reason to bid up oil prices. this has been something that has been almost a constant theme. last week, of course, is when we backed out of the iran agreement on that sort of propel prices forward. instability will return to the middle east, that's the belief. we've got indications that we will beef up production on this corner of the world and some other players in that region, including the saudis if, for example, the iranians had to pull back oil would make up for that with production of their own. but that is out there. it takes a very, very distant second to the loss of life involved here, but i wanted you to be aware just the same. "u.s. news & world report" -- [inaudible] campus reform.org media director gavin phillips and former bush 43 deputy assistant brad blakeman. brad, to you on this concern that more countries are not following suit to join us, setting up their own 'em -- embassies in jerusalem for fear that it's going to cause a bigger ruckus. what do you make of that?

>> shame on them. we should take note of the countries that stood with israel and stood with america today on this historic day, and we should also take note of -- neil: well, there are three of them, guatemala, paraguay and the united states. >> yeah, what a shame. what a lost opportunity. the fact of the matter is the united states leads even when it's not popular, quote-unquote, with others. that's what america does. and, unfortunately, others will come kicking and screaming eventually over time. they will be pretty much forced to do the right thing. the united states has done something that is not only in our interests, it's in the interest of israel, it's in the interest of peace. neil: ashley, what do you think? >> i think today is a cause for celebration, a historic day, but also somewhat of a bit of concern. and this is due to the violation that's happening right along -- the violence that's happening along the border. and a lot of this comes on the heels of the u.s. withdrawing from the iran deal and the fact that there are significant tensions between israel and iran.

and then you have the syria factor involved as well. i really do think this is something we need to keep a watch on because i don't think that these sprienlt protests -- violent protests, these outbreaks that we're seeing, these deadly attacks, i think they will continue for some time even though this was a necessary step and a way forward to recognize reality this in jerusalem as the capital of israel. neil: you know, a lot of presidents in the past have proposed this and all, but they would always pull it or stop it or prevent it once they became president because, well, that time was not the time. this president urged much the same. the palestinians, who are furious about this, have been arguing, well, there go our shot when we eventually get a state of our own to put the capital in east jerusalem, so they're even angrier. >> let's remind ourselves who israel is surrounded by, terrorist nations that have, in many cases, desires to wipe israel off the face of the map. these are not people negotiating

in goodwill. and i think for the united states to not act on sound policy because we are afraid of those people escalating violence is allowing our foreign policy decisions to be held hostage by these nations. and to look at it from a different angle, if russia went to the rest of the world and said we're mad at the united states, don't recognize their capital in d.c., move your embassies to new york city and other countries started moving their embassies, we'd be furious. we'd be offended at every nation that did so. so look at it from that angle, israel's the right move to respect their sovereignty and where they claim is their capital. neil: let me switch gears. over the weekend on my live show on fox news, we got into this issue of the upcoming north korea goingses where one liberal -- negotiations where one liberal commentator said she actually trusts the north korean leader more than president trump. i want you to take a look. now trust kim jong un more

than -- >> it's scary. at this moment i'm not quite sure -- neil: whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. that's a fox alert that you buried there, that you trust the north korean leader finish. >> i say how -- neil: i know that you're liberal, but you're not clueless, right? >> i'm just saying how does this leader trust this leader? we have two leaders that are unstable and -- neil: [inaudible] now out of control. >> it's not out of control. neil: it is too. to infinity. >> he's so unpredictable. neil: your thoughts? >> people are in a competition to see who can oppose president trump in the most extreme way to show they're the most dedicated member of the resistance. neil: you know, ashley, to be fair on this, that's why i raised my eyebrows and more than that because i did that perplexed anchor thing, but one of the things i did notice is, boy, you must have a very cynical view of the president that you think he is less trustworthy than the north korean leader. but she based it on the fact

that he has lied a number of times, that he's dialed back things he said. so he has a history of fooling her, and so she's not going to be fooled again. what do you say? >> look, he does have a history -- and i'm sure of this because i've said it multiple times on air -- of reckless, rash and sometimes untruthful behavior. but at the same time, neil, i'm speaking as a never-trump republican who can at least say in this situation the release of the three hostages was a good thing and that whatever he's doing with north korea clearly worked. what i will say though is we should be a little concerned about north korea's willingness to play in the sandbox with us and that maybe we should be a little bit more diplomatic when it comes to our relations with them. as of right now, thicks are okay. so i understand her unease with the way in which he chooses to conduct himself as the president of the united states, but at the same time, i mean, we should never be trusting north korea here. neil: what do you make of that, brad? i mean, she is just putting

voice to a cynicism that's out there on a lot of people who say that this president could get hoodwinked on a deal and that he can't be relied to keep his end of the bargain. what do you make of that? >> i think it's patently unpatriotic, rooting against america. donald trump has been able to do things other presidents have been stymied with for decades. the fact that they've agreed to stop testing, that the president of the united states is going to meet the north korean outside his country, the guy never leaves his country. look at -- not one democrat showed up today for the opening of the u.s. embassy in jerusalem. it's a resistance movement that is rooting against america. it's unbelievable. look, it's results. do you agree with the president moving to jerusalem and taking that off the table, do you agree of the historic breakthroughs that have been made in north

korea? you've got to answer yes to those. now, these are promises of future successes, but at least progress is being made. neil: all right. and we'll see what progress is made, less than a month to go. guys, thank you all very much. the dow up about 87 points right now. a lot of this is buoyed by talk, you know, there might have been a strategy to inviting this chinese controversial firm that some, you know, targeted for espionage, lying to us, stealing stuff and then opening up a concession on trade. we're putting some pieces together, after this. ♪ ♪

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neil: do a lot of you remember -- or y of you, actually, or even one of you -- remember the chinese technology firm zte? it was facing sanctions for, essentially, facing stuff from us, espionage. the stuff that would be like a robert rudd lumbar novel. the president started bright and early saying i'm going to work to get these sanctions dropped so they can get back to business fast, and a lot of people just said what the heck, and some added curse words because they were so upset. turns out marco rubio thought the problem with zte, mr. president, isn't about jobs and trade, it's national security and espionage. he no fan of normalizing corporate relations with this

concern. lo and behold, later on in the day we learn it's part of a granded strategy to get the chinese to ease up on their own tariffs that were targeting farmers. i would assume soybean farmers. i don't know. this much i do know, the markets are confused. but fortunately, these market stars are not including scott shellady and fox business' susan lee. all right. so, scott, from your vantage point does this look like worth trying to strike a grand bargain in helping the chinese? what do you think? >> i think in the art of the deal, and he wrote the book, i'm not saying that this is perfect but, yeah, you have to let the other team think they've got something to give what you want. you both have to leave the table mildly satisfied. so if this is what he's got to do, and i don't necessarily think it's about putting people back to work in china. over 25% of the components that zte uses and the things they sell come from the u.s. so there is a little bit of a selfish back story here too. i think that, yeah, he's going

to have to give something to getting? , and if he really wants what he'll ultimately get, he's got of to have a sacrificial be lamb, and it could be zte, and ultimately, that'll help us too. neil: susan, what do you think? >> i disagree. zte employs 76,000 employees, the company has basically been brought to its knees, it's ceased major operations. if they don't get access to those antennas and chips made by u.s. companies -- and don't forget, zte partially owned by the state government, the chinese government, so i think there is an employment issue here especially the chinese economy, which isn't creating enough jobs to make up for the amount of graduates each and every year from those colleges and universitiesful. neil: i will dotes, doug -- notice, doug, we had a pop in this news on the farm side that it may be a step in the direction to settle this trade dispute to be made, whatever you think of the details here. what do you think? >> well, i think -- i'm not sure

whether president trump wants to make china great again, but i do think it's something of a pavlovian reaction to assume that the market's animal spirits are going to be lifted in a considerable way and/or the trade tensions between china and u.s. will be reduced. there is this inconsistency of hastily-crafted policy through tweets which is dangerous in a flat, networked and interconnected world. and it has a very real impact upon the real economy in the u.s. and i see it when i speak to company cfos and treasurers. neil: what do they tell you? >> they're saying, they're saying that we don't know what policy is, so we're going to delay or, in certain cases, even derail business fixed investment. and that's very important. neil: that's a very good point. what do you think of that, that be careful what you wish for,

mr. president, in the interim you might get it. you're going to get a lot of confusion, and it's going to boomerang on the very american companies and businesses you were aiming to help. >> is that to me? neil: yes, scott, i'm sorry. >> well, here's what i would say, i understand that line of thinking, but then we just sit on our hands, let them continue to rip us off for $2-$300 billion a year in inte he intell property, compete against us here in the states. i mean, i still have not heard an argument that would say we shouldn't be doing anything and don't rock the boat, let's make sure they're happy and continue on our way. we've been in a trade war. we didn't start a trade war, and now we have to do something about it. there might be some unintended consequences, but at the end of the day it's just not fair. neil: at the end of the -- >> neil, respectfully -- neil: go ahead. >> respectfully, it's the delivery of the policy message which is important and has a

potentially adverse second-order impact upon business fixed expenses, on capital expenditures. and this is my concern. neil: susan, i was going to raise something akin to that, that i think a lot of countries -- europe in particular -- they're kind of rooting us on without saying so because they feel that the chinese do play unfairly. whether the solution the president comes up with now or down the road is the answer, i don't know -- >> right. neil: -- but they're privately concerned that china does run a rigged game. how is that being received, how does that play out? >> and that's interesting, you're right, because the british government along with the u.s. did say a few years ago that zte is a back channel for cybersecurity, cyber hacking and and also possible sabotage. but then a lot of british companies still work with zte, large ones in the u.k. including bp. they allow telecom equipment into the company, so, you know, what does that say? but, you know, one thing i want to point out, neil, and i think this has been lost and forgotten

in this discussion about u.s. and zte and the trump administration. obama also two years ago did threaten -- and they did enact -- a suspension of zte, getting exports from u.s. companies. what did they do? they lifted after that zte said, okay, we'll play more fair, you know, we'll take a look at our business dealings. that was something also obama did as well. neil: all right. way too early to come to any conclusions, here, but there are a lot of worries. we'll see how it sorts out. guys, thank you very much. we're going to have the latest on this cbs lawsuit preventing, doesn't want to see it hacked up with -- hooked up with viacom. unfortunately, sumner redstone who used to run the joint, and his daughter sherry are keen on that, and, in fact, they have already said if you get in the way of this, leslie moonves, you're out of a job, oh, yeah, and every single one of you on the cbs board, you're out of jobs. it has now gotten out of control, angry and childish, which is just where we like it

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♪ ♪ >> there is this fear, there is this anger, even rage about women seeking power, women exercising power, and people fall back on these attacks like you're a witch or you should go to prison. neil: do you feel that way? is would you not elect a woman because she's a woman? is we have a number of women senators and governors. other countries have had famous women leaders,gold da my year, angela merkel in germany, maag dwi thatcher in -- maggie thatcher in britain and all. i don't know if we're predisposed to not wanting women running things. maybe the only case for hillary clinton is not that woman a couple of years ago in this country. anyway, the read from former new

york lieutenant governor, betsy mccaughey. a former lieutenant governor. >> that's right, neil. neil: so what do you make of that argument that in the end it was just a lot of chauvinists who stopped her? is. >> no, well, remember she has blamed james comey, vladimir putin, bernie sanders, the green party candidate jill stein, barack obama and also theisms, racism, sexism. she has blamed so many different causes for her loss, but in her book she actually got it right. she said she had come to terms with the fact that millions and millions of americans just didn't like her. sadly, she really didn't come to terms with it, because now she's on a global meltdown going from country to country, city to city again blaming one cause or another for the fact that she lost this race. it's not only embarrassing her, it's embarrassing our nation when she makes these

accusations. neil: well, as she was speaking in australia, she said similar things. and is, you know, there that line that these divisions end at our shore. and i know it's politics, i know it's the game that's played and all, but when you were lieutenant governor, did you ever run into resistance? hey, you're a female and you're lieutenant governor. >> well, i can tell you that looking at what's happening in politics and now and even back when i was lieutenant governor before the civil war a woman candidate and a man candidate with identical credentials, the woman had a little bit of an advantage because both major parties are seeking female candidates. this year we have 432 women running for congress. that's only about a quarter of all the candidates seeking election for congress. and why isn't it half? why is it only a quarter? for the same reason that most

women don't become wrestlers. politics is a knife fight, and men and women alike find it unappealing but particularly women. neil: yeah, but that almost means women are not up to the fight -- >> no, it's just a pretty unappealing process. neil: well, it is that. but it's unappealing for a lot of men too, right? >> it certainly is. it's hard to find good candidates. neil: all right. betsy, thank you very, very much. big media stories we're following right now including a number of democratic senators who want to know what at&t and novartis were thinking about these payments to donald trump's lawyer, michael cohen. charlie gasparino's looking at this. you know, everyone wants to know what was the relationship and what were you expecting out of this relationship. what are you hearing? >> i hear there's a lot of hand wringing from the at&t board about -- i don't have as much sourcing on the novartis part,

but on the at&t board about how this whole thing happened with randall stephenson, you know, when he knew it, when he -- neil: because he regrets it now, but is it because what we know about michael cohen where at the time how could he have been privy to that? >> here is the interesting thing, and this is what i hear, the issue really is, for at&t, when the relationship was disclosed to the board, okay? was it disclosed immediately upon it happening? you know, we've hired the president's personal lawyer to work for us as a, some sort of a, you know, i don't know what you call him. neil: by the way, is that illegal? i'm not a lawyer. >> i don't think so. but as long as he's not directory lobbying -- directly lobbying, we are hiring the president's personal lawyer as someone to give us insight into the administration. did randall stephenson disclose it then? did he disclose it when mueller first said, hey, we're looking at this relationship and we want

documents from now? or did he disclose it last week when stormy daniels' lawyer first disclosed all this stuff because he was investigating michael cohen's consulting firm -- neil: who reached out to whom? did cohen reach out, i'm close to the president? i don't know. >> that's a good question. he has reached out to certain people -- neil: yeah. >> okay? i'm not sure what happened with at&t. listen, it may be completely normal to hire michael cohen because he knows the president pretty well. but remember, you're not just hiring some guy that knows the president, you are hiring the president's personal lawyer. and when i asked at&t these questions like when it was disclosed -- neil: right. >> -- they refused to answer. and it makes me think, and i've heard this -- you know, i did a story last week saying randall stephenson's got some issues with his board on a lot of corporate matters. and this kind of fed that fire. neil: the argument for hooking up with him in the first place to grease the skids for this

time warner dealsome. >> you know, i don't know what it was. i mean, you would think that was the argument because michael cohen, listen -- neil: because by this time, he's president. not prior. >> he's president, and it's clear they wanted insight into the president's thinking. but the president's thinking on at&t is barely formulated. he hates cnn -- neil: right. he doesn't like cnn? >> you don't like 'em either. cnn was part of time warner. he's got a justice department that, you know, put themselves into contortions to figure out -- neil: right. >> -- an antitrust rationale to deny this merger. you don't need to hire -- neil: yeah. >> -- michael cohen to explain that. you would think you need to hire him to maybe get it done. neil: don't know. real quickly, any updates on the whole viacom, cbs thing? >> no, other than to say that, you know, when i talked to moonves' people, they're, like, bring it on. he doesn't care. fire him. you want to go there? go there. neil: because you get a great

parting gift. >> a great parting gift, and they really think he's got a good case that this deal based on the price they want him to buy this -- remember, again, the redstones' control through viacom and cbs, they're not the majority shareholders. he's got a my futurity -- fiduciary responsibility to everybody. neil: thank you, everybody. charlie break news left and right. in the meantime, seattle is voting on a very controversial tax on large businesses, says they should pay up to help fight homelessness. hillary vaughn has the latest from seattle. hey, hillary. >> reporter: hey, neil. well, the seattle city council is voting today on the head tax. that would force companies that make over $20 million a year to fork over $500 per employee on the payroll. the mayor has promised to veto the plan as is, but the city council only needs six votes to override that. and on friday they had five votes supporting this $500 plan.

so all eyes on the city council vote just hours from now at 2 p.m. local time. the whole idea behind this proposal is to help the homeless, but it could be leaving 7,000 people waiting for work, because amazon is putting its massive construction projects on hold until the seattle city council gives their final vote afternoon. the mayor has pushed for a leaner version of the tax that would cut the $500 per worker down to $250, but city council wasn't ready to go for that just yet. 100 of the 600 big companies expected to be hit by this wrote a letter including or starbucks, expedia, alaska airlines saying this punishes employers, prevents them from -- or hurts them from hiring more people because the more people you hire, the more people you have to pay per held. so we'll have to see how things shake out later this afternoon at 2 p.m. but we're expecting to see them either override the veto from the mayor or pass a different

plan altogether. neil? neil: you're amazingly composed, hillary. what is going on behind you? [laughter] what's happening there? >> reporter: so there are a lot of tourists here. this is the skyline view that everyone wants. neil: right. >> reporter: we want and the tourists want as well. [laughter] neil: i thought it was, hey, it's hillary vaughn. thank you very much. great report. [laughter] great calm. very focused. all right. remember that feud between two congressmen that got very, very nasty? and you've seen these clips again and again. enter alveda king to say, you know, this has got to stop, both of you have got to stop. how she plans to pursue that, after this. ♪ ♪ alerts -- wouldn't you like one from the market when it might be time to buy or sell? with fidelity's real-time analytics, you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity.

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♪ ♪ >> we are trying to make sure that we're making america great, and the best way to do that is to stop talking about discrimination and start talking about the nation. >> don't you dare talk to me

like that -- >> [inaudible] >> i do not yield, not one second to you. >> what i expected. >> to say that somehow what we do is we prey on nonhadnon-white people is increasingly divisive. this cancer that's working its way through this society and breaking us down as a people, it's absolutely -- you can't talk that way. and if words do matter and they truly do matter, what are we doing to ourselves and to our country? neil: and back and forth, it went. congressman mike kelly and representative maxine waters had a heated exchange on the house floor and all over perceived racism when it came to auto lending. the niece of dr. martin luther king jr., dr. alveda king, to respond to all of that. you've seen these types of arguments ensue on both sides in the past dating back to your father's time and your uncle's time, and it continues. but the racial term, the fact

that someone can be questioning legislation not on a racial ground, but on a merit ground -- i think that was congressman kelly's point of view, congressman waters not making anything of it. what do you makeover it? >> thanks for this opportunity. it's such a key point right now at this point in history. congressman waters is on the wrong frequency, the skin color thing, trying to equate a person's skin color to their race, so to speak. and congressman kelly is actually right when he's saying, look, the nation needs help. the nation is in trouble. here you are playing the race card again, and, you know, my uncle, martin luther king jr -- since you mentioned him, neil -- he said we must learn together as brothers, and i'll add as sisters, or perish together as fools. the only way we're going to do that is get past that skin color argument. you know, our blood is red. we're made of one blood. god made all people to live together on the face of the

earth. and instead of calling us to get along as brothers and sisters, congressman waters is honestly playing the race card again. low frequency, ma'am, low frequency. skin color does not the person make. it's just part of the human composition. she knows that. so in order for us to come together, and we can't be color blind either because we're created in living color. the color does not make our race. we are one human race. congressman waters knows that, but here she is with the race card. now, i have had some people say to me of various skin hues, when i was in washington, d.c., they'd say this administration is doing a good job, i can get a mortgage now. my mother can move in with me. more people are working across the board regardless of skin color. the job market is up, the unemployment rate is down, and then congressman waters probably screaming and hollering about the welfare issue too. but now americans are getting opportunities to go back to

work, to still get assistance but to participate in the community without having to commit crimes and do that kind of thing, without dropping out of school so much. she knows this, so she's playing the race card. she does it well, you have to admit that, but she's playing the card. neil: some of her critics have said she's playing a decades-old, you know, game here where minorities were disproportionately targeted for higher paying loans, and their credit records were pursue ised as i such, more aggressively -- >> my daddy and my uncle broke up the red hineing thing in the -- red lining thing in the 1960s. that's -- [inaudible conversations] neil: i understand, alveda, but she says it's still happening. and just to give benefit to her, i'm just -- >> it's getting better, and she needs to help it get better. neil: okay. so she's saying she wants to keep stiff language in these

auto loan deals that make sure it doesn't happen. now, i always argue that auto dealers are color blind outside of one color, green. they like to see money, and they don't care -- [laughter] they really do -- >> well, color blind, you can see green money, yeah. neil: so she is saying we ought to write this in the deals and the language and the laws as such that they're never tempted to give you a different loan rate than they would give me. what do you say to that? >> well, i agree with the red lining, it can still lurk. zip codes, social security numbers, that kind of thing. somebody comes into your shop with the wrong color skin, and you're tempted to give them a higher rate. that is wrong and it's still happening. but we can educate our borrowers, our lenders, we can educate folks. but it's the hostility, it's the ugliness, the vitriol that i don't agree with. you know, leave some of the language in the law or not, but stop dividing the country with the race card. that's my problem. neil: yeah. what do you think of the fact

that republicans always try the make the argument, you know, as the president said black unemployment the lowest it's ever been, minority unemployment at or near the lowest it's ever been, unemployment for women at or near the lowest it's ever been, but they cannot get this out because they're always portrayed the same way? what do you think? >> the same thing happens, there's not enough reporting on what is happening in the communities with women, even the s.t.e.m. grants we talked about on one of your shows when we talked the other time. the grants for women in science, all that kind of thing. opportunities for people to get back to school, get new education and new trade and new technology and etc. all of that is going on. and if the congresswoman would take her time and beef up those efforts and those opportunities, then we could even see more progress. but there is progress being made. i'm telling you, i've got people who are telling me that their non-government paychecks, you

know, from the private sector are going up. so when the tax cuts happened, then the people who employ folks are giving bonuses and opportunities and opportunities to be retrained and all of that. that is actually happening. the congresswoman knows this. i believe she should brick us together -- bring us together rather than trying to divide with the race card because we're not color blind. we live in living color, and we're one race, one red-blooded race. neil: you know, doctor, every time i have you on, i always wonder about how your family reunions go. [laughter] throwing food at each other? >> i told you one year i said i'm not taking the turkey leg and beating them over the head because we voted for different people. we don't fight, we actually get along, and we do things together, and we are having some efforts -- most of my family doesn't always agree with everything that president trump is doing. neither do i, actually, everything, but he's my friend. i voted for im. neil: fair point. >> we decided not to argue, but we decided not to divide, but come together with love.

neil: not a bad idea. alveda, good luck coming out of your shell, it seems to be working. >> thank you so much. neil: best of best. we'll have more right after this. nah. not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets

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♪ ♪ >> you like the show, right, mom? >> i do, except for all the political stuff. [laughter] we get it. >> all right.

thank you very much is. >> mortgages i love you because you always -- mom, you always give me the best advice. >> thanks, luke. here's more, enough with the trump jokes. >> i don't understand why everyone focuses on trump at all when you should be focused on jesus. >> okay. [laughter] well, jesus isn't president, mom. >> and that's the problem. >> okay, come on. neil: unusual stuff for snl, maybe a reversal on the trump jokes, maybe what happens beginning with rose and and some of these other things, a sign that, maybe, just maybe, the tide could be turning. i think my colleague and friend kennedy is saying don't bet on it. good to see you. >> neil, it's always good to see you. me neil what do you think of all this? >> the president's approval ratings are going up, and he's getting high mark bees on the north korea stuff. and finding twitter issues and, you know, some of the stuff that he says that has been fodder and the dog whistle, because it works both ways. he can say something that is taken as so offensive and bastardizing protocol that the

press gets outraged about that, or he can misdirect using twitter talking about something so egregious that the press follows that which is their most lazy instinct. and it seems like the president has kind of been calming down maybe because he's been actually busy with stuff. and, you know, when you've got north korea, the embassy relocating to jerusalem, not to mention the primaries that just took place hopefully wrapping up the mueller investigation, the president is quite engaged. i mean, there's always time for an impulsive sunday morning twitter flourish, don't get me wrong about that. neil: right. >> but the point is, it's not making the kind of purchase it did six months ago or a year ago. neil: those, you know, jimmy kimmel gets great ratings, and stephen colbert. now, kimmel was among those to say, well, you know, maybe, maybe people are getting tired of some of these political jokes. 9 separately, jerry seinfeld saying he excuses them entirely. what do you think? >> here's the interesting thing about jerry seinfeld, and i think he's coming from a place

that's interesting, he also doesn't like going to college campuses because it's group think, you can't say certain things without being completely maligned. and what's happened with a lot of comedians and trump is so much of it becomes hackey and predictable, it's the same joke, essentially, over and over and over again. and if you're not telling it in new and creative ways, then it gets really boring, and it sort of wears on your audience. and i think that there is this fatigue to the comedic resistance, which is fine, because comics work best when they are attacking everyone -- neil: don't comics like it when the target is so serious and thin-skinned? >> there's a part of that that the president has provided -- neil: so he shouldn't respond, right? >> well, i mean, obviously he shouldn't respond to everything. he didn't respond to eminem, and the funniest thing about that was, you know, eminem has always been known for his social commentary which he couldn't get the president to respond to him.

neil: by the way, you're not referring to the chocolate candy -- >> which are delicious -- [laughter] neil: you're talking about the rapper, eminem. >> yes, the detroit rapper. neil: understood. i think a lot of these guys who have enjoyed a great rate surge must be looking over and saying, well, tim allen's show is back on the air, so maybe that's a sign that conservative comediennes aren't, you know, an anathema -- >> patricia hereton has been on the air the -- hereton has been on the air the entire time. and they feel like washington has not represented them whether, you know, it has to do with their family or their faith or, certainly, their own economy, washington has disregarded that in order to fund their own stupid whims. neil: you know what i love about you? you can be funny, and you don't care. people will say it doesn't

really register with you. me, i remember slights from 40 years ago. [laughter] >> i love you have a grudge list in one of those -- neil: i do. and i get a lot of very nasty comments, and they hurt my feelings because they refer to my weight. >> i think you look great. neil: thank you, so do you. so here's what i have to ask you. there's this back and forth from what happened at a white house meeting with his communications, you know, the director or official was saying disparaging things about john mccain and talking about the cia director, whether she would get approved and then the remarks -- well, you know. >> yeah. neil: the dust-up tended to be over not so much the remarks in there, but that they got out, were leaked. >> yeah. neil: what do you think? >> i think the white house has always been leaky. i think it shows there are still factions and, you know, you have to operate as though you are always being monitored, and you are always in public even if you are in a private meeting. neil: but is it any different when it comes out that this happened, or is it a big deal

like i had mick mulvaney, budget director, telling me, look, it was really disgusting what she said. >> and i understand she's upset it felt like a private meeting, but if there's more than two people, it's not a private meeting, and when you're discussing the -- neil: but that's when the onus is on should she quit, be fired? >> well, the white house has to look internally at who was there and how do they benefit from leaking this information. someone like kelly sadler has to hook at what she's doing. and believe me, we've all had these embarrassing moments where we've said something that we think is funny and is just between a couple of people -- neil: i've heard things you've said about me. >> that is untrue. neil: well, charlie gasparino said -- >> he's looking for a good smack to the table, and not from me. which is weird. neil: you are to be trusted. >> thank you, neil. neil: kennedy, you're the best. great sense of humor, very, very funny. says awful things in private. we'll have more after this. >> that is true.

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since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets. okay. i'm plugged into equities - trade confirmed - and i have global access 24/7. meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. visit learnfuturestoday.com to see what adding futures can do for you. neil: all right. commerce secretary wilbur ross, speaking at national press club. this issue of chinese demands back and forth, how they are all going. says he is hopeful u.s. and china can make a fair deal on trade. the department's that zte is enforcement action. they will prompt remedies for the zte's actions to, satisfy

all parties. trish regan on all of this. trish: thanks very much, neil. let's go to live picture. in turkey thousands are protesting ahead of the opening of the u.s. embassy in jerusalem. president promised he would do it. indeed today he did. similar news all across europe. we'll have more on protests straight ahead. market up 76, still firmly in positive territory. welcome to "the intelligence report" on this historic day. ♪ 70th birthday of israel, it truly is