without it. [closing bell rings] at some point we'll have it. cheryl: we didn't have it today, hank, thanks so much. we're closing in the green on this wednesday. send it right over to david asman. lea gabrielle "after the bell." lea: another nail-biter heading into the close. hanging on gains in final moments of trading. dow closing higher by 25 points. record highs in 2018 and nasdaq turning positive as well. all major averages on track since 2013. i'm lea gabrielle in for melissa francis. david: i'm david asman. glad you could be here. this is "after the bell." more on the market movers but here is what we're covering this hour. simplifying the tax code, may not turn out that simple. seems like there are a lot of loopholes for the rich where it could divert capital.

art laffer on what this can be done to correct this. the fda is under fire for its handling of food recalls. what the agency is accused of doing. we're four-days away from new year's eve. new york city is bracing for unprecedented security and record low temperatures. what is being done to prepare for the nation's largest celebration. leah? lea: dow making a turn around this afternoon. inching closer to 25,000. gerri willis on the floor of the new york stock exchange. gerri, what are the traders saying. >> lea, we're down with the traders and they are optimistic. the dow closed up 27 points. back and forth all day long, finally ending in the green for the dow. winners in the dow, visa, mcdonald's, amex, unitedhealth. variety of industries there, broad improvement across the board. other news that markets responding to, pending home sales increasing .2 of a percent, exactly like it sound. tells you how the housing market

will be in future weeks. gaining hovnanian, lennar, pulte group and toll brothers. good news it there. tesla having its own announcement. elon musk tweeting today that they will start making a truck, a pickup truck that they hope will to up against ford and the f-series trucks. could be a while coming though. we're still waiting for the crossover from tesla which is supposed to come out in 2019. big promise. we'll see whether they can deliver. back to you. lea: gerri willis thank you. consumer confidence falling from a 17-year high. the number remains strong, 122.1 but it came in lower than the analysts were expecting. let's bring in today's panel. liz peek and veronica daguerre. retail sales had a banner year. are consumers expressing

different sentiment in what they're saying and what they're doing? >> i don't think so. how people feel about the current situation was still extremely elevated and in fact higher. so what people are expressing little doubt about the near term, what jobs look like you know, three months out or whatever. look, we've had nancy pelosi talking about the tax bill being quote, arm armageddon. other democrats talk about how it is the worst thing to happen to the middle class in the history of mankind. i'm not surprised that has taken a bit of a toll. in february when they open paychecks, notice the tax with holdings are going down and spirits will rise in the first quarter i think wages will increase. i think this is a blip. lea: veronica, talk about broader markets. this is one of the lowest trading volume weeks in the year. anything on the trading horizon we might hit the 25,000 mark later in the year? >> this is light volume.

a lot of market participants are off this year. people could sell and take gains at year-end. so they could pressure stocks. i think going forward, folks will be looking at some markers. one record we'll hit after another going forward. but the thing is, if you are a long-term investor and you don't need money in the market for the next 10 years, for example, then don't worry about these arbitrary markers. you're probably not watching them too closely anyway. lea: good insight from the panel. david. david: meanwhile something very out of the ordinary is happening in this country. homeowners in high-taxed states are pushing to prepay their 2018 taxes. now this before the new tax law goes into effect on january 1st. many could benefit by paying in advance before the state and local tax deduction is capped at $10,000. liz, it is always unusual when people rush to pay their taxes. i'm thinking that all of the focus in these high-taxed states on how to deal with actually

having to pay all of your state and local taxes will put the onus on local politicians. maybe we'll get local tax relief, no? >> i wouldn't count on that. david: oh shucks. >> sorry. there is not much they can do. look, they made promises to employees unions and so forth that basically sop up much of their revenue. i think this is a really strong reminder, i hope our politicians are paying attention, tax policy really does impact behavior. if you make it more attractive to sell houses peel will sell houses. david: good point. >> you make it more attractive to move out of blue states, guess what, people will move out of blue states. the next shoe to drop what happens to property prices in some of these areas. david: that is a good question, veronica. property prices in manhattan have never been higher right now but you wonder if that will continue. >> this could add pressure. before they prepay the property taxes maybe sure you're not subject to amt.

not paying more than $10,000 next year. make sure you have the money to spare because if you don't have an emergency fund set in place it doesn't make sense to prepay. also check with your local states because as we know some states such as connecticut aren't letting people prepay. i would hate to see people prepay and realize later they couldn't do it. david: i have heard, i haven't personally checked out, veronica, new york city, you may not be able to do it. maybe things will change or they will before the end of the week. have you heard any news on that? >> i haven't heard about new york city but mixed about other places in new york. definitely check with your accountant. david: thank you very much, liz and veronica, appreciate it. >> thank you. lea: the big chill will be sticking around. an arctic blast will hit most of the u.s. with bone-chilling temperatures. rick reichmuth is toasty and

warm in the weather center. bryan llenas is not so much in times square. >> brian is lotting younger. he can handle that better than i can. it is really cold. we're talking about incredible snowfall this week, erie, pennsylvania, 63 inches of snow. lake-effect snow, warmer air moves across relatively colder lake. it picks up all the moisture from the lake, when it moves from west to east. fetch, a lot more distance travel. pick up moisture. the wind has shifted not as much as length of the water. snowfall comes down a little bit. that will be the case for next day 1/2 or so get ready that picks back up by saturday. you will see the wind move toward the west and so snowfall totals will pile up again unfortunately. temperaturewise, very cold. 12 degrees in anchorage, alaska. 12 degrees in cleveland, ohio. you get the idea. the cold air is settling down across the lower 48.

still colder across parts of canada. not that big of a difference. windchill. minus 39 in yellow knife. feels like minus 16 in fargo. feels like zero in kansas city and down towards the south. 28 in dallas. 41 in new orleans. florida, you're still good. southern part of florida you're still good. here is what happens next few days. cold air hanging around but a little bit of a break tomorrow. not in the northeast. high temperature friday of 20 in new york. saturday, here you go, the cold air comes back in again. last day of the year, look at this, lea, incredibly cold temperatures here. 37 degrees for a high on new year's eve day in at lant. the peach drop will be very cold. 19 for a high we're looking for on sunday. that means when the ball drops in times square, we're talking probably in the lower teens. that is the actual air temperature, not the windchill. if you're out in that kind of

temperature actually dangerous. if you have any idea that you might want to change your mind i suggest you change your mind, stay inside for new year's eve. that is my advice, lea. lea: or go to miami. david: miami sound so nice. erie, pennsylvania, that is five 1/2 feet in three days of snowfall. just extraordinary and they're getting more! brian we'll not have snowfall in manhattan but it will be cold, very cold. how is the new york police department preparing for the new year's eve event? reporter: hi, david. we're talking about 12 degrees like rick just said on sunday. here on that night, when the ball is dropping, hundreds of thousands of people will be out here no matter what. this is one of those once in a lifetime moments for a lot of people but it is dangerous. 30 minutes you put your hand out here you can get frostbite in these types of conditions. preparations are underway.

2600 water ford crystal triangles installed on the six-ton ball above times square, 400 feet above the ground here. other than that the nypd is obviously concentrating on security give the fact two terror attacks here over the last two months. the one on halloween where there was vehicular attack killing eight people. two weeks ago, when a failed suicide bomber detonated a pipe bomb on the subway, in the subways underneath times square. so some of the things nypd is expected to do, there will be extra scrutiny and rental and truck locations in and around new york city to prevent vehicular attack. extra security in hotels and office towers in and around times square, overlooking hundreds of thousands of people, given what happened in las vegas when the shooter killed 58 people from overlooking the concert there. vapor dogs will sniff out for bombs in the air as well as on

people. those are some things we can expect, on top what will already be a secure event. everybody will be checked by the nypd. there will be san trucks in and around times square, blocking potential vehicular attacks. even sewer holes will be sealed for about 20 blocks here as well as trashcans will be removed. so the nypd has done this before. this will be the 114th celebration in times square but it will be frigid. we're talking about top three coldest new year's eve in new york city. guys. david: i can already hear it with your lips right now. your lips are almost frozen i can tell. god bless you. >> i'm a florida guy. david: not a good city to be if you're a florida guy. brian, thank you very much. lea. lea: breaking news out of disneyland in california. the theme park suffered a power outage halts some park operations. you're looking at pictures.

guests on rides were escorted off by the shaft. this was from the park's transformer. we're looking at live pictures. the majority of the power is back on but excepting only guests for reentry. david: that's tough. there is fake news you may have heard about. it is over a dead tree at the white house. the tree is alive and well. backlash over mainstream reports over the first lady and historic next ture at the white house. lea: the caliphate has collapsed. a new report shows isis lost nearly all of it is territory in syria and iraq the time president trump has been in office but the fight is not over yet so what needs to be done now? david: also purge the fbi of anti-trump bias? one republican congressman used that word to say what is needed right now. is that a good idea and how would you do it? we'll debate it coming up. >> can you imagine a republican justice department and fbi working with the republican

national committee, created and funded dossier to go after a democratic candidate? this would make watergate looks like nothing.

lea: isis own the verge of defeat in iraq and syria. the terror group losing 98% of its territory, 50% of the

so-called caliphate taken back since president trump took office, according to military officials. reports indicate fewer than 1000 isis fighters remain in iraq and syria. we have retired general jer boy skin. general, nice it see you, sir. >> good to be with you. lea: how much do you attribute president's trump policy for fighting isis in iraq and syria? >> i don't think you would see any of this happening had it not been for president trump coming on the scene as the commander-in-chief. look, he has given our military not only the equipment they need such as the aircraft for bombing and artillery to be used for the same purposes but he has given them a new set of rules of engagement and allowed the commanders on the ground to actually pursue isis. he understands the concept of winning the fight which is

something the previous administration never could get their arms around. lea: you know right now we're looking at a picture of isis territory and i want to take a look at some of those pictures, the current isis territory compared to the way it looked in 2014, even if we take a look at the map, current isis territory compared to the way it looked when president trump took office. the picture seems to tell a thousand words 1000 fighters left but what i'm asking what about the so-called cyber caliphate? seems like we're seeing isis fighters move to other regions. we're seeing attacks in places like kabul and afghanistan. we know they're moving into egypt and they're using their online prowess to attract people to do attacks in other parts of the world? >> you're absolutely right. look, i don't think we should be taking a victory lap yet. president trump has done a great job as commander-in-chief in allowing our military to win in iraq and syria but isis has not gone away and it is not going to.

they are in 30 countries right now. we lost a few special forces guys a couple months ago. that is part of that fight against isis, many of which are relocating to places in africa, places that are remote. places where they have a bed for recruiting but isis has not gone away. they're compelled by a 1400-year-old theology. until we defeat the theology we'll continue to see isis and other organizations with the same theology as isis. lea: as they are losing land, they are going to be calling for followers to continue to conduct lone wolf attacks. how concerned are you about that? >> well, i'm very concerned about it. i think in the next 30 days, and i'm not a prophet and don't claim to be, but i think in the next 30 to 45 days you will see something they will be able to lay claim to because they are losing support rapidly as a result of that map you just showed. they depend upon their recruiting evidents to be able to refill the ranks of isis with

the fighters that they need to continue to build this caliphate and this cyber caliphate that has been, is very real because that is where i think they get the majority of their recruits is actually through the internet. lea: any thoughts how to get ahead of isis online? >> well, yes, we have to start doing some hard things. we have to start taking down their websites. we have to start eliminating them. look, we have the cyber capabilities to do all of those things but we've got to disrupt their operations and quite frankly, nobody but me would probably say this, we need to start putting out some things on the internet there that will confuse their people, that will make, make them do some bad things, some mistakes, that ultimately will work against them. lea: well, i think confusion campaign sounds like a good plan. cyber is certainly the new battlefield. thank you, general boykin. >> good to be with you, lea,

david: fewer cops were shot in the line of duty and there is less crime. they say president trump deserves credit, national president of fraternal order of police tells "the washington times," the arguably the president can use the bully pulpit to reflect the support for law enforcement. up to this point in his presidency he has certainly gone out of his way to do just that. lea: grocery store shelves could be stocked with unsafe food. a new bombshell report revealing dangerous flaws in the fda recall system. we'll tell you what you need to know. plus even with the new tax system countless loopholes remain. there is no one to break it all down than art laffer. he joins us after the break. >> the bottom line is this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. this is bigger than actual president reagan's many years ago. ♪

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lea: we're getting our first look at the president speaking at a fire station in west palm beach, florida, just moments ago. let's listen in. >> little did we know the at&t-comcast as well as wells fargo, they're giving thousands of dollars to their employees and nobody saw that happening but that happened early. and now what's happening is many other companies are following suit the country is seeing a big, big beautiful ship and turning around and a lot of things are happening with the military where rebuilding our military, it was depleted. you guys were depleted too. particularly the police, we're giving them military equipment taken away by the previous administration. you know all about that. now you're getting military equipment. they didn't want us to use the military equipment. somebody will explain why but now you have the best military equipment and you're able to use

it for the police force. but i want to thank the job you do medically and paramedics and the job you do with fire has been incredible. they said would you like to come over to see? some of you, many of you i met down in palm beach but you do a fantastic job. so we just wanted to thank you very much. really fantastic people. hopefully with media surrounding us they will understand exactly what is happening. we want to give these people credit for the great job they do. thank you all very much. we appreciate it. i will go back to palm beach and you go back also watch yourselves on television, all right? [laughter] [inaudible] do you have any questions? >> [inaudible] >> they just passed it and coming to me and it's a good

thing. you like the, right? >> we just appreciate -- >> one of the things that people don't understand, we have signed more legislation than anybody, we broke the record of harry truman. if we get this big tax break, that is the legislation of all legislations. that is the biggest. i included anwr as you know and repeal of the individual mandate which is, that is where you have the privilege of paying a lot of money so that you don't have to buy health insurance, right? most unpopular thing. which most people thought should have been unconstitutional but we repealed it and got anwr will be one. great drilling sights for oil reserves. but we have a lot of legislation passed and here is example of something that where we passed and sign. so yeah, we'll take care of you. you foilings have been fighting for a long time. a lot of legislation passed. they were saying if we got this one done, we would have exceeded

, succeeded with -- [inaudible] ask those folks they know the real answer. we have more legislation passed, including the record was harry truman. we broke that record. so we have a lot done. in addition we have a lot of executives orders. we have a lot of rules -- you people suffered from that to certain extent in all fairness, but a lot of regulations were voided. now you can go back to work to do your jobs. in the case of builders and farmers and some others they can go back to -- we have the all-time record for stopping ridiculous regulations. we're very proud of that that is one of the reasons the stock market has jumped at a record level. it is record level. we broke it 84 times this year. the stork market in a new high 84 times since we won the election on november 8th last year. so that is something we can all be proud of. that makes you all very smart.

and your families say, boy were you great at investing right? but when you have the numbers go up and stocks go up and everything else. when the stock market goes up that affects everybody. you think it is the rich, in fact it affects everybody because people own stocks, whether it is in 401(k)s or otherwise. so it is a great job. we'll get that signed. it will be signed. >> [inaudible] >> good. you have 15 of them. you know what we're talking about? come on over here. [applause] now i have no choice, right. david: as the president in palm

beach. first time we've seen him for a while. the media is kind of trump-starved right now. they miss their president, even those not to fond of him have been publicizing this. i don't believe he is quite finished. i believe he will say a couple closing remarks. let's listen in. >> so again continue doing what you do. better than anybody in the world. we appreciate it a lot and, the safety and lives that you save are incredible. chief, thank you. chief, thank you very much. thank you. david: all right. the president primarily talking about the achievements of his first year in office, specifically the tax policy, which was the last thing to pass just in the nick of time before the first of the year, and of course accrediting a lot of success of the stock market to hopes about tax policy changes which indeed he did get. talk to a man who was instrumental in formulating the tax changes that we will be

living under now and for the foreseeable future, art laffer former reagan economic advisor and laugher association chairman. a lot of this is your baby. >> thank you, david. david: there are a couple of things that remain. for you and i to look at it we only think what could have happened in sweeping tax reform. if it wasn't as sweeping as you and i would have liked we wouldn't have the tax loopholes. there are the loopholes that remain. carried interest is something a lot of people have heard about. but there is something called a conservation easement. i had to look this up. you heard of it before you told me but you take a worthless piece of property. get some appraiser to jack up its value 10 times. you agree not to put any kind of property, any kind of construction project on top of this property and then if you invest in it, you get $4 deduction on taxes for every dollar you invest. this shows how distorted the tax

code is still and remains after these changes. >> very true. i mean there are hundreds of these things, david, that exist in the tax codes. they have existed there forever and ever. the only person i've seen who proposed getting rid of all of these was jerry brown in 1992. i worked with him. we got rid of all deductions, exemptions, exclusions. got rid of the personal income tax, corporate tax, dividend, capital gains, medicare, medicaid, all payroll taxes, all federal taxes put in two flat rate taxes. one on business net sales and one on personal unadjusted gross income. with those two taxes alone, no deductions exemption or exclusions, pay taxes on first dollars last dollar, same rate, more than match all federal revenues with a flat tax on 12% on each. just amazing. that is the type of system we should be shooting for. that is the north star. that is what we should be trying to do but let me just say trump's tax bill is great.

i do not want to best enemy of the good. david: there is still room for part two, right? i imagine you're working on it right now. >> i've been working on it all of my life. that is what i do. david: what would be in part two >> you get rid of a lot of deductions is, exclusion, credits and lower tax rates. you could do that the 501(c)(3) deductions alone, what are they 4 trillion a year, 400 billion a year. i think it is 400 billion. lots of other ones. named one before, the conservation credits. got tons and tons and others of these should be gotten rid of in exchange for lowering rates. not in exchange for higher revenues. in exchange for low lowering rates and more productive. david: it takes political will. as we call with carried interest lobbyists i don't know the battle in this round.

>> in 1986 they didn't, david. called the gucci gulch, bob packwood slammed it on the table, heck with all of them. we're getting rid of everyone of these lowering rate to 28%, 15%. those were only two tax brackets. went from 14 brackets to two. lowered corporate rate from 46 to 34. brought down highest marginal income tax rate to 28%. david: daniel patrick moynihan, one of those democrats frankly i don't see anymore. are any democrats willing to do what he did in terms of trying to get rid of the special interests? >> yes, i think there are a lot of democrats who are willing to do that. daniel patrick moynihan at that moment at that time, at that place was wonderful. other times he wasn't very good. so you know each one of these senators and congressman amongst the democrats and republicans can in a moment of sparkling clarity become great. all the other times they can just give it away and do other stuff.

you know these people need to have the type of leadership that i think we might now be getting, and be able to do a major, major change in the tax code in the second term or maybe in the third or fourth year of this term. david: we need to spark the optimism and enthusiasm of art laffer. i hope you're willing to tread inside the beltway to get that done? >> i love doing this, david. what could be a greater goal making tax system better, fairer more efficient to people of america. david: i'm glad you're willing to wade in the swamp to get it done. art laffer, thank you. lea: a purge of the fbi. that is what one gop law maker is calling for, sounding the alarm as accusations of bias at the nation's top judicial institutions continue to rise. >> i was so overwhelmed and fearful when i saw the kind of conduct that mr. strzok and

mr. ohr and deputy attorney general mccabe were engaged. the guy talking about oh, we have got some insurance to make sure the president can't get elected. that is going pretty far. congressional committees run all that stuff to ground. lea: okay. but he said purge. so here now to comment on this question of political bias at the bureau and doj is a former deputy assistant director for the counterterrorism division of the fbi. terry, nice to see you. >> thank you. lea: if you're a rank-and-file fbi special agent, what do you make of hearing this from a lawmaker? >> i'm sure people are pretty bothered but the same time the rank-and-file go about the business of the fbi and become less involved in the day-to-day talk that goes on like this. i think everyone of them though like every american citizen, like you, like me, is really bothered by whatever was going on inside of andrew mccabe's office and with peter strzok and with lisa page, with james comey and it is important to remember

historically there have been other times when the fbi ran off the rails. if you look at watergate, aftermath, waco, ruby ridge, campaign contribution case involving chinese and vice president gore, all these times the fbi had a lot of reassessing to do, a lot of conflict with the department of justice and i think what we're seeing here is our generation's conflict. and something very, very bad happened here and that is the fbi failed to resist entry of politics into the bureau. vehicle by which that happens ironically is the department of justice. that is why we're not getting near enough information here. there are a lot of questions we should be asking about the who, what, when, where and why. lea: peter strzok question came about because the ig investigation and andrew mccabe there is no proof of

any wrongdoing at this point. >> that is important point. when i got into the fbi and i and some other colleagues kind of passed the fbi on to the next generation we had a saying we always live with, and it was kind of a pretty elementary thing and that is not just what we do, it is actions, the perception of actions. if the perception is tainted you can never regain ground you may have lost. regardless how someone might feel, when you have had your wife take money from a very loyal, known, clinton ally during these kinds of investigations, the perception of that is really difficult to explain. lea: it is but some people would say he is can't be expected to be his wife's keeper. i want to ask you this. how do you assess whether agents are properly conducting their investigations? that is really the question here, isn't it? >> well, i think the question is, are agents allowed to have freedom to follow the trail where they need to follow it. if you look, for example, at clinton case, there is a lot of questions about why in the first place wasn't there a grand jury?

why did we conduct the interview of clinton under the kind of fabled conditions that we use? those are questions that we really haven't had answers to. again, it goes to the perception issues here that we can't seem to get away from. lea: yeah. >> even if we want to be careful about that which we have to be, those are also on the mind of other agents like, what are they free to say and do and are they concerned that there is already some sort of bias at the top? lea: you make a very good point. there is a perception problem that needs to be corrected. thank you very much, terry. nice to see you. >> you bet. david: just days after coming together to get tax reform passed house speaker paul ryan pushing for entitlement reform while senate leader mitch mcconnell saying infrastructure spending must come first. bring in steve cortes, spokesman for the hispanic 100, former trump campaign advisor. also fox news contributor. steve, shouldn't we focusing on shrinking government instead of expanding it? >> no, i think we should, absolutely but we can do both by the way because smartruck truck

can truck -- smartinfrastructurewe can do smart-infrastructure. with president trump we have entrepreneur, literally a i would per, in the be builder in the white house. speaker ryan is correct we need to address long-term implications of our entitlement problem. david: mitch mcconnell says you can't work on entitlement reform without bipartisanship but there are certain things you can do. there is a lot of waste and fraud in something like medicare, for example. that is an entitlement. $60 billion according to one ig report is wasted in fraud every year, fraud and waste, $60 billion. if you focus on these inspectors general, give them more authority, maybe expand their purview a little bit you cut out the waste and fraud and save

billions, no? >> david, that is the point, too, diffuse power. the trump revolution was about diffusion of power, from washington and arrogant media, away from capitol hill. once we empower people in government to make decisions. we have far more efficient government and we can make changes and long-term spending implications of our retirement system. david: steve, i want to move out of the politics for a second. shaming of the rich tweet. san tone yo spurs coach gregg popovich people like him rich as hell, because other people need their money more than the rich people do. 33% of all the nation's charity comes from the top 1%. so i mean they're already doing this. the media is reporting this story like it was big news. it's a not. >> right. david, look, we are, by far the most, the most generous country in the world.

one of the reasons we're the most generous because we're the most prosperous. they go hand in hand. i of course concure in this season of generosity we should be charitable with our fellow man and it is important but i would say this, coach popovich number one, i would say the same thing to a lot of other athletes and a lot of hollywood stars, stick to entertaining us and stop sermonizing all the time and preaching to us. i would say this you know what delivers long-term stability and prosperity to people? capitalism and family values. generally, coach popovich and his cohorts you hate both of those. those are actually the answers to long-term stability and prosperity. david: say right away, steve, popovich the way media reporting what he was saying. he wasn't necessarily putting onus on rich, rich should do this good way to spend your money.

steve, have a wonderful, wonderful new year's. appreciate you being here. >> happy new year. lea: "newsweek" and other media outlets coming under fire publishing headlines like this one. melania trump orders removal of near 200-year-old tree from the white house. it suggested that the first lady demanded a historic jackson magnolia tree be removed from the white house grounds. it doesn't mention that the experts recommended the tree be removed because it is dead and fall over at any moment. david: a little bit of fake news there. deadly food remaining on supermarket shelveses for months. troubling new report on food recalls. how to make sure you and your family stay safe. save money on christmas and year-round. kim kardashian receiving a good gift from husband kanye west. why she may have president trump to thank. ♪

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lea: fda failures, a shocking new report from the department of consumer services that fda recalls are so slow it can take up to 10 months to get unsafe products off your grocery store shelves. that is even after people are getting sick. how this is happening with our own hillary vaughn. reporter: hey, lea. in response food safety advocates want the fda to release names of retailers

selling tainted food after an inspector general report they failed to follow up on food recalls to make sure stores and companies are not selling this food that can make consumers sick. the report said the fda dropped the ball in several ways, including not evaluating health hazards in timely manner or conducting checks to make sure recalled foods doesn't make it to the shelves. also not completing timely status reports of these companies. the inspector general also says they found no evidence that the fda has a reliable system for documenting when they become aware of potentially hazard does food, so the time frame between the report and recall could be completely inaccurate. after a review of 30 recalls the report found serious ininconsist is and delays in fda handling of potentially deadly foods. it took average of 50 days to issue a recall and one in case consequences were deadly. a cheese recall due to listeria

took 81 days to be issued. one infant died and nine people became ill and two pregnant women lost their unborn children. they are asking for companies voluntarily recall their products. some companies haven't cooperated but others are hesitant to pull the products from the shelf. the fda says they're reviewing this. they will issue some reforms coming in the spring. lea: i think a lot of people would like to know who the retailers are. thank you, hillary. david: so what do you give the woman who has everything? rapper kanye yes, sir getting creative for christmas giving his wife kim kardashian hundred of thousands of dollars worth of stock. she received stock certificates from netflix, amazon, adidas i think is in foreign market as well. here is a look how they performed for her today. two up, two down. generally speaking a good

investment. >> pretty good investment. david: not bad. lea: the challenges in the wings, new details on resist trump problem. in the g.o.p. next karl rove, former advisor to president george w. bush, sounds off on the republicans who might challenge the president in 2020. we'll be right back. ♪ cannot live without it.

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david: could fellow republicans actually challenge president trump in to 20? "the hill" newspaper releasing a potential list of contenders. we have senator jeff flake, ben sasse, ted cruz, and governor suzanna martinez and john kasich. here so react, karl rove, former senior advisor to president gw

bush and also a fox news contributor. karl, good to see you. happy new year to you. >> same to you. david: i think you need to get donald trump in 2020 while he is president, in primary fight you would need real star power. those are worthy contenders in some ways but i don't see the star power, do you? >> this is one of the stories that gets written between christmas and new year's where a, nobody is paying attention and b, we don't have anything to talk about because all the policymakers and politicos are spending time in holidays. who wrote this? what is this all about? the idea we're now making up list three years before the next presidential election has to who might challenge donald trump as he has just gotten come down after a big victory in the u.s. senate with the passage of a tax bill seems to be kind of thing to fill space and fills time. david: i agree with you. it is not just taxes. we put together a list of both his domestic and foreign achievements in the first year

and it is impressive list. even trump haters would be impressed by some of this. domestically has got tax cuts, deregulation, extraordinary. eliminating 22 regulations for everyone new regulation. neal gorsuch on supreme court. dozens of federal judges. standing up for local law enforcement. changing immigration policy to a merit-based system. foreign policy achievements surprise a lot of people. they didn't think he would be there. depriving isis 98% of their territory. getting nato to step up to its commitments. striking syrian air force in return for wmd. getting back american hostages. getting arab nations together to fight terrorism. moving our embassy to jerusalem and putting u.n. on notice about corruption. that is impressive list, is it not. >> i would add a couple things, national security strategy is surprisingly good document. you left out economic

achievements he has had. we're in our third quarter of 3% plus growth. good jobs, small business at record highs. apprehensions at the border down in large measure because a lot of fewer people are trying to come into the united states knowing that if they get here they're going to be returned. so defense of the culture of life by some his executive actions. david: yep. >> all those to the positive. david: let me ask, karl, are you surprised at this? you were kind of reluctant at trump in the beginning. are you surprised at all of these achievements? >> yeah, i am. i think part of it goes to the president. neil: particulary on the foreign side. part goes to republicans in congress, particularly on tax reform where they worked hard at it. yes, this is a strong first year. now he is still low in the polls and the reason is because of the thing we haven't talked about, a lot of this good has been obscured by unnecessary controversies, by mistakes, by personal demeanor, rather than

getting up in the morning to tweet about something good, we read about a tweet which he is picking a fight with meryl streep over whether she is a good actress or what. but, this, if the president continues on this path then it is going to be difficult for anybody to step up and challenge him in 2020 inside the republican party. david: you mentioned these things as a mistake. is it conceiveable, i'm throwing this out there, is it conceivable that trump got into tweet wars you said was distraction, achievements? if he focused on all achievements the establishment would have stopped him from doing it? >> no, not at all. his achievements, these policies are more popular than he is. he ends the year the most unpopular first year president elected first year president in modern history, despite the fact that these things like a tax cut or immigration or strong defense

or standing up for america. these things are far more popular than he is. i think his personal behavior has tended to distract from the success of his administration. david: okay. >> in getting, for example as you said in the big long laundry list. there are more, energy policy. big changes in energy. david: absolutely. >> i'm writing my column for next week in the "wall street journal" which i'm going to forecast we'll be only major industrialized country in the world that will grow its economy dramatically next year and reduce gas emissions. david: karl, we used up our time. thank you very much. we'll be right back. >> you bet. ...don't know if your me, but [monica] what's he doing? [lance] can we get a shot of this cold front, right here. winter has arrived. whooo! hahaha [vo] progress is an unstoppable force. brace yourself for the season of audi sales event. audi will cover your first

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. >> israel could soon name a train station after president trump. >> incredible story. the project would be part of a brand-new high-speed rail line near the western wall. israel's transportation minister says the naming of the station is president trump's courageous decision to recognize jerusalem as the

capital of israel. it is wild. we went through all of the foreign policy achievements of this president the first year. most people thought he would be all domestic, but interesting foreign policy stuff. >> lot of good points there. >> "risk & reward" starts right now. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. happy new year, america! woo! >> and a happy new year for a lot of people as this year draws to a close, a report that president trump has accomplished 81 major achievements in 2017. but the mainstream media, well, they see it another way. they're taking a tally, because they aren't remembering the president in the same way as others. welcome to "risk & reward," i'm adam shapiro. report tallying president trump's year-end accomplishments saying he had 81 major