Laden had fingers throughout the jihadi world, so he really could look for good ideas and then try to operationalize them.

I think the most notable thing about that was that everybody in this country was kind of glad to see the Soviets run out of Afghanistan.

And we had allied ourselves with the insurgents, with the Mujahideen rebels.

And I think it didn't occur to a lot of people at that time that Afghanistan would be a source of danger and indeed major threat to the United States.

It just wasn't on the radar.

And that may well be where you come in.

At the time, there was a lot of feeling that we weren't busting in there with our military, even for the purpose of running Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait, which he had invaded.

that we would be hated for that.

Bill Hemmer.

They were horrendous.

And they were effective.

And they killed a lot of people.

In the U.S., there were not a lot of American casualties.

There were mostly Kenyans and Tanzanians who were working on behalf of the embassy.

It was a big miss on our part.

The event will start as the first New Year's is celebrated at 7 a.m. Eastern Time in western Samoa and will end 24 hours later when it's finally January 1st, 2000 in every country on the earth.

He was literally, I remember, in the middle of shaking hands with people when I, when I talked to him, and so it was like, uh, you know, turned around and sort of over his shoulder like, "Find out more." Uh, couple of minutes later, uh, Condi Rice, uh, called with the same information.

We talked about everything that was known at that time, which was not much.

Uh, we didn't know where the plane was from.

Uh, we didn't know esact- essentially the, the, uh, the size of the plane.

We just saw a hole in the building, and we were surmising why that would happen.

Maybe somebody ran off course.

Maybe it was a traffic, uh, plane.

Um, and the day started to unfold.

And may God bless America.

What I remember is Governor Pataki taking our crew through Ground Zero.

And you can imagine what it looked like on TV.

So now put yourself among that steel and that smoke and all the activity of trying to clear the area.

We were seven to ten days in now, and that process had already begun.

And when you understand how large this mass of land is, for all those buildings to come down on top of it and to stand in the middle of it, everywhere you looked, it was around you.

And until you got to that point, I don't think we as reporters quite understood it.

He was wounded in the ankle and has been evacuated.

Yeah.

Again, I felt that the whole way, too.

He- listen to, here's the commander in chief.

Uh, he wants it again, Brian.

No shock here.

Give it a listen.

Do you hear that, Johnny?

[laughs] I think FIFA might like that.

And she said, no matter how much you claim to hate America, everyone celebrates on the 4th of July.

I don't disagree.

I would say there was a moment just in the last couple of weeks when the U.S. men's team took the field at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for the World Cup.

and you saw thousands of people just belting out the national anthem with all their red, white, and blue on.

I was like, man, it's been so long since we as a country have had a moment like that where there was no dissension.

It was just like, okay, it's okay.

No politics.

I thought it took a few

[laughs]

I came to New York.

I went through the Jets, the Giants, the Islanders, the Nets, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Yankees, the Mets.

Could only find a slight connection to the Rangers.

And a subway trip downtown.

But I, I think it'd be great.

It'd be wonderful for, for the city, and, um, I imagine it'll be over at noon, and I think those bars will be packed.

Mm

... for this particular rescue.

And he watched within 10 minutes them disassemble then reassemble the wings of the helicopter.

Mm-hmm.

Um, earlier today, the Iranians, by way of the Pakistanis, said, "Your idea of a ceasefire is rejected."

Mm-hmm.

... you know, political differences today and tomorrow and yesterday, but you can't debate that the great experiment was a success.

And I just, I think it's a super cool thing just to stop, take a moment, think about where we've been, how we overcame it, and maybe a little bit toward the end about where we're headed next, and I think that's what 2026 is all about.

Sports and entertainment can bring us together too.

Yeah.

There, there's a lot of that.

I agree with you.

It's a great point.

FOX's America's Newsroom anchor, Bill Hemmer.

Uh, the president has really stayed away.

Uh, I know he did a tele-rally in New Jersey and a little bit in Virginia.

And, you know, listen, I- I think, like, all things considered, for a sitting US president, his presence has been minimized, uh, in all three elections, the governors races in Virginia and New Jersey, then here, uh, in New York City.

I- I think more of the focus has been on what Zoram Mamdani would do, uh, what were his policies would lead people who live in the five boroughs.

Can he enact his proposals that he has talked about? How do you do it? Can you do it without raising taxes? The governor says, "We ain't raising taxes here," uh, although she has endorsed him.

That's gonna be a very interesting relationship to watch, if Mamdani is able to win on Tuesday.

(laughs)

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[upbeat music]

[laughs]

It was, it was, it's a fait accompli.

And so what I want to tell you is that over the past two months, diving into these five boroughs, it's not like studying a county or even a state.

Interesting.

And the reason for that is when you're flying through that sucker on election night, you got real data in real time.

And if you make a mistake, or if the board makes a mistake, you have to know how and where to bail out in an instant.

Uh-huh.

2.7 million people.

Now, you think about it on election night, if this sucker's close.

It might be, it might not be.

If this is close, and you're watching from my home state of Ohio, for example.

Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer is in Gaza and we spoke to him Tuesday.

We met them around right before the sun came out this morning.

They're with the, uh, Gazan Humanitarian Foundation.

That's not an old group.

They've really been in business six months and have been operating here about two months.

Uh, in some ways, they've done some remarkable work in a very short period of time and have made progress, but it is a big, big job.

Uh, we were their guests.

Other than that, who do you wanna talk to? What do you wanna see? What do you wanna discover while you're there if you're allowed to and if you can?

That's a long time.

Right? It's a really long time.

And you don't prep for that.

Um, you know, the, the thing about exercise in space though, this is a really important revolution and a dynamic that we are still trying to understand.

Sonny Williams is an athlete, and Butch said at age 62 he has never lifted more weights in his life.

Uh, saying that he's in better condition now than any other point.

And I think what that tells us is that the scientists at NASA, SpaceX, and Boeing are getting better for understanding how you can keep men and women in shape so that when the time comes to step off in the moon, or eventually Mars, you'll be able to walk out of that spaceship.

but he's got a lot, they got a little work to do.

100%.

And they weren't gonna blow the opportunity, so I, I guess, uh, in the last hour, they said, "We need more time to give you answers on the questions that you have." Questions being, what time did the plane take off, when were you out of US airspace, all that stuff.

But I, I, I think this was an operation that was set in motion.

They wanted to make sure that it happened.

And Trump's an image guy.

He wants to take those images and flood them all across America and all around the world to let you know how you're gonna be treated.

I, I, I think-

Um...

100%.

And they weren't gonna blow the opportunity, so I, I guess, uh, in the last hour, they said, "We need more time to give you answers on the questions that you have." Questions being, what time did the plane take off, when were you out of US airspace, all that stuff.

But I, I, I think this was an operation that was set in motion.

They wanted to make sure that it happened.

And Trump's an image guy.

He wants to take those images and flood them all across America and all around the world to let you know how you're gonna be treated.

I, I, I think-

Um...