John roberts start us off tonight. Busy day tonight. We wouldnt have it any other way. Late today, the Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appeared at the white house and pointed to a dramatic increase in the number of people crossing the border illegally. More than 50,000 a month for the past three months. 400 increase in the number of socalled family units. But the new Administration Practice of criminally prosecuting people who come across the border illegally has created a very large political problem for the white house. With a storm of outrage growing over the separation of children from illegal immigrants, President Trump today laid the blame squarely on the democrats. I say it very strongly. It is the democrats fault. They are obstructionist. And they are obstructing. Democrats outraged at the Zero Tolerance policy at the border were people who cross illegally are held for criminal
prosecution and separated from any children they may have brought with them. Even some republicans are critical. In a Washington Post oped, former First Lady Laura Bush wrote this zerotolerance policy is cruel. Its immoral, and it breaks my heart. President trump insists he was forced to implement the policy after a dramatic increase the number of people, some criminals, crossing the border with children. The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. We cant allow that to happen to the United States, not on my watch. Administration Officials Say they are merely enforcing laws already on the books, something they say Previous White House is failed to do. But the political firestorm has heated to the point that the dhs secretary handled a late day briefing at the white house. Congress and the courts crated this problem and congress alone can fix it. Until then, we will enforce
lisa page that well stop trump from becoming president . Witch hunt the fbi director says the report doesnt address it. Democrats accuse the president of using The Ig Report as a bludgeon to discredit the Mueller Investigation with tweets like Comey Gave Strzok his marching orders. He is distorting the report. Hes weaponizing it to discredit the special counsel. And undermine the rule of law and the United States of america. America. Fbi director said today he does not believe that special Counsel Robert Mueller is on a witch hunt, asked about it late today, press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president s firm in his belief that the robert Mueller Investigation is indeed a witch hunt. Bret john roberts, thank you. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi leading a democratic delegation into the heart of the immigration storm tonight. Theyre visiting a Border Facility where children are being held. National correspondent will loom large in s is in san diego. This is not about immigration. Its about humanity. Its about family. Its about who we are as a country. For days, democrats fanned out across the country to hammer President Trumps zerotolerance Immigration Policy. It is appalling. Its not american. Its unnecessary. It is also not new. The decision to prosecute any and all who cross the border illegally actually began as a Pilot Program under President Bush in 2006. This zerotolerance policy is intended to deter people from breaking the law. Chief agent in tucson. Advocates claim help reduce
dont have a president who would rescind this zero Inhumanity Policy immediately . Moments ago, the administration stressed that entering the u. S. Without permission is a crime. Basically, the problem is when you detain women and children, the courts have said that you have to release them within 20 days through the administration wants congress to close the loophole so families can Stay Together. What we heard from democrats today is they want to ban the practice and they believe families should be handled administratively, not criminally. Bret William La Jeunesse in san diego. Thank you. Which side will blink first on zerotolerance . Let me know on twitter. bretbaier. Use the Hashtag Specialreport or on facebook at facebook. Com bretbaiersr. G. O. P. Leaders hope to take action on Immigration Reform legislation this week. And put an end to an issue that threatens to turn into a Public Relations disaster. Chief Congressional Correspondent mike emanuel is on capitol hill tonight. The zerotolerance Immigration Policy is making some republicans on capitol hill uncomfortable. Its clear this is a sympathetic, tugs at your Heartstrings Picture and narrative, but i think its more complicated than that. It is inconsistent with our American Values to separate these children from their parents. Arizona republican senator jeff flake sent this letter to the secretaries of Homeland Security and health and human services. There is pressure from the le. Dianne feinstein has offered a bill to ban separating families. Big i never thought the United States of america would be separating children from their parents, infants from
their parents, nursing mothers from their infants. Its terrible. Weve got to stop it. President trump met today with rob within senators Richard Shelby and Shelley Moore capito, with mr. Trump wanting funding for the border wall and shall be trying to pass Funding Bills in a bipartisan fashion. Across the capital, house lawmakers expected to consider two different Immigration Reform plans this week. A conservative measure from judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte and a carefully crafted compromise based on President Trumps four pillars. Border security in there. Its got funding for the wall that the president really wants. Its got the technology boots on the ground. The president is expected to meet with House Republicans tomorrow night to personally make the case for addressing ilLegal Immigration. Mccall says lawmakers must get it done. As i get briefed, the threats of potential terrorists and drug cartels and all the other stuff, israel. On the issue of separating
children from the parents, texas senator ted cruz has introduced Emergency Legislation that calls for hiring more border immigration judges, Building Temporary shelters to keep Families Together, and for families determined that should not get asylum, deporting them within two weeks. Bret what about the pending showdown between President Trump and the senate were Chinese Telecom firm z te. President trump has a plan. The senate, the president s allies looking to block the deal. Its included language inside a giant Defense Authorization bill coming up for vote this evening. Lawmakers are not interested in reviving the company thats been alleged to have worked with both iran and north korea. Definitely a showdown between the u. S. Senate and the president on the zte issue. Bret will follow it. Thank you. The man who wrote last weeks report about the fbis investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal
was on capitol hill this afternoon to answer questions and defend his conclusions. Along with him, the fbi director who is promising to change things and hold people accountable. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge shows us what happened. I want you to reopen the investigation. Senior republican senator drill down on the antitrump Text Messages between fbi agent peter strzok and fbi lawyer lisa page. The 2016 meeting was about a Insurance Policy discussed in then fbi Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabes office. Strzok texted about the meeting. You asked mr. Mccabe. He said he did not recall. Senator graham said it reeked of political bias and the Inspector Generals conclusions are offbase. Im glad you found what you found. Im not buying that the clinton email investigation was on the up and up. First public testimony from Inspector GeneralMichael Horowitz and fbi director
christopher wray divided along party lines. Director ray has a mess to clean up. I think he probably knows that. The Inspector General found no evidence of political bias in the fbis investigation. Of Secretary Clinton or in the decision not to pursue criminal charges. Horowitz testified hes been asked to investigate james come comey. We received a referral on that from the fbi. We are handling that referral and we will issue a report when the matter is complete. Democrats pressed on leaks in the fall of 2016 former New York City mayor rudy giuliani. Can you assure the American People there are no ongoing leaks from any office of the fbi to Rudolph Giuliani . To go im aware of any. We are aggressively investigating a number of leaks even as we speak. Based on the findings, fbi director said half a dozen employees could be disciplined but he emphasized the mistakes and bad judgment were limited. This report is focused on a specific set of events back in 2016 and a small number of fbi employees connected with those events. One republican was not satisfied. Lets remember who that small number of employees was, the director of the fbi, Deputy Director of the fbi, leader of both the clinton email investigation and the russia investigation. Inspector general will testify for a second day in front of two house panels tomorrow in a separate development after months of pressure, the lawyer for fbi agent peter strzok has confirmed that he will voluntarily testify before the House Judiciary Committee and any other congressional inquiries. That will be interesting. Catherine herridge, thank you. Lets get some analysis from legal scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington university. Thanks for being here. What struck you from todays hearing . What was really interesting was the different narratives, the fact is the ig was not likely to find that decisions were based on bias. But also its not true that he didnt find bias. He actually found a lot of bias. Its just that hes not going to assume that the bias he found was the cause of decisions taken by the fbi. Bret not his mandate. Thats right. Unless someone was going to confess or help out with an email detailing some conspiracy, there wasnt going to be a finding that bias drove the decisions. But the republicans were correct. The report is heavily laden with very disturbing bias, including from the chief investigator. The question is that wasnt his mandate. Hes not going to make those assumptions, so where do you go from here . The answer in the constitution as you go to congress. Congress has an Oversight Duty to look into this. Some of these questions are simply not answered. For example, Lindsey Graham was
correct to raise the issue of clintons i. T. Expert who was accused of lying repeatedly to the fbi, scrubbing her server after being told it was part of an investigation and Something Congress was looking for and took all these actions that would have justified, and most of our view, an actual criminal charge. Instead they give him immunity which at the time left all of us as dumbfounded as to why you would possibly do this. Those questions arent answered because thats not the mandate. Bret after reading The Ig Report and seen the testimony, the case for the obstruction of justice. This ig report makes it difficult Obstruction Claim based on the comey firing virtually inconceivable. You have the Inspector General saying that comey was insubordinate. 50 deviated from policies, that these were serious violations. Fbi director echoed that. Good reasons to fire him. Unless youre going to make assumptions that trump acted for every wrong reason instead of
the obvious right ones, its going to be real hard to make out a criminal case. Bret there were other teases of things to come, another ig report. Sounded like several Leak Investigations and even an investigation into comeys personal use of email and whether there was classified material there. If i was comey, i would hear a whistle on the track. We are looking at his removing these memos from the fbi which ive said from the beginning is clearly fbi material. The fbi has indicated that. One might of had Classified Information in it. I can imagine the Inspector General saying okay, thats fine. Feel you can remove any files you want and lick them to the media. That train is going to come and its not going to be good for comey. Bret the first story and the one thats gotten a lot of attention, with the administration is doing, what democrats are doing, what congress can or should do on this case with separating parents and children along the border. Its a sad story because as usual in washington, there is truth and falsity on both sides. Everyone spinning this and in the middle are these kids. The fact is the administration does not have to separate the kids from their mothers. Thats a choice. Its a policy choice. Its also true that this issue has been forced by a change in policy to treat these as criminal matters. Something many citizens support. Donald trump was brought to power because he pledged to get tough on immigration. Getting tough on immigration means to switch from a civil or administrative process to a criminal one. Once you do that, you have these type of separation problems. There is truth on both sides. There are some agreements and some laws that govern how long and under what circumstances you hold children. But can the Administration Keep these Families Together . I think they could. Bret there is a choice thats made at the border there. Rich lowry indicated it in a oped a couple weeks ago. He wrote u. S. Marshals take custody of adults and children are held by hhs. Prosecution of adults usually
happens quickly. If the adult wants to return home, she or he is reunited with their child and they are sent back together. Where it gets more complicated is if i migrant claims asylum. The Trump Administration was to hold migrants pending adjudication of those cases. If they are released, theres good genes they will abscond. Even if cases are handled quickly, the government has to release the sooner. Its one of the distortions that makes rational policy of the border policy. When a Company Children from mexico across the border, we can turn them home. Antitrafficking law makes it impossible to do that with unaccompanied children from central america. Basically as long as migrants know they can get in, they will keep coming and bringing their children. If they claim asylum, they are essentially choosing to separate from their children. I think its due to the paradigm shift. The administration was treating this as an administrative process, not a criminal one. There were fewer complications. Once you shift to an enforcement system, a criminal one, it magnifies these problems. By this law does create a glaring conflict in this 20 day clock. You can release but then you have a gap, mother is moving on a different track from the kid. Its a legitimate issue that the Trump Administration wants to resolve. Bret Secretary Nielsen said they could go to a Port Of Entry and claim asylum and Stay Together but this is dealing with illegal border crossing. Both parties are playing chicken but t