country that they forget. >> stay tuned to dagen's twitter feed, please. thank you for joining us, dagen mcdowell and kristin, the big news of the day, the president fired the head of the fbi james comey. >> thank you very much, maria. i'm charles payne, stuart is back tomorrow. and of course, is president trump's firing of fbi director james comey. two reasons given for the sudden move. first, attorney general roden stein whom comey reported to. and that rodenstein has lost confidence in comey. and that the statement correcting how many e-mails that hillary aide huma abedin sent to her husband. >> they found thousands of e-mails and information on

anthony weiner, somehow her e-mails are forwarded to anthony weiner included by her assistant huma abedin. information.hich classified charles: that statement, as we know was incorrect. and meanwhile, the white house as of russia's top diplomate meets with trump. all of this in a possible distraction to health care, and we're going to have rand paul join us in a moment. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ >> i simply said to him, mr. president, all due respect, you're making a very big mistake. and he didn't really answer. and i have said from the get-go that i think a special prosecutor is the way to go,

but now, with what's happened, it's the only way to go. >> well, that was senator chuck schumer calling for a special prosecutor to investigate ties between trump's campaign and russia. this happening after the president fired fbi director james comey and president trump then tweeted this. crying chuck schumer stated recently i didn't have confidence in them aring referring to james comey, any longer, don't act so indignant. #draintheswamp. what are your thoughts on this? >> i think the it couldn't come soon enough. all the republicans thought well, if he insinuated she was guilty why didn't they prosecute her? both sides are unhappy.

if both sides think you botched the situation, maybe we need too bring more confidence in the fbi. charles: and 24 hours ago, everyone to your point they would say this guy has got to go. and now even some of your republican colleagues are questioning the timing of it. >> a lot of politics going on. chuck schumer in november said he lost confidence and hillary clinton said he completely destroyed the whole election and then you have eric holder says that in the letter, you know, indicating his dismissal, eric holder says that comey violated longstanding department of justice procedure. so i think you have a lot of people looking at it from the democrat side who said they've lost confidence in him. i think you have republicans saying he should have prosecuted clinton. nobody is happy with his tenure at the fbi, so, i think it was long past time for him to go. charles: of course, this puts a lot of pressure on the replacement. who is the ideal candidate? not who do you think it should

be per se, but who is the person you think is sort of not only free for the fbi and intelligence community, but main street america who is confused and not trusting anyone. >> i think a lot of people come from within the fbi, but i don't know that that's an absolute. i think you want someone with experience in law enforcement, but you also want somebody who knows how to balance civil liberties with law enforcement. one of concerns with comey he was up on the hill advocating for more power for the fbi and when i countered that and said, you know what, you could have done a better job investigating the killer in orlando, the fbi heard about the killer weeks in advance and didn't do enough investigation and comey would say we need more power to tap more phones of everybody and we'll get more information. and my point, they need to do better when they're tipped off.

a gun store owner tipped them off and they did zero to investigate it. charles: we've seen a lot with the terrorists in the clutches of law enforcement officials and somehow slipped through. before you go, senator, i want to ask, you want the intelligence committee to disclose if the obama administration was actually spying on you. what makes you think that you were possibly a target of president obama's spying? >> we've had two different reporters come to us who say they have sources, of course, i don't know the sources so i can't tell if it's true or not, but when i have two different reporters asking me, you know, and telling me they have evidence that it happened, i have the ability to ask, and so i've asked the white house and i've asked the house intel committee and senate intel committee. there's supposed to be a procedure called a gates notification. if someone is listening to someone this congress in the executive branch, that is a potential great danger to disrupt the freedom of the legislative branch, the executive branch. if the intelligence community

is used for politics, that is a very, very serious crime, because they have so much power to collect. i mean, they have power to collect information and invade your privacy, but also to destroy you. general flynn, like him or not, agree or not, he was destroyed by an illegal listening-- illegal surveillance of his phone conversation. if that's going to go on, can you imagine what would happened to ordinary citizen if the government is able to listen in on him. charles: senator rand paul, that's why you have so many fans from coast to coast, we thank you for taking the time. >> thank you. charles: and want to get back to president trump's firing of james comey. tweeting james comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job bringing back the spirit and prestige of the fbi. all rise, judge andrew napolitano. judge, your initial reaction? >> the spirit and prestige of the fbi has been damaged, not irretrievably damaged, but substantially damaged by the

events that senator paul and you were talking about july 5th, 2016 with the exoneration of mrs. clinton and then at the same time a listing of all the damning evidence against her. that demeaned and undermined the work of the team, 150 fbi agents and god knows how many other people who are not agents that were a part of the team, and that spread rapidly throughout the fbi. he lost his ability to command the moral leadership of the nation's premier law enforcement agency and the president knew that. charles: i think the letter from the deputy attorney general rodenstein was really damning in so many ways, including the part where he talks about going to all, both sides of the aisle, former attorney generals and deputy attorney generals and all sort of agree with the last thing that comey had chosen personally to restrike the balance between transparency,

fairness departing to the department's tradition. >> what does that mean? that means if the fbi is not going to indict you, they tell you. they don't tell the public because that reveals to the public that you were even under suspicion and here is the evidence that we found about charles and we're still not going to indict him. that violates and this is the reason for the paragraph, longstanding, 60, 70 years standing department of justice regulations and if fbi regulations. the fbi are not prosecutors, they're investigators. their job is to make the investigation and pass it on to the justice department not to make the final prosecutorial decisions themselves. no matter how flawed it may be and loretta lynch's leadership was profoundly flawed because of the meeting with bill clinton. there are other people in the justice department, below and above him who could have received the information and made the decision. charles: all right, judge, thank you very much. >> you're welcome.

charles: you've been spot on about so many things. you're very kind. charles: thank you. let's look at your money in the stock futures, dow off 43% pre-open, 43 points, rather, pre-open. one of the issues is while disney had higher profits, top line miss and the key issue, the decline of subscribers, coupled with higher costs at espn, concerning some investors and that's going to put some pressure on the mark. a whole different story with nvidia, higher revenue with higher demand for chips, used for cloud computing and a number of things, including the nintendo video game console. wilbur ross telling reuters 3% growth is not happening this year. come in liz peek, columnest with the fiscal times. do you agree with that? >> it's clearly not going to happen for the year, there was a quarter substantially beneath par. charles: and 3% in the second

quarter now 3.6% and that's fallen like a rock. >> i think there's momentum and i think that's very good news. i think what secretary ross was trying to highlight is that there are a lot of reasons we're not getting forward on the trump agenda, including the fact that we haven't got the people in place. and let's talk about the trade representative that john mccain in the senate is talking about slowing down because he doesn't want to see nafta renegotiated. people have to be on the job to get this agenda moving forward. where are we with health care? we have' made a surprising leap forward there, but tax reform is still in the baby stages and all of these things have to come together to kind of get back to the kind of growth rates that president trump is talking about. i think that wilbur is probably right and we're behind schedule. >> and wilbur ross to liz's points we don't have half the people in place that congress is slow-walking the trump agenda. this has j.p. morgan and jamie

dimon, you need the trump agenda to move forward. we haven't built a major airport in 20 years, it takes ten years to build a bridge and in the interim of 20 years, china has built 75 airports. >> we're moving forward, i saw secretary elaine chao out at the milken conference last week and in fact, there is an infrastructure bill in the works, but you know, you have to go to 16 different federal agencies to get that thing put together and all kinds of other individuals and bodies, so, everything is complicated. charles: isn't that a key component of this? >> the infrastructure. charles: i know there's been obstructionism, but the administration has been pretty slow themselves in appointing folks, but getting rid of the blocks, the bureaucratic speed bumps, if you will, could there be a way to attack those at least so that when we get infrastructure we don't have to wait 90 days for this permit or that permit? >> i think that's totally what they're focused on. they're not focused at throwing 100 billion at the problem like the obama stimulus was. instead, what they're talking

about is process reform. make it so instead of ten years it's two years for permitting. in terms of long run growth at the united states, nothing could be more important to our competitiveness than, yes, spending on infrastructure, but also stream lining the process. i think it's totally the right time. >> e-mack, thanks a lot. happening next hour at the white house, russia's foreign minister beating with secretary president trump. we'll be on top of that. check this out. another black eye for the airlines, a huge brawl breaking out on board a southwest flight. we've got details on that coming up as well. and sales of coca-cola are down. coke's ceo says if the rise of on-line shopping is part of the problem. we will explain that one. a climate change bombshell. a study says huge amounts of co-2 are absorbed by arctic sea waters, creating a huge cooling effect. so much for global warming. i know it's cold out here. more varney after this.

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>> higher profits and electronic arts helped by demands for downloads in the games such as battlefield one. totally different story, yelp. weak forecast and that stock is getting totally crushed this morning. we've got a new study that finds that arctic is absorbing carbon and it's having a cooling effect. liz: a study done by norway and germany and u.s., and th ocean waters absorbed more co-2 than methane released in the area. so, even though methane is more potent gse gas, they're saying that the-- more than offset what was happening with the arctic waters, more than offset the methane released and it could have a reduction in global warming as president obama is

saying you've got to stop eating steak because it releases too much methane into the atmosphere. charles: and gore made the same claim until he had to stop barbecuing, also. this is on the eve whether america should stay in the paris climate agreement. >> well, look, president obama went after the climate agreement as a legacy issue. it's the most flawed of the agreements that we've entered into lately. the united states gave away the ranch and chinese gave away basically nothing. charles: china or india gave away nothing. and i want to bring someone else in to help us discuss this. president trump actually delaying the decision whether to withdraw from the paris climate deal that was struck under president obama. i want to bring in former senator tomko tom coburn. if we don't withdraw in this deal, we know that president

trump's base doesn't like the deal. >> iputs us at a competitive advantage. we've negotiated and give those people who have taken our jobs and don't follow the who guidelines and involved in our manufacturing, our productivity, our employees, our companies. charles: so, do you think we should pull out of it because, in the white house it appears that you've got ivanka trump, jared who likes it and also apparently rex tillerson says that america should keep seat at the table. steve ban non, rick perry and others say let's get out of this thing because it gives china and india in particular a tremendous advantage over us, while we spend billions of dollars. >> well, you know, first of all, the whole basis for having this agreement is, in my mind, still suspect. i know i will be called a flat-earther and that, but i

believe there's climate change, but the question is, what causes it and is it manmade gases or is it something else? and the question is, we're not in a warming stage now, we're in a cooling stage and that's been documented, so, what-- the whole basis for their philosophy before we got to a cooling stage is man was causing this. now you have the new science that we're causing it, but causing it to cool. that's ridiculous. charles: do you think it's a scheme in this case from america to other nations? >> what we saw from the administration is poor ability to negotiate good positions for our country. and you can look at almost everything that was negotiated, whether it be the nuclear talks with russia, which was a terrible deal, even though it passed, terrible agreement for

us in terms of strategic interests for us. so, i just think their inability to actually negotiate well and keep our key points of interest and security forefront doesn't -- it wasn't part of their calculus. theirs was being liked and doing what the left around the world wants done. charles: senator coburn, thank you for your time. >> you bet. charles: just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, a huge brawl breaks out on a southwest flight. punches were thrown and one passenger was arrested. more varney after this. you always pay

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>> well, to the unfriendly skies. three stories airline stories have been told to prepare pour an extended ban on carry-on electronics. the united passenger says his trip was canceled for filming a dispute with an employee and now this video you've been looking at, a brawl on a southwest flight and liz peek, passengers expect aggravation. we have come to live with. this is cabin fever on steroids. >> it's horrible. i think the good news and the bad news is it's all captured on video so they knew who to arrest when the plane landed and knew what the problem was, et cetera, but i've got to tell

you, i would not have wanted to be on that plane. a, they probably couldn't get where they're going. b, it's physically threatening, unbelievable. liz: the flight attendant was underneath the pile here. one guy arrested, battery and assault. and could be headed for jail. he's pleading not guilty. one guy suffered minor injury, concussion, eye socket and injuries to his nose. charles: almost every day. liz: another flight, another fight. >> flying to yr destinatio is a contact sport and it's turning out to be. charles: allow us to bring helmets and knee pads. and the market, we were off earlier on and these are driven by the juggernaut tech stocks. the opening bell is just moments away.

>> the opening bell less than 40 seconds away. set the stage for you. nasdaq continues to be a juggernaut. and each session almost setting a new record. but it's yesterday the blue chip stocks, the dow, that could not necessarily get a grip on things. actually collapsed going into the close before some buyers stepped in. so would he have a couple of constituents here, the buy on

dips crowd out there and folks who are simply chasing this market. chasing those winners, particularly money managers, institutions at this point must own the fabulous five that we talk about every day. consequently, nasdaq probably higher and the other two side ways. more red on the green on the screen. the dow 30 stocks, again, sort of a side ways move. remember, disney is going to be the main loser here. down 3%, that's going to put a lot of pressure on the dow overallment chevron is up, caterpillar is up, exxonmobil i things here. crude may have found support at 46 bucks and my stock, vulcan materials, had a good, good number and caterpillar your number three winner when it comes to the dow jones industrial average. overall down, a lot of pressure. let's look at oil one more time. you can see again, 46 maybe putting in, u.s. drillers

brought back so many rigs, it's almost inconsequential whether opec cheats or not. and they need to find a way to stop the pullback. disney weighed down by concerns over espn. on the other side, chip maker nvidia, forbes said it was the stock of the year and didn't live up to potential until the last two years, but now it's unstoppable. amazon drops the free shipping minimum to just $25. undercutting wal-mart and shares closing in on $1,000 per share. joining me now, liz macdonald, liz peak, and dr barton, jack hou hough. the commerce sergent, wilbur ross, 3% not going to happen this year. >> might not happen this year, not happen next year.

and might be 2, 3% growth. let's not worship the altar of growth, otherwise there will be policies for a 1/2%. charles: with all due respect, 8% growth. and we didn't have a lot of growth under bush either. after 16 years of limited growth, can't we worship for something? >> you either more workers, right, we've got demographics working against us with the aging population. you can offset with the-- we've got the headwinds. the growth numbers we're seeing are not too bad. >> i think that the worker issue a little bit is dependent on productivity numbers which have been very lame. so, i think you start getting investment rising from the business community, which is the big hope now, that brings in productivity surge. i see growth in our future. >> i agree, but workers are so cheap, why would you invest in more machines? >> although, unit labor costs are start-- we're starting to see them go higher a little bit and at some

point, i know the anecdotal evidence has been there for a long time, but as the supply of workers strengthen, wages go up and offset with something. >> economics 101. as fewer workers become available you start to pay more for the economy. in the wilbur ross, we buried the lead, trade, and the market with respond to. charles: practical, only 20% tariff instead of 25? >> no, enforcing laws instead of cracking down and slowing down international trade. liz: and he brought up the irony when the u.s. talks like that, the mexico peso goes down and exports more goods. >> he's already made some serious moves towards enforcing existing trade agreements, and i think that-- >> business talk not crazy

talk. charles: and especially when he brings bad news no 3% growth this year. we have to talk about president trump firing james comeythe question now, guys, will this delay the president's growth agenda? dr, we know that already the wheels of washington d.c. move very slowly now you've got calls for special prosecutors from both sides of the aisle. and everyone is in an uproar, i can't help the trump agenda. >> i think of this like in terms of a business. something that distracts you from the core of what you want to do, the comey business, finding his replacement, bringing the intelligence community back together, it distracts you from the big three, reduce regulations, reduce taxes, increase infrastructure. which is where they need to spend time to get the growth going. >> i don't think that will delay the president's agenda. i think that math will, he's got plans that will produce growth, but growth at the cost

of greatly higher deficits. some plans will be toned down. liz: i think it will slow down, mccain is now calling for-- has been -- a congressional probe into it. only rosenstein it appoint a special prosecutor. looking into russian meddling and possible collusion with the trump campaign so wheels are grinding to a halt in d.c., and focusing on full bore with u.p. interest firing comey. at the end of the russian probe, comey could have been questioned and doubted whatever he said, that was a credibility issue. >> i'm not sure that this is so much more of a distraction than the russian probe already was. congress is divided by this. while we're fussing about this, they're going ahead with the deregulation agenda. he's signed numerous dozens of executive ordehat have rolled back exisng regular lacy

regulations. >> and someone is equally hated on both sides of the aisle, james comey. charles: disney, espn a headache for them. what do you say? the other parts of the business are doing gangbusters. >> the other parts, the numbers-- and it was incredible. and you know, the espn thing, there's a little bit of an offset here and why disney hasn't gotten slammed much more than it has. 3% is down. but espn is a large part of the revenue stream. while the reviewers have been going down, the rates are able to change per viewer going up. one of the few cord cutting defenses that cable companies have is to have the live sports and espn has been defending that turf, fairly well, given the fact that they've added 16 million person-- >> and on the other hand they're paying more for programming. >> they are. >> and that seems to-- >> nfl costs more than australia rules football.

>> i wonder why. >> if you call it a myth, it's not cord cutting, it's the higher costs. and the good news for investors, those deals are done for the forseeable future. the next five years is growth. charles: bottom line, goes, dr, especially, if your 401(k), you don't sell the stock? >> no,on't sell the stock based on this, other places. charles: the amazon story of the day because amazon has several almost every day. this is important dropping their free shipping minimum to $25 and that undercuts wal-mart, liz peek, who is going to win this one? >> the bad news for wal-mart, they're not going to win and look, wal-mart is the only company arguably that could take on amazon's prowess, right? because they have enormous distribution, they're all over the country and they've been very successful at their on-line business, but nobody can compete with amazon, and whenever you begin to get close, as wal-mart sort of looks like it's doing, they change the goal post and i think it's incredibly, incredibly tough.

>> the competitive advantage here, amazon's earnings estimates have been plunging this year, what's happened to the stock price, it's going up because investors say we like how you're spending the money. if wal-mart said we're going to have half the profit, the stock would crater. charles: wal-mart shouldn't be slaves to the share price for a while. the ceo should say i'm focusing squarely on competing even though near-term the stock goes down. the jet takeover is peanuts. they better get a lot more aggressive or lose a lot more. >> charles, amazon took the first shot from wal-mart when they said $35 today because they're trying to go after the prime base. amazon's not going to let this go. charles: wal-mart's not too big to bite the bullet. look at the history of a & p and once dominated grocery market in this country. and the market shrugging off the turmoil. we did sell off into the close, there's some anxiety not just

associated with d.c., a huge move with the market. higher profits at electronic arts and that's got at that stock significantly higher. helped by demand for down lead "battle field one", a different story for yelp, that should, yikes. and that's hammered. i'm in both of those, golly, don't know how to feel. a u.s. broadcaster tribune media, and to be bought by sinclair broadcasting group, they reported a loss in the first quarter. and and-- we're going to switch over and listen to mitch mcconnell. >> last year the current democratic leader said it appeared to be an appalling act, one that he said goes against their tradition of prosecutors at every level of government. and the prior democratic leader when asked if james comey should resign given his conduct of his investigation, he

replied, of course, yes. it's also clear what our democratic colleagues think of the man who evaluated mr. comey's professional conduct and concluded that the bureau needed a change in leadership. the democratic leader just a few weeks ago praised mr. rosenstein for his independence and said he had developed a reputation for integrity. what we have now, mr. president, our democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of a fbi director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized, that removal being done by a man rod rosenstein they repeatedly and efusively praised.

and he removed him for many of the reasons they consistently complained about. two investigations are currently ongoing. the senate intelligence committee's review of russian active measures and intelligence activities and the fbi investigation disclosed by director comey. today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done to not only discover what the russians may have done, also to let this body and the national security community develop counter measures and doctrine to make sure it doesn't happen again. and partisan calls shouldn't delay the work of chairman and the vice-chairman, too much is at stake. deputy attorney general

rosenstein was confirmed on a bipartisan vote, 94-6 of. 94-6 and that should continue when they receive a fbi director nominee. as i said yesterday, once the senate receives a nomination to fill this position we'll look forward to a full, fair and timely confirmation process. this is a critical role that is particularly important as our country continues to face serious threat at home and abroad. abroad. >> mr. president, the democrat leader, yesterday the president fired the director of the fbi, jim comey, who was leading an active investigation into the trump campaign's possible collusion with russia. the president provided no reasoning for the firing other

than he had the recommendation of his attorney general, who has already had to recuse himself from the russia investigation for being too close to the president and his deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. mr. president, there is little reason to think that mr. rosenstein's letter is the true reason that president trump fired director comey. why? because if the administration truly had objections to the way director comey handled the clinton investigation, they would have had them the minute the president got into office, but he didn't fire director comey then. the question is, why did it happen last night? we know director comey was leading an investigation in whether the trump campaign colluded with the russians, a serious offense. were those investigations getting too close to home for

the president? the dismissal of director comey establishes a very troubling pattern. this administration has now removed several law enforcement officials in a position to conduct independent investigations of the president and his administration from acting attorney general sally yates, to bararra and now jim comey. what should happen now? what must happen now is that mr. rosenstein appoints a special prosecutor to oversee this investigation. deputy attorney general rosenstein sat in the judiciary committee and promised to appoint a special prosecutor at the appropriate time. he said, quote, i'm willing to appoint a special counsel whenever i determine that it's appropriate. so my colleague, senator kuhns asked him, would you agree it's vital to the assurance of

confidence in our democracy and law enforcement system that any investigation into these matters be fair, free, thoroughly and politically independent? mr. rosenstein answered yes, i do. if there was ever a time when circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now. mr. rosenstein already expressed concern that director comey damaged the integrity of the fbi. the attorney general has already had to recuse himself from the investigation for being too close to the president. if mr. rosenstein is true to his word, that he believed this investigation must be, quote, fair, free, thorough, and politically independent, if he believes as i do that the american people must be able to have faith in the impartiality of this investigation, he must appoint a special prosecutor

and get his investigation out of the hands of the fbi and far away from the heavy hand of this administration. mr. rosenstein has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor right now. he needs no congressional authorization. this would simply be a step that he could take as outlined in the department of justice guidelines and in the law passed after watergate to get an independently-minded prosecutor who would be insulated from various pressures, a special prosecutor is not subject to day-to-day supervision by the attorney general or anyone from the justice department. greater latitude who he can subpoena, which questions they ask, how to conduct an investigation. the special prosecutor can only be removed for good cause, such as misconduct, not to quash the investigation.

third, there is built in congressional oversight. congress is notified whenever a special counsel is appointed, removed or finished with the investigation. the appointment of a special prosecutor would be a welcomed step in the right direction, but it's not the only action that should be taken. there are a great many outstanding questions about the circumstances of director comey's dismissal, the status of the executive branch investigation into the trump campaign ties to russia and what the future holds for these investigations. so i will be requesting that the majority leader call a closed and if necessary classified session, all senators briefing, sorry-- i will be requesting that the majority leader called a closed and if necessary classified, all senators briefing, with the attorney general and the deputy

attorney general separately, at which they can be asked questions. some of the questions. why was attorney general session who had recused himself from the russia investigations able to influence the firing of the man conducting the russia investigation? did deputy attorney general rosenstein act on his own or at the direction of his superiors or the white house? are reports that the president has been searching for a rationale to fire the fbi director for weeks true? was director comey's investigation making significant progress in a direction that would cause political damage to the white house? why didn't the president wait for the inspector general's investigation into director comey's handling of the clinton e-mail investigation to

conclude before making his decision to fire him? was this really about something else? no doubt we'll have an opportunity to question mr. comey, now a private citizen, about what happened. what we need to hear from this administration and about what happened and why and what is going to happen next, and that is why, again, i am requesting that the majority leading call a closed and, if necessary, classified all sessions briefing with the attorney general and the deputy attorney general separately, at which they can be asked these questions. i hope the majority leader agrees with me, that we need to get to the bottom of this and get a handle on all the facts so that we can grapple with them. i remind him and my republican friends that nothing less is at stake than the american

people's faith in our criminal justice system and the integrity of the executive branch of our government. i yield the floor. charles: that s setor chuck schumer whose last sentence may be the only bipartisan thing we just heard, the american people's faith has been shaken in the criminal justice system, particularly the criminal justice system. and he brought up all democrats for a very long time have been calling for comey to resign and perhaps if you'd polled him 24 hours ago you would have gotten a resounding overwhelming majority, speaking of which, he talked about a new leadership at the fbi and pointed to rosenstein, the deputy attorney general's being passed 94-6 in the senate and he would like to see something like that without any sort of political shenanigans when the new fbi director is selected by president trump. on the other hand, you had chuck schumer and he initially

started out to his conversation, if you will, or his monologue, by saying that president trump gave no reasons for firing james comey, and of course, the first line in the statement last night from president trump did indeed give his reasons for firing him. obviously, it's political high jinks that are going to go on for time. check on the big board, the markets have been opened for less than 30 minutes, know the a lot of movement. we opened lower right around 50 points on the dow and that's exactly where we are right at this moment. publicly traded companies called on president trump, or they called him a risk factor, in fact, more than 700 official files that's more than triple the number of times that firms cited barack obama over his r fit 100 days in office. come in, from the cato institute.

i quibble with it, i think it ambiguous. i think a lot of folks think that donald trump could be a pro and con, not trump himself, but the trump agenda making it through? >> i would very much agree with that. it's a totally different context when obama came in we had a financial crisis and that's what people were writing about in their kincades, et cetera. and since obama came in the sec has tightened its regulations radically and people put more stuff in the report, the page numbers have gone up. when i talk to business leaders, they were worried when trump came in and worried in some ways now. you can see in the stock market and also in general, confidence in the business community that they're more optimistic than they were and probably much more optimistic than they would have been if hillary clinton had been elected and i just think, you know, now you've got to be careful with the sec and you just get more documentation. charles: and also, let's face it, even wilbur ross warning of perhaps not hitting 3% gdp.

all of this is sort of sounding a clarion call, if you will, to those folks who have to pass the legislation and make it law. j.p. morgan chief, jamie dimon he says that president trump's policies will restore america's can-do attitude. listen to this, roll tape. the trump agenda, the economic agenda about corporate tax reform, infrastructure, regulatory reform, is the right agenda for growth. okay. corporate taxes have been driving capital and brains and companies overseas for a decade. charles: john, do you agree? >> absolutely. you know, we'll see, you know, the devil is in the details, but the concept is right. we absolutely need less regulation, the regulation has been incredibly destructive. lower business taxes and china is worried about taxes lowered, because it will bring business back to the u.s. and argument for infrastructure, i'm less

enthused about that, but taxes ap regulation, those are big deals in driving faster economic growth. charles: what's amazing, you have jamie dimon in charge of business round table, the biggest corporations in america, on the other side you have the nfib which represents small businesses and they say the same exact things. unleash us, let us do what we can do best, remove the speed bumps and shackles and watch us perform. >> and i think what you're hearing is we can raise productivity, and you can't really get real wage growth until you get improved productivity, but you can't improve productivity if you're totally focused on regulation and all of your resources are going to regulation and if you-- all the capital you would be earnings going to taxes so, i think that business unleashed will drive a significantly faster growth rate. it's going to take a while and it's not going to happen in six months, but-- >> in the meantime, there are lks outhere saying don't invest in the market until the stuff gets through. isn't it true that the businesses, even in the absence

of hillary clinton extending the obama era of war on business, i see a lot of businesses that say, hey, we want to get this thing going. >> i hear that everywhere, and i'm optimistic in that regard. i think the business community was really depressed under the obama administration, and it was-- what's new regulation next week? i can't really invest my business. they're energized and hopeful and they need to see action, but they're very hopeful and psychology matters. charles: it does. >> psychology matters in terms of investment. charles: success is self-fulfilling. jonathan allen, thank you for your expertise. i want to switch gears. illegal immigration down 70% under president trump. e-mack you've got the details. april to april, 11,129 migrants coming over and crossing over from mexico, and what's happening, we're seeing a net

drop during a certain number of years from mexico itself. but the people coming in crossing the border are coming from central america and that number doubled in 2016 year over year, up like a thousand percent over the last ten years and people are thinking twice they may not get in after spending money to get people to ferry them in, $8,000 per person in some cases. charles: yeah, the mules make a lot of money. we'll get back to that in a moment. a quick check of the big board, dow off only 43 points now. sort of remandering. and top diplomates will meet with the president at the white house, the highest level russians since the election. the second hour of varney is next.

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. . . . charles: happening this hour, president trump meeting with russia's top diplomat at the white house. this is the first face-to-face meeting between the president and russian official.

if any news comes out of it, you will know immediately. earlier this morning secretary of state rex tillerson welcomedded the russian foreign minister. all smiles and handshakes for the camera. we'll see what they're saying after today's meeting however. another big day of stories for you, fbi director james comey fired last night. the market down a little bit, half hour into trading as investors wait to see how the move might affect push for tax cuts and health care reform. i'm charles payne. stuart varney will be back tomorrow. hour two of varney starts right now. >> when i heard about it i found it hard to believe, comey, thought had some degree of integrity would do this. >> i thought he made a mistake on this he clearly has a double standard. if you're not in it for a while, you can't take the heat. i think he just couldn't take

the heat from the republicans. charles: more on democrats response to comey's firing. let's check on the big board, dow jones industrial average off 54 points. this is one of the big reasons why. shares of disney, the biggest loser on the dow right now, of course weighing in, weighing it down. speaking of losers, look at yelp. they changed the symbol to yikes! weaker forecast. the stock is getting hammered. on the other side, remember alibaba kind of looked like it lost its way a little bit? the stock hit a all-time high. that is the chinese version of amazon. things not so hot at wendy's, profits did beat, the stock was up now. it was done a little bit. maybe because it's a 15-dollar stock wall street is bidding it up a little bit. president donald trump fires fbi director james comey citing lack of confidence that comey

could lead the fbi. after the fbi released a statement about a miske he huma abedin forwarded to her husband. listen to this. >> they found thousands of new. mails. they found classified information on anthony weiner. somehow her emails were being forwarded to anthony weiner, including classified information about her assistant huma abedin the she forwarded hundreds of thousands of emails some which contained classified information. charles: joining us alberto gonzales former attorney general under george w. bush, dean of law at belmont university. author of "true faith and allegiance." attorney general alberto gonzales. thanks for joining us. what are your initial thoughts about this? 24 hours ago in washington everybody felt comey was doing awful job.

i honor his sacrifice during the past year. there were several actions and statements made by director comey called his question his ability to effectively lead the bureau. people on both sides of the aisle believe that a change should be made. obviously yesterday it came as a surprise. i think most of the questioning is based upon the timing, why now, why not earlier? is it possible that, to interfere or stop an on going investigation? obviously those are very serious allegations. if true, then the removal would have been improper but i think a number of reasons why the president may have lost confidence based upon the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and attorney general department of justice. charles: you have faith in the intelligence community, particularly the men and women at the fbi who are already involved in any investigations to continue doing it? do you think they can be dissuaded or even ordered not to

determined than ever to try to find out if in fact there was any kind of collusion whatsoever. charles: back in world war ii there was old saying loose lips sink ships. comey should have paid attention. no matter what you think about the timing i thought rosenstein's comment when he tried to explain the letter of october 28th, he said that he used the word conceal. rosenstein pointed out conceal is a loaded term, it was misstated with this particular issue. it felt like every time he

opened his mouth on this that not only did he lose credibility i honor his sacrifices. ben he lost confidence of many people in this country. charles: alberto gonzales, thanks very much. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. charles: want to stay on the comey firing.

democrats are appoe fleckt president trump is tweeting, democrats said some of the worst things about james comey including the fact he should be fired but now they play. so sad. tammy bruce, fox news contributor, what are your thoughts. >> well why now, why the timing? no matter when he would have done it, except perhaps on first day it would have been called a massacre, no matter when he would have done it there would be same complaints. now there is investigation and people are being fired. the democrats made sure there is an investigation about something about donald trump. you know, all across the spectrum. so they have arranged it the dynamic where he is supposed to apparently doing in. the only thing he can do is say nothing, only do what the democrats want. the fact of the matter is, this is why he was elected. he is removing people. he can put his own staff. charles: is this part of the draining the swamp? >> obviously it is. they arranged environment and

infrastructure no matter what he does he will be attacked. he democrats they don't want people fired. they have got people in place. and they see that he is willing to do it. they want to make it so he is not comfortable doing it. anytime he does fire someone it is the end of the world. my column in the "washington times." that that in fact is what is at issue here. to stop donald trump from being able to be president. i like the fact that he is moving forward. liz: republicans like jo mccain don't like he was fired. they are demanding a congressional probe. republican jeff flake doesn't like it. ben sasse doesn't like it. >> they were all never trump percent. liz: beg your pardon, "wall street journal" was frustrated and looking for reasons to fire james comey. you're right to ask about the timing of this, charles. that is what both schumer, is bringing up and republicans are bringing up about the timing of it. >> but that is the problem. forget about partisanship this is about the bureaucracy.

the individuals on the republican side who are complaining are the same people who have been going after donald trump as much as the democrats have. this is why the average american doesn't like congress, doesn't like what is going on in washington because they see these are games being played that have nothing to do we roomty of what occurred. the media effectively lying to the american people comparing this to nixon's saturday night massacre. it is not at all the same. liz: but polls are showing that the american people are concerned about russian meddling in the election. >> sure. liz: there are reports by "usa today," anonymous shell companies doing deals with the trump companies over real estate. we don't know who is buying property issues like that still percolating. charles: so we move forward. this puts tremendous amount of pressure on replacement. you're going to have to find someone in this case who gets some bipartisan support, would you agree with that? >> to some degree yet. charles: can't be 42-48 vote.

-- 52-48 vote that would iname -- >> democrats is their point. they already telegraphed. they will not cooperate, when they can filibuster divorce such, you know they filibuster unless merrick garland. charles: mcconnell kept talking about rosenstein just now, how he was passed 94-6. i thought it was interesting, he brought that up more than once. i don't know if he would transfer over that particular job or not. >> everybody is complaining this is attempt to stop an investigation. andrew mccabe is running fbi. his wife received money. she was a democrat candidate from mcaulifee and hillary clinton-connected fund-raiser of the so you now have another partisan, clearly investigation is going to continue. nothing is stopped. if that was your goal you have done something put somebody in argue hably more of a partisan in charge. liz: there is breaking news. sean spicer saying that a law

firm on behalf of the president is sending a letter to lindsey graham saying there is no connection between the any russian interests and donald trump. but you know, that ops up the connection, what is going on with the trump empire and their business dealings. kind of a dangerous ground to be on to send letters like that. charles: i do personally have faith in the fbi, men and women at the fbi will get the job done with respect to any investigations they're involved in. check this out for a moment. more turmoil in the skies. a brawl breaks out on a southwest flight. a man caught on video repeatedly punching another passenger. this guy later on arrested for assault and battery. liz, these airlines are, are thinking about laptop. liz: that is a big issue, from western europe. we've got eight middle-eastern, north african countries. laptop device ban brought into airplane cabins. what is happening, macome mccaul, republican from texas,

homeland security committee in congress, number of terrorist plots involving airplanes and possible devices gone up. they have gone up since usama bin laden was killed by rob o'neill. this is the issue you have to wrestle with, charles. check the device into your bag. we know that pan am 103 bass brought down by audio cassette player, bomb, in a cassette player back in the late '80s. so, is this a fix? wow, a big push to stop it from western europe as well. charles: thanks a lot. mack. coming up speaker paul ryan says the senate will pass a health care bill in a month or so. are we really that close? luther strange will tell us about their progress. russia's foreign minister minutes away from meeting with president trump in the oval office. we'll bring you any developments.

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charles: happening just moments ago at the white house, russia's top diplomat, sergey lavrov arriving for his meeting with president donald trump. this will be the president's highest level meeting with a russian official since being elected. and now this, earnings out for disney last night. emac, you have the details? liz: they were good on adjusted eps. they beat wall street expectations. when it comes to sales, kind of disappointed on sales, coming in 13.45 billion. the boat anchor for disney continues to be espn. so what is disney doing now? they're looking possibly to subscription internet service for espn, meaning it would be for particular sports, for regions and certain teams. whether that is going to save espn is is the issue.

we know it lost a record 621,000 subscribers in the month of october alone, and about 12 million since 2011. so, charles, espn continues to be an issue. we know they laid off a lot of people, 100 people last month. charles: combination mostly cord-cutting but left-drifting politics. liz: yes and other competitors eating their sports programing. charles: thank you very much. liz: sure. charles: look at this, speaker paul ryan saying, well he is confident about a healare bill getting through the senate quickly. just take a listen. >> the legislation should not take that long. hopefully take as month or two to get it through the senate. >> you think it will happen by the fall? >> hopefully take as month or two. people need ability to plan. insurers are pulling out very, very quickly. we need to show insurers there is a better system coming. stay in the market. charles: joining us now, senator luther strange, republican from alabama. roll tide.

senator, did you get the memo about the one to two-month time care horizon for the health care bill? >> i did not get the memo. i appreciate the sense of urgency. i appreciate the house passed the bill. it is over to us, i can promise we're doing that already. charles: how are you, how is the senate going about this? we heard there are different versions floating around. obviously you have different sort of individual ideologies even within the republican party in the senate itself? how are you guys working behind the scenes, might be different what we saw initially with the house on this? >> there has been a lot of work already gone forward based on earlier proposals by the house. various positions you referenced different senators have. what i have been encouraged with, methodical way we started talking in the conference about medicaid. some states expanded their programs, some didn't. how do we reconcile that? we talked about how we look through the house bill, go through that line by line, what

do we like and agree on. what might we negotiate? what are things that are nonstarters to figure out how to be productive with our time. i don't know if the speaker's little too optimistic one to two months. wee moving in deliberate speed. in the senate that is little bit different than the house as you know. charles: maybe a little bit of pressure on you guys. here is the overwhelming thought, or conventional wisdom, if you will, senate will get this done but the bill goes back to the house will be substantially more liberal, if you will, with he respect to the one they barely eked out. this will put the freedom caucus back in the hot seat. any sense that that might be the case? or could it be different from that? >> well, from my perspective i hope it won't be anymore liberal than the house bill. would i like to see power returned to the people who want a relationship with their physician. who want to pay affordable problem premiums. who have coverage instead of an

insurance policy that does not equal coverage. there are a lot of things that can be done are conservative solution. that is where i'm coming from. we have difference in our caucus. ultimately we have to find something we all agree on. that is what we're working on. i promise you we're working diligently on that. these are real-world problems, preexisting conditions, real people affected by this you alluded to insurance markets changing as speaker did. that has to be addressed, sooner rather than later. charles: one more for you, senator, president trump fires the fbi director james comey, he tweeted out this morning, one of his tweets, comb he my lost confidence of almost everyone washington, republican and democrat alike. when things calm down they will be thanking me. senator, your reaction? >> i have the utmost confidence in my friend and former colleague jeff sessions who runs the justice department. rod rosenstein was confirmed by our senate. i voted for him. 90 senators did.

bipartisan support. director to mr. rosenstein. he lost confidence. that was his decision to make. main question, will we get a new fbi director who has utmost confidence with the american people? i have very high degree and confidence the president selecting that person. i look forward to that selection. charles: we all do. senator, thank you for your time. >> glad to be on. charles: talk show host jerry springer takes on a full-page ad in the newspaper, what he calls quote, horrors of trumpcare comparing republicans health care bill to 9/11 and usama bin laden. wait until you hear what else he had to say? liz: wow. ♪

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charles: netflix shares just touched an all-time high. any gain today means they will be, record close for them. meantime jerry springer, jerry springer, took out a full-page ad in the cincinnati "enquirer" slamming congress over health dare. here it is. today's date will not likely be remembered as much as 9/11 yet what congress did will end up killing more americans than osama bin laden ever did. come on in dan weber, with the association of mature american citizens. what's your reaction? >> charles, jerry springer is a joke, unfortunately. he lost any credibility and he is nothing but an obstructionist. i don't know if you know, he goes around the country raising money for democrats. he should be ashamed because a

guy like him, i guess you can't shame. he should be ashamed for scaring the american people. and those obstruction its should stop being obstructionists join with us as we try to find ways to fix our health care system. >> what do you makof the narrative that is beginning to emerge on the left and through the mainstream media, that people are going to die, particularly women? they have taken a specific focus somehow women from, from the changes are going to actually die? >> you know who is dieing? the 29 american people who don't have any health care right now, after nine years, people don't know that, have you heard that before, charles? 29 million people without coverage? charles: yeah, absolutely. the obamacare plan fell far short of its original goal. people who did have care we all know, either lost the care or insurance became so high, defacto they really couldn't afford to go to the doctor.

>> that's right. the ones that have it have 6 or 10,000-dollar deductible. it is full of 12 taxes which thank god the republican bill got rid of. the worst tax, taxes low and middle income people for not having insurance. listen to this they can't afford to buy insurance, so you tax them $700 as penalty? charles: yeah. >> that is the mind set, the government punishes you. charles: you make them buy insurance they don't need or couldn't afford in the first place. thank you very much. >> thank you. charles: the trump administration delaying about pulling out of the paris climate agreement. will president trump alienate his base if he sides with his daughter on this. this is the question we're asking. think again.

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charles: check on the big board. selloff starting to father a little bit of steam to downside. weekly oil inventor heries breaking right now. emac, you have the numbers, right? liz: we're looking for a drawdown of 7.19 million barrels. down way more than expected. down more than five million barrels. charles: wow. liz: you're seeing a bullish move in oil. it is popping 2.3%. so this is the, the fifth or sixth week, let me look for it. fifth or sixth week of a drawdown. fifth week of a draw-down. oil touch ad six-month low. we have iraq and algeria joining opec in oil cuts. there is bullish -- look a at that oil popping right now. charles: great news. thanks a lot. liz: sure. charles: want to check on the big board. here are the dow 30 stocks.

a lot more red on the screen. that is why we're down 61 points. the biggest loser, walt disney. they reported after the bell last night and they lost. here is the big winner, not on the dow but it is a big kinner, higher profits at electronic arts. chipmaker nvidia making a whole lot of money. higher revenue and strong demand for their chips, hot sectors that will be hot for a long time as a matter of fact,. moments ago russia's foreign minister arrives at white house to meet with secretary of state rex tillerson and president trump. mark serrano joins us right now, former deputy campaign director under h.w. bush. mark, a lot at stake here. re is one of the things i'm interested in. russia takes the lead on syria. promoting idea of four safe spaces or safe zones, if you will. a lot of countries signed on to this. should we allow them, should we sign on to this and let them take the lead with this? >> i think that is going to be discussed today with foreign

minister lavrov, charles. i think we should absolutely play a very active role in discussions over these safe zones. it is critcriminal important refugees out of syria have someplace to go, highly respected and highly protected. i believe the president will back that position. i think they will discuss it today. charles: we're talking about the strange bedfellows, all these international crises have created. russia and closer, closer relationship with iran has to be a topic of conversation too. >> what no one really focuses on charles in this relationship just starting out, burgeoning relationship between president trump and russia, president trump's favorite kind of leverage, which is economic leverage. he knows that vladmir putin above all else, wants to see economic sanctions against them lifted. so the question is, how far will putin come on crimea and ukraine? that is where the president will use his economic leverage to

gain the greatest concessions from the russians. charles: unlikely they will give up crimea. access to the black see is too critical for them and ambitions in the region. >> right. charles: a lot of our nato allies are concerned stopping them from any further encroachment to the former soviet republics. >> i agree. the minsk agreement is not respected by either side. they will find more realistic sees fire going from there. i agree on crimea but anything is possible. charles: let me ask you about this, mark, it is starting to swirl the core donald trump backers, a little anxiety building. donald trump met with epa chief scott pruitt at white house. they discussed the paris climate agreement. remember, president trump picked ivanka to lead the review on this deal. if the president doesn't pull

out completely of the paris climate deal, will this go against his base? >> there is a lot of pressure there, charles. i believe ultimately if the president looks at this through a economic prism he looks at most issues, he will not recognize this is not the paris climate change agreement. this is a u.s. jobs loss agreement. ultimately the energy sector pays the price. this is bad deal. china, india off the hook for 12 years. u.s. has front lloyded costs particularly from the energy sector. the president is champion from the energy sector. what he will tell ivanka trump, that state attorney generals are red he did iing lawsuits on the clean power plant. that it provides legal basis for their suing on the clean power plant. so that is a real serious problem that the president faces. so i think there will be a lot of pressure. i think at a minimum the

president will demand renegotiation. this was analyst it deal. this should have been a treaty but president obama clearly wouldn't bring it before the gop senate during his tenure, the president will demand it will be completely negotiated. charles: rex tillerson says we should keep a seat at the table. could there be a compromise? >> i think so, yes. there is a lot of pressure to scrap the agreement. it will be a great place to start. tillerson may win out, that we'll tell china and india, this deal stinks, you he renegotiate it or we're out. charles: one other thing, commerce secretary wilbur ross says we won't get 3% growth without president trump's economic agenda pushed through. is this tactical move to get washington d.c. to move quicker or real economic reality? >> i think it is both. it is a warning signal to capitol hill, you better back the plan and back the tax reform

package, get on board quickly, absolutely our economic growth will be in he question. we can go past 3%, go past 4%, but depends primarily on the tax cut plan. wilbur ross is sending a message to congressional leadership and gop, says get mind this fast or we'll lose the opportunity. charles: i want to bring in john lonski, mooded did i's managing director and chief economist. atlanta fed lowered projection. week ago 4.3%. second quarter we should see growth. 3, 3 1/2% largely because of very weak first quarter we had. you balance it out you're at 2% growth. that is where you be for 2017 and maybe 2018. charles: are we in new economic reality?

we didn't have a lot of growth under george bush too. in the last 16 years are we learning there are limits to capitalism? or is there a way to he reignite it the way ronald reagan once did? >> i wouldn't blame it so much on capitalism or profound change in the way -- charles: what happened? it is not just america. the west in general. >> you know what the key ingredient here is? demographics. this is an aging population. when we last had, faster than 4% real gdp growth from 1997 through 2000, each year the working age population grew by 2 1/2 million people. you know how much the working age population is boeing to grow this year by? americans, 11to 64, only 800,000. at same time, 1.65 million new retirees. charles: bsame tok, we have 1.65 million jobs opening. millions and millions of people are laid off. we have the workers.

>> where are the workers? they haven't been trained properly. there is something wrong with the education system that is something that the trump administration should focus more keenly on. make the education system more conducive to creating people that can take these job openings. charles: i know economists look at this practical, i don't know how easy it would be for any politician, hey, for for me i have a 10-year turn around plan. essentially to do retraining we're talking about, get the nation refocused that is not something that can be done quickly. >> that is true. you have to be very patient. i think you have to make these changes. trump is on the right track. over time the u.s. economy is going to benefit from this. but the benefits are not going to accrue immediately. that is where the political risk comes in. charles: what about, just the natural, the natural instincts of a natural dna in this nation. i look at vulcan materials, for

me, that is the best earnings report of the morning. public sector, momentum redown and private demand. to me that is a perfect storm. can't america you through its own sort of muscle memory, regain some of the growth that was absent the last eight years because we were hibernating? >> as you stated earlier, we have to have people that have the skills to go ahead and provide us with the output that many americans are willing to buy, willing to purchase. that is simply we're having difficulty coming up with the workers. let's noforg, 're in the late-stage of an economic recovery. this recovery has been around for nearly eight years. it becomes increasingly difficult to find attractively-priced, sufficiently-skilled workers to increase output, after that increase spending. charles: skilled workers, skilled workers, we're not talking college education. >> it is not just skills. it is also attitude.

charles: i appreciate it. john lonski. more trouble at disney. again fingers are pointing to espn. the sports network losing 12 million subscribers over the past six years. fox sports 1 host jason whitlock is next. we're all over the firing of james comey. the "the story" host martha maccallum joins us at top of the hour. ♪

liz: america's can-do attitude. here is what john allison, former head of cato institute. here is what he had to say about that. roll tape. >> they say the same exact thing. unleash us, let us do what we can do best. just remove the speed bumps and shackles and watch us perform. >> and i think what you're hearing is we can raise productivity, and you can't really get real wage growth until you get improved productivity, but you can't improve productivity if you're totally focused on regulation and all your resources going to regulation. and if all the capital you would be earning going to taxes. and i think business unleashed

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the our next guest the worldwide leader of sports espn has become handcuffed by politics. quote, the channel is handcuffed by politics to protect the most loyal employees. massive symbol that fueled donald trump's bid for presidency. look who joins us now, jason whitlock, speak for yourself, host on fox sports 1. a former employee at espn. jason, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, charles, for having me. charles: further explain, explain that quote to the audience. what exactly are you trying to, are you driving at here? >> well the piece i wrote in "the wall street journal" pointed out how a progressive sports blog launched by gawker media bullied espn for a decade and their bullying led to espn adopting progressive ideology, and becoming so nsumed with politics and political correctness, that they took their eye off business.

and anytime you're distracted by politics and you start thinking your political ideology is a business innovation, you're headed for trouble. espn, i worked at espn two different times. i worked in the early 2,000s. it was very creative, a very risk-taking environment. after the deadspin, progressive bullying, it became a culture less, risk adverse. you can't, been, we're talking about cord-cutting, and the overpaying for sports rights. cord-cutting was not some surprise. this is not some technology that came out of anywhere. leadership is supposed to be ahead of technology and adjusting. but when you're so distracted by politics, and you take your eye off of business, that is how mistakes get made. charles: so is this a situation though where it actually seeped into the on-air reporting, and

did it embolden progressives at the station feel like they had the right or even responsibility to air their views intermingling the scores? >> well, again, when you get distracted by politics, in this case, espn, it's progressive politics, the network lost track of who its core audience is. again, sports culture in a non-political way is very conservative, very conservative. the values taught in sports i grew up a college football player. i grew up an athlete my entire life, from little league on, the values instilled in you from sports are conservative, in a non-political way. so the people that enjoy sports, the culture is conservative, it is very patriotic. espn -- charles: give me one or two examples what you mean. >> oh, my god. charles: give us an example for someone who may not understand what you're saying?

>> well, number one thing a coach tells you in a being locker room, any problem we have we fix with the people inside of this locker room. we don't blame outsiders. you start with the "man in the mirror." it is very bootstraps mentality. charles: right. >> many of coaches in little league, this is sports coaching becomes their ministry. they come from the church, and try to instill these values what hard work will lead to, what demanding more of yourself, demanding of others what that leads to. sports in the only place in america where we play the national anthem. it is patriotic endeavor. espn can't understand why sports people, that grew up in sports culture very offended by what colin kaepernick did. there is a reason for it. because again, it is upset ising the culture that has been in place for 150 years, if you start bringing in this progressive politics and

everybody on television shouting at you. if you have a problem with colin kaepernick, you're a racist. no they're not. they're sports people who like traditional sports culture, respect the culture and if you have a problem with the police, take it to police headquarters. don't have it play out in football environment which is the most conservative culture we have in sports which has been -- all, pete rozelle and people that ran the nfl attached the nfl to patriotism and support of the country and support of the flag. colin kaepernick just chose the absolute wrong environment to carry out his protest, and then for espn to reflect their overwhelming ideology and point of view on this was, anybody that had a problem with colin kaepernick is some kind of a steaming racist. that is just wrong. charles: right. >> and it annoys, going at your

hardcore, traditional fan base when you do that to them, you're annoying them and pushing them away, and that's why linda cohn, a veteran anchor there made the comment. we forgot who our hardcore fans were and started serving others. charles: room quick, i want to ask you about nick buonnconti. you played football. he is diagnosed with dementia. >> he is great humanitarian and football player. push back a little bit on nick, anytime you get many lawyers involved in any case, it is going to be a slow process. he is saying that the nfl is waiting on our players to die. i tend to think the reason why this is playing out in such a slow process is because there are hundreds of lawyers involved, who all get paid by the hour. who know the nfl and nflpa,

players association they have all money to spend. i don't think the nfl is trying to be as cruel as nick suggests but i have a great deal respect for nick. charles: great stuff. we really appreciate it. >> thank you, charles. charles: "varney & company" will be right back. there's nothing traditional about my small business so when

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liz: senator rand paul says james comey's firing, quote, could not have come soon enough. now charles asked rand paul about that earlier. roll tape. >> you know i think the firing of comey couldn't have come soon enough. i think all americans thought he botched the clinton email investigation f you're a democrat, you thought he did too much to insend wait he was guilty. if you're a republican, if he insinuated he was guilty, why didn't they prosecute her? you i think both sides are unhappy. virtually every american thinks you botched an investigation, maybe we need something else that can bring more competence to the fbi. charles: no doubt 24 hours ago everyone to your point, hey, this guy has got to go. fast forward to this morning even some senate republican come looks are questioning timing of it. >> there is a lot of hypocrisy going around. chuck schumer in november said he lost confidence. hillary clinton say he completely destroyed the whole

election. then you have eric holder says in the letter, you know, indicating is had dismissal, eric holder says comey violated long-standing department of justice procedures. so, i think you have a lot of people looking at it from the democrat side who have said they have lost confidence in him. i think you have republicans saying he should have prosecuted clinton. nobody is happy with his tenure at the fbi. i think it was long past time for him to go. charles: of course this puts a lot of pressure on the replacement. who is is the ideal candidate? not who do you think it should be per se, but who is the person you think is sort of rekin delled espirit day corps at fbi but also main street america which is obviously confused at this point and not trusting anyone? >> i think a lot of people come from within the fbi but i don't know that is an absolute. i think you want someone with experience in law enforcement.

but you need someone to balance civil liberties with law enforcement.

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>> it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. this is what is new this hour. los angeles throwing its name in the hat to host the summer olympics for 2024. our question is why on earth would los angeles or any city at this point want to host the olympics. we will get a full report this hour. remember when richard branson said bringing back call was stupid we decided to bring in one of the biggest coal producers to find out what he have to say about that. i am almost embarrassed to say it but we do we have the coal architect of obama care. just a sunday he tried to blame the problems on president trump. listen to it again.

>> who's fault is this. before president trump was elected there were no counties in america that did not had an insurer. since president trump has been elected. >> urinal blame the problems with obama care on president trump. jonathan's can be with u later this hour and you can be sure and ask him about that. the third hour of ernie and company starts right now. charles: to the news that is rocking washington and the nation. all eyes on judge andrew napolitano is on us. the big question now is who is going to take over.

and there's even a chance that the number two now acting director may actually had a chance here. they bring the type of package the classic baggage that donald trump said he would reject in washington. they are the number two person in the justice department. is married to a physician who receives $750,000 from a political action committee to finance her campaign. so far no problem. the political action committee is controlled by terry mccall. vice president mike pence is speaking pence is speaking we want to take a quick listen. >> he is not under investigation and as the former director clapper of the director of national intelligence said there is no

evidence of collusion between our campaign and any russian officials. let me just be clear. that's not what this is about. they took strong and decisive leadership here. to say the safety of the american people first by accepting the resignation of the attorney general to remove him as the have of the fbi. they have to head confidence in the federal bureau of investigation. and because of the actions that the deputy attorney general outlined to the president that were endorsed in agreed with by the attorney general the president made the right decision at the right time and now we look forward to finding the individual who will be able to lead that agency and all of the outstanding men and women of the fbi. back to a place where we move

past the difficult politics of the last year that had swirled around director james comey leadership and we can move back to a place where every american canal that the fbi is able to do its job to enforce our laws and protects our nation [indiscernible] >> let me be very clear that the president's decision to accept the resignation as the have of the fbi was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interest of the american people into ensuring that the fbi has the trust and confidence of the people of this nation. >> the president's leadership. i think it represents the kind

of strong leadership that the american people expect they expect a president to act on the resident -- the recommendations of those within the administration who are charged with oversight. they hire the oversight. they were confirmed just a few short weeks ago by the state senate when he brought the recommendation to the present. president trump provided a strong and divisive leadership they have come to be accustomed to him. they took the action necessary to remove them. already this morning the president is in the process they would be able to fill that spot and leave the fbi and restore the confidence of american people. that's righthis wathe right decision. >> if there was no

wrongdoing. the facts that are in public today very clear there is no evidence of collusion the present and i remain confident that the committees in the house and the senate that are looking into every aspect of issues that arise will be able to do their work. and do in an orderly way. they were informed several times by the former director that he himself is not under investigation but the simple fact is the director had lost the confidence of the american people the support that i heard from members of the senate today when i was over by the senate chamber the support for the president's decision has been expressed in this capital building and around the country is reflective of the fact that it

was time for a fresh start at the fbi. i think the president did as he has done in some other and some the other cases and he took decisive action he provided strong leadership into act in to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general i think the american people welcome that and they know as president trump has done sometimes before the president is gonna take the time necessary to find an individual a great experience and great integrity to lead the nation's law enforcement agency at the fbi and i look forward to being a part of that process. did they ask to conduct a review. >> the new deputy attorney general who was just sworn in two weeks ago and confirmed by the fbi came to work he is a man of extraordinary independence and integrity and reputation in both political parties of great character

that came to work and sat down and made the recommendation for the fbi to be able to do its job it would need new leadership. with the attorney general that concurred. and i am personally grateful. that we have a president who was is willing to provide the kind of decisive and strong leadership to take the recommendation of the deputy attorney general term of an fbi director who had lost the confidence in the american people. that being said to me be very clear. we have some great men and women who serve in the federal federal bureau of investigation every day. they make an armistice sacrifices for the people of this country. i'm very confident that the president will go through a process and he will choose an individual who will be able to lead the fbi not only back to credibility to restore the

trust and confidence of the erican people but lead the fbi to even greater heights to ensure that it does its job enforcing our laws and protecting our country. >> vice president mike pence answering a myriad of questions. i want to go back to judge andrew napolitano. one thing that he said that really stuck out here that present trump is can it take strong decisive action because they put the safety of the american people first. do you feel like we were at some sort of a crisis. we were at a point where confidence was being undermined it. i can tell you where it was coming from. in the very cities throughout the nazis.

that began on july 5. they felt like it was a whole team of personnel. that they have demeaned their work when mrs. clinton was interviewed for four hours on july 1 or 2nd whatever that friday was proceeding the fourth of july weekend last summer they said is there anything to which you attribute your memory loss and she said i fell in my home and injured my head. they ask for medical record. and she clined. they ask for a subpoena they went to the nsa that has

everything to do directly. that is what prominent -- propped at prompted him to hold the press conference. he was shutting down an investigation before it was logical. in order to determine the pre- determined result. he felt like he lost faith in the leadership everyone says there was a a loss of faith. it was a perfect storm. >> and you heard it here at the top of the hour. they want to host the summer olympics. why would any city want to host that getting that. we are going to have to la in just a bit. he can't get anything think of anything more stupid than bringing back coal. how does robert murray feel

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all i see. now jp morgan chase ceo sat down with the business insider what he says about the president's agenda might come as a surprise. >> the agenda and the economic agenda about corporate tax reform and the structure regulatory form is the right agda for growth. corpate taxes have been driving capital for a dede. a lot of people are surprised because the animosity during the campaign. specifically goldman sachs and jp morgan.

he say listen, we need these policies. look at what president trump is doing in wall street has been fairly happy about the move that he has made so far. we've been very focused and looking at the situation. when you look at this disgruntlement against the fbi director i think it can happen one way or another. the way it happened has sort of rattled a lot of people and it will come back to haunt him and it will lead to instability in many different areas politically and on the economic front. this is a rash move that we saw last night. we don't know exactly why this action was taken at this particular moment. >> everybody agrees that it was can happen to your point. is it as important to exactly

when and let's face it just last week the idea that he said there were hundreds maybe thousands of e-mails sent and there was really a few of them. every time he opened his mouth he compounded the problem. once you have insane is time for this got ago wasn't that the perfect opportunity to pull the plug. there were mixed messages that came out. >> the letter that came out from the president cited it. yesterday we looking to do a segment on the show about james comey anyway. one of the things that we talked about as producers and an anchor and putting it together was he messed up on the hundred of thousands of e-mails. how much longer is he could be the story. in my mind was the biggest problem he became the story. part of that is not his

fault. and fbi director has not provided that kind of infoation where both peoe are under fbi investigation that was an unprecedented situation. i think he liked the limelight a little bit too much. >> i can't think of anything more stupid than bringing coal back. there are some things that are even more stupid. my next guest is one of the topical producers in this country. i wonder what he has to say about that. it is absolutely mind-boggling

that they would write off the industries that employ some the hard-working people and americans around the world just like that. i think we should not be looking for mister branson who was convicted and jailed for tax evasion and has a checkered history. i don't think he has any pulpit to verse an opinion at all. we need: this country we must have it. for the reliability and low-cost electricity but mostly for the reliability of our electric power grid. we must have it at least 30% of our electricity generation mix or we will wind up with people freezing in the dark with an reliable electricity and very high cost electricity. mister branson is not a person that i would want to l for any advice.

what about the idea that no matter how great the administration and noble their ideas are and i just read they are now paint bonuses up to a thousand dollars. that is right. it does. if that the call side of our business though that is separate from the thermal coal industry that we we generate electricity. we are still there. they made tremendous progress in eliminating a number of those regulations.

we have not seen the rebound in the thermal side that the call side has said. they a short minor sound in many regions of the country because of the call. as you are speaking we have a full screen of a bunch of different coal stocks including cloud and i find that interesting because canada has threatened a mini sort and brings to mind the opportunities the export opportunities for thermal coal why can't we start to do the exact opposite of what president obama did and reinvigorate the coal based on demand. half of the homes in india, don't have a lightbulb. charles for heat. as well as light. we have an energy property problem in this world.

we want them to have a lightbulb. and the only way there to get it is from coal. they have no other way other than through coal. we must deal with this. and that means growth. that means export growth for american coal. we always appreciate your passion in your and your commitment. thank you for coming on today. just one repeat we did some breaking news the summer months ago vice president pentz seeking about the decision. the decisive leadership here. to put the safety and security with the american people first. by accepting the recommendation of the deputy attorney general to remove the director comey as the have of the fbi. the american people have to

head confidence in the federal bureau of investigation. we are well off the lows for the tao today putting a it in a little bit of momentum here. and now disney has been the stock of the day. it would be positive if it wasn't for the 20% down session for dizzy. and now to the los angeles and paris. fighting for the chance to be the home of the summer games in 2024. they are in los angeles with the latest. while hosting of the elliptic games has been historically expensive for host cities but the ceo of the la campaign thinks his city can actually make money off of it by cutting waste improving efficiency and not using a dime of the attack. they will get money off of the ticket sales in the murky deals. they will not use any tax revenue or contributions to pay for it.

they are to cut costs by using infrastructure that already exists in the city instead of building these expensive olympic villages. like the stable center behind me. the limbic committee will make their big decision between them and los angeles. hillary really quick, the police cost money. it is can a cost that city a hole in much they tell them it won't. >> it will add up. in the final tab we will have to wait and see for that. they're gonna make a profit from this and that i can accost the city anything. we will see. thank you. we will appreciate it. happening now at the white house. we are on top of that. next up we are joined by the co- architect of obamacare. he is now blaming obama care and the problems on present trump. stay right there.

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>> i simply said to him mister president in all due respect your making a very big mistake. and he didn't really answer.

and i have said from the get-go that i think a special precutor ithe way to go but now with what's happened is the only way to go. that was senator chuck schumer. this happening after the president fired fbi director james comey. president trump then tweeted this. after the president fired fbi director james comey. president trump then tweeted this. i do not had confidence. here now to react. everyone in dc hated james comey. they have a whole bunch of people wondering why he was so unfairly released from his job. a couple of weeks ago i spoke to that.

an unsolicited for that. they have indicated how they lost confidence in their director. he has become such a distraction. and also because he politicized his office again. as much as the attorney generaand the present have lost confidence in tha director instead the director said of the people at least informally that they talked to. i think it goes right back into the investigation mrs. clinton when the investigating team provided all the evidence for prosecution and he dismissed that. he laid out the perfect case for some sort of indictment and then said were not going to a date. and that right there is sort of like a trapdoor. present trump made at strunk

decisive move in part because he put the safety of the american people first and the american public have lost confidence. where they probably could've done their job to a degree where it would make america less safe. i think some new people have lost confidence in him and with him goes in association with the fbi. the people in the fbi you come in contact with them. some of the best people we have. i think it's the key here. i think without that deputy attorney general are not dealing with that today. they were not going to do it on their own. they have recused themselves. i doubt that the president is still in it. he was the key to this. i have some breaking news. >> the president is saying that coming was not doing a good job. he was in the oval office.

this is still an ongoing story. firing backt people like chuck schumer. the breang news that the president in the oval office sa that he was not doing a good job. this is after meeting with them. it's an ongoing story. or stain on it. it goes without saying he wasn't doing a good job. twenty-four hours ago everyone would've agreed with that. the political shenanigans are all revolving around timing. more important now is that. how does the president go about picking his replacement. what you think should be the key considerations. first of all, i think the person that has to be known at least one on in this field and respected like to give it the circumstances surrounding the two investigations with both candidates.

i would like to see something independent of politics. and not part of deposit the speemac person politics. that's him he was republicans. the person you are describing maybe we will find that person sitting next to them. it's a rare person out there. it seems like everything has become political and partisan these days. their positions become well known. and it might take them to a degree. i want to stay right there also. in their blaming president obama for that failures. i want you to take a quick listen to this. before present trump was elected there were no counties in america that did not had an insurer. since president trump has been elected, you are going to

blame the problems with obama care on present trump. there he is. a man himself to respond. are you still saying that the implosion is all the fault of the president. what i'm saying is first of all it is not unraveling. they have out one time price increase. they ensure that profits are training positive. and nowhere in the country is left with that. says he's been elected multiple insurance executives have said the answer to date he has injected in the market has made it impossible for them to stay in the exchanges and cause them to raise prices. this pointed out the facts. i look at every single earnings report from these guys and they have not said that. what really happens is that they provided cover. and the taxpayer paid off any

losses that they have to absorb. i guess you guys are trying to buy time for a better deal. one by one insurance companies walked away from this because they were losing a lot of money. obama care has reinsurance feature but was never paid out. republicans blocked it. despite the fact that hca has an even bigger payment of the exact same type. in fact the governor never honored that. what i can say is that there are many counties a lot with one. how did that happen. and by the way it all didn't happen in the last three months. first of all there is nowhere right now. there are places with one. that's absolutely true. and it happens in a dynamic market. people come and they go. if this is one insurer they are making it.

it is a volatile new market. any new market they are trying to make. that is a free market at work. it was not back yet stable. nothing in the current republican law stabilizes that market. only makes it worse. she talked about the ordeal that her husband went through and what what happened if he was on obama care. see mac in april 2008 he suffered a massive heart attack while on route and the helicopter has potassium levels dropped and he stole into in a coma. he stayed into that for ten days. my husband have been on medicaid or medicare some sort of government run healthcare program the hospital would have pulled the plug after maybe the third day.

what you make of her comments. first of all she's wrong. they were not pull the plug. it is absolutely true that some people in america had better healthcare than others. the question is why it is taking medicaid a way for people who can't afford the alternative make it better. if they're rich the rich enough to afford healthcare where they can get helicopters to take them to where they need to be. that's great. it does not mean that we need to take away the lifeline for americans who can't afford it. the people on the other end and not only force them to pay for product they couldn't afford as they decided to skip out on it they were penalized for it. people were buying these products they didn't need. there were these extranet packages that young people have to get that they didn't really need. this is really every distribution of wealth.

distribution of wealth. you raise a couple different issues here. maternity coverage is a very small part of the cost of healthcare. if you think that the problem with obama care is that young people are there. let's get rid of it. it's head that debate. but inebate admit that what you want to do is make pregnant women pay me for health insurance. let's head that debate. they say if they want to do as is a total legitimate debate. the lack of transparency was a huge political advantage. it will get to watch it every step of the way. really appreciate it.

some of the top advisers want them to put more boots on the ground in afghanistan. anywhere from three to 5,000. this is causing some serious friction if you will we have a lot of folks that thought that this administration. by the same token three to 5,000 that doesn't help us win. it might stabilize things that we can't win with that. they actually had the momentum they have retaken about 40% of the territory the issue is do you pull out if you do that. we are going to turn into a breeding ground. the very place from which the 911 attacks came. do you just leave it as it is. i don't believe in my own mind.

i believe that that is a decisive force. that it will change the momentum against the taliban. i like to see whhe details are. we have to have a strategy put in place. where the afghan national army does it. we are actually assisting them as well. we've been having the soldiers and men and women there. that's a lot of lives lost in the american public does not want to see it anymore. we hear about training these folks. and then we put them out there on their own. it shows up with the black flags and they flee. do you really have confidence that they can actually trade people train people that have been beat down so much. they are hardy warriors.

they are merciless fanatics. it was not winning hearts and minds here. they are immediately rejoicing. this charles, this is an industry fight. with the small arms weapons. it's about going out there and killing these people and taking control of the train. you have to have enough people to do that. but they have the heart to do it but they need to do more help. now to the president in the oval office. thank you very much for being here. director comey. he was not doing a good job. did it affect your means with the russians today. thank you. thank you everybody. presidentrump i just want to

ask you about what you just heard. there been asked if this decision to release him impacted his meeting from russia's foreign minister today. but they look at things like this and they understand instability. listen, we've changed our policy with the russians. we are involved in engaging in the diplomacy of them. with the aggressiveness is trampling on the national interest. the president has set as said is also the secretary of state has said. i don't believe it will improve until the russian behavior changes. that's what the united states wants. one of the key things they're pushing right now as they want to take the lead in syria with the safe zones. and some other things.

they seem to be okay with the idea of russia or anyone else out there killing isis do you think this was something of a shift. do you to trust them to take the lead in syria and we watch them do that. the zones that they're talking about our cease-fires that the russians have violated every single time we've had one. they are all contested areas right now. that's what they will do to consolidate. they will take advantage of it with the opposition forces. that's what they've done everything all time. they're using de-escalation zones is a trap. it will be able to print speak with them. and given the cover for what they're trying to do. we are not going to fall for it. thank you very much. we really appreciate it. greg abbott signed a new law. he is suing the city of austin

to inform that law. >> thank you very much for being here. what prompted you to file this lawsuit. >> we did not want a bunch of lawsuits all over the state. we are very confident of our position that we wanted to move it forward. we are ready to go. are you considering. i think a lot of legal folks said you will obviously see immediate action. parts of it were struck down by the supreme court. is that sort of just getting in front of that. is that sort of just getting in front of that. we are merely modeling that. they did not see that.

they're going to be successful on this. the ac la and others are painting them as a dangerous place for certain people including immigrants. of course they never say illegal immigrants just immigrants in general. >> is going to be more challenging if you're breaking the law. there is a history. they went for five years. they were booked for different crimes. 6900 violent crimes. it's part of the reason the legislature wanted to make sure they get something done this session. charles: i want you to take a look at this. the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border.

could they get even lower than that. one is donald trump. they are not want to allow that. they will actually allow them to do that job. over the last eight years they were not functioning the way they were supposed to be. i think that's the white -- of the reason the reason they are wanting them to come down. mexico last year was a second most dangerous place in the world right after syria. and it was really compelling because all of the other names on the list you have full fledged wars. they have haven't 23,000 people that were killed is it the sort of fear that we have. those are the statistics i was

just siding. that was a study that we do have a problem. if we go to el paso. several years ago they put up a fence that said as of right now. it was a very dangerous place. they put up a fence it's not one of the safest cities in america. to stop the cartel from coming into our state. thank you very much. really appreciate it. and now to los angeles school board. they're making the public school sanctuaries. it basically designates itself as centricity's. 1,180 k-12 schools are now sanctuary campuses. it's a big deal because this is the second largest school district in a gets a big $585 million. will the trump administration

cut that funding off. the budget is a little o $7illion. they will not cooperate with the federal government oany illegal detainment or deportation. that's can a guard through the seniors. let's get a quick check on the big board. we got to only be done five points. a nice effort on this first rally. of course keep in mind the news is coming fast. stay with us. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too.

for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done.

take a look this inventory and the drawdown it was significantly more than anticipated. gave a big boost. and now $47 56 cents. one of the big winners of the day. amazon meanwhile is dropping its free shaping minimum. now look at disney you know it reported after about lessening

the shares on this some serious pressure being dragged down. here now let's start with the problem for disney. there can have to get really innovated. their target market is people like me. from time to time we just want to sit down and watch sports. we also can watch things on our iphones there's other ways to get sports. years ago there was no other way. and now you have to get very liberated. there are couple of companies out there. and espn is looking into it. they are starting to actually turn that into tv shows. that is what the young folks like a lot. the à la cart stuff they keep talking about.

course we know one of the initial goals was 3% growth this year. but last night wilbor ross told them they're not cannot make it this year yet. >> to make 3% for the whole year you can have to do 4% for the next three quarters and it's gonna take a long time to get this economy turned around. but what the trumpet ministration is planning and proposing will work there is no question. we talked about evidence. here is the evidence. for the last eight years we've have in the mac growth at best. and it's getting lower and lower. the facts are when you cut taxes and reduce regulations you start to stimulate the economy. it is going to be blamed on trump but we have no other choice. there's no other weight way we will get this economy going unless we implement these programs. other than that morgan had

that and continue to do nothing in this economy and it will drip lower and lower. anybody who doesn't know how the economy works learn and get behind. it's the only way you will revive the economy. you may have to give that speech to a few republicans. there is no question about it. i listen to some of these people. they really don't understand how things work in the real world and the economic side of things. the companies are actually demanding present trump is a risk factor. his name has appeared nearly 700 times this more than three times the mention of former president obama. president obama. what are these companies afraid of. >> the risks to the numbers that they believe. to what they are projecting. they have never had in the last eight years there hasn't been this idea that we will

have a reduced taxes. we don't know exactly what can happen to some of these companies. most of them will benefit as a result of a trumped plan being implement it. so the risk to those reports in those numbers. most of these companies are to benefit by seeing these plans put in place. >> do you think it's more about the idea of the trump economic agenda just not getting in the amended quick enough i'm not sure. each company words it differently. it's a risk to what they had projected. whatever they told the street it might change based on what gets implement it. which we haven't seen for eight years. a lot of folks just not necessarily factoring in the hard numbers. let me ask you quick about this market.

very much so. it's just a short-term pessimist. i really appreciate it. stay right there. we will be right back after this. trini -- [music]

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charles: the dow jones industrial average down only 23 points at the moment. we were down more than 70 at one point. the turning point, the inflection was oil, oil finally turning around. we're getting close to 47.50. that was hurting a lot of these

stocks. big, big names trade on blue chip exchange, chevron, exxonmobil. we need those stocks to go higher. nasdaq taking a breather but just for now. now here is neil cavuto. take it away. neil: thank you very much, buddy. we're following these developments a concern of minot politics, just a concern about money, that is our lifeblood here on this network. whether you think the comey firing was justified. whether you think this is all political dirt going nowhere, my big worry is this. the markets are counting on tax cuts. the markets are health care effort that is marked friendly repeal and replace. you know all of that my concern when things come up. very sort of myopic only to look at this way, the more stuff like this happens, the less that other stuff happens. at least less likely it happens as soon as people want. in other words james comey