out tax related charges against their client. good afternoon, welcome to washington. i'm bret baier good to be with you. >> great to be with you. i'm gillian turner. sandra and john are off today. hunter biden's attorneys are expected to provide a whole laundry list of reasons for the judge to dismiss this case. this includes the repeated claim that the court is succumbing to political pressure. >> bret: this is not the only legal battle on hunter's plate. he is staring down gun charges in a case that is set to go to trial in just a few months creating yet another possible headache for his father during a critical reelection campaign. >> gillian: we have fox team coverage for you. andrew mccarthy standing by to provide legal analysis but first we go to david spunt the outside that courthouse. david, what do we expect the amount this today? >> jillian a bright, good to be with you. we expect a lot of back and forth when off in a few hours in downtown los angeles. ultimately it's up to the judge to decide whether or not he will move forward with this case. we have new video that we just turned it in the last 15 minutes or so paired special counsel david weiss himself based in dee leading this investigation walking into the front of this federal courthouse here in downtown los angeles which is significant. he was not here for the last hearing but for him to fly all the way across the country, we are definitely expecting some news today. hunter's attorney expected to go over the eight motions that he filed over the past few weeks to dismiss this case. he has a whole host of reasons he says that hunter officially moved his residence to california in 2019 and the indictment focuses on the years before therefore this case should not even be brought in california. special counsel weiss as special counsel can charge anywhere he wants in the country and he did so in this case because this is where the presidents on lives now. speaking of david weiss, they questioned the legitimacy of weiss as special counsel arguing that he came to republican pressure last summer after the infamous plea deal fell apart in a very public way last july. they saved the diversion agreement to help hunter avoid jail time is still intact. meanwhile, david weiss' office is moving full steam ahead. the government said instead of paying taxes, hunter spent his money on women, clothing, health, beauty products, and adult entertainment. the presidents on his charge with federal firearms violations in delaware, he lied about his substance abuse on a federal firearm form when he owned a gun in 2018 for less than two weeks. again, this is set for june 20th here in los angeles. the gun case in delaware tentatively penciled in for juna little bit more of an idea about what the judge thinks time wise given that these will be butting so close to each other. this happens in a little less than three hours now. speed to keep us posted. thank you for that. >> bret: let's bring in andy mccarthy, former assistant u.s. attorney and fox news contribute her. andy. let me ask you about this first effort by abbe lowell to throw out the case saying it should be in washington, d.c. what you make of that? >> it's very typical for defense lawyers to make a slew of motions to try and get the case dismissed. that's what is happening here. when you have a case where someone is accused of evading income taxes and failing to pay, even if he changes his location as hunter did, the government alleges it was in april 2018. i understand he is saying now according to david, 2019. you have a continuing obligation to pay even once you are beyond the tax year and if you are living in a location and failing to pay, i think the government's argument is it is proper to have venue in the place where you are living at that point. >> bret: i talked to one of the irs whipple's whistle-blowers on the special report. pretty detailed in that interview. he considered hunter a serial violator when it came to these tax issues. is there a lot there on this case as you see it? >> i think not only there is, but that's powerful rebuttal to abbe lowell's claim that the politics here is working to hunter's detriment instead of to his favor. as the whistle-blower testimony showed, some of the most serious offenses that hunter could have been charged with work 2014 and 2015 and yet the prosecutor here allow the statute of limitations to run on those which would never happen in a normal investigation. in a normal investigation, you would indict to stop the clock. that didn't happen here. i think that testimony is very important because it shows that this is not just like a one off or something close to that. circa 2018, 2019. this is a pattern of behavior that went on for years beginning around 2013. >> bret: in other words, if hunter had not been president biden's son, he would've possibly been prosecuted on the tax and gun stuff years ago? >> i think by no years that endemic later than 2020, that's right. >> bret: last thing. what about this whole issue of the statute of limitations when it comes to donald trump and what he is facing in this criminal case that starts ap april 15th? >> this is a little bit complicated but in a nutshell what alvin bragg is doing is taa misdemeanor in new york, this falsification of business records which has a two-year statute of limitations and trying to make it a five and six year statute of limitations under two things. there is an exacerbated penalty if the falsification of business records is done to conceal another crime which is what alvin bragg is alleging and new york tacked onto that five r statute of limitations another year during covid. that's what he has to rely on in order to slip this case in under the wire. i think this is a misdemeanor case. if it had been properly charged as one, bragg says that the conduct happen in 2017. it would've run in 2019. this is a very stale case. >> bret: it seems many legal experts, and i've heard you talk about this and others have said it was constructed in a way to make this case go forward. that others might not of brought this case including the previous prosecutor. >> i can't imagine anyone bringing this case other than bragg and bringing it against anyone but donald trump. the crime that he is claiming that trump was concealing when he supposedly or allegedly falsified the business records is a federal campaign finance violation that bragg does not have authority as a state prosecutor to prosecute and that the two agencies and the federal government that do have that authority, the justice department and the federal election commission, both looked at and decided not to pursue trump because they didn't think it was a campaign finance violation. >> bret: very quickly, that makes for a potential -- if he is convicted, a potential appeal sounds pretty juicy. >> i think this is it just like the civil case in the sense that judge mershon appears to have bought wholesale all of bragg's theories of the prosecution just like anger on bought the attorney general's. >> bret: as always, thank you. >> make sure that we work now, today, to get the bridge back up and the port back open. that bridge took five years to build. we don't yet have an estimate on how long it will take to rebuild but that's not going to happen overnight so we have to deal with the implications. >> gillian: all hands on deck to open the baltimore port following the collapse of the francis scott key bridge. crews are shifting to recovery efforts for the six people who are presumed to seize. griff jenkins joins us from baltimore. griff, it looks like you might be on a boat. tell us about what you're seeing in in the area there. >> we are on a boat in the middle of the patapsco river getting a closer look and you can begin to see just how difficult of a challenge this recovery effort is. let's give you a shot here. you can see as the boats in the water are gathered in the area on the north side of the bridge where it went under and we've been watching for hours the divers going in and out of the frigid water. the challenge of these elements out here as they try to recover first and foremost the bodies of the six workers believed to be at the bottom of this river and of course the army corps of engineers boats are out here as well as the coast guard. if you look over here at that shipping container, the dali is still sitting here racked into a span of the key bridge. you begin to understand the magnitude of this wreckage, julian. the bent steel beams just twisted like a plastic straw or something. it strikes you and hits home like governor wes moore and others are so devastated by the destruction that they see and when they talk about rebuilding the bridge, you can see it will be a long time before they are able to even remove this wreckage of the previous bridge out of this channel to open that port which has been closed until further notice. i asked governor moore about when he sees this shot that we are showing you right now, what goes through your mind? here's what he said. >> it's breathtaking. that's not the baltimore skyline that i know. and i remember when i got a call in the middle of the night from my chief of staff from the mayor of baltimore when they said the key bridge is gone. i said what you made? they said it's gone. it collapse. >> meanwhile, the ntsb in their first full day of the investigation. i was able to speak early this morning to the chair of the ntsb. she said basically that they are just getting started but they have recovered the data recorder from the dali ship. it will tell them a lot and they will be digging into the questions we all have now which is how did that ship lose power and what caused that? >> gillian: griff jenkins in baltimore for us. thank you. >> bret: and attorney for disney says the case against his client is all about the benjamin after the feds raid two of the music moguls homes. >> gillian: plus the knives are out for rfk jr. the fighting campaign and dnc going all in to try and kill his third party run. karl rove's is going to weigh in on their tactics. >> democrats are very worried about their incumbent and his strength this coming fall. the party that fancies itself and positions itself as pro-democracy is going to behind-the-scenes fight tooth and nail to have a little less democracy. super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. if you're a veteran wife, homeowner, and the family bookkeeper, you're the first to know when high rate debt is stressing your budget. but your family's service has earned you a big advantage. the va home loan benefit. with the lower rate newday 100 va cash out loan, you can pay off high rate credit cards and car loans. that's real money you can use to take care of your family and home. i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein! those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. -ugh. -here, i'll take that. woo hoo! ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar, 25 vitamins and minerals. and a new fiber blend with a prebiotic. 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>> one that has client is innocent and that the feds use of the raids was an overuse of military force quoting this unprecedented ambush paired with an advanced corrugated media presence leads to a premature judgment of mr. combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in these civil lawsuits. the search warrants by homeland security follow for lawsuits. filed by women alleging sexual assault including one by a minor. u.s. attorney's office in new york is reportedly handling the case against the billionaire singer-songwriter. last month, a music producer rodney jones also accused combs of sexual abuse and in that he came is that mr. combs had headed cameras in every room in his house, has recordings of celebrities, artists, and athletes engaging in illegal activity that these individuals were recorded without their knowledge or consent. mr. combs possesses compromise and footage of every person who has attended his parties. also identified in that lawsuit is brandon paul, seen here, he will be described in the documents as combs personal drug dealer and a weapons man. on monday, miami david police arrested him for who can position at the airport in miami where tmz also found combs walking around before he is believed to have flown somewhere in the caribbean. police have him on the $2500 bail. criminal charges near me not becoming against combs but the warrants obviously sought the recordings that could substantie claims against him. he recently said that he is innocent of the awful things being said. julian. >> gillian: thank you. >> third parties are like koch brokerage in the kitchen. it's not what they carry off, it's what they fall into an follow-up. bobby kennedy can fall into every swing state and follow it up for joe biden. >> this is one of the biggest threats for joe biden being elected. >> i worry that bobby taking a percentage of votes from biden could take from the election and lead to trump selection. >> bret: sounds like red alert now that rfk jr. has named running mate entrepreneur nicole shanahan as his vp pick her democrats are ramping up efforts to try and knock him out of the race for the white house. let's bring in karl rove, former white house deputy chief of staff, fox news contributor. carl, good afternoon. first of all, are they right to worry as much as they do and what do you think of nicole shanahan as rfk jr. specs? >> they should worry. third-party candidates got 5.8% of the vote. that's one out of every 17 voters cast a ballot for third-party voters and in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania, the green party candidate got more votes than hillary clinton lost those states bite. in 2020, 1.9%, one out of every 50 voters voted for a third party candidate and in arizona, georgia, and wisconsin the libertarian candidate got more votes than donald trump loss of states by. even if they get a very small fraction of the vote, if it's in the right places, it can cause enormous harm. >> gillian: right now, he has a lot of potential in key swing states but he is only on the ballot in utah. is anybody pushing back on the other side of this? anyone who does not work for the biden campaign and sang some of this fearmongering is overblown? >> he is behind the eight ball at the number says 20 some odd states require you to have a running mate before you can get on the ballot. you either could get on the ballot without a party before you nominated the candidate but now that he's an independent candidate, he needs to have a running mate to get on in a number of states. we don't know how many he will end up getting but in 2016, a dissident republican got on the ballot in 20 some odd states and received votes in 37 states even though he did not become a candidate until the summer. there is still a chance for robert f. kennedy jr. to get a large number of ballots. one of the reasons he could get on the ballots is easy he has money which says to me that's why he chose the former wife of one of the founders of google to be his running mate. i'm sure she has an admirable person but she has a big checkbook and i think that is probably the most compelling reason to pick her. she already underwrote a television ad that aired during the super bowl. talk about from a politically -- a political perspective, a dumb move. run one ad during the super bowl and hope to affect voters who will be voting nine months later. not a smart move but she had the checkbook and the desire to write the check. spew in the kennedy family was not too happy with that super bowl ad and they weighed in on it. in fact, president biden welcomed a lot of kennedys to the white house to say the kennedys are with me. it does seem, carl, that democrats are getting worried. you have former president obama going together with former president clinton for a fund-raiser. "the new york times" headline obama fearing biden lost to trump is on the phone to strategize. really detailed article about how much obama is plugging in. what do you make about the behind-the-scenes? >> a lot of leading democrat strategist are deeply concerned about it and there's every reason to be concerned when you have three quarters of the american people including a majority of democrats saying he is too old and when you have two-thirds of the american people including a large number of democrats saying he does not have the mental acuity and strength to be president in a second term, they have a problem and they know it. how they will get out of it is to be interesting to see. the best way to do this is to go on the attack against donald trump and make light of joe biden's age. i'm not certain either one of those will be sufficient to solve this problem. >> gillian: one quick one before we let you go. what about the trump campaign and all of this with rfk, with obama turning out and all of the celebs to support biden. anything for them to be concerned about or do they keep popping popcorn and watch all this? >> the one thing that the republicans are going to have to face is an enormous financial disadvantage. democrats are going to have better than a two to one spending advantage available. it will get worse by the election. part of that will be on media. the quality of the message is going to matter a lot. we know a lot about these two men. the quality of the media may have a deep impact but it's not like the normal race. if they put it in the ground game, it could have a significant influence because if you look at these battleground states like nevada and arizona and georgia and wisconsin, the republican party is in bad shape in those states. the party organization is bankrupt. and michigan they have a new chairman but he walked in and literally cannot get control of the website for the republican party of michigan nor the computer. democrats will have an advantage there and it could be really important in a close election. >> bret: we will follow it all. thanks. >> you will not be able to commandeer somebody's private property and expect to get away with it. we are in the state of florida ending the squad or scam once and for all. >> gillian: florida is now bidding farewell to squatters. ron desantis they are saying he's going to get homeowners there writes back. coming up, we will talk to aunt ice water activists about the new crackdown happening and florida. >> bret: a violent 48 hours in new york city. bryan llenas is live from a subway platform in midtown where an innocent rider lost his life. >> a brutal week in new york. an officer shot and killed, a subway rider randomly shoved into an oncoming train and an nypd officer should punch in the face. the mayor says the city is under control, but is it? next. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1, and you can 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deciding it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. >> bret: we will take you to the white house briefing room. transportation secretary pete buttigieg talking about the baltimore bridge. >> tragically, six people did lose their lives and a seventh was badly injured. these were workers who went out to work on a night shift repairing the road surface while most of us slept. work is undergoing to recover their remains and our thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones whose lives are never going to be the same. even as those families come to terms with this grief and even as those recovery operations continue, work is underway to investigate what happened and to restore the key transportation resources that were impacted. when it comes to the investigative work led by the ntsb and supported by the coast guard, i will respect their independence and not comment on that work but i do appreciate being able to engage with ntsb, costar, and other personnel yesterday at the site. i spent time with governor moore and i want to express my appreciation for his leadership. the governor has responded to this unthinkable event with compassion and we will be working mostly with him and his state d.o.t. to support maryland in their work to rebuild the bridge and reopen the port. i also want to thank mayor scott, county executive for their work and their teams work ensuring all resources are brought to bear in that res response. while the investigation and the response continues, president biden had made clear that the whole administration will be providing support in every respect for the recovery and the building process peered from the department of transportation perspective, that comes down to four major focus areas. reopen the port, deal with the supply chain implications until the port does reopen, rebuild the bridge, and deal with the surface transportation implications until the bridge is rebuilt. each of those is a distinct line of effort and we are already taking steps toward each goal. with regard to the port, again the coast guard in coordination with the army corps of engineers will lean on the cleanup and reopening so that can get back to full operation. we are concerned about the local economic impact with some 8,000 jobs directly associated with port activities. and we are concerned about implications that will ripple out beyond the immediate region because of the ports role in our supply chains. this is an important port for imports and exports and it is america's largest vehicle handling port which is important not only for car imports and exports but also farm equipment. no matter how quickly the channel can be reopen, we know it can't happen overnight and so we will have to manage the impact in the meantime. we are hoping to mitigate some of those impacts including using tools that did not exist a few years ago. following the disruptions to supply chains from the covid pandemic, president biden's infrastructure package included the establishment of a new freight office within our department to help coordinate goods movement in ways that were not possible before. to be clear, ocean shipping is not centrally controlled the way you might expect with for example air traffic control. having these tools allows us to create coordination that did not exist before. it has helped us to smooth out supply chains after covid, it's helped us to manage the red sea crisis and we are using it now to help the hundreds of different private supply chain actors get better coordinated to keep goods moving. tomorrow i will be convening shippers and other supply chain partners to understand their needs and promote a coordinated approach as they adapt to temporary disruptions while we plan litigations. with that said, the port of baltimore is an important port here for our supply chains and all of the workers who depend on it for their income, we will help to get it open as soon us safely possible. for the bridge. we will be working with ntsb as they lead their independent investigation. it is too early to speculate of course what ntsb will find but if they discover or determine anything that should be considered in the regulation, inspection, design, or funding of bridges in the future, we will be ready to apply those findings. what we do know is a bridge like this one completed in the 1970s was simply not made to withstand a direct impact on a critical support peer from a vessel that weighs about 200 million pounds. orders of magnitude bigger than cargo ships that were in-service in in that region at the time the bridge was first built. we also know that this is yet another demonstration of the importance of our roads and bridges which is one of many reasons why the biden-harris administration works so hard to get the infrastructure package past and why roads and bridges are the single biggest category in that package. we are committed to delivering every federal resource needed to help maryland get back to normal and we will work with them every step of the way to rebuild this bridge. it is not going to be simple. when we helped pennsylvania and california swiftly reopen i-95 and i-10 respectively there was terrific worked on there but that was addressing comparatively short spans of bridges over land relative to this span over water and of course in the baltimore case we still don't fully know the condition of the portions of the bridge that are still standing or of infrastructure that is below the surface of the water. rebuilding will not be quick or easy or cheap but we will get it done. as i mentioned, we are working with city, county, and state and i also want to add that we have been closely engaged with the maryland congressional delegation, many of whom were on hand yesterday and doing a tremendous job of advocating for their state. they made it clear that they will work with us to push for any help that we need from congress. bottom line, as president biden has made clear, the federal government will make available all of the support baltimore, maryland, needs and we will work with congress to deliver on that. i will end with that spirit for the families of those presumed loss, for the people of baltimore who will be feeling disclosure in day-to-day life and for everyone affected by the foreclosure and its supply chain impacts, the president and the whole government will be here with you until everything is rebuilt stronger than ever. our country put its arms around florida when the sunshine skyway bridge collapsed in 1980, america rallied around minnesota after the bridge their collapse in 2007. this will be a long and difficult path but we will come together around baltimore and we will rebuild together. >> thank you mr. secretary. let me add to what the secretary has already briefed you on here. yesterday evening after an intense and thorough multiagency search on the water and from the air, the coast guard incident commander suspended the search for the individuals missing from the bridge collapsed. he did this after consulting governor moore and many of the other agencies that were involved. the coast guard in the response community is deeply saddened that the missing individuals have not survived. the coast guard appreciates the state of maryland's leadership and humanity in supporting the family members of the missing. i would like to personally thank the state and local responders for their heroic search and ask rescue efforts. we did not achieve the outcome we had hoped for, it was a tremendous team effort and the treacherous operational conditions. as this aspect of the response shifts to recovery consistent with the president's direction to get the port up and running as soon as possible, the coast guard highest priority now is restoring the waterway for shipping, stabilizing the motor vessel dali and removing it from the site, and coordinating maritime casualty investigation under the leadership of the national transportation and appeared just a couple of words on each one of those. in terms of assessing and restoring the waterway, the coast guard is very tightly connected to the army corps of engineers as they lead the lead federal agency on that effort. as we were in the oval office, the president called general spellman the chief of the army corps of engineers who is on site your general spellman and i had a number of conversations yesterday in terms of the approach moving forward. they are moving very aggressively and putting resources and mobilizing the necessary equipment. conducting analysis in the underwater surveys to do that. it terms of continuing to stabilize the vessel and mitigating pollution threat and removing the vessel from the area, the vessel is stable but it still has over one and a half million gallons of fuel oil and lube oil on board. it does have 4700 cargo containers on board. 56 of those contain hazardous materials and two are missing overboard. the ones that are in the water do not contain hazardous materials. around 13 or so on the bow of the ship were damaged as the bridge collapsed and impacted the front of that ship. the coast guard has moved aggressively to board the vessel and we have teams on board the responsible party of the ship operator has mobilized and activated the marine salvage plan in addition to the marine pollution response plan appeared both things that are required by the united states coast guard. this is a marine incorporated and they have begun mobilizing resources to take the steps appropriate to refloat the vessel and remove it from the area. the real critical thing here is as you know, a portion of the bridge remains on the bow of that ship and we will be coordinating very closely with the army corps of engineers and their contractors to first affect the removal of that debris before the vessel can then be removed. the vessel bow is sitting on the bottom because of the weight of that bridge debris on there and there are underwater surveys happening by a remotely operatd vehicle. divers will be in the water today to complete that underwater survey. there is no indication that there is any flooding or any damage underneath the water line to that vessel. that effort will continue and we will keep you informed of that. lastly, and terms of the casualty investigation, as the secretary has said, this is led by the national transportation and safety. i have had a couple of conversations with the chair how monday on this account and what we have done is we have activated understanding between the coast guard ntsb bef the complex nature of this investigation, we will be providing coast guard investigators for what we call a marine board of investigation which is our highest level of investigation at the coast guard that will ordinate with the ntsb investigation as that moves forward. i think the secretary closed with some topline messages and for us, i can tell you that our unified command which is essentially a term that we use in the united states for how we mobilize against crises with all of the appropriate federal, state, local agencies and other stakeholders, we have a tremendous amount of talent on their and a lot of resourcing and given the magnitude and importance of this response, it will be very aggressive moving forward and we will keep you informed with that. thank you. >> we've obtained a government memo that the dali had hazardous material that was contained in the containers on the ship. can you update us on that investigation and is there a threat to the public from any of the materials on board the ship? >> there is no threat to the public from the hazardous materials on board. we've attained the mental to vessel manifest that they could carried and done the analysis oe hazmat on board. we have a very specialized hazmat team on board called the atlantic strike team. we have three of those around the country. we have air monitoring their to detect if there's anything that's coming off of those containers. the majority of those containers are closest to the pilot house and are completely unaffected by the damage to the bow of the ship. we have not determined if there's any release at this t time. >> what would you assess as a risk that those containers could spell questioning speak of most of these things are measurable oils and even though they are hazardous to become a we've dett there is not any threat to the public. >> the federal government should run the whole cost of the bridge. what are early estimates of what that cost would be question rick >> we don't have dollar estimates yet, but we have provisions that allow us to begin releasing funding even while that is being determined cured my understanding is as we speak this afternoon and emergency relief funding request has come in from the maryland state d.o.t. we will be processing that immediately to start getting them what they needed. also later today there will be a design and procurement oriented meeting that will participate with and got. it's early days but now is the time to start scoping out. >> related to that, mr. secretary, how much of existing money is there now within d.o.t.? do you have funding through the highway administration, through the infrastructure law, or when do you anticipate having to go to congress for bridge costs? >> the infrastructure law did authorize funding into the emergency relief account which is the mechanism that is most likely to come into play here. last i checked, there was about $950 million available but also a long line of needs and projects behind that. it is certainly possible. i would go so far as to say likely that we may be turning to congress in order to help top up those funds but that should not be a barrier to the immediate next few days beginning to get the ball rolling. >> what would be the timeline on that question rick >> it is too soon to know the mechanics of that. >> for the vice admiral. broadly, the safety of maritime shipping in general and the strengths of the regulations that govern it. particularly the inherent interaction nature of maritime could potentially create issues especially if you have ships in different countries with weaker regulation. could you speak to those broader issues? >> despite what happened 36 hours ago in baltimore, the maritime mode of transportation merchants shipping is an incredibly safe mode of transportation. not just here in the united states, but worldwide. while we do have a regime of regulations that are comprehensive in terms of the vessel conditions, the cargo that they carry and how they do it, the qualifications and certifications from the mariners who operate the ships, those are not worked with a global set of regulations that we negotiate and uphold through the international maritime organization in london. this ship was flagged by singapore. that was the flag state administration and i spoke with the administration in singapore just a few hours ago. they will be participating in the investigation. we do something called flag state examinations to ensure that even though these are not u.s. flagged vessels coming in, we do an inspection to ensure that they meet the high international and domestic standards that we demand. >> secretary buttigieg, i know you said that the rebuilding efforts are just beginning but when it comes to the actual port, can you give us a sense of what the timeline would be for reopening? as it days, weeks, months? and same for the bridge. are we talking weeks, months, or years? >> too soon to be certain. when i will say in the case of the bridge is the original bridge took five years to construct. that does not necessarily mean it will take five years to replace. but it tells you what went into the original structure going on. we need to get a sense of the conditions of the parts that look okay to the naked eye but we just don't know yet especially in terms of their foundational infrastructure. it's going to be some time where commuters are going to need to depend on that 95 and 895 tunnel and it will put pressure on them as far as the port, too soon to pressure and estimate. most of it cannot operate although there is a facility called sparrows point that can handle some amount of cargo shipping but nothing close to the totality of baltimore. >> you mentioned there would be an economic cost i'm sure. any of the funding you are talking about with emergency funding, would that cover it as well? >> this is a major concern that the president has directed the administration to find any and all resources that could come into play here. i don't know this to be an automatic eligibility for the emergency relief funding i mentioned earlier but we will turn over every stone. there may be other resources that come into play. >> have you been in any communication with the owners of this vessel in terms of them paying sometimes a consequence? >> i have not an idea for defer to ntsb and law enforcement for that. >> mr. secretary, do you envision this would be constructing a very different bridge going forward? you referenced the 1970 state of affairs. do you believe it would be an entirely new stand and would you envision different safety mechanisms as you are assessing this? >> i can't speculate on that. what i will note is some of the other bridge collapses that were of these proportions, notably the minnesota bridge collapse, happened because of a design flaw and the bridge spontaneously collapsed. this is of course not that. this was the result of an impact. but we don't yet know what ntsb will find or how it will inform plans going forward. >> based on what you've seen so far, do you recommend any other steps based on how endemic however remarkably unusual it was, do their need to be other o protect stands going forward question rick >> some modern bridges around the world especially after the 1980 tampa incident happened were designed with features to mitigate impacts and protect the peers. right now, i think there's a lot of debate taking place in the engineering community about whether or not any of those features could have had any role in a situation like this. it's difficult to overstate the impact of this collision. we are talking about. it's not just as big as a building, it's really as big as a block. 100,000 tons all going into this pure all at once. but one other thing i would add broadly speaking is the president's infrastructure package has the first ever dedicated federal fund for resilience, largely that has been construed in terms of seismic resilience and resilience in the face of extreme weather events. but certainly something we would be looking at going forward knowing what we have experienced in baltimore. >> and the status of the crew of the cargo ship. maybe the vice admiral is better for that. are they still on board and are they fully cooperating with what you need? >> the clue is cooperating with what we need. they remain on board and are dominantly an engine crew, one sri lankan crew member on board but they are still there. very much engaged in the dialogue. >> are there any early indications of what caused the dali to lose propulsion during its voyage and what are some of the areas of focus when it comes to the investigation? >> i think we all want to know as quickly as possible some initial findings but i need to referred you to the national transportation safety board and their messaging and terms of moving forward very deliberately on a factual basis to uncover some of those answers. >> secretary buttigieg, you talked about how the bridge simply was not built to withstand impact of this nature but if the bridge was built strongly enough, why did it not have some of the defensive structures around the support columns as many other bridges do? >> i don't want to get ahead of any investigation either. it was a part of what's being debated is whether any design feature now known would have made a difference in this case appeared we will get more information on that as the investigation proceeds. >> secretary buttigieg, you've been talking about the president vowing to pay for the cost of the bridge and fall and to expedite that rebuilding process. are you going to go after the shipping company? >> any private party that is found responsible and liable will be held accountable. i think our emphasis and the president's goal is to make sure that process is not something we have to wait for an order to support maryland with the funds that they need. that is what these emergency relief tools can help us do. >> what would that accountability look like? >> i don't want to get ahead of law enforcement or ntsb or any of the other players here but there's going to be a lot of focus on anybody who is responsible will need to be accountable. >> rebuilding will be cheap and you talked about possibly needing to get that supplemental request to congress. how much money are we talking about? >> it is too soon to say. >> one question for the vice admirable. when it comes to getting the situation cleaned up and recovery efforts, what are the biggest challenges that you are facing and the type of equipment you need? >> the main challenge here as you can see by the imagery on scene is removing those large trusses and steel members off the bow of the ship. once that happens, we'll have the underwater survey complete in terms of how that vessel is connected to the bridge peer there. once it is done, i think the salvage will be ready to do the necessary actions to reflect the vessel and remove it. >> on the contents of the ship, sir, on the 4700 containers, beside fuel and oil and hazardous materials, can you give us some general categories of what other goods are on board? >> in any given container ship you can have a very, very wide range of packaged materials. consumer goods and many other things. it will be a very broad cross-section of cargoes. >> on the other ships that are stuck in the port, can you talk about what coordination is being done with those ships and what cargo they have and where they are bound for? >> absolutely. we can give you more specifics on the ships in the port but roughly we have a dozen ships that remain in the port that are unable to get out. the majority of those are foreign flying vessels and typical of what we see in the port of baltimore in terms of card carriers and other things. there's a number of ma ships that are there as well. >> secretary booter judge, are you discussing waiving any regulations to help the construction of the bridge? >> hard to say what exact administered of issues might come up but we have a clear directive from the present ticklish tear down every barriers bureaucratic as well as presidential that would affect the timeline of the project. >> mr. secretary, you mentioned you were meeting with operators tomorrow. do you expect the closure of the port to lead to a full-blown supply chain crisis or what is your early assessment? >> this is not of the proportion for example l.a. or long beach when it comes to container traffic. that is one port or two ports that collectively represent 40% of the u.s. container traffic. it is nothing like that but it is an important port and an important system for the east coast ports. a lot of the goods that come on and off their low on rounds where ships visit the ports of new york and new jersey and virginia. right now i think there are diversions taking place to those and other east coast ports helping to absorb some of that need. those are the things we are getting more information on right now and i'm looking forward to getting a better sense tomorrow after talking to the shippers. >> a quick question on safety reviews. obviously the ship was involved in an accident and belgium i believe in 2016. is this incident going to prompt a full-scale review of vessels like this? >> we have seen what's in the news for that particular incident. i don't know if that's particularly informative to this. probably a different vessel crew and different pilots and different weather conditions and so on and so forth. nevertheless the coast guard keeps the histories in the safety histories of all vessels that call into u.s. ports appeared we are reviewing that in terms of the investigation. >> thank you for the vice admirable, can you discuss your degree of confidence in the victim numbers we've heard. we have seen that there are stoners picking up cars at the bottom of the river. do we know that they belong to the construction workers or is there a chance at other cars have fallen it? >> we have heard similar reports in the news. basically the coast guard is going off of the numbers of individuals that have been provided to us by the state of maryland as they were the ones who were administering the bridge and had the best idea of how many individuals might have been involved. >> secretary buttigieg, you mentioned earlier that there is not an air traffic control type body for shipping. is that an indication you think that there should be something like that? >> it's a very different system but i do think it's important for the public to understand if a runway or an airport goes out of service, there is immediate instructions from central authority on what to do and where to go. it just doesn't work that way and shipping. we have felt especially since the summer of 2021 that there needs to be more coordination than there has been in the past. i think sometimes not just as a matter of practice, but as a matter of culture difference shippers and other entities that have been rivals just don't coordinate. we built a program called flow which invites different participants cargo owners, shippers, ports, terminal operators and others to begin sharing data. that is something that a service while going into the red sea issues and it is serving us well right now because that data can help us get a sense of how these effects are rippling through other ports. we welcome that coordination and we are trying to promote it but that does not mean that it is happening on a on a command-and-control basis. >> secretary buttigieg, when was this bridge last inspected? was it on a list of replacements since it was more than 50 years old and can you give us a ballpark when you will reopen the park? and finally, what is the estimated economic impact on the closure of this port and the downing of this bridge? >> on the first one i will refer you to the state. they have the most up-to-date information. >> they inspected it but what i'm asking was wasn't on the list -- and they noted it was 50 years old and they noted it had some questionable parts to it but was it on a list to be replaced with the infrastructure built? >> it was not the subject of an immediate discretionary grant to replace it or something or anything like it. we have work going on on ih 95 but to my knowledge, nothing going to the bridge. economic numbers, about 8,000 jobs we think are directly implicated and over $100 million of cargo moves in and out of that part a day. what was the end? >> ballpark. >> opening the park is a different matter than the bridge. that's just a matter of clearing the channel. still no simple thing but i would expect that can happen on a much quicker timeline than the full reconstruction of the bridge. >> can you ballpark a just a little? >> you can imagine i'm asking our teams the same question but i don't want to put something out just yet. >> days, weeks, months, years? i understand paired but you have to give us something. >> as soon as we have something, i will tell you. >> secretary buttigieg, another supply-chain issue for you. has to do with the significant amount of automobiles, cars, trucks, coal, lmt that goes through the port of baltimore. what would be the impact on the supply chain on those specific industries? >> this is one of the key ports for vehicles and some vehicles are finished at facilities that are on port grounds. it is significant. that being said, of course it's not the only facility that can accommodate roll-on and roll off vehicles. you see that in savanna, certainly in new york, new jersey, and virginia. the tractor equipment will be more complicated than the ordinary light duty vehicles. these are the kinds of information that we will be seeking over the coming days including tomorrow's meeting. >> you expect because of those supply chain issues that we could see impacts on the u.s. economy as a result of the supply chain issues? >> we want to get a little more fidelity on how disruptive it can be. we are not talking about a single point of failure that is the only possible place to get through or even something that is as impactful as some of the issues that are affected or the panama canal for example. this does not automatically mean that a trip to the east coast has to be substituted with a trip to the west coast which would be much more of a cost impact. it can probably be accommodated up and down the east coast but the effect will not be trivial. >> thank you. mr. secretary, you said you had received a request for emergency funding from the maryland breeds. can you tell us what that number was? >> those don't necessarily include a full estimate of the cost what they do make it possible through what's called the quick release authority for us to start getting dollars out. i was just notified that this is coming in as