april 23rd. stuart: we celebrate? ashley: we should. stuart: why not? we are out of time but it's been one extordinaryeek and a grea d. it's charles payne now. charles: today is not over and by the way, we are all irish today. thank you very much. stuart: you're right. charles: we have a lot to get into right now. right now president trump and germany chancellor angela merkel meeting in the white house, they are going to hold a joint news conference in the next hour. we are going to bring that to you live when it happens. blake berman is outside of the white house with the latest, blake. blake: hi, there, charles, chancellor angela merkel getting here about 20 minutes or so ago. it'll be a busy day here between the german chancellor and president trump. meeting with senior officials from both nationing dealing with

vocational training and big name ceo's will be in attendance among them the ceo's of dow chemical ibm and sales force taking part of that meeting. i believe you're watching the video now of angela merkel getting to the white house. there will be meetings between working lunch and the news conference during the 1:00 o'clock hour that we will be at. we are led to believe that the subject of immigration as these two have direcd pol views on immigration, that will be brought up throughout the day as he had several members, republican members at the white house as well trying to flip

them to the no-column to the yes, column and the president said he just that. >> these folks were mostly no's yesterday and now every single one is a yes and i just want to thank you, we have a healthcare plan that's going to be second to none. blake: charles, we are now hearing that the vote on the house on the aca could come as soon as thursday. charles. charles: thank you very much, more on health care later. we want to get back to the white house and refugees and that's sure to come up with angela merkel as the president's travel order gets held up in courts. former bush 43, says germany is proof that president trump is right. peter, thanks for joining the show. good to be with you. charles: we have all heard and seen the collective damage in

germany and on many fronts, whether it's crime, the issue of accumulation and also in terrorism, how much of that do you think is going to come u in the meeting today and what d you think it will be the result of it? >> well, it's possible they could decide not to talk about it at all because they are in such different places in terms of this issue, charles, they could decide to focus on the economic issues that you just outlined. i mean, bmw, seimens, american firms, nato, russia could come up and because they are in such different places they could decide not to talk about it this. charles: when it comes to europe and specially germany this is a major economic issue. >> well, sure, it's an economic issue and also a security issue. we are very concerned but what we are dealing here in the united states with immigration, what they dealt with in germany over the last couple of years are different.

remember, there's a mass flow of people that were maybe one to two million people that floated into germany and had a terror attack from a refugee from tanasia and it's a different situation and it's important that we work together and we continue in tackling this terrorism issue. so that, i think, may come out of this, how we can work closer with germany to keep us both safer specially while we are dealing with issues of the islamic state outside of europe in places like the middle east. >> charles: with that as a backdrop, the two rulings against reviving it seems like the judges aren't even looking at these executive orders with respect to american security and more on the idea of some form of racism or prejudice.

how does that get resolve that the president's number one job is to get america safe. >> i'm not a lawyer, so it's hard for me to get into it. if you're looking at the countries, the six countries that are still on the list, they all have one thing in common and that's terrorism. the other problem is who do we speak to in the governments about vetting. who do we speak to if someone is trying to travel from libya. once again, charles, these are all temporary so that agencies can look at their practices, procedures and policies to ensure that we don't have people coming here. the cia has told us that isis is trying to flow terrorists foot soldiers through the refugee flows. the germans have admitted that as well. their internal domestic intelligence service, federal intelligence service has talked about their similar concerns. so hopefully, you know, coming out of this we will look at these -- courts are going to

have to make major decision, if you look at the countries, i think it's reasonable to see why the president took these -- took this step a second time. charles: word there is reasonable. >> thank you. charles: as we await news conference from president trump and germany's chancellor angela merkel. the legal fallout over the leak of trump's 2005 taxes continue to grow. charlie gasparino has been all over the story, he's here with the latest. charlie: trump's outside legal advisers are considering whether to sue msnbc, former new york times reporter for the disclosure of his 2005 tax documents on the -- on privacy grounds. here is the -- here is both sides of the story. number one, from what i spoke -- i spoke with people that are close to donald trump.

he would love to sue both entities. the earlier leak to the new york times, the 1999, i think was 1995 state income tax form shows that he was taking -- charles: loss. charlie: there are people out there that want to sabotage his presidency with this stuff. and he believes it's illegally being built out. the problem he has is court precedent. it is okay for me to receive a document or from rachel maddow, to receive a document anonymously and publish the document if it's real. and this document was real, '99 tax form is real. supreme court precedent is heavily against him on this. he may try to push it, he may try to sue just to -- to, you know, basically put people on notice, make life difficult for

them. he's done in the past. charles: he sues a lot. he has an army -- charlie: he sued him o'brian, a former journalist at "the new york times". ic he's at bloomberg right now. he eventually got the case thrown out. most people thought it was a frivolous lawsuit. depositions were taken. he may go this route. people that know him very well, close to him last night told me he wants to do it. the question is does he two lawyers, michael cohen and two outside lawyers, do they pull the trigger on this because in the end they are going to lose. charles: is the rub, however, if you i receive something that i know was stolen, radio, bicycle, or a car, isn't that some sort of a crime? charlie: no. charles: someone could have told tax returns and the reporter could have known they were

stolen, that would exonerate the reporter? charlie: yes, it's a very parallel universe here. insider trading -- charles: what they have to tell the public. insider trading comes out to full disclosure. hey, i'm in the possession of stolen income tax. charlie: if you mindlessly -- if someone tells you, company x is going to report earnings tomorrow and you trade on that, okay, you can -- you don't know that he stole that information from the company, you just -- you just are receiving it, you cannot be charged with insider trading. you have to know it's been stolen. you to give the person the benefit. charles: okay. charlie: establish that he stole it. charles: stay right there. we bring attorneys that might know this a little better than we do. charlie: okay. charles: caroline along with diane, does president trump, would he have a case if he did decide if he we wanted to file a

lawsuit? >> first of all, i think we can agree that freedom of speech are hallmarks of a democratic society to be sure. however, the liberties are not without restrictions and, you know, we have seen time and time again that the united states government can place restrictions on these liberties in the place of privacy interest and here we have a clear violation of the unauthorized disclosure of information act and the question is going to be to what extent msnbc involved in obtaining those illegal documents. we know it was a crime to leak the documents. kind of blanket excuse that the first amendment is going to somehow excuse the passing of the buck in this situation. to me just seems disingenuous. charles: he could have a case, yes? >> i think absolutely. there's a lot of unknowns here. once -- if he makes it past the pleading stages in the case and engages in civil discovery and deposition and exchange of

documents, we could learn a lot more how the documents ended up in rachel maddow's disk out of the clear-blue sky. charles: diane. >> the first amendment provides absolute immunity to the media to publish documents as long as they know that they are truthful. nixon try today block "the new york times" from publishing the pentagon papers back in 1971 and the supreme court said that as long as the information is truthful, that they were protected by the first amendment. charlie: here is the difference between that and this, daniel elseburg was not paid to steal those documents. >> absolutely. charlie: we can agree on that. that's the rub here. if rachel maddow and johnson were directly involved in the theft, there's an issue. the courts have a very high standard for direct involvement like paying them -- paying off

the other person. i t see where you get a case here by any supreme court president. >> there really is another concept which is willful blindness. charlie: i think they can. charles: diane, let me ask you. you have a couple of issues here. someone got these against the will of the president of the united states. so that would hint or allude to the idea that perhaps they were stolen in some way. so receipt of stolen property even if it's some material that happens to be true. you're saying the media is completely immune to any kind of prosecution from that? >> there's absolutely no evidence that these documents -- charles: if evidence were to come around or there was a lawsuit that eventually unearthed this evidence, would there be culpability for msnbc and rachel maddow and others?

>> no, because they received these anonymously and mailed to johnson who is a pulitzer journalist and tax expert. it's important that the white house confirm authenticity of documents before msnbc published them. they authenticated them and had no knowledge that they were unlawfully obtained. rachel maddow held on for a couple of days because she we wanted to make sure that there was no evidence that they were received unlawfully and authentic. charlie: i tend to agree with that but my only caveat is the high holk hogan case. holk hogan sued them. the tape was real. i don't believe they paid for it. they weren't part of the sting of hulk hogan having sex. they got nailed on privacy

grounds. i will say this. it seems like the new york times pentagon paper' case should give immunity to msnbc, the courts have wheedled that down lately. look at the hulk hogan case. charles: sure. charlie: you can never say with certainty because courts like the public, they hate the press. charles: donald trump has pretty powerful attorneys. caroline and diane, thank you both very much. >> thank you. charles: could the biggest critic of the budget be the mea? we will delve into it me right after this.

charles: well, these pictures are just from moments ago. president trump and germany chancellor angela merkel. they are holding bilateral meetings right now. listen in. [inaudible conversations]

>> thank you. thank you, fellows. >> charles: interesting body language there. now to the battle over the budget, president trump's trump plan could see a major rewrite in congress but is it, is this an opportunity, though, now, of course, for the gop to come together to house budget committee member, republican congressman, congressman, thank you for joining us. former i will saying that they're all 100% on board right now. that's absolutely remarkable. everyone is wondering what compromises might have been made. >> i think it says a lot about the leadership of the conference, the willingness of the white house to work together. we have seen through this entire process, we have done an amazing job of getting great ideas into this bill, we've gone through the committee process, i can tell you as a freshman, i feel felt like i have had my voice

heard in some of my ideas have been included in the bill. i think it's a real testament to the strong desire of repubcans to put forward this bill and that's the first step in repealing obamacare and building a healthcare system that works for america. charles: 24 hours earlier you saw in the committee where the budget committee three republicans saying, no, voted against it. you know, the freedom caucus, of course, making the loudest noise on the house side. apparently some are concerned about near-term hikes in premiums and even president trump joined this victory lap in the oval office, alluded to the fact that we are going to have to endure more pain before things get better. would a large part of the final bill be public relations, explaining to me people, hey, this thing was dropping, such a massive disaster, there's no such thing as a quick-fix? >> charles, i think you're

exactly right. the american people knew how bad a bill this was. it's expensive and take a long time to unwind this horrible mess that continues to destroy the healthcare system of america and rob middle-class families and really put at risk those that are most vulnerable in our nation to access health care. no doubt, we are going to have to continue to hammer away, this is only the very first step and -- and the pain of obamacare is going to be felt for a long time but the good news is that we are determined to push -- push forward and do the things necessary to have the political intelligence and the political will to fight, to make sure that americans have access to quality health care at an affordable price. charles: right. congressman, it looks like your final two hurdles are the biggest hurdles. the combination of the tax credits and what to do with medicaid expansion. i read a report where a majority

any of the 80 programs out there scheduled to be slashed if,

indeed, this -- this budget was adopted. >> you have conservative favorites, domestic spending on afterschool programs. meals on wheels, et cetera. >> you have them concerned that medicaid and social security and medicare, both programs that they call entitlement programs are not getting the -- getting cuts. they are getting protected and really this budget is in -- isn't a deficit reducer. it's just monday spending on military. charles: why are democrats talking about -- [inaudible] >> trump is absolutely not a debt or deficit reducer and mick mulvaney said that yesterday, that is why.

consistent, we are talking about reducing spending across the board instead of reshifting money and putting it towards defense, that's why. charles: president trump ran on the campaign of america first, safety first, and it only makes sense that the first budget would b focused on replenishing our military, taking care of our veterans and building the wall that he promised and that's what propelled him into the white house. >> yeah, obama increased the defense spend too over the term, charles, you're right. i agree with what you said which is the debt under obama did double. it was 10 billion, 10 trillion rather and now it's about 19 as trump got sworn in and, yes, there were certain things that were done along the way that were smoking mirrors, sequestration of budget cuts, all the things that were going behind the scenes, taking away the taxpayer dollar which now i believe trump wants to take taxpayer dollars and use them for growth, use them so the companies can operate in a better business environment

which will create more revenues down the road and put the country in a lot better position. charles: do you have any problems with the cuts to epa, hud, commerce, energy any of these major agencies that could take massive cuts, does that bother you at all in. >> i mean, certainly as a democrat who, you know, believes in making sure that we have funding for diplomatic work. charles: would you admit, though, that they are pretty bloated, they have grown dramatically over the years and there's so much fat and waste and bureaucracy in there, there's some room for a diet or two? >> i don't disagree under state department even president obama was still underfunded. this across the board, again, the only person that benefits out of this is military. it's not across the board aggressive cuts, they are getting a lot more of the money. it's reshifting money around and that's what house republicans are saying. charles: on that note, scott, i

want to ask scott about that because democrats -- rather republicans did rail about the increasing debt and we are $20 trillion and counting, at some point when do republicans have to address this with their budgets? >> well, they have to address it when the progrowth policies don't grow. shifting money around, isn't that what we have been doing or at least telling the american people for the last eight years -- >> and now trump is continuing it. >> why do you guys care now because there's a republican in office? >> at least be consistent on what you guys say philosophically. [inaudible] charles: i did hear a lot in the last several years about paying for things and this is a budget that pays for what it's increasing by making changes on the other side. guys, thank you both very much. why bad news for tax reform

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>> our objective is to pass tax reform by the august recess. >> voted, done, agreed. charles: signed, sealed and delivered. bob doll says no way tax cuts will be done by august. >> i don't -- we have august done, signed, sealed, delivered, that is not a surprise.

people are all over the page and don't know what the particular's will be. is a corporate individual? the border tax? the list goes on. charles: the official number, the whisper is it is not going to happen in august. with that mitigate downward pressure in the markets and experts knew it couldn't happen. >> absolutely right. if we find this thing at thanksgiving, that is where people are thinking, by the end of the year and the first of next year i don't think markets will come unglued. if it looks like they are totally apart and we won't get anything done the markets are frustrated. charles: how critical with respect to how fast they get the obamacare replacement done, they can cobble together a deal forgetting what the deal itself is but relatively swift

timeline. would that give investors confidence? >> we know this one is not easier. they can get this done it deal with details later, get something done in healthcare. being the party in power in healthcare is not a pretty ing. we have seen that before and we think that movie will run again. we see some confidence, we get the other thing done. the details really matter when it comes to tax reform. charles: we talk about the need to remove regulations and lower taxes, spark this economy. it seems businesses, assuming this will happen and making moves, maybe put the cart before the harvest. >> 1850 on the s&p, there was

nothing for this good stuff. 2300, different story. the market is up because the economy has done better and people expected to continue and even more with progrowth legislation. expectations are building, confidence numbers are up because people think this can get done. charles: to a degree it is self-fulfilling. if something is going to happen and i build my inventory, start to hire for it, and the housing start number, single-family homes blue me away and that dovetas traffi and -- >> a lot of broad confidence measures. consumer confidence, they have all moved up a lot expecting better things. when people have higher confidence they feel better and spend more money.

there has been some follow-through. we need work on the consumer side. charles: balloons of all the different -- a global resurgence, economic resurgence. do you see that as well? >> starting last fall, october, pmis and other broad measures doing better. that continued pretty nonstop in my view since then. not just here but globally. things are picking up. we are living in a better direction. charles: i could talk to you about this all day but we do pretty good. it will be a good week even if it slows. more of bob tonight on wall street week. catch it here on foxbusiness at 8:00 pm. the dow is down slightly but still on pace to finish the weekend in the green, the fifth time in six weeks, nicole pedallides is at the stock exchange with the latest.

nicole: we see the trend to the upside for the week we are trying to squeeze a game for the dow jones industrial average for the week over a 10th of 1%. the sixth trading week the dow jones industrial average and also watching the s&p and nasdaq on pace for a winning week. oil is trying to give it a go in a solid area. it is selling off like it did last week. the nasdaq, watching that, it is up 3 quarters of 1%. here is the best of the bunch as the nasdaq is hitting records, looking at that, tesla up 20 points, raising capital pretty easily, doing well on earnings with positive comments. and the transportation average, and the transportation average

on the other hand is to the downside, down 11/4%. airlines under much pressure, cancellations and delays so you can see that on a down arrow. the big picture has a gain, the dow is relatively flat. charles: setting to offer and amendment to the health care plan, one of those members gives details you are asking for next.

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charles: donald trump and angela merkel are holding discussion on vocational training with us and german business leaders and they are going to hold a joint news conference we will bring you live as soon as it starts. supreme court nomie neil gorsuch will be on capitol hill

for his first confirmation hearing in front of the senate judiciary committee, at 11:00 eastern time, foxbusiness will have full coverage of that. donald trump putting his full support behind this today. >> i'm 100% behind it. i also want everybody to know all of these nos or potential nos are all yeses which every person sitting in this room is now a yes. you have 12 knows and we have -- we have done great things but the nos in every single case went to a yes so that was a great honor and healthcare looks like it is really happening. charles: donald trump sounding very confident that does this bill have enough votes not only to get through the house but the senate? the house freedom caucus network tom garrett, sound like the

president alluded to compromises at least in that room being made. the big question everybody wants to know what were they? can you share a couple? >> there are compromises to the medicaid expansion funding going forward, a step in the right direction, we are not where we need to be and the implementation, front end versus back end tax credit which we are looking towards the incentive angle. we appreciate the negotiations, we should be not in a hurry to get it done but in a deliberate pace to get it done right. charles: there were some hard-core issues with respect to the freedom caucus, the tax credits being one of them, the essential benefits has been another major issue, ted cruz wrote along with mark meadows

about the idea of premiums going up the next couple years. donald trump alluded to something that was unavoidable no matter what and smarter to give -- get a deal done and explain to the american public who understand this was already in a death spiral and premiums were headed higher. >> it touches on a point, the political play would be to do nothing and let the wheels fall off the disaster that is obamacare, that is not why we were elected or the promises we made. i don't take the face value that we need to see premiums go up. we made progress by way of regulatory reform and association healthcare plans to the workforce committees and allowing small businesses to band together to get to those numbers, we are working around the edges now, the larger package needs to be done, we are the same people who criticized nancy pelosi for passing a bill to find out what was in it, let's not do the same thing. there is room for discourse, the

president has shown flexibility, leadership has shown flexibility, to get the possible product for the american consumer. charles: this is night and day, the bill is online, the president is negotiating in front of the entire world, had several meetings with everyone involved, i feel like the negotiating process, we will know what is through it if it ever gets through but willing get through with tax credits or the 30% penalty? will it get through without major changes to medicaid particularly some sort of work requirements? can it get through without those? >> the work requirement is on the table. i don't think it will as we were told this is the bill and get on board. nobody elected me to do that. i don't think my colleagues feel that way and when we heard the disingenuous we have the votes in the last two weeks if we just move 12 people and i will take the president at his word and they are still hustling they

didn't have the votes before i don't think they have them now. not holding anything hostage, i take my hat off to the speaker, the plan to cut the deficit by a third of $1 trillion, you get that better than most people but we are not going to give up and so we have the best possible product and that is what this is, negotiation, the president understand that well. charles: i for one salute you guys for doing this because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do it right so we appreciate it and appreciate you taking the time. >> you are my favorite. charles: the white house saying the budget plan doesn't add to the deficit but all the talk out of washington is and easing fears about a crisis. that is still ahead. neil: the tax-cut get delayed. what do you think of that? >> i don't think we will see tax cuts this year at all, not a chance. there is going to be a debt

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to spend more money on the president's priorities. charles: the budget not balanced, mark meckler, aot of people i have known, economist, for a long time really pounded the table over the last several years about a balanced budget, reducing the deficit. change the tone, shifted recently saying we should focus on reducing the economy, getting the economy going and focusing on deficit reduction. >> a complete the trail of the american people. they couldn't balance the budget because they didn't have congress, we gave him the house that they didn't do it because we gave them the senate and they couldn't because they didn't have the white house, we have given him the white house, now they say they can't do it because they have to boost the economy only to supermajority,

it will be pieces forever until the economy collapses. charles: the military is a preparedness level that takes it before world war ii, our vets are in dire straits come our borders are porous and not just an economic issue but a social economic issue considering what is coming through. if you consider those things those are the foundation for the growth where you can chip away at debt and deficits. >> some of those things are mandatory. on the border security issue it is not even relevant, proposing $4 billion for the wall, the federal budget, that is a rounding error. that one in particular is a red herring and most of us agree on military preparedness but there's all kinds of things in the budget they should be going after that they are not going after, they are not doing reform on entitlement programs, that is the fundamental driver of debt and deficit over the long-term. charles: people who never have

to run for office alwaysus on the, quote, entitlement sent people in washington dc always say we should leave that alone. the audience always says when this topic comes up why would an economist want to take my money? i put money into those programs and he wants to take it from me. >> the clear answer is again that is a red herring, a straw man argument. the way you fix long-term entitlement programs is not by affecting people today but by lowering, raising the retirement age for people who are far out from those programs which we are talking about fixing these programs on an actuarial basis. the congressional budget office, the general accounting office all say these programs are unsustainable so the real question is why are we lying to people that those programs are going to be there for them in the future because it is of the a big lie.

charles: it is interesting in an age where we call someone who's 25 years old a, quote, kid who should stay on their parents insurance but those of the same people that take the news that you have to work two, five years longer than your parents did. >> that is important because they are not kids. it is outrageous we call them kids but it is important to understand that americans are realistic and americans are smart, i have been in 40 states in the last two years, we are actually doing real reform and people are willing to take a haircut for real reform. what they are not willing to do take a haircut so that money can go to other corrupt programs and continue a bloated federal government. before you and calling the pentagon, the able department of homeland security corrupt agencies. in this particular case. >> i think there is bloat in every single one of those agencies in the president agrees, issued an executive order to give every agency 180

days to talk about how to reorganize, save money, there is bloat in every federal agency across the board. charles: we got to leave it there. president trump and angela merkel hold a press conference and we bring it to you live when it starts.

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charles: welcome to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm charles payne in for neil cauto. you're looking at the white house where president trump and german chancellor

angela merkel will host a joint news conference just moments ago. nato funding, russian relations, expected to be big topic in their talk today. lieutenant colonel allen west is with me now. how do they dress differences like on the refugee issue, come until west? >> good to be with you, charles. you have to be very up front. there is no doubt that angela merkel made some decisions that have had incredible adverse ramifications and consequences not just for germany but for all of europe and that was a very major reason you saw the "brexit" vote in england because of the immigration issue. that as well causes a big national security concern for the united states of america as you do have the terrorist elements infiltrated into europe. they can easily travel to the united states of america. think i they first and foremost have to admit, and angela merkel has to admit that was a mistake and she has suffered incredible consequences for her people there in germany. charles: i think maybe recently

with some of their decisions if she's not willing to just get on the podium and say it, some of her actions indicate you're absolutely right, they realize we messed up. they are not trying to get them out as fast as they brought them in but feels like some reversal in policy there. >> there has to be some reversal in policy. of course you have to now contend and deal with that issue. you've seen a lot of internal security police actions to try to take down these terrorist cells starting to metastasize but not just in germ any but other countries. we saw with happened in brussels and what happened in paris and they have a serious problem to contend with. charles: media and democrats pushing on president trump about the wiretap claims saying he can't prove them. here is question what about answering the russian ties in the white house. they are proven, there is a lot of speculation.

in fact the speculation has been so much so from the media that many take it as, that it's happened. clearly there is some form after double standard here. >> without a doubt. you've just had the former head of the cia, mike morell, we've had the former director of national intelligence, general james clapper come out and say there is no evidence to that end. so the sad thing is after president trump gave an incredible, phenomenal speech in the joint session of congress on that tuesday, and the democrats tried to shift the narrative and talk about jeff sessions and russia, what have you, the president decided to come out and issue a twitter post on that saturday morning that put himself into the situation and he shifted the narrative even more. what president trump has to do get talk about issues critical to americans. talk about his budget proposal he put out. talk about the national security that we have to contend with and stay on message and talk about the things that the american people elected him to do which

number one, economic growth. charles: well, i don't, i think maybe the white house would like to let this fade away. in fact the president said he wouldn't talk about it anymore and let congress handle it. it does come up daily. came up yesterday with a contentious press conference with sean spicer. i'm not sure it will fade away. to your point it overshadowed remarkable economic moves in such a short period of time. >> you're absolutely right. we're not talking about the adp number, 298,000 jobs created his first full month. we're not talking about the growth we've seen for people's 401(k)s and portfolios through increased growth of dow jones and wall street. that is a good and it's a positive thing. so you will continue to have this drip, drip, drip, that comes. incomes monday they are supposed to provide this proof to congress. they slipped that back by a week. the president said in an interview with tucker carlson it would be coming out very soon. you don't need to be hammered

about that. i guarranty you it will come up again today at the press conference he will have with angela merkel. charles: also i think with merkel the role of nato, if, you know, it feels like, you know this better than anyone else, but it feels like it was antiquated. that they weren't as effective as their mission statement was. but i think president trump has had some major influence there. will he get some pushback from angela merkel there? >> well back in 1984 to '87 i was with an airborne unit part of a nato force that was a quick reaction force for nato and also the allies there. so i think it is very important president trump clarified statements he previously made about nato and talk about his vision for what nato needs to be in the future and -- charles: with all due respect it should be less russian-centric,

afraid of the old ussr, and more terrorist, al qaeda, isis, able to quickly move against them. >> should be actually both, charles. and what we have to come to understand we have state and non-state belligerents out there be it russia, china, iran and north korea and also the islamic terrorist organizations which any given day is between 22 to 25. so nato needs to look how it can make itself relevant for the new 21st century battle field. that is great conversation the two of them should have. charles: paying their fair share might be a good idea as well. >> yes. we can not be their defense structure anymore. charles: colonel, thank you very much. really appreciate it. >> always a pleasure, charles. charles: fair and balanced reaction from the other side to democratic congressman eric smallwell. thank you for joining me. >> thank you, charles. charles: president trump and angelaerl llave a conference here real soon. one of the big topics is refugees, in the aftermath of

his, the president's executive order being shot down by two courts where, now you have many people wondering if we have activist judiciary or is there something beyond this? how do you see this playing out? because we, these six countries represent a very small pores of all of the muslims in the world. >> thank you, charles. we have refugee screening in our country, and -- charles: talking about refugee screening in those countries. >> they are screened there. then they're screened by the united nations and then screened by the fbi and the department of homeland security. if he wants to talk about tightening screening efforts i'm for that but courts across the country, i don't think they're conspiring against the president, following the constitution and calling it what it is a muslim ban. charles: i'm not sure i trust the screening mechanisms in syria or libya. i'm not sure out of rubble of those places that they have the right sort of records and biometric identification.

>> i don't either, charles. that is why our fbi and department of homeland security -- charles: because it's a 90-day moratorium. it is not a permanent ban. it is just a 90 day moratorium, perhaps getting everyone focused. ultimately if someone comes in this country from one of those nations and they sam american citizens, blow themselves up in ama, who is responsible for that? >> we all are. that is why we should make sure the screenings that we have in place continue to work. they are working right now, but, charles what this does, it says to our allies who are taking on refugees, as germany has, as jordan and other countries in the region we're not a team player. why would they cooperate in us in counterterrorism. it inspires enemy looking for any reason to go out and kill americans this would send and propel the myth we don't welcome muslims. this is a must him ban an courts are rejecting it everywhere put in front of a judge.

charles: you know, again, i would be interested in seeing how readily saudi arabia opens their arms to refugees. fromhat i understand i have seen photographs -- >> they could do a lot more. a lot more -- charles: 25 air-conditioned tents in saudi arabia but won't take these same refugees. but they're not ever being accused discriminating against muslims. >> they should take a lot more, charles. the president should have that conversation with them. i'm with you. charles: let's switch gears a little bit to the situation with the wiretapping, russia's involvement in the elections. for me it's a lot of rear view mirror stuff. i guess there is intrigue, political intrigue and so forth you're on the house intel committee. where are we with respect to these things. >> right now what we're finding that as this investigation proceeds the dots continue to connect. president trump and his team with having personal, political and financial ties with russia. now that is on its own is not illegal but with we are wondering, and what we need to get to the bottom of did those

ties extend working with the russians as they were attacking us. give you one example. carter page, june 2016 it is revealed russia is attacking us. charles: when you say attacks us, what do you mean attacking us? >> sure the multifaceted campaign of social media trolls using russia harking democratic emails and to undermined them and secretary:and lift up donald trump. a month after that was revealed, carter page, senior foreign advisor of the campaign with permission campaign travels to russia. that is very suspicious. we want to know if he was working with russians as he was attacking us. why don't know why we are sending someone to the. charles: you are saying campaign, euphemism donald trump the candidate, president of the united states or is that a euphemism for a whole bunch of people who may have close ties, may ha beesurrogates, unofficial or official?

because it's a damning, it's a damning allegation if you're saying it is the man himself. if you're saying people he knew, then so what? >> donald trump was asked about it "washington post," hey, who are your foreign policy advisors. he rattled off five names. carter page was one of them. he went to russia as they were attacking us. and what we want to know did he work with them? did the president know about this? was anyones involved? we know roger stone was also associated with the campaign and was talking to "gucifer" 2.0 who were receiving russian-hacked e ills in and also disseminating them to influence the campaign. charles: it feels, with all due respect you're going down a rabbit hole that has more to do with the fact that hillary clinton, john podesta, they got caught, donna brazile, hand in the cookie jar, you know, hypocrisy run amok, arrogance run amok, was put on full display for the whole world. you're smarting as a party about this but feels like a major distraction for a country trying to move ahead.

>> charles i think this is about looking forward because the intelligence report that came out back in january said that russia intends to do this again. speaking of germany, they have an election coming up in september. france has an election coming up as well. so if russia will attack our allies, come back at us, as well as other adversaries who have similar capabilities we do nothing about it, this will be dramatically different democracy for all of us. i want to make sure we don't go down that rabbit hole. charles: i also suggest better passwords for everyone's computers in the meantime. >> two-step verification. charles: thank you very much. really appreciate it. we're looking right now at the white house. you see both nations flags, germany's flag and america's flag and this is going to be interesting. we can not wait to hear this. it is moments from now. meantime investor still searching for political clarity. so stocks have been relatively flat. this after an amazing consumer sentiment number. so, again we're going to be up right now if we close, we'll be up for the week. but we want more.

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our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance charles: president trump and chancellor merkel joint news conference in just a few moments. you can see the room filling up. the refugee crisis, immigration,

moratorium on our part, russia all of the things focus during the meeting. former chief of staff of u.s. border customs and border protection, also ron meyer and lea gabrielle. not a friendly relationship but close allies as nations and what do you think happened and how do see the press conference going. >> that is understatement of the year and not exactly close friends. donald trump and angela merkel have both taken shots at each other throughout donald trump's campaign. this will help both of them, frankly at home america can faced a lot of criticism for being soft on immigration and soft on refugees. crime has spiked and terrorism threats spiked in her country. for her she needs to look stronger. for trump, it also helps makes him look diplomatic. if they have a positive press conference it's a win-win for them both.

that's why they boeings agreed to it. let's be honest, trump was right about merkel's germany, if you have allow unlimited refugees and immigration you will have problems and germany has problems. thankfully they have economy with manufacturing but without that they would be a total wreck. charles: germany is manufacturing powerhouse and economic powerhouse. they benefited from the low euro as well. the role of nato and those sort of things, how do you see either side pushing the other here. >> i think both sides will be pushing each other here. i think this will be a cooperative meeting. this will be a cooperative thing. germany is one of our strongest and most important allies. i think president trump recognizes that. there may have been things thrown back and forth during the campaign, after the campaign, public states made between the two leaders that were not as positive as he they could have been for countries that are allies. i think this will be an effort to build cooperation. now they both come to the table

sort of as negotiators for their countries here. angela merkel knows that during the campaign president trump was threatening an import tax on countries with a surplus over the u.s. i think angela merkel wants to make a point that her, the countries benefit economically from each other. i think president trump as he has mentioned before want nato players to step up to the game and spend more on defense. charles: okay. let me keep you guys right here. because i want to go to blake real quick. he is in the east room with what is going to come. blake, what is happening there? reporter: just bottom ushered in here charles, we expect this to happen, press conference between president trump and german chancellor angela merkel. don'want to put a tile on it but in the upcoming moments. the german chancellor has been here at the white house since he 11:30 this morning. it will be a busy afternoon between the two leaders. there was already a meeting dealing with vocational training skills and trying to develop

those within the two nations. top ceos from both germany an america in that meeting but then there is also a working lunch between these two leaders and bilateral meeting. so the german chancellor will be here at the white house for several hours. as for what we expect to come about at this press conference, issues potentially dealing between the two nations obviously but also big ones being here domestically as we expect president trump to be potentially asked about wire tapping allegations. about his travel ban and other topics, whatever might come up as this will be another one of the scenarios where there will be questions from american media. german media as well, charles. charles: thank you very much. i want to go back to the panel. thad, the travel moratorium, 90 days, rejected by most courts, by americans, most people thought this why we elected donald trump to do, why he was elected to office.

how do you see that impacting our relationship? >> well, germany has had historically different opinion than us on refugees or admissibility of many throughout the world to germany and they rely heavily in their economy on some of those workers but i think they're having second thoughts as we heard from previous guests in the last hour. germany has, maybe been ground zero outside of mabel gum and france for encountering the problems tt come wh potentially admitting folks from the middle east, in particularly those with terrorist tendencies. they're not all recent refugees from syria. we know some of the plots have been disrupted in germany were from nationals of many countries. so they're going to disagree with us, germany is, the chancellor and the president on what is the appropriate balance but i think the trend has been germany is actually coming to look at things maybe a little more our way. i hope that will come out of

these meetings that there will be some agreement. charles: even with the dutch election results, the incumbent party moved to the right over that election process, and that was underreported in the media. to your point, all of europe is moving away from open arms the way they were five or 10 years ago. ron, there is a lot of ceos in the room with the president and chancellor, and when i look at these names like andrew live haveries who has become tight with president trump, a majority of his business comes outside of the country. mark menioff from sails force, those people want free and open trade with angela merkel. how do you feel that worked out because it seems like the deck was stacked with globalists in the room. >> you could look at that way, but could look donald trump as negotiationss we will have free and open trade if you pay your share of nato. right?

so he is negotiator this is what we offer you. you also benefit from what we provide, that is what free trade does of the listen we can't keep paying for your defense dget wanme to ep free and open trade and keep benefiting from this, have both of us benefit get the nato deal done. that is my best guess. he wants to promote the relationship and have a positive meeting and people engaged in global business i think is a way to bridge the gap. him being a businessman, trump being a businessman and merkel benefiting from this commerce and her country, i think it's a smart move. charles: to lea's point if they have a surplus maybe they open markets a little more. stick around. president trump, german chancellor angela merkel just to hold the presser in a minute. we'll bring it to you live as soon as it begins.