by the way, the dow industrials down 160 odd points. there is concern about the tone mr. trump's press conference yesterday. not all investors liked it. my time is up. neil, it is yours. neil: i don't know that i buy, that stuart. did you find it interesting as soon as we got details on the republican plan on health care and go about dismantling it and replace it, they were not all on the same page and we're down already. i notice accelerating almost looks like keystone coppish. stuart: you're right. that kind of statement and development would push the market down. you're right. what is with the glasses, neil? neil: i don't know. [laughter]. what's with the accent? [laughter] stuart: good luck, sir. neil: group hug. thank you very much. we were following this. again as stuart says, we can't get a real handle what is leading to this selloff here.

we do know that we have these triple confirmation hearings going on concurrently with ben carson, choice to be hud secretary and mike pompeo to head up cia and james mattis, department of defense. none of those seem imperilled including down the road, including rex tillerson. what seems to be imperilled is republican unity. i don't want to overstress this or hint it could be problematic. when it comes to getting rid of obamacare replacing the affordable care act, rand paul says replace the whole thing just as you're repealing whole thing. donald trump hinted with rand paul. i like that idea. trump backed off a little bit. saying, you know what? maybe we can repeal and replace quickly later.

to add to the drama in the trump tower, you have all the ceos coming and going. eyebrows started raising when we saw at&t chairman randall stevenson there, he behind the planned merger with time warner, that as looking dicey lately. connell mcshane with the latest from trump tower. connell? reporter: it is interesting, neil, stevenson come and gone from trump tower and didn't say anything to the reporters gathered in the lobby on his way out. there is a lot with the conversation between he and president-elect around the proposed merger, $85 billion acquisition of, by at&t of time warner but the white house incoming president secretary sean spicer in the conference call as you look at the stock prices involved in both, time warner and at&t both a little bit higher today, sean spicer the conference call he holds with us reporters each morning was asked about that about an hour or so ago, he repeatedly said that the focus

every time mr. trump gets together with one of these ceos is on jobs. how do you create jobs? that is the general toons. that was the topic here. doesn't mean they didn't talk about the merger. that wasn't the primary discussion topic, obviously jobs and mergers and acquisitions go together. anytime there is a large acquisition of this type, off the times it will lead to job loss. certainly wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they talked about that but be that as it may, neil, mr. stevenson is gone. he did not speak to reporters on his way out. didn't say anything about it. we'll see. as you know that would be issue handled by the justice department, not necessarily by the president himself. does that change in this incoming administration? maybe. we'll see. neil: how much of this, connell, do you think is driven by the president-elect now, his entire team's dim view of cnn, that

this is really what is driving it? reporter: i don't know. obviously time warner holding cnn leading to a lot of speculation about that. back in october, not that he necessarily maybe had a view of cnn at the time, that is when mr. trump made comment in his administration this acquisition would not be approved. he said nothing about cnn would be saying too much power in the hands of too few. he looked at it, asked about it, and spoke about it publicly on the campaign trail as business transaction, to use his terms, would have too much power in the hands of too few. that is a competition issue. so, would assume, unless we hear differently from the administration, given what happened with jim acosta and everything at trump you tower, we would assume he would handle it same way. we vent heard anything different. neil: i heard you a little while on "imus" this morning

describing it but it had to be surreal here. i wonder going forward, were those seats at the press conference preassigned or could anyone sit anywhere. >> yesterday i think i heard our friend john roberts describe it as free-for-all. it really was. you think of the east room, people watching at home don't care about this stuff, think of east room type press conference in formal setting you expect assigned seating, normally the way president obama and other presidents conducted these press conference in certain order of questions, not people yelling and screaming get attention of the president. the president-elect come in with a list, app, reuters, fox news, whatever it may be. that was not the case yesterday. we got there and many seats were already claimed. for example, cnn, and jim acosta who was sitting right in front of me, he was sitting next to another correspondent from cnn and behind was a third

correspondent from cnn. had a bunch producers. cnn had six or eight seats wrote their names on it. john and i were there, producers were trying to get us seats. we were originally in the third row. we got up, erin, my producer got me up to the second row, not a bad job by her. like to thethe first. john pot the first row seat and first question. inside baseball stuff. i couldn't get a question in, because trump was looking other way whole time but knows i appear with you too much. whatever that may be. neil: that's fine. i thought it was imus spillover. reporter: probably was. neil: thank you very much, connell mcshane. i want to get the read on all these crosscurrents, anthony scaramucci, key member of the trump transition team, close advisor of the president-elect. that whole cnn dust-up has it been resolved or still ill will? >> listen, long term it will be obviously be resolved but i think that the sort of, there is

a little bit of nonsense there. i would say that the journalistic standards that you learned and other journalists learned back in school, we probably have to start following them more aggressively at this point. everybody is trying to get ratings. everybody wants the gotcha story and explosive story, but let's have a couple standards in place. the best line of the press conference, just listening to you guys cost, the president-elect said he was germaphobe, a large portion of that story, don't you think? neil: certainly in the wrong room, if you think about it. talk about some other business developments. market is trending down. there are a lot of crosscurrent to this. could be the leap to 20,000, easier said than done. now he is after pharmaceutical companies, still another hazard that there is dislocation on republicans and how they go about jettisoning the health care law as it stands right now. they're not all on the same page. what is it? what do you think? >> well, listen, the, you and i

have been studying markets our entire adult life. the markets had a huge run-up with all expectation of economic growth and simplified tax code, less regulation. markets are now trying to find a correction, explanation,/alibi, neil. i don't think anything he said yesterday should be knocking the markets off. i think he is just expressing the human concern about prices. he expressing the human concern about the health care situation. he did say something in the press conference yesterday, i think it is very relevant. democrats probably didn't like it. he said this is an albatross or millstone on their necks, affordable care act. our effort to repeal and replace it will be very good for the democrats so they don't have to live with this thing. not to use a president-elect trump word, neil, you about the thing is a disaster. i have family members on this affordable care act, and health care coverage is not good and the prices are ridiculous. so, there is a lot --

neil: wait, wait. you have family members who are on the affordable care act? you're worth gazillions. can't you help them out? >> the truth of the matter is, i tried to do that. you're in an italian family. there is a lot of pride in an italian family. hopefully if they're listening come to me and i will pay their insurance premiums. my point is, when i look what they have, this is nonsensical. neil: what is it, anthony? >> regulation and make it cheaper -- neil: mr. trump given mixed signals on this, maybe you can clarify them. first he said go ahead repeal it and we'll replace it. he had a conversation with rand paul on the very show, repeal and replace, at the same time, avoid headaches, dislocations 20 who have coverage. he seemed to be on board and dialed that back yesterday, repeal but very quickly replace. where do we stand on this. because paul ryan in my office

and i didn't understand what he was saying. >> that is sort of a micro slicing what we do in the journalist community now and on cable news. they're discussing it. neil: but they don't know. they're not on the same page, are they? >> they sort of know. and i think the president sort of indicated he would like to repeal and replace it immediately. neil: yeah. >> what we're learning about the legislative process it is not like a business decision. if you're sitting here in trump tower and we'll do a business deal, we put it together very quickly. unfortunately in washington there is a lot of sludge in the pipes, of process and execution. so we've certainly want to do it exactly the way the president-elect is saying it. we'll meet some practical realities in the process of executing the strategy but here's something i'm very confident, neil because i get the opportunity to sit in these meetings, the affordable care act we'll do away with. the new policy put in place the american people will be very happy with because anytime that

you move regulation to make things more efficient, the costs come down. when the costs come down you deliver better -- neil: so in other words, it might be a little bit of a wait but it's going to happen? >> yeah. neil: let me ask you about donald stevenson popping up in the trump tower. sounds like he is doing everything to rescue the deal with time warner that looked for a while to be a slam dunk. i'm not so sure now. what do you think? the. >> well, i didn't sit in on that meeting so i'm not really sure what happened there but i do remember from my antitrust days in law school that the number one criteria in the sherman antitrust act, what is deliverable to the consumer? and do companies get so big that they are now controlling -- neil: do you personally like it? >> do i personally like it? i have to study it more, neil. i'm not one of these knee-jerk pundits and really have to look at it and look at it through the lens of what the process should be for the law. what i do know, our civil is so wonderful that these companies can become gigantic like

microsoft or this situation or exxon, standard oil years ago or at&t or ibm. those are wonderful, wonderful things but what we have to do from the governmental side to continue to make the economy efficient and help the most people, sometimes you have to impose these antitrust laws. they're not anti-business, neil. they're antitrust. neil: all right, but i'm wondering if it weren't cnn involved, and you nice seem to be -- >> that is booed question. neil: less than robust fans of cnn, this thing would not get so much scrutiny but because it is cnn and donald trump seems to hate cnn, it is full bore? >> well i'm willing to put my credibility on the line on that one though. i do not think any of that is is happen. whatever the -- neil: come on. >> i don't think so, neil. neil: i think you're blocking. i think you're blocking with me right now. >> no, no. come on senator sessions brought this up. we're trying to make return to standards of objectivism to the

judicial process and the justice system. so we want to look at these things, case-by-case, clinically, and objectively because when you do that, neil, you inspire and instill business confidence around the country. so, if you're going to be on a witch-hunt in that direction, that will be a disaster for us. we all know that here at trump tower. mr. trump is not even thinking that way. believe me, there are so many different things he is working on right now. neil: all right. >> so many things he is concerned about, i would put that in a very lower bucket. neil: i'll write it down for now. >> happy new year. haven't seen you in a while. haven't seen you in a while. neil: to you as well. donald trump separating from vast business empires, giving to the kids, no foreign deals while he is still in office, it is in a separate trust, is that real doable? there are a lot of cynics saying no, no, that is not going to work, what do you think? >> well, listen i think it's pretty doable. that stuff i have looked at. i think there will be a little

bit of a process. there will certainly people criticizing it. very, very good news for the president-elect, he has unbelievable air cover. if you study these laws he is the one person at the head of the government that has complete exception. he could technically run the government and operate the trump organization. so he is clearly not going to do that. he is encapsulating himself away from the trump organization. there will be some things from staging points of view and from optics that we've got to work on and be super careful about. i'm sure we'll have critics but i can tell you this, this is something i know for a fact he is 101% focused on serving the american people as the american president. so i, i have been with people here inside of the organization that are adapting themselves now to the new chain of command and decision-making style of both eric and donald trump, jr. i think it will work out very well for the family. i think it will work out even better for the american people. neil: were you surprised that

marco rubio yesterday went after rex tillerson to the degree he did for secretary of state? >> i'm not talking on behalf of the administration but i -- i don't his personal rimm with secretary of state designee tillerson, if you got to know him, i don't think you would have gone in that direction. this is eagle scout at age of 16. he is ernest patriotic american. neil: what with rubio, what is the heck is going on there. >> i think it's it's a little r, neil. senator rubio would be upset me saying that. we're all americans. both of them are patriots and secretary of state designee will do a phenomenal job for the american people and for the president. i think we have to give him a chance. he had unbelievably distinguished career. he knows people around the world, including people in russia, that should be a

positive for all of us. he certainly will put the american people's interests ahead of everyone else in terms of how things get negotiated and thought about. neil: all right. always a pleasure, anthony. sacrificed already a great deal for your country. we appreciate that. >> good to see you. neil: anthony scaramucci, trump transition team member, important counselor to president president-elect and soon to be president of the united states a week tomorrow. we'll be there for that big event. mixed signals, i tell you folks i think there is something there, different vibes talking about jettisoning the health care law. talk they are not on the same page when it comes to tax cuts. speaker ryan has a plan on tax cuts actually isn't really that close to donald trump's. now again they sort this sort of stuff out we're told. but they're not sorting it out, after this. with the xfinity tv app,

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non-slip shoe into that door. on this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. but these days it's phones before forks. they want wifi out here. but behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. wifi pro from comcast business. public wifi for your customers. private wifi for your business. strong and secure. good for a door. and a network. comcast business. built for security. built for business. >> we're in complete sync. we want to make sure we do these things concurrently, at same time repeal and replace. we need to show there is a better way forward, even though this law is collapsing we can bridge ourselves to a much, much better system. neil: all right, but they're not in zing, are they? -- in sync. neil cavuto on "coast to coast."

three different hearings going on concurrently. ben carson, next housing secretary, mike pompeo, the cia direct and last but not least, retired general james mattis for the defense secretary. no one seems any of these people are imperilled for their appointments. having said that, what seems to be imperiled, republican agenda, what was supposed to be a quick rollout is jettisoning obamacare. the devil appears to be in the details. peter barnes with the latested. the rage and debate is over the timing over all this, right? explain. reporter: this is hard stuff to do, despite the fang fact that the president-elect in his press conference we'll repeal it and replace it almost at same time is basically what he said. that is because the president-elect do know there is ledgetive process that has to happen. as you know last night, the

senate, early this morning the senate voted to, for the so-called reconciliation bill which allows them to start the process for repealing and replacing obamacare. it was 51-48 was the vote last night. it allows, prevents any filibusters to occur on the budget side of this, on the tax side of it, on the spending side of it. now the ship has launched. the house is expected to take this up tomorrow to approve reconciliation legislation from the senate. but, as speaker ryan said today, they want to do this through regular order on the house side. that means going through the committees. the good news for critics of obamacare is that the committees have already done a lot of work on this and there have been multiple votes and multiple proposals on house side to repeal and lee place obamacare. it has a big head start but will take some time. there are easy things they can do right away, for example,

allowing young people up to age 26 to stay on their parents's policy. that is pretty simple fix. other stuff on tax credits, harder work will take some time. neil: irony, to your point, despite criticism of republicans they do have alternative plans. the problem is they have too many of them, right? they can't agree on what those alternative plans would be? reporter: that's right. there are multiple plans out there. of course chairman price, who is up for, from the budget committee who is up for hhs secretary, he had a major plan last year that was, was, very come prehens sirf, but senate side, hey, they also, house, and senate republicans have different plans as well. so a lot of work to do ahead. we just heard today that chairman price might not get fully confirmed until maybe mid-february. neil: whoa. >> folks are waiting,

republicans are waiting for his confirmation to fully launch all of this. we'll watch it. neil: delay in hearing of some appointments about price, financial paperwork? >> some of it. a lot is around that steve mnuchin for treasury. he agreed to divest 40 investments to help ease his confirmation. democrats making a lot of hay and they're concerned about potential conflicts. wilbur ross on commerce side about potential conflicts. price is getting because of investing in health care stocks. neil: peter barnes. much is made of the fact that donald trump is setting himself up for a chilly relationship with the intelligence community. what is lost in this argument, in the case of mike pompeo is heading cia. there will be a new boss in the intelligence community. he seems to get along with donald trump. so i'm not so sure there will be friction there but at that could be me.

dow down 126 points. we'll have more after this.

neil: maybe given the attention paid to the russians and their role in hacking the last election, a lot of the questions that have been going mike pompeo's way, of course he is the congressman being considered to be our next cia director, invariably fall back on this theme, the role russians continue to play trying to embarass candidates in both parties including mr. trump, to cause the big dust-up with cnn and bus feed yesterday. i want to dip in a little bit to see how he is handling this. >> what i want to hear from you, i want a cia director who is willing to accept the overwhelming weight of evidence when presented, even if it turns out to be politically inconvenient or require you to change a previously-held position.

so i want to hear from you a guarranty when presented to that evidence, you are willing to take a position that every dids to the weight of that evidence, even if it requires you to change a previously-held position that may have been politically helpful to you or position that you have taken during your tenure in elected office. >> senator, you have my commitment to that. i'm an enengineer by training. you can assure that in my role as cia director i will give you a straight up answer to you and all the policymakers that i have a responsibility. >> thank you. >> congressman pompeo, this brings to close the open session of this hearing. let me add to senator cornyn and what senator warner spoke on and that is -- neil: now they will do the off the record stuff and have a private briefing with mike pompeo. what is interesting there, and i don't know how this would be the purview of the cia director when

it comes to climate change, i'm new to covering all this stuff, i would say mike pompeo had some politically correct or at least a balanced kind of vanilla issue on that and would look at the data and deal with it. rex tillerson was a little more direct in his response to almost the same line of questioning when it came to climate change. of course the former exxonmobil chief, slated to be our next secretary of state. dare argued with a number of democratic senators that this is still a subject of considerable debate. that the information isn't overwhelming in favor of climate change being caused by human beings. and that of course is, was almost an eruption in the committee room when he dared to say that hello hath no fury for incoming cabinet official who might differ what is supposedly consensus opinion. rex tillerson reminding all

there that it is not across the board consensus. we'll remind what a cia director could have in the climate change to date. it would be new to me but some things are, each day is unbundled surprise for me. connell mcshane joins us on these back and forth, what is at stake with some of these appointments. the fact of the matter, republicans have the numbers, connell, don't they? they can pretty much get all the buys confirmed, if not a significant number of republicans peel off which is a question for mr. tillerson when the rough line of questioning from the likes of marco rubio and in a general senate vote from the likes of lindsey graham and john mccain who could conceivably vote against him but i don't see any of these imperilled here, what about you? reporter: probably not. tiller been so with big question mark. when asked about it senator rubio still hadn't made up his mind. he has power to hold it up in committee and could be 10-10, him deciding vote boeing other

way. if there was one looking at i guess that would be it. a lot of people think that senator rubio comes around to voting for mr. tillerson. we'll see. the pompeo hearings, is it is interesting and i heard a little bit earlier, we dipped in at odd time there. earlier when we was going through and asking him a lot about russia, the russia hacking story, seems like he gave a very forceful response in favor of the intelligence community even more than we've heard i think from the president-elect himself. for example on the russian hacking report nothing to cast doubt on it. he called it a sound report. he went on to talk about wikileaks. he said he has never considered wikileaks a credible source of information for the u.s. or any other country, and according to what i was reading earlier, i didn't see this particular part of it, pompeo a little bit of a contradiction with general flynn, incoming national security advisor, hasn't seen

the cia politicized of the that is something you would say about a agency you are about to be confirmed. coming in favor of what the intelligence community is saying. hearing tomorrow, neil, entire house is getting a classified briefing, which was interesting because intelligence committee voted on earlier in the week, as opposed just giving it to us or president-elect or president or top members of congress, we'll give this classified intelligence briefing on the russian hacking to the entire house of representatives. so, cia director, fbi director, james clapper, director of national tell against all up there briefing members of the house. brings up a lot of questions. will they all be more convinced? seems that donald trump press conference didn't have to be there, listening to it yesterday, he was more convinced after receiving his classified briefing because mr. trump for first time thought it was likely russians, right? now the full house will hear it, what will we hear from other

members? neil: drew a distinction as well as entire trump team, connell, seems to me, they were involved but did not affect the outcome. that is how they see it. reporter: they want to make that clear. every time you ask them about that sean spicer or anybody else inside of administration, that is percent thing right away. yes it may have been the russians and chinese were involved in the hacking but it didn't have empack on outcome of the election. first time trump said publicly, i think it was likely the russianss in this case the democratic national committee hacking because he hadn't said in public before. in the past he has been cite critical of the intelligence community. so to come out after the briefing, which was the classified briefing, remember, he came out and sounded a little more convinced i thought. neil: i want to get your thoughts on it, because you and i chatted about it, might be the whole dust-up cnn that donald trump was conflating cnn with buzzfeed.

i heard on your fine show with imus that raging debate with your staff, was cnn to blame tore this. one of your members said, yeah, because cnn might not have mentioned the buzzfeed stuff but salacious comments and allegations there. lo and behold james clapper head of national intelligence said and phoned donald trump to let him know this, hey, we didn't leak these documents. reporter: yes. neil: the question becomes who did and we still don't know that you about that this, they wanted to pin this on cnn when in fact cnn didn't print the salacious stuff. it might have hinted to it. might have drawn some attention, hey, this stuff is out there but this is not going down well, is it? reporter: no. they had, as long as cnn stood by their reporting. what they said their report something accurate, around they say it is i think they had a story. it was bernard mcguirk will be on fox later can speak for

himself but he thought -- neil: i think he represented his view hardly and you were representing your view brilliantly. reporter: i have enough trouble on my other job without you creating more. neil: it was fascinating, because it cuts to the core of this issue, doesn't it? reporter: my view on it basically is this, i was there yesterday, any reporter not called on will say man i wish i was called on. i thought it was different. it built up with jim acosta. he is senior white house correspondent for cnn right mitt middle. senior correspondent for fox news, john roberts, was called on first. some news conferences involved president obama he clearly avoided questions from fox news. you would rather not see in this case president-elect trump in my view avoiding questions from a legitimate member of the media at cnn, their senior white house correspondent. he was trying to ask a question. from my point of view i would rather see him be able to ask

that question. good reporter, fair reporter. just wanted to get his question in, which by the way was asked later on by one of the other reporters there. i think abc reporter but somebody asked him later an what acosta wanted to ask, could trump equivocally say there was no communication back and forth between his surrogates and russian government. he said there was none of that the question got in eventually and there is big-time difference between what buzzfeed did, most of us agree, there is no journalistic reason to be dumping a document on line with absolutely no context and verifying basically nothing in it and what cnn did report on a story. that is legitimate story if stuff was in the briefing, right? neil: i don't agree with it but being on second question just about it and saying that we got the stuff leaked i don't concur

with it. reporter: whoever leaked it, trump was saying he thought it was members the intelligence community. clapper called him and said he doesn't think that was the case. whoever leaked it or sources they say they have multiple sources you still have legitimate story to report if you're reporting on it and if the president-elect or his team have issue with someone, would be people putting that out to the news organization, not necessarily with the news organization itself. they have the legitimate story, what they did, much different, much different than what buzzfeed did. neil: there is huge difference in that world. thank you my friend, very, very much. this back and forth will continue. it did get me to think about this. i will explore a little more on fox news. it is not easy to be ostracized, is it? it is not fun to be fingered by the guy who will be the most powerful man in the free world saying you're not up to your job, then gathering your colleagues in a cabal against you. it is not fun to be foxed, is it?

cnn. we'll have more after this.

neil: all right. these thing always interest me because i'm a people person. i follow people. bold-faced kind of guy. when i see a bold-faced guy at&t chairman randall stephenson in the lobby trump tower and my buddy charlie gasparino says this thing looks a little bit dicey, that trump folks are thinking twice about what sense with at&t and time warner merger. i see what happens with time warner strong as soon as charlie does reporting, it isn't a wonder why charlie is not at the trump tower to explain the situation. glad to have you here. what do you make of it? >> the cherry on top of the whole thing is his continued war with cnn which time warner owns. neil: this is all about cnn, isn't it? >> it is. remember what started donald trump saying opposed

merger of antitrust grounds, that was his cover? it was a beef with cnn and his reporting. then he came out and said he is against it. neil: didn't start out well. jeff zucker was doing everything he could to ingratiate himself. >> hired corey lewandoski, former campaign manager. neil: but the bloom is off. >> cnn, a lot of reporters are liberal, let's be real clear. they went after donald trump. i think this story they did recently is now, it has got to be part of the merger discussions. it shouldn't be. jeff sessions came out -- neil: they didn't do the buzzfeed thing. >> let me make my point. jeff sessions came out today, his attorney general will run the antitrust, extraneous things should never come in but they always do. i read the cnn story. it wasn't as bad as dumping the documents but think about what they did, this is where i

disagree with their analysis and rationale. they're saying they did a story that trump was briefed on documents that were false, that couldn't be verified. they left it out there. bernard mcguirk saying this on "imus." i was listening to connell talk about it, that was actual worse than buzzfeed. you're holding out hey there is something salacious out there. >> they put the sort of i am prime minister at imprime-- of carl bernstein. what mack cart think used to do, this guy is communist, we don't have any proof we're investigating it. media -- neil: what do they have? they won't report the salacious details. they say salacious charges are out there and leave it to the buzzfeed. i understand that. >> called mccarthyism.

neil: but would it get in the way of a merger like this? >> your points to anthony scaramucci one of his advisors were pretty telling. donald trump has a bad temper and he, and he believes in payback. this will be an issue. it has got to be an issue. i think you could see at&t spin off cnn to make this happen. neil: really? >> i'm telling you. remember what jeff session said, you probably didn't but i'm myopically focused, antitrust laws that prevent monopolies, they're not cut and dry. you could interpret them in a lot of different ways. you could interpret at&t controlling 25% of the distribution out there between cable and satellite, having a a big content provider with hbo and big news provider cnn being anti-competitive. there is a lens you could look at. neil: if you're at&t, do you want cnn? just, right? >> i think so. but i'm telling you this deal,

if there is ever been, listen, i think trump was getting hammered with a lot of lobbyists. i think there are members of the congress generally like deals to go through because they're more free market but i think this is negative on the deal. neil: grasping at straws with jake tapper, who i great respect. opposite me of, he mentioned one day he had a good demo day. that's fine. needless to say our ratings are going great, mr. president-elect if there is any problem -- >> reporters citing ratings, the old days people used to attack fox business and me particularly when he left from cnbc. neil: that was from us here. >> your ratings suck. neil: no,wer said that you sucked. >> that too. but now our ratings don't. i don't go, i care about the story. when jake tapper should be defending is the story, i think -- neil: which he did, but i understand keep focused on that. >> neil, if you do an

investigation, if we say, if, if congressman mccarthy comes and says, senator mccarthy, neil cavuto is communist because he is friends with x, y, z, we're investigating everybody covers that, that is textbook mccarthyism. donald trump, there is dossier on donald trump which federal government briefed him on but, but, you know, we can't substantiate the whole thing, that is mccarthyism. neil: that is interesting. chatting a little bit during the break is that, cnn is finding itself in the position of being fox, right? >> yes. neil: arguing that it is standing by journalistic standards as are we, yet being fingered by the most powerful man or soon to be most powerful man in the free world, no, your standards are not my cup of tea, only difference media rallies around for the most part cnn. no one rallied around us. >> that is true. we were out there alone. some of our guys were being investigated, right? neil: right. >> this is a little different that donald is making it very

personal. i'm more worried about him getting through tax cuts and deregulation. neil: that is the big -- to illustrate my point, just indulge me on this. >> sure. neil: i want you to react to this, everyone is making a big deal donald trump fingering one news network. does anyone, anyone out there remember any of this, let's go back in time. take a look. >> look, if i watched fox news i wouldn't vote for me. [laughter]. if you talk to somebody said, well, i don't know i was watching fox news and they said this horrible, if i watched fox news i wouldn't vote for me right, right? right. >> because you have got this screen, this fun house mirror through which people are receiving information. >> okay. neil: hold on a second, fun house mirror. i hope it is a thinning one. well, i'm just saying, charlie, cnn has been royally foxed. for this incoming administration they could find themselves in the position of being foxed. it is not a fun position to be

sneered, dismissed, shunned by the most powerful man in the free world. no one rallied to our cause. >> right. neil: our cause didn't matter. truth, journalistic standards, none of that matter. >> and access we needed at times was cut off. neil: they were happy to see it. >> they didn't care. listen i'm not down on the washington bureau much. we have great reporters down there. james rosen is good friend of mine. they're amazing. neil: others are marginal, right? >> they're all great. that is a topflight organization. they're reporters. neil: all were alienated. >> they are reporters. one thing i'm not going to return sean hannity's call. sean couldn't care less. he is opinion guy. it is another thing to take it out on our reporters which is what he did. neil: i don't care where people stand whether you like fox, hate fox, like cnn, hate cnn but standards are very, very different. i'm just saying that cnn has experienced a little bit of what fox routinely has experienced

these last eight years. and it ain't fun. >> no. and you know, listen, you i don't think, as a reporter, i couldn't care less to be honest. neil: right. you like to be hated. >> if you don't call me back, that's your business. neil: i feel vulnerable. i like to be liked. >> the wall street guys learn, you don't call me back, i got sources an targets. neil: you're vindictive. >> i am. i'm like donald. neil: you're a junkyard dog. >> he will hold this against them. i don't care. i know donald, he will sit in the office and he will break stephenson's chops likes no tomorrow. stephenson will beg to approve the deal and do all these jobs. when leaves, donald will say screw him. neil: wouldn't it be funny if they canceled at&t service at white house. we don't need it the we'll shout. >> verizon. put head of verizon on the phone. neil: or give me his head on a plate. we have a lot more after this, including dow in and out down 100 points.

a lot of that might have to do with this stumbling and bumbling out of the gate by republicans. not entirely. when you put pharmaceuticals in your sights as well as others you have reassess what has been a nice little rally here. we'll see you after this. ♪

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other company said. environmental protection agency is saying fiat chrysler used at least eight undisclosed pieces of technology to skim on the emissions, obviously violate the clean air act violations. what we're seeing now, the stock is tanking. we're talking about what dates back to 2014, the green grand cherokee, dodge ram 1500, just to name a few. this is over 100,000 vehicles. sergio marchionne of chrysler came out and had a press conference short time ago, he is standing tough, we'll address the concerns. we will show that our technology meets the obviously the applicable requests they have seen. it came out of the wild, out of the blue, even saying that the allegations, timing is being questioned ahead of imminent change of the administration. he is denying any illegal activity for fiat chrysler, really intent to be steadfast on this one.

this is going to be a real back and forth. this comes on the heels what we heard from volkswagen and they lost over $15 billion in their market value and obviously sales went along with it to the downside. as they're looking into other automakers this is what they're saying they're finding. sergio marchionne is sticking to his guns. we'll show we'll make it through this and survive. they have stopped production on a few of the models. neil: nicole, thank you very, very much. nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange. we are getting word that the senate armed services committee approved the mattis waiver, not him for defense secretary but this waiver that would normally prevent a general who has been out of military service less than seven years to be considered for a white house job. because he has been out for about four years so technically wouldn't qualify but the committee overwhelmingly gone ahead come up with a approval

waiver to allow him to get the job. not expected to be a problem in the house either. up and down vote likely and they're expecting it will be an up vote. we'll have more after this.

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dream to rebate here in going on right now for ben carson. had at the cia retired general james mattis, defense secretary. doesn't seem to be imperiled, but things could change. adam shapiro has news from those hearings. hey, adam. >> hey come and kneel. the committee just voted 24-3 in favor of the waiver to allow general james mattis to become the next secretary of defense. the senate will not take about are not expected to happen sometime around 3:00 this afternoon. the waiver would allow general mattis to become secretary of defense. the waiver is necessary to do a

slob requires a military opposite to be a civilian for at least seven years in order to become secretary defense and general mattis retired four years ago. the house of representatives expected to go to the waiver tomorrow. general mattis told the committee the u.s. armed forces must be the best lady quit their most lethal force in the world and ready to stand up to russia. president electron. >> i've had discussions on this issue and he showed himself open. even to the point of asking more questions and going deeper into the issue about why i feel so strongly. he understands where i stand. reporter: the confirmation hearing for representative pompeo, senators asked the nominee to become cia director about the allegations that russia interfered with the u.s. presidential election and how the government should respond.

>> we are going to require an incredibly robust american response that is a security-related response as they get better defending against these and then a response that holds actors accountable who commit these kind of actions against the united states of america. reporter: dr. ben carson, nominee to become the urban development has also been grilled today. all three of these nominees are expected to be confirmed. back to you. neil: any fireworks? certainly we had rex tillerson experience! yesterday. >> not on the same level. elizabeth warren got into it with dr. carter with dr. carter center and a confirmation hearing and then she got into it with general mattis jury not confirmation hearing. she was, by the way, one of the three who voted no against approving the waiver to allow him to become secretary of defense. >> i wonder whether some of these guys who get the challenging opposition are

trying out for 2020 whether it's elizabeth warren is certainly new jersey senator cory booker yesterday in the case of jeff sessions. maybe this could be used as a springboard to other things. >> perhaps. practice makes perfect and they'll have for years to this. neil: thanks, buddy. adam shapiro. republican congressmen from the fine state of texas. how do you think it looking for the plane is thus far? >> i think it looking real good if i think it's a great first step on the senate armed services committee just voted 24-3 to grant general mattis' waiver. i am very optimistic that we will see these three individuals confirmed. neil: do you know any of the three who didn't? >> the only one i know is just what i heard on your broadcast and that it's elizabeth warren.

neil: that's what i heard, too. so he is expected to pass. what a centrist dean as some of the foreign-policy candidates have presented a somewhat different view than a spouse by donald trump. this is all part of the confirmation process where they can't be too empty on the sub to, but to a mandate, they agree russia is behind a lot of the hacking going on in the election. they don't think it affect the outcome, but they are going to go so far or stand behind the type of reaction that barack obama has kicked diplomat out or maybe continuing sanctions. what you make of that? >> the obama administration as the white house for eight years now. what is new about russia hacking and spiting and creating mischief and all of a sudden

they lose an election and is front and center and he's sending 30 some odd russian diplomats packing and trying to cancel dispersions on the election of donald jay trump. do i trust mr. putin? absolutely not. i feel like the russians have been bad actors. however, we do have common enemies and common problems and if we can work across hand-in-hand on this problems, i certainly hope we can. but i am very, very belated with these three appointments. pompeii was a great guy, select intel for a long time. general mattis type and gives an excellent choice for secretary of defense. as a veteran myself, i have a son who's a navy seal for many years. i can tell you one of the first

so-called site made as to my son when i heard general mattis had gotten the nod from mr. trump. he said great guy. the folks i can in the military. i am very happy. i'm an civilian control of our military. the military is greatly diminished. the department of defense has some problems and rainy to rebuild. i think general mattis is just the man to do that. mike pompeo needs to take the hamas cia which is obviously got some political problems going on there. >> what you make of chuck schumer, and i'm paraphrasing here that it's generally not a good idea to take on the question in the intelligence community. it almost sounded like a threat level that donald trump that these guys can go back to bite you. lo and behold we get this revelation of the report that

the intelligence community famous wasn't coming from them, that was meant to be an embarrassment to donald trump. i am thinking when did he know that? why would he talk like that? what do you think? >> i'm like you. it makes me wonder what in the heck is going on. it looks to me like mike pompeo is going to have his work cut out for him when he goes over there and gets confirmed. his throw in a lot of hurdles and road locks. >> you agree with james clapper at the director of national intelligence during the president-elect to say we didn't leak this? he obviously went out of his way to try to assure mr. trump. it came from somebody. >> absolutely. i would be speaking out of

ignorance. it is very strange i can tell you that. >> switching gears on this domestic issue in health care. speaker ryan may be added more confusion to this. i don't think intentionally when he talked about how this is going to be repealed and replaced. i want you to react to this. speaker ryan a little while ago. >> we are working on aggressive timetable and will rework the process as best we can. we're not holding hard deadlines because we want to get it right. we need to move quickly because the lots collapsing. we will go through regular order unlike what the democrats did. neil: what does regular order mean? i had grandpa saying repeal and replace simultaneously. now that doesn't look i guess lately so repeal and then replaced as soon as they can donald trump's latest direct it. where are you on this? >> this is a convoluted process there's no question. look at obama carousels.

it is a hopelessly convoluted, complex confusing mass 2500 pages long that the democrats passed without one single republican and they hadn't read the bill yet as he so famously heard mrs. pelosi said. i'm a health care provider and i campaigned to get rid of obamacare to repeal it and replace it and that's exactly what i'm going to do. i like the numbers of the budget resolution. not really, but it's a vehicle. this is not a budget. this will be revisited later. the main thing it's going to be a vehicle to repeal the terrible lot that is hurting americans, small businesses, individuals, families and give us a chance to replace it. the key. we don't have a replacement plan yet. that is wrong. we have a lot of replacement plans.

>> i'm glad you said that. republicans are good at ripping things up, but it's hardly been a secret. i've been following this a bit too closely. the one problem is to have too many alternative plans. have you called -- coalesced around literally dozens out there, but have you coalesced around one another's view all agree covering preexisting conditions, keeping on, keeping out of policy longer, but there are some new features as far as paying for it. >> i am in the republican study committee and i certainly am supporting not and we roll that out last week as a matter of fact. it's a good conservative plan. it has all those features you just said plus many others. it gives you a deduction of $2500 in individual and 20,500 for families. it enables you to have a health savings account. there's just so many things that

we could do to empower american people again so that they would have the choice says. right now one third of the states in this country don't have one choice because the death spiral that obamacare is then. we want to give folks a chance to choose the policy is that they choose the.or if they want. listed, i have five children. my youngest daughter and her husband, and their three children and essentially paying to house mortgage every month and every year. for what they are paying for their health care. the $6600 to do the bull. there's five of them. you basically have it about the bull basically conserved a

thousand and paying $12,000 because it's 1000 bucks a month for their premium. people need relief and we want to rescue them. we want to empower the american people and that's what it's all about. neil: congressmen come it didn't matter much. we will watch the drama unfold. to the congressman's point, that can't be stressed enough. i followed the health care issue pretty closely. when your deductible so that tie in premiums jump that high can you less inclined to get the care you need because it is pricey. i don't care whether you're right or left or republican or democrat, you are not going to check yourself out. you can do with the lot of diseases and things if you catch them early. but if you've got eye-popping developed both like that, whatever they come up with, again the republican plan, democratic and needs to be fixed because just because you have health insurance, the deductibles or so off the charts high. the irony is you can't pay for

it and some of the things you have to address are too expensive for you to follow up on. and they say most cancers, most cancers are treatable and beatable if caught early. you have a high deductible, are you going to do that?

>> since you're attacking us, can you give us a question? mr. president-elect. >> go ahead. not you. not you. your organization is terrible. your organization is terrible. >> quiet. go ahead. she's asking a question. don't be rude. don't be rude. don't be rude. no i'm not going to give you a question. i am not going to give you a question. you are fake news.

neil: i hate you. you know what, i know it. believe me, i'm not a fan of the guy who stands to be the most powerful man in the world singling out a news organization, but i will say this. this is going to be a very different president. i invite trish regan back here talking about that. we might not see press conferences every day and what we see will be maybe something like that. so you better bring your a game. >> and my combativeness. they are from cnn kind of crossed a line. he is the president-elect. you just don't do that. it sounded like in the beginning they had been called out. but i've done not.

i'm on the entire other side of the room. >> it's not a goggle. you are not going to mike in someone's face. there is an advocate that surrounds the president-elect. you wait to be called on. you hope you do get called on. we've been in the position of not being called on readily. >> i would never do that. i wouldn't shout at the president by the president-elect. i would've kept it going now played. it really became a moment onto itself that was just inappropriate on many, many levels. neil: you cover the media and has been in the media obviously. presidents have their favorites and they have to be people there be people they like on the they like. >> i think that donald trump may

have some favorites. however, i don't think that he's as entrenched with some members of the media as people think because if anybody were to criticize him, he would naturally fall back into that. neil: criticism can sometimes be in the eye of the beholder. he sees it as a low blow. the presidents of both parties the same. >> the same of president obama. neil: but we just ran a string from president obama. he never liked fox. and so you keep mentioning because the fox nation or we are playing in all these bars and all that stuff. that is fine. i blame the thyroid for the weight gain. that's how i roll with it. if donald trump isn't going to be big on daily briefings with

sean spicer or even the frequency of press conferences on behalf of himself, even though he's very good at it, what's going to come of that relationship? >> is going to get tricky because the price is hungry for information. they want to hear from them. we want to hear from him. that's part of the whole process. but here's the thing. it's got a lot of people out there talking. he's doing a lot of tweaking. he's having his impromptu moments. neil: press, this can be a big deal. >> that's what you call good tv, right? neil: i don't have the numbers in front of me, but the questions he took, i think it took 17 questions, but he did it in half the time that barack obama did in his last press conference last month. in other words, he is taking twice the questions. >> by the way, that's a good thing.

you run into it with these political types as they come on, you ask them a question. they danced all around the place. they are going around and around the mulberry bush. they don't get to the actual answer and i try to filibuster your other really good at it. neil: really try hard to answer almost every reporter's question in the room was john kennedy. when you go back and see how he averaged in excess of 30 to 35 questions in a typical press conference. some he just answered yes, no, can't answer that. maybe in our legal age where everything comes back to bite you if you don't parse your words exactly, we can't get back to that. there's got to be a happy middle ground. >> i think it's encouraging he took so many questions, does take so many questions and is moving through like a businessman. perhaps one of the reasons he's not as accessible right now is he's worried about that he can put himself into trouble because he is so forthcoming in terms of what he says.

neil: while you're here, just coming in from the justice department inspector general is going to investigate the justice department and the fbi. whether that involves direct way james call me and what he knew or didn't know, now they are going to investigate because both sides are getting ticked off. >> yeah, you dirty has into bitter one. look, you don't want any foreign entity messing with your election process and we should once again clarified. >> but whether call me and the fbi and having friction with the justice department had it out for hillary clinton for hillary clinton and podesta saying he's the reason why they lost. >> i think comey was then a tough spot. you're if you do are if we don't

without one. >> they are not given up on this whole hillary clinton thing. >> so where does that leave folks? if you are comey, bring up this issue if in fact you think there may be -- neil: two days before the election. >> he does not look good in this thing. neil: he served for years now. >> it's a very tough spot. neil: it's a crazy world. it's going to be a crazy for years. but i think it's going to be very entertaining. i do. thank you, trish regan. catcher later on. in fact, just about every seven minutes from now. something like that. by the way, the senate is now looking to take the first steps to get rid of obamacare. it's just a little teeny problem. the house isn't in agreement. after this.

>> we are going to go as i mentioned in my opening remarks to the process as it was designed to recommend a system to make sure that we spell out exactly how we are going to deal with this law, using all the options and tools available to can type this rescue mission to rescue people from the collapse occurred with obamacare. hey nicole. hey! i just wanted to think your support team for walking me through my first options trade. well, we're all about educating people on options strategies. i won't let this accomplishment go to my head. get help on options trading with thinkorswim, only at td ameritrade. i'm raph. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys you can talk to through legalzoom. don't let unanswered legal questions hold you up, because we're here, we're here, and we've got your back. legalzoom. legal help is here.

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>> it is a bullies. it is a bullying. it bullying the company that didn't give the donation. i gave the donation personally for a pac for trump. my cousin gave four years ago and gave many more times than the amount i did. the point, we should have the privilege. we live in america. this is a free country! neil: all right. you might have seen the chat with linda bean on this network. president-elect tweeting, thank you to linda bean of l.l. bean for your great support and courage. people will support you even more. buy l.l. bean.

caused a huge dust-up in the media, oh, my god, she is giving to lucifer. it is outrageous. if you say that, say the same, family has traditionally given to barack obama or democrats in the past. becomes an issue because of this guy. becomes an issue all these entertainers who won't sing or be entertaining at his inauguration. i always think that kind of thing is to celebrate not just this incoming president, but presidency and historic transfer, peaceful transfer ever power, but, what do i know? meanwhile speaker paul ryan says there is a replacement plan for obamacare but there are a lot of options to that and they can't agree on the options. gerri willis, you and i chatted about this before. the rap against republicans, you guys are great at tearings things apart but you don't have anything of your own.

the dirty secret they had almost too much of their own. there is gazillion plans of their own. >> that's right. neil: they can't agree on the alternative plan sore what does it stand? >> let me tell you what happened here, it is fascinating and completely complicated when they got to this, but it congress. what can you expect. senate passed in early morning budget resolution calls on two committees, one in the house, one in the senate, coming up a plan by january 27th for throwing oust obamacare. pretty much passed along party lines with the exception of rand paul. it now goes to the house tomorrow. one question, why did they do it that way? that means anyone they come up with can be passed by a simple majority. let me tell you how the senate majority leader did in early morning hours. he said the senate took a important step toward repealing and replacing obamacare by passing a legislation that provides legislative tools to repeal this failed law while we move ahead with smarter health

care policies. you might be asking yourself, what does the president-elect think? he is not a member of congress. he can't vote on this. he is not part of these deliberations but he gave a big shoutout to the senate. congrats to the senate to take first steps #to repeal obamacare. now on to the house. it is anybody's guess ultimately how it will turn out and what that replacement bill might look like. we're still trying to guess at that. what is interesting trump has said, and it is new today, we should pay a lot of attention to, trump is saying let's get on it. there was a plan to spend two or three years talking about what replacement would be, trump wants it sooner rather than later. neil? neil: thank you very, very, very much, gerri willis. we're getting a few details on internal probe how the fbi, and justice department, the justice department oversees fbi and how it handled the email case and

james comey on both sides saying he botched it. revealing the investigation wasn't over a couple weeks before the election. days before the election saying we got everything we want. bottom line they're reexamining that whole thing here. they want to get an investigation knowing who knew what, and when, what was bounced off whom and when, and this scandal seemingly dead and gone after the election has now been, well, revived into the presidency of one donald trump. andrew napolitano on that after this.

neil: all right. this breaking. the department of justice watchdog is launching a an have eggs into fbi's preelection clinton emails who knew what and when. james comey as the director there, reporting to the justice department, a lot of things weren't communicated, if they were were not communicated clearly. they want to get to the bottom of it. thank god the smartest legal mind in the world is with me. judge andrew napolitano. hello me. what is being done here? >> the inspector general every executive agency, agriculture, veterans, affairs, has an ig, inspector general. does not work for the attorney general. does not work for the director of fbi, works for himself. he has a team assigned fbi agents assigned to him. they can investigate anything. here is what they will investigate. the chance meeting of former

president bill clinton and loretta lynch. neil: at the airport. >> at phoenix airport when bill clinton and hillary clinton were both subject to the criminal investigation by the justice department. the decision by the director of the fbi to recommend no prosecution without any input from senior people in the justice department. the decision by the fbi director to reopen the case on the basis of huma abedin and anthony weiner's emails before they examined the laptop 11 days before election day. all these things donald trump quite properly complained about during the campaign will be subject after truly independent, non-partisan, independent investigation from inside of the doj. neil: so if you will endure these questions, this isn't the administration investigating this? >> it is not. neil: so this is an independent inspector general and he has rerein to investigate anyone and everyone? >> correct.

he can summon the attorney general. she won't be the attorney general when he does it. i don't know if jim comey will be director of fbi but can summon them and put them under oath. neil: jim comey is in office for several years. >> he is in office until leaves or president trump asks him to leave. neil: can president trump ask him to leave early? >> yes. neil: and he has to honor that? >> yes. neil: this report by the ig, how long could it take? >> neil, depends what they find, during the surged night football game, green bay packers during the new york giants which was a debacle if you live on west coast, fbi released 300 emails that contained state secrets. they were sent to sid blumenthal and he was hacked by one hostile power and friendly power. russia hand china. the friendly hackers, the israellys. this paints entirely different picture from the email case from

the one director comey painted on july 5, when he recommended against indictment. one. metrics what the government looks for when it decides to prosecute, was their harm? mr. clinton denied emphatically there was harm. she denied emphatically she caused secrets get into the hands of foreign governments. we have proof they did get into the hands of foreign governments. neil: john podesta, who ran her campaign said if not for comey's intrusion she would have won. we don't know but anyone's guess. will this satisfy both sides? there has been talk, get independent prosecutor going. donald trump himself has vacillated on that right after the election. leave them alone, done, done. this absolves him from any of that, right? >> well there is still the issue whether or not mrs. clinton should be prosecuted. when senator jeff sessions -- neil: wouldn't that depends what comes out of this ig? >> no. would be a different investigation. neil: really? >> when senator sessions was asked that at his confirmation

hearings on monday, excuse me, tuesday, you were very critical of mrs. clinton during the campaign. can you be fair-minded with the respect to the investigation of her? i don't have to be fair fair-minded. i don't have anything to do with that vision. with that investigation. she is still being investigated whether the clinton foundation was a true charity or some sort of a subterfuge. she is being investigated whether she made decisions as secretary of state intended to enrich the foundation which would be public corruption. now the email investigation is being reopened for the second time, opened, closed, open closed, open, third time. neil: right. >> because of what the fbi released on sunday night. neil: incredible. >> and the attorney general will not be involved. there will an investigation but the number two or three person in the justice department will be running it. mrs. clinton, hire a law firm. neil: where does this go? after an ig does a report,

however, where does it go? >> that's a great question. the ig can not indict. the ig puts a report out there. if the ig finds indictable offenses it is up to the doj, the subject of the report, though it will be a different doj -- neil: right, it's a different doj. >> correct, correct. the report will go to presumably attorney general sessions and he will decide whether or not anybody should be indicted including perhaps his predecessor for what is in the report. neil: mugs game it may be, how likely would he be to take action? >> you know -- neil: in that event? >> it is interesting, this stuff came out during the giant game may very well prod president obama to pardon mrs. clinton. neil: i didn't think of that. >> donald trump would probably welcome that. it takes a big headache off the plate of the trump administration. neil: okay. while i've got you here as well, donald trump has divested or says he will divest all his

business interests, including all foreign ties, all foreign transactions even his kids running the business, his go oldest boys, a lot of critics say doesn't go far enough. different standards for the cabinet, has to go through far more aggressive hoops than he cuts, will this work or come back to bite him? >> nothing he does will please the people who don't think he should be president of the united states. neil: right. >> what he announced yesterday is far more than what the law requires of him. when he said i was just offered $2 billion to use my name for a development in dubai, he has the right to do that under the statute. a senator canned do it. member of congress can't do it. a janitor in the defense department can't do it but the president and vice president can. they can operate a business and they can relief income for activities they conduct outside of their official jobs. those are only two employees of the federal government can do that. what donald trump did yesterday is far more than what the statutes require of him.

neil: one last thing, clapper, the intelligence agency was not the one, phoned donald trump to say intelligence agencies did not leak this info out on donald trump that obviously ignited this fiery response with the cnn reporter yesterday. if that's the case, who did, how big of a deal is this? >> gosh, i wish i know who did. it's a big deal. somebody somewhere used a intelligence agency or intelligence-like agency to create a false report, a threatening report about soon to be president of the united states. that is very, very serious, whether you like donald trump or not, whether you voted for donald trump or not, you should be concerned about who, what, when, where, why and how of this. i hope the new justice department and new cia can get to the bottom of this. neil: what is creepy chuck up schumer warning a few days ago, not a good idea, mr. president-elect to criticize intelligence agencies. almost if he knew something or was acting the role tony soprano.

>> i was sorry to hear chuck schumer say that. as skilled as he is, he would have demonstrated more skills to pick up the phone, mr. president, here is what i know and here is how i think you should address that, because i agree with you, neil. it was ominous tone to his public warning. then this awful stuff happened. neil: scary smart doesn't cover it, judge. >> it is scary, these times. neil: but this packers-giants reference, was brilliant. >> don't tell me you're a cheesehead? neil: i have no idea. apparently it was a big game. >> it was. neil: judge, thaw, very, very much we'll have more, the fallout from all of this and whether the president-elect will be tweeting on this. he has kind of had a low-key tweeting day thus far. that could change. liberty did what? yeah, with liberty mutual all i needed to do to get an estimate was snap a photo of the damage and voila! voila! (sigh) i wish my insurance company had that...

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neil: all right, now you're hearing about internal probe it might be for both parties best

of all worlds let somebody independent handle clinton emails, who knew what and when and charlie gasparino from the fallout of all this because this is going into the new administration, charlie. >> i've been talking to fbi people recently and you know, they didn't know this was coming out today, but i can tell you people over there are walking on eggshells about whether james comey will, will be relieved from his duties as fbi chief or asked to step down as fbi chief. and whether his deputy director will also be, would also be asked. this is predating this, literally up to the last couple days where -- we've been reporting this out there is rampant speculation inside fbi, donald trump, president-elect, when he comes president will ask comey to step down and redo entire management of the fbi, bringing in new people, possibly

rudy giuliani is one name that is bouncing around the fbi. so this i think turns up the heat on that, and i'll tell you this, is, when you change the fbi director, and you know, that has an impact across the spectrum. neil:s that hasn't happened yet. obviously you think that is a possibility. rudy can jewel -- rudy giuliani has been hat trump tower. this is not good time for intelligence agencies. this revelation before the election. latest dust-up with cnn and president-elect about the dirt on trump. i'm telling you the intelligence agencies have a big ol' black eye. >> look at this way. trump has been going after them. i thought he was off base going after them but he is starting to make sense now. james comey, during the election, excuse me loretta lynch, actually met with bill clinton right before, someone who worked with her, head of the fbi. she was attorney general, head

of fbi had to rule on the email case. that is absurd. look at this thing, you the judge, kind of boiled it down to really clear and concise elements before about what this ig cases. this is, excuse me, what the thing with, the leaked memo from buzzfeed meant. intelligence memo with no substantiation writ written by outside party and totally disavowed. neil: and clapper said it didn't come by us. >> which totally vetted and they didn't find anything and leaked to the press. that is outrageous. neil: think of chuck assumer's remarks a few days ago, warning donald trump don't be going after these agencies. i'm paraphrasing, they can come back and bite you, and lo and behold this bite, i'm not connecting it but a lost weird stuff is going on.

>> i think schumer, not that i mentioned it to anybody, i was thinking in my head as well. when you go after the intelligence community, remember he went after them on different issues, weapons of mass destruction. neil: right. >> when you go after spies, they can get back at you in a lot of ways including leaking stuff like this. schumer thing might be a little bit not directly related to what we're talking about. neil: absolutely. it is all part of the noise but one of the things i did learn from the judge here is that the ig can make a recommendation, let's say, wanting them to, for the justice department to take action. >> right. neil: then it's up to the justice department which would be a trump justice department, which would be jeff, assuming he is, made as attorney general of the united states. >> right, right. neil: then all of a sudden it is up to them. then what? >> well that's true and remember one other thing here and this kind of gets into it, the fbi director has i believe a 10 or 13-year term, very long term, right?

he, he can't really be, it is not like, not like it's a cabinet secretary where he serves purely at the pleasure of the president, but he can be told to leave and you can relief him if you think he did something wrong. neil: judge was saying yeah, in trump feels he worn out his welcome, good-bye. >> but he could use the ig report as basis or catalyst to do it. that is what we're seeing here. that is interesting, rudy giuliani was hanging around trump tower doing stuff. watch that name. neil: buddy, i appreciate you belatedly putting a tie on? >> sorry, i ran to the set today. neil: the way you roll like clark kent in action. thank you, buddy. charlie gasparino, stunning developments whether it has any effect on trading, no. but i will say the dow has gotten out of down triple digits to now down 86. we'll have more after this. introducing conduent.

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neil: you'll never, seems to be amazed, people who just show up at the trump tower lobby. the latest being eric schmidt of alphabet. neil: ie, former google fame, worth $12 billion. joining a busy week of billionaires paying a visit to the president. bernard arnault, lvmh. carl icahn, frequent friend and visitor, 18 billion net worth. mr. arnault worth billion dollars. if you add him to the softbank ceo and add up jack ma of alibaba, we crossed $200 billion net worth mark of very successful guys visiting donald trump, wanting to get an

audience with the king, as it were. all of this at same time we're getting principals behind big mergers also visiting the president-elect including those behind bayer and monsanto and their powwow with the president-elect yesterday. today, randall stephenson of at&t wants to see the time warner merger going through but looks increasingly dicey. he paid a visit to donald trump here. there is a great deal of concern, association right now with cnn in time warner's case could be enough to torpedo that deal. no one is saying as much. you can't take any chances. if you're in the neighborhood you want to stop by. we'll have more after this.

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neil: turned out to be a busy couple hours was the obamacare appeal is on, the senate voted 51-38 to repeal obamacare.

he wanted to be simultaneously replaced. they are determined to get this thing done even though they are stumbling how they go about it but i determined to make sure it is done, donald trump saying it will get done and we will have a replacement, trish regan takes you to the next hour. trish: the president-elect on the attack today blasting cnn after calling out one of the reporters for being rude to a cnn reporter, donald trump tweeting, quote, cnn is in a total meltdown with their fake news because their ratings are tanking since the election and the credibility will soon be gone. this after calling out the network for, quote, fake news and reporting a salacious unproven story about him during a news conference. watch it. >> since you are attacking us. mister president elect, since you are attacking our news agency can