>> of course. stuart: that is my mom's earlier memory. liz: nothing about the birth of you? stuart: that was misdemeanorrable but -- ashley: didn't forget that. stuart: didn't bring it up very often. fortunately out of time. ashley, liz. neil, it is yours. wait for it. neil: so your mom lived to 98? stuart: almost 98. neil: and you're in your 60s? stuart: me? neil: you. stuart: 69 in couple months. we have at least another 30 years. [laughter]. just doing the math in my head. >> lucky you, neil. neil: all right. happy mother's day. it is a beautiful story. we're all looking at this. footnote on mother's day versus father's day. we spend five times more on our moms than we do our dads. the theory goes something like this, most believe dads get off easily and mhers do all the work. okay.

meantime, the president is the doing a lot of work overtime, going after the media right now. now questioning the need for white house briefings as we presently have them. that he is concerned that the way we go about them one gotcha moment after another. maybe the best way for the media to proceed going forward is to give a written he question. they will give you a written response to make sure everything is accurate. he had it with all of this. but for the time-being, white house briefing is on. less than an hour, sean spicer will do the duties today. blake burman with the latest from the white house. reporter: speaking of work, sean spicer will have the work cut out for him at the white house press briefing later today, after president trump set out series of tweets this morning, one click after the next generated one headline after the next. kind of went through one of them a little while ago there as relates to the president questioning the need for press briefings. the president tweeted out the following, quoting here from president trump. maybe the best thing to do is would be to cancel all future

press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy, he questions? the backstory to all of this, the white house press shop gave one version as to how the president ended up deciding to fire jim comey tuesday night and all day wednesday. thursday in the interview with nbc's news's lester holt with his own version. twitter defending his press shop and also questioning the need for these press briefings.ç what will be front and center in the priest briefing in an hour's time, neil, another tweet, that president trump sent out earlier this morning relates to jim comey. the president tweeting, quote, james comey, better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. the conversations conversations, din are took place at white house, other phone calls which the president was told three different times bit former fbi director that he was not under investigation. what does the president mean by

these tapes? are there tapes? what might he plan to do about them? lots of questions there, neil. as that one is very much in its infancy, but a headline generator. neil, within the last hour or so, tax advisors to the president released a one-page letter basically saying that the president does not have any investments in russia. the russians don't have any invests with mr. trump or the trump organization. you see a list there up on your screen. there are a few exceptions though according to these tax advisors to the president. those being as you know there was the miss america pageant in russia. he ended up selling that. he sold a megamansion to a russian billionaire. 1:00, sean spicer at the white house. must-see tv, neil. neil: pay-per-view events. i hope he doesn't disband them. do we know where the president will be this weekend, blake? reporter: nothing officially reportable from the white house. until they put that out there, it is lips sealed i guess on

that one. neil: thank you very much, buddy. president is warning, james comey not to get any idea about leaking their conversations. "real clear politics," caitlyn huey burns. what he seems to be intimating, caitlyn, he has tapes now, and he might not. just the thought that he could opens up a whole lot of questions. what do you think? >> a whole lot of questions, and questioning the relationship that this president, already fraught relationship that this president has with the fbi and the intelligence community, two, not to put it simply, this raises a lot more questions, and something that i think is going to be continued as blake mentioned to be asked in the groving today. this is a very sears russ allegation i think. neil: obviously what the president is trying to say, he had it with the leaks. that has been more of his concern, his administration concern sense taking office, not so much the alleged russian ties

to the election but more to the point, how all this stuff gets leaked out. whether you like what the president is saying, dislike it do the constant attacks on intelligence agencies and wondering how the information gets out hurt him? it can't be just coins denial he cancel ad planned voice to it fbi headquarters slated for today, right? >> right. heard from the acting fbi director, mccabe yesterday, in testimony that he contradicted what the president and white house said that fbi agents lost faith and trust in comey. so there is that contradiction there. but certainly this does raise lot of controversy regarding the president andthe fbi, but to your point about the leaks, if you were someone who wanted to prevent these kinds of leaks or put the hole in them, these tweets like this, and other actions taken over the course of the past couple of days i think

will only serve to exacerbate that. neil: get your thoughts, caitlyn what you're hearing from people about how it would look, not so much for the president asking comey if he was under investigation, but that comey responded no fewer than three times he was not, if that is true, what do you make of that, just the comey part of that? >> well, there are a lots of questions being tossed around by legal scholars about what the actual impact of this is. a lot of people have brought up the comparison of, of course bill clinton meetings on the tarmac with loretta lynch. neil: right. >> as kind of a comparison to kind of put that in context here. but what is really, you know, why this is an issue, is, we talk a lot about different process things. i think in this particular instance, process is really important because we heard from the president through his interview that he did yesterday and also through a series of tweets over the past couple of weeks, that he did not, he

thought the russian investigation into possible elements of collusion was a hoax. and so taken together all of this again, just raises questions about the timing and the reasoning for this firing because i think a lot of people that i have talkedded to have said, look, you can administer this firing but the fire something certainly suspect. remember we're not just hearing that from democrats. we're hearing that from republicans. republicans i might add, who are conducting the investigation in congress and don't want their work to be undermined here. neil: well i think it is going to undermine a lot of work whether you disagree or agree with what the president is saying. the distraction is pushing back not. i can't see it not. most people can walk and chew gum at the same time. >> right. neil: when it comes to congress i'm not so sure. i worry about the health care thing getting pushed off. anything pushed off beyond this year is dead next year but that is just me. what do you think? >> i agree with you, neal, important to note that lawmakers

on capitol hill on respective committees involving tax reform and health care are working at the same time. but when you look at bigger picture here and amount of political capital that this president has to spend, it is not ery much. i can tell you, i was at a town hall for republican congressman in new jersey the other night who sponsored the amendment that kind of revived health care bill, he not only got attacked on the health care bill but also on the issue of this russia investigation, firing of comey. i talked to republican strategists who say, look, the republican members of the congress have to be able to go back to their constituents with some level of accomplishment. this not only serves to to distract them but drives president es approval rating not among republicans particularly among democrats that will serve to boost their base n the elections that really matters. neil: it does indeed, caitlyn, thank you very much.

>> thank you. neil: meantime we have international sort of crisis developing here, maybe i'm overstating it, when a russian jets buzzes a navy plane armed with six air-to-air missiles and coming 20 feet of a u.s. aircraft carrier, the same week russian jets are strafing u.s. positions just off and over the coast of alaska, you got to start asking yourself, what the heck is going on here? fox news pentagon producer lucas thompson. lucas, what is going on here, and what has been our response to these developments? >> neil, pentagon briefing just wrapped up moments ago, the pentagon continues to call this incident, quote, safe and professional, but as fox news first reported earlier today, that russian jet was armed with surface-to-air, armed with air-to-air missiles. neil: that is in the black sea. >> in the black sea, correct. neil: i'm sorry. >> no problem. on tuesday a u.s. navy

reconnaissance plane, p h 8 poseidon, international airspace, routine reconnaissance mission in black sea, they increased significantly since 2014 since russia annexed crimea. this u.s. navy aircraft is flying in the black sea and russian yet comes within 20 feet of the u.s. navy plane. that is close considering both jets are flying hundreds of miles-an-hour, that russian jet armedith six air-to-air missiles. that is rare with intercepts. normally they are unarmed. comes after a couple of russian capable bombers flew over alaska. first time they had advanced russia su-35 jets with them. what is noteworthy, neil, the latest intercept in the black sea, occurred the day before russian foreign minister sergey lavrov traveled to washington. a day before secretary of

defense jim mattis went to lithuania on russia's doorstep to calm nervous allies. neil: this same photo of lavrov at the white house with donald trump. kremlin photographers allowed in, u.s. press not. kremlin media pounces on this, is all over the world. i'm wonder aring what is going on here? if anyone was under suspicions that maybe this relationship was specially cozy, these are example after example where maybe not? >> that's it. the russian defense minister actually was first to talk publicly about the incident in the black sea. that made the pentagon start scram plink because reporters wanted some answer, neil -- scrambling. neil: when they pounced on to it to explain what they were doing how did they? how did the russians explain this? normal military manueverrers?

>> that's correct. russians were saying su-30, different type of jet, advanced jet. pentagon says it was su-27, older decades ago, quite capable of air force f-15 neil. the russians take a lot of pride, with photos in oval office of exploitation, very save to say that. neil: regardless of the model loaded for bear. >> right. neil: it could have been very dangerous. >> right. neil: great stuff, lucas. very good reporting. lucas tomlinson, our pentagon producer. the u.s. and china of course always had an acrimonious relationship. signs thatç might be thawing, courtesy of a trade deal chipping away at better than 300 billion-dollar deficit between our two countries. will it? we'll ask the commerce secretary of the united states, wilbur ross. ♪ are allergies holding you back?

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neil: man, oh, man, this is not been a good week for retailers. a lot of selling concentrated over last couple days. it began you might recall with macy's telegraphing problems, disappointing numbers. on heels of that virtually everyone else in this business saying you know, they're not turning out in the stores. they're not coming to shop.

what is going on here? lauren simonetti on bloodletting that has not stopped, has it? >> neil, i'm thinking i'm only person that goes to the shop. believe it or not we did go shopping last month. commerce department says retail sales rose 4% and they have risen first four months of this year. what are we buying in april? cars, gasoline, building equipment, and stuff online. underline the last one. they continue to shift way they shop from brick-and-mortar to the web. jcpenney out this morning with quarterly revenue. down dramatically. third quarter sales fell and stock hiing all-time low. macy'sook at this, shares are down, neil, adding to the nosedive we saw yesterday the worse since the financial crisis. macy's says customers are spending money on experiences over things. talk about nordstrom stock. suffering a 16% stock in just two days. its earnings were actually better than expected.

investors focused on weaker same-store sales instead. sear's ceo listen to the message he has for critics we're not dead yet. analysts and investors questioning sears ability to stop bankruptcy. the recent neat loss topped $600 million. bottom line, the blue line, department store sales from the year 2000 until now it is down 35%. look at that yellow line above it. it shows sales at non-store retailers which includes amazon.com, they have quadrupled just b so, neil, where did you buy your wife a mother's day exist? neil: that is for me to know and you to find out. >> you didn't do it yet, did you. neil: maybe, maybe not. what will happen the way the macy's things imploding, maybe they sell it and call it the amazon thanksgiving day parade. >> can you imagine? i can actually. neil: it is amazing. >> sad what is happening.

it happened much faster. neil: online, not as if people are not shopping. they're migrating online. >> but i live in new jersey, neil. i go to the mall, it is packed every single time i go on weekends, we keep hearing nobody is shopping. consumer confidence is so high. it is not translating in spending. it is weird out there. neil: lauren, my version of hell is shopping. >> you're a man. neil: you get there, looking for fire. no, no. >> it is my heaven. neil: walk around. >> my heaven. neil: unless they have a hickory farms kiosk i'm just not interested. thank you very, very much, lauren simonetti. what a divergent world we live no now. china making nice with a trade deal that just could start hacking away at the huge gap between our two countries. no two countries have more of a trade gap than ourselves and

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neil: welcome back, everyone, president saying american consumer done a lot to boost economic activity around the globe. the problem we buy more stuff from abroad than folks abroad buy from us and that bothers the president of the united states as does his commerce secretary wilbur ross who joins us right now. very good to have you, sir. >> thank you for having me on. neil: this goes a long way or you hope will go a long way to address the large trade gap between ourselves and for example, the chinese who last year we had 347 billion-dollar trade gap, accounting for 60% of our overall trade deficit. how does this start you cutting away at that? >> it starts cutting away with that for several regards.

for more than a decade we're trying to get legitimate u.s. beef exports into china. they had expressed some concerns about the mad cow disease in the recall days. they expressed some concern about use of hormones. we've overcome those obstacles. as of july 16th, the u.s. will be free to export livestock to china. that is a huge, huge breakthrough. this is a $2.5 billion market out of which we've been totally kept. neil: of course it is 2.5 billion, what is a 340 billion plus gap. where else do we start cutting away at it? >> in addition to that we have worked out a new regime for lng exports. as you probably know china is the world's largest importer of lng. we're just in the early day of exporting. but there had been some

regulatory snafus frankly on both sides of the equation which we now have cleared up. neil: lng you're referring to liquified natural gas? >> yes, liquified natural gas and what this will do is let chinese importers sign long-term contracts with u.s. exporters. lng prices have been languishing for quite a little while, because frankly we have a good deal of oversupply. so it seemed weird, we have too much of it. it is much cleaner than coal would be. and yet we weren't really doing a big job of exporting it to china. so now we've taken care of the problems on both ends. third thing it will do, that will help the trade balance is, china had been resistant to biotech, to general ethically --

genetically engineered products coming from the u.s. into china. there have been eight applications that have been stalled and stalled and stalled. we worked out the whole regime there is definitive hearing on it before the e of ts very month. then there is a wh process for fixing whatever imperfections there may be left over after that. so these are there gigantic steps, in three gigantic areas of good. neil: do you think the chinese will honor it, the rap on chinese you can't trust them? your boss said in campaigning, they rig their currency, rig their numbers and you can't trust them. what's changed? >> we'll see if anything is changed but what has definitely changed is now they are pinned down to very specific actions on very specific, very near of had term dates. we never had trade agreements

before -- with them, or with anybody that had this level of precision to solving long-standing problems. neil: the u.s. chamber of commerce was ats about guarded praise what you're trying to do saying hopefully this will insure full implementation of commitments china already has made. they go on to say the real work lies ahead to your point, secretary, but they're in that missouri show-me frame of mind. are you? >> it's a little strange because the chamber commerce historically supported the idea of free trade and lifting trade barriers. so i'm a little surprised about the real break through we've had with china decades? neil: what got them to this point, mr. secretary?

north korea, was there a timetable on that, mr. secretary they had gotten back to us to show the north koreans to cool it? >> there are several things. the real breakthrough is the personal chemistry between president xi xinping and president donald j. trump. that is the real breakthrough that occurred. neil: talking about when they gathered at mar-a-lago in florida? >> yes. that was on april 6th and 7th. here we arqç barely a month latr and we already have a breakthrough. trade agreements are normally denominated multiple years -- neil: no doubt, seetary, but they haven't been able to get the north korean dictator off his crackpot ledge. i'm wondering if they can't do it, and north koreans are saying bad things about the chinese if they're even capable of doing it if that is the case, whether it chose problems for even this deal? >> will i don't think so. i think there is a new

relationship pattern being struck between china and ourselves. and, vice premier yang has been very constructive and so has mr. zhu with our side. we had over 30 interactions between april 7th and last night when we unleashed the deal. that is an awful lot of interactions on very, very difficult, very, very complex issues, and yet within that very small-time frame we're able to come to a deal. and we'll find out very soon. july 16th, is a wink and a blink from here. neil: you're right about that. you're right about that. are you worried, this is outside of your purview, mr. secretary, the comey stuff, back and forth about independent commissions and get a prosecutor on this, regardless what you feel on those matters, that it will delay progress on other matters, maybe tax cuts, health care

thing. and that this could be a problem for the republican agenda? >> well, i think the democrats have been throwing sand into everything to try to slcw it down. my perception is that they're scared to death we'll make the economy really jump-started and that that will bode ill for them in the 2018 elections. even take last night, they did confirm finally, as u.s. trade representative, my friend, bob lighthiser. they slow-walked him for weeks and weeks and weeks, yet at the end of the day he got a huge number of votes, got 82 votes out of the 100. so what was the point of slow-walking him? the only point -- neil: longest time ever taken for a president's full cabinet to be approved, a side note. i'm wondering then, sir about the tone in washington, whatever you want to say, it is going to delay this agenda? are you in the camp that the tax

cuts pushed they will just not going to happen? >> that is not really within my purview. neil: yeah. but are you worried about that? >> i'm worried. i'm worried all elements of the p's program are necessary. we need tax reform. we need regulatory reform. we need health care reform. we need to unleash american energy and fix the trade problems. all of those are interdependent. it is cumulative effect of all of those that will really unleash the economy. neil: do you personally think china cheats, secretary? that they rig their currency, rig the numbers they present us? that they have a way of rigging trade deals in their favor and that whatever happens to this agreement, we have to watch it very closely because to hear your boss say it, when he was running for president, they're just not to be trusted? >> well, you have to, in any trade deal, the key is

enforceability. and as i think you're aware, our administration has done a lot more in trade enforcement than anybody before has done. we put out a billion dollar countervailing duty preliminary finding against canada in the softwood lumber. you didn't hear numbers like that in prior administrations. so we are very strong on enforcement. the chinese know that. and, there will be a huge blow-up if they don't comply with the july 16th date. i have every expectation that in this case they will live up to their bargain. because we're developing personal relationships, and personal relationships in asia and in general, and in china part particular are of the utmost importance. that they are much more important even than a contract. neil: all right. secretary, good catching up with you. appreciate it. >> good to talk with you, neil. neil: all right, wilbur ross, the commerce secretary of united

states of america. we'll have update on more including that briefing less than a half hour away. you know who likes to be

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discover how we can help find your unlock. neil: we are just getting news what appears to be a worldwide cyberattack hit in britain. no fewer than 16 health facilities there, blocking access to patient files, causing emergency rooms to divert patients. imagine that, when they get get info on you when you're admitted. that is a pretty big deal. president trump tweeted russia must be laughing at us, what is going on fixation with alleged role in the last campaign. former bush 41 campaign advisor mark serrano. democratic strategist, richard fowler. mark, what do you make of this? russians are having a field day with this, but for good reason. he is providing them some ammo, isn't he? >> what i would say president

turns to twitter for very good reason. because he knows that the majority of american people don't believe this fake news story about russian collusion. 58% of americans disapprove of the way media treated trump. comey story frankly which is tied to russia, only number eight of all the stories covered across facebook since january 20th, has ranked only number 8. the president knows american people don't believe it, they don't care. any collusion going on they believe the media and democrats. neil: mark, you remember a lot of americans dismissed the watergate story. i'm not comparing it, trust me my friend, i'm just saying that perception can be like a snapshot, one snap it is shot. that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't anything there. it means right now he doesn't think there is anything there and he might be totally right. is the way he handling this helping or hurting his cause?

>> i think he is taking it to the people. that always helps his cause. reality, neil, there is no balance in the story. no focus on susan rice and unmasking of american citizens. no focus on that whatsoever. not balanced. neil: richard, what do you think of that? >> here is the thing i have no problem with the president firing comey. i have problem with timing how it is done. neil: there is never any good timing, richard? >> let me be very clear here, neil. this is how i would have done it working in this white house with this president. i would have asked john comey. jim comey to design. his replacement, myself in the rose garden. he decided to resign. here is my replacement. continuity in power. so on what he did last minute firing. he woke up in the morning, desiredded to fire him. he got mad, wait a minute, you did what? no continuity here. there is looming russian investigation for this trump

white house would go away if the president stopped tweeting about it. for past three days. >> no way. no way, richard. no way. >> wait a minute. for the past three days, donald trump tweeted almost 80% of his tweets about comey or russia. but he wants it to go away. >> you're suggesting he started that story. that story came from the democrats. >> no, no, no. >> they have created russian story. >> no, my friend. that story started because of, that story started because of mikelynns, other russian associates working with russians. fbi investigated this. >> they were unmasked by susan rice. they were unmasked illegally by susan rice. >> investigation started in july. neil: this is not necessarily betting to the bottom of elections which russia might have played a role trying to influence it. i think even democrats said it didn't influence the total outcome. but that this is really about disrupting, was raising with the commerce secretary wilbur ross, trump agenda.

that is what it is about? >> listen i said over and over again, i asked multiple times for commission, similar to 9/11 commission takes politics out of russian investigation. there is politics on both sides, whether devin nunes, on the house intelligence committee or mark warner and long speech he behave -- gave on senate side. there needs to be independent commission, people report to, takes it out of the political landscape. neil: that won't happen. never gets out of the political landscape. >> of course it can. neil: i hear you, i never seen that on the right or the left. mark, what i see happening here, i could be wrong, i see a lot of things donald trump wants to get done, whether you like him or not, not getting done. i don't think they're going to get done. >> well, i won't agree with that, neil, look house is in recess this week. paul ryan on the road -- neil: by the way they have recess more than my daughter.

>> way too much. >> they're on vacation every day. >> no, this will not delay the agenda whatsoever. there are plenty of committees on the hill who are acting on infrastructure and tax reform and health care. >> i believe it when i see it. >> without that being distraction. >> i believe it when i see it, neil, i haven't seen it. neil: you argue your points very, very eloquently. thank you both very much. >> thank you, neil. neil: my buddy charlie gasparino back with us right now. news on one carl icahn and aig, the big insurer. what is going on? >> carl icahn lately best known to be a trump economic visor. but what he is in real life, where he made his $20 billion fortune -- neil: is it that much? more than you? >> more than me. he affords better restaurants. he is activist investor. he has activist stake in aig, the troubled insurer that blew up during the financial crisis. it has been bailed out. it has been depressed. the stock has been depressed. carl icahn took 4% stake.

wanted management changes. he got one. here is interesting thing, there is lot of press he doesn't like the new ceo coming in. carl icahn is telling people, telling -- we've broken the story today, au contrare. i like the new guy, brian dubrow, new ceo. he recommended him to be the new ceo of aig. he believes he will get the insurer back on track. neil: what does he want duperrepaul to do? >> cut, sell give back to the shareholders. neil: wasn't he doing that during the benmosche days? >> i think he is actually going to do it. i think it's a positive for the stock, icahn believes he has a guy in there, not stand up to him -- there was a story they brought the guy in to stand up to icahn. icahn is saying no. this guy will do what i want. he believes --

neil: not all ceo'ss do, right? he famously went after tim cook in apple. >> he did it. neil: buy some old stock. >> tim cook bid buybacks after that. neil: he did dividends. >> dividends. carl icahn the abouts his way often. neil: what is his modus operandi for people that don't know? he gooses the stock he make as killing on original investment and leaves. >> there is two carl icahns, old days he was somewhat unfairly considered a greenmailer. jump into a stock and people buy him out at higher rate. that was 1980s. neil: twa era. >> i believe that is not exactly accurate what he was doing but that was his, that was his rap back then. now it is different. he is much more of an activist investor. he constructively works in management. do xy and z. neil: stays longer in the stock. >> stays longer. he has a big personality. he talks to us and moves the stock. he did that with apple.

apple did do the buybacks. used some cash to do buybacks to boost the stock. carl made a lot of money. trying to do that here -- neil: doesn't always get everything they want. case of apple, break it up and with your products and services that kind of thing. >> yeah. neil: not always. he gets most of it. >> listen -- neil: that has got to be the second worse call for ceo, carl icahn on the line. first being charlie gasparino. >> yes. carl is nicer than me to ceos. i will say this about carl -- neil: that is a low bar. >> that is a good point. but carl, they do return his calls. neil: sure. >> tim cook, i wonder if steve jobs would actually return carl's calls. he might say stick it. neil: good point. >> tim cook did. he got something out of it. we'll look at the stock to see if the stock moves on this if you own shares this is pretty big news. neil: remember, charlie, when news breaks he fixes it.

>> yeah, yeah. neil: all right. we have lot coming up. white house briefing. that is coming up in 14 minutes. all over the map. sean spicer returning for duty. these are pay-per-view affairs of late. getting a lot more interest of late. so see what he has to say about the comey thing. hints that the president tapes his conversations at dippers, you name it. media is having a field day with that. after this. ♪ we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons. travel with my daughter. roller derby. ♪ now give up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more of our annual income... we could keep doing all the things we love. prudential. bring your challenges.

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neil: we're getting more details on the cyber attacks, particularly in the united kingdom. 16 health institutions in and around london. when that happens, access to patients records, well, you can't get access to them. a lot of desperate patients have been trying to find another way or another unit to get their records out there, so that they can be treated. can you imagine if you're waiting for very important surgery that there is no access to records or blood type or any of that? the we'll keep an eye on those attacks and records reversed because i think they're in the cloud, itch no idea. speaking of desperate parents, desperate that you go

to facebook to get access to pricey drugs not affordable anywhere else? gerri willis on that. reporter: neil, this is amazing, a sign how dangerous the rising prices of pharmaceuticals have become. patients with no insurance or no, no money for prescriptions are swapping drugs via social media. facebook is a platform of choice. patients arrange drug swaps in a black market until now has bonn unnoticed. the story was first reported by nbc. here is how it works. dedicated facebook groups arrange trades but uses have to get approval to join from a moderator. the group could be large, thousands of people or maybe only a handful. insulin is common drug users try to find. then, there is the moms, desperately searching for insulin for her daughter, listen to this. in desperate need of humalog. my daughter is going through pub perty. two vials a month is not anymore. insurance won't approve the

third bottle. some folks simply desperate, post ad query for help on facebook page. reaching out to anybody and everybody, signing on to a facebook group, patients are opening themselves up to problems, scammers, infection, tam perking of drugs to name a few. many are willing to take the risk to get life saving medications, asthma inhalers, epipens, other drugs? cost of insulin. six million americans require it to manage diabetes. without insurance, it could be $2500 a month. a move to expensive longer acting insulin doubled that price in three years. neil, i have to tell you stories on social media around this just amazing. people desperate to drugs they need. they can't afford. if congress could get its act together on health care we could go a long way maybe to solve some of these problems. neil: has facebook acknowledged this is going on?

anything like that? reporter: haven't heard from facebook. don't know what their position is on this look, they guard these, in the black market in these meeting places where people get together, they gardentry. so they're not obvious to folks unless you look around. nbc first to report on this. we heard nothing from facebook, neil. neil: gerri, thank you very, very much, that should not be, to gear -- gerri's point. sean spicer coming up in a few minutes to address reports. we will take you there. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

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neil: all right. awaiting a white house briefing where maybe a question or two on comey and russia and special prosecutors, special commissions might come up, i don't know. in the meantime, florida republican congressman ron desantis. i forget how young this guy is. [laughter] very good to see you, congressman. >> good to see you. neil: what do you think of the whole comey thing? many have said it's going to be a distraction that will hurt publicans because it might back actionn health care, action on taxes. what do you think? >> i think two things. one is his termination was justified on the merits, and i think since then there have been conflicting rationales. the original justification and the reason why a lot of us had problems with him originally was how he handled this clinton thing. there's going to be an ig report very soon, and i bet they'll take him to task and probably more so. neil: a lot of those different

vibes, congressman, came from the president himself. >> i know, i know. neil: does that worry you? >> well, it makes it more difficult. there's nothing preventing the senate from doing a good health care bill, and they're working hard at it -- neil: by the way, that could be very different than the one you guys came up with. >> and i hope they do a better one. neil: you're not worried that they trash everything you guys did? >> no, e look, they've got a lot of people over there, and my prediction, they get 50 republican votes for a product, that means you've got to get ted cruz, mike lee, a bunch of different people. i think that vehicle could pass the house without even going to concern at that point. neil: what about the tax cut thing? there's a sentiment building that that is going to get pushed back because everything's getting pushed back. and if it's a next year development, it's just not happening. >> i hope it's not next year, i wanted those tax cuts retroactive to january 1st of this year. you have to do health care first. forget about the budget

baseline, you've got to do a new budget in order to do reconciliation. so if this health care ends this summer, you can immediately do a budget, get the tax instructions and, of course, they are working on the tax plan as we speak. it's not like they have to wait to work on it. but you do have to wait to pass it unless you just abandon health care and then go on to a different budget, which we're not going to do. we're going to get health care done one way or another. neil: congressman, there had been talk that when it comes to tax cuts, should they be revenue neutral, the president himself told the economist, no, i don't think that matters. i think you have to -- i'm paraphrasing, sir, but you have to go into deficit a little bit before you start seeing the return on that. do you agree on that? >> there's a difference between revenue neutral and deficit neutral. if it's not revenue neutral, that's fine with me. there's nothing preventing us from -- neil: makes deficits a lot worse in the near term. >> well, i would like to see it paired with spending reductions. i'm totally fine with it not

being revenue neutral, but the way they score it, it's always going tock scored -- to be scored against the taxpayer and with the government. but i think the key is get the tax policy right, and then i would say make the accommodations on the spending side. don't make sure it's revenue neutral where your taxes are getting cut, this guy's taxes are being raised. that's not the type of growth that we need, most likely. neil: do you think that the president is the one hurting his agenda? and you can accept or not the way he handled the comey situation. i agree with you, kind of a no-win situation there. but now talk about, you know, comey better not speak out of turn, there could be taped conversations x that's going to lead to a lot of questions at the briefing today. but that he himself is like a loose cannon, which helps and hurts. it got him elected president of the united states. but as president of the united states, he's kind of all over the map. >> well, i think the tweeting is a double-edged sword. he goes around the media, can speak directly to the people,

call out the media when he -- neil: do you tweet your constituents? >> we do some -- neil: do you think the president should? >> guess what? members of congress are going to ask, are you taping people in the white house? can we get a copy of this? it opens up a big can of worms -- neil: i'm sorry. if he did tape conversations, because you could immediately ask, well, if he was taping comey, he was taping others, right? >> so it will lead to calls from congress to do oversight over some of these conversations. and it's frustrating because he had been frustrated with the nsa intercepts -- neil: that's right. >> and i think legitimately so. i thought some of those things were concerning. neil: are you in the camp that says we need a special prosecutor or independent commission? or is that just feeding into his critics? >> i would not assign a prosecutor to a case unless there was evidence of a crime. there's no evidence of any criminal -- neil: it's like a search and destroy mission. >> so there's a big bunch of

smoke, but there's not been any evidence of a fire. neil: that's a very good description, congressman. in the case of a watergate prosecutor, archibald cox was later fired by richard nixon, there was a crime that had been committed -- >> absolutely. and the fbi in this case is doing a counter-intelligence investigation about russia which is totally legitimate. that's much different than saying the president or anyone associated with him is under criminal investigation. there's no evidence of that, no evidence of collusion -- neil: do you believe the president then that, you know, ultimately a senate matter, to your point, but that comey had assured him that he wasn't a source of that investigation? or target of that investigation? >> i think chuck grassley, the senator in charge of the judiciary committee, indicated in a statement -- neil: yes, he did. >> -- that like, you know, comey indicated to us that there was really no criminal conduct here. neil: right. yeah, he it would me as much yesterday.

without saying it, he said that. >> i think the president gets frustrated, and it's understandable. you have the russian hacking stuff, which is legitimate. the media's very reckless how they will then act like it's an investigation of him personally, and there's no evidence that's the case. understandable frustration, but we've got to get this stuff done right. the comey stuff, the decision was sound but since then there's obviously been some hiccups. neil: anything russia, russia-related, yes, that's all the president tweets about. >> i think he's frustrated. i mean, if you look just the last two days, the media has run with things that have been proven false. they said comey was looking for resources. mccabe said, no, not true at all. maybe the investigation was being obstructed, mccabe said, no way. full throttle there. the media doesn't put the corrections -- neil: you're right. two washington post stories later had to be dialed back. back in your district in florida, florida in general, crucial state if you think about it. what are they thinking?

what are they telling you about what's going on? >> well, i think trump did very well in florida, and i think a lot of the people that voted for him are sticking with him. i think i have heard people say i wish he didn't tweet, but i think they view him as being treated very unfairly by the mainstream media, and i think that they tend to sympathize with him. and, obviously, they want to see him succeed on doing the health care, the taxes, the border wall, some of these things that he campaigned on. and i think that a lot of them view the democrats as basically having one position now; whatever trump does, they're against. even things they would have liked in the past they're now opposing because trump's supporting it. i think among trump's supporters, there's frusation with how the environment in washington works. >> very good seeing you. >> thanks for having me. neil: on that issue with the media, to the congressman's point, joe, what do you think that there does seem -- and i think it's a very valid point --

a fixation on the negative and trashing almost everything the president does? which is fine, we all have 24 hours of news networks to do whatever we want, but it wouldn't kill us to report on some of the positive developments. what do you think? >> absolutely, neil. i mean, let's think about this. how many questions do we see during the press briefings just over the last couple of days in terms of the news that we've seen that has been positive toward the trump administration? the types of things that affect people's lives. jobless claims at a 28-year low. anybody going to ask questions about that today? doubtful. neil: very good point. >> right? how about the surplus that just came out yesterday that was released by the treasury department as far as $182 billion surplus? that's a $76 billion increase from the year before. that's a 16-year high. incredible. neil: the media's predisposed -- >> concentrate on the drama. neil: right. and the drama is everything russia, russia-related and now talk that the president might be taping his conversations. that one, i think, is going to

stick a while. and i'm wondering what you think of that and whether it should stick. >> the comey story will stick, is the question? neil: well, more to the point that he might have recorded that conversation he had with comey and others. >> no, nothing sticks. [laughter] that's what i've noticed about this presidency. everything burns off by not to answer the question it seems, and then we're on to another big story. think about where we were monday. remember the sally yates testimony and everybody was talking about that? it's forto gotten already. neil: let me ask you, you're not a product of the watergate era. i remember it very distinctly. i'm a little older than you -- okay, a lot older than you. when butterfield came out with the comment that the president tapes his conversations, well, that let sam irvin and everyone else go nuts. it changed the entire debate and, ultimately, brought down the nixon presidency, if you think about it. i'm not comparing the two here to, but if we have a president who might be taping his conversations, doesn't that at

the very least trigger aggressive media interest? >> absolutely, it does. but you don't know with trump where he's just throwing it out there because he acts so impulsively, that you shouldn't take everything he says literally. i know that sounds crazy to the say that, but i'm just basing it on precedent in terms of what he's done in the past. i'm glad to say there's going to be a press briefing today -- neil: you read my mind about the next question. should we have them? one of his arguments when het te can't be 100% accurate on our facts in real speed, realtime, maybe submit your questions in writing, we'll get an answer back to you slowly, carefully in writing because we can't be perfect with stuff. what do you think? >> i think you can't cancel it. i think you have to alter it greatly though. this is going to make some folks in the executive offices in cable news upset, but it has to be taken off tv because here's what's happening. you have reporters that are

trying to go viral by being as provocative and confrontational as possible not because they're trying to get information, but because they know everybody's watching. this thing is a ratings killer. they're doing better than broadcast networks. take it off tv, take the theatrics out of it. you'll like this part, neil, i think you have to rotate in the kinds of reporters that are at these briefings, and i think at least one day a week it should strictly be -- probably fridays, because that's when jobs reports come out -- business reporters asking business questions that get us to the heart of the economy. that's number one issue for voters, so let's start seeing some other questions besides russia, comey, leaks, drama and things that are substantive like the china trade deal. that is real news that will not be asked about because we're all about drama, neil. neil: yeah, you're right about that. i like the business journalist questions.

i do want to step back and get a sense of where you see the trump presidency right now. he has had a very acrimonious relationship with the media, and how or is it even going to get dialed down? >> it will never get dialed down. this will be consistent, truculent is the only word that comes to mind -- [laughter] for the next 1,340 days, i believe it is at this point. because this is how it goes. this sells. it's a business thing with the the media -- with the media, neil. there's only three reporters in that press room that you're showing that are registered republicans, there were zero last year. that's it. but the business end of this, opposing trump, being the opposition party that steve bannon described, that gets you better ratings on networks like msnbc, more subscriptions at the new york times when you play the opposition card as opposed to being mushy and centrist. it's like you've got to take a side at this point. it's good to know there is some fair reporting and it isn't totally negative towards trump

all the time. here's the bottom line, neil, if he does -- continues to do well with the economy like the unemployment rate at 4.4%, jobless claims at 28-year low. if he continues to do these trade deals that benefit people in the rust belt states, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin, if he wins those states again, everything else doesn't matter. his approval ratings don't matter. win those states, hold north carolina or florida, he wins again. and i think in those states if you go out and actually talk to people outside the stupid bubble that we live in, you will see they're not too upset with the job he's doing so far. neil: you're right, a lot of my media friends many on the left, some on the right, and they hate him. and then, by the way, he's given them some stuff to hate. i don't dismiss that. but i think the guy could walk on water, and the next day the headline in "the new york times" would be, you know, president trump got his feet wet. [laughter] he can't win for love or money, you know? >> no, no.

for love or money, that's correct. again, it doesn't matter because i'll believe give you one last thought here. the hill did a survey of 59 newspapers right before the election, who are you endorsing? 57 told hillary -- 57 said hilly clinton. the media can be negative all it wants, it doesn't have influence remotely what it used to because people simply don't trust the messenger anymore. neil: sad but true. joe, good to see you. thank you very much. as we await this press conference, just a reminder on that, i don't take this through the view of a right or left thing or a democrat or republican thing, for me it's figuring out the fact that certainly in the business and news media we have 24 hours. we're on the air around the clock, right? yeah, we repeat some stuff, and the networks have skillet commercials and all that, but my point is this: we have enough time to get into all this. so all the controversial stuff on comey, by all means, get into.

whether the president is overextending his reach, by all means, get into. but the fact that joe alluded to the great economic news and some other stuff, we do have a lot of time. i do three hours plus a day. two hours on this fine network, an hour on fox news, so i have plenty of time to get into all of that and not just focus on one. just my two cents, folks, but we could do a lot better on being a lot fairer on both the good and the bad. all right, john layfield, lost in the sauce today is something we raised with wilbur ross, the commerce secretary, who has a deal -- he hopes -- that will bring down our trade gap with the chinese. do you think it will? >> no, i don't. i think -- look, the trade gap, to me, is sometimes beneficial, and we are more of a service economy. and i understand arguing about this trade gap, i'm just not sure there's very much we can do about it with a trade deal. neil: yeah, and i wondered two

some of -- too some of the issues like beef and liquefied natural gas are small comp points of a nearly $350 billion trade gap between our countries. it really wouldn't dramatically cut that down. it gets back to something candidate donald trumped had raised during the campaign, that the chinese cheat. wilbur ross kind of pooh-poohed that saying we'll honor this agreement, but do you think unless we get to the core of that argument that the chinese do rig their currency, rig some numbers and unless we get to that, it doesn't matter what kind of deal they extract with north korea to get that lunatic to calm down, they're still cheaters at heart? >> yeah, i think there's two points to this. i think, one, we also manipulate our currency a bit as well, keeping it artificially low with low interest rates. but -- neil: that's an excellent point, john. go ahead. >> do the chinese cheat, yes. [laughter]

the answer, veryimply, iyes. invest in a chese compan i did a few years o. inventory was not inventory. and there's no recompense for that. there's no way to sue a chinese company over that. so their laws and their regulations there, and if they're not abided by the chinese, there's not much an outsider can do to that company. so until that gets corrected, yes. i just don't think you can trust their end of the deal just like you can't trust opec to hold to these quotas that they say they have. neil: yeah. john, i don't want to minimize all the comey fixation and all that, but i look at things through the greedy little prism of money i think this economy needs -- not that i agree to every detail that the president wants to do with tax cuts, regulations, etc. but if that's stymied, and i suspect it will because of this kabooky theater, whatever you want to call it, just dominating washington, none of that stuff happens. are you worried about that? >> absolutely. because if you don't get this

done by the august recess, you're probably not going to get it done til 2018. if you don't get it done by 2018 -- neil: i think all bets are off for an election year. >> i agree. and i think that means that there's a chance you do not get this thing done, at least until maybe 2019 which you're are in the next -- you're already in the next election for the president at that point. politicians are going to make political hay out of comey. what's being put out of the back burper is the u.s. economy and the united states citizens which needs tax relief, which need regulation reform. that's not coming when they have this political theater in d.c. neil: wall street, how do you think it reacts to that? >> i think what it's reracketting right now -- reacting right now, i think macron winning the election this past weekend was huge because you not going to see the e.u. break up, so you see the market rally. that rally's stymied right now because people thought we were going to get corporate tax reform. i think we could get some tax cuts, but it won't be

significant or reform. one we realize we're not getting this, if that is the case, i think the market starts to sell off. neil: which could explain why you're safely ensconced in bermuda. [laughter] >> exactly. just in case. neil: all right, buddy, thank you very much. have a good weekend. john layfield. we are awaiting th white house briefing, whether these kinds of questions come up, but i would love someone the ask is the white house worried that, whether it agrees or disagrees with all of this comey stuff and the taped conversation stuff, that its entire domestic economic agenda stuff. after this.

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wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday inn, smiles ahead. whether for big meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn.com that's why a cutting edgeworld. university counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. and why a pro football team chose us to deliver fiber-enabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. narcs, no noaa neil: all right. moments away, we're told, from a white house briefing. sean spicer will do the honors.

chip roy is a former chief of staff to senator ted cruz. you know, chip, when we see these things, i'm sure you're always worried about distractions and whether now we've got a legitimate distraction that's going to get in the way of that trump agenda. do you think that's a real likelihood now that health care that your old boss is working on -- to say nothing of tax cuts -- gets pushed back? >> yeah, i think it's a concern. i think that right now when we know is -- what we know is normal american, the people in flyover country, it's one of the reasons i'm back home in austin, texas, and not in the clown show that appears to be what washington, d.c. has devolved to is that we care about getting our health care premiums down, we care about making sure that the costs are reduced in d.c., that our taxes go down, and that our lives respect affected. right now that agenda seems to be getting stalled in the back and forth of these media wars. that's a lot of what we're concerned about, that the media is so focused on what the latest tweet is. yesterday i saw a scroll on one of your competitor networks

talking about how many scoops of ice cream the president gets. i mean, it's unbelievable, the kind of coverage that's going on. neil: are you kidding me? >> i'm not making it up. they're talking about the president gets two scoops of ice cream -- neil: he gets two scoops! all right, all right. is that our tax dollars behind this? be could be rocky road. is it your sense here that republicans just have not gotten the word out adequately enough? forget about the russian thing, because i don't know where that's going. but on the health care thing, because now it's deemed the failures of that affordable care act are suddenly on them, and all these failures happening with that, the pulling out of all these exchanges by next year, that was happening whether republicans intervened or not with their own version of health care. but now they're going to get the bullet for it. what do you think of that? >> well, i think that's a real risk. i think that republicans are missing the opportunity to win the minds and hearts of americans by talking about free market health care and how

important it is to drive down costs. and that's what the american people care about. if you look at polls, polling clearly indicates that if you talk about lower premiums versus, say, pre-existing conditions or other things that a lot of the media and a lot in washington want to talk about, the american people universally care about getting their premiums down and making them affordable. under obamacare, premiums are up $4,500 for a family of four. republicans aren't talking about that, and instead they're playing on the wrong field. democrats want single-payer health care, we know that. they want to go and say everybody gets covered with substandard care, they get covered with waiting lines, having to go to other places to get the care you need. republicans need to get back to talking about what we believe in which is increasing options, making sure you have access to doctors. they're missing that opportunity. i think the freedom caucus did a good job in trying to get that message back, and they fought to at least get the chance for states to have a waiver to get out from underneath of some of the obamacare regulations, but

they're not putting out a narrative. to your questi, they'rnot winning the hearts and min of americans by elaininthis is what's good for the american people. neil: the town itself seems to be unable to get into more than one issue at a time. sabrina, the obvious question is are you surprised that the president gets two scoops of ice cream? [laughter] >> i wanted to know what kind of ice cream which was, manipulate chocolate chip -- neil: yeah. whether it's our tax dollars doing that. it's curious that a guy named chip knows about the ice cream thing. [laughter] sabrina, do you get a sense that the media fixation on all of this is also hurting the president's agenda and, whether you like the president or not, what it means is everything gets delayed. >> yeah, i do worry a little bit that when i look at any of the sort of leading newspapers, every single headline starts with the word trump, and i think it's a chicken or an egg in terms of what's driving -- the

media's picking up on absurdities coming out of the white house and at the same time they're not looking for anything else to cover. and we do need to get back to talking about tax reform, health reform, a whole slew of economic issues. neil: yeah. maybe a couple of those will come up now with sean spicer in his briefing. >> next week bring the general back and give you a more detailed upstate date as to what -- update as to what the president's going to be doing and some of the highlights from the trip. we'll, obviously, additionally have background briefings for you as well to give the team that's going to be traveling from the press corps some logistical updates. without further ado, general mcmaster. >> will you take questions after him, sean? >> yes, yes. in fact, if you'd like, you get to go first today. [laughter] >> thank you, sean. good afternoon, and happy mother's day weekend, everybody. as y'all know in exactly one week, the president will embark on his first trip abroad since taking office. i'd like to explain the president's objectives for his

visits to the middle east and to europe and also preview a bit of the schedule. the trip has three core purposes. first, to reaffirm america's global leadership. finish -- second, to continue building key relationships with world leaders. and, third, to to broadcast a message of unity to america's friends and to the faithful of the three, of three of the world's greatest religions. the president prioritizes building strong relationships as you' here every day. -- you see here every day. with world leaders as a way to strengthen our alliances. and he's been successful. you can see that in his diplomacy with a range of leaders from prime minister may to president xi. president trump understands that america first does not mean america alone. to the contrary, prioritizing american interests means strengthening alliances and partnerships that help us extend

our influence and improve the security of the american people. this trip is truly historic. no president has ever visited the homelands and holy sites of the jewish, christian and muslim faiths all on one trip. and what president trump is seeking is to unite peoples of all faiths around a common vision of peace, progress and prosperity. he wl ing a message of tolerance and of hope to billions, including to millions of americans who profess these faiths. the president will focus on what unites us. the president's trip will begin in s holiest sites in islam. he will encourage our arab and muslim partners to take bold, new steps to promote peace and to confront those from isis to

al-qaeda to iran to the assad regime who perpetuate chaos and violence that has inflicted so much suffering throughout the muslim world and beyond. he will lead the first steps toward a stronger, more capable and more robust security partnership with our gulf, arab and muslim partners. and he will develop a strong, respectful message that the united states and the entire civilized world expects our muslim allies to take a strong stand against radical islamist ideology, an ideology that uses a perverted interpretation of religion to justify crimes against all humanity. he will call for muslim leaders to promote a peaceful vision of islam. the president will then travel to israel. with president live-in and prime minister netanyahu, he will reaffirm be america's unshakable

bond to the jewish state. with president abbas, he will express his desire for dignity and self-determination for the palestinians. and to leaders and peoples alike across the entire trip, he will demonstrate his hopes for just and lasting peace. in rome the president will be honored to accept an audience with pope francis. he looks forward to paying his respects and to discussing religious freedom, ways to combat religious persecution, human trafficking and cooperating on humanitarian missions across the globe. he will also pay his respects to the italian people by meeting with the head of state and one of america's most important tree the city allies -- treaty allies. he'll also see the pme minister who is hosting the g7 conference in sicily. from rome, the president will continue to brussels for the nato leaders meeting.

there he will reaffirm america's commitment to the alliance. while stressing the need for members to pay their fair share, to shoulder responsibility, to share burdens and for the institution to continue on the path of strengthening the alliance. president trump will end his trip in sicily for the g7 meeting where he will promote american economic leadership and also address unfair trade practices. he will remind our friends and partners that we are eager to explore further ways to address threat it is to our mutual security -- threats to our mutual security from north korea, to afghanistan to the broader middle east. before leaving, the president will thank our wonderful and courageous servicemen and women, allied personnel and family members for their sacrifices to keep us safe. and across the trip, he will meet our diplomats, the staff in

our embassies who represent us so well across the world. lastly, just a few words on how this all came together. the impetus for this trip came from the president himself, and he's been fully engaged from the beginning; setting objectives, overseeing the planning. the president's receiving regular briefings from his cabinet and from our senior staff on the national security and economic sides. most of the leaders the president will meet, as you know, he's already met in person or certainly by phone. these relationships are off to a very strong start. and the trip is an opportunity to broaden and deepen those relationships. the administration continues to be in close contact and consultation with congress, and we're drawing on the expertise across the senate and the house in preparation for the trip as well. and finally, this really is a team effort. the white house and national security council staffs, the national economic council continue to work closely with our departments of state,

treasury, defense and others to fulfill the president's objectives and insursmooth execution. on behalf of the president, i express the whole administration's thanks for all the hard work it takes to organize a trip of this scope and of this importance. so the president of all of -- and all of us are looking forward to the journey. and with that, i'll take a couple of questions. [inaudible conversations] defer to sean da. >> general mcmaster, how is this president viewed among our arab allies -- saudi arabia, uae and others -- compared to his predecessor? among all the partners in the region that american leadership is necessary to help address

this catastrophe and to begin to move the region toward the peace, security and stability that the people there so deserve. and so what you're seeing i think is a galvanizing effect of the president's leadership in bringing those leaders together across the region, bringing them together for a positive agenda. who is against ending this catastrophe? who is against confronting these terrorists who are the enemies of all civilized people? confronting iran who is participating in this cycle of violence and to bring prosperity, peace, to the region and people who so richly deserve it. thanks. reporter: crucial in the intelligence committee, leading national security council. this week there have been a lot of reports including from our network that intelligence officials are extremely concerned how james comey was fired. do you believe that threatens national security right now? >> i told sean that i would pass all the questions to him. he will be happy to answer that. what i will focus on the trip

and i will come back next week with more details of the trip as well. sean. reporter: said the president, impetus from the trip came from the president himself. was it the president himself who decided to begin this trip in sai arabia, rthplace of islam? is there, is there symbolic significanceo that how many of our muslim allies, how many country, how many muslim-majority countries will be represented at the meetings in saudi arabia? >> this is the president's initiative to begin the trip in the middle east. hosted -- reporter: i'm asking -- >> host by king salman and king of saudi arabia. the king will bring together partners to meet with the region. i answer more detail next week, still coming in final attend december, will meet with a broad range of leaders in the

middle east, most who he met here or by phone certainly. we have the, the crown prince mohammed bin is coming on monday as well. port port general mcmaster, beginning of this very long week we were hearing speculation that president was considering thousands more troops to afghanistan, when he goss to brussels thursday next week with respect to nato parters on their commitment to -- >> all of us have to be committed to achieving pun pun objectives in afghanistan. americans no better than anybody because the mass murder against our own country, september 11th, 2001, originated with a terrorist safe haven and support in afghanistan. we've been engaged in isis cora son in afghanistan with highly successful -- in the department of defense here in the future.

what happened in afghanistan, the afghan army is taking the brunt of the fight against these transnational terrorists and the taliban. and so we're working with our allies to figure what more we can do to have a more effective strategy in afghanistan, what options to be with the president meeting more our objectives in afghanistan and what more we can ask our allies to do and we're asking them now. this is consistent with the president's guidance to us. >> has the president decided there should be thousands more troops? >> president hasn't decided that yet. we work with across the government and our allies, the president wants to hear from our allies as well. this is president who listens to allies and partners who have opportunity to do so the nato summit and g7. what we have at the end of the next two weeks, a more effective

strategy for the programs in afghanistan, pakistan and region broadly. reporter: thank you, sean. general, talk first about the evolution from the way the president campaigned more unilateral foreign policy until multilateral engagement and rolling out the trip to explain that. also talk about the decision to send a delegation to the forum in china, what you hope to get out of that? thank you. >> all right. america first didn't mean america alone ever, i don't think. we advanced the president's agenda in national security by strengthening allnces by burden-sharing. americans don't have to bankroll everything. our allies and partners are grateful for the president's leadership in asking them to do more. so it is an alliance which each of the members are doing their fair share, shouldering the burden, stronger or weaker? it is stronger.

so the president has done a great deal to strengthen our alliances. america first didn't mean america not leading. for america to secure and advance its interests that requires american leadership. and so the president's leadership has been welcomed in all of the places that he will be visiting on this trip and, his agenda, i think he laid out in the campaign is being operationallized and implemented by his cabinet primarily with the assistance of our team here in the white house. reporter: how -- two questions. first, there were -- president trump may try to get president netanyahu and president abbas in the same room. is that the case? nbc news said general mattis and his other generals would announce something on isis next week. can you talk to that? is there announcement coming next week? >> first part is whatever the president wants to do. a lot of what we do in that

security council is try to keep up with the president. so you may have, no -- reporter: -- try to reach out to both of them together? >> the final plans aren't set yet. maybe we comment more about that next week. it is on to the president and those leaders how he wants to engage with them. he will engage with both those leaders there as part of the trip. in terms of the campaign, against transnational terrorist organizations and isis in particular, the president has asked us to do everything we can to defeat isis and in particular to insure that we defeat isis in this so-called caliphate and terrain that they're endeavoring to hold on to in syria, iraq, fan -- afghanistan and other areas. what the president told us he doesn't want to tell us what he is doing tactically day-to-day. he wants the department of defense and our military commanders to execute the campaigns consistent with his guidance and policy and strategy he approved. what next week will do will be the opportunity r our military

leadership to lay out you how we, how they are executing the president's guidance, the progress they made in the campaign and what remains to be done. so that is really the emphasis of the press conference next week. >> thank you, general. one more? reporter: hear about russia and agreements made this work with russia's top diplomat? you're going to the region to speaking with arab allies. how will you explain agreements with russia, allies with iran and since -- [inaudible] >> i would characterize engagements with russian leadership, our secretary of state, the brief meeting the president had with foreign minister lavrov, the phone conversations we've had with russian leadership, as a engagements, not decisions or specific approaches. i think what the president has made clear is that, he will confront russian disruptive behavior, such as his support for the murderous assad regime in syria.

and its enabling of iran and very destructive policy and strategy that it is executing across the middle east. what it's done and continue to do in ukraine. he will confront the disruptive behavior but the president is looking for areas of cooperation. there are significant security problem sets across the world. all of them would get easier, right, if, russia were to come to the conclusion that it could best advance its interests cooperating with the united states and others to resolve those conflicts rather than perpetuate them. reporter: are they party to the conflicts and causing them in syria? the president said at the end of his meeting with lavrov, that it was really good and he spoke in very positive terms that there was progress made. are you saying there were no agreements? >> the president spoke in positive, affirmative strong terms in his engagements with russian leaders. >> thank you very much. [inaudible]

>> i will take one more. >> in the back. right here. reporter: can you tell us a little bit more about the america first policy, how it changed over time? not been very clear what it means and how other people would want to sign up for it. >> what it means is that the president prioritizing the security and interests of the american people. you can see that with what secretary ross has done, in the economic relationship with china. to look for ways to advance american prosperity. every theme of this trip is wholly consistent with president's approach to prioritize the american people, american security, american johnson, american prosperity. and so you will see that with, i think almost, a refreshing, i would say, integration of what we're doing in terms of security partnerships along with economic relationships, and the diplomatic engagement that the president's cabinet has been

engaged with since he has taken over as president. this trip will be a tremendous way to solidify the gains already made and advance them further. reporter: general -- >> thanks very much. >> all right. ank you, ger mcmaster. i'm going to go through a couple updates and schedule before i get to your questions, jeff will get the first one. first off secretary ross i know was up here to tell but the developments and general mcmaster noted developments that happened in advance, that happened in trade. 10 commitments that secretary ross announced yesterday are the initial results of 100-day action plan of the united states china comprehensive economic dialogue which began with president trump and president xi's meeting in mar-a-lago. under the leadership of secretaries ross, mnuchin and their chinese counterparts the united states has negotiated insensitively to reach consensus in areas including agricultural

trade, financial services investment and energy the one of the actions i want to point out in particular sets the stage for china to allow imports of american beef beginning no later than july 16th of this year. it has been 13 years since our catproducers have been effectively locked out of the chinese market. china is the second largest beef importer in the world, buying roughly $2.6 billion of beef every year. in a statement last night, the national cattleman's beef association, the nation's largest association of cattle farmers said, and i quote, it is impossible to overstate how beneficial this will be for america's cattle producers and how the trump administration deserves a lot of credit for getting this achieved, end quote. this announcement came on the same day that secretary purdue visited a barring loading facility in the ohio river and announced he will appoint first ever undersecretary trade and foreign agricultural affairs at the u.s. department of agriculture this is further

proof of the seriousness which the administration is approaching promotion of u.s. agriculture products abroad. that is one part of the deal reached. here are other highlights we worked with china. eight pending biotech patents from united states firms will be evaluated at a meeting of china's national biosafety committee by end of may. we welcome china to receive imported liquified natural gas with companies allowed to proceed at anytime to negotiate contracts. china will allow foreign-owned financial services firms in china to provide credit rating services and credit investigations. by july 16th china will issue further guidance to allow american-owned suppliers of electronic payment services to operate in china. china will allow two american financial institutions to issue underwhiting and settlement licenses no later than july 16th. as we continue to make progress within the 100-day framework, including discussion of a one year plan to solidify action to

benefit our countries. moving on, this morning attorney general sessions issued a memo that restores flexibility to prosecutors so they can most effectively the crisis of illegal drug trafficking polluting our cities and destroying our community and families. this policy was formulated after extensive consultation with the prosecutors that handle these cases each and every dave around the country. with these additional options available to them, they now have the leverage they need to get at the root of drug trafficking and the violent crime that surrounds it. as the attorney general said this morning, this will take the handcuffs off of our nation's prosecutors and if i can add, it frankly puts the handcuffs on drug traffickers who threaten the safety of our families and communities. the trump administration is signaling to the worst of the worst the drug traffickers who violate our drug laws to move these dangerous substances around our border and into our communities that the united states department of justice will no longer look the other way. this week the administration is also been busy engaging with

senators and their staffs now that the american health care act and relief it promises for the american people is in the senate's hands. i know sarah talked to you yesterday how aetna pulled out of obamacare exchanges completely leaving only one insurer in some. markets. another report yesterday out from e-health showed average premium for individual plans spiked 39% since 2014. in some cases, insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses have become family's most significant expenses. with each new report, it becomes clearer and clearer that we can't wait any longer to repeal and replace this failing system. until we enact serious reforms of the health care system, the american people will continue to suffer under the consequences. tomorrow, president will deliver the his first commencement address in lynchburg, virginia, at liberty. he is greatly looking forward to visiting with liberty students and faculty who gave him such a warm welcome last year. he can be expected to note to

the graduates his own change in status since they were last together. as many of you know, liberty is the largest christian school in the nation and has in recent years made many remarkable strides, trades forward in its academic, extracurricular and athletic endeavors. besides taking note of these achievements, president will congratulate the graduates on thr accomplishme and encouragth to be a force for good by standing up the values liberty taught them. he will offer congratulation thanks and peace and encouragement on a day of optimism and new beginnings for the graduates as well as nation. in terms of run-down for next week the president has a very packed schedule before we depart on his first foreign trip. on monday he is hosting the crown prince of united arab emirates. on tuesday he will host the president of turkey. he will travel to new london, connecticut to deliver the commencement address of united states coast guard academy. on friday we set off for the

trip, first stop being saudi arabia, finally in honor of mother's day this afternoon the first lady will host a reception in honor of military mothers in the residence. followed by a performance by the army chorus and marine band. white house will issue a mother's day proclamation later as well. beyond all the activity, this is the official reminder to everyone get your flowers and cards before it is too late. with that, jeff mason. reporter: thank you for that reminder, sean. >> you're welcome. reporter: moving on to the news of the week really and the day, did president trump record his conversations with former fbi director comey? >> i assume you're referring to the tweet. i talked to the president, the president has nothing further to add on that. >> why did he say that? why did he tweet that? what should we interpret from that? >> as i mentioned the president has nothing further to add to that. >> is there recording devices in the oval office and residence. >> as i said for third time --

>> did you think it us appropriate to threaten mr. comey not to speak? >> that is not a threat. he simply stated fact. tweet speaks for itself. i'm moving on. john? >> another one much president's tweets this morning russia must be laughing up share sleeves as the u.s. tears it apart over democratic excuse for losing the election. what did the president mean by that? what specifically is the u.s. tearing itself apart over all this? >> i think president's comments about russia and collusion have been very clear with respect to some of the charges have been made. he has been very clear it is one thing that he believes that the, that the notion that there is collusion is a hoax. it has been reaffirmed by several people, including senator grassley and others who have spoken to him. he wants to make sure he is focused every day on doing what is best are to the american people. reporter: understand all that, said that many times but how is the u.s. tearing itself apart? >> this is obviously a subject

comes up over and over again when it has been very clearly stated on multiple occasions that there is no collusion that occurred, and yet this narrative continues to be perpetuated. >> you think is what the russians wanted all loy long interfering with the election? >> i have no idea. what i'm telling you we made it clear at this podium several times, president made it clear, that what his feelings are on this. reporter: sean, in the dinner that the president had with james comey earlier in january, did president implore him to pledge his loyalty to the president? is that true? >> no. reporter: that did not happen. >> no. reporter: how important is it that the fbi director be loyal to the president? is that a quality the president wants to see in anyone particularly fbi direct it. theresident wants loyalty to the country and to rule of law. trey. reporter: thanks, sean. on dinner with james comey does anyone in this white house have audio recording of what unfolded during the january 27th

dinner between the former fbi director and the president of united states? >> i'm not aware of that. reporter: one follow-up question for you. what can the administration do better when it comes to communication? today the president tweeted out that he felt pro behind that podium it is not always possible to present the information with perfect accuracy. >> so, look i think, we come out here every day and try to do the best job we can communicating what the president's done and accomplishments he is making on the american people. we get here early. we work beyond being here at this podium. many of you know we get here early. we work pretty late. we do what we can. the president is activist president. he keeps robust schedule as many are aware, as you can tell by activities next week alone. we don't have the opportunity to get in to see him and get his full thinking. in those cases which do our best to follow up with you. there are times when you, more than not read a story where

someone is trying to pull apart one word, one sentence and say ah-ha, make it a gotcha thing. which work hard to get you most accurate and up-to-date information throughout the day. we always don't have the opportunity to see the president. in those case i think we do a pretty good job following up and getting you information after the briefi or in subsequso that's exactly what he meant. >> is president considering the canceling daily press briefings? >> he is little dismayed as well as a lot of people, we come out here trying to do everything we can to provide you and american people what he is doing on their behalf, what he is doing to keep the nation safe, what he is doing to grow jobs and yet, we see time and time again an attempt to parse every little word and make it more of a game of gotcha as opposed to really figure out what the policies are, why something is being pursued or what the update is on this i think that is where there is a lot of dismay. i don't think something just alone president feels.

reporter: one fine tall question. >> it is friday. reporter: on original question i had about the dinner on january 27th with james comey, president wasn't clear during the nbc interview who invited fbi director tot white house at that time. how many invitation did the white house send to director james comey after january 20th and before the director was fired? >> i don't know. i will try to get back to you. katie. reporter: [inaudible] he recently called, president erdogan for muslims to rush the temple mount. considering the president has been mediator for peace between the palestinians and israelis what is his response to that? i have another question. >> i think what you've seen with the president's meeting with these leaders is he engages privately in a lot of these things. i think to a degree, a large degree he has been able to achieve great success, whether in that particular case, working

behind the scenes, progress he made with china. the president's behind the scenes diplomacy is paying dividends for the united states. and that is how he will continue to operate. as general mcmaster noted, that kind of diplomacy reasserting our position in the world and trust in those relationships continue to be built. reporter: comments helpful? -- >> there is difference, katie, if we get out here and i think what the president believes is that behind the scenes diplomacy pays dividends in terms of affecting behavior and outcomes and furthering the goals of the united states. so that is as much as i want to say. reporter: my other question, is the discussion about the refugee crisis which is fueling props in europe -- talks about refugees being a problem in the united states and terrorists hiding refugees, or refugees hiding in the, terrorists hiding as refugees, excuse me, is he going to talk about that with arab leaders specifically when he visit saudi arabia or is that

not something he is going to bring up -- >> he talked about safe zones. talked yesterday with the foreign minister earlier this week. he brought up on calls. reporter: saudi arabia? >> i'm not going to get ahead of conversations he he is going to have but the president has been very publicly clear about his desire to address that situation and some of the solutions that exist. but he is, in a lot of the readouts he had as part of it, he believes that is part of the solution. john? reporter: sean, interview the president conducted yesterday with nbc, indicated or confirmed on three separate occasions he asked the director of the fbi and the seeking assurances of the fbi he was not under investigation by the fbi. why was the president seemingly so consumed by this that he would ask that question on three separate occasions? >> i think because the narrative continues to be perpetuated. he wanted clarity to make sure. i haven't spoken to him on it

about the reason but i think he answered it yesterday very clearly. and so i can get back to but that is the answer. reporter: i would appreciate you getting back to me. as far as asking that question, did the president ask the white house counsel whether it would be appropriate to ask such a question given that it was the against generally, justice department guidelines to indicate whether or not investigations are ongoing against any individual, let alone one in the white house? >> i don't know. i know several leader scholars, alan dershowitz and others said there was nothing inappropriate about that. i don't know the answer. reporter: thank you. reporter: general mcmaster mentioned president will bring up the issue of religious persecution with the pope. i wanted to ask you about a case in the last week in indonesia where a christian governor in the state of jakarta was imprisoned for two years for blaspheming the koran.

does the president find that case troubling? does he plan to say anything -- >> jonathan give you this question? reporter: i'm sorry. >> i don't have any updates on that particular case. i would ask you to check with the state department. reporter: thanks, sean. jeff's question, answer yes or no question. is the psident of the united states recording conveatio in the off office. >> i made the point with the tweet. president has no further comment. reporter: give me a blanket answer at the time it was all him regarding deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. why did you come out with information contradicted by president? could you explain the ticktock? when were you brought in? who else was involved? why the american people given incorrect information that night? >> i don't necessarily believe that is true, ze-ke. there was decision-making process.

president explained in the interview the decision-making process. director of the fbi serves at pleasure of the president. the president made the decision to replace him as he stated very clearly publicly. the president is focused making sure he finds a replacement that has the leadership qualities to lead the fbi. that's it. plain and simple. reporter: sean, one follow up on that real briefly, when you said tuesday doesn't match what the president was laying out yesterday -- [inaudible]. can you walk through why the discrepancy in terms of decision was? >> always the president's decision. final. look, as i mentioned ze-kke everybody serves at pleasure of the president. his decision to hire or fire someone. he made the decision based on recommendation and making sure we have replacement at fbi to instill the proper leadership they need. blake.

reporter: way forward relates to this president might nominate the fbi director where does the process stand? how many people have been interviewed? does the president hope wrap this up before he goes overseas? >> on timing i think, as soon as he find as candidate can fits qualities that he feels are necessary to lead the fbi, that's the timeline on that. i know that the department of justice has begun to create that list. i believe they're going, if they haven't already, are going to be starting the process of interviewing people today you through the weekend. president obviously wants to make sure we have got the right person. that process is being headed by the department of justice. reporter: how somebody, not necessarily being political in that role, if somebody has been a member of congress past or present, does that count as automatic disqualifier as somebody who is -- >> i have not, i have not asked the president but i don't believe he has state ad sort of in and out.

the department of justice is screening candidates. i'm sure that, as they feel as though they have got a list of finalists they will share that with the president. he will make a decision. reporter: lastly, president have confidence -- someone asked does the president have confidence in andrew mccabe. after the testimony on capitol hill today. is that still the case he is acting director at this moment? >> i have not asked him about, i have not asked him, generally i don't go you there the list of government employees and ask him. i have not asked him specifically about that. reporter: yesterday, sarah told us the president expects fbi investigation will be wrapped up what integrity. that is what the white hou wants. today the president tweeting calling it a witch-hunt. how does tweeting calling it a witch-hunt wraps up investigation with integrity?