liz: i do too. focus on retirement savings, to keep people safe in retirement. stuart: your show "the evening edit." kevin brady will be there. neil cavuto. it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very, very much. we're keeping an eye on the meeting the president is having with the meeting with uzbekistan. the uzbekistan any president is coming under fire taking credentials from journalist and cutting down on press freedoms. what he joked in the past, talking about taking credentials away from journalists. two the are kindred spirits about overzealous. that he is concerned about crackdowns in uzbekistan are a very big concern. they have one of these things called pool sprays from a meeting. once that ensueses we'll share that with you.

this could be tense back and forth. speaking of tense back and forths here roywe've seen the north koreans calling the united states names right now. what the posture will be going into the big summit next month that we're sounding more sinister, even saving special word for national security advisor john bolton. as the north koreans said we did not agree to denuclearize, nor have you the united states the done much to advance the cause of offering ideas on your own front. whether that means the meet something jeopardize, the administration is saying it is going along with plans that the pow-wow in singapore is still on but it has a lot of people wonder what is going on here. blake burman with the latest from the white house. hey, blake. reporter: i'm informed that when the president was informed of the north korean reaction yesterday he took a muted position. what might come in the upcoming weeks and months, we'll see what

happens. even though he has taken a more optimistic approach in the recent weeks i'm told when the president was informed of this yesterday. it was along the lines of his pass stance, well, we'll see what happens going forward. here at the white house though there is cautious optimism, despite the new stance from north korea. here is the press secretary sarah sanders earlier this morning. >> this is something that we fullyied expected. the president is ready for tough negotiations. if they will be ready we're expecting that too. >> when you say this was fully expected. did you believe they would sort of pull back at some point? >> we know this is kind of i guess a standard function that can often happen. you know, we're not surprised by it but we'll continue moving forward. reporter: part of north korea's objections due to comments by national security advisor john bolton which he said couple weekends on the sunday morning

shows he would like to see a libya model for north korea denuclearizing. when that happened with libya back in 2003, the united states was allowed to verify that process. here is what john bolton said at the end of last month on "fox news sunday." >> therefore the full, complete, total disclosure of everything related to their nuclear weapons program with full international verification and i think following libya, verification by american and other inspectors is, could be very important here. reporter: neil, you see my colleagues walking in after this pool spray you were talking about. the president meeting with the president of uzbekistan. the tape should play out at any moment now behind the cameras. i was just told from one of my producers the president was asked about north korea and he said, we'll see what happens. i guess we will all see what happens from the president's comments here, in just a matter of minutes. is a live look behind the scenes

here at white house, neil. neil: thank you my friend, very, very much. to his point here, former bush 43 assistant defense secretary peter brookes. are the north koreans getting cold feet, peter? what do you think? >> no. i think this is part of their negotiating posture. in a certain way it is let the negotiating games begin. they're getting close, 30 days from this, they're looking for concessions to soften up the american side. they have given out, a lot of gestures of goodwill, stopping testing, closing the nuclear site, returning american hostages. they're looking to soften us up, get us ready, there will be a lot more behind the scenes negotiating going on between the united states and north korea before the summit takes place. neil: i read from the dictator himself he doesn't want to become another qaddafi. that example came up again. extracted concessions out of the former libyan strong man, only

he ended up getting killed by his own people. this guy has a knack for wanting to hang on to power. he sees that, says i don't want to do that. >> well that is a tough, prior to this, neil, the north koreans have talked about libya and iraq for reasons not giving up nuclear weapons. when you talk about libya, iraq. it gave up nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons are essential to north korea's review. they written to the constitution they are a nuclear power. we're seeing some gaps in the charm offensive. that doesn't mean it will come back around. there is some value being unpredictable in international negotiations. they probably didn't want the americans to feel like you got this all wrapped up. if will be done june 12th in

singapore and we'll give up our nuclear weapons. they're saying we want some sort of concessions from you as well. you better start thinking about it. neil: the latest dust-up, was armed military exercises with the south koreans. we never changed that. never altered that. i'm told we're talking about changing the scale of those joint exercises but they fully knew that. >> but also, neil, they recently said kim had said himself he understood the need for military exercises. so this is something new. so they're changing the game here. they're changing, changing the things they had spoken about previously. so it is not quite clear. are they going to come around and say u.s. forces need to leave the peninsula? even though they hinted in the past that wouldn't be necessary. maybe they will ask for us to denuclearize to certain extent or even completely. they will start staking out their negotiating positions. they may be a lot more extreme than we've seen recently.

i'm not saying they are going to be. that is certainly a possibility of the as you and i discussed this in the past. we need to be ready for these heavy lifts. there will be a lot of challenges -- neil: when you talk about these heavy lifts to me they're returning to old language. referring to the sinister u.s., won't tell us what to do or give up our nukes, referring to john bolton. i don't know what the korean word is for fool but i think they called him a fool. this is back to language of a few months ago. in the interim we've seen nothing of that sort. it all seems to weird for words. >> yeah, no, it is understandable. we want predictability. everybody does. when you talk to markets or international affairs. neil: we don't get that out of our own president. it might be wise strategy, to keep them guessing. >> part of their strategy. neil: but we didn't expect that out of the north koreans, right? >> i feel like this is, they're going to back to where they were before but they came come back

to the charm offensive. there is value to being unpredictable in negotiations and the north koreans are playing that game right now, i think. neil: i respect your opinion mightily, peter. let's hope you're right, this is all a little bit of subterfuge but it is confusing. peter brookes. meanwhile we have a lot going on in the markets. they're not really worried about this. what was odd when we got the announcement from the north koreans, maybe we won't meet with the south, maybe we won't denuclearize, if it was supposed to unnerve the markets it didn't. more potentially unnerving for the markets is the rise in rates and more specifically narrowing between things like two-year note, 10-year note. those are longer term concerns. despite the fact that could presage a slowdown or gets really bad at recession, scott martin isn't too worried about it either. he is a stock market watcher extraordinaire. this narrowing yield curve, the fact it is flattening fast. what do you make of it?

>> typically neil, recession predictor that is. that is a little bit worrisome. it shows longer term, maybe growth will not be as good as we thought. inflation will not come back as strong, which is significantfying a strong economy. you're right, the point about north korea is interesting. say june 12th doesn't happen. you will see a boon to the bond market. seen u.s. treasurys a safe haven. prices would rally and would come down. neil: safe haven in scarier world which typically would happen? >> look back to the china trade talks and noko was acting up at points last year, u.s. investor run to the treasury bond for these same instruments. you will see that again if these negotiations fall apart. neil: i look at anecdotal evidence that the rates are backing up, that the economy is perking up here. we see more and more indications of real statistical data, up 21%

over last quarter of last year. could continue to accelerate. these are off the chart capital spending reports we're getting out of all sorts of companies. record number of americans traveling memorial weekend. book flight, then some. book resorts over the summer and then some. putting all that together. i'm wondering if the underpinning for all of this worrisome backup in rates is not so worrying, or at least too worrisome pickup in economic activity? >> i think it definitely is. there is another factor at least the federal reserve due for two rate hikes, maybe three depending how the data comes in. that is another thing, neil. the bond market doesn't always stamp with the fed. it is getting ahead of the federal reserve maybe it will vindicate what the bond market is already telling us that the fed will continue to move higher on short-term interest rates. neil: you mentioned back at the

beginning here, we're getting a pool spray from the white house shortly with the president meeting with his counterpart from uzbekistan, if this thing fell apart there is no meeting. the president fell apart, many times. i don't think people envision north koreans going away. if it falls apart, is it a market story, or all the attention more excitement tore something seemed very unlikely anyway? >> i think it's a market story to how it pertains to other deals working on. nafta, all kind of things out there, basically pertinent to what happens with north korea. if this falls apart, you have to question some other items on the trump agenda, which could affect market especially when it comes to trade. neil: you mentioned trade. back and forth the president is doing what he can to support zte corporation, this company has been involved with stealing secrets and espionage, you name it, but he wants to help that

company, some say as quid pro quo with the chinese helping us on trade but it's worrying a lot of folks. is it worrying you? >> not too much. you know i think this is more of a bargaining chip this was an effort to get china to the table realize we're willing to work deals. i talked about this on monday, how zte, this would eventually be good for america whether it went through or not. i got ripped apart on twitter for it. neil: that was just from me. was just from me. >> all your guys. goes to show you with china we have to play ball. we have to realize hold a lot of cards in tariffs and trade deal and tariffs talks. there has to be concessions on both sides. neil: here is what is freaky about the zte thing. the chinese apparently pushed it. the chinese know full well zte is great purveyor of getting hands on secrets shuttled back to the chinese. weird. >> yeah, very much so. i mean that has been one of the

complaints of all of our tech companies here. a lot of that data, that information, that ip gets stolen and repurposed. neil: we shouldn't help them or using it in as a chip in any bargaining, right? >> i say we haven't helped them yet. that was effort for president trump to get president xi to the table. we're willing to work on a lot of things. maybe not zte though. neil: the president as i said moments ago with the uzbekistan president. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. everybody. [shouting questions] >> we have to see. -- [inaudible]. we have to see. [shouting questions] >> we haven't seen anything. we haven't heard anything. we will see what happens. [shouting questions]

>> every one please. [inaudible] >> uzbeks all around the world as as well. >> we'll see what happens. [shouting questions] >> get out right now. thank you. >> time to go. please go. >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you very much. neil: did you hear any of that? all right. maybe that is what gives people sort of this dim view of the press. we'll talk over one another. but again, the president with president of uzbekistan, what came up in this about north korea and whether they're getting cold feet or changing their minds or negotiating positions of the president simply saying we'll see what happens. by the way, we are hearing floated around right now two additional names to take over

the va. they're both retired generals. ronnie hawkins and michael farador. half dozen key candidates being considered now to take the place of david shulkin, the man who used to run the va they had those charges was living grand on public salary. gave the money back. nonetheless he was forced out. ronnie jackson, white house physician was named and he backed out of the deal. when you look what is going on in the va, scott davis, well-known list sill blower says things are worse than ever. a lot of issues, waiting sometimes, whether veterans getting adequate care. things are worse. for those that like to get the word out, things are much, much worse. exclusive with scott davis, the va whistle-blower with changes that are not coming let alone coming fast. after this.

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neil: all right. if the argument is that the key to victory in the republican party aligning itself with donald trump it worked again in pennsylvania and nebraska where trump-backed candidates or at least trump pro-candidates picked up w in respective primaries. keep that in mind that is not a slam dunk in states like

pennsylvania where they redistricted entire keystone state. that on paper could favor, what used to be red solid republican districts, at least three of which could go solidly democrat. that is three easy pickups right there. that is kind of wind a lot of republicans are facing in just one key state. let's get the read from former bush 43 writer ned ryan, the federalist staff writer, bre payton and democratic strategist, andrew feldman. andrew, begin with you, end with you. democrats look at what is going on in pennsylvania as easy pickups that favor your party, your party. whether you need 23 seats to gain control of united states of house of representatives. what is your thought on just that? >> look, pennsylvania is critical. it is going to be critical to pick up the house. i don't want us to take anything for granted. we need to keep running our races. very good night in pennsylvania for democrats last night. six women won their primaries.

that is really good sign going into november. there is a strong wave of not only men running for office but women running for office. i think that is going to be a great contrast to what the republicans have to offer. i think what we're seeing here, we're going to run each race based on what matters in that local district, like we saw in pennsylvania earlier this year. i think that is going to have, pay big dividends in the pennsylvania and across the country for us coming november. neil: all right. memory serves me right, republicans are running some women as well. i understand what you're saying. bre, i'm looking at republican candidates that succeeded last two weeks. they were either backed by donald trump or were saying they were the strongest of the pro-trump candidates. they all had big victories. now of course that helped with their funding but i'm wondering what it portend going forward? >> i think it says a lot about the state of the republican party.

i think donald trump's rising approval ratings isn't necessarily something that is attached to the republican party itself. you know i think that republican voters, i think conservatives care about things that republicans have demonstrated time and time again they do not care about. they don't care about fiscal responsibility. they don't care about cutting spending. they haven't defunded planned parenthood and obamacare is law of the the land. donald trump is serious making good on promises. he is not making steps to suck up to leadership to do like all the other republicans right now. as a voter i think they're looking at donald trump making good on promises. they will be looking at republicans who model themselves after donald trump, as someone who might actually make good on their word, might do what they say they're going to do. neil: all right. as you were speaking showing latest "real clear politics" average of polls. that is why we use the real clear one, average of polls make up for those that have president

lower, polls like rasmussen have him at 50%. this averages all of them out. we play no favorites. we average them all out. the trend is the president's friend. ned, how long do you see it continuing? it is no accident that pickup in his number, chances in the republican in the senate widening numbers improved as prospects in the house. what do you think? >> no, i totally agree. i would encourage to look at state level polls in some key senate races and look at trumps approval numbers in montana, west begin, i can't north dakota. he is around or above 60% in those key senate race states. i actually like republicans chances to gain seats in the senate this fall. i got to tell you, looking at this congressional generic ballot coming into this year, democrats were up 12 to 15 points. now they're up only five points in "real clear politics" average. some of those are up a point, three points. if you go back look at may of

2014, neil, pretty interesting to look at numbers, democrats were up one to four points spring of 2014. guess what they ended up losing 13 seats in the fall. i'm not saying dynamics of 2014 and 2018 is the same. it is a guide mark to say blue wave people are talking about going to happen, i'm not convinced at all. in fact i looked at numbers from last week's primaries in west virginia, ohio, north carolina, across the board in those four states republican turnout was up 48% up over 2014 numbers. you're seeing numbers, poll numbers going up for trump enthusiasm gape is narrowing. the republican base is waking up to engage on midterms. we'll watch it closely, guys. thank you all very much. we're following a number of big developments, what if anything comes out of the meeting president is having with the leader of uzbekistan. there could be a follow-up on that. this was supposed to be a potentially a tense affair where admonitions from the white house to tell the uzbekistan leader to

cool it on some human rights abuses been alleged and its crackdown on the press was a little extreme. this is coming from a president critical of the american press but have to be fairly big deal for the white house to target another leader for getting too, too rough on the press here but they have. so we hope to hear more on that. also when we were talking about polls show improving numbers not only for republicans but for the president, take a wild guess what is the most loyal group to this president? in fact it has been in lockstep with this president? nine out of 10 from this group have strong favorable opinions of the president. i'm talking about veterans. nine out of 10. love him. that could be tested with reports now out of the va that service and care for our veterans has not marginally improved. in fact it is not improved much at all. the read from a former whistle-blower what is going on coming up in the next hour. you are staying and i hope for

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neil: all right. i didn't know what was weirder, when amazon bought whole foods or now the next step in that process, the evolution in that, big discounts for prime customers. at said whole foods. deirdre bolton, a frequent whole foods customer. >> i'm here with my asparagus water, neil. neil: alfalfa sprouts. you're not alone. >> that was august 2017. there were a lot of people saying why is amazon buying whole foods for $14 billion? we have the reason. we've seen that stock climb, just in the past 52 weeks. more than something like 60%. we'll show you some charts in a minute. this is the intraday look at amazon. what is happening today, if you live in florida and if you are a shopper at whole foods, you are

participating, you have the opportunity to participate in a live experiment. so if you are an amazon prime member, you can go to whole foods today, if you live in florida, and get a 10% discount on a lot of goods. i'm going to show you later all the things that your money can buy. the idea here, neil, there are analysts who are saying you know what? maybe the amazon prime membership has become a little saturated. we saw the company raise the price from $100 a year to $120 a year. morgan stanley particularly putting out a note earlier, you know what, if you get discounts on some of the things in your grocery bin, that actually may make you feel better about spend $120 a year for amazon prime membership. prior to this it was 100. amazon only changed that amount one other time in history when it went from 80 to 100. as we know, they have 100 million prime members globally. but again some analysts saying,

you know what? amazon wants to get 40% of people who shop at whole foods who are not yet amazon prime members. so they're in a conversion trade. take a look though at what has happened to the grocery sector in the past 52 weeks. you can see it really hit more local chains. if you like crowingers, you can see down. walmart, costco holding their own. 64% in the past 52 weeks alone. more than exceeding the s&p 500. walmart exactly not taking all of these things lying down. walmart tried to improve its app. it will get you groceries if you order online in two hours. they're trying. instacart has 120 retail partners. so you can go online, order through instacart. all of these retailers actually will get groceries to your door within a four hour period. that is walmart year-to-date. we'll see kel through some of these. show you what the viewers can

get in florida today. there is halibut. there is fruit. there are strawberries. i tried to go into couple different categories. there is water and granola. the bottom line, neil, amazon wants to keep growing that prime base, guess what who pays $120 a year for prime membership, they spend more. not mysterious but amazon wants more of them. back to you. neil: so you can get two big granola bags. are you kidding me? thank you very, very much. >> you look like granola. neil: holy toledo. the senate is voting to begin debate on a resolution expected to go nowhere to reverse the fcc's net neutrality rule. kristina partsinevelos has the story. >> politically you have democrats trying essentially say no, the trump administration shouldn't loosen any obama type regulations. policywise, should the

government be regulating the internet. that is the big conversation here. they will vote in the senate at 3:00 p.m. eastern time and right now they do have 49 votes plus one republican. that would be susan collins of maine. they don't need 51 votes. they only need 50 because john mccain won't be able to vote. passing through the senate most likely but will it continue on to the house? the answer most likely no. the house expressed they're not interested in net neutrality rules. why even bother? why would the democrats bother right now? midterm elections. they want to show they do believe, they're fighting for net neutrality. they want equal opportunity for all. big tech companies support this decision. let's talk about the basics right now. forget politics for a moment. why would you be against net neutrality? first of all the arguments are that the government shouldn't micromanage the internet. they shouldn't be involved with

regulations. they also believe broadband companies and internet service providers like at&t, verizon would invest more trying to improve the bandwidth we all have. it is actually a benefit for all of us. lastly a company like netflix that accounts for 30% of the bandwidth. why not charge netflix more so they use more of the bandwidth out there? talk about for net neutrality. a lot of people say it is not fair. you need to have the same, all online traffic needs to be treated the same. if you, if a certain company or consumer can't afford a more expensive service to get fast, essentially called fast lanes, but to get, visit a website much quicker, it is not fair if we have to pay more. also too, some of these isp providers, at&t, being example, they are pushing their own content, like directv. you don't have to pay more for directv, but if you watch a lot of netflix or hulu, that will eat away at your data. want to end on one last stat,

yes a lot of people have been very vocal about the net neutrality. some don't even understand what it is. john oliver, who is comedian, late-night comedian, told people to comment on the fcc website. 22 million people commented against net neutrality. crashed the website. they haven't received that many comments since 2004 when janet jackson had a wardrobe malfunction. neil: i remember is what they called it. thank you very much, my friend. meantime we're watching other developments in the back and forth battle between cbs and the redstones. charlie gasparino has more on that. where is this headed? >> to court today, 2:00 p.m., delaware chancery court, the court, basically the preeminent business court. most businesses are located there to be before this court. neil: right. >> there is a benefit to it. it is a very business-friendly court. you escape some broader regulations than if you incorporate in new york state for example.

so they're going to hear both sides of the argument. moonves, cbs, redstone, for national, national entertainment. national amusements. it is so fascinating, i can't imagine redstone losing and moonves winning. not saying it is not going to happen. neil: why is that? >> if that happens, if cbs is allowed to take control from a controlling shareholder of cbs, if the board members can do that, it will, it will put in jeopardy all these dual class stock structures, including ours. you know, and, let's draw out this comparison. say the delaware chancery court, for benefit of shareholders a separate company controlled by another company, a holding company can basically take it away and dilute their shares. that is what they want to do. there will be a another board vote to dilute their shares, go

ahead, do it, it is all legal. suppose we want to sell entertainment assets to disney. we have a different structure. suppose an activist buy as chunk of our common stock, no, no. we don't like the deal. we like the deal comcast has. they are paying all cash. that puts our disney deal in jeopardy. tough look as this as precedent-setting move. i just wonder if the delaware chancery court wants to go that far out on a limb be. neil: shari, through her father sumner control majority of the shares? >> yes. they control the voting shares through a holding company known as national amusements, which includes viacom and cbs. she was prodding les moonves to buy viacom. he didn't really want to buy it. what he did, prehe will tiffly, they were negotiating, we don't like shari redstone. we don't think she is capable.

we think she is forcing on us a bad deal. neil: that she wouldn't aggressively pursue this, raising hackles it would die on the vine? >> no. she pursued it. her point i hired an independent board to see what is best for the counsel that independent counsel, believes, it is not me, that counsel believes they should buy assets and buy viacom and merge the two companies. here is the thing. i think the way les moonves looks at it. they had a chance to postpone everything, stop it cold. he said no. i lose nothing, if i get fired, fail, i walk out with $200 million and a lot more perks. and i become a shareholder activist legend. if i win, guess what? i could probably sell this company -- neil: he is in win-win situation? >> he is. neil: thank you very much. one. promises that a whistle-blower at the va says the president has not kept. it is not his fault but what is happening at the va continues.

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my heart is worth brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. neil: things are looking better for gina haspel, she cleared a senate vote, 10-5. five democrats supported her. senator rand paul still has concerns about haspel particularly her relationship with john brennan who is no big fan of the president. i did catch your letter to miss haspel, to find out how she stands on couple key issues most people think this has to do with torture. your letter addresses far bigger

issues. could you explain? >> i'm concerned, there are reports that john brennan, the former head of the c cia under president obama he was cooperating with british intelligence to spy on trump campaign. some say incidentally collected. it is still a big deal. we know john brennan since he left government has become a partisan against the president in defamatory firms. i'm concerned about gina haspel being a close acolyte of john brennan. neil: larry phieffer does not have concerns, and former chief of staff and hayden center director of intelligence. sir, thanks for having you. thank you for your time. >> thank you, neil. neil: a lot of people wonder who are you loyal to, who do you like, did you have any doubts about donald trump when he was a candidate and we're led to believe many back during the day when the president was that candidate didn't think too highly of him, mr. brennan

included. does it matter whether gina haspel at the time shared the same anxieties? >> when it comes to loyalty, neil, and gina, 33 year veteran of the cia they're loyal to the constitution. they're there to protection the nation and defend the constitution. their loyalties are not to people. not to individuals, they're to the institution and to the constitution. neil: i certainly hope you're right, brian. i trust in most cases are true. some. revelations i get back from mr. brennan and others, you know that in, in their day, and in power they harbored these views. i wonder whether that kind of thing affects your job and what you do on the job? >> well, you know, we serve in presidential administrations. every administration will come with its own particular agenda. neil: right. >> and that's fine. the american people vote for those agendas, that is what they want.

and that's great. the job of the intelligence community to inform the agenda, set boundaries for agenda. cia and gina representing those people, continue to take on the role and sit with the president and other leaders of the nation and explain the cold, hard reality of particular area they're discussing. i would not worry. i think gina will be fantastic doing that job. she is advocate of truth to power. she believes in it wholeheartedly. i think that is what we can expect from her. neil: i trust your instincts. far better than mine on this stuff. what was a bigger part of senator paul's letter to miss haspel, more to the point. neil: her views of getting information from americans spying, americans eaves

dropping, all of that stuff. he is big privacy advocate libertarian. go slow, i don't care whether other on the right or left, like the president, dislike the president and he is not so sure where she stands on this he is very concerned about aggressive nature of cia intelligence gathering. should he be? >> no, i don't think the senator needs to worry. we're grateful for people like senator rand paul who make sure we assiduously follow the rules set by congress, that are set by the president. we do not target americans. we, yes, we tend incidentally to pick up americans in communications when they are speaking with or communicating with those people that we are targeting but rest assured the intelligence community has plenty to do without wasting time chasing down americans as targets. neil: all right. larry phieffer, thank you for taking the time. i appreciate night thank you

very much, neil. neil: what if you're a whistle-blower, see bad stuff going on at your company, in this case the veterans administration and no one responds? they ignore your whistle? meet the guy who says they ignored my whistle and he is blowing a stack right now with us, and only us. ♪ and market volatility isn't top of mind. that's because they have a shield annuity from brighthouse financial, which allows them to take advantage of growth opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. so they're less concerned with market volatility and can focus more on the things they're passionate about. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife.

neil: all right. the president has been hitting a lot of the media response to reports that he is looking at trying to help zte, the chinese telecommunications concerns, brought up on charges of espionage stealing from us, but the president insisting a part of a broader effort to secure a trade deal where the chinese would do a lot of things for us, a quid pro quo where the one hands washes other. jody hice is with us. very good to have you. >> always great to be with you. neil: it sounds odds helping out zte with anything when this is a company that was doing a whole lot of nasty things and we're saving their bacon. what do you think of that? >> i think now it is way too early to make any judgment call. there have been no deals. there have been no meetings.

it is all a matter positives turing at this point. there is a ton of moving parts involved with any trade deal. >> i understand that. i understand that sir, but if one of the moving parts is helping zte, on any level, do you find that obnoxious? >> owe, absolutely. we all know zte is involved in spying, espionage against the united states. listen as a member of the house armed services committee, we're very, very strong on that, the ndaa it is dealt with in section 880. we basically said no government agency shall have any contracts or participate at all with zte or any other company that works with zte. and so there is no question, we can't turn a blind eye to this. but my point, i don't believe the president is turning a blind eye to this. i think right now there is just posturing taking place to accomplish both a trade issue that needs to be dealt with and at the same time, protect

america's interests military and otherwise. we made that perfectly clear in armed services committee. i believe that language will be upheld. neil: do you think the president was caught off-guard, sir, that he didn't know it was this big deal? he does have a lot on its plate, that he didn't know helping this company to degree he was intimating was probably not the wisest strategy? >> i can't speak to that. the president has a lot of people speaking into his life and giving him counsel and direction. neil: sure. >> i'm not one of those people so obviously i can't say what he knows, but what i know we're not turning a blind eye to zte, we're not in any shape, form or fashion will help them out. they have violated the sanctions. they provided equipment to iran, north korea. that is intolerable. we're not going to put up with it. they have already faced penalties of some $900 million for doing so and i just totally

agree with chairman mac thornberry, with the armed services committee as a whole has done. we made a strong stance against zte. that is not going to go anywhere. neil: congressman, good seeing you. >> thank you, likewise. neil: he got a lot of heat. whistle-blower scott davis who had some alarming things about what was going on at va, that the veterans were not getting the care they were promised, right now he is saying that is still the case. they're not getting care. they're still waiting on attention and doctor's appointments. he has been ostracized, bullies, shoved aside, he is still there. in a few minutes he will be here then he met the love of his life. who came with a three foot, two inch bonus. for this new stepdad, it's promising to care for his daughter as if she's his own. every way we look out for those we love

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neil: well,, apparently they are having a devil of a time trying to find someone to run veterans affairs, ba ever since dr. ronnie jackson took himself out of the running of having the agencies since the prior secretary, david schalk and had to resign. they've been coming up with links. the latest names added to the list of possible candidates include two retired generals, ronnie hawkins and michael herrick are. add to that the congressmen brian mast. in and representing jeff miller, republican also in the boston consulting group.

they don't want anything to blow up in their face, but in the meantime, things are blowing up in my next guest is right. to try to correct the use at the va and the fact that so many veterans had to wait for care, sometimes months, sometimes years. that would be the change for the whistleblower scott davis is right. it is not changing. he joins us right now exclusively. very good to have you back. i don't know under the circumstances of its good, but nevertheless. thank you for joining us. they might thank you for having me, neil appeared good to be back on the program. train do let's go first to what you're saying because others dispute what you are saying. the so-called crisis hotline, you wait and you wait a long time still. is that true? >> that is correct. as a matter of fact, the hill did a report on this just in march that va had been caught sending false reports about wait

times. we know that veterans are still waiting on average longer for care. this is something the president talked about fixing when he was running for office. sure into so you had said whether the president realizes it or not, and i quote, things have gotten much worse since he took office. you took great care not to blame him, but what could it mean? >> even though he is now the new president, the people who run va, who are running it into the ground when he was campaigning are still there. people like dr. carolyn clancy was brought in to run the va four years ago during the height of the scandal and 2014. so it is not just enough to change the president or bring in a new secretary. you have to get rid of the people causing the problem. it's like saying we are going to arrest bernie sanders that had the management team -- i'm

sorry, bernie madoff, but have the management team run the security and exchange commission. >> i'm glad you clarified the bernie sanders remark. you say it also adds another role to protect guys like you, whistleblowers who alert people to a problem like this. but they have done just the opposite. they retaliate against you. what if they don? >> one of the former manager is that health eligibility center was responsible for the health care backlog actually filed a complaint against myself and several whistleblowers claiming that we illegally access the e-mail and/or hacked the e-mail account. they said that we violated the consumer -- the computer fraud act, which is a law designed to address cybersecurity issues. this law should've been a violation of the law should've

been turned over to doj or the office of inspector general. it is my understanding when this particular manager, angel lawrence went to the office of the inspector general, and they declined to investigate because the charge had no merit. the office of the special counsel supposed to protect whistleblowers like myself decided to investigate and turn the matter over to va, who in turn, dr. clancy had the office of the medical aspect there conducting a criminal which hadn't against whistleblowers. neil: they argue with that. the va statement on this investigation claiming in which they say for federal lock on the va is required to investigate a report on allegations of wrongdoing referring to the agency and saying that it's an independent agency fully dedicated to protecting whistleblowers to review all of

those from current and former employees of wrongdoing. she identified this as a and went to the inspector general. the law says that va has to say they look into the complaint. what va should've done when the complaint was given to david schalk and come in the former secretary who was fired, his aunt's ability was to say the criminal investigators are investigators criminal investigators are investigators that the inspector general office looked at this and found it had no merit. but he decided to do w-whiskey with carolyn clancy users possible for the current state of the veterans health administration and have office of the medical aspect to her investigators look into a matter they are not even qualified.

neil: when david shaw and was running things there, did he ever talk to you or anyone on his staff talk to you? >> eyed communications with david shulkin on numerous occasions and had an exchange with secretary shulkin about this manager. he said he would look into it appeared he was concerned about the issues raised about the tirades from ms. lawrence. neil: that is pretty nasty stuff. i don't want to get into the weeds without. but of the charges you are making and the lack of improvement or progress on care for veterans come away time, et cetera, when shulkin was there, did he talk to you specifically about that? >> we had e-mail exchanges. please send other people in a staff to communicate with me

they took my testimony. i talked to investigators and nothing happened at the same corrupt managers are still at the member services office in atlanta, same corrupt managers neil: one thing that has changed as a lot of the duties that she used to have you don't have. it seems like they are kind of shutting you in them where they can't fire you. i don't know what their intent is, but a lot in atlanta have now gone to others. so it sounds like you don't have a job. >> it's a good point. they pretty much gutted my position. i think they have to make it look good. they have to go through the process of firing me, which is something they started. they've escalated hostilities.

[inaudible] >> they try to suspend me earlier this year. they said i didn't meet with a subordinate level employee who had no right to demand a meeting with me because he was going to take over my job duties. i'd be escalating the matter. >> did he ever bring up your talking to the press or out time and duties? >> yes. during that conversation with the investigators, but they want to know about my conversations with the press. they wanted no sources for articles and they asked me about conversations i had with investigators in the house and senate veterans affairs committee. the key of this deal is they've escalated hostility towards me ever since i started addressing issues about camp lejeune in the marine moms who lost their baby due to the war at camp lejeune. neil: talking about military toxic exposure, some 900,000 marine veteran contaminated by

water there at camp lejeune. having said that, it looks like you can't get any projects that involve contacts with veterans. work at the va reporting on dangers and hazards and wait times at the va, but you can't talk to veterans. does this happen in corporate america, like you stop getting invited to meetings or you can't have any contact with fellow members? they're trained to fire you. >> that's the goal. keep in mind on the whistleblower who went to congress about the backup of health care records. they're about to try encourage million pending records again and they won't let me see the letter. neil: it sounds like they are more intense and more interested in purging you. they see you as a snitch and

they want you out of there. >> absolutely. they want me at all whistleblowers gone. unfortunately the leadership in va. >> the most noteworthy face of the whistleblowers. how many others? >> probably on the public level, maybe a handful behind the scenes. neil: where do you guys, like a denny's? >> at this rate we can even meet online. would have to get the fbi to reactivate so we can communicate. you know, we are like regular citizens concerned about issues. we talk on the get-together or it just happens organically. there is no can you receive. people see something wrong and see their local congressman. neil: one of the people pointed the finger at the whistleblower to say angela lawrence, your of

atlanta had filed a freedom of information request to obtain any e-mail you might have had about her two others on why you want her out. that is cleared. >> here's the thing. i've never had anything personal against ms. lawrence. neil: it must be serious enough for her to get a foia request to find out what the you're asking about her. >> yeah, but think about this. i started talking about the pending issue in 2014. ms. lawrence didn't come to the office until 2016. i think she personalized my conversations. >> go ahead, here are my exchanges. >> that's a very good point. she actually has access to it. the government employee --

>> the request into the government, not me. the government can give her whatever outlook exchange. what i did was with my conversations with mr. o'rourke, when his staff had the e-mails and documentation regarding member services managers, by his crusade turned it over and even the investigators who came and spoke to me two weeks ago at knowledge and authority given documents to them. neil: if you indulge me because you know so much more about this than i do. the big picture to me is this. a few people have been fired, directors and heads come and go to talk about the va possibilities to run the whole thing. still waiting. you give the president the benefit of the doubt to keep campaign promise. but without change in the

thinking there it doesn't think that is happening. i am a veteran. another reason to reason to still wear, don't i.? >> i think that's one of the reasons i don't say this all the time. the president has to fire dr. quincy, current head of vha. there's no way for him to move forward with an agenda without changing the issues of the past, limiting them. neil: i ask a lot of firings happening. >> exactly. most of the people fired or low-level people like janitors. none of the big people have been fired. neil: i keep interrupting you. you know, people coming in now. shulkin was unanimously approved to renege his job at many leaves under some controversy. ronnie jackson leaves the head of more controversies.

the nasi of other names are tossed out and the two generals. do you think the person who ultimately heads the agency should be a military figure? >> no. va primarily, va primarily as a health care organization with a claims office. if the person happens to have veteran experience in the military, that is great. but the veteran community to me and the ability to have someone in there who just had military experience but doesn't understand ba. they didn't serve you to have dr. shulkin with no real government experience who cannot run shulkin. neil: i don't know of any military experience would have prepared you for military veterans seeking health care by mail. they fan out to veterans are

bounced back because they didn't have a bright or whatever. i don't know what kind of background would prepare you for that. i guess i keep seeing these mistakes. i'm not saying you're right and they're wrong or they are right and you're wrong. what i'm saying is i keep seeing these screw ups and i am wondering what changes that. >> it changes when the focus is less about contracts and funding and more about management and accountability. what you find in the last administration seem the same thing to the trump administration. putting more money into the problem. but if your child overspends their credit card company you don't give them a higher limit. you teach them better fiscal management. the choice program is being mismanaged investigation by the department of justice for over billing our billing errors. you don't give more money and say go about your business. you institute safeguards to make

sure that the hospital staff is properly making sure each veteran has access to his or her climate outside the va network. they were instituting a nationwide hiring freeze at va without holding people accountable and we are going to bring in more doctors to these hospitals. we are going to remove corrupt administrators. they address our systems issues are the pending issue is still a problem. they are still not immediate access to health care. so it's not a love. you've got to manage and be honest with veterans. neil: scott davis, thank you very much. very good having you on. these calls placed out to the individuals.

this is about the care they get it they put their hangings on the lines. they took bullets for us. they deserve something better than what they're getting right now. i don't care if you're republican. a character democrat. o-oscar if you're conservative. i don't care if you're liberal. i don't care if you think mr. davis of this nature would be seen as a hero or actual heroes are getting hosed. that is it right. is unfair. that is in balance. we will have more after this. i feel a great deal of urgency...

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neil: let's go first or which are noticing there because others dispute what you are saying. with the exception of the so-called crisis hotline, you wait a long time. is that true? >> that is correct. as a matter of fact, the hill did a report on this just in march that va had been caught sending false reports about wait times. we know that veterans are still waiting on average longer for care and this is something that the president talked about 16 when he was running for office. neil: all right, va whistleblower with us. things have not improved at the agency. we ran statements to indicate

that. a former state department officer. searches on to find someone to run this agent be in there having a devil of a time. >> i'm also an active navy reserve officer and there's not a person watching your show right now who doesn't think that there's things wrong with the va. let's give the president some credit. he's been able to attract some phenomenal attention to the team and i think he'll be a rock star person at the va and that's what we need. that's what our veterans deserve. neil: you have a military background. do you think i should be a military thing, not necessarily all though it is out there to the generals being considered. what do you think? >> i'm also a business person as well in my civilian life. what you really need is a change. someone who can really come in

and shake the pace. in this administration you still need to know the trust of the president and need to have a relationship with the president. for me, the ideal person would be someone who understands military, and by someone who knows how to fix a massive institution and some on the president can have a close relationship with. i hope this administration attract someone. top talent because veterans deserve it. neil: i don't know whether this rule of thumb applies here. there haven't been a lot here at the agency to change the culture. i don't know if that's true. >> i think you're right. accountability is the most important thing in any organization. if there is no way to measure and people who work around the country should be proud of the va as an institution and should be proud to work there. you need a really motivated leader who can come in and

positively change the cultures of people feel pride once again. that's exactly what secretary pompeii was doing. he listed the hiring freeze today. i talked to the rank-and-file have worked with for several industries overseas and many of my career rank-and-file friends who are thrilled he's coming in and motivating the agency. this is what leadership is. neil: real quickly on the north korea thing. i think he is getting cold feet are realistically walking away? >> breaking news for you today. north korea, kim jong un, he's a liar and a cheat. neil: dang it. i have a theory. >> ambassador bolton said on sunday, was sort of expected that this is behavior -- neil: what sparked this? >> and exercise written that is an annual -- routine exercise

between the united states and south korea and in doing this exercise, the u.s. is looking to assert their air superiority should we have any conflict. i think that made them nervous. in general there is a lot of posturing. kim jong un has a lot of masters to please. he wants to keep the north koreans happy. don't forget he hates the sanctions. one of the biggest accomplishment they have pursued at the u.n. under ambassador hayley are these comprehensive economic sanctions that are really hurting none. it's a pain they haven't felt before. ultimately he wants to get rid of the sanctions than once to please their masters so to speak in beijing. of course he doesn't want to give up his nuclear program. he's not an. the president made it clear once again today that he was going to insist on being nuclear station. we've always said the devils in the details. it's always about the verification process. even though the means of

narrative is withdrawing from the nuclear deal that president trump put himself and i think is the opposite. he shown they're not getting an easy deal and that this isn't for show and they are in fact incredibly serious about making sure that this is the deal that can be verified. we will see if the system happens. i hope it does. neil: i cannot imagine getting blown out here, but you never know. >> the president is right to stay on top. how close then they get to the line? neil: morgan, thank you a very good seeing you. by the way, i don't know if the president was watching, but we got ms., charlie come after this interview that the president is pushing as he has in the past for passing this va choice before memorial day. veterans among other things to

get an option. they get a ticket to the front of the line at the nearest private hospital. must get past by memorial day. this coming from the president. this came out minutes after our interview. you -- we will report, you decide. more after this. . hi, i'm bob harper,

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. neil: so you had said that whether the president realizes it or not and i quote things have gotten much worse since he took office. you took great care not blame him, but what did you mean? >> well, i mean that even though he is now the new president, the people who run va, who are running it into the ground when he was campaigning, are still there. neil: all right, so a signature issue on the part of then-candidate donald trump to clean things up at the va has not been fulfilled. whistle-blower scott david is telling us he doesn't necessarily blame the president for that, but long wait times

still exist for existing veterans trying to get routine health care. this on the same day the house is taking up the choice act, the choice act something the president tweeted about only minutes after our interview was completed has to do with giving veterans the choice of care. they get essentially to the front of the line at private hospitals. where this is going? expect it to easily pass in the house, might be problematic with the president interviewing potential successors to head the va right now. former bush 43 deputy chief of staff, best-selling author, karl rove. this is the one problem the president faces getting more response the the va, karl, what do you make of it? >> well, it's the second largest federal government agency, largely dispersed around the country, pressures at the local level that keep it embedded in bad practices, and

it's hard to move people around, it's hard to dismiss people, hard to hold people accountable. congress made a minor change in the structure in the last couple of years to give the president a chance or secretary a chance to gain a stronger hold over the agency, but it's a broken department. with the passage of the choice act that would allow veterans stymied in getting quality health care from the va to get to the local hospital or local doctor, that's only part of the problem being fixed. we have big problems throughout the agency and lots of institutions around the country. >> you are right about that, i remember when there was criticism dr. ronny jackson considered for the spot, he took himself out of the running. the president did have a fairly accurate read on this, who would have the background to run on the agency of 375,000 employees, nearly $190 billion budget, it's a behemoth.

do you think that that person should have military background, the two generals considered for the job? >> well, there's a tension here. we are serving the military, you would somebody who respect sxnsds the military. on the other hand, we're talking about big health care institutions. talking about big hospitals, big clinics, a big network. look, running a business is tough, running a health care business is tougher. it would be nice to have somebody who embodies both, the health care background and the military background, but you know, we run into the problem all the time with major universities, for example. if you look anywhere across the country, the university of texas, half of the budget is for the medical schools. we think about all the places where you go where you have a football team and lots of undergraduates. most major universities around the country, systems are devoting half budgets to the medical schools because medical schools are tied into

hospitals. so very difficult agency to run and requires specialized skills. it would be great if we could get the world's greatest ceo from running the nation's largest best-run health care system and give him a go at it, but what would be better is if we came up with a magic way to clone that person and put clones in charge of the dozens of dozens upon dozens of medical facilities that bear the name va. neil: one thing i notice is an issue when you were working with president bush, back into the days of ronald reagan who wanted to make government smaller. it is so difficult to fire people in government. to get rid of them. >> absolutely. neil: why is that? why is that still? >> goes back to the 1870s and 1880s with the passage of civil service. once we went down that path, the correct path to go down to, rather than swapping out employees at various federal departments so when the party of the president changed, you changed all those people. we put in civil service.

the problem is it locks in inefficiencies. one of the most damaging and dangerous things is under presidents for a period of time backlog of unfulfilled requests for service and presidents have done their best to work that down. what is really problematic, we now have evidence that people have begun to systematically falsify the reports that were being used to monitor the progress of the agency and beginning to work those backlogs down. if you can't have honest data, you're not going to have honest answers. a lot of people are engaged in systematic corruption and the tools to get rid of the people is very limited. >> it's incredible, just incredible. >> yeah. these are our greatest heroes and we're not serving them well. neil: yeah, they didn't wait around for us. they didn't just think about and look at their watch when they were raiding hills on our behalf. they deserve better. karl, thank you very, very

much. >> you bet. neil: again, i'm not pro firing people, i'm not pro getting rid of people for the argument of getting rid of people, but these are people who look after our best people, our heroes, and think about it, you know, dating back to iwo jima or normandie, in any hill, in any battle, they didn't think twice about charging the hill on our behalf. many of the buddies never made it back. they never thought of handing someone the paper and saying i'll get back to you. they did it. they did it. who the hell are we to tell them here's a slip of paper. we'll get back to you. no. we'll have more after this.

. neil: all right, it is very clear that when it comes to veterans and taking care of them, our system has failed us. whistle-blower detailing

continuing counts of waits for veterans to get their care. i did not want to politicize this nor intend to do that with scott davis, the whistle-blower, the agencies are trying their hardest. it harkens back to something my next guest talked to recent graduates about, getting past partisan divides to get things done. he has a long history as former governor of indiana, former budget director for former president bush and president of purdue university. to know of what he speaks, mitch daniels joins us right now. governor, thank you for taking the time. >> hi, neil. >> you know, i'm looking at this, and the unability, and i know, and hearkening back to your days as budget director, 375,000 employees, $195 billion budget, sniping both sides, apparently unable to fix what

seem to be fixable problems. how does that happen? >> i'm afraid it's genetic in the governmental institution this big. i'm not sure the finest new manager in the world, if you could identify that person, would be able to make anywhere near the difference that our veterans deserve. about the last way to have an effective, efficient delivery of services is to build a massive government bureaucracy, especially the federal government with all the incumberances you had in the previous segment. long ago it seems they should have liberated veterans to seek out health care and send a bill to the government where, it's more convenient or better suited to medical condition. but any bureaucracy of that size, think the poef office, it's just particularly with the

restrictions that have created over the years on effective management, you have a situation which is virtually impervious to the changes necessary. neil: a lot of it is politics, too. there is republicans critical of the democratic administration not getting a handle on veterans problems, and now republicans going after not getting a handle on the administration, something you talk to them about. what do they say? >> i hope our younger people are not becoming so disillusioned or turned off by the spectacle of their elders dividing what we commonly call tribes. i think it's worse than partisanship. though there's some alignment of the two phenomena. you know, democracy requires people who assume at least the generally good intentions of others to adhere to some sort of a common set of civic ideals

and to reconcile differences peacefully. you know what i said to our graduates most recently is that if you think that's the way of the world, it isn't, it's the exception in history. history belongs to the tyrants and the thotocrats and tribalism gravitates to authoritarian answers like that. neil: governor, you hearken back to a day both as governor is budget director of reaching out to the other side. it wasn't considered, you know, a sign of weakness, you think that ronald reagan and his relations with tip o'neill to score landmark legislation in history, but now i don't even know the term what it means here, snowflake if you advocate that, on the right or left, have you snowflakes. what has happened? >> that's a long -- too long an

answer for television, neil. neil: you are right. >> as much as anything, it resolves to do you want to get things done or score points and perhaps perpetuate yourself in office longer? we found certainly in the state of indiana, a lot of major, major changes have happened over 15 years. big changes require big majorities and you don't get those dividing us into them, disparaging the other sides, motives and sincerity, looking down at them. this is a very disquieting trend. things i said the other day i don't think are at all original, but the reaction it's getting only indicates there's a whole lot of people concerned about where it will take us if we don't move back away from it to something more faithful to our traditions. neil: well, without blowing you smoke, governor, i thought it was historic, the comments were

profound. i don't know whether it's a thomas payne common sense thing, but it's darn close. thank you for hearkening back to our better angels. we still have it in it. >> appreciate it. neil: we have a lot more including reaction to the comments that scott davis was making from an agency that feels scorned and wants to get its point across. a couple of those points, after this.

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. neil: the "wall street journal" reporting it doesn't look like a nafta rework is doable, by the administration this year, i wonder how the canadian prime minister justin trudeau feels about. that susan li will be chatting with him. the prime minister of canada will sit down and go through everything that's on the table here including, and he's watching quite closely the china trade talks, as is the next gentlemen. michael harrison, who knows of what he speaks, he'll let us in on all the secrets. good to see you. >> thank you. neil: couple of simple questions i have. bring zte into this whole discussion. face value looks like a dangerous, reckless thing to do. what do you think? >> there's been a longstanding

trade investigation into china's intellectual property practices and president trump long focused on trade with china, then somewhat out of the blue the commerce department issued denial of export order on zte. that is not really directly related to trade negotiations, it was for zte flouting previous settlement relating to export controls to iran and south korea. neil: in other words, they cheated? >> they cheated and reached a settlement last year but suddenly this becomes the key issue, the second largest telecom equipment company. 80,000 some odd employees and putting this firm out of business is threatening to derail trade conversations, possibly hurt china's cooperation on north korea. neil: the chinese are concerned about it? >> extremely concerned about it. this has fed a narrative in beijing, the u.s. is not looking for a trade deal,

instead that the u.s. is fundamentally hostile to china and looking to contain china's rise as a technology leader. that's the way it's viewed in beijing. the president was faced with a decision of whether or not he should take this off the table, which would help for short-term tensions, and i think it has, but it's somewhat hurt him at home because now this is a political football. neil: where do you see it going? you were saying during the break north korea wants to have china continue and having the talks if they're still on for june on, and where do you see us going with this? is something going to come out of it, the tariffs, the threat of tariffs have done the trick, they've gotten the chinese to make concessions? >> the way it looked earlier this week is it would be a mini deal on zte. one of china's senior officials is in china for negotiations. the easiest thing to work out

is agreement for saving zte, the telecom company, in exchange for certain specific asks of the u.s. for china. the president tweeted this morning, no, this is not a mini deal, this is about a larger trade package. it raises the stakes for meetings this week, and i think it's going to be difficult to achieve a grand bargain this week because on the trade negotiations, the two sides are very far apart. talking about really difficult issues. neil: but still workable? >> i think it's difficult in the short term, but the president raised the stakes and he is personally involved in a way he hasn't been previously. neil: we'll watch closely. the former u.s. trade representative in beijing and eurasia chief. the response to the whistle-blower after this.

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neil: do you think that the person who ultimately heads this agency should be a military figure? >> no. va primarily, i know a lot of people disagree, va primarily is a health care organization. on a secondary level it's a claims office f that persons happens to have veterans experience in the military that's great but it serves the veterans community to me no good to has someone there with just military experience but doesn't understand va. neil: we're getting a lot of

feedback from a lot of different folks on what va whistle-blower scott davis had to say what seems to be continue all problem of vets getting care they need in timely manner they need. talking about institutional problem has not been resolved with all the big word and talk. one of the things we got back from a lot of folk there is is that davis keeps claiming things have gotten worse since the president took office. they say that is simply not the case, and that things have improved there because some of issues that are being addressed, there is call for larger staff and more tools from congress. they are optimistic they will get that. they said unfair, coming from them, the va, that the osc, this groups that handles a lot of these issues has been on hiatus for two years when in fact the organization itself spans two administrations. a republican one, now a democratic one in the past. what is very clear in the back and forth on this, right or left, republican or democrat, our soldiers owe no political

affiliation or honor conservative or liberal viewpoint. these are people that looked after us and our country. they deserve bertha. is just it. they deserve better. we'll make sure they get it. trish regan right now. trish: they do. thank you so is much, neil. the fate, every one of north's summit up in the air right now at this hour. the president saying today, we'll see what happens after kim jong-un threatens to pull out of the summit. take a look at markets. you can see we're up 84 points. so investors in a good mood today. s&p 500 trading up half a percent there. nasdaq doing best of the bunch almost 1%. i am trick reagan. welcome to "the intelligence report." ♪ trish: also breaking today, brand new details on that infamous 2016 trump tower meeting. remember the one