congress finally receives a classified briefing on the matter today. the senate being updated at this hour after the house was briefed earlier today. sandra: all of this as senior u.s. military and national security officials warn and have confirmed that spy balloon shot down off south carolina s coast on saturday was part of a major surveillance program run by china s military. so, what else are lawmakers learning in these briefings? we ll ask tennessee senator marsha blackburn and california democratic congressman ro khanna coming up. john: begin with lawmakers sparring over the politization of the federal government and whether the justice department has been weaponized against republicans. hello, i m john roberts in washington. let me be the first to say it, sandra, happy friday eve. sandra: and we made it to thursday. good to be with you, john. i m sandra smith in new york. america reports. republican-led committee says many questions need to be answered by the f
hearings on capitol hill where lawmakers are probing whether or not the fbi and doj have politicized justice to attack american civil liberties. this is falling under that brand-new subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, ohio republican jim jordan. welcome back as america reports rolls into hour two. i m sandra smith in new york. john: sandra, good to be with you. as we watch our colleague, jonathan turley on the stand. two of the witnesses are senators leading investigations into the biden family business dealings. david spunt has been watching the opening statements. he is live ste justice department now. david, what are you seeing? senator ron johnson has paid close attention not only to the department of justice but the fbi. he noted in his testimony, john and sandra, he wrote more than 50 letters to the fbi and doj and said few of them were answered adequately, many were not even responded to. this is a hearing as you mentioned for a new subco
censor and suppress a new york post story that happened right before the election. it has been authenticated by every outlet on planet earth. dana: james comer says this is just the beginning of holding the white house accountable. go back to the two years of the biden administration. 0 cabinet secretaries or undersecretaries in front of the house oversight committee. not a single one. that s unacceptable. what business is hunter biden in? influence peddling and i have a problem with that. dana: david spunt is at the justice department as things kick off this morning. safe to say some folks at d.o.j. and the f.b.i. across the street will be paying attention to what happens in these hearings. the reason that these three former twitter executives are appearing in the first place is because of the old-fashioned subpoena. who will appear today will be gaty, the former chief legal officer and deputy general counsel james baker and yoel roll f. it will look into suppressi
in a letter to merrick garland, demanding the launch of a hate crime investigation. federal law is clear, acts of violence against individuals based on religious affiliation are hate crimes. the shooter was a former student of covenant and chose to terrorize this school because of their christian faith. it is appalling you have not opened a hate crime investigation. the shooting occurred at this hour on monday, it is now thursday. we have seen the department of justice take action much quicker with previous shootings. the horrific shooting at pulse nightclub was investigated as a hate crime less than 72 hours. massacre at tree of god synagogue within 24 hours. and the same day. when attorney general merrick garland was asked whether he planned to investigating the national security christian school shooting as a hate crime, here is the answer. as of now a motive has not been identified and the police chief says they have not reached conclusion with respect to motive. we a
mexican cartels are responsible for the surge of deadly fentanyl. the opioid is killing americans by the tens of thousands and it is getting worse by the year. bill: as you can see on the map the gangs have a tight grip on the entire country and the mexican government is unable or unwilling to fight back. dana: a growing number of lawmakers wanting the cartels marked as terrorists opening to military strikes in mexico. here is one of them. senator joe manchin. this is a war. it has become a war. look at the people we lost. we haven t lost this many people in our wars. bill: we action from the former a.g. first news and reporting from the hill with aishah hosni there today. good morning. good morning to you both in new york. look, in just about an hour, members of the house intelligence committee will get to sit down and grill the nation s top intelligence chiefs and they will get to ask them directly about what they are doing with the cartels at the u.s./mexico bord