REPORT-WI-01
Apple; Top Secret Documents Found on Clinton's Private Server; Chris
Christie Endorses Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders in
South Carolina Polling; President Obama Promises to Nominate Supreme Court
Justice to Replace Antonin Scalia - Part 1>
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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST, "SPECIAL REPORT": This is a FOX News alert. Welcome to Washington. I am Bret Baier.
The gloves are officially off after a night of blistering attacks leveled at the front-runner from Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Donald Trump brings out former candidate and a man known for not backing down, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie endorsed Donald Trump today. You may remember, Christie famously attacked Rubio for repeating himself at the debate in New Hampshire. Just a short time ago I asked Senator Rubio about Christie's endorsement of Trump, and I will have his answer in a moment.
But first, Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron with the intense fight for the nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I am proud to be here to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States.
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Jersey Governor Chris Christie how Donald Trump tried to shift away attention from what many saw as a debate drubbing last night, to a news conference in epic rally in Fort Worth lasting nearly three hours in which he ridiculed Marco Rubio as a nervously sweating lightweight scared little puppy.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was just trying to cover-up the sweat that pours, I never saw -- did you ever see a guy sweat like this? It's Rubio!
(CROWD CHEERING)
I'm sweating.
CAMERON: Yet to win any state, Rubio today mocked Trump's vanity after ridiculing his tweets.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. This is true.
(LAUGHTER)
The problem is he is a chocker. Then he asked for a full length mirror, I don't know why, the podium goes up to here but he want a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. I don't know.
CAMERON: Ted Cruz was in the Bible Belt Super Tuesday state of Tennessee, and attacked Trump for regularly touting his personal greed.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His actions demonstrate that the only thing he's cared about is putting money in his bank account.
CAMERON: Rubio and Cruz hit trump from both sides on his business record last night.
RUBIO: You're the only person on the stage that's even been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally. You hired some workers from Poland.
TRUMP: No, no, I am the only on the stage that's hired people. You haven't hired anybody.
CRUZ: Marco is exactly right, that a Federal Court found Donald guilty of being part of a conspiracy --
RUBIO: Thank you.
CRUZ: -- to hire people illegally, and entered a $1 million judgment against him.
CAMERON: Despite the onslaught, Trump was consistently aggressive, too.
TRUMP: This guy is a choke artist, and this guy is a liar. I know you're embarrassed, I know you're embarrassed, but keep fighting. Keep swinging, man. Swing for the fences.
CAMERON: Trump flatly declared that he is changing the Republican Party.
TRUMP: I am bringing people over, Democrats over and I'm bringing Independents over and we're building a much bigger, much stronger Republican party.
CAMERON: John Kasich went out of his way to be positive.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Lot of young people watching tonight. You can do whatever you want to do in your life.
CAMERON: While Ben Carson joked about being left out of the brawl.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Can somebody attack me, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wolf? Wolf?
(CROWD CHEERING)
CAMERON: Trump said he would not release his back tax returns until an on- going audit is done. And his rivals pounced.
CRUZ: Donald says he is being audited. Well, I would think that would underscore the need to release those returns.
CAMERON: By his second event today, Rubio stump speech and morphed into a -- garage of Trump ridicule.
RUBIO: Do you guys want to have some fun? Let's read some tweets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMERON: At every event today, Rubio referred to Trump as con man or a con artist. The frontrunner was clearly on defense. But he is still leading most of the polls in Super Tuesday states. And even if Ted Cruz wins his home state of Texas, if Trump wins the majority of just about everything else, he will be very hard to catch -- Bret.
BAIER: Carl, thanks.
Joining me now with reaction to the Christie endorsement at last night's debate and his thoughts about Super Tuesday, from Oklahoma City, Senator Marco Rubio. Senator, thanks for being here.
RUBIO: Thanks, Bret.
BAIER: So, what's your thoughts? You probably heard about the endorsement of Governor Chris Christie and Donald Trump?
RUBIO: Well, I respect Chris Christie. Obviously I respect the decision he made, not going to get every endorsement. He is a talented communicator. And I think they probably called him to help Donald after a very rough evening last night and a rough day today on the trail as he is now being expose as a con man. You know, Donald Trump is a political con man, he's trying to convince people that he is something that he is not and he's won the confidence of a lot of people, and he's trying to take over the party of Reagan and the conservative movement. We can't let that happen.
Well, let me play for you what Donald Trump said about you after he heard the quote about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Let's talk about our lightweight senator from Florida who is losing big in the polls. He's a nervous basket case. Here's a guy, you had to see him backstage. He was putting on makeup with a trowel. He was so scared, like a little frightened puppy. He is a choker. He choked with Chris and I watched it both times, but the one time I'm right next to him, and I looked at the puddle on the ground, and I said what is that? What is it? He's a nasty guy. We don't need nasty. We don't need nasty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Senator?
RUBIO: He's a clown. Look, I saw him backstage. He was nervous, he was waving his arms around, he was huddling with someone in the corner, he asked for a full length mirror one point. People watched the debate last night they know for a fact. Not only was I not nervous, but I think it is time to take the mask off of this guy. I mean, he is a guy that portrays himself as defender of the little guy in this country. He has been exploiting working Americans for 40 years. When his businesses went bankrupt, the first people that didn't get paid were those small contractors. He had people that put their confidence in him, and signed up for Trump University.
Some of them paid 35, $36,000 and they got nothing for it because they trusted in his name and got stuck. He says he is the fighter against illegal immigration, he is hiring illegal immigrants to build Trump towers. And even now, in Florida, he hires foreign workers to do the job instead of Floridians, Americans who are applying to do those jobs. So, he is being unmasked, and obviously he doesn't like it and no one done that to him before. But we can't let this go on. He is the frontrunner now, and I think it is unacceptable that the frontrunner is a guy who is a con man, and he is trying to take over the party of Reagan. We are not going to let that happen.
BAIER: You said that a few times in interviews today, Senator. And you were asked whether you would support him if he was the nominee. And you said, he is not going to be the nominee, and that the Republican Party would quote, "Be split apart if he is the nominee." So, my question is, is that a prediction --
RUBIO: That's correct.
BAIER: or a threat?
RUBIO: No, that's a prediction. That's what's going to happen if he's the nominee. The Republican Party will split apart because he's not a conservative. You had someone on the air last night basically arguing in favor of Planned Parenthood. I mean, if you see his position on Planned Parenthood, his statement that we are not going to take sides between Israel and the Palestinian authority, his notion that unless you're in favor of government sponsored health care, you're going to let people die in the streets. I mean, he was defending those positions better than Harry Reid does.
He is a dream for the Democrats. If he is the nominee, they'll going to take him apart, they're going to take all of his business dealings apart, and they're going to have a guy that can't disagree with them on policy. How can someone who defends Planned Parenthood will not take sides with Israel, supports government's sponsored healthcare takeover by government, how can someone like that be the head of the party of Reagan or ahead of the conservative movement. It cannot and will not happen.
BAIER: But Senator, if you look at the polls heading into Super Tuesday, you are trailing Donald Trump in all of the states, as you look at the map. Georgia, you're down by 16. Texas, down by 16. Massachusetts, you're down by 28. Oklahoma, you're down by nine. This is the average. Virginia, you're down by 15. Florida which is as you know a couple weeks away, you're down by almost 20. What state are you winning?
RUBIO: You know, Bret, I didn't say he was a good con man, obviously he's been able to convince people of these arguments that he is making. Our job is to reverse that and we're going to. I acknowledge right now. I am an underdog in this race, there's no doubt about it. I've been an underdog my whole life. Unlike Donald Trump, I didn't start out with a $1 million loan from my dad or inherited $200 million. I had to fight, scratch and claw for everything. Here's what I'm never going to give up on.
I am not going to allow this con man to take control to the party of Ronald Reagan or to be the head of the conservative movement. We are going to fight as long and as hard as we can to keep that from happening, because the stakes are too high. This country needs a strong and vibrant Reagan conservative party, and Donald Trump will never have that if he is our nominee, it's not going to happen. So, we're going to fight as hard as we can no matter what the odds are.
BAIER: One of the issues that you have been hammered on not only from Donald Trump but also by Senator Ted Cruz is on immigration. And you've talked about it almost every single debate. I just want to talk about one thing you said to Neil Cavuto about I.C.E. official Chris Crane, who was the head of this union. You said he wasn't an I.C.E. officer, he was ahead of the union. But he actually was an I.C.E. officer who had critical things to say about you. And here's what they said, Chris Crane is an I.C.E. officer, that's his job. That's no distinction. We are not a separate entity as union officials, we are employees of the federal government, that's a negotiated item so that we can represent officers in your job functions. And they are very critical of how you handled the whole Gang of Eight bill.
RUBIO: Yes. First of all, Bret, I didn't say he wasn't an I.C.E. officer, I said he was not an I.C.E. official, he was not advocating on behalf of I.C.E., he was advocating on behalf of a federal government labor union that represents those officers. And I have incredible admiration for I.C.E. officers and for what they're doing. But when he talks about the criticisms that he made, you know, he wasn't doing on behalf of the agency. We worked with the agency, we worked with him. He gave us a list of recommendations, many of which I fought for, some of which had nothing to do. But he just wanted more kind of labor union stuff. I have nothing against him. But I was just correcting the record about what he said.
BAIER: All right. Well, this is actually what you said to Neil Cavuto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: Number one, that's not true. And he is not an I.C.E. official, he is ahead of a union, and it is being reported on a website that's not a credible source.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: Bret, number one, what I said, he is not an I.C.E. official. He wasn't speaking on behalf of I.C.E. The question for Neil made it sound like he was a representative of I.C.E., the agency that was advocating for specific public policy, he was representing the union. On the issue of the website, it's absolutely true, this is the same website that said that because one of my employees has a relative that works for FOX News, you guys were giving me the questions to the debate. Did you give me the questions to the debate, Bret when you're moderator in the debate?
BAIER: That would be a no. That would be a no.
RUBIO: You didn't. And that's what they claimed. Exactly. And so, that's what I was questioning was the credibility of the website. And as far as immigration is concerned, look, go back to Donald Trump. Donald Trump supported pathway to citizenship. He is the only one running for president that's ever hired illegal aliens and he's the one importing workforce from abroad instead of hiring Americans. He is a con man. And he's changed his opinions on those issues. He can start by hiring Floridians to work at MiraLago in Palm Beach, instead of hiring foreigners from abroad to take those jobs away from Americans.
BAIER: Can you be clear? Would you support -- let's not talk about politics of getting through, would you support that Gang of Eight legislation now if the politics was all lined up?
RUBIO: As president, absolutely not. Yes. See, that's what I explained to everybody. That bill was the best we could do in a Senate run by Harry Reid at the time. You go back and see my quotes. I was very clear this law is not strong enough, it's going to go to the house and they'll going to make it stronger. It would never going to become law as originally constructed. It is the best we can do in a democratic controlled Senate. When I am president, we don't have to do it that way. When I'm president, we can do it the way we want to do it which is, we're going to enforce the law and secure the border first, and then we'll see what the American people are willing to support. What do you do with people that are here illegally? You know. And what process would they support for someone who's been here a long time who is not a criminal.
If you're a criminal, you'll going to be deported. Who has been here a long time, and is willing to pay a fine, and start paying taxes and pass a background check and learn English, and all they want is a work permit. We're not going to ram anything down the throat of the American people, the one being the executive orders, but none of that is even going to begin until we first secure the border, and bring illegal immigration under control. That's what we are going to do when I am president, that's what I am for.
BAIER: Senator, can you go on in this race if you don't win Florida?
RUBIO: We are going to win Florida. But I intend to be in this race as long as it takes to prevent someone like Donald Trump who is not a conservative and is a con man from taking over the conservative movement and the party of Reagan. I do not believe Donald Trump can get 1,237 delegates which is what you need to become the nominee. And I will never give up the fight, I will never give up the fight to ensure that the party of Reagan remains a conservative party, not one headed by a con man.
BAIER: The fact that you're talking about 1237 delegates, does that mean you're setting up, you and your team, a race for a contested convention?
RUBIO: I hope that's not what it leads to. I hope what will happen here over the next few days is that voters on Super Tuesday states will realize that we need to start consolidating against someone that can't just beat Donald Trump but also beat Hillary Clinton. I hope the voters will begin to open their eyes and see, look, this guy is not who he says he is, he is being unmasked, we're not comfortable of what he is doing, he's lied to us, he's mislead us, he's led us to believe one thing like he did the students at Trump University, and instead of something different. I hope we can consolidate that, and I hope it consolidates behind me. I believe that is what's going to happen eventually in this race. Obviously there is provisions in place for a convention, I don't think that is the ideal outcome, and might be what ends of happening, but it is certainly isn't what we're aiming for.
BAIER: Senator, thanks for the time.
RUBIO: Thanks, Bret.
BAIER: Up next, the call for the President to weigh in on the fight over privacy versus security. First, this is what some of our FOX affiliates around the country are covering tonight.
FOX 13 in Tampa where women must wait 24 hours before getting an abortion. A Florida appeals court today ordered the enforcement of a waiting period. The law was challenged by the ACLU citing privacy concerns.
FOX Kansas in Wichita where police say the suspect in Thursday's shooting in Kansas was served a protection from abuse order just 90 minutes before he went on a shooting spree that killed three people, wounded 15 others. Cedric Ford was a 38-year-old plant worker at Excel Industries in Hesston and had a prior criminal history. Officer say, Ford shot two people while driving to the factory where he then opened fire on co-workers, he was shot and killed by a police officer.
And this is a live look at Detroit from our affiliate FOX 2, the big story there tonight, recently released e-mails showed two lawyers in the governor's office urged top aides to switch Flint's water source back to Detroit, only a few months after that switch was made. In the e-mails, the lawyers cite General Motors plant switching systems because the water was rusting engine parts. The revelation came as Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a $30 million bill to reimburse Flint's residents for water they could not drink.
That's tonight's live look outside the beltway from SPECIAL REPORT. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: The number of taxpayers whose information may have been stolen from the IRS is more than double the agency's original estimate. The IRS says, the number of accounts hacked now exceeds 700,000. The breach was first discovered in May, 2015. The IRS says, taxpayers whose information may have been compromised will be notified by mail.
The FBI versus Apple, about opening a terrorist's cell phone, has been the talk of the nation for several days. Now the issue could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. One presidential candidate though is saying it should have been handled with just one meeting at the White House. Critics are asking, where is the President's leadership on this issue.
Correspondent Kevin Corke reports tonight from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are a staunch advocate of privacy, those for the words of Apple CEO Tim Cook who today told company shareholders that the Tech Titan would resist the government's demand that it unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters so the FBI could access its data.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tim is absolutely right, the problem is not breaking into one phone, the problem is the precedent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't necessarily agree Apple made the right decision.
CORKE: While shareholders strongly debate the company strategy, others have been equally vocal in their criticism of President Obama's refusal to personally intervene in the fight.
KASICH: Where's the president been? You sit down in a back room and you sit down with the parties and you get this worked out. You don't litigate this on the front page of the "New York Times."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A better leader would say that the American people, we are entering a whole new age now, I'm your president, and I am going to guarantee not only the privacy of the American people but the security of the American people.
CORKE: But instead of the President, the FBI Director James Comey has become the face of the administration's push to get Apple to comply. Ten days ago, a federal judge ordered the company to help Comey's FBI unlock that phone. But in his response Thursday, Apple asked the court to vacate the order saying it violated the company's First and Fifth Amendment rights. And while the courts considers Apple's request, other Tech giants including Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Google say they plan to file briefs in support of Apple's right to refuse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about a phone that was owned not by the terrorists but by the local government. The need to extract as much information as possible to learn as much as we can about that incident is something that our law enforcement officials have concluded is a priority.
CORKE: Right. Apple argues that the government is essentially trying to get it to create a software that would make it possible to hack their own product and that something clearly they don't want to do it. By the way, Congress will be weighing in on this on Tuesday as a House Judiciary Committee hearing gets under way that will involve both FBI Director Comey and Apple's general counsel -- Bret.
BAIER: Kevin Corke live at the North Lawn, Kevin, thank you.
The U.S. economy slowdown in the final three months of 2015 wasn't as quite as bad as initially thought. The Commerce Department reported today that gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of one percent in the fourth quarter. A slight improvement from the original estimate of seven-tens, but it still marks the slowest growth in six months.
A mixed end to the week for the markets. The Dow dropped 57, the S&P 500 lost four. The NASDAQ finished up eight. For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent. The NASDAQ was up almost two percent.
State Department officials say, it is, quote, "Put up or shut up time for Russia" to show it is serious about stopping hostilities in Syria. A cease-fire hammered down by the U.S. and Russia went into effect at midnight in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that despite that cease-fire agreement, Russia will continue its fight against terrorist groups including ISIS. But critics on Capitol Hill and coalition partners in the region insist Russia is also targeting fighters battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, some of them trained by the U.S.
Next up -- 1,500 new e-mails have just been released but Hillary Clinton's biggest problem may be the ones that haven't yet been released.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: This is a FOX News alert, the State Department and another Friday night dump of Hillary Clinton's e-mails. This is FOX News has confirmed that top spy agencies have told Congress that entire sections of top secret documents were apparently lifted and found on Clinton's private and unsecure server.
Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge has been following the story, joins us now with news details. Good evening, Catherine.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Bret. The new batch of Clinton e-mails contains another 88 with classified information, roughly 10 percent of today's total. These e-mails are among the most complex, because they contain information from multiple intelligence agencies, and each agency weighed in on the classification. A U.S. government source confirms to FOX that the U.S. spy agency has recently told Congress that some of the 22 top secret e-mails too damaging to National Security to release contain wording that match or closely tracked with entire sections of highly classified government documents. The source said it strongly suggests the information was deliberately copied or lifted, and did not get into the Clinton e-mails by accident. When pressed by FOX today, the State Department said, it is likely more classified e-mails will never be public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK TONER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I'm aware that there are in fact still conversations taking place between the various parts of the parts of interagency, talking about some of the e-mails. Those are on-going. But we hope to resolve them by Monday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: Speaking to MSNBC today, Mrs. Clinton seemed to dismiss the serious nature of the FBI investigation, a characterization that conflicts with the Attorney General's testimony this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a security inquiry going on and, you know, we respect that. It is on its own timetable, but it is moving forward. Then there are these lawsuits. And I think when people say, well, look, you know, this lawsuit, that's what they're talking about.
LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: That matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law, and they'll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: Keeping with the court mandated timetable, the final round of e- mails will be released Monday bringing the total to 30,000. Another 30,000 Clinton claimed were work related and deleted, though FOX is told the majority were recovered by the FBI -- Bret.
BAIER: Catherine, thank you.
Also new tonight, the State Department has turned over more than 1600 pages of new documents related to former Secretary Clinton and Libya, turning them over to the House Select Committee investigating the Benghazi attack. The committee said, the State Department claimed in January court filing that it only recently discovered these new documents from the office of the secretary.
The e-mail release comes on the eve of the Democrats' South Carolina primary.
Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry is on the trail tonight with the latest on the candidates' final push for votes in the Palmetto State.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before Bernie Sanders returned to South Carolina late today, one last stand ahead of Saturday's primary, he stayed focus on Super Tuesday states he must have next week, using a rally in Minnesota to rip Hillary Clinton, accusing her of being too cozy with Wall Street.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She also received, you know, many millions of dollars in speaker fees. Now, she's a very good speaker, I admit that. But to get $225,000 for a speech to Goldman Sachs, you got to be really good.
HENRY: Clinton is looking good in the polls and has not held a media availability since early December. She said very little about Wall Street speeches or her e-mail controversy, instead loading her schedule with events here in South Carolina with an eye toward protecting her big lead. Enduring a quick detour to super Tuesday state of Georgia, she attacked Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, as if she's already prepping for the general election.