But woodhouse weighing in. Susan rice suggested director comey didnt see anything thus far that would be reason to hold information. Michael flynn is taking susan rices job, to give him information about it . It suggests will keep digging until we find evidence. As a disgrace. Every american should have a chill and a pit in their stomach. Harris Gillian Turner is live in washington with more details. Gillian . Hi, melissa. Yesterday the acting director of national intelligence, ric grenell, declassified a topsecret email written by president Obamas National Security advisor, susan rice. He also forwarded that email over to the Justice Department. In this email, which fox news obtained yesterday, rice describes what happened during a 2016 Oval Office Meeting where they discussed russian interference into the 2016 president ial election. Rice writes, director comey affirms he is proceeding by the book as it relates to Law Enforcement, but that he does have some concerns that incoming nsa flynn is speaking frequently with Russian Ambassador kislyak. He also adds he has no indication thus far that flynn has past classified information to kislyak. Senator Brown Johnson out of the republicans are questioning why the email was classified as topsecret in the first place. Take a listen. I have to admit, the first thought when i read that classified email was, why in the world was that ever declassified . This needs to be dug into further. We need to do further investigation. Familiar with the classification practices, they say it reveals that russian investor Sergey Kislyak was under surveillance by the obama administration. A fact the u. S. Intelligence community always keeps under wraps in the interest of National Security. We are learning the reason susan rice wrote this email to herself and emailed it to herself was because the White House Counsels Office at that time asked her to do so. We dug in, weve looked at this. Fox news confirms this is actually the case. The white House Counsel at that time, eggleston, and all the editorial question for us becomes wide of the white House CounselOffice Direct susan rice to document what happened in this meeting . Melissa . Melissa interesting stuff. Great reporting as always, gillian. Thank you. Youre watching outnumbered, im melissa francis. Here today is harris faulkner. Town hall editor on fox news contributor, katie pavlich. Syndicated radio host on fox news contributor, leslie marshall. Joining us today, fox friendsfox friends we, petpete hegseth. He is the author of american crusade our fight to say free, which is now out on shelves. He is outnumbered. Pete, when i listen to this story, the question that comes front and center to my mind is, is susan rice susan rice rice is handing over the reins to her job to someonee suspects is in league with the russians, any of those things, s metal in the election, hacking to the dnc, in what world do you not tell his boss, President Trump . I think you are ushering a russian spy into the white house, into my job. Pete because i dont believe she actually believed that, and the evidence is there that they knew he wasnt passing information and knew he wasnt a russian agent. You know what im going to do on my last day on the job as the nsa advisor . I think ill write a big old email of my office and make sure it stays classified as long as possible. Because i never thought i would be in this position, because Hillary Clinton had a 99 chance of winning. Dont worry, none of this would have been found out anyway. Now that donald trump has one in his National Security advisor will be a guy who knows how the intelligence apparatus operates, i better send this email that says, were doing it by the book, we are really concerned Michael Flynn might be too close to the russians. What about in Michael Flynn and donald trump have a different view about our relationship with russia . Mike flynn is going know the investors being surveilled, he will know that information is out there. This stinks at every level and we need to learn a lot more about it. Thankfully we are learning. They didnt believe there was collusion. There was no evidence of collusion. If they did think it was there, what they what the intel they got shows that it wasnt. This is more evidence of how far they went to cover their tracks. Melissa leslie, i will ask you the same question. If im susan rice and im handing over my job, my office, everything, to someone i think could be a compromise russian agent, how in the world do you not go tell that persons boss and warn the new president of the united states, i think youre putting a russian agent did my job . Leslie because at that point that wasnt the conclusion. If you look at all the declassified information thus far, they basically say, look, we need to be cautious. Hes having a lot more conversations with ambassador kislyak, and we dont want Sensitive Information shared. We want to go by the book on this. When the president specifically asks comey if there is any evidence thus far, not yet. Right . So shes not in a position to say that, and shes been told by the council to email yourself, so shes doing what shes told. At that point, she doesnt have information to pass onto the new administration, to the new president , at that time. Melissa ive got to ask you again. Okay . This guy is doing anything nefarious that all, youre putting a person in my job who we think there is some evidence that he might be doing something wrong with the russians. You dont have to be convinced hes a spy. If you are suspicious enough that you think he has to be surveilled further into the administration, into your job, thats not enough. Leslie i dont feel it susan rices position to do that in that type of situation. That would be a comey situation. That would be somebody in the fbi, or perhaps president obama himself. At that time, if you look at the declassified information, what they had is not enough for susan rice, and that would not be in a position to do that with the new president forthcoming. Melissa okay, katie. Weve cleared susan rice of this. As youve just heard leslie say, that would be enough for james comey or for president obama himself to say, hey, buddy, as youre coming into the white house and taking my office, i just want to let you know, i dont think you should have this guy is your nsa advisor. I think hes a russian spy. There is at least enough evidence that we are following him around and we think he might be. Katie susan rice said during an interview that she didnt know anything about what was going on with Michael Flynn. We now know she lied about that, because she wrote this email to herself. If you look at the details of the email, its very telling. Leslie keeps talking about what we knew at the time. What the fbi knew at the time of this email is that the fbi had been listening in on conversations between Michael Flynn and ambassador kislyak you, and they found no derogatory information by the end of december. Agents below james comey said they should close the case, and then peter strzok says, no, james comey is involved, we cant close the case. And comey goes to the white house and president obama has this january 5th meeting, and asks to be apprised of ongoing situations and development that they have with Michael Flynn moving forward. This proves, to answer your question, melissa, why we do not tell the incoming National Security advisor about this . Because as susan rice and james comey and barack obama have tried to claim at this point now that theyve been caught. This is about politics, withholding information from one incoming administration. Its the job of the incoming National Security advisor to be calling ambassadors from all over the world, including russia. If you want to talk about the information they had, the reason why the case has been closed by the Justice Department on this is because they didnt have a case and they didnt have any information. And yet they kept it open and interviewed flynn anyway in the white house. And barack obama was involved, susan rice lied about it, and james comey also lied about it. Thats where we are with the information we have. Melissa youre talking about susan rice lying, and the sound bite from 2017 they were going to play that seems to directly contradict this declassified email that we finally saw today. Lets play that sound bite. Harris, tell me your thoughts on the other side. I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from the chairman on that count today. Melissa harris . Harris you know, i think the line of i know nothing about this, i dont remember, is something leadership should maybe not reflexively say. I dont know if thats what happened with susan rice, but weve heard a lot from that administration and from others across the board. Its one of those things that leaves the American People saying, well, whose job position of these things . And i think its a fair question. Susan rice is being asked about and that was an older situation there, but i think you start to reask some of the questions now. I think you take another bite at the apple. I do think the American Public has the palate and the patients to be able to watch the situation play out. We talk a lot about investigations that maybe can wait or should or should not happen. Melissa, your point is and i think its a fine one if somebody incoming in an administration is such that you dont want to share all the information about a photo with, what does that say about that individual in your concern . You want to flag some people. As pete suggests, they didnt believe that. Or they believed it but there was bias. There are really not a lot of options here. It is time to start reasking some questions and not accepting, i dont remember, i didnt know, it wasnt my job. Melissa yeah. Pete . Last word. I heard he pipe up there for a second. Pete i was just once again in violent agreement with harris. There is something very much missing in this period to take her at her word, as she writes an email to herself, would be to ignore the blatant reality here. Melissa yeah. All right, a big step to a return to normalcy. The significant milestone past saturday as states across the nation put out the we are open signs. This, as the doj steps up its protections of religious expression with a warning to california. As it relates to congregants coming back into the pews, we are a few weeks away, but we are working overtime with leaders in the community. Veterans, how can one phone call save you 2000 a year . By refinancing your va loan at todays incredibly low rates at newday usa. Newdays va streamline refi is the quickest and easiest refi theyve ever offered. You can lower your payments by this time next month without having to verify your income, without getting your home appraised, and theres no money out of pocket. One call to start saving 2000 a year. Every year. One call. Then, sit back, relax and think about what youll do with the savings. Call newday right now. ;cwko trust us. Us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. Dont think so . Hold my pouch. Harris an important milestone. All 50 states have now eased coronavirus restrictions in some way or another. Connecticut, the last to do so. However, it will not reopen all at once. Stores and offices have the green light, while restaurants can only serve customers outdoors. Jims, hair salons, and movie theaters will remain closed for now. This, as the doj is warning california and its governor that restrictions their religious services may be discriminatory, as the state gives the goahead for offices, malls, and restaurants to reopen. Sitting in a letter, whichever level of restriction to adopt, these civil rights protections mandate equal treatment of persons and activities of a secular and religious nature. Former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker waited del mike wade in. There is a pandemic exception to the First Amendment or constitutional rights. What i would say it is, if people of faith can go to supermarkets or get their hair cut or get a tattoo, they can also worship practicing the same types of things that they would do in their secular life. Harris pete, that said it all, didnt it . Theres no pandemic exceptions to this constitutionally protected rights. That seems pretty simple. Pete that seems very simple, yet we heard from governor murphy here in new jersey who really spoke for a lot of democratic governors. The bill of rights is above my pay grade, i get to arbitrarilyn and whos close. Tell her to the Small Businesses who rely on their job. Its essential to them no matter what. I hear that at the dom asked at the 50 states are moving for it at some level, but its a bit of a fix that. You overhear can open 25 , but here you can only be open 10 . You can open in a week but you can open in three weeks. It ignores what ive seen firsthand, that free people can make responsible choices, and ultimately open Smaller Stores in a smaller way than Big Box Stores where its packed and people are waiting in a football fieldsized line and going through the same register. Its time to give people that responsibility, and a giant caveat. Last thing, that everyone gets to choose. If you dont want to go out, you dont have to put yourself at risk. Harris yeah, so, that is true. Katie, i would say that religious services and religious freedoms can happen in places that are dying or miss. I just interviewed pastor brian gibson , who compared his megachurch to a Kroger Grocery store. In some areas they were defiant and opened up this past sunday, because hes got th them acrossa couple states. Pete just said about a third of those people decided to go in person. The other twothirds continue to be online. There are some questions though my choices people can make, whether the venue is big or small. Katie whether its a territory business, the Church Leaders and Business Owners have an interest in keeping their participants, whether they are clients or customers or worshipers, as safe as possible because they want to continue to be able to open. I think having a little bit of faith in the people who are making these decisions to open up and putting these social distancing guidelines in place in their own communities, we should trust them with that process. I think its really important that we acknowledge what Matthew Whitaker said about the bill of rights and the constitution. Thank god we have them. If you look across the country and you look at the way that some of these governors and the people in power have taken this over the line multiple times in terms of arbitrary rules for some people and not others, the good thing is that the constitution keeps us all equal and really does protect our Civil Liberties at a time when they are most at risk and at danger. Harris its interesting, leslie, to hear katie say, thank god we have those things in place. Because where would we be without them . What are your thoughts . Youre in california. Let me not skip that point. This really affects you. Gavin newsom is your governor. How do you feel about the fact that a mall can open, albeit a mall is a big place, but so are the mega churches. Okay . Maybe not as big as a mall, but they are huge. How do you feel about that . Is leslie we had a legal challenge to that in california. On may 5th a federal court upheld the governors ban. With a stated was, this move is in the interest of public health. The reason they said that it secular places in california such as movies, sporting events, concerts, were also shut down. When you talk about malls, youre talking about retail. Somebodys going to the curb or going into the store to purchase an item, whereas those other events, secular and religious, they are communing. Interestingly enough, on mothers day, we had not one but two churches that defied that order, and one charge in mendocino, we had a pastor who was positive and now since at least two of his parishioners are also positive with covid19. And we have a parishioner who was positive, and 180 people were at that church. This isnt something that is going to be forever, and this is because of public health. Which the governor is responsible for us here in california and our state. Harris gosh, i want to double down with so many things. I understand theres also a galvanizing nation of trying to get all the homeless into places, too. Is anybody going to take a look at the spread once one person gets it the way they do introduce . I just want to know what the rules are, so they can be applied fairly. I want to take a look at those retail places, then. Has anybody been tested positive there . How many people did they spread it to . I know the churches get a lot of attention. We are talking about them, because of those legal challenges. But is there also fairness in the secular places such that we are doing the kinds of reporting and tracing on those people, as low . I should say the reporting of it. Melissa, you and i have had this conversation about the essential nature for some to have faith in person and their lives, and that we are responsible enough to social distance. What are your top line thoughts . Melissa my top line thoughts are my jaw drops when someone puts church or any sort of religious service in the same category with going to a movie. Thats not really the same amount of essential for many, Many Americans. When you see a governor like gavin newsom put those in the same category, which i believe is what leslie just said, anyone who would do that, who had put that in the same category, it says a lot about what you think about religion and faith and its necessity for the sole. But we all are free to disagree and