With a ladder to get it down. Have a great day. Were going to be here tomorrow morning at 5 a. M. Yes, we will be. And fox friends starts right now. Bye. Good morning. It is monday, august 11. Im Elisabeth Hasselbeck. We begin with a fox news alert. Fallout from the terror on the tracks when racing legend Tony Stewarts sprint car hit and killed another driver. This morning investigation of the tragedy continues. Will criminal charges be filed . Two witnesses who watched it all unfold share their insight straight ahead. Overnight the u. S. Launches yet more airstrikes at isis terrorists in iraq. Officials warn it is not enough to protect america from their evil plans. Mr. President , if you dont adjust your strategy these people are coming here. Amid the dire warnings, the president heads for Marthas Vineyard to play
golf. So much for a dramatic drop. Passengers on a six flags Roller Coaster get stuck 75 feet in the air. Details on the rescue and what went wrong straight ahead. According to everyone we talk to, mornings are better with friends. Us. Youre watching fox friends. Thats a great way to begin your day. Tuckers in for steve doocy. Glad to be here. Cant think of anywhere id rather be. Great to see you too, elisabeth. Great to have you back. Thanks to anna who was here all last week. Enjoyed watching you all as well. Great to see you this morning. Glad youre back. Its unbelievable the amount of news that took place over the weekend with your great coverage, fox friends on the weekend. This is one of the stories you led with, and that is tony stewart, doing a little bit of moonlighting, racing at night, upstate
new york. Youre looking at the driver right there that he would eventually hit, ken ward jr. He would strike him at about 35 miles an hour. Ward would flip up in the air about 50 feet and unbelievably he would die. Pronounced dead, kevin ward jr. Was 20 years old. You see the initial car go by him and investigations are continuing and the county sherrif said theres no criminal nothing pointing at this point to criminal charges, that this investigation will go on. In all black in a nighttime race. The question is could tony stewart have avoided him. Sort of a split decision. Friends of ward saying it was intentional. Friends of stewart said of course not. We spoke to friends of stewart yesterday who said stewart was planning on racing nascar after the death. A very, very odd decision. Immediate uproar, outcry
over this. They changed their mind, his team and they issued a statement more contrite than the first. Known for aggression, known for intensity, certainly catastrophic and devastating to hear this news. Investigations are going on as of now. You see that first car swerve out of the way, it does bring in a ton of question as to could it have been avoided and should more have been done. This is the Ontario County sherrif on how this could have happened and whats going to happen next. At this very moment there is no there are no facts in hand that would substantiate or support criminal charge or indicate criminal intent on the part of any individual. There are no foregone conclusions made at this point. Were looking for any information, any relevant evidence that will help us to come to a final determination as to why this happened. Interesting. Were going to talk to two people who were at the
scene when this tragedy took place. Joining us is michael logan. Tell us what you saw. Well, it was the a main feature halfway through the face, and tony stewart and kevin ward jr. Were basically racing for position. As they entered turn 2 they were basically going for the same line, same spot on the racetrack. That are cars appeared as if they got tangled. Kevins vehicle got stuck stewarts vehicle was able to continue on. The track dropped the yellow flag obviously for the accident, there being a caution which all the cars on the track slowed down but were still going at a pretty good clip. At that point i saw kevin ward jr. Start or begin to exit his vehicle and start to make his way down the track. And he think i mentioned to my son at the time, you dont really think hes going down to confront tony stewart do you, because this is something you sometimes see in auto racing. At that time i looked down to the track to see where Tony Stewarts car was, obviously knowing he was near kevin at the time of the accident. And picked up tonys car and kind of just in turn 1 visualized them getting closer together. As tonys vehicle got closer to kevin, he sped up wait a second. You say as kevins vehicle got closer to kevin, he sped up . Correct. Youre confirming there is that sound of acceleration that some people speculated was indeed an increase of speed; michael . Yeah, it was an increase of speed. When i looked to the point where kevin was walking and Tony Stewarts vehicle
would intersect, basically what i saw was Tony Stewarts vehicle go by and kevin wasnt there anymore. And he was gone. And i didnt really know what had happened. And so my assumption on the speedup was basically tony stewart, you know, sped up to avoid an altercation on the track. Logan, do you feel the same way . Do you think this was an accident . Do you think it could have been avoided . Weve all been in cars, been in semiaggressive situations on the road. This is a race. What is your instinct . Tony stewart is professional at what he does. No one wants to intentionally hit another driver. A lot of people, a lot of drivers out there, people that race these cars say he may not have seen him. It could have happened so fast. It was dark. He was wearing an all black fire suit with a black helmet. It was dark out there. The lighting wasnt you
know, its a local track so the lighting is nothing like a bigscale race. The lighting wasnt all that great. I just think it is a simple accident. Not simple obviously, but just an accident. No intent on tonys part to do that on purpose. Right now we have investigators questioning him. Heres the question michael, do you go to a lot of race sns we maybe attend three to five a year. Have you ever seen someone get out of a car on a track . Weve seen it in pit row before and tony stewart did in 2012 did himself. He showed his temper. Thats part of who he is. Have you ever seen it done on the track in the middle of a race . Certainly under caution conditions. You dont see it very often. Obviously the racetracks and the track in ontario, they are high on safety, it is not something you see all that often. Drivers are instructed to remain in their cars in an accident. But you see it from time to time. These are athletes. They are in competitive situations. Theyre looking to win or at least do as well as they can. When they feel as if they have been denied that opportunity, their emotions can get the best of them. Thats not unusual. But you dont necessarily see it that often. Thanks so much for sharing your story. There is a big call out for anyone at the race that has any video. Please help out the investigators to find out whats going on. Weve got another fox news alert. Overnight the u. S. Launching five more airstrikes. This as iraqi Prime Minister maliki refuses to step down amid the countrys worsening political crisis. Not exactly clear whats going on in iraq right now but serious developments. Doug luzader is live in washington with details. Reporter this latest report this morning that the u. S. Is going to begin
sending arms directly to the kurds because the reality is they may represent the single best hope to take on this terrorist army, isis. That combined with this fresh round of airstrikes is the idea at least thats been supported by many republicans. I would be rushing equipment to irbil. I would be launching airstrikes against isis. They have to race to boundaries they have erased boundaries between iraq and siege. I would be providing as much training equipment as i can to the kurds. I would do a lot of things that we cannot have to wait for maliki to leave. And speaking of maliki, he sits in the middle of a huge drama playing out in baghdad refusing to step down. He may mount a legal challenge to remain as Prime Minister. The u. S. Is trusting him
less and less these days. And it certainly complicates the president s selling his iraq strategy even to democrats. The bottom line is this, there is so much we can do to help the iraqis help themselves but ultimately they have to save their own country. As far as arming the kurds, again, this is breaking news this morning, we dont know what form those arms are going to be in. Remember, theyre going up against isis fighters that have stolen their arms from the iraqi military. They are very, very well provisioned. Back to you guys. They were able to take two towns back since we were able to give them arm and a little bit of air coverage. Has there ever been a more predictable series of events . The United States pulls out of iraq and the country collapses. Couldnt you have predicted this . Of course. Nobody wanted to hear about it. Everybody said were tired of iraq. Even republicans and democrats. Lets just leave. The surge worked. They needed residual force. No one wanted to talk about it anywhere. But the bottom line is the president s on the record going on both sides of this issue telling mitt romney i wasnt going to leave troops bogged down there, saying on saturday it wasnt my decision to not leave troops. But he made no effort to work with almaliki or break the deadlock with alawlaki to get something done. He never picked up the phone until it was october to say well leave with the agreement i was left with. The phone is seemingly used here in the United States as some would say but not with Foreign Affairs as it should be. Telegraphing to some that he would not not take action, telegraphing inaction, as said, did he underestimate . Is he the underestimater in chief . He underestimated isis, underestimated libya. He underestimated putin. He underestimated in several other areas. Hes been commander in chief or the underestimater in chief. We cant afford the president to underestimate this colette. We heard people say bush is too distant. Hes a micro manager. This guy is not even present. Time and time again whether it is the i. R. S. Scandal, whether it is obamacare, all of Foreign Policy, hes comploatly surprised by hes completely surprised by developments. If you read caseys book, they say president bush was on the phone with car with karzai and almaliki. He had almaliki doing things he didnt think he was capable of. Heres the key. It is not sunni against shia against kurds. The sunni are angry at the
shia and the kurds want to be left alone. But isis is different. Isis is a threat to us. Islamic extremists look at america as the problem and look at america as a chance to establish themselves like al qaeda did by hitting us. They have a huge target. They have a lot of money behind them. Were talking at least million of dollars. Billions. Billions perhaps, brian, as you stated, behind their mission here. If were not careful and do not act properly, they are on their way here. Listen to colonel ralph peters and senator lindsey graham. The most addictive substance on earth is human blood. The Islamic State is addicted to human blood. Even the nazis didnt film public beheadings. This is something they didnt do. We are doing virtually nothing to stop it. This is a threat to
america, a threat to the world. It is beyond islamists, it is a death call. Since bin laden has died there are more terrorist organizations with more safe havens with more money, more weapons and more capabilities to attack the homeland than there was before 9 11. Mr. President , if you dont adjust your strategy, these people are coming here. Its the one element missing from the president s address. Its not so much i dont want to go back into iraq. I think what he should be saying to the people of the United States is isis is different. Their goal is to dominate the region, blow away israel at the same time attack us. They have shown their capability. They show their ruthlessness. They are crucifying people and burying them alive. They kidnapped 200 women and started spreading them out. We know how to defeat them. We defeated them before. They need to be stopped. Separate from iraqs problems. Isis is separate. The problem, but they are not the major issue. Almaliki going in or out does not affect isis. They are certainly not contained. They are a mission that includes a method of mass killings. Rest easy from his command center on Marthas Vineyard, the president is playing a mean round of golf tonight. Fundraiser tonight. Back to the oval office on the 17th. Not surprising to see that on his schedule for the week. Heather nauert is here. Ive got a story out of missouri and it started as an evening of peaceful prayer vigil and turned into violent protests exploding after an unarmed teenager shot by police over the weekend. Hundreds of protestersLooting Stores and stealing from a. T. M. s in a st. Louis suburb. They grab items from a shoe store and run out of the smashed windows. The storefront destroyed. One of the protesters set a Convenience Store on fire near a gas station. Police in riot gear on the streets trying their best to control the situation. At least 32 people were arrested. A desperate search underway off the coast of hawaii for a sailboat that was caught in hurricane julio. You can see that boat. It is a 42foot boat, three people on board. It sent out a distress signal. It was about 400 miles off the coast. A plane was able to reach it but 30 foot waves prevented a rescue of the crew. A 660foot container ship is in route to try to help out. A day at six flags turns into a nightmare when a Roller Coaster rider gets stuck. They are tilted on the side for about five hours. Two dozen passengers were
stranded 75 feet in the air in the hot sun at a theme park just outside of washington, d. C. In maryland. Fire fighters eventually rescuing them one by one. Look at that right there. We are strapping the individuals one car at a time, we are strapping the individuals into place and then were going to manually release the cars restraint. We still dont know what caused that ride to stop but the ride called jokers jinx they say will stay close until the park completes a full investigation. The emotional teen drama the fault in our stars winning big. The biggest challenge was ensuring we brought as much truth to the table as possible because the script is so beautifully written because its based on a perfect novel. That movie picked up several awards including best actor, best on screen chemistry. Did you know they have that category, best on screen chemistry . Hunter games also a big
winner, Josh Hutcherson named choice movie actor. Lindsay hale for her role in pretty little liars. Those are your headlines. The award is a surf board . It is hard enough to find a place to keep a plaque. Coming up straight ahead, Hillary Clintons security detail says working for heard is a demotion because shes so mean. The secrets of the secret service exposed next. Billy joel and Christie Brinkley back together once again . The onstage moment you just cant miss. I make a lot of purchases for my business. And i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. Like 50,000 bonus points when i spent 5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. And i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at Office Supply stores. With ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. Travel, gift cards, even cash back. And my rewards points wont expire. So you can make owning a business even more rewarding. Ink from chase. So you can. Start a team. Join a team. Walk to end alzheimers. Visit alz. Org walk today. Padvil pm gives you the healingu at nsleep you need, it. Helping you fall asleep and stay asleep so your body can heal as you rest. Advil pm. For a healing nights sleep. Time for your news by the numbers. First four, thats how many golfers won four majors at the age of 25 or younger. With the win at the p. G. A. Championship, mche will roy joins tiger woods. Lionel richie just paid off his bill to the i. R. S. They say he failed to pay in 2010 but hes caught up now. Finally 65 million, how much teenage mutant Ninja Turtles made at the box office this weekend, now the number one movie in america. Heres an inside look at the lives of our highest ranking government officials as toaldz told through the experiences of the secret Service Members that cover them. Secret Service Agents reveal the hidden lives of the president s. Joining us with the inside scoop is ronald kessler. This is a sequel. You have great choices inside the inner sanctum. Who are they . Usually i water board them and they talk. Actually about twothirds of the book is on the record. For example, what hillary is really like behind the scenes, how nasty she is, a lot of that is on the record from secret Service Agents. It is true they consider it a demotion when they have to work by her. Why . They consider it a form of punishment because she makes their lives so miserable. She screams. She has temper tantrums. Its just a nightmare working for her. Yet here is this woman who professes to be compassionate and care about Little People and is going to help the middle class. Yet behind the scenes she has contempt for those socalled Little People. This is from first lady to senator who still gets protection and somebody who could be running for president. Right. In contrast, obama and michelle are very
very considered very considerate. What about joe biden . When he goes to wilmington insists on have the military aide at least a mile behind him. He doesnt want to look like hes ostentatious. That means if obama were taken out or couldnt perform we would be defenseless. Hes also got this habit. Im glad someone is at least thinking about the neighbors, though. Im serious. I live in washington. The secret service shut down streets. Good for biden for being considerate, i think. Hes got a naked issue. Biden has this habit of skinnydipping at his pool in wilmington and at the Vice President s residence and it offends female secret