what concerns me we have five months to do balanced -- >> that my question is regarding the president -- >> refusal to acknowledge to have to pay their fair share. >> sir, it is my time. megyn: i don't know about you, i have a lot of faith things will get done, watching that kind of exchange. >> well, you know two things. one, this is why people hate washington and this is why incumbents are in bad odor this year. that is in both parties. this total gridlock, total impasse on a dealing with stuff is looming everybody knows is coming. of the it is understandable there is anti-incumbent fever. democrats may lose control of the senate. if i'm president obama looking at this sucker, this reinforces how failed washington is. if you're the president you're not elected to join in the complaining. you will take the blame. megyn: something gets done after the election, you've been saying that for a while now. but we have to go through this ruse prior to that. in an effort to try to get something done when everyone knows it is not going to happen. >> keeps us busy down here. megyn: good political theater. chris, thank you. >> you betcha. megyn: as washington struggles to confront a fast approaching fiscal crisis, showing economic recovery is still shaky. first the weekly unemployment report is out today. the number of americans seeking jobless benefits filing for unemployment claims coming in around 365,000 for the week. economists tell us we need to be below that number for a number of weeks to see the overall unemplo rate drop. new signs of weakness in manufacturing today. companies placing fewer orders to factories. that is the first decline in four months. one positive note, retailers like costco and target reporting strong sales last month. tomorrow we get the the monthly jobs report. the forecast as of now isn't good. some reports are warning we have at that take these numbers with a grain of salt, that seasonal factors may be to blame for the bad numbers expected. coming up charles payne will join us what to expect and what the numbers likely will new details emerging about the colorado movie murder suspect, james holmes. two big issues today with him. number one, we're learning that his psychiatrist reportedly warned the university of colorado about his behavior just weeks before the attack but no action was taken. holmes allegedly opened fire inside of a movie theater two weeks ago. twelve people were killed, more than 50 others injured. trace gallagher live in our west coast newsroom and the other piece of breaking news on james holmes today. trace? >> reporter: the program is called beta, and it stands for behavioral evaluation and threat assessment. it's made up of a group of on-campus experts, and the psychiatrist that he was seeing, lynn fenton, was among those. in fact, not only was she a member of that group, she actually wrote the policy for the group. in early june she reportedly informed other members about her concerns involving james holmes. but on june 10th holmes dropped out. the threat assessment team believed it had no control over holmes once he left the school, so it didn't pursue that, right? the chancellor has now issued a statement saying, and i'm quoting here: i believe until it's been demonstrated otherwise that our people did what they should have done. but now many critics are asking if that's true because if campus police were involved, which the school policy says they were involved or at least they were supposed to have been involved, why didn't they further check into james holmes' background? why didn't they notify other why didn't they notify other . the answer is they couldn't because campus police are not privy to whether or not he was buying up weapons and ammunition. only if he was looking for a concealed weapons permit would that information be available to the schools or the police departments, and we should note that on the day that he notified the school that he was leaving, a few hours later, megyn, he went out and he bought an assault weapon that afternoon to add to the cache of what he had already bought. megyn: so many questions after the fact. trace gallagher, thank you. the other piece of news that we wanted to tell you about is that we are now getting our hands on an eye-opening, new interview in connection with this case. now, the interview is by a radio station with an mtv celebrity who has, who's putting out a movie that's sort of a takeoff on the batman series. and this movie is going to be a bit more violent and a bit more sensational. anyway, he says that james holmes, the gunman in this movie massacre, was apparently a big fan of the trailer that he had released for his movie and contacted him twice weeks before the killing spree. >> he kept pressing if i could give him more information about the story, like, where does it go. you know, the part where he opens fire -- >> the batman type figure. >> yeah, the batman type figure, he wanted to know is it selective killing, does he make a list, or is there just a mass body count throughout the whole move be i have? megyn: we have much more of that interview to play, plus we will explore the new questions about who knew what ahead of holmes allegedly opening fire coming up. plus, the senate's top democrat is facing major backlash today after he doubled down on his earlier claim that someone told him that governor mitt romney had not paid taxes for ten years. is it time for mr. reid to reveal that someone's identity? and there were record-setting lines at chick-fil-a yesterday. folks supporting the embattled owner of the chain and his right to voice his personal views on the topic of gay marriage. we'll speak to one of the people who organized the effort as the debate over free speech rages on. >> what is dan kathy say anything his opposition to gay marriage? that it's different. that is incongruent with the president of the united states, barack obama, held six months ago on the same issue. he was opposed to gay marriage. does that mean if for the first three months of the obama presidency he was a bigot who was deserving of ostracism and social punishment? 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[ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. megyn: a fast food chain at the center of a national debate involving free speech is now confirming a day of record-breaking sales. customers turning out in droves yesterday for chick-fil-a appreciation day. lines stretched for blocks from houston to boston and other cities across this country. some locations reportedly closing early because they ran out of food, there was so many people. all of this after the chain's president was slammed by some for his support of traditional \. traditional marriage. some big city mayors saying chick-fil-as are unwelcome in their towns and each threatening to block the business' ability to do business in the town. now many say it was a stand for free speech. our next guest is a member of a state's coalition proo moting chick-fil-a appreciation day, a nationally syndicated radio and it's host. doctor, welcome back to the program. so what did you make of what we saw in this country yesterday? >> well, i was gratified by the great response, but i want to make sure people understand this was not about chicken sandwiches or gay marriage, it was about government's continuing assault on religious freedom. i mean, you have the mayor of chicago, rahm emanuel, other mayors, even your city council speaker there in new york who said they would use their position to block chick-fil-a's expansion because of the religious views of dan kathy. now, look, rahm emanuel and his buddy, barack obama, may want to turn america into a fascist nation, but they haven't done so yet. and until they do so, we're going to push back with frosty against these -- ferocity against these attempts to limit religious freedom in america. megyn: there's really no question under the law that the government cannot stop a business from opening in a town based on the views held by its owner. i mean, that is -- that's, we have a thing called the first amendment in this country. but it's a different story if people want to go out and say i don't want to give chick-fil-a my business because i support gay marriage, and the owner of chick-fil-a does not support gay marriage, and we have differences of opinion on that. do you have any problem with that, or do you think as mike huckabee suggested earlier on fox news that, too, raises certain problems in this country? >> well, mike's a good friend, and i respect him tremendously. personally, i celebrate the right of gays to go out tomorrow and have a kiss-in at chick-fil-a. i won't be there, but i respect their right to do that. but that's not what this is about. this is about government intrusion into religious beliefs. last night, megyn, on our local fox affiliate i debated the lesbian pastor of the largest gay church in america, and i said if government wanted to deny you a permit to build your church because you support same-sex marriage, i would stand right alongside you and support your right to be wrong. this is just part of the liberal playbook. they believe that free expression only applies to people who agree with them, and they are the first in line to suppress the religious speech of people they disagree with. megyn: and i want to clarify, what governor huckabee was saying, he said, look, the owners of ben and jerry's and starbucks and other organizations have perm views with which i disagree, but that doesn't mean i don't have their product, and we're on a slippery slope. it's not like chick-fil-a only serves, you know, straight men and women. it's just the personal views of the owner. but listen, i want to ask you this, pastor, because this country has a long history of discrimination against certain groups, and eventually we wind up getting it right, right? i mean, against women, against blacks, the civil rights movement and so on. and in justifying that discrimination when it was in place, some folks turned to the bible and turned to their religious beliefs and said we have to have slavery because it's in the bible. women have to be second class citizens because that's in the bible. blacks and whites can't get married because it's in the wile. that wound up in a case, a judge wrote that in an opinion that was struck down. why is gay marriage any different? >> well, first of all, i asked this gay pastor last night on television if you belief in the rights of gays to marry, do you also believe in the rights of polygamists to marry? that's not a far-fetched issue, megyn. as you know in 2003 when the supreme court stuck down our state's sodomy laws in the lawrence case, immediately a polygamist in utah filed suit against the federal government saying if you can't discriminate against homosexuals, we who are polygamists ought to also have the right to marry as well. look, i am not for discrimination against homosexuals or any american citizens. they have the full rights afforded by the constitution. but the right to marry has not yet been determined a constitutional right, and that has to have it say in the court. but until then we ought to have a free exchange of beliefs, and government should not try to express or, pardon me, suppress those beliefs with which it disagrees, and that's what this chick-fil-a controversy has been about. megyn: do you feel that there's been, you know, a failure to remember what charles krauthammer said in that sound bite we played going to the break which is the owner of chick-fil-a so posed to gay marriage, his christian beliefs don't support a belief in gay marriage. as charles pointed out, president obama had that same view up until about 30 days ago and made very clear that he believed based on his christian beliefs he couldn't support gac marriage. >> yes. and let's make it clear, the president has now gone back and forth three times on this. when he was a senator in illinois, he was for gay marriage. then when he ran for president, he found it convenient to be against gay marriage, and now that he's running for re-election, he found it convenient to be for gay marriage. let's give the president the benefit of the doubt, but those saying we are bigots because we adhere to the biblical definition of marriage, one man with one woman in a lifetime relationship called marriage. that is not being bigot od to espouse what jesus taught. megyn: let me ask you one other question before i let you go. the u.s. supreme court has not yet ruled gay marriage is a constitutional right. if it does, if it does, then do you get behind snit do you let that -- it? do you let that ruling trump your religious beliefs? >> no ruling by a secular court is going to trump my spiritual beliefs as a christian. but i predict that the supreme court is going to strike down all laws banning same-sex marriages in states. i believe that's the trend we're headed on. but whatever a secular court does not change the eternal truths of of god's word. megyn: dr. jeffers, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. megyn: now try and wrap your head around this one. solo, synchronized swimming. don't you need someone to synchronize with? [laughter] wait until you see our report on olympic sports from years gone by. serious accusations from the senate's most powerful democrat. the majority leader, harry reid, not backing down, taking to the senate floor to repeat his suggestion that governor mitt romney had not paid taxes to a decade prior to running for office. but when it comes to proof, the senator does not think that's his problem. we'll debate it. 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[ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. ♪ [muc plays] ♪ [music plays] to experience the largest, most efficient line of luxury hybrids on the road, including the all-new esh. ♪ while many automakers are just beginning to dabble with the idea of hybrid technology... ♪ ...it's already ingrained in our dna. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. megyn: fox news alert, kofi annan said thursday that he will quit his high profile role as special envoy to syria at the end of this month, delivering blistering criticism of world powers' failure to unite to stop that country's escalating violence. annan says finger pointing and name calling within the u.n. security coup sill is part of the -- council is part of the reason he will leave at the end of august. the white house blamed china and russia for blocking efforts to reach a u.n. peace deal. we will have much more with ralph peters and ollie north in our next hour. there are reports today that president bashar assad of syria is hiding and in fear for his life. he sent a message urging his military to step up fighting, but it does not provide a clue as to where he can be found, leaving one to wonder what role he's play anything the violence playing out on the streets of syria. dominic di-natale has more from jerusalem. >> reporter: hey there, meg. president bashar assad not appear anything public for two weeks certainly raises a lot of questions, especially as his presidential palace saw fighting very close to it in the past 24 hours. it was believed that his family at one point might have actually already fled to russia, his wife and the three children there, and there was speculation even that he, too, could have been considering it. but he did appear on tv just as those rumors were coming out two weeks ago. the rebels now claim -- sorry, the regime reckons it's gained control again of damascus. you'd think he'd want to make himself seen, so speculation now mounting, meg, on where exactly he could be and when next he will appear. and it comes on a day that aleppo rebels are gaining heavy weaponry to fight against the helicopter gunships that have been pounding it. the united nations very concerned about the amount of weaponry the rebels now have because today reckon the kind and scale of fighting we've seen so far could escalate really out of control and cause even higher casualties than we've seen so far. the u.n. saying today that it estimates that over the weekend we'll see the number of dead surpass the 20,000 mark, meg. back to you. megyn: wow. dominic, thank you. well, an l.a. radio station is now allowing us to play for you the details of a bizarre phone call made by suspected colorado shooter james holmes before the shootings. he reached out to an mtv host and film maker with a call that may have revealed his interest in the villains that alleged by inspired his massacre plans. listen. >> guy was like really, really immersed in this character. like, not just the character of "batman," but the villains too. he talked about the joker -- >> did the kid that you talked to on the phone strike you as being lonely, depressed? >> definitely. megyn: we'll take you in depth on what we have learned today in addition to the facts about how now we know his psychiatrist tried to warn officials at the university of colorado about this man weeks before the shooting, and nothing was done. and a business owner grabbing national attention for his response to the president's you didn't build ha -- that comment. the sign that has gone viral. we'll hear from him just ahead. >> i thought, you know, i'm going to do some type of a banner that will get their attention, and that's basically what i come up, you know? i mean, i just figured, you know, i built my business without government help, and, um, they can kiss my, you know, my derriere. a party? 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