That has slowed significantly because also what texas did putting miles of razor wire and obstruction along the border. 100 cut the wire with bolt cutters and got through. Unclear whether or not President Biden will meet with any of the migrants that were apprehended this morning. Bill and gillian. Bill i want to show you this poll from monmouth about the wall. This goes back to april of 2019. When the question was asked do you support the wall, you were at 42 . Today 53. When you are down there how often do the locals talk about that . Well, the locals talk about the wall as a deterrent. The wall in this area in brownsville, remember, President Biden, then Vice President joe biden, then President Obama built wall in this very area because the Rio Grande Valley sector, Which Brownsville is a part of, was ground 0 in years past. Officials have proven the wall works particularly placed in strategic areas to funnel migration flows. So it will be interesting to see whether or not what the president does when he is here talks about things like Building Wall and constructing other areas. We know that the wall that theyve built here with the texas wall, the razor war and obstructions in eagle pass is working. Unclear whether or not well hear anything on that. Send it back to you, bill. Bill appreciate that. Griff jenkins and Bill Melugin Standing by. President trump will have a town hall later today and interview with sean later tonight at 9 00 eastern time. Well cover what the president has to say later this afternoon. What he sees and what he says, gillian. Gillian former officials weighing in as you talked about earlier last hour. Jay johnson, President Obamas Dhs Secretary weighed in Thinking Brownsville is exactly the place biden needs to go to today calling it historically the heart or epicenter of the crisis. A lot of mixed opinions on this. Bill one of two visits during his presidency, el paso you see right there in january of 2023. Witness a woman whose parents immigrated from mexico. Representative lopez. She represents the district that covers the area of brownsville. Quite a large area down there in southeastern texas. You can see it curls right around brownsville. This whole area must be affected by what weve been watching over the past several years down there. Gillian were looking to see also what President Biden will announce. It is atypical for the president to travel down there to an area like the southern border and not make some kind of announcement. The white house saying it probably wont be an executive order. All eyes on him. The ball is on the white houses court to actually do something. Bill jamie lopez is with us now. Good morning to you. We know how personal this issue is to you. Specifically in brownsville, how did you do it . What changed or did the cartels just redirect the flow . The governor and i worked on legislation and passed 6. 6 billion towards more Border Security including more handson with the Texas Military as well as dps to come and assist. The barbed wire and increased the wall that wasnt there before. We have put a lot of work into this because of the neglect biden has caused for us here in texas. It is causing a problem in our communities. You have seen several murders now because of illegal aliens and it is causing an Economic Impact as well. This is horrendous. I have never seen this before. I have lived here all my life and born here and my parents came here legally and this is horrendous. Something needs to be done about it. Gillian are you happy that the president is coming there today . What do you want him to say . Im very disappointed it took him 3 1 2 years to come here. What i need him to do is secure our borders. This is important not only for texas but the rest of our nation. Bill we have some pictures of your family and i mentioned that your parents immigrated from mexico and this issue cuts deep for you. But you just talked about razor wire on the border that has helped fortify that border down there. And weve been watching the federal government challenge the state of texas for years trying to get them to remove containers and get rid of razor wire. That seems to have fallen by the wayside. Why do you think that is . Because biden doesnt care. He doesnt care about us. He has cost us huge inflation, caused us more crime and poverty in our nation and he needs to we need fixing. We need something to fix these issues. Gillian whats the number one concern you hear from your constituents right now when you ask them about how the border crisis is impacting them and impacting their families and businesses and their lives . Our families here are concerned about the safety issues. They are concerned about the cartels. We have fentanyl coming in through the borders and people are dying every day of fentanyl poisoning. Thats not it. There is meth, other stuff thats coming in through the borders that is killing our kids. Our kids are being recruited by the cartels as well. Bill jamie, thank you for your time and we can hear your concerns as well. Lovely pictures of your family we were looking at there. Thank you for your time and the president is coming your way from Andrews Air Force base. I think she was about to say she is very proud of her family. Thank you, so much. Air force one from andrews and the president will take off shortly and see him as he makes his way down to brownsville, texas. Gillian we will bring you there as the president boards. Bill In The Meantime weve got this because there was major news on the floor of the senate yesterday, right . Gillian senator Mitch Mcconnell announced he will step down. The longest Serving Leader in the senate history. Lets bring in Mark Meredith from capitol hill. Speculation is reaching fever pitch about who is going to replace him. Mark, do you have the answer on that . Ill tell you what there are plenty of names voting around. Good morning to you. Mitch mcconnells decision to step down from leadership could usher in a whole era of movers and shakers for republicans on the hill. He will leave his leadership post after the november election but plans to stay in the senate through his term supposed to end in early 2027. Believe me, i know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Bill he turned 82 this month battled Health Problems including multiple falls and growing criticism of his leadership from some members of his party as he supports additional foreign aid with ukraine. Within minutes of his announcement the senators and biden offering praise and support and others said it is time for a new era here in washington. He has been the most consequential senator of the last quarter century in terms of his impact on American Politics. Nobody has done more to put cash into American Politics than Mitch Mcconnell. It needs to change. Possible Mcconnell Success tore. Three johns, cornyn and barrasso and thune. But many other republicans may also join the race. One republican senator who said he believes it is possible eight to ten other senators vying for this one position. Who will it be . Thats still yet to be seen. There is still a lot of time assuming the plan sticks for him to stay around in leadership until november. Gillian a lot of months between now and then on capitol hill. Bill packed room on the house side for the austin hearing delivering his opening statement. Lets roll in on that and listen for his explanation. Deputy and the way that notifications get made. Thats also why we conducted a 30day review of the entire process. Now, because the review deals with the continuity of operations its drafters wrote it as classified but, of course, weve shared that review with all of you. The review made eight recommendations to me and i have directed all eight recommendations be implemented. We put two in place already and were moving out quickly on the other six. So let me quickly summarize them for you. Weve made clear we expect full Information Sharing when a deputy or another designated official assumes functions and duties as acting secretary. Weve issued Written Guidelines for clear Information Sharing between my staff and the Deputy Secretarys staff if these scenarios arise. Well insure the Department Officials in the order of succession are familiar with and supported the relevant processes. And were moving quickly to develop a mandatory reporting protocol for personnel who support me or the Deputy Secretary in situations that might affect our ability to perform our duties and functions. Of course, we already have continuity of Operations Plans in place and will continue to review and update those plans as appropriate. Now, even before the 30day review we already had made some changes. In the future if the Deputy Secretary needs to temporarily assume the duties of my office she and several White House Offices will be immediately notified. That includes the White House Situation Room and the white house chief of staff. Key officials across the department will also be notified including the Deputy Secretary, the chairman of joint chiefs and the general counsel. The reason for that assumption of duties will be included in writing. As you saw you saw these new procedures in action earlier this month. The d. O. D. Inspector general is still working on his independent review which we fully support. Now, before i take your questions, i want to again make one thing very clear. At no time during my treatment or recovery were there any gaps in authorities. There were no risks to the departments command and control. From the time that i resumed my duties on january 5th, i fully participated in National SecurityDecision Making on events in the middle east and about military operations in selfdefense to protect our troops in our facilities over there. Again, were moving swiftly to put some helpful new procedures in place to prevent any lapses in notification. I am confident that well not experience the same issues in the future. So let me again thank you for the opportunity to be here today and for everything that this committee does to support stand by the mission and the people of the Department Of Defense including their families. I know you understand this, but one of the best things that you can do right now to support them is to pass a full year appropriation. Doing so will insure our troops get paid, civilian employees can stay on the job and that we can continue to procure and field the best capabilities to defend our country. We need the flexibility and stability that full year appropriationss provide. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member smith, i appreciate your leadership on that score and i stand ready to assist you in any way. With that ill be glad to take your questions. Bill as they take questions he did say i take full responsibility. I have apologized. He said that in a similar briefing two weeks ago from the pentagon. While this is happening roll into House Republicans. They are speaking now on the hill as well about the border trip today. The Dueling Trips on behalf of President Biden in brownsville and President Trump in eagle pass. Drop in for a moment and catch a glimpse of this. The tragic Death Of Riley Last week. Negligent Immigration Policies threaten the safety of our communities. House republicans passed hr2 and constantly communicating about this and being at the border and showing the American People the tragedy and the crisis that is going on. This bill hr2, all the provisions within it is the strongest Border Security that the house u. S. House has ever put together. Past time the Biden Administration take steps to end this crisis rather than stage these types of photo ops well see today and work on behalf of the American People toward these solutions. We have a great group of membership and leadership to change their perspective with you. Thank you very much. We continue to see this Biden Administration completely give away our country. Whether or not thats through small things like the sba programs that were now having to force through legislation, a bill that im very happy will be hopefully on the floor for a vote this week. That we can actually have whistleblowers have an ease of way on the website to talk about the 2 Hundred Million weve given away to fraudsters and people from other countries taking advantage of our country, of our bills. Of a weak administration. We continue to see this. But nowhere do you see it clearer than whats happe