About whether the g. O. P. Can maintain its majority in the house. It has ryans colleagues jockeying for position in the race to replace him. We have Fox Team Coverage from capitol hill. Peter doocy looks at what ryans retirement may mean for the midterms among a roster of republican incumbents deciding not to run again. We start off with chief Congressional Correspondent mike emanuel on announcement most people did not see coming, at least not today. Good evening to you. The demands of being House Speaker huge in terms of fundraising, travel, overall stress. Paul ryan says hes had enough. Much work remains. I like to think i have done my part, my little part in history to set us on a better course. A source says ryan made the final decision with his wife over easter recess and that as recently as february ryan considered running for another term. Speaker told his staff early this morning and received a standing ovation from his team. Ryan told his republican colleagues and reporters, family was a key consideration. What i realizes if im here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad. I just cant let that happen. Ryan also spoke by phone this morning with his house g. O. P. Leadership team, Vice President pence, and President Trump. The president saluted ryans service on twitter, calling him a truly good man who will leave an unquestionable legacy of achievement. Among the challenges for ryan, a vocal block of house conservatives who challenged his leadership. In negotiating partner in the president who at times could be unpredictable. The president threatened to veto a 1. 320 pending baggage that he once embraced. Another frustration was campaigning for years on repealing and replacing obamacare and the senate coming up short. The Senate Majority leader noted that ryan didnt aspire to be speaker. Like a true leader, paul stepped up to the plate. He answered his colleagues call with the earnest, selfless, and focused approached that has defined his entire career in congress. Top democrats sang his praises too. Speaker ryan is a good man. Hes always true to his word, even though we disagreed on most issues, in the areas where we could work together, i found him to be smart, thoughtful, and straightforward. I found him to have a great deal of integrity. Major highlight for the policy walk was the first tax reform in more than 30 years, and his colleagues say there is still time. I think paul is when to be anything but lame duck. I think we are going to be able to get more things done while hes here. In terms of whats next for the 48yearold ryan, sources close to him saying hes not going to have conversations with anyone about that until january. Bret mike emanuel, thanks. Speaker ryan is known as a prolific fundraiser and cheerleader obviously for his republican colleagues. So what will his lame duck status mean for the party entering what many believe will be a very close midterm election. Correspondent peter doocy has that part of the story tonight. In the early stages of the midterm cycle, speaker ryan has been crisscrossing the country. The speaker of the house, Speaker Paul Ryan. Raising money, convincing donors to write more than 40 million with objects, helping House Republicans maintain the majority. Why retire . I really dont think a persons race for congress is going to hinge on whether paul ryan is or not. I dont get up exit. National Republican Congressional Committee is assessing how ryans departure affects its bottom line. I believe his donor base is connected to him and will stick with him even when hes not running for speaker. But we will see what happens there. In really tight races, incumbents think voters will care more about local issues that an outgoing speaker. Im not sure it has that in much impact. My race is so unique. Ryan is 26, 1 of 26 26 politicians retiring. The Democratic CongressionalCampaign Committee which has been predicting ryan would retire with think he is getting out because he sees what is coming in november. Paul ryan is bailing. Unfortunately for House Republicans who they are stuck with this agenda. The agenda may determine which republicans begged to succeed ryan. One possibility, majority whip Steve Scalise. I think whats most important is that we stay focused on working with President Trump to get the economy back on track and we are doing that. Another possibility is majority leader Kevin Mccarthy. Weve got a lot of work to do and focus on keeping the majority. Thats why republicans dont see a speakers race impacting novembers contest with one exception. The one place might have some impact is if people are speculating that nancy pelosi might be speaker. Might motivate the base. Democrats insist they have got the motivated base and that of ryan thought republicans would still be in the majority this time next year, he wouldnt be leaving. But republicans believe the retirement is a oneday story. Bret. Bret we will see. Peter come alive on the hill. Thanks. More on this with the panel. Almost four dozen republicans resigning tiring from the house. Three republican senators. What do you think of ryans decision . What do you think it will mean potentially for the midterms if anything . Let me know on twitter bretbaier. Use the hashtag specialreport or on facebook at facebook. Com bretbaiersr. Now to other stories. The situation between the u. S. , syria, and russia could hardly be more tense. President trump threatening or promising to launch air strikes against syria over alleged Chemical Attacks on civilians there. Russia, serious major ally, says such an attack would be an act f war, inviting a military response. Chief White House Correspondent john roberts tells us what he is hearing from the administration tonight. Good evening. At this point in time, military strike against syria certainly looks like likely in all sides are rattling sabers in ways we havent seen before. A couple Big Questions remain. Was it actually a chemical attack and is there a way to avoid air strikes . In military strike against syria is on a hot boil at the warehouse but the press secretary Sarah Sanders thing today it may not be inevitable. Speak out that is certainly one option but it doesnt mean its the only option. In a tweet, President Trump suggested a missile strike was imminent, taunting russia. The president tweeting russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart you shouldnt be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it the tweet brought howls of hypocrisy. Isnt this the same president who trashed president obama for telegraphing his military intentions . He certainly hasnt laid out the timetable, which would be broadcasting his intentions. Other critics took aim at the president for not having a Cohesive Strategy on syria. Announcing he wants american troops out, and now threatening a military strike. I think the president does not have a serious strategy, and i think one off attacks or tweets or missile strikes are not the same as a strategy. The president S National SecurityTeam Including defense secretary james mattis huddled with the Vice President at the white house today to go over options. Secretary mattis saying that the u. S. Is still awaiting confirmation chemical weapons were used. We are assessing the intelligence ourselves. We are working on it. Is the u. S. Military ready to counter assad . We stand ready to provide military options if they are appropriate. As the president determined. Russia continues to deny chemical weapons were used. As senior military officials think that the attack was staged by rebel emergence responders. Based on visiting the institutions in the footage. Questioning of medical personnel and patients, we found no evidence of poisoning substances or victims among residents of the town. In a series of tweets, President Trump today said our relationship with russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the cold war. He blamed the deterioration on the Mueller Investigation. Much of the bad blood with russia is caused by the fake and corrupt russia investigation. Part of what the fbi was looking for was documents related to the access hollywood tape. Appears to be an attempt to leak the tape. Was cohen trying to abide more publicity . Did the payment constitute an illegal political contribution . President trump incensed that the Mueller Investigation may have strayed outside bounds of its initial mandate. The president has deep concern about the direction of the special counsel. Is President Trump considering firing mueller . He has gone from flat denials to a far more ambiguous posture. Certainly the president s allies are against it. It would be a grave mistake by the president to fire robert mueller. I have no belief you will. The cohen raid may be an attempt to put pressure on cohen to cooperate with prayer prosecutors. Threaten him with prosecution cohen has a treasure trove of knowledge about President Trump. Flipping the president s personal attorney would mark a dramatic escalation in the momentum of the investigation. Bret john roberts, thank you. Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has just seen a copy of the fbi memo that began the bureaus probe into allegations of collusion between the trump president ial campaign and russia. Chairman devin nunes had said today as the deadline for the fbi to show on that document. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge is here. Good evening. Good evening. After threatening contempt of congress, government source confirms that the republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee devin nunes along with congressman trey gowdy as well as Committee Staffers went to the Justice Department late today and met with Rod Rosenstein and viewed a copy of the fbi memo that kick started the russia probe. Not a clean copy as lawmakers demanded, the government source at the redactions were minimal. Based on foxs reporting, the memo from july 2016 was drafted by or with major input from peter strzok who was removed from the special counsel russia case after the discovery of antitrump text messages. Last night, devin nunes said action was warranted after months of delay. They are not giving this to us. It tells me theres something wrong. What are the chances are youre going to hold them in contempt of congress . We are not going to just hold them in contempt. We will have a plan to hold them in contempt and impeach. To impeach Christopher Wray . Absolutely. We are not messing around. Despite the resolution, fox news was told congressional investigators are concerned about the underlying intelligence and the credibility of the sources and that it will require further investigation. We asked the fbi for comment and we are waiting to hear back. We heard back from the department of justice and said they were remaining redactions are tailored to protect the name of a foreign country as well as the names of a foreign agent. Bret thank you. We will monitor it. Breaking news. The president s pick to become the countrys top diplomat says the state department will find its swagger once again. Current cia director mike pompeo will make that promise and many others during his confirmation hearing tomorrow on capitol hill to become the next secretary of state. Rich edson has an exclusive preview from the state department. Good evening. Good evening. Fox news has obtained excerpts from director mike pompeos opening remarks. There is an assumption in washington that pompeos selection means the end of the iran nuclear agreement. Pompeo says he is still willing to work with european allies to change the policy and keep the u. S. In the deal. He will say if confirmed, it will be an immediate personal priority to work with those partners to see if such a fix is achievable. The stakes are high for everyone, but especially tehran. On the putin regime, he will say russia continues to act aggressively, enabled by years of soft policy towards that aggression. That is now over. Our diplomatic efforts with russia will prove challenging but as in previous confrontations with moscow, must continue. Source close to pompeo notes that as cia director he is in the middle of preparations for President Trumps expected meeting with kim jong un. Pompeo will say i have read these cia histories of previous negotiations with the north koreans and am confident that we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. President trump isnt one to play games at the negotiating table and i wont be there. If charges he would be a war hawk as secretary, pompeo will say there are few who dread war more than those of us who have served in uniform. I would prefer achieving the president s Foreign Policy goals with unrelenting diplomacy rather than by sending young men and women to work. A source says its not his intent to criticize secretary tillerson, though tillerson left with a morale problem of the state apartment. The source says that pompeo wants to address needs, staffing, and working with senators and both parties. The source says he has spent hundreds of hours here preparing for this hearing and for the eventual transition. If he is confirmed and he has spoken to living secretaries of state, including Rex Tillerson and hillary clinton. Bret. Bret rich edson of the statement. Thank you. Opposition to californias status as a saint restate is growing. The list of communities within that state going up against the law continues to expand. Senior correspondent adam housley shows up tonight from los angeles. God bless donald trump. Slivers of red and one of the countrys blue states. As to more cities, Newport Beach and orange, to join President Trump in opposition to californias socalled thanks for a state law sb 54. I want to see the border secure. I want to see a wall. I want to see all illegal aliens systematically and aggressively removed from our country. I encourage the council not to pass this resolution. I dont think its necessary to take this stance at this point. The sixth most populous county in the United States in one of the last bastions of conservativism in the golden state, Orange Company has sided with President Trump. The county and nine cities openly opposed sb 54. Californias law that limits state local Police Cooperation with federal immigration authorities. While the Sheriffs Office had decided to opt out of following the law altogether. The public battle is as heated as the legal one with a civic debate extended for hours. I am very offended because i work very hard to be an american. And here we are protecting illegal criminals. Of contention is we want to protect the immigrants that are right now afraid to report crime, to go to school. Our community, our neighbors, they are afraid to walk the streets of orange. In california the Trump Administration arguing that the executive order threatening to cut funding from cities and states who wont cooperate with immigration authorities is legal. Its an appeal of a previous ruling that blocked the order nationwide. Heard by a threejudge panel on the ninth circuit. Bret adam housley in los angeles. Thank you. Several people in the Counterterrorism Community are calling facebook seo Mark Zuckerberg a liar. We will tell you why when we come back. Do ndo not misjudgenity quiet tranquility. With the power of 335 turbocharged horses lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350 and a quiet interior from which to admire them. The Lincoln Spring sales event is here. For a limited time get zero percent apr on the lincoln mkx. Hurry in today to your lincoln dealer. Ethats the height ofs mount everest. Because each day she chooses to take the stairs. At work, at home. Even on the escalator. That can be hard on her lower body, so now she does it with dr. Scholls orthotics. Clinically proven to relieve and prevent foot, knee or lower back pain, by reducing the shock and stress that travel up her body with every step she takes. So keep on climbing, sarah. Youre killing it. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Were all under one roof now. Congratulations. Thank you. How many kids . My two. His three. Along with two dogs and jake, our new parrot. That is quite the family. Quite a lot of colleges to pay for though. A lot of colleges. You get any Financial Advice . Yeah, but im pretty sure its the same plan they sold me before. Well your situations totally changed now. Right, right. How bout a plan that works for 5 kids, 2 dogs and jake over here . That would be great. That would be great. That okay with you, jake . Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change from Td Ameritrade investment management. Bret President Trump making progress on china over its trade policies. That was part of a twitter posting from the president this morning. So much fake news about what is going on in the white house. Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair trade with china, the coming north korea meeting and, of course, the vicious gas attack in syria. Feels great to have bolton and larry k on board. I, we, are doing things that nobody thought possible, despite the never ending and corrupt russia investigation, which takes tremendous time and focus. No collusion or obstruction other than i fight back, so now they do the unthinkable, and raid a Lawyers Office for information bad stocks were down today. Dow lost 219. S p 500 fell 15. Nasdaq dropped 25. Facebook seo Mark Zuckerberg says there will be some regulation of internet firms. Zuckerberg made that prediction during testimony today before house lawmakers. His second straight day of answering questions from congress. The internet is growing in importance around the world. In peoples lives, and i think its inevitable that there will need to be some regulation. My position is not that there should be no regulation but i also think you have to be careful about what regulation you put in place. Bret some on the Counterterrorism Committee calling zuckerberg a liar tonight. They say his statements about cleaning up extremism from the social media site are just not true. Correspondent Gillian Turner looks at the allegations tonight. 99 of the isis and al qaeda content we take down on facebook, rei system flags before any human sees it. Mark zuckerberg may have said the right things in his testimony about facebooks push to eradicate terrorist content from its platform but the Counterterrorism Community says its not true. Facebook is failing when it comes to preventing terrorism. We are not saying that translate into the reduction of terrorist content. We are not seeing isis bomb making videos permanently removed. Congress is piling on. One line moniker citing two instances for the past ten days. Ice content discovered on facebook which included an execution video march 29. On april 9, there were five pages located of hezbollah content. Big part of the problem is that facebook officials are still relying on its users to report terrorist activity and content when they should be policing the platform themselves. On the scale they have now, they cant just sit back and let users report problematic content. If youre using that as a standard, youre never going to make a small blip on the radar screen in terms of whats happening. Other experts caution facebook may never get the problem under control. Youre talking about massive amount of data. More than the Intel Community deals with on a daytoday basis. Its a Herculean Task to think they are going to be able to call through the information and find the bad guys. Other than the ones who are really, really obvious. Zuckerberg told lawmakers today a new beefed up Counterterrorism Team of 200 people inside facebook is the answer. But the real holy grail for facebook and other social Media Companies when it comes to controlling access to their platforms is more advanced artificial intelligence. Something zuckerberg says is currently in developing. Bret. Bret gillian, thank you. California governor jerry brown has agreed to deploy 400 National Guard troops at President Trumps request but not all will head to the u. S. Mexico border, as the president wants. None will enforce federal immigration law, according to the governor. Brown says the mission will not include building a wall around or rounding up illegal immigrants. Resident trump wants 4,000 National Guard troops sent to the border to combat illegal immigration and Drug Trafficking and has already won commitments without this claim is for about 1600 from republican governors of other states. Arizona, new mexico, and texas. Congressional republicans have buyers remorse over tax cuts in spending. First heres what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. In louisville, kentuckys democratic attorney general and unions representing teachers and Police Officers sue to block a bill that would make changes to one of the countries worst funded public pension systems. Republican governor matt matt n signed the bill yesterday. Part of ongoing demonstrations across the country. Fox 32 in chicago. An aviation secured officer fired after forcibly dragging a passenger from a plane last year files a lawsuit against United Airlines and the city of chicago. James long was one of the officers called to a plane after a man refused to give up his seat. Video taken by other passenger shows long dragging the passenger from the plane. Long was fired in august. This is a live look in Salt Lake City from our affiliate fox 13. One of big stories there tonight, mitt romney has gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in the u. S. Senate race, but which ballot remains to be seen. Depending on what happens at next weeks utah republican convention. He will either that is tonights live look outside the beltway from special report. We will be right back. You ok there, kurt . Were about to move. Karate helps. Relieve some of the housebuying. Stress. At least you dont have to worry about homeowners insurance. Call geico. Geico. Helps with. Homeowners insurance . Been doing it for years. Im calling geico right now. Good idea get to know geico. And see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. With advil liquigels, what bad shoulder . What headache . Advil is relief thats fast strength that lasts youll ask. What pain . With advil liquigels we know that when youre spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why we show you exactly when well be there. Saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace experience a blend of. And raw power,nship. Engineered to take the crown. Presenting the allnew lexus ls 500 and ls 500h. Experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. Bret tonight Congressional Republicans are trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube essentially after going along with the president s tax cuts and a huge spending bill, many are now looking for a way to turn back the clock and reduce what could be historic deficit numbers. Correspondent Doug Mckelway tells us what they are up against. This congress and this administration likely will go down as one of the most fiscally irresponsible administrations and congress as we have heard speak without confession after the Congressional Budget Office chief said the bill will cost deficits to grow by 4 trillion over the next ten years. Corker is not the only one flummoxed by the 12 punch of the forecast. The president s new economic chief is sending congress a package to return back to what it budgeted last month. We are looking at it enhanced rescission package. I think the Republican Party on the hill has finally figured out. House conservatives fresh from an easter scolding by constituents for what they consider to be reckless spending will vote tomorrow on a balanced budget amendment. A twothirds majority is required and democrats wont bite. They go for it and call the socalled balanced budget amendment, its not balanced. It shouldnt be an amendment. Stick of the cbo acknowledged tax cuts help stimulate the economy. Treasury secretary believes there is more to come. We are just beginning to see the important economic aspects. Neither party appears capable taking response building for that outpace revenues. The single biggest cause of it, the aging of america and resulted entitlements. Medicaid, medicare, social security. I have never said gotham. If i misquoted you, i am sorry. Some of your colleagues especially the house have talked about cuts. Speaker paul ryan is one who has attempted to reform entitlements and he is leaving soon. The new deficit threat may emerge, a long feared rising interest rates. In interest payments, its going to triple over the next ten years. Bigger than all of defense spending. Speed of the good news is while critics scoffed when the Trump Administration claim to could achieve 3 growth in the economy, in fact it did so for three quarters in a row. Bret. Bret doug, thank you. Former House Speaker john boehner says he has had a change of heart on marijuana and will now promote its nationwide legalization. John boehner has joined the Advisory Board of acreage holdings, a multistate cannabis company. He says he believes legalizing marijuana can be helpful to the nations veterans. He wants to allow the Veterans Affairs department to offer marijuana as a treatment option. A strange situation tonight in the colorado governor s race. Questions about the validity of voters signatures. Correspondent alecia cunha has detail from denver. The announcement that california governor s race like a political earthquake. I cannot be put on the ballot in this manner and i will not. The g. O. P. A front runner says the petition to place him on the june primary ballot is fraudulent and the firm paid 200,000 to gather signatures is responsible. Petition circulators must be legal state residents. The lawsuit questions signatures gathered. The firm hired by the stapleton Campaign Said there was no such person. The existence of this person changes everything. Because it means mr. Kennedy comported himself in an unethical manner. In so doing, it put in jeopardy colorados process and integrity of how we run elections. Ceo dan kennedy says he investigated claims and alerted the campaign, insisting he did not live to his client or the state, adding the esther my knowledge, the signatures collected on the stapleton campaign were all collected lawfully. I am walker stapleton. Stapleton, estate treasure, leads the g. O. P. In fundraising and polling. Fellow republican candidate Doug Robinsons campaign which brought the case to light said it is strange credulity to believe no one on walkers team was aware of the abuses. Stapleton says he is staying in the race and will court delegates this weekend at the colorado g. O. P. Assembly. If you want alecia, thank you. Up next, the panel on House Speaker paul ryans decision to retire after his current term and what it may mean for republicans in the fall. First, beyond our borders tonight. An algerian military claim soldiers families and refugees crashed after takeoff. In a field. 250 heaven people were killed in what appears to be the north african nations worst ever aviation disaster. Four men were killed in kashmir when Government Forces fired on protesters. One soldier was killed. Separatists have called for a shutdown of the region on thursday and friday to denounce those killings. A court in burma is refusing to dismiss a case against two reuters journalists accused of illegal or acquiring secret government papers. Last week the reporters lawyers insisted the evidence does not support the charges. U. S. , britain, and canada and the United Nations have called for those reporters to be freed. Some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. Will be right back. You might take something for your heart. Or joints. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. I am announcing this year will be my last one is a member of the house. To be clear, im not resigning. I intend to fulfill my term as i was elected to do but i will be retiring in january. You all know i do not seek this job. I took it reluctantly. But i have given this job everything that i have. Then i have no regrets whatsoever for having accepted this responsibility. The truth is, its easy for you to take over everything in your life. I just dont want to be one of those people looking back thinking i spent more time with my kids when i know that if i spend another term, they will only know me as a weekend father. Bret Speaker Paul Ryan saying he will not seek reelection. The president tweeting Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking reelection, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you paul the president is actually with paul ryan currently. Having dinner at the white house along with Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell, Kevin Mccarthy, and senator john cornyn. As far as possible replacements when the speaker does step down, youve got Kevin Mccarthy and Steve Scalise who are kind of jockeying out for position. Possibly to be the next speaker or, if republicans lose, the next minority leader. Lets bring in the panel. Byron york, washington examiner. A. B. Stoddard, real clear politics. Eli lake, columnist from bloomberg view. A. B. , he a lot of people were surprised by the announcement but maybe not surprised he was going to make this move. I think a lot of republicans, we didnt expect him to be speaker again. I think a lot of republicans assumed paul ryan was going to run for his seat, wake up after election day, count the losses and quit. That would be the cheap thing to do and its not like paul ryan and he couldnt stomach doing that. His district comes first. The kid thing is real. Wanting to be with his children who have never known him living at home fulltime israel. But its real. His fealty to what was the Republican Party cannot be overstated. He wants to put everything into an effort to mitigate the losse losses. He will not be untethered and he will not be liberated. He will not be criticizing the president. He will do everything he can until the last hour to make sure they hold the house and keep the losses to a minimum. Bret byron, its seeming like its more of an uphill battle to do that, hold on to the house. You have 26 retirements, 13 running for other office, three seats are vacant. Now you are at 41 republicans, including now the speaker not running for reelection. And the democrats need to pick up 25. Its getting tougher. This is not the sign of a party thats working well or working smoothly. Even if you put the president s troubles aside in his relatively low approval rating, just the historical trends are terrible. Bill clinton lost 54 seats in his first midterm. Barack obama lost 63 seats in his first midterm. It didnt happen under george w. Bush because of september 11th. This is not looking good for republicans now. The other thing is in the course of less than three years, two republican speakers of the house of bales. Pay up and quit. John boehner dated in late 2015. Thats how we got paul ryan. I think that speaks to the fact that its very difficult to control the factionridden house of representatives g. O. P. Caucus. Youve got the freedom caucus. Youve got the tuesday group. Youve got a bunch people. You dont have a huge majority, and its tough to get to get 218 votes. Bret eli. You look at the election of trump and to this date, you are saying thats the ark of the transformation of the Republican Party. Paul ryan is an emblem of a Republican Party that was against deficits, was for lower taxes, was certainly, theres always a popular appeal but its not the same kind of populist as trump. Now the g. O. P. Is really trumps party. Thats a significant thing when we take a step back. Bret lets listen to the speaker and the majority and minority leader on upcoming months what could come. I want to be clear. Im not done yet. I intend to finish the year. If he is willing to reach across the aisle, he will find democrats willing and eager to work with him. I say to speaker ryan, lets work together. I look forward to collaborating closely to implement more of the inclusive progrowth, proopportunity agenda the American People are counting on us to keep advancing. Bret they put it in speeches. Lets be real. Whats going to happen between now and november legislatively on capitol hill . Nothing. They know that. I want to return to my first point. Hes not going to do anything in his final months that would potentially everything we see. Liberated to distance himself from trump . I dont think so. Hes going to do everything he can to try to help the republicans hold on to the house. As for some bipartisan immigration legislation that he once would have champions, i also think thats going to be seen through the prism of what will depress republican turnout in the midterms. They are talking about a rescission package. Give me a break. To take back the spending that was just the democratic spending in the last omnibus that trump threatened to veto in the last hour. I dont see that happening either. Bret quinnipiac had a poll out today that may be tells a different story than what we are seeing with these republican retirements. That is who deserves credit for the state of the economy which by all accounts is doing pretty well. President trump gets 55 of women. 49 , 46 of democrats. The president gets the credit for the state of the economy. If by the time you get to november, byron, the state of the economy is still cooking, could this potential wave of democratic wins in the house may be not materialized as many people think . The only reason to be really cautious and modest about talking about this blue wave thats maybe coming in november is what happened in 2016. The fact that donald trump won the white house on a day in which his personal disapproval rating was 60 . If, in fact, things dont operate the way they used to do, perhaps its a real possibility. The numbers i was talking about, have the historical numbers, the losses of president s in their first midterm, they are real. Barring some big event we dont know about yet, it seems hard to imagine that they wouldnt happen again. Bret last word on the jockeying for position. Is it Kevin Mccarthys to kind of position or is scalise in the game . It depends on the perception at this point about how bad they losses going to be in the midterms. I think Kevin Mccarthy had a chance to run, and he declined the first time around which paved the way for ryan. I would imagine at this point even though he has the inside track, scalise probably has the wind at his back so to speak. They dont know what this leadership ejection is going to look like until they wake up the day after the election and people start doing a blame game. Blame trump, blame the tariffs, blame this or that. They have no idea. Are they going to run the race privately in the months to come . Its going to be a different race in november. Bret there is a long way to go before november. Next up, harsh words and threats between the u. S. , russia, and syria. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. But their nutritional needs remain instinctual. Thats why theres purina one true instinct. Real meat 1. A different breed of natural nutrition. Purina one true instinct. Now, try new purina one true instinct treats. Certainly there are things being assessed. It cant get into the details but we are confident that part of the process we are into field comfortable making the assertions we have. We are still assessing the intelligence ourselves and our allies. Still working on it. We stand ready to provide military options if they are appropriate, as the president determines. Bret the going vent here in washington is that there will be some kind of action, u. S. Military action. How extensive are what happens or what it looks like are all variables. Tweets today caught everybodys eyes. Raised some eyebrows at the pentagon, i think. Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart you shouldnt be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it our relationship with russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the cold war. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race . We will start there with the panel. Eli, that was an eyeopener when those tweets came out. Its a little weird because there isnt much of an arms race with russia. Its a different kind of problem. The rush russians are an outlin every word. My concern is that we are focusing on those straight, the response, the real question that trump has not answered at this point and it sort of hanging out there is that, will the United States protect the people that it liberated from isis in Eastern SyriaGoing Forward . Or we let bret no fly zone or some kind of protection. These were, in a lot of cases, mainly kurds who have fought them over there. We dont have to fight them over here. In that respect, i think my view is we would be incredibly foolish to just leave them to their mercies of iran, russia, and Bashar Alassad. But thats the big question. The air strike is important but thats much more important. Bret Russian ForeignMinistry Spokesman responded saying smart missiles must fly towards terrorist, not a legitimate government thats been fighting International Terrorism for several years. Putins spokesperson responded saying we are not participating in twitter diplomacy. Are supporting series approaches. We fervently leave its important to abstain from taking steps which may be detrimental to the already fragile situation in syria. Others threatened that there would be military retaliation. As usual, this has happened before, there is a pronouncement from trump in the form today of a schoolyard taunt. And threats, that does not represent an actual decision on policy. Everyone in the administration of the highest levels are scrambling to assemble an actual policy. There isnt enough it gives them time. It will be a targeted strike, they assume. They know there is no regime change in the works. U. S. Policy towards syria is basically tolerance. Its reckless. I dont think the president appreciates how complicated and gravely complicated this isnt how quickly these situations can escalate. If he did, he wouldnt have sent those tweets. Bret White House Briefing today peppered with questions about the tweets. The president was direct and talking about missiles, get ready, russia because they will be coming. Nice and new and smart. Why is the president telegraphing his military intention on twitter, announcing effectively an attack on twitter . Stick with the president has not laid out a timetable still living a number of options on the table. We are still considering a number of those in a final decision hasnt been made. There have been a lot of questions about how does this tweet reconcile with the things trump said in the campaign about not revealing u. S. Intentions. I think the answer is it doesnt. He said one thing and now hes doing a different thing. I think its really important in this case if there is to be an attack, that the u. S. Government explain what we know about this chemical attack in syria. Bret in other words, short talk about the intelligence. Make the case. Last time in april, i believe, april of 2017, the chemical weapons attack was on april 4. U. S. Missiles go april 7. We waited longer than that but we waited longer. Seems to be before we do something, it would be a good idea for the white house, confident of its case, but make the case before they do it. Bret i think the state department is trying to or starting to. Heather nauert tweeting the assad regime history of chemical weapons use is not in dispute. Reports from contacts in the ground are credible and will be investigated by the independent factfinding mission. This was a barbaric attack. I think thats part of that effort to lay out the argument. One party in the conflict has chemical weapons and it hasnt been proven despite a lot of things on the internet that the rebels have access to these chemical weapons. Once we start assuming that, we know there was a chemical gas attack. We dont know for sure, we would like to see the evidence it was from assad but its much harder to believe using the razor of all gum that it was the rebels themselves in their final readout. As a. B. Pointed out, the policy of regime change. I think the signal was that trumps that we are leaving in the message to the Syrian People is i can do whatever i want. Thats looking at that, we should have weighed the evidence. Bret doesnt happen over the next couple days . I think it will. I do too. Bret we have you covered on fox news channel. With complete coverage from the middle east and obviously here in washington. All aspects of this. Its been a busy couple days. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. Thats it for this special report. Fair, balanced, and unafraid. The story, hosted by Martha Maccallum will start after a short break. She will be in this very set. We are going to get out of the way. Here comes martha. And its also a story about people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you so allstate is giving us money back on our bill. Well, that seems fair. We didnt use it. Wish we got money back on gym memberships. Get money back hilarious. With claimfree rewards. Switching to allstate is worth it. Directv now gives you more for your thing. Your letting go thing. Your sorry not sorry thing. Your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. Get the live tv you love. No bulky hardware. No satellite. No annual contract. Try directv now for 10 mo for 3 months. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit directvnow dot com martha live in washington, d. C. , where there is breaking news out of the white house tonight. The president warning Bashar Alassad and russia in no Uncertain Terms that missiles will be coming as russia takes him at his word and reportedly moves some of their ships out of the region. Also tonight, paul ryans next move and in california, governor jerry brown has now agreed to send National Guard troops to the border. More on all of that in a moment, but first the latest from the white house is that there is no decision yet on when, but the president tweets got russias attention quickly. We are