cause a dip you buy the liquidity. lauren: lee munsons thank you so much. exciting day as the dow ends the session near the highs. "countdown to the closing bell" with melissa francis and cheryl casone. begins after the bell. >> dow climbing into the close to start off on a positive note. look at major averages, closing bell sound on wall street. i'm cheryl casone in for david asman today. melissa: you are not david asman that is for sure. i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." here is what else we cover for you in this very busy hour. preparing to address the nation in prime time, president trump is back at the white house today set to chart a new course in afghanistan. new details about the commander-in-chief's decision on america's longest war. focusing on policy over politics, meet the ceo who wants

to put business back in the spotlight and return to key issues involving immigration, health care and taxes. speaking of those tax cuts, our nation's leaders are speaking out today trying to push the president's economic agenda forward. cheryl: a lot to talk about during the next hour. first back to the markets. the dow ending the day near session highs but worries over north korea and the president's pro-growth agenda still weighing on investors mind. nicole petallides on floor of new york stock exchange. nicole? >> good afternoon, guys. the dow finishes higher by 28. it gets rid of that losing streak for the last couple days. some movers we want to look at, sempra energy, finished higher. it moved to an all-time high today. this is at fact they are moving forward to buy control of texas power distributor oncor. what is interesting about the nine 1/2 billion dollar deal,

buffett's energy division wanted to buy oncor for nine billion. it does not get involved in bidding wars. sempra stepped in and scooped it up. another deal, nearly 7 1/2 billion dollars deal, this is total of france, a french oil giant. danish oil company, danish conglomerate. mohler mersk. what will be interesting, they are pumping out oil by 2019 to 3 million barrels a day. you know who does that? a handful of companies. exxon, and a name like royal dutch/shell. what will happen to jeep? will greek motor company step in and make this official bid for jeep? we saw the price move to all-time high today. and now fiat chrysler said they did not receive a formal offer. great wall is working on one.

last but not least, the eclipse earns the great american eclipse, we haven't seen like like it since '79. look at some video, inside, outside, it was exciting and i was sitting there in turquois. saw myself, real exciting to see it with the glasses. a traders, a few popped in and out. hardly an exodus. people got ugliest, whether on somebody's on somebody's phone. it was great experience. it was an exit from the floor. they have to keep trading. cheryl: wasn't most productive hour 1/2 of new york business this afternoon. >> across the country. melissa: oil prices slipping today. down more than 2%, pulled lower by falling gas prices. we are near the end of the summer driving season. so that is part of it. cheryl. cheryl: we're talking about certainly the president's agenda talking about energy

independence and everything else. talk tax reform, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, treasury secretary steve mnuchin answering questions on tax reform at the louisville claim before commerce. that was earlier today. >> there is no point doing tax reform unless we talk about preferences, tax reform is one of them and carried interest. >> will tax reform is permanent? >> that is likely where we end up. there is some internal debate about that. that we'll have to sort out among ourselves but i think that is likely to be where we end up. cheryl: while the primary focus was the gop's effort to rewrite the nation's tax code, treasury secretary steve mnuchin says the first priority is raising the debt ceiling. >> it is my strong preference there is a clean raise of the debt limit. i'm all for spending controls. congress has the absolute right and the absolute obligation to oversee the funding of the u.s.

government and how we spend money. through that process, it is a process that is open for discussion, and thoughtful debate. melissa: here is liz peek, physical times columnist -- "fiscal times" columnist and. liz, what did you hear there? >> i still heard a little uncertainty what exactly the path is towards tax reform and i think heaven for bid we have the same bumbling lack of consensus on tax reform on health care reform because they need to get this done and i think i am in touch with people actually working on this project in the white house with people in the white house. there has been a lot of difference of opinion how they should go about it. my view, simpler is better. they should simply do a business tax reform, about how businesses treat overseas profits, offer amnesty if you will on repatriation, take that money

and use it for infrastructure. democrats have no ground for objecting to that. it would be simple, straightforward and i think very exciting for the country, but, man, they need to get something done. melissa: yeah. dan, they say that treasury got it done. they have done all the work. they need the president to go out and sell it. it is worrisome. is he in a position to do that? >> trump might not have the greatest authority to knock heads together like you expect the president to use the bully pulpit. but there are big issues dive providing republicans. revenue neutrality. cutting taxes for small businesses ie, individual income tax and the corporate tax. what will you do about balancing the budget over 10 years which republicans said they want to do? i'm a little bit pessimistic. i worry we'll get another obamacare type cluster you know what. cheryl: certainly we would like a little bipartisanship. there has been calls for

secretary mnuchin to resign. the calls continue following the charlottesville violence. the secretary said he is not going anywhere. he is standing by the president. he said quote, i believe there is great opportunity to simplify regulations reform taxes and create thousands of jobs through higher growth. the president does not believe that neo-nazi groups or those that incite violence are not equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful wais -- ways. >> i prefaced i shouldn't have to say this that the media has gone bezerk on this entire topic. yes that this white house does not endorse naziism. kind of ridiculous in my view but that is i think a very important statement by mnuchin. by the way i would say, generally i think steve mnuchin

has turned out to be one of the great picks in this cabinet. he has been stalwart focusing on issues, lighter regulation, on moving tax reform agenda forward, et cetera. now is his moment. i really hope he continues to power through to get things done and get through congress. congress needs to be on board and unified. we need they are not. cheryl: democrats and republicans need to work together on debt ceiling and tax reform. dan, we have he critical deadline. defending himself against yale classmates calling for him to resign in protest. let's get back to business. >> i think there is empty symbolism going on, regardless whether trump puts his foot in his mouth over and over again we still want good, high quality people hopefully shepherding through economic reforms to get the economy growing again. i will say one thing i disagree

mnuchin on, we don't need to increase the debt limit if treasury prioritizes. get to september 2 theth, nothing happens, do what the state of illinois is done, paying bills most important. bondholders, social security checks. maybe you don't send out farm subsidy checks medicaid reimbursement with quite the same speed you used to. melissa: looming deadline on health care. that is another one. once back from recess, republican lawmakers have 12 legislative days to decide whether to pass a bipartisan bill before insurers have to commit to obamacare exchanges for next year. liz, what do you think? >> i think they have already lost this round. melissa: oh. >> i think they have to do this the american people are not going to put up with 20% increases in premiums which is what the estimates look like, if these subsidies. they are really subsidies to insurers but what is so irritating is that the republicans have failed to tell the american people why these payments are necessary. it is because obamacare is not

an economically sound program. and what is happening is, you don't have enough healthy people signed up. bottom line these should not be payments that the american taxpayer has to shoulder. the program should work better but it doesn't yet where is the voice from the republicans making this clear to americans? it doesn't exist. melissa: dan? >> trump has an incredible, two things of leverage he can use. these insurance company bailout checks, and special exemption that the obama administration gave congress, notwithstanding what the obamacare law actually said. if he basically used those two things as clubs he could force congress to repeal or at least partially repeal obamacare. but he has to be willing to play hard ball. i don't see it out of this administration. melissa: especially with taxes on the horizon. maybe you have to move on to the next issue although, i don't know we said that before. anyway, thanks to both of you guys. >> thank you.

cheryl: breaking news at the white house, president trump is swearing in new york jets owner woody johnson as united states ambassador to great britain and northern ireland. the billionaire was a top fund-raiser for trump's presidential campaign and republican national committee. johnson's brother christopher will take over day-to-day ownership duties of the football team. we'll see if that helps them have better a season this year. melissa: all right. havoc on the high seas. a search-and-rescue mission currently underway for 10 missing u.s. sailors after a navy ship collides with oil tanker off the coast of singapore. a live update from the pentagon coming up. cheryl: new strategy for afghanistan as president trump addresses the nation after rigorous review with his foreign policy team. former ambassador to the u.n. john bolton weighs in next. melissa: where were you during the solar eclipse? cheryl: i was outside of the

studio. melissa: there you go. we have best shots across the nation. one from my son. we want you to see what the phenomenon looked like, we want to see what it looked like in your neighborhood. tweet your photos to "after the bell." post them on the facebook page for "after the bell." we'll show them later in the hour. ♪ so new touch screens... and biometrics. in 574 branches. all done by... yesterday. ♪ ♪ banks aren't just undergoing a face lift. they're undergoing a transformation. a data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. hello, mr. deets. every branch running like headquarters. that's how you outmaneuver.

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your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. cheryl: a new strategy for america's longest war. president trump addresses the nation in the prime time an will outline a new plan in afghanistan. blake burman is at the white house with what we can expect to hear tonight. blake? >> reporter: this is one of the better kept secrets is far of

the trump administration. we are five hours until the prime time address. we know the president made a decision on the way forward in afghanistan. what we don't know exactly what that decision might be. currently there are 8400 give or take troops inside of afghanistan and when you look at the 1000-foot view of everything the president has one of three options. either maintain at that level, keep going forward. add to it, keep going forward, back off the number somehow and draw down. we know the president on friday met with his top military advisors, top members of his administration at camp david. then came to the decision afterwards. the defense secretary, jim mattis, described the whole process, as he put it, rigorous. >> i'm very comfortable that the strategic process was sufficiently rigorous and did not go in with a preset condition in terms of what questions would be asked or what

decisions would be made. >> reporter: in his prepolitical days president trump was very, very skeptical of the afghanistan war saying at points that the united states needs a quote, speedy withdrawal, we need to quote, get out of afghanistan. however now he is the commander-in-chief. his decision at 9:00 will be made before the nation later this evening. cheryl: we'll be watching all of us, blake burman live at the white house. thank you, blake. melissa: here to react, john bolton, former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and fox news contributor. give me your initial thoughts, ambassador? >> well i think the big issue here frankly is not what the troop levels in afghanistan are going to be or what the tactics are there. secretary of defense mattis said this would be a full south asia strategy, meaning with dealing with pakistan as well. while i certainly don't want to see afghanistan return to the control of the taliban plus or minus isis and al qaeda, what i

really don't want to see pakistan fall to radical islamists that would immediately get control of an arsenal of nuclear weapons publicly reported to be 50 or more. we would have iran and north korea on steroid right there. i will listen to what the pakistani side of it is with great care. melissa: ambassador, to a lot of people out there in the audience, this would feel like low on the list we're worried about right now ironically. if you look around, we've been talking about north korea, we've been talking syria. we're worried about isis. we have some hot spots all around the world. not to mention russia and their incution into their neighbors territory, everything, to talk about afghanistan is challenging, troubling, distressing, i don't know what would you say to those people? >> they're wrong of the threat and danger of a terrorist takeover of afghanistan remains, that is the fact. you can criticize the president

as some have for not coming up with a strategy earlier, whatever the strategy is going to turn out to be but i think the most significant thing, we are still engaged there. we have been engaged there. after tonight however, it will be president trump's strategy for afghanistan and pakistan hopefully. melissa: what do you think they're really going to say? >> well i don't know the leaks have been minimal which is interesting although they tend toward the conventional, a few thousand more of this, change rules of engagement here, add some weapons here. so they're certainly not projecting anything dramatic or significant. so again i would say i don't think any of those kind of changes even lumped together will change the situation on the ground in afghanistan that much. that is why i want to hear what is the strategy with respect to pakistan where the safe havens for the terrorists are, which is in control of a lot of nuclear weapons. melissa: the only thing that indicates might not be the case is that comment we heard earlier

when originally was presented, the president was presented with ideas what was going on in afghanistan, what his policy should be, he pushed back, none of those things were strategy to win. he didn't like any options they laid out and they needed to go back to the drawing table. that doesn't make you think there is something more at work here? >> i don't know. i have seen cases, as have you in this administration where his national security advisors wore him down. during the campaign he was unambiguous he thought iran nuclear deal needed to be scrapped. twice already his advisors, according to the press, have persuaded him to certify that the deal remains in america's national interests, which i think is completely mistaken but they subseeded in getting him to reverse course from his campaign promise. we may see that tonight. i don't know. melissa: so in short, you said you don't want to see small changes around the edges. what can we do about the problem we've been engaged in 16 years?

>> i think the first thing you need to do is give up the idea of nation-building in afghanistan. the military for years has been trying to create an afghan national army. that isn't going to happen effectively, people will defend against taliban their particular region but not committed to defending elsewhere. nor are we going to make afghanistan into the switzerland of central asia. melissa: what does that leave? >> a long-term presence of american troops. that may not be what the president wants to hear but i don't think american security should be dependent on afghans. melissa: ambassador bolton, thank you for your insight as always. >> thank you. melissa: stay tuned for fox business, for complete coverage and analysis for the president's address to the nation at 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight. a special edition of "cavuto: coast to coast" starts at 8:00 p.m. cheryl: agreeing to disagree, as other ceos and lawmakers siding against the president. our next guest is staying in one

of his councils for the good of the american people. javier palmiero from the hispanic chamber about commerce is coming up. plus the president is pushing ahead with his agenda. how will the plans change with steve bannon out of the white house. we'll talk about it coming up next. ♪ highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms... again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management.

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cheryl: the president pushing ahead with his agenda following chief strategist steve bannon's controversial exit from the administration. here is jessica tarlov, bustle senior director of research, fox news contributor, and noelle nikpour, gop fundraiser. nice to see. >> nice to see you, cheryl. cheryl: i was looking at favorability with the president in all of this actually dropping in key states. this could be political quicksand depending how steve bannon and "breitbart" proceed once steve bannon gets back to running the ship at "breitbart." >> there seems to be a little

bit of confusion, or difference of opinion now that steve bannon will be an ally for trump when he is out or bannon the barbarian was the phrasing. i think it was just true or a leak someone at "breitbart" says they wouldn't hold bacalling for trump's impeachment if he moved away from campaign promises more than he has. we've seen throughout the course of the first seven of months trump presidency, hasn't gotten a whole lot done even though building the wall, potentially got a little funding in the house bill. we'll see where "breitbart" false. trump likes him and wants his approval. i'm excited. cheryl: of course, from your perspective sure. noelle, at same time, as far as the gop goes, they have key agenda items they need to get through. we're talking debt ceiling. potentially health care and tax reform. this is where republicans need to come together. there is a concern with bannon

out of the door, coactually really start to pose if you will, the doctor expose if you will, the divide and backstory between white house and republicans frankly going against president trump? >> you have a point there, and i'm looking beyond president trump and seeing a kelly-run white house. i'm seeing what he is doing. i'm lasered in on how he is running the white house. he is getting rid of political liabilities. he is weeding people through and pulling people out that he feels are a liability. i look for them to get back on track with their agenda. yes they will have distractions and yes we have some fights coming up but it is loud and clear we're hearing from republicans that we have to get these things pushed through because really, as fund-raiser on my point of view here, i have got to have movement because, cheryl, i don't have anything to sell if we don't get anything, if we don't get things passed on an agenda.

as a fund-raiser i don't have anything to sell for candidates. cheryl: would have agreed with you four or five months ago, as we saw with the health care vote there seems to be pretty big divide in the republican party, jessica. that is what democrats may seize on, let's be obstructionists particularly with tax reform, you don't have tax reform at this point. >> certainly the dems would go for infrastructure if that looks good for them. cheryl: i agree with you that is bipartisan but i don't agree that brings these people together. >> everyone on twitter we were unified as country because of solar eclipse. we're back to our sides. you are right, we might not want those bridges though chuck schumer should go forfeit it is on the table. i totally agree with tax reform. to noel's point if republicans in house and senate went for this alone. didn't rely on president trump for help of it and working on

getting their seats back in 2018 and 2020. working for american people what they got elected to do. cheryl: noelle, it was intriguing and scary comment from the staffer at "breitbart," if the president didn't stay on point, what he delivered and promised the american people when he was elected he should be quote, impeached. do you think "breitbart" will be a friend or enemy of president trump? >> i think they will be a friend of trump. i really hope so. we all know there is a partner in great bart, that is the mercer family. the mercer family has been throughout history, in a lot of elections been a fantastic donor and a help and supporting gop issues and causes. >> mercers are not traditional gop politics. they have gone with steve bannon. met with him a few days before he left the white house. i don't know bannon versus trump i think they may have gone bannon. cheryl: noelle? last word. >> no. i don't think the mercers will try to dismantle some of the

work trump has done and some things we have going forward trying to be controversial and be a thorn in trump's side. i really think the gop wants to be work together. bannon is upset about a few things, kushner and that relationship but i do not think the mercer family and "breitbart" will be working to destroy trump's agenda. cheryl: maybe they can start to move on. maybe that would be better for everyone. thank you. melissa: international manhunt coming to an end. police shooting and killing the man suspected of driving the van in barcelona terror attack of the fugitive was believed to be the final member of the spanish extremist cell behind the attack which left 13 people dead and injured more than 130 others. cheryl: coming up the uncontrollable nuclear war. north korea's latest warning to the united states, how our nation, how our nation is responding to the rogue regime.

melissa: plus president trump preparing to lay out his strategy for afghanistan tonight. how can we put an end to america's longest war? we'll talk to peter brookes, former deputy assistant secretary of defense. that's next. ♪ ♪ it's a highly contagious disease that can be really serious... especially for my precious new grandchild. it's whooping cough. every family member, including those around new babies, should talk to their doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated.

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melissa: some troubling news. the search is underway for 10 missing u.s. sailors after the uss john s. mccain collided

with the a merchant vessel near singapore. lucas tomlinson has been following the recovery effort closely. lucas, what can you tell us now? >> reporter: melissa, the second major collision of a u.s. navy warship in the past two months in the pacific. just moments ago, the navy's top officer called for a broader investigation. >> this trend demands more forceful action. as such, i directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world. >> i also fully support the chief of naval operations, admiral john richardson's efforts right now. he has put together a broader inchoirry to look into these, to determine any causal factors. >> reporter: this is the fourth major mishap for the u.s. navy in the pacific since late january. a guided missile cruiser ran

aground in tokyo bay spilling 1000 gallons of oil. in may, another cruiser collided with a fishing boat. in june, the uss fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship, drowning six sailors. two captains were relieved. this latest mishap involved the john s. mccain, who collided oil tanker. berting space is flooded. the 10 sailors remain missing n a few hours diving operations are expected first light into the flooded compartments. four injured sailors were airlifted off the ship. the navy looks how it qualifies junior officers to stand watch on busy shipping lanes. the navy is down two destroyers capable of downing ballistic missiles, part of the defense against north korean ballistic missile strikes. the trump defense budget called on building eight new warships, one more than obama's budget. congress called for even more, five warships.

some say more needed now. melissa: wow, lucas, thank you. so distressing. cheryl: here to react to all of this, peter brookes heritage foundation senior fellow for national security affairs. peter, what do we need to do to make sure this doesn't happen again? this is second destroyer accident in two months. is it equipment? is it training? what does the military need to prevent our soldiers and sailors were being injured or killed? >> well, cheryl, this is obviously very troubling. i am retired navy commander. i wasn't a surface warfare officer. the navy will run this down, stem to stern, making sure training and operational tempo and procedures are top-notch. what we're talking about afghanistan strategy it also points out other services are under tremendous strain and operational tempo even though they're not necessarily involved at this point in combat operations. a lot of things, look, opening up the aperture a little more,

what about sequestration? do we have enough ships? are we pushing people too hard or our equipment too hard? there are so many questions. at this point i can't give you any answers but the navy will run this down. cheryl: let's talk about afghanistan because the president is addressing the entire nation tonight which could be one of the most important speeches of his presidency. he will reveal his strategy for afghanistan, peter. what will he say and more importantly what do you want him to say tonight? >> there is a couple things out there. countier terror is critically important. cheryl, most people don't realize in the afghanistan, pakistan area, 20 of 100 terror groups operate, 20 of 100. it is a tremendous epicenter of violent islamist extremism. we have to have a counterterror strategy there especially in the shadow of the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

very important, what happens over there can be brought here as we saw even with barcelona in spain. so, critically we have counterterror strategy. we still need to try to help the afghans fight the taliban and the haqqani network and isis to maintain their sovereignty. but i'm not into nation-building. i don't think we should try to turn this into a project to change afghanistan fundamentally, but we should try to assist them in elements that protect our national security. cheryl: it has been a long time. real quick, before we go, not a lot of time, north korea is warning of uncontrollable nuclear war. you have the military drills between ourselves and south korea today. how worried are you still about north korea? >> well north korea doesn't like the exercises. they see it as a threat. mostly a computer-based exercise actually but we see a lot of rhetoric out of north korea. we have to always take it seriously but we have to understand we see it a lot. conventional deterrents is

critically important. president took great steps reminding north korea if they pick a fight with the united states it will end badly for them. cheryl: peter brooks, thank you very much. great perspective from you. we're following all of this. we'll follow everything tonight. we'll listen to the president, see what he says about north korea. we know he will talk about afghanistan and everything else around the world. appreciate your time today, peter. >> thanks for having me. melissa: the great american eclipse. the historical phenomenon that has the nation completely distracted of the we asked our audience to weigh in, your photos of the solar eclipse. those are coming up tonight. ♪ today, we're out here with some big news about type 2 diabetes. you have type 2 diabetes, right? yes. so let me ask you this... how does diabetes affect your heart? it doesn't, does it? actually, it does. type 2 diabetes can make you twice as likely to die from a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke.

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♪ melissa: the great american solar eclipse is here. the coast to coast astronomic event is the first of its kind since 1919.

that was 99 years ago. here now from one of the nation's prime eclipse viewing sites in carbondale, illinois, is fox news's matt finn. matt, was it as fabulous as you anticipated? were you blown away? did everyone there go bananas? what was it like? >> reporter: melissa, all of the above. it was spiritual. it was transcendent if you will. we're here in southern illinois, carbondale, the sal lucky stadium, southern illinois stadium. this was celestial super bowl, we had near darkness, for 2 minutes, 40 seconds, longest in the country and we had some pleat view of the eclipse -- complete view of the eclipse. no way did we lose sight of it if you well. after any great party is a great cleanup. you can see people cleaning up here. the party is not over. right here there is a carnival going on.

it feels like a circus. there is beer, there is food, there is tents. carbondale, illinois, making the most of a once in a lifetime opportunity. we talked to people that made it here from texas, michigan, florida. they chose to come here, that this was once in a lifetime opportunity, they may not be alive next time around. five minutes before the eclipse hit its totality, there was big cloud cover came through the area. we felt like a moment we would not see the eclipse, before the totality, the clouds parted ways and got a full view of the eclipse. the crowd went wild, as they say, melissa. melissa: we had the cloud, and total buzzkill in front of streets in front of fox news here. it was still pretty cool. i didn't do that much. i had glasses. i had them here. we went down to the street. we looked, we loved it, went back inside. the people where you are made a gigantic effort. how many feel like they want to

do it again in a decade, i got it, i saw it, i'm done? >> reporter: okay the stadium behind me has 15,000 person capacity. looks like they hit the capacity. melissa: nice. >> reporter: people made special trips all over the country. there will be another total eclipse in totality in 20 it 4. -- couple more years people can come back here in 2024, and do it in a couple years. they said it was awesome, worth the trek and pilgrimage here. melissa: if you felt like today was disappointment, or gypped, because you didn't go to carbondale. chance again now in a few years, go to carbondale. matt will probably be there i would assume. you will not stay between now and then. will they let you come home in the middle matt? >> reporter: i will be in chicago later this week.

but if i have to stay, you never know. melissa: we love you matt. good stuff. cheryl: i think matt finn wins best live location of any reporter today. melissa: that is good stuff. i love it. cheryl: they had a blast down there. melissa: very cool. cheryl: we obviously have some of your pictures of today's solar spectacle or total eclipse of the sun, which one of our colleagues kept saying over and over today. some of our viewers were kind enough to send us their best shots of the out of this world event. first johnny from south carolina. melissa: nice. cheryl: is that bright? and something about the devices, you had to be careful with them. i don't know. melissa: there was a whole thing about it. cheryl: there was a whole thing. chris from nashville, tennessee. melissa: that's nice. cheryl: here is a look at the eclipse in pennsylvania from carly. melissa: okay. good, most important one is last. thompson, are you watching? are you at home watching. my son thompson, this is his great photo. he is excited.

what you can't hear he narrated whole thing as well. he was totally fired up about it, no pun bit. he got to stay home from camp. for all the parents, glasses, i did make him wear glasses. his eyes are safe. we were watching. we were fired up at my house over the weekend. cheryl: what a great experience for your sun. i remember being a kid in the 70's, watching the '79 eclipse. melissa: what did you think of the picture? did you like it? cheryl: he did a good job. melissa: good job, thompson. credit scores over fancy cars. the key to scoring an online date, fiscally financial responsible partner, all those things. 59% saying having a good credit score is more attractive than driving a nice car. according to a new survey by discover and match media group. 40% say they favor it over physically fit body. what do you think.

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melissa: putting policy over politics. one of the most vocal and prominent leaders in the hispanic community, and an active member president trump's national diversity council is condemning the president's

action on charlottesville and calling them quote deplorable, but despite the outrage, javier will remain on the council. he joins us now. i'm sure that this has been a challenging time for you, like so many, you know, getting emails and angry letters and everything, people's emotions are running so high about this. how did you come to the conclusion about what you want to do? >> well you know, i represent 4.2 million hispanic-owned firms in this country collectively contribute over $668 billion to the american economy and we believe that it is important for american small business to have a voice with this or with any administration for that matter. and so our choice was clear, we needed to try to campaign from the inside as opposed to complaining from the outside. as disappointing as last week was, there was at least one bright spot, and that was departure of steve bannon.

we had called for that. you know, mr. bannon had very anti-globalization views. you you know, 95% of global market exists outside of the united states. for our small businesses to continue to grow, they must compete on global basis. mr. bannon was very anti-immigrant, perhaps forgetting 42% of the fortune 500 corporations were created by immigrants of the as we stand today, one in 10 workers are employed by hispanic-owned company. immigrants are a important engine driving american economy. he was anti-foreign trade or free trade, perhaps forgetting again of all of the companies that engage in foreign trade in this country, 98% are small and medium-sized companies. for variety of reasons, steve bannon literally feet from the

west wing and oval office was good thing for us. that was one bright spot in what was a very, very disappointing week. melissa: there are people in the audience screaming at the television saying that those qualities, we know, everybody is screaming right now. i can barely take it, but people are saying, you know, that the qualities you just attributed to mr. bannon, that the president has those qualities, and you know, it is the same thing. what do you say to that? >> well, we will continue to work with this administration. we will continue to work with members of the president's inner party, if you will, cabinet members like steven mnuchin, like, you know, gary cohn, like wilbur ross, like even agricultural secretary perdue, that have illustrated to us that they understand the challenges of american small business, that have given us an opportunity to bring our constituents and our members to meet with them, to talk about the issues. we want to get back to the

business of you know, tax reform. melissa: right. >> immigration reform. health care reform. those are the things that my constituency of american small businesses are worried about, absolutely. >> i appreciate your point of view. i hope you come back in a month or something tell us if you feel it has improved. >> that would be great. melissa: we would love to check in with you again. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me on, melissa. cheryl: well america can't get enough of the solar eclipse. the president was onboard too today. did he just make a major mistake? we'll explain next. ♪

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melissa: i think he was very busy focusing on afghanistan speech, missed that memo at not looking directly at the sun, oh. there we go. wait, i thought he had glasses on. cheryl: first and first lady

checking out historic solar eclipse from balcony of white house. president appears to look into the sun, there is shot of that. >> i don't think he was looking at a bird flying by, i don't know. there you go, "risk & reward" starts now. liz: we're just a few hours away from president trump's live address to nation about his new strategy for afghanistan, fox business is all over it. how many more troops, how much more money and why now? why a live address? as white house on a blitz against dc distractions, threatens to swamp president trump's progress agenda. tonight we have a all-star lineup for you. ed rollins, and mcnerney and later diamond and silk will join us. now first a warning watch your stock portfolio the pros on