>> harris: the power panel just walked up. i had more questions. outnumbered overtime, thanks a lot for watching today. a very busy hour. the news continues. the daily briefing with dana perino starts right now. >> dana: a fox news alert. new information on the death of four americans in niger as we await the white house and pentagon briefing. fox news is learning 12 u.s. soldiers, mostly green berets, were ambushed by a larger force of isis linked militants. i'm dana perino and this is "the daily briefing." along with the search for answers, there is the political fallout surrounding those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in that mission. was president trump's condolence call unfortunately sparking an escalating feud with a democratic congress woman. jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. jennifer, what have you been able to learn about the attack?

>> reporter: it happened in a remote desert area on the border between niger and mali. 12 soldiers from the third forces group accompanied 30 troops in niger on a routine meeting with elders in a village. the american green berets traveled in a convey just as they had done for similar meetings. the troops were ambushed after they left the meeting about 12 p.m. local time. 50 jihadists from a new isis affiliate riding motorcycles toting rocket propelled grenades sprayed the u.s. troops with gun fire. a gun fight ensued. 30 minutes later french fighter jets appeared in the skies above and the militants scattered. a french helicopter flew the american wounded back to the capital. a contractor then carried the three american green berets killed back to the capital. sar general ladavid johnson

remains missing. u.s. officials feared he was kidnapped and asked the press to hold off reporting that he was missing. at 5 p.m. eastern time on the day of the attack, october 4th, the pentagon informed the white house of the incident. that was shortly after the attack began. two hours later, the u.s. put out its first statement. two days then passed before sergeant johnson's body was found. a contractor flew his body back to the capitol with helicopter. >> harris: >> dana: why is congress angry about this? >> two weeks later congress has not been briefed on the incident. there are serious questions about why there was not u.s. surveillance above the convoy and why it took two days to find sergeant johnson's body. senators are now demanding hearings. >> what steps will you take? >> subpoena. i did have a good conversation with general mcmaster.

he said that they would be briefing us. we'll hopefully get all the details. >> do you feel the administration has been forth coming about what happened there? >> course not. >> the delay as much as the nondisclosure is a cause for very grave concern. >> reporter: u.s. officials blame a new isis affiliate that broke away from al qaeda in october 2016. its local leader is thought to be holding an american aid worker hostage. some are trying to paint this as an intelligence failure. pentagon officials tell us this is the problem operating across africa. very large remote spaces. local extremist groups are starting to call themselves isis. there is a degree of risk with doing any of these missions, dana. >> dana: they're certainly determined. jennifer griffin, thank you very much for that. for more on this, i am joined by retired four star general jack keane. thank you very much for being here. you are the chairman for the institute of the study of war

and a fox news military analyst. so when you look at this situation, if you could explain to the viewer, why were we in niger in the first place? why did we have green berets in that area? >> in much of africa because of the absolute spread of radical islam. it is a global jihad now operating in most every continent. its expansion concerns all of us. what we tried to do here is train and assist the local indigenous forces in about six to eight countries there so they can deal with the growing extremism themselves. so we provide assistance to them. we're not leading in any of the fight. we're helping them. from time to time we will conduct a drone strike if we get good intelligence on a target. but the people on the ground that are doing the fighting are the local forces. the special forces team is there to train and assist them in doing that. but, of course, when they're out

teaching them how to do combat patrols, you're in a combat zone. you're subject to contact with the enemy. in this case it appears they were doing something they do quite often, as jennifer mentioned, going out to deal with various villages, they call a tribal engagement to really understand what is happening in those village, to understand what the enemy is doing. the other thing, our special forces or green berets, i commanded ft. bragg. that's the home of the airborne and special forces. quite familiar with that. there are primary trainers in different regions of the world of other military forces. they learn the language. they understand the culture. they live close to the people. they're used to being in a small group as opposed to large formation. very adaptive to the culture. they're an absolute force multiplier for us. what's really bothering the pentagon and certainly my dear friend john mccain there is why

was this group so exposed? it appears unnecessarily exposed. and we got to give the pentagon a little bit of time to get to the bottom of it. this is a fire fight that took place an ocean away. >> dana: right. in a very remote area. what about the fact that the french mirage, the military plane that was there, they weren't able to protect them. so do we possibly have just a problem there in terms of rules of engagement orperation with our allies? >> well, from what i understand, and i don't have inside information from the pentagon 'cause i don't bug them about things like this. what i understand, the country of niger does not permit us to have armed drones providing overhead protection for our patrols. so the mirage is a french fighter aircraft, got there within 30 minutes. usually a fire fight like this where you're being ambushed, the

actual primary killing that takes place and exchange of fire is very explosive and it doesn't last for a long period of time. and the other thing is, the unit integrity was broken down by the sheer violence of an ambush. these are very chaotic things. well disciplined troops, believe me. at that point when you're under such intense enemy fire, you are absolutely fighting to protect your life at that point. and you're outnumbered and outgunned and you know that this is a life ending situation that you're involved in. >> dana: earlier this week you were on "the daily briefing" and you were talking about how isis is, at least their land mass area, is being depleted in the middle east. these are supposedly isis fighters. is there some sort of confrontation growing in northern africa that we have to turn our attention to? >> yeah. i think that's a very good point. i think what we need to do here, the administration has obviously been so busy in foreign policy and national security.

they've had major reviews on north korea, on iran and certainly on afghanistan. they need to do a strategic review here. what essentially we're doing, we're executing obama's policy in north africa as i just tried to explain it. counter extremism, radical is lamb, train and assist. do we have the right strategy is a question, a reasonable question for the president to be asking? and do we have the right resources applied to that strategy? they need to do a review here. and probably this will spark it. >> dana: this will do it. i agree. general jack keane, i appreciate you being here. senate republicans are on track to pass a $4 trillion budget plan that will lay the ground work for tax reform. that should wrap up by friday. president trump said he's encouraged by the progress, but that he doesen expect any help from democrats. pennsylvania senator pat toomey joins me now. thanks for being here. you used to be the head of club

for growth. you've been a fiscal hawk for a long time. do you think the republicans have the right message to try to get tax reform passed? >> yeah, i think we do. i think we're going to pass a budget today which is the precondition that allows us to pass subsequent tax reform with a simple majority vote in the senate. so a minority of senators can't defeat tax reform by filibuster the way my democratic colleagues would like to. look, what we're going to do is make sure that working class and middle income americans get a tax cut, a direct reduction in the taxes they owe. and we're gonna spur i think tremendous economic growth by making our business tax code competitive. it's not competitive today. we can fix that. and then a booming economy is going to further improve wages and job opportunity for ordinary americans. i'm very optimistic. >> dana: president said he's not optimistic that there will be bipartisan support. you actually are from a state where you have a republican and a democratic senator. the democrat bob casey is up for

reelection in 2018. do you think he's somebody who might actually be willing to vote for tax reform? >> i don't know. you'd have to talk to senator casey. look, i hope that we have bipartisan support. i don't know why our democratic colleagues would vote against a measure that lowers the tax burden on hard working families and makes our economy grow faster and more competitive. i think they should be with us. so far they have not shown any real interest in working with us. but the process is just beginning. we will go through the ordinary committee process, an open process. democrats will have every opportunity to offer amendments to try to influence this product. in the end i hope it's bipartisan. >> dana: i do think they've sort of dug in already. earlier this week senator schumer and warren held a press conference in which they said this plan is just tax cuts for the rich. same thing you get from republicans. are you vulnerable on that messaging? >> you know, one of the things i learned a long time ago is when a republican gets up in the morning and pours himself a cup

of coffee, the democrats accuse us of tax cuts for the rich. this bill hasn't been written yet. how do they know it's tack cuts for the rich when the details have not been written in? there's some on that side that clearly they simply want trump to have a defeat. they don't want republicans to be successful in governing. and so they will oppose anything we do. but that's not gonna describe all the democrats. so i'm hoping at least some will work with us and help us pass something that will be really good for our economy. >> dana: do you have concern about the deficit? >> absolutely. i think this tax reform plan that we are working on is going to reduce the size of the deficit. because it's designed to encourage, really, very significant economic growth and a bigger economy means that much more economic activity to tax. so i think we're going to have more revenue, not less. >> dana: earlier today, nine of your colleagues suggested maybe the senate should stay open maybe 24/7. they're asking senator mitch

mcconnell to extend the amount of time that you spend in washington. do you think that would be a good idea? >> i think senator mcconnell already agreed to do that. he told us to be prepared to work between five and seven days a week. we're going to be here all week long and sometimes through the weekends because we have a lot of work to do. i think that's going to happen. >> dana: we'll see more of you in washington and hopefully more of you on "the daily briefing." >> thanks for having me. >> dana: we have brand new polls on the battle for the alabama senate seat and the governor's race in virginia. one is a surprising dead heat. chris stirewalt breaks it all down. plus george w. bush delivered a rare public speech and what he's saying for some global trouble hot spots. i was a good soldier.

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>> dana: a political dog fight shaping up in alabama in one of the reddest of red states. a new fox news poll shows roy moore may have a real race on his hands. take a look. a new fox poll shows him in a dead heat with doug jones. both candidates tied at 42%. chris stirewalt breaks it down for us. okay, chris, is it really tied in alabama? >> we have a wonderful poll. we have the freshest smelling poll in all of polling. i would say the same poll says there's 11% undecided. that 11%, if alabama is 65% republican, it's not unreasonable to guess that that 65% of that undecided or so would be republican. so you would assume that if a pro-pond repbs of the undecided vote breaks the direction the party that it typically would, then roy moore will not only win, but he would win probably with some comfort with a few points of cushion.

the question for the republican party is why is it even -- why do they even have to pay attention to this? this should be a boat race. this should be so silly that the democrats wouldn't even have a nominee. they not only recruited a good one in jones. moderate, tough on crime guy which is a good fit for state. also they're going to put resources behind him. they're having people campaigning for him. they're doing this. the fact that that is even taking place is something for republicans to think about as they look into 2018. >> dana: you have people that decided to vote for moore. it said a shake-up of washington is 51% rather than a consistent vote for the gop. while the democrats might have some hope here, the republicans might they learn something from this race? >> i mean, there is such a thing as overlearning a lesson. for republicans the message voters want change. voters want change but to what and for what? we saw the struggle luther

strange, the incumbent appointed to replace jeff sessions, the struggle he had. you say you like trump. i vote with trump 100% of the time. i am but an empty vessel through which the president can pour through. i am a rubber stamp. please, alabama. they still said not you, the other guy. lot of them want him not for his policy provisions, but for the fact that he will say and do shocking and audacious things to try to beat convention. he is a true iconic class. that's what many in the republican party especially in states like alabama want. >> dana: what ab in virginia? we have a governor's race there november 7th. we have lieutenant governor who is running against ed gillespie and the democrat there in our poll 49% to 42%. ed gillespie has been here before as the under dog. he came close to winning a senate race in 2014. what do you think about his chances this time? >> don't remind me, you almost

won that bet in 2014. >> dana: i'm still smarting over it. >> you were so close. lot of us weren't paying attention because we think of virginia now because it went for obama twice and then clinton. we sort of forget that virginia is still a pretty swingy ding state. clinton's margin there was only about five points. it is not a deep blue state. the problem for democrats is, how do you get off your election coalition motivated and to the polls? here we're talking about voters in the affluent suburbs of northern virginia. also african-american voters in the tide water. how do you get those democratic voters mobilized in an off year election? the fact that it's even as close as it is shouldn't surprise us. >> dana: gillespie brought in bush 43 this week. today northam has obama there. do you think gillespie should have president trump try to stump for him in the state?

>> i think if we can get trump do an event in southwest virginia, roanoke and points west of there, i think it could probably be very helpful for him. but i think that he should have to do a lot of duct tape to prevent that from affecting swing voters in the northern virginia center. >> dana: we'll keep talking to you about it. sorry, control room, had to ask that last question. chris, stirewalt, thank you very much. president trump praising relief efforts in puerto rico. >> president trump: i'd say it was a ten. i'd say it was mobile the most difficult, when you talk about relief. >> dana: so what did the governor of puerto rico have to say about the president's efforts? plus president george w. bush speaking out about liberty and creating buzz. what he's calling blasphemy. today, big thinking in the finger lakes

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>> dana: president trump meeting with the governor of puerto rico today at the white house. the two talked mostly about the on going disaster response one month after hurricane maria. listen up. >> president trump: i give ourselves a 10. i think that locally, i really think locally they have, and this gentle man, great leadership. did the united states, did our government, when we came in, did we do a good job? military, first responders, fema? did we do a great job? >> you responded immediately, sir. >> dana: the aid is flowing in, but it will be a long time before puerto rico fully recovers. 29 days after the storm only 21% of customers have electricity. phone service is starting to

come back. it is restored to over half the island. running water only has been restored to 71% of customers. president bush focusing on the spirit of liberty around the world. he also shined a spotlight on efforts to undermine democracy including russian cyber threats. >> ultimately this assault won't succeed. but foreign aggressions including cyber attacks, disinformation and financial influence should never be downplayed or tolerated. it's a clear case where the strepb of our democracy begins at home. >> dana: eric shawn is live in new york city. eric? >> hello, dana. crime what he calls bigotry, bullying and prejudice, former president george w. bush spoke here, warning about the danger to democracy both abroad and here at home. he addressed a gathering of his dallas based bush institute here

at the jazz center, lincoln center, and said it was called the spirit of liberty at home and in the world. he warned democracy is weakening by the coarseness of current event. he said the nation is vulnerable to what he called conspiracy theories, outright fabrications and casual cruelty. he all said there's a crisis with our nation's institutions. he slammed russia and china for their aggression to world order and said here in the u.s. we have to be on guard against isolationism and nationalism. >> our identity as a nation, unlike many other nations is not determined by geography or ethnicity which means people of every race, religion could be fully and equally american. it means bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the american creed. >> reporter: he also criticized the dictatorship of north korea.

he said this young woman, grace jones 26 years old a student at montgomery college in maryland. she fled north korea. told us her two brothers died from starvation, then her father was killed in custody by north korean authorities. that he was tortured for trying to bring in a bag of rice. she is one of the bush scholarship students one who is here which wrote about american values in our democracy. mr. bush also said that we as western democracies are now being tested. >> this is a unique moment. the great democracies face new and serious threats yet seem to be losing confidence in their own calling and competence. economic political and national security challenges proliferate and are made worse by the

tendency to turn inward. the health of the democratic spirit itself is at issue and the renewal of that spirit is the urgent task at hand. >> reporter: first lady laura bush also spoke and asked for grace. u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, said that she inspires them all. dana? >> dana: eric shawn, thank you for bringing that report. president bush had a lot more to say. karl rove is going to join us to talk about democracy and america's role in defending freedom around the world and why the speech came as it did today. a new plan on healthcare. what senators alexander and murray just rolled out. will it pass? plus, we're live on wall street with the dow off its recent gains as investors remember a crash that rocked the financial world exactly 30 years ago. could it happen again?

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how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges. >> dana: stocks on wall street pulling back a little bit after

closing above 23,000 for the first time wednesday. today it's the 30th anniversary of black monday the largest one day drop the u.s. history. nicole live on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, what do you have? >> dana, we're watching a market slightly under pressure today. we closed at a record all-time high yesterday, above that 23,000 mark. it was the fourth 1,000 milestone of 2017. so you had 20, 21, 22, 23,000. today under a little bit of pressure. let's go to 1987. this was 30 years ago where the stock market crashed 22.6%. traders obviously talk about this day. they're even arguing whether or not that could happen on a day like today. big picture most are saying no because of circuit breakers are in place to stop extreme selling such as that. today we are seeing stocks under pressure such as ebay and apple.

the best of the year would be boeing, netflix. great 2017. dana? >> dana: thanks, nicole. we have a fox news alert. defense secretary james mattis speaking out about the deadly attack on american soldiers in niger. he was just asked if this is something that could have been prevented. >> -- those who murder and mayhem. the french, for example, maintain over 4,000 troops down there while we maintain a little over 1,000. mostly we're providing refueling support, intelligence support. also, we have troops on the ground. their job is to help the people in the region learn how to defend themselves. we call it foreign internal defense. we actually do these kinds of missions with our allies.

loss of our troops is under investigation. we, in the department of defense, like to know what we're talking about before we talk. and so we do not have all of the accurate information yet. we will release it as rapidly as we get it. because we are very proud of our troops. as you know, we investigate any time we have our troops killed, whether it be a training accident or combat. i don't care if it's in a car accident, the dod, we investigate the circumstances surrounding to see how we can address the very questions you brought up. what can we do in the future. at the same time, war is war. these terrorists are conducting war on innocent people of all religions. they're conducting war on innocent people who have no way to defend themselves. i would just tell you that in this specific case contact was considered unlikely, but there's a reason we have army u.s.

soldiers there and not the peace corps, because we carry guns. so it's a reality. it's part of the danger that our troops face in these counter terrorist campaigns. we do these kinds of missions through allies. it is often dangerous. we recognize that. we have that unapologetic about standing by our allies. certainly the french with 4,000 troops have been engaged down there for years. and have lost many, many more troops. this is an example of how seriously we take this mission that we put our troops in that position. any time we commit our troops anywhere, it's based on answering a simple first question. that is well being of the american people sufficiently enhanced by putting our troops there? we put our troops in position to die. that is the number one question when i make the recommendation

to the president. one point i would make, having seen some of the news reports, the u.s. military does not leave its troops behind. i would just ask that you not question the action of the troops who were caught in the fire fight and question whether or not they did everything they could in order to bring everyone out at once. i would also ask you don't confuse your need for accurate information with our ability to provide it immediately in a situation like this. the french response included fighter -- armed fighter aircraft, armed helicopter gun ship, medivac to get out our wounded. we did have a contract aircraft that lifted out our killed in action and stafr sergeant -- excuse me, sergeant johnson was taken out. it says something that they would then endeavor to get the body back to us, which shows the

relationship that we have in this area. but a full investigation is under way. the sort of investigation we always conduct. we'll certainly update you as we get accurate information, not speculation. i'd just close by saying we need to stand together united in this country when these heart wrenching times take place. thank you. >> dana: that was general james mattis, our defense secretary answering about the story we started the daily briefing with which was with jennifer griffin at the pentagon and the troops, the green berets that were killed in action october 4th in that terrible raid with isis in niger. i am joined by guy benson, political editor at town hall.com and bernard whitman, former clinton pollster. thank you for being here. i want you to react to that breaking news. i think what the general was trying to do, guy, is to remind

people that we are in a global war on terror. we are there for a reason. he stress that we always wants to ask the question, does this mission matter to the security of the american people? in this case he said absolutely yes. your thoughts? >> right, because it's combatting isis. these were not combat troops necessarily. but you never know what terrorists are up to, what they might be plotting. clearly americans were targeted and killed in niger, which is obviously just tragic and heart breaking. another thing that struck me, dana, and stuck out to me listening to that there from secretary mattis was his stressing to the press that there will be answers, there needs to be a full accounting and explanation of what happened, how it happened, why it happened, but he was not going to prematurely go out there and give information that was speculative at this point. some people might sense a dig perhaps at the white house by saying here at the defense department, we don't give information until we know that it's accurate. whether that was his intent or

not, i think it's the right approach to say, the american people deserve answers, we're gonna give it to them, and they're gonna get those answers when we know the truth. >> dana: he does help calm the situation down, as we all love to fine out the answers, but we don't need to get ahead of ourselves. bernard, your thoughts? >> i was struck, absolutely, dana, by the contrast in tone and approach and demeanor of the defense secretary, who clearly is a grown-up, and the president, who is not. this president never misses a beat to shoot from the hip, to answer things before he knows all the facts. >> dana: but in this particular case -- i'm just asking. you're saying -- when? when? what was the specific thing that he exaggerated? >> he politicized the situation calling the widow of johnson. >> dana: i would say he did not politicize that call. >> he said he was the only president to call those killed in action. why did he pick a fight with the mother of a gold star --

>> dana: i don't think he picked a fight. i think you have a good point in that he brought it up initially. look, you have a point. he opened the door to these questions and criticism. i think that is wrong. i don't think we need to call everybody. but, it was not president trump who actually then politicized the call. >> please, dana. >> dana: it was the democratic congressman. >> the defense secretary was calm, cool and collected. trump is a narcissist that can't avoid putting all the attention on himself. the secretary puts the attention on the troops. >> dana: we have a minute left. i want to let guy respond to you. >> here the thing. i agree with you, bernard that the president initially slandering president obama saying other presidents haven't called the families when wasn't true. he walked it back. that was bad. it was a dumb thing do. but i don't understand. you were asked for your response to secretary mattis addressing four dead americans and you immediately answer by pivoting to dumping on the president.

>> i talked about his approach. >> that's hyper politicizing. >> trump is the commander in chief of the united states. he should be the one leading the charge, calming fear, reassuring americans. instead we get that only from the defense secretary. >> i don't think every single issue is always about donald trump. >> well, he is the president. he is setting the tone for the nation. he's in charge of the military. >> dana: let's all just try to remember that we should -- regardless of the politics of it all, there are four green berets killed in action. the families deserve our support. that's where our focus and attention should be. the pentagon will do a full investigation. we'll get a lot more information before anybody else speculates on this. i might ask you to stay for another moment. i want to ask you about the budget and tax reform. the president saying he's not sure he has the votes. republicans actually today, senator toomey, on this show, said he thinks they do have the votes for budget, and then they

have the votes for tax reform. guy, i notice you wouldn't be shocked if they blow it. why is that? >> well, but an of the republican party. blowing it is like part of the platform especially these days. i think there's two separate questions here. do they have the votes to pass the budget, which is a prerequisite to getting to tax reform through reconciliation. i think that question the answer is probably yes. susan collins is a yes. john mccain is a yes. those were infamous no votes on healthcare and repealing obamacare. but when you get into the reconciliation package and the details have to be hammered out for a tax reform package, i would not say with confidence that republicans have 50 plus one votes yet. i do hope that they get there. i think there's a reason for optimism. but it's complicated. >> dana: bernard i got a hard break in 25 seconds. do you think any democrats will vote for the budget or tax reform? >> no. the question isn't will it pass. it's should it pass. people say the wealthy pay the

most tax. after tax income will go up 8.5% for the wealthy, 1.2% for the average american. >> dana: we'll have you back for more debate. thank you very much. dangerous warning about north korea next.

>> dana: cia director warning north korea is months from perfecting its ability to fire a nuclear arms missile. but the rogue nation has a ways to go before it can develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons. president george w. bush was raising concerns today about defending america. >> america must harden its own defenses. our country must show resolve and resilience in the face of external attacks on our democracy. >> dana: karl rove is senior adviser to that president, george w. bush and fox news contributor. karl, let me ask you, before we talk about north korea, people very interested today that the president and mrs. bush came to new york for the spirit of

liberty event. but this was planned well over a year ago, before the election took place. so, when i heard his speech today, i was like, wow. this is the kind of things that i have heard him talk about since i have been following him for the last, i don't know, 16 years. but some are taking it as swipes at either president trump or president obama. what say you? >> i'm with you. this was planned over a year ago. these are things that he's talked about before. he thought it was important to bring these issues up now to remind people of the importance of a strong america, strong defense, strong alliances in the world. but the people who are talking about this being an tact on this or that public figure are just looking to make a food fight where no food fight exists. >> dana: we can leave that there. the president also talking in particular about north korea. you remember, of course, how he was very passionate about people who were trying to seek their

freedom to get out of north korea. he focused on that woman today. eric shawn brought that story to us. president is getting ready to go to asia. what do you think? >> i would be careful. it's one thing for the president to go to south korea and to look into the dmz. i would be very careful about entering the dmz because kim jong-un could easily make some kind of demonstration that would be an ugly moment. i think the president, by visiting with the south koreans, demonstrating our military strength, being there with the binoculars looking into the dmz. that's appropriate. i would be careful about bringing him to that famous point where literally the south koreans and the americans and the north koreans are within feet of each other. >> dana: i just had chris stirewalt on.

we were talking about alabama. there's a poll that shows moore and jones are tied. there's ab 11% of people saying they're undecided. does this concern you, somebody who wants to see republicans elected to the senate? >> yeah. there's another poll showing a wider margin. but if you take the real clear politics average it's 4.4 points between them with moore in the lead. this poll obviously showing the two men tied. over the last 20 years republican candidates for senator, governor and state wise office, governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, treasurer, attorney general, have won in alabama by an average of 23 points. so for this race to be this close now, even if you accept the real clear politics average at 4.4 or the other poll, the fox poll shows it at 8, this race is closer than it ought to be in a state that is deep, deep, deep red. >> dana: very red. enjoy the windy city, karl. thanks for joining us. >> it's not very windy today. beautiful weather in chicago. >> dana: i'm so glad to hear it.

talk to you later. the white house press briefing set to begin at the top of the hour. we will bring that to you live. plus the feds carry out an operation targeting sex traffickers. you do not want to miss this story. le? kimchi bbq. amazing honky tonk? i can't believe you got us tickets. i did. i didn't pay for anything. you never do. send me what i owe. i got it. i mean, you did find money to buy those boots. are you serious? is that why you don't like them? those boots could make a unicorn cry. yeah, tears of joy. the bank of america mobile banking app. the fast, secure and simple way to send money. mom'#stuffynosecold #nosleep #mouthbreather just put on a breathe right strip it instantly opens your nose... up to 38% more than cold medicine alone go to breatheright.com today to request a free sample. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving.

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>> dana: fbi announced a sting targeting sex traffickers. 120 traffickers arrested. 84 minors rescued. the youngest child was just 3 years old. trace gallagher is live with the details. trace? >> reporter: hi, dana. those numbers including the 84 minors that were recovered are just from over a four day span. kind of gives you an idea of how vast the problem of under age sex trafficking is. the fbi has been working with various groups including the national center for missing and

exploited children for several years. the feds set up sting operations in dozens of cities across the country targeting things like hotel, casinos, truck stops and, of course, street corners and internet websites. all of the cases are heart wrenching but some are really just plain horrifying, including a sting operation in denver where an under cover agent was offered a 5-year-old and 3-month-old for sexual purposes. the average age of the minors is 15. here a victim specialist talking to a young girl. watch. >> if you want to stop all this, stop what you're doing, stop this work, you can call back and they can do that for you. they can help you stay in the united states or go back home to family. you don't have to deal with the scary stuff. >> reporter: scary stuff. minors come from everywhere. talking about cleveland to cambodia. the hope is to get thet back to

their families or, at the very least, get them medical and psychological help to put them on a better path. the agents who work child trafficking say it is bitter sweet. >> very gratifying because we're having an immediate impact. what i understand and what the men and women who worked this violation understand is there are many more victims we need to reach. >> reporter: lot more victims. since 2003 the fbi and its partners have located and identified 6500 victims of under age sex trafficking. >> dana: our thanks to the fbi. we'll stay on this story. thank you very much, trace. emotions running high as jason aldean takes the stage to honor the victims in las vegas. we end the show on a good note, next. whoooo.

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the cmt awards show. other artists offered up stirring songs to the victims and devastating wild fires as well. i'm dana. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in the east. the white house briefing set to start at any moment now. we'll see where things stand on the president's plan for tax cuts and your health insurance. the university of florida in gainesville bracing for trouble as police and protesters gather for a speech by a white supremacist named richard spencer. his first major event since charlottesville, virginia. 30 years to the day after wall street's black monday market crash. the dow closed above 23,000 for the first time in history. nasa gets set to fire up the enormous engine that will s