(dramatic music)
- [Announcer] Tonight, all options remain
on the table with Iran.
The escalating tension and what it means
for the rest of the Middle East.
And lawmakers take on immigration.
Why the White House saysit will veto a new plan
from the House.
Plus, government agenciesat risk of cyberattacks.
The new warning and what needs to be done
to protect Americans.
All that and more tonight on Faith Nation.
(upbeat music)
- President Trump issuesa new warning to Iran.
Welcome to Faith Nation, I'm John Jessup.
- And I'm Jenna Browder.
In the latest back-and-forthwith the Iranian regime,
President Trump is threatening
"great and overwhelming force"
if Iran attacks anything American.
- This after the IranianPresident rejected
an offer to meet, calling new sanctions
against his countryoutrageous and idiotic.
CBN News White HouseCorrespondent Ben Kennedy
joins us with more on wherethe volatile situation stands.
Ben.
- Well John and Jenna, word from Iran
is these latest sanctions mean
the permanent closure of diplomacy.
Trump accuses Iran'sSupreme Leader and others
of fueling and of funding terror,
which is why these sanctionsspecifically target them.
Words are the weaponsbetween the US and Iran
after President Trump hit the regime
with a new round of economic sanctions.
- [Interpreter] WhatAmerica is doing today
is a sign of its definite failure.
There is an unusual frustrationin the administration
in the White House, a total confusion.
The White House is afflictedby mental retardation
and does not know what to do.
- [Ben] President Trumpresponded, tweeting,
"Iran leadership doesn'tunderstand the words nice
"or compassion, they never have.
"Iran's very ignorantand insulting statement
"put out today, only shows that they
"do not understand reality.
"Any attack by Iran on anything American
"will be met with greatand overwhelming force.
"In some areas, overwhelmingwill mean obliteration."
Even with his strong threat,a new poll shows most voters
back Trump's decision not to strike Iran,
after they shot down an American drone.
- [Reporter] Do you havean exit strategy for Iran,
if war does break out?
- You're not gonna need an exit strategy.
- [Ben] National SecurityAdvisor John Bolton
says that restraint shouldnot be confused with weakness,
adding that in order toprevent nuclear weapons
in Iran, all options are on the table.
- All of this means that the threat
of a nuclear Iran is very real,
as are the threats of Iran'ssupport for terrorism,
its ballistic missile program,
and its other malignactivities in the Middle East.
- Now Bolton calls Iran themain problem in the region.
The White House says thereason behind these sanctions
were to push Iran back to negotiations.
But as you just heardfrom the leaders of Iran,
it appears that will not happen.
John.
- Well Ben, thanks for that report.
With talk of possiblemilitary action against Iran,
some are concerned Israel might
be dragged into the conflict.
As CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief
Chris Mitchell explains, Hezbollah,
one of Israel's biggest threats,
gets its money andmarching orders from Iran.
- [Chris] Looking at these peaceful hills,
it's hard to imagine awell-armed enemy is hidden
and possibly waiting to strike.
- The fact that Hezbollah is involved
in every aspect of life of the people
in those towns and theother side of the border,
enables it to deploysuch a huge and massive
military infrastructure in South Lebanon.
- We're standing on theIsraeli-Lebanese border.
Just on the other side,you can see the yellow
Hezbollah flags flying.
The IDF estimates thatHezbollah has hidden
well over 100,000 rockets in these towns
and villages in Southern Lebanon.
- All of them, comfortably hidden behind
Lebanese civilians, inside Lebanon.
- [Chris] IDF Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel
Jonathan Conricus says, "Thatplays into Hezbollah's hands."
- And the aim of Hezbollah is to be able
to have those rockets, firethem at the Iranian orders
at our civilians, andthen once we retaliate,
that would cause collateral damage,
and they will then try touse that for their advantage.
- [Chris] During fighting in 2006,
Hezbollah launched some 4,000 rockets
at northern Israeli cities.
Now most of Israel isin range of its rockets.
- [Johnathan] Hezbollahis still more armed
than many European armies today.
- [Chris] And it's financed by Iran.
- Iranian money has facilitated this,
as well as many other hostile,
aggressive endeavors that Hezbollah has.
Whether it is the vast rocket arsenal
that Hezbollah has,
whether it is trying to convert rockets
into accurate missiles,
or the tunnel project.
- [Chris] CBN Newsrecently got a rare look
inside the sixth and largest tunnel
Israel has uncovered alongits border with Lebanon.
You're looking at the equivalent
of a 22-story building underground.
Had it not been discovered,
hundreds of armed Hezbollah fighters
could have filled the tunnel,
waiting to attack,kidnap, and kill Israelis.
Reserve LieutenantColonel Sarit Zehavi says,
"There's always a possibility of war."
- I think it depend on howmuch pressure will be put
on Iran and Hezbollah.
It depends likely,though, if Hezbollah said
that if there will be warbetween Iran and United States,
Israel and Saudi Arabia will be attacked.
- [Chris] So will therebe a war with Hezbollah?
- We sure aren't looking for one.
But at the end of the day,
if the Iranians orderHezbollah to attack Israel,
they will be met with avery firm, and strong,
and a painful response by the IDF.
- [Chris] For now, Israel and the rest
of the Middle East wait to see
whether US-Iraniantensions grow or dissipate.
Chris Mitchell, CBN News, onthe Israeli-Lebanese border.
- Well to the battle over immigration,
Mexico is sending troopsto the southern border
to help the US, as itfaces a surge in migrants
from Central America.
About 15,000 militaryand National Guard units
are being deployed.
This is the first timethe Mexican government
has announced troopsbeing placed at the border
with the US.
It comes after President Trump
threatened Mexico with tariffs.
And up on Capitol Hill,
lawmakers are fightingover border funding.
The House today, voting on a bill
to provide more thanfour-and-a-half billion dollars
for things like humanitarian aid.
Abigail Robertson joinsus now from the Hill.
And Abigail, this vote comesas we see these reports
about the terrible conditions at some
of these holding facilities.
- That's right, Jenna.
We are hearing reportsof just awful conditions,
lack of access to basic hygiene items,
like toothbrushes and soap,
flu and lice outbreaks going untreated,
children sleeping on floors.
And to make matters worse,
the agencies that aredealing with these issues
are about to run out of money next week.
So almost two monthsago, the White House sent
a request to the Hillfor emergency funding
to handle this situation.
And House Republicans introduced a bill
that would fund the humanitarian crisis,
also, some of the security concerns
that the White House requestedat the southern border.
Now that House Republicanbill has been voted down
17 times in the House.
But Democrats, now, are recognizingthis humanitarian crisis
and have introduced their own bill
to tackle the situation.
Take a look at what Democratleadership has to say.
- There are children who have been held
in unspeakable conditions.
These are God's children.
These are children who are being held
without adequate food.
These are children who are being held
without adequate medicine.
There is no soap, there is no diapers.
Above all else, there is no human decency.
It's something that we need to address
and address with thefierce urgency of now.
- Now with funds about to run out,
both sides are tryingto get some bill passed.
But each in the Houseare accusing each other
of adding poison pillsto the respective bills.
Here's the GOP leadership'sresponse to the situation.
- The Democrats have refused to vote
for the bill Mr. Rogers has,
which would providehumanitarian assistance
for what's happening at the border.
We continue to watch, evenjust over the last 24 hours,
that they would rather play politics,
that they would ratherlaunch political attacks
then actually do somethingto help those children
at the border.
- Now there is hopewith the bipartisan bill
that's here in the Senate,
but the twist is goingto be getting it passed
in the House, as well, andsigned by the President.
- Abby, where does the WhiteHouse stand on this House plan?
- Well the White House--
to veto the House Democrat bill,
they're accusing House Democratsof throwing in provisions,
like preventing ICE agentsfrom receiving overtime.
They're also saying that their bill
prevents DOD resources from going down
to help the Customs and Border Patrol.
So they don't like this bill
and Republicans are notgoing to support it,
and the President says hewon't sign the current bill
that House Democrats have proposed.
- And what about the Senate?
Where is it on its immigration measure?
- Well the Senate bill passedan appropriation subcommittee
by a vote of 31 last week.
So while neither side saythat the bill is perfect,
it at least can pass the Senate.
And both leadership todayin press conferences said
that at the end of the day,
they want something that can get passed,
be signed by the President,
and get these kids the humanitarian aid
that they so desperatelyneed at the southern border.
- Yeah, absolutely!
All right, Abigail Robertsonfor us on Capitol Hill.
Thank you!
- Experience, that is thequality Democrats want most
when it comes to their eventual2020 presidential nominee.
An Associated Press NORC Poll finds
nearly three-quarters ofregistered Democratic voters,
that's 73%, say experienceis what excites them most
when it comes to supporting a candidate,
over gender, race, age, orany other consideration.
Well President Trump iscasting doubt on Joe Biden,
questioning why thecandidate and former VP
to President Barack Obama,
didn't get his endorsement.
In a Hill TV exclusive, hedescribed the Democratic
front runner as embarrassedand mentally off.
Trump also accused Biden of lying.
- How he doesn't get PresidentObama to endorse him,
there has to be some reasonwhy he's not endorsing him.
He was a vice president, theyseemed to have gotten along,
and how PresidentObama's not endorsing him
is rather a big secret.
And then he goes and lies and said,
"I asked the President not to endorse me."
Give me a break!
- And you saw the President talking there
with Saager Enjeti, ChiefWashington Correspondent
at The Hill, and Saager joins us now.
Saager, first of all, great, great get!
- Thank you, thank you for having me.
- Saager, let's start with that video
You asked the Presidentabout the DNC debates.
He answered by talking about ratings,
and then pivoting to Joe Biden.
What's your sense?
How threatened is he byJoe Biden as a candidate?
- I don't think it'snecessarily about threatening.
Because there's a current narrative here
in Washington where people say,
"Oh, the President is elevating Joe Biden
"by attacking him."
But that's not necessarily true.
Before he was even attacking him,
he was already rising,number one in the polls.
President looks at the race, and he says,
"Yes, Elizabeth Warren and some
"of these other people may be rising."
But at the same time, he has to deal
with the hand that he's dealt.
He believes that's Joe Biden
and that's the personthat he's talking about.
- On the issue of Iran,
you guys made some headlines with this,
and the timeline of that would-be strike.
We're both, we're justtalking about how comfortable
(Saager chuckling) thePresident seems with you.
I know this is yourfourth interview with him,
just this year.
Yeah, he just seems socomfortable answering,
very openly, a lot of these questions.
- I was happy to makehim feel comfortable.
And I think the key is is thatI'm not gonna interrupt him
and then I'm not going to try,
I think there's a lot of gotcha games
and live fact-checkingthat people try and play.
The truth is, is that whenyou interview somebody,
your job to extract information.
Let the fact-checkers dothe fact-checking job,
unless it's particularly egregious,
if it's an outright lie.
In this particular case, I was like,
"Mr. President, what was thetimeline with the strike?
"Because it's very confusing."
What he told us was that he did not have
the death toll estimate.
In the initial time, whenevera strike was being considered,
and it was only until later in the stages,
that a strike was considered.
- Saager, I want to ask you,
today we learned the acting Commissioner
of Customs and Border Patrol is planning
to step down amid theoutrage of the conditions
at the border, the detention centers.
What did the President have to tell you
about those conditions?
- So the President toldus that he does not find
those conditions acceptable.
He said, "No, I do believe that they
"should have access to toiletries."
But he's also placing a lotof the blame on Democrats,
because so much of this is a result
of the asylum laws in the system
that we have in place right now.
As it currently is constituted,
the US has to take custody of so many
of these unaccompanied children,
they have to care for them.
But in the meantime, we have to be able,
the border patrol has to turn them over
to Health and Human Services.
And these children being heldin border patrol facilities,
which were built for adults to be held
for one or two days max.
For multiple days at a time,
it's just breaking the entire system down.
- I thought it was interesting.
The President had somesurprisingly nice things
to say about MerrickGarland (all chuckling)
whom President Obama nominated
to be on the Supreme Court but was blocked
by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
who, at the time, saidthat the American people
deserve a voice in the selection process,
since he came up duringthe middle of the campaign.
Did the President answer thequestion you guys intended?
- So he did, actually.
So this was one of the difficult parts,
half of this was oncamera, half of it was off.
But in the on-camerasection, we asked him,
"Would you nominate somebody,
"between now and Election Day?"
He said, "Yes."
Later on in the print section,
we actually asked him toclarify a bit on that timeline
and if he thought it was hypocritical,
given his support for Merrick Garland's
lack of confirmation?
He said, "Even if it was threedays before the election,
"I would nominate somebody."
And he's like, "Becauseas long as the presidency
"and the Senate arecontrolled by the same party,
"it's not the same situation."
- [John] Fair game.- Right.
- And yesterday, the White House,
they named a new presssecretary, Stephanie Grisham.
You worked as a White Housecorrespondent at one point,
your thoughts on this decision?
- Stephanie's really great to work with.
She's worked with the First Lady's Office
for almost two years,
she's a fierce defender of Melania Trump.
And a lot of peopledon't actually know this,
but I think she has spent the most amount
of time with the Trump familyor in the Trump campaign
or in the White House than Dan Scavino,
who's one of the communications directors
at the White House.
So she has earned his rock-solid trust.
That's something thatmatters to the President
more than anything.
- All right, Saager Enjeti with The Hill,
thanks so much for being with us.
- Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
- [John] Keeping Americasafe from cyberattacks.
Why a new investigation saysleading government agencies
aren't doing enough.
That story when we come back.
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- A disturbing new reportshows personal information
can be jeopardized bygovernment system failures.
- The findings show everyday Americans
put at risk by various US agencies,
and some issues stretchback more than a decade.
CBN News National SecurityCorrespondent Eric Philips
joins us with the details.
Eric.
- John and Jenna, we'retalking about agencies
like Homeland Security, Social Security,
and the Education Department.
All with holes in cyber protection
that could allow a hacker to wreak havoc
on millions of Americans.
The report exposes howeight agencies failed
to address cyber weaknesses identified
by the Inspector Generalmore than a decade ago.
The Social Security Administration alone
risked the information ofmore than 60 million Americans
who receive benefits.
The report revealed that since 2011,
the Education Department has been unable
to prevent unauthorized devices
from connecting to its network,
giving hackers 90 secondsto access information,
more than enough timefor someone who knows
what they're doing.
- It's critical for Washington
to really clean up its own house.
- [Eric] Trevor Logan is a cyber expert
with the Foundation forDefensive Democracies.
- It's a huge attack factor
that we're leaving ourself vulnerable to,
for an adversary to respond.
- [Eric] His concerns,echoed by Don Murdoch,
with the Institute for Cyber Security
at Regent University in Virginia.
Murdoch trains people in government
and private companies tobecome cyber defenders,
those who can recognizesystem vulnerabilities,
expose a cyberattack, and stop it.
He says the threat is real and growing.
- If you look at what'soccurring globally,
there are over 300 well-identified
attack groups that have names or numbers
that we know about, that areoperated by foreign service.
- With ongoing tensionsin the Middle East,
officials believe Iran is ratcheting up
this cyberattack strategy,
even using so-called cyberproxys against the US.
Other likely countriesinclude China and Russia.
There are severalrecommendations to strengthen
the cyber security ofthese government agencies.
They include giving chiefinformation officers
greater authority over decision-making
when it comes to cyber security.
Those officials would also be required
to regularly report their progress
to agency heads andultimately, to Congress.
John and Jenna.
- [Jenna] All right, well thank you, Eric.
Well coming up, the struggleto find affordable housing
takes center stage.
How the Trump administrationis working on the issue
and how Democratic presidential candidates
say they plan to do more.
(light music)
- Welcome back.
As the 2020 campaign looms,
the Trump administrationis tackling a number
of key issues among voters.
- And one big concern,the price of housing.
Today President Trumpunveiled a new initiative
to study rising costs.
And as CBN's Amber Strong shows us,
he's not the only one pursuing a plan.
- From 1600 PennsylvaniaAvenue to the campaign trail,
2020 candidates are looking for ways
to make housing more affordable.
(clapping)
Tuesday, the Presidentsigned an executive order
establishing a council dedicated
to cutting through bureaucratic red tape
that keeps developers fromproducing affordable housing.
It's one way the White House will lean
into the root of the housing crisis.
Last month, theadministration faced criticism
from both sides for trying to cut money
for programs that helplow-income recipients.
- We have a very substantialaffordable housing crisis
and there are two ways to approach it.
Continue to throw money at it,
which has been done for a long time
without solving the problem,
or ask yourself, "Why doyou have that problem,
"an escalating crisis?"
- [Amber] When it comesto the cost of housing,
local politicians have beensounding an alarm for years.
- Rent!
It's too high!
- [Amber] According thethe Department of Housing
and Urban Development, a familywith one full-time worker,
earning minimum wage,cannot afford the local,
fair market rent for atwo-bedroom apartment
anywhere in the US.
Several Democrats running for president,
also see the housingissue as an opportunity.
- So this is the first communityto take a chance on me.
Let's walk up the hill here.
- [Amber] New Jersey Senator Cory Booker,
who still lives in a low-income community,
would offer a tax credit for renters
who face spending 30% or moreof their income on housing.
And former HUD Secretary Julian Castro
wants to combat homelessness.
I was one of those Americans that grew up
in a family that was struggling,
that knows what it's like to wonder
if we're gonna be able to pay the rent.
- His plan expands the housing choice
voucher program and supports organizations
that flip vacant federal properties
into communities for the homeless.
While this is just oneof the many initiatives
coming down the pike ahead of 2020,
it certainly affects millions.
You can expect more ofthese kitchen table issues
as we inch closer to theprimary states and Iowa.
Amber Strong, CBN News, in Washington.
- Thanks, Amber.
When we come back, we'lllook at the amazing lengths
one soldier went on the battlefield
to become the firstliving Iraq War veteran
to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
(light music)
An Army Staff Sergeant, whoput his own life at risk
to save members of his squad,
is the latest recipientof the Medal of Honor.
- David Bellavia is thefirst living Iraq War veteran
to receive the honor.
And instead of using theoccasion to spotlight himself,
he's reflecting on thosewho served on the ground.
- As awkward as this processis to be singled out,
I just want to say howabsolutely grateful I am
that attention can begiven to the men and women
of 2 Infantry, 3rd Brigade First ID.
It's really not enoughthat we honor the fact
that we lost people atwar for this country,
but to acknowledge how theydied and why they died.
They died for us.
- In 2004, Bellaviastepped in the line of fire
to help his squad escape a house
after being pinned down by the enemy.
- Well we salute him andwe salute, as he did,
all those who serve.
- He's a hero.
- Yep, for sure.
Well that's a wrap fortonight's Faith Nation.
- Have a great evening!
(light music)
