from loss biggest and freedom fest. go live the american dream. [cheers and applause] to travel, take stagecoach because that's what the good people take like lou dobbs. >> president trump today defending michael flynn for seeking immunity in the investigation into trump's alleged ties to russia. the president tweeting that flynn should ask for immunity because the media and democrats are conducting a witch hunt. we'll take that up with former un ambassador john bolton and the weekly standards fred barns. also tonight, the president signing two executive orders cracking down on trade abuses. >> the theft of american prosperity will end. we will take necessary and lawful action to end those many abuses. >> one of the orders calls for a report examining the cause

of our $347 billion trade deficit with china. all of this just one week before president trump hosts chinese president. and just five shy needed to filibuster supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. will they? or will republicans go nuclear? we'll have a full report. . >> and good evening, everybody, i'm tom sullivan in for lou dobbs. and president trump today encouraging former national security adviser michael flynn to testify to investigators in exchange for immunity from possible prosecution. now, the president tweeting that flynn should cut a deal because allegations of collusion with russia are nothing more than a witch hunt. fox news chief white house correspondenjohn roberts is live at the white house with the latest hn. >> tom, good evening to you. this controversy has been dogging the white house for a month now. ever since the president claimed that he is being wiretapped by the obama

administration. today, the white house began to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. >> the press secretary today lashed out at questions about white house involvement in providing information to the chairman of the house intelligence committee. >> if everyone was treating the president of the administration fairly, you would ask a series of much different questions about the substance and the material. >> after weeks of playing defense, the white house appeared to find a small hole to run through today, intelligence officials telling fox news the two white house staffers who assisted in devon nunez search for intelligence were not his original source. and that nunez has been investigating the surveillance unmasking of trump officials since well before the president sent out these now infamous tweets. >> when he talked to the media, he made it very clear that he had been looking into this, he had stated this much earlier than the president had ever raised this issue about surveillance. >> the white house also pointed to statements made by former obama administration official evelyn farkas who indicated that the white house had been collecting

intelligence on trump official contact with russia. >> if they found out how we knew what we knew about the trump staff dealing with russians that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence. >> i think that that is interesting how no one seems to really cover the fact that a senior obama administration with high level clearances talked about the spreading of classified information for political purposes and no one seems to care. >> this afternoon, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee at the white house, schiff taking up the white house offer to look at the same intelligence that the chairman viewed 11 days ago. before his rival, schiff argued that all members of the community should have the same community. the former trump official at the center of both surveillance and unmasking general michael flynn may soon appear before the senate congressional committees. his attorney made a public offer to testify exchange for immunity.

the offer caught the eye of the president who tweeted quote mike flynn should ask for immunity. excuse for election loss of dems in historic proportion. through sharp criticism from the republican chairman the house oversight committee who also suggested the president shouldn't be weighing in on this on twitter. >> no. i don't think it's a witch hunt. look, it's very mysterious to me why general flynn is all of a sudden out there saying he wants immunity. a, i don't think congress should give him immunity. if there's an open investigation by the fbi, that should not happen. >> a republican spokesman for the house intelligence committee told fox news that there have been some preliminary conversations with flynn's attorney. but that there's been no discussion of any kind of condition for his testimony. no word yet from the senate intelligence committee on whether or not they might grant immunity and his attorney, flynn's attorney, that is, robert kelner would not comment to fox news tonight. so, tom, i think we should all

stay tuned because more to come on this. tom: well, would you be willing to venture a guess? weeks, months, a year from finally getting an answer to all of these questions? >> well, i'll tell you. on the intelligence that nunez was talking about, i think that more may come to light when the nsa provides the information that nunez asked for in terms of surveillance and unmasking. the fbi has also been asked for that information and so far has not been forthcoming. as to flynn, if he ever gets up there and testifies on capitol hill, i'm sure we're going to learn a lot. tom. tom: that would be great. thank you. john roberts at the white house tonight. thank you, john. meanwhile president trump today signing two executive orders to reduce the trade deficit just days before holding his first meeting with the chinese counterpart. the first order gives the commerce department 90 days to write a report on what drives the trade deficit and the second one tightens import rules to ensure that the u.s. is collecting the duties that have been slapped against

trading partners. now, the president today saying he's seen how bad trade deals can hurt american people. >> trust me the jobs in wealth have been stripped from our country. thousands of factors have been stolen bringing manufacturing and jobs be back to our country. tom: joining me now to discuss the trump agenda, the flynn immunity request and all things washington, the executive editor for the weekly standard and fox news contributor fred barns. let's start with all the russia gate, flynn gate, whatever you want to call all of these various things. where are you on this? john roberts, you know, i'm asking him. how long is this thing going to take? is it going to be maybe election time next year with the midterms we're going to be getting answers for political reasons? >> i don't think so. but you know what would help the most? and that would be if donald trump or the president would stay out of it. it's a distraction. all he does is make it a bigger story. it gets the press whipped up

more than they already are. i think he needs to stay out of it. and i hope he doesn't get into the nunez thing. i mean, look, the press has been terrible. they act like the big problem here is what congressman nunez did with the trump white house. the real story is what did the obama white house do in spreading information he learned from -- they learned from surveillance about the trump campaign? that's the real story. but it's being ignored. tom: well, it seems like there's two parts. one is did russia have collusion with anybody from the trump organization? >> and that's being investigated by the fbi. tom: right and so far there's no evidence. but, you know, you stay open until the conclusions come in. on the other hand, though, is all of that unmasking and distributing classified information? and that does appear that there's lots of evidence there. >> yes. and, yeah, there are has been a lot of evidence there. let me go back to my initial point, though, and that is this story can -- it will

eventually be resolved. if trump insists on tweeting on this -- look, i've defended his practice of tweeting, but i think this does not help this time. he's creating trouble for himself. tom: you're not the first person to say that, fred. >> i know that. tom: but i don't think he's listening to you because -- you know, he was a tool that helped him get elected. so i'm not sure he's willing to walk away from that very quickly. >> no. i'm sure he is not willing to walk away from it, and i don't blame him. look, adds some value to him. he can get through to 25 million people without the press interfering and interpreting his remarks and so on and so fourth. so it's worth it. i agree with mitch mcconnell. republican leader in the senate, what he says is he doesn't mind trump tweeting. it's what trump tweets that causes trouble. tom: yes, if he would just give time and temperature, it would help a little.

listen, let's talk about the -- i don't know what you want to call it. but the fact that the president gave kudos -- he wasn't blaming paul ryan, he wasn't blaming the freedom caucus, he wasn't blaming anybody for the pulling of the health care bill, and then he turns around and starts going after the freedom caucus. there are a lot of trump supporters who will like the freedom caucus, and they're not sure who to support here. >> yeah. look, i think this is another problem that trump doesn't need to have. i think it's counterproductive for him to attack them, and i think he would do better love bombing them, if he's inclined to do that. but he's going to need them vote after vote after vote this year and next year. tom, can you imagine what would happen if the president is supporting some challenger of a freedom caucus member in the primary? meanwhile the republican campaign committee in the house, the official committee is supporting the incumbent? it will be republicans fighting each other in these

primaries. the white house versus the house. tom: he's also going to need some of those freedom caucus people to pass with some of these heavy legislation that he wants to get lifted. infrastructure, you name it. regulation reform. >> indeed. tom: let me get you before we run out of time. >> okay. tom: handicapping judge gorsuch's vote next week? >> well, i think it's going to be a close vote. i think the filibuster will work and then the nuclear option will be applied. the -- and then judge gorsuch will be confirmed. but democrats want to keep the filibuster alive. i think chuck schumer would like to see a filibuster that doesn't -- that doesn't quite work and so the nuclear option isn't used because he wants it aroundor the second nominee. tom: i wouldn't be surprised if chuck schumer assigns a you vote yes, you vote no -- i'm

going to bet they're going to do it without a filibuster. that's my guess. >> i think you're right. tom: always good to see you. thank you so much for coming on. >> you're welcome. tom: meanwhile we're coming right back with so much more. so stay with us. >> defense secretary james mattis calls for a unified effort to stop the north korea threat. >> this is a threat of both rhetoric and growing capability, and we will be working with the international community to address this. tom: ambassador john bolton joins me next. and president trump's strong immigration policies already producing great results. >> the entries at the border are down 60% just because of president trump's strong leadership. tom: we'll take up the president's crack down on illegal immigrants and the sanctuary cities harboring

tom: well, defense secretary james mattis in london today saying they'll lead out north korea as a threat that must be stopped. >> they're working with the united nations, we're working with our allies, and we're working diplomatically, including those that we might be able to enlist in this effort to get north korea under control. but right now, it appears to be going in a very reckless

manner in what its conduct is portraying for the future. and that's got to be stopped. tom: well, the trump administration today also issuing sanctions against a north korean business and 11 north korean nationals tied to the rogue nation's nuclear weapons program. north korea will be on the agenda when president trump meets with chinese president next week. you can bet that's going to be a conversation. secretary of state rex tillerson, he's in brussels today pressuring nato allies to increase their defense spending. as president trump has made clear, it is no longer sustainable for the u.s. to maintain a disproportionate share, allies must increase spending. right now they spend 2% of their gdp on defense. here to discuss north korea's latest provocations, nato where the russia probe is a

witch hunt, please welcome former ambassador john bolton from the american interprize institute and senior fella. i've got all of your titles in there, john. so let's start with north korea. because this isn't the first time we've seen this movie. we promised them help, we promised them aid, we promised them material to help with their nuclear program and every time they suckered us. >> look, we've been negotiating directly with and indirectly with north korea for 25 years or more. they said they would give up their nuclear weapons program. they've lied every single time they've done it. there's simply no prospect that in year 26 of the negotiations with north korea, anything's going to change. and i think the nation stated that they thought the strategic patients doctrine of the obama administration was finished.

but with all due respect to general mattis, it's not the international community or the united nations or anybody else that's really going to resolve this. this is a u.s., china issue. and as you rightly said a moment ago, it will be a big agenda, or at least it should be in the talks between president trump and president at the end of next week. tom: has china's attitude changed with kim jong-un? are they started to get nervous about them as well? >> well, some of them are. china has been two-faced about this. they said they don't want north korea to have nuclear weapons but frankly they haven't done nearly what they could do. what they alone can do to pressure north korea to give up that program. my view for some time has been our objective should be reunifying the korean peninsula. china can help us with that in a big, big way. and if it maybe too late to get to reunifiation, in which

our options are very limited and very unpleasant. tom: and the other part about that, i've done this much reading about the family, about the grandfather and the father and now kim jong-un and that there is a very strong feeling with them that they need to have nuclear weapons in order to survive. >> sure. this is the trump card for their regime. in many respects, it's not dissimilar to the ayatollah in iran who see nuclear capability is their trump card as well. so i think we need to look at this problem of nuclear proliferation not in isolation, north korea is a problem, iran's a problem. in fact, this is a problem that's worldwide. and especially given the cooperation between the north korean and the iranians on ballistic missile programs, and i think quite likely on the nuclear side as well. whatever capability north korea has today, iran can have tomorrow through a wire transfer. tom: yeah, but everybody's

thinking they're going to -- and north korea is going to get the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile. and nobody wants to wait until that happens. >> well, no, that's why i say we've just about run out of time after 25 years over administration's republican and democratic alike, we've squandered a lot of opportunities. so the commander of north korea last year said that he thought they would have a delivery capability to put a warhead on top of an icbm, hit the west coast of the united states very soon and some of them have said very soon means 2018, so time is very limited here. we hear preparations for another nuclear test. ballistic missile testing pace has increased dramatically. time is running out. tom: so let's talk nato for a minute because rex artillery so be is talking to nato and saying come on. pay up. and germany is saying i don't think so. that's an awful lot of money you're asking us to do. so what do we do with germany?

>> well, listen, this is a very serious matter. you know, it's not like the united states imposed some obligation on nato members. all the nato members voluntarily agreed to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. that's what collective defense is all about. but for many years, the overwhelming majority of european nato members and germany in particular have not met the 2% target. germany is about 1.1% of their gdp, given it's the biggest economy in europe by far, it's a terrible example for everybody else. tom: yeah,. >> and i think after years of saying come on, europe, live up to your commitments, listen, i think president trump is going to bring this to the head. and it's good for the alliance. do you want a strong alliance or weak alliance with people not meeting obligations they voluntarily undertook. tom: well said. always good to talk to you. amssador john bolton. thank u for coming on.

>> thank you. tom: you bet. well, be sure to vote in tonight's poll. do you believe that no punishment is too small for sanctuary cities who go out of their way to help criminal illegal aliens. cast your vote on twitter @loudobbs. and a trined follow lou on twitter, like him on facebook, follow him on instagram. he's all over social media. in the meantime on wall street today, stocks closing lower. the dow falling 65 points, s&p down five, nasdaq off three, volume 3.3 billion shares. despite today's losses, stocks closing out the first quarter -- yeah, first quarter of the year already gone. strong gains. s&p up 5, nasdaq check that out. up almost 10%. best quarter for the nasdaqs since 2013. and the wilshire 5,000 finishing the first quarter with $1.3 trillion in paper

gains. and inflation, guess what? starting to come back. the fed's 2% target for the first time in nearly five years. also, reminder, listen to lou's reports three times a day coast to coast. it's on the salem radio network. and up next, just two democrats, just two have come forward to support supreme court nominee judge neil fors. will republicans have to go nuclear? a full report is next. and a massive fire shutting down one of the busiest roads in the southeast. how much of a headache will it be? we'll tell you coming up.

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♪i believe, i believe ♪believe we're still worth the fight♪ ♪you'll see there's hope for this world tonight♪ ♪i believe, i believe ♪yeah ♪rock guitar tom: president trump today calling the senate to confirm his supreme court nominee judge neil gorsuch saying it's about preserving our republic. but gorsuch still facing obstruction from democrats, despite meeting with 80 senators. he turned over some 75,000 pages of documents and four

pages of -- four days, i should say of hearings on his nomination. the senate judiciary committee set to vote on judge gorsuch on monday. fox news chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel has our report. >> it's setting up to be quite a showdown in the senate next week with republicans saying judge neil gorsuch will be confirmed to the supreme court one way or another. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says much of the opposition is pure politics. >> democratic leader even joined in, saying he would oppose anyone from the president's list of candidates and would fight it tooth and nail as long as we have to in order to keep judge scalia's seat open. >> chuck schumer is fearful of the anger on the left after judge merrick garland, president obama's nominee last year was never considered. so senator schumer is threatening a filibuster instead of allowing a straight up-or-down vote. >> the republican majority wants everyone to believe that by the end of next week, one of two things must happen.

either judge gorsuch will pass with 60 votes, or they must exercise the nuclear option and change the rules of the senate so that he can pass on a simple majority. >> two democrats up for reelection next year from states carried by president trump, joe mansion of west virginia and heidi from north dakota announced they'll support gorsuch. institutionalize like senator john mccain are trying to see if a deal, struck to avoid the so-called nuclear option, changing the threshold to 51 votes. missouri democrat is up for reelection next year. she questioned the democrat's strategy and worried about the next opening of just's ginsberg and the filibuster is gone. >> we're not talking about scalia for scalia, which is what gorsuch is. we're talking about scalia for somebody on the court who shares our values.

and then all of a sudden the scars on my back show it are in jeopardy. >> today the white house press secretary encouraged democrats to take the advice. >> after spicer's briefing, mccaskill announced she'll vote "no." by our counts, there are ten undecided democrats and sources on both side suggest it is unlikely that at least six of them will support gorsuch, meaning a change in precedent is likely. tom. tom: all right. thank you, mike emmanuel at the capitol. in the meantime, we're coming right back with much more, so stay with us. >> the ryan care collapse dividing president trump and the freedom caucus. >> we appreciate the president. we're going to help the president. but the fact is, you have to look at the legislation, and it doesn't do what we told the voters we're going to.

jackie: as an 18 year old, i let my mistakes kind of take over my life. i was point-five credits away from completing high school and i didn't do it. angela: i got pregnant and i was the main one working so, i did what i had to do to survive. jocelyn: sentía que la escuela no era para mí. karim: most of my family they never graduated high school or even let alone go to college so i'm trying to break that barrier. jackie: my family never stopped pushing for me to be better

because they knew what i could become and who i could become as a person. karim: everyday after work i went straight to school, studied hard, and it paid off. jocelyn: sentía como que si quiero cambiar el mundo tengo que cambiara mi primero. group: surprise! surprise! surprise! angela: i could not have gotten my diploma without my family. jocelyn: mi consejera, ella fue lo máximo para mí porque me ayudó mucho con todo. jackie: i've been given an opportunity and i'm just thankful for it. angela: yeah it's hard, but keep on going and keep on trying. karim: the high school diploma has just added to the confidence and now i feel unstoppable. narrator: find free adult education classes near you

at finishyourdiploma.org. ♪i believe, i believe ♪believe we're still worth the fight♪ ♪you'll see there's hope for this world tonight♪ ♪i believe, i believe ♪yeah ♪rock guitar tom: the freedom caucus responding to president trump after he vowed to fight them in the 2018 mid-terms for not supporting ryancare. the group of conservatives tweeted we are where we have always been, keeping our promise

to eliminate the costly obamacare regs that drive up premiums. we keep our promise. joining me now is david horowitz, author of the "new york times" best seller "big agenda," president's plan to save america. let's start with lee carter. what do you make much this infighting between the freedom caucus and the president? lea: i hate it. i want to understand what they are trying to accomplish. they did promise they were going to come together. i don't know to what end this is all going to go. one thing the freedom caucus has to realize is there were 17 republican candidates that were running for president. donald trump is the one who won. and they did not.

there is a reason for that. people want not obstructionism, they want to see things get done. tom: david, the analysis may be a lot of people think the freedom caucus is the anti-establishment group and donald trump was elected as an anti-establishment candidate so they seem to be in the same cloth. >> when paul ryan was throwing donald trump under the bus during the campaign, the freedom caucus came to his defense. the free caucus speaks for a lot ofeople outhere. jumping on the freedom caucus is a mistake. it's the first mistake trump himself has made. tom: do we need a marriage counselor here? how are we going to put this back together again?

>> i think what we did after the healthcare bill went south, we got together, we had a conversation, everyone should have come together. they need to be presenting a united front. i understand if the freedom caucus does play an important role. however, obstructionism and getting in the way and infighting is not going to help the republican party or president trump's agenda, it won't help healthcare get done, it won't membership the agenda get done that he laid out. conversations and compromise need to happen behind closed doors. tom: i was shocked this week after last friday when they pulled the the bill, i wondered how long it would be before they brought it up. i didn't think it would be paul ryan bringing it up the next week.

>> paul ryan waltz general web was the architect. and he failed. i don't see how he can have a lot of the confidence he can put it together again. cambridge was right when they said they shouldn't try to do it through the reconciliation process. it ties their hands. they have an opposition party. it's not an opposition party in a democracy anymore. it declared war on the trump administration. here in the midst of a civil war situation. i don't know that paul ryan is fit to be a general in the situation. tom: the democrats have to be happy. they are trying to play it cool. you know they are basically saying here, let me give sow more rope, republicans and you can fight with each other. lee, talk about hampering the agenda, i don't know what's going to happen out of this thing.

in the meantime it seems like it has slowed down or tied up a lot of what president obama wants to do. >> there is a lot of conversations people are saying that are not slowing count agenda. every minute we are talking about general flynn or russia, we are not talking about the things that matter to the american people which are jobs and tax reform. donald trump, president trump unfortunately he's keeping the story alive. he's tweeting by the and the way he's behaving about it. it needs to go away so we can focus on the agenda. >> your bikes called big agenda. is this going to affect the big agenda? >> obamacare is going to collapse. the democrats have a millstone around their necks.

second of all, most people can hard live follow all this intrigue about flynn and the leaks and the what not. nobody in his right mind believes there is a big trump-russian conspiracy. you know, the greatest threat to democracy is not putin and the russians. it's the democrats refusal to be an opposition party, a constructive one. they are make our democracy look ridiculous and tying it up. if you look at the stock market and the jobs and you look fat what trump is doing in the middle east, he's going to prevail. i think having a little correctionism and a little failure as they did in constructing this healthcare reform, it's not such a bad thing. tom: hopefully they go back to the drawing board and couple

with something that everybody can agree to and do it behind closed doors. david horowitz, lee carter thank you very much for joining us. please roll the video. this orlando man taking a leap of faith. michael warner taking a running jump and belly flopping into a pool of a half dozennal garrettors. he says he doesn't mind swimming with the gators, but he makes sure to feed them beforehand. we didn't see that part where he was giving them food. president trump and attorney general sessions vowing to stop leaks of classified information that threaten our national security. >> we have never seen this kinds of leaking. it's almost as if people think they have a right to violate the law. this has got to end and probably will take some convictions to put an end to it. >> the center for security

policies, pressed fleitz joins me next.