0 could -- go back to texas -- >> i'm not in texas, there you go. >> i'm single, i don't do any of those things, i don't know what my issue is, i'm sure i'll hear about it on twitter. >> i have a theory one living in a mess, my husband, he knows he's incredibly messy, have one person in the relationship that's ocd and cleanly and you can make it work. >> it's all about meeting the match. here is "america reports." >> john: good luck to lawrence, thank you. severe storms plaguing millions across the country, devastating tornadoes ripping through the southeast yesterday killing at least seven people. >> sandra: a tough situation there. a brief break from the torrential downpours, dangerous mudslides, but they are back in full force now in california forcing thousands out of their homes, leaving some neighborhoods completely unrecognizable. fox weather all over the map coming up. >> john: kick off "america reports" with a live look at the white house briefing room, the former atlanta mayor now the senior adviser for public engagement speaking to the press corps as pressure mounts to explain what president biden knew and when he knew it about the classified documents found in his home and private office. hello, john roberts in washington. sandra, welcome to friday. >> sandra: and there were some fireworks yesterday, a lot of challenges from media, we will get back in there as soon as karine jean-pierre starts to take questions. any moment now we are awaiting the briefing of where the press secretary is likely to be challenged on what we are still learning here, after the attorney general just yesterday about this time named that special counsel to investigate and learned more documents were found in the president's garage where he keeps his corvette. >> john: new york post asking, did anybody vet this guy? house republicans wondering the same thing. >> this is wreckless, it's dangerous, it's, irresponsible. >> his lawyers found them while they were moving documents. now, that alone does not make sense. how many people hire high priced lawyers to move their furniture. >> this is a serious issue about national security and whether classified information has fallen into hands of people obviously outside of our intelligence community. >> sandra: all right, a lot of members of congress sounding off. fox team coverage, karl rove is standing by. lucas at the white house, how much of this classified material has so far been found? >> good afternoon, sandra. three different batches of classified material has just been found. the latter two discovered in one of president biden's delaware homes. just a short time ago the press briefing set to begin and president biden hosted his japanese counterpart. but this exchange of peter doocy got everyone's attention. >> classified material next to your corvette? what were you thinking? >> let me -- by the way, my corvette is in a locked garage, ok, it's not like they are sitting on the street. >> material was in a locked garage. >> yes, as well as my corvette. >> that corvette, biden's prized 1967 stingray, a gift from his father as a wedding present. his father owned a chevy dealership at the time. stand robert hur from maryland to lead the new special probe into biden's handling of classified material. remains justice department policy a sitting president ask not be charged with a crime. however, they want it investigated after a similar probe to investigate former president trump in november 2nd weeks after biden's first classified documents were found. >> i strongly believe the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. but under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter. >> president biden is expected to depart soon for his home in wilmington, the same place where the classified documents were found, leading some to wonder why he's returning to a potential crime scene, guys. >> sandra: lucas tomlinson, thank you. >> john: easy, there's a beautiful sports car there. karl rove, former deputy chief of staff and fox news contributor. what triggered the initial search for the documents at the beginning of november, who had access to the documents in joe biden's office and residence and why did he hang on to the documents in the first place instead of turning them over to the national archives like you are supposed to? >> that's a big question. it's pretty explicit. the presidential records act of 1978 covers the president and everybody else in the white house, including the vice president. and it says none of the documents created during your time at the white house are your personal property. they are the property of the u.s. government. i would also add one other question, which is why did it take so long to figure out the documents are missing, because there is a thing called the office of records administration inside the white house that keeps a log of all the documents that go to the president and keeps documents that are circulated, classified documents that are circulated elsewhere in the white house. so, that then turns over that record of all those documents to the national archives and records administration and the question is why in 2017 did nara not say wait a minute, we have shown there are some documents that were in the vice president's records but we don't see them in the records that he turned over to us. so, you know, maybe that is why they eventually sent a lawyer to look for them, nara popped up and said wait a minute, you know, 3, 4 years after you left the white house the former vice president apparently has not returned all the documents he received when he was in office. i don't know. but lots of questions to be answered. >> john: nara seemed to know right away what president trump had not turned over to them, why didn't they know after five years what joe biden had not turned over to them. karine jean-pierre at the briefing yesterday didn't have a lot of answers to the sort of questions from the press corps. listen here. >> i would refer to department of justice or my colleagues in the counsel's office but again, i'm just not going to go beyond what the president said. i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. again, i'm not going to go into the particulars or the specifics of what the department of justice did. again, ongoing process, it's being reviewed, don't have more to share. again -- >> it wasn't because -- >> an ongoing process is occurring. >> john: a lot of complaints from the press corps assembled about a lack of transparency from a white house that had promised it. >> yeah, and look, they have had several months to prepare for this moment and you can't tell me ron klain and the geniuses around him and the white house didn't say it's going to be a problem when it emerges we better be ready. if you have the press secretary unable to comment, you better have somebody able to comment. whether it's an outside lawyer or another member of the staff or somebody from the counsel's office to help answer the questions because what we know from these -- from when these kinds of things happen, when the white house is engulfed in scandals, the more information you give the earlier you give it the better off you are. and it did not help the white house yesterday. looked like it was stone walling on an issue at the top of a lot of people's minds. >> john: the fact the president did not seem to know anything about these documents, including what was there, or what was in them, has prompted some democrats to suggest well, maybe somebody put the documents there. listen to hank johnson, congressman from georgia. >> i'm suspicious of the timing of it. i'm also aware of the fact that things can be planted on people. places and things can be planted. things can be planted in places and then discovered conveniently. >> john: seemed to get a little confused about what was going on there, but there are some people who have posited if they were planted, it was democrats to stop joe biden from running in 2024. >> members of the georgian delegation, space lasers starting fires, and now hank johnson saying people are sneaking into the locked garage in wilmington and hide documents and then the penn biden center and take classified documents there. what kind of lunacy is that. no, who took them. did the vice president of the united states, then former vice president joe biden or did a member of his staff, also question, did he rely upon that material in order to write his book. he writes a memoir about being vice president, some have to do with ukraine, he was in charge of the administration of ukrainian policy to helping ukraine to fight corruption, did he draw on these documents involving the united states, or united kingdom, china and ukraine and other places in writing his memoir. and in which case he should have remembered that he was using classified documents and again, going back to that september "60 minutes" interview, he'll have a lot to explain having said it was irresponsible for trump to handling documents and he was as well. >> john: and developing ukraine policy, his son was getting paid tens of thousands of dollars every month. wall street journal had some interesting observations, nobody in america will buy the claim the attorney general is not deeply involved or politics at play. if mr. trump is exonerated, half the country will lose the wig, likewise, biden, the other half. it's wrapped up in politics. >> absolutely. this complicates life for the democrats but also complicates life for the republicans and their lives were already complicated enough with president trump, when he took boxes and boxes to mar-a-lago. now the democrats understand how it feels when their president has taken maybe not boxes and not the same volume but two different places, locked garage in wilmington next to his corvette, and the penp biden center. very unusual the university of pennsylvania was very particular in how it answered the question of chinese money, they said penn bi biden center did not solicit money from china. but that's not the question. there are $54 million given by chinese interests to the university of pennsylvania between 2014 and 2019, was any of that money used to underwrite the penn biden center in washington, d.c. and a million dollar a year salary to former vice president joe biden. very interesting question along the process. >> soliciting language was very specific. you know, with that, say something with karine jean-pierre -- >> on ukraine, yeah, absolutely. this is one of the more astonishing moments, the vice president biden goes to ukraine and openly criticized by ngos in ukraine over not being the fact that he's there lecturing them, when the son is engaged in corruption that is endemic, and if you have a problem with the regime and whether it's warsaw or kyiv and you want to show, go hire an american. i used to be on the board for international broadcasting overseeing radio free europe and liberty and watched this carefully in the decades after the fall of the communist empire and his son is over there training in the kind of routine corruption that is in this region and he is criticized by ukrainian groups for not being aware of it. >> karl, griet to have -- great to have you on. >> sandra: dip into the white house now, karine jean-pierre is at the microphone, a big day yesterday. a lot of questions from reporters are expected. dip in, listen here. >> heard from mayor lancebottoms, the president will travel to atlanta, georgia and deliver a sermon at ebenezer baptist church and money, will join reverend al sharpton and the national action network at their martin luther king, jr. day breakfast where he will deliver the keynote address. on tuesday, prime minister of the netherlands to the white house to further deepen the historic ties between our two nations. as strong nato allies and global partners. reaffirm the shared efforts for trans atlantic security and economic prosperity. after that bilateral meeting, welcome the golden state warriors to the white house to celebrate 2022 nba championship. and next friday the president will welcome bipartisan mayors attending the u.s. conference of mayors meeting into the white house. the president will deliver remarks celebrating the achievements of the past 18 months and focusing on the bipartisan work that needs to be done to implement these and other historic pieces of legislative victories at the level -- at the local level to make a difference in people's lives across the country. with that, chris, kick us off. >> sure. question, speaker mccarthy has invited the president to deliver the state of the union on february 7th, just went out. is that the date the president plans to give the state of the union? >> we have received speaker mccarthy's kind invitation and the president has accepted it. and looks forward to delivering the state of the union address on tuesday, february 17th of 2023. >> february 7th. >> my god, i'm so sorry, guys. tuesday, february 7, 2023, we appreciate the kind invitation by speaker mccarthy. >> and debt limit deal, is the president going to cut spending as part of the debt limit deal? >> as you've heard us say before, we will not be doing any negotiation over the debt ceiling, but broadly speaking, at the start of this new congress, we are reaching out to all the members through the office of leg affairs, making sure -- making sure we have those connections with new members as i just stated. and like in the past, i've said this before and say it again, there's been a bipartisan cooperation when it comes to the debt ceiling and that's how it should be. that's how we should continue. it's not, and should not be a political football. this is not political gamemanship and this should be done without conditions and that's how we see the process moving forward. >> and negotiating, you will not negotiate anything about expanding -- >> what we are saying is this should be done without conditions. in the past we have seen this -- we have seen both republicans and democrats come together to deal with this issue. it is one of the basic items that congress has to deal with, and it should be done without conditions. so there is going to be -- there is going to be no negotiation over it. this is something that must get done. >> and the president agree with the treasury secretary the debt ceiling should be eliminated? >> again, i've spoken to this before. that is not -- no one is talking about eliminating the debt ceiling or the debt limit, it's not what we are talking about right now. congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without conditions. so that is not the discussion we are having. >> have white house officials been interviewed by counsel or justice department involving the -- >> what i'll say from here, any questions that you may have about the review, about the process, i would refer you to the department of justice and also refer you to my colleagues over at the white house counsel, i'm not going to get into specifics from here. >> aside from the special counsel, aside from the review, question about process on classified documents and handling, i think there is some confusion and even in this room. what is the process to make sure classified documents are not accidentally or intentionally taken when a president or vice president leaves office, and what's the protocol for this sort of, you know, a self-review system? >> on the process and how that works, i would certainly refer you to the white house counsel's office. they would know that, they can walk you through that. my colleagues there. and i know many of you have been -- have been in touch with my colleagues in the last 24 hours, and direct touch and answering many of your questions, i would refer you to them on the specific process so that they will certainly guide you in the right way. >> as far as you know, is it ever ok for classified documents to be mixed with personal? >> what i can say, look, what i can say is what the president has said before, what i have said multiple times, we take this very seriously. the president takes classified information, classified documents very seriously. but look, you know, i've said this before, we have addressed this issue multiple times at length, and we have been operating with the department of justice and now the same with the special counsel's office to be prudent here and make sure that we are consistent. i would refer you anything that is related to this, as it relates to the review or my colleagues at the white house counsel office and we see it as the best way to move forward, we want to respect the process, and so that's what i'm going to do, refer you to the department of justice. >> you are confident he followed behalf protocol was in place. >> again, this is something that he takes very seriously, the president, when it comes to classified documents, when it comes to classified information. i'm not going to go into any specifics from here. if you have any questions, anything further that's related to the review, i refer you to the department of justice or my colleagues over at the white house counsel's office who i know many of you who i'm staring at right now have been in close touch. >> follow up on the state of the union, i believe it was the president suggested he has spoken with speaker mccarthy. is there any plans for them to meet in person before february? >> they spoke and i think we shared that with all of you the day that speaker mccarthy became speaker. you heard, saw a statement from the president and the first lady congratulating kevin mccarthy becoming speaker and then the next day, i believe it was, that was on a friday i believe the next day, a saturday, the president had a direct conversation. he connected with speaker mccarthy and congratulated him in person. >> no plans yet -- >> i don't have a scheduled meeting to share with you at this time. >> i want to follow up on a few things from yesterday. when was the president informed about the appointment of a special counsel, how and by whom? >> specifics on that -- what i can tell you. we were not given a head's up. i was asked that question yesterday. we did not know that the announcement was going to come yesterday until after it happened so i can clear the deck there and let you know. anything else specific to when the president knew or anything related to this, i would refer you to the white house counsel's office. many of you i'm looking at right now have been in close touch with my colleague there, i would continue to refer you to the colleague at the white house counsel's office. >> one of the things they confirmed, bob bauer is the president's personal attorney handling some of this. given that the justice department cited the personal counsel as having made this initial outreach to national archives and has been in touch with justice department, is that the person who these questions should be directed to? why the white house counsel? >> i will say this again. i would -- whatever the white house counsel, my colleague told you in your conversation, i know you guys just spoke or connected earlier today. i would ask them that question, and anything related to the review i would refer you to the department of justice. >> and regarding the extraordinary measures the treasury secretary announced a little while ago and advance notice to congress, there is a policy that requires her to give advance notice of those plans? >> you would have to reach out to the department of treasury on how that process works. what i can say is just so that everyone knows, folks watching, the debt limit is projected to be reached on thursday, january 19th. at that point, treasury will begin to take extraordinary measures to prevent default. secret