i m bret baier. we are just a weekend away from the first voting in the 2024 presidential election cycle. we will check in on iowa ahead of monday s caucuses. and we ll speak with iowa senator joni ernst. plus, how iran s so-called ghost armada is helping skirt sanctions as americans endure a tax from iranian taxies. and plenty of complaining from congress after uneventful briefing on ufos. but, first, breaking tonight, president biden says iran backed houthi rebels are terrorists. this goes against current u.s. policy changed by the biden administration. the houthis have already responded to yesterday s airstrikes against facilities in yemen with new attacks today. white house correspondent peter doocy starts us off tonight life from the north lawn. good evening, peter. peter: good evening, bret. pentagon officials believe there will be some sort of retaliation for last night s strikes. we know the houthi rebels have already launched at least one ballistic missile toward
time. we appreciate. it the vivek ramaswamy canvassing and working the phones today as governor ron desantis stopped by his headquarters to pump up volunteers. and plead for those last second votes. it may be as few as 130, 140,000 people. your vote matters a great deal on monday night especially given the weather. he will get some more help tomorrow as 47 florida state officials and lawmakers fly in to stump for him. [applause] former president trump is set to arrive in iowa tomorrow to host t rallying. his son don jr. telling supporters not to get too cocky. the prefer nikki haley surging rapidly. everyone is like we are winning by so much. stay home. why would you go out it s minus 4. don t think that way. and bret, tonight, some late breaking developments. fox is told by the desantis
east already. bret: mollie, your thoughts on this. not just about what needs to be done right now. but really what led us to this point. and it kind of reminds me of what happened with the border situation. where at the end of the trump administration you had a pretty secure border. and on day one, the biden administration came in, issued a bunch of executives orders and worked to make the border porous. likewise we had incredibly stable situation in the middle east at the end of the trump administration, really quickly within two or three weeks president biden said he didn t want to keep doing the administration policy of pivoting toward saudi arabia instead of iran and supporting the war against these rebels, these iranian backed rebels in yemen. he took them off the terrorist designation list and now we can see that, you know, policies and leadership matter. and this is the direct result of having had some really bad foreign policy decisions and really bad foreign policy adminis
ballistic missile towards shipping lanes today. that, undercuts an assessment that president biden gave while he was on the campaign trail in pennsylvania sphbl i have already delivered the message to iran they know not to do anything. peter: the message destroying 60 targets at 16 spots controlled by houthis inside yemen. we are not interested in a war yemen. peter: turkish prime minister says that s exactly what the u.s. wants. they are in an effort to turn the red sea into a sea of blood. peter: the president s order earned rare praise from republicans. i do commend the administration for finally hitting back. democrats are the ones giving the president the hardest time. progressives like congresswoman pramila jayapal complained this is unacceptable violation of the constitution article 1 requires that military action be authorized by congress. what do you saw to members of your own party that are saying you needed congressional authorization for last night s strike.
prohibitive now and in the past few days ron desantis and nikki haley have spent most of their time, not all, most of their time attacking each other. fighting each other for second place. so there is an expectations game here. but the worst case scenario really for the desantis and haley crowd and all the people who want to move on from former president trump worst case scenario is he gets over 50%. that s a devastating blow to them because they want to be able to say look, a majority of republicans still didn t vote for donald trump. if a majority do, they are in pretty bad shape. we ll follow it all. countdown is on. up next, the friday lightning round, ufos, third party politics plus winners and losers, and, later, notable quobletion. that s how it felt to live with bladder and bowel incontinence. but that changed when my urologist told me about axonics therapy. a long-lasting solution that has really changed my life.