Tuberville is still blocking hundreds of Military Confirmations. And military families are still caught in the middle. Plus Merrick Garland firing back at some of his fiercest republican critics today, declaring he is not the president lawyers. And a new fight for number two in the republican president ial race, and it is not governor ron desantis. Im kaitlan collins, and this is the source. The Attorney General grilled on capitol hill today. For republicans on the hugouse Judiciary Committee, it was a preview of whats to come next week. The fix is in. Even with the facesaving indictment last week of hunter biden, everyone knows the fix is in. He originally offered hunter biden a sweetheart deal. Has anyone at the department told President Biden to knock it off . With hunter. During that combative hearing, the Attorney General pushed back forcefully on republican accusations, while also defending what he says is the independence of the investigation into President Bidens son. No one that i know of has spok spoken to the white house about the hunter biden case. Of course not, i left it to mr. Weiss whether to bring charges or not. No one has told me who should be indicted in any matter like this. And the decision about indictment was made by mr. Smith. I am not the president s lawyer. I will add, i am not congress prosecutor. Merrick garland also said he has not interfered into the Special Counsels investigation to hunter biden. That was central to the republicans questions today, whether or not Attorney Weiss had the authority to decide whether or not the president s son should be charged. Of course keep in mind here, weiss himself has told the committees chair, quote this is from a letter he sent to jim jordan i have been granted ultimate authority over this matter. The fbi, who is managing the team, told the committee that david weiss had the authority and said, quote, there has never been anything in my view that changed that. As for the irs whistleblower that republicans often point to as the basis for their questions, gary shapley, who you have seen on this program, a high ranking u. S. Official has disputed his claims. Lets get straight to the source with congressman mike johnson of louisiana, a member of the house Judiciary Committee. Thank you for joining me tonight. What will we saw when we looked at that hearing, is that a roadmap of what republicans Impeachment Inquiry is going to look like . I wouldnt say that. We were performing or constitutional function there. The Judiciary Committee has responsibility over the Department Of Justice. So, the Attorney General routinely appears before our committee to answer questions. We found the Attorney General today to be very evasive and nonresponsive to some of the most important and i think fair questions that were asked. And, you know, we have a problem with it. A lot of the questions seem to be centered around david weiss himself, the u. S. Attorney, and his recent elevation to Special Counsel. But to the point that your fellow congressmen and republican ken buck made, he said, essentially theres an idea that attorneys would have revolted if not made him Attorney General or fired him when he became Attorney General. I dont know about that kaitlan. But what i do know is the American People are losing faith in this Justice Department. 65 of americans have a negative view of the Department Of Justice under Merrick Garland. The reason is because they see a politicized Justice Department. They see a twotiered system of justice. They see by way of example, speaking of mr. Weiss. They see this aggressive prosecution of President Bidens main political rival, President Trump. At the same time they see special treatment being given to the president s son. So, what are they to conclude . Theyre losing their faith in our system of justice itself. And that is a real threat in a Constitutional Republic like ours. Thats why the dialogue today, the questions today, were so important. Is it special treatment . Because there are investigations happening to both of them. I mean, theyve both been indicted by the same Justice Department for very different crimes, i should note. But they have both been indicted. Can you really say its a twotiered Justice System if President BidenJustice Department has indicted his own son . Well, look, one of the questions he wouldnt or couldnt answer today was, why did they allow the most important charges, the tax fraud charges, to lapse . They let the Statute Of Limitations run on that. Thats very unorthodox, very beyond the standard for the irs and for a prosecutor in that case. The Attorney General couldnt tell us about that. He didnt have any answers for the double standard that weve seen across the board. Weve seen in the last two years concerned parents labelled as domestic terrorists. Weve seen traditional catholics being targeted, spied upon in their own churches. We know that the Federal Court has found a 155page Court Opinion that the doj colluded with Big Tech To Sensor online. He doesnt give answers for that. Attorney general garland on some of the points you made there, people had to really watch these several hours of the hearings to know about some of those points. What you mentioned at the top, when republicans were asking about hunter biden paying his taxes and that lapsing past the statute, a lot of this was still there when donald trump was in office and bill barr was the Attorney General. Its not like these were crimes that allegedly happened as President Biden had taken office. They were still there. So, why dont you have these same questions for the trump Justice Department . Well, we did Ask Questions. Mr. Barr appeared before us for oversight just like mr. Garland about Hunter Bidens taxes . I didnt know about that at that time. We were just finding all this out after the fact. I mean, thats the important here. But, i mean, look at the direct treatment between President Trump and President Biden, the classified documents scandal, right . Theyre aggressively prosecuting President Trump over that, but they have yet to file any charge against President Biden even though he had more documents in more locations. President trump fought a subpoena from the Justice Department and allegedly hid documents from his own attorney that were classified documents that were required by the subpoena to be turned over. Right. But President Biden had them in a box by his corvette. The point is that the perception of the American People, they see these things very clearly. And what they see is a double standard. Its the appearance of impropriety. Thats a problem. We have to have a Justice Department that is above the fray. They have to project fairness. Its really important in our system. I think if you look at the two different when it comes to classified documents, they are very different allegations that are against i mean, there is a Special Counsel looking into President Bidens. But the allegations in trumps indictment, i mean, you read through that, its pretty damning, able to pierce attorneyclient privilege because the allegations were so bad. As i listen to this hearing today, this is the first time that Merrick Garland was in front of your committee since those two federal indictments had been brought by the Special Counsel of donald trump. There were very few questions about that. If republicans are as concerned as they say they are, why didnt more of you Ask Questions about these investigations . I dont know. We only have five minutes. I had 50 or 100 questions seems like a pretty good question. I ran out of time just asking two or three and he was evasive in his answers. I asked very fair questions, kaitlan. I asked him, for example, did he have discussions with anybody at fbi headquarters about the hunter biden investigations. He said he couldnt recall. I found that remarkable, almost unbelievable. I asked if he talked to mr. Weiss himself. He said he did not intend to discuss internal deliberations. Thats not an appropriate answer in a setting like that. We have oversight. Its our job to get those answers and he didnt provide them. I dont think he did any service to his cause today. I thought it was interesting there werent more questions about the trump investigations, given what we hear from republicans on tv and in gaggles. I do want to ask you about whats happening on capitol hill right now because House Republicans cannot agree on how to fund the government. Do you believe theres going to be a Government Shutdown . No, i dont. We had a very productive meeting tonight. It lasted two and a half hours. It was an intense discussion, but we walked out of the room with a framework for an agreement. I think theres an agreement on the topline spending number, which has been part of the controversy that we couldnt decide upon. Weve got that now. I think were going to do a Stopgap Funding Measure that everybodys prepared to do that will allow us additional time even the are prepared to sign on to that . I think so. All of them were in the room tonight. We had very fruitful discussion, and i think we got an agreement for at least a framework for that. It was very positive and were in a good place. So, those seven or so allegedly were not ready to sign any kind of shortterm bill, any stopgap bill, you are saying tonight that they are prepared to vote yes for that . Well, i think so. I think the requisite number are. What i do know is of the five friends of mine, republicans that voted yesterday to stop the rule on the defense spending bill, for example, at least two of them agreed to go along with that. Well have the procedural vote, and the others with follow in short order. We intend to work through saturday. I think sunday and monday are jewish holidays, so well be out. Well be right back at it tuesday. If this is dead on arrival in the senate, then what . Well, then we have ourselves in a good negotiation spot. Ultimately this will be worked out in a Conference Committee and everyone knows that. The house is strong when we pass our Appropriations Bills and lay down those markers, so to speak. And im confident well be able to do that. Do you think Kevin Mccarthys job is safe as House Speaker . I think it is, yeah. You know, kevin has a very difficult job. We have a very small majority, one of the smallest in the history of this institution. So, its difficult to get agroemt for everybody across the board, especially on big spending measures. Difficult to say the least. I mean, as you know, House Republicans voted down their own defense bill yesterday. It was symbolic. Symbolic of what . We have run away spending in washington. We are trying to say weve got to reduce the spending, reduce the size of government. We want to close the border. We want to reduce and get rid of the corruption so people believe in our institutions again. Theres a lot on our plate. By doing the appropriations bill, we use these as landmarks to get these big measures done. Were united on those causes. Everybody agrows with those objectives. Its just the matter of getting the details done. Its the sausagemaking process, right . Youre seeing that out in the open because we got back to regular order. This isnt done by four people in a back room like its been in the last several years. Now youre seeing the ugly process of legislation out front. The founders knew this. This is what they knew would be involved. Were moving in a positive direction. Okay. You are confident there will not be a Government Shutdown. Well see if that is accurate. Congressman mike johnson, as always, thank you for joining us. Thank you. We have breaking news ahead. After six long months, a u. S. Military confirmation has happened after one senators blockade. Plus can anyone stop donald trump in the republican field because the poll positions have shifted in the first primary state. This is an interesting number. It could be a crucial early test for trump but also for who is in second place. Love can get a little messy. Good thing theres resolve. Love the love. Resolve the mess. If youre looking for a Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan thats smart now. Im 65. And really smart later im 70ish. Consider an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan from unitedhealthcare. With this type of plan, youll know upfront about how much your care costs. Which makes planning your financial future easier. So call unitedhealthcare today to learn more about the only plans of their kind with the aarp name. And set yourself and your future self up with an aarp Medicare Supplement plan from unitedhealthcare. Other eye. Tonight the highest ranking Military Office in the country was just confirmed. It took more than six long months for a single Military Confirmation to go through, all because of senator Tommy Tubervilles blockade, a blockade that i should note is still in place tonight. He is still demanding that the Pentagon Scrap its abortion policy. But with maneuvering today, he forced Senate Majority leaders Chuck Schumers hand. The alabama republican senator responded tonight by blaming the other side. Instead of voting, democrats have spent months complaining about having to vote. Senator schumer could have confirmed these nominees a long, long time ago. Allowing the backlog to build up over six months is his fault. The vote tonight to confirm brown was 8311. Tuberville voted no. He was one of those 11. But about the other 300 Military Members who are still waiting on their nominations to be confirmed, a list that we know could grow by the end of the year . The big picture here tonight is that Military Promotions arent usually political. The Senate Approved them in large batches without much debate. Senator tuberville is becoming more and more desperate to get out of the box he has put himself in. Hes desperate to shift the responsibility onto others. But due to the extraordinary circumstances of senator tubervilles reckless decisions, democrats will take action. They confirmed one nominee today. Two more are expected tomorrow. But senator tuberville says the hold still stands, leaving the 300 motions still in limbo, disrupting the lives of Service Members and their families. And the pentagon says jeopardizing National Security and threatening u. S. Armed forces. Joining me now, an iraq war veteran, combat veteran, and member of the Armed Services committee. Senator, thank you for being here. Are you okay with the way that the new joint chiefs chairman was confirmed tonight . Im not okay with it. I voted yes because we need a new chair of the joint chiefs of staff. But you have to understand, as soon as we promoted him, we added one more name to the list of officers waiting to be promoted because his position is now vacated and we have to promote someone else to fill that position. So, theres no way for us to get these promotions done if we do them one at a time. And by the way, you know, senator tuberville allowed us to move faster on this nomination and confirm him tonight. Normally we would have to wait 30 hours, which would take us into the weekend. Senator schumer has put out a statement that if we have to, were