up to be the most important midterm elections certainly in my memory. a lot depends on the outcome of that. everything depends -- a lot depends on it. my time is up. neil, sir, it's yours. neil: is it me, or is rosenstein commuting from bolivia? did he stop at mcdonald's? i got to have a full stomach going into this? holy toledo. where the heck is the guy? stuart: i appreciate your moment of levity there in an otherwise rotten situation. neil: i can't figure this one out. where the heck is the guy? we will find out. thank you very much. great show, as always. we are trying to find out, forget where's waldo. where's rosenstein. the deputy attorney general has been summoned to the white house and assumed he's going to be fired there. that's his opinion. that is not being echoed by pretty much anyone else.

we do know he's en route. we don't know whether he's walking. we will keep you posted on that. we know blake burman has the latest from the white house and what they are anticipating there. keep in mind the president is in new york for the u.n. assembly meeting. what's going on? reporter: we are still trying to figure it all out. you just kind of laid it out. the expectation for rod rosenstein is that he is going to be fired and we know rosenstein is headed over here to the white house. the big outstanding question at this point is, will he be fired and if so, does that happen today. we sit hoer aere and wait. we are awaiting official word from the white house and the department of justice as well. the reason rosenstein is such a huge player in all of this as deputy attorney general is he is the one who oversees the bob mueller special counsel. if rosenstein is fired, there are questions as to who would step in potentially next in his role. one of the possibilities is the solicitor general, noel

francis francisco. even then, we don't know if that will be the case. bottom line, there's still a host of outstanding questions here at the noon hour as it relates to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, and who could potentially oversee the special counsel probe. of course, this all sort of racheted up over the last few days with the "new york times" story on friday which reported that in the first few weeks of rosenstein being deputy attorney general, he suggested that he wore or secretly recorded, rather, president trump at one point and tried to recruit other cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment, a process by which cabinet members could vote to remove the president. that was on friday. now we have this kind of wait and see moment here on monday afternoon. speaking of that "new york times" story, that came from the memo, the "times" reports the memos from andrew mccabe who at one point was the number two at the fbi to jim comey, and mccabe has put out this statement

within the last handful of minutes. he says the following. quote, there is nothing more to the integrity of law enforcement and the rule of law than protecting the investigation of special counsel mueller. mccabe goes on to write if the rumors of deputy a.g. rosenstein's departure are true, i am deeply concerned that it puts that investigation at risk. i bet you that is going to be the concern echoed by a lot of democrats and a lot of critics of the president, but the bottom line at this hour is, we still do not know if that is what lies ahead, because the fate and status of rod rosenstein as deputy a.g. is still a question mark at this very moment, could very well change during your show. we don't know. neil: thank you very, very much. blake burman at the white house. we have been showing you the white house now, presumably we are waiting for a sports utility van to show up but at the rate mr. rosenstein is going, it could easily be a bicycle. we don't know because it's been well over an hour and a half since this story first started, that he was being summoned to

the white house. we are still waiting. markets have more uncertainty adding to the widening allegations against brett kavanaugh and the trade war which seemed to escalate with nasty comments overnight and the implementation of the tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods, $60 billion plus of similar tariffs on american goods that affect 5,000 different items that could result in much higher toy prices, for example, going into the christmas shopping season. so you can weigh on all these concerns, the doubts and unknowns and the better part of valor is to sell all. to charlie gasparino and americans for prosperity preside president. michele mckinnon, we begin with you. you could make the argument it would be very bad for donald

trump to see rosenstein go. >> i mean, you can make that argument. i think it's a lot of noise. the market's down 200 points today. the market could be down 200 points because of china, because of a lot of other reasons. neil: i asked about would it be a mistake for the president to do this, because better to have him with you than outside? >> yeah, to create more uncertainty. trump has been uncertain and unorthodox since day one so this is not new news. i don't know. i think it's hard to try to claim that and guess that one. neil: what do you think? >> i think the bigger issue is the trade issue. when you look at the potential to undermine what is becoming a booming recovery, partly because of the tax cuts and tax reform this president fought so hard for, the deregulatory effort that's knocking down barriers to opportunity, we are seeing an economy taking off like we haven't seen in over a decade, and the risk in undermining all that with this trade war, i think that's a bigger issue.

i think most americans are not looking at the deputy attorney general of the justice department going to get fired. most americans want to know is this economy consumer confidence at an almost two decade high, is that going to continue going. i think that's the bigger issue and the bigger danger for this president. >> i think the economy, it's just a matter of time before it starts going on the downward trajectory. ben bernanke disagreed with the tax cuts and you don't want to overstimulate the economy, he thought that might have been a major mistake. neil: it did have a good effect. >> but when it comes to rosenstein, i think the biggest favor he could give trump is resigning -- neil: is there a difference in his resigning rather than getting fired? somebody told me it makes a difference in the appointment. >> that's a good question. in the appointment? neil: replacement. >> i don't know about that. i think it's an optical thing if he resigns. if he resigns under pressure it's called being ousted which is almost the same thing.

i will say this. the economy looks good on paper. the wages are essentially flat from obama years. consumer confidence is up but there's a lot of -- underemployment still pretty high. this is not the bill clinton economy. i was at the "wall street journal" at the time covering wall street and i remember that's when the political situation was pretty hot and heavy with lewinsky and whitewater. neil: they didn't want him to go. >> the general public didn't, because the general public was dealing with rising wages and massive employment. we don't quite have that here, as much as we want to tout the gdp numbers, we don't have that here. so if you mix that with general uncertainty politically and here's where i worry about markets. let's just say the democrats get the house and the senate. let's just say that they delay kavanaugh enough for a democratic senate. then all bets are off on this thing.

then you have some real problems. i think that's the problem. >> they are not confirming kavanaugh at that point. >> if i was a betting man. neil: you have until january to get your guy in. >> i think the real question is for trump, is the discord, and we haven't seen this type of discord since clinton, and this might be even more. let's just make this point. does this translate into democrats taking over everything and it's a good case, it might. neil: we always talk about uncertainty and in this uncertain environment, we don't kn know. >> i think at the end of the day, look at the fundamentals. historically low unemployment rate, record-breaking earnings. >> fiscal policy spurred by democrats -- >> i don't think democrats are in the ball game when it comes to taking over the senate.

>> really? you never know. neil: it could happen. >> they don't have to vote against kavanaugh now. your clinton analogy is an interesting one. getting back to the danger of this trade war, this is so easy to overlook. remember what happened early during that administration. north american free trade agreement came and it transformed the american economy in a good way. millions of jobs resulted, prosperity, lower consumer prices for americans on everyday items which helped folks on the margins. this trade war, it's easy to overlook. it's so important, it's central to this economic recovery and it is early. i completely agree with that. that's why it's so fragile right now. with all the rosenstein stuff and everything else, it's easy to overlook the danger of this trade war. neil: the trade thing is by far the most important thing right now. i think it's very easy to make a mistake.

for those of you just tuning in, you are looking at the white house grounds where we are awaiting the arrival of an suv or a bicycle, some guy sweating who shows up on his own. >> i just got a tweet, he's on the subway. >> he's never going to get there, then. neil: rod rosenstein has been called to the white house presumably by the chief of staff to either be fired or asked to explain his comments that popped up in the "new york times" going back more than a year. when he arrives and we get an idea of what does the deputy attorney general say, we will let you know. >> about the rosenstein situation, the timing couldn't be more perfect for donald trump. this is actually the best news he's had of the week with the market and kavanaugh, the accusations and things like that. neil: for whom? >> for trump. because it proves this deep state narrative that they wanted to oust him with the 25th amendment. i don't know why you would have to wear a wire if you want to get donald trump on -- >> the base is not the only

people showing up for the midterms. that's the problem. >> the base will be showing up. >> 60% of the people, when you say deep state, think of deep dish pizza you are talking about. neil: not talking about deep dish? >> why am i here? >> i don't think the deep state stuff sells beyond -- neil: indulge me on this. if the markets get into a panic based on a lot of this, i think to your whole point with trade, it's going to be a much more focal point but the unknowns, i know you don't see it but the senate as much as the house. neither may happen, by the way, but how does that enter the equation post-november? >> i think uncertainty will always be there and the perfect example is when trump was elected, i mean, the market went down 500 points that night. however, the moment the market turned, i had all my orders in, the market turned green and i was like i just missed the move. you have no idea and it's so hard the predict. >> you actually could predict

that and here's why. if you have a house and a senate and president all agreeing on cutting taxes, you do have a stimulative fiscal policy coming. if you have a senate and a house turning democrat now, you got some issues. >> the other danger i think right now for the base, the republican conservative base, they are looking at the spending bills that will be coming down in the next couple weeks. i'm telling you there's a deep anger. the president, remember after the omnibus which was a disaster, came out and said never again. i'm not signing one of these -- neil: he did sign it. he put the blame on them. >> we are encouraging them, tell republicans in congress who are blowing up spending again with democrats, you think bipartisanship is dead in washington? give them a bloated spending bill. they will suddenly get bipartisan. we are urging the president, pick a fight on this one, actually stand up and demand that congress do its job and

rein in spending. it's the right thing to do and we think it's good politics as well for him, by the way. >> i want to clarify i would like to see the democrats take the senate, take the house. would be nice if we had checks and balances. wouldn't that be a miracle? >> you would have a brake on the deregulation because they would be having hearings. maxine waters would yank everybody's chain as head of the house financial services committee. think about this. this is crazy. >> it will be a referendum. kavanaugh is not on the supreme court by the time november rolls around it will be a referendum on supreme court, women's rights. >> i think kavanaugh is big in terms of the markets. if you think of one thing, i will tell you why it's going to be interesting for investors to take a deep breath here. say trump can't control anything

else, if the democrats take over, he's going to have a real problem. if you have a clear conservative majority in the supreme court, that is a real good thing. for businesses and for the economy. >> but they're hard to figure out when they had more of a liberal majority. >> that's because you had incredibly conservative fiscal policies coming out of the democratic party. you're not going to have that here. i think to your point, it is important, mitch mcconnell is doing the right thing to say we will keep the senate in all three weeks, maybe four weeks of october. we think we can get 28 additional federal judges confirmed which is important. neil: this is the one that's getting all the attention. >> and if the senate majority changes hands, you will see an end to very good federal judges who will simply interpret the constitution, uphold the rule of law which is pretty darned important for the long term. that will be one of the most devastating impacts, the cutting off of these federal judgeships which have happened at a record pace for the first -- neil: all three market

conservatives. >> 99% of them believe in free market principles. >> the rule of law. a little bit out of left field but this whole thing would be better off if we had term limits for supreme court justices. i think that would make these things not so important. neil: what a great topic to discuss on another show. it's a great topic. we are getting a little more detail on rod rosenstein, not that it's a where's waldo moment. he's still not arrived at the white house but a source familiar with the matter is apparently sharing with fox news that he will be attending a previously scheduled so-called principals committee meeting at the white house in place of attorney general jeff sessions so he's neither resigned nor has been fired. >> so this is a nothingburger. neil: i don't know. there were discussions, we were told, over the weekend, rosenstein and chief of staff john kelly, about the possibility of rosenstein resigning. however, the source familiar

with the talks said rosenstein did not actually offer to resign. these might be the same folks saying he was on his way to the white house. >> when the kids in the movie "hook" eat dinner and there's nothing there and they have to pretend -- neil: the exact same thing. >> remember when trump fired priebus? he was on the plane with him and everybody got off the plane, he's like you're fired. neil: is that how he did it? >> something like that. he didn't really know it was coming. neil: the president is not at the white house, he's in new york for the u.n. general assembly meeting. all this is being done but clearly it would be at his behest whether rosenstein stays or not. the read at the white house right now is this might be much ado about nothing triggered originally by rosenstein, who came to the conclusion that coming to the white house was an invite to get fired when, in fact, it might be to sit in on this meeting with the attorney general jeff sessions. not exactly clear with the president and his job prospects himself. >> remember he was joking about

the 25th amendment, i might get fired, i might not? neil: we are still waiting to see whether rosenstein shows up, whether he's walking, whether he's taking a train. it is raining there. that could be problematic. >> american ninja warrior. neil: different time zone? i have no idea. ♪

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neil: all right. let's look at the dow right now, very close to session lows. the lowest point of the day we were down about 193 points. charlie immediately on me like you-know-what. on the left of the screen, by the way, is the drama building outside the white house. all right, there's no drama. but where the heck is rod rosenstein? it's like a where's waldo moment. we don't know whether, you know, he was summoned to the white house like ten minutes ago or ten hours ago. i think this story is two hours long that he was summoned to resign or get formally fired. we don't know. that was his suspicion. turns out there are stories that he was just called into the white house to sub at a meeting that the attorney general would normally have overseen. we don't know. nor has he shown up.

so that meeting that was going to be at noon, he's late for that. i don't know if he stopped by drive-through or whatever. chad is up on all these developments but more importantly, the one that involves brett kavanaugh and another woman and we are told after that, maybe possibly another woman making similar accusations against the judge who wants to be a supreme court justice. the timing of all of this is getting kind of dicey. what does it look like? reporter: something that orinhatch, republican senator from utah, member of the judiciary committee, said he finds all this timing odd. maize hirono from hawaii said the problem with republicans, her words here, is they think all of these women are making this up and if these crimes have been committed, these assaults have happened, it's very hard for these women to come forward. let's look at the math. the math, neil, the math is the math is the math. if you don't have the votes, you can't do anything. i would look right now at about four republican senators. start with susan collins and

lisa murkowski. then go to jeff flake of arizona. then i would go to bob corker of tennessee. the breakdown in the senate is 51 republicans, 49 democrats. this is tenuous even going into this, long before we heard anything about these accusations. if brett kavanaugh doesn't have the votes, you can't imagine mitch mcconnell, majority leader, going to the mat and trying to somehow force this through. it won't work. i will give you an example earlier this summer. ryan bounds was nominated for the circuit court of appeals out west and moments before the confirmation vote, mcconnell pulled the nomination off the floor because tim scott, republican senator from south carolina, the only african-american republican in the senate, went to mcconnell and said i can't vote for him, he made some racist writings back in college and that's enough for me. he didn't have the votes, they pulled the nomination off the floor and the administration immediately withdrew the nomination. so there is precedent for this. here's the other thing. senator feinstein last night said that maybe we should call

for another delay, this is just hours after they thought they had set everything up for the big hearing on thursday with christine blasey ford. there's an old expression on capitol hill that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. the fact that the democrats are now asking, you know, the senate judiciary committee chairman chuck grassley to tap the brakes, nothing is really agreed to here on capitol hill, neil. neil: let's say you lose one of those three closely monitored republicans. i'm going to take it as a given. it's a leap on my part. not a single democrat vote for the judge. you can't lose more than one, right? reporter: right. by rule, a tie vote loses in the senate but you could have vice president pence break the tie. we have never had a supreme court justice confirmed on a vice presidential vote breaking the tie in the senate. in fact, there's never been a cabinet official confirmed until betsy devos on a tie in february of last year. we are getting into some pretty interesting ground. let's just say this continues to

drag on a couple more weeks, it gets later into october. there was one camp of republicans who thought maybe it would be better to force this vote closer to the midterm elections because it would be tougher for the democrats. the question now is, does it become tougher for republicans if this hangs out there longer, but then again, you know, let's see where some of the polling is, if some of the public starts to believe some of these other accusers and views the republicans as trying to railroad this through, does this boomerang back around on the democrats and hurt them adversely going into the midterms. that's unclear. neil: what's the flipside, say if we get past the midterms and that six, seven weeks or so, republicans still push this nomination, say it's still not resolved by then? reporter: you could probably have democrats saying well, this version of the biden rule which really isn't a rule, it's something the republicans just started to talk about that it has to be after the next presidential election, you could certainly have democrats saying wait a minute, this should be done by the next congress. you held up merrick garland, you keep hearing this, president obama's pick for the supreme

court who never got a hearing from chuck grassley as chair of the judiciary committee. i mean, this would only get nastier and nastier. we don't think it would probably go that far. if they confirm brett kavanaugh before the midterm elections, or he would probably be withdrawn if it gets that far down the train tracks. i can't imagine it taking that long, frankly. neil: thank you very, very much. again, the hearing is scheduled for thursday. now, you might recall that senator feinstein had wanted to put off things until these other allegations were coming to light. that does not appear likely. where they go in the scheme of things, anyone's guess. wall street abhors uncertainty. not saying this is the single biggest reason for the sell-off, more trade has to do with that, but uncertainty with rosenstein, what he's going to do, the trade war and how it's escalating and no one giving any ground, and add it all up, we have a lot of down arrows. it could be a lot worse. oftentimes it has been. more after this.

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neil: is there, you're right rod rosenstein is now at the white house. we don't know how he ultimately got there but he is at the white house. we don't know his fate or what's going on. there he came apparently with the understanding he was about to be fired. we'll let you know. meantime letting you know, a lot of you were wondering mode of transportation he sought or was in disguise. we know the deputy attorney general is at the white house as we speak. we have got a selloff going on as we speak. a lot of it has to do not so much with political drama but trade war trauma between ourselves and chinese. we slapped tariffs going into effect $200 billion additional goods from china. china responding by slapping very highly selective tariffs on about 5000 u.s. products. about 60 billion bucks. just the kind of thing that worries jonathan hoenig when he sees it no matter who does it.

jonathan, where are we going with this is. >> i thought this was negotiating tactics neil. that is what we were promised. this isn't a trade war -- this is a trade war. a trade war is a tax, neil. these tariffs, the president talks about it as if he is putting taxes on china. neil, tariffs are taxes on americans and stuff we want to buy. things like christmas gifts, holiday gifts coming into the fourth quarter. we're seeing millions and millions of businesses, kneel, have to rejigger the supply chains, how they get around the tariffs, they have either two options, one is cut production. we will see lost jobs. the other is raise prices. we're already seeing evidence of that as well. neil: you're quite right to say governments don't pay these tariffs we do, but we don't always pay the advertised tariff rate. in other words, if there is 10% tariff, some, not all companies will absorb a good chunk of that, if not all of that to prevent getting beaten by the

other guy. there are so many products we're talking about, and so many items we're talking about that is going to be impossible. >> we, neil, pay even more, we pay tariff on top of tariff on to have of tariff. look at lumber for example. president enacted lumber tariffs a year ago. lumber tariffs were 40%. made rebuilding from the hurricane that much more expensive for americans. that is frustrating, neil. the president wants to help "joe six-pack." i don't consider anyone to be "joe six-pack," the average american. that is the person who shops at walmart for whom extra couple hundred dollars for the kids christmas gifts mean as great deal. walmart are warning the president, these tariffs will mean we have to raise prices. neil: i pointed out to my kids, your mother and i would love to have got you something, but you're reading papers. there is another side, if this

is the means by which you extract concessions out of chinese or canadians or whoever, it will work. president slightly pivoted approach on trade on the weekend. this is the right thing to do. you say what? >> it's a little perplexing, neil, what the president is advocating for is not tree trade. we haven't seen that in his negotiations what nafta will be called now. even the europeans came to the president, said, get away with all tariffs on automobiles. he turned them down. so not even just a question of price, neil. it is jobs lost as well. i don't know we don't learn from history. president bush tried this 2002. there were hundreds of thousands of jobs lost. the tax foundation is stilting with these tariffs of the it is politically motivated, neil. that is frustrated. scoring points with the base, but the base ultimately will pay the price. higher costs, lost jobs, unhappy christmas. neil: the president will come back at you, say base or no, we have record low unemployment.

we have record surge in jobs. so if i'm harming this economy i have a funny way of showing it, you say? >> yes. i mean the economy is roaring thanks to companies like facebook, like amazon, like microsoft but neil, we really just started to see the tariffs begin to take effect. major retailers are just starting to warn the market and consumers. what i wonder is, who is the president going to blame once prices do start to rise? can't be chinese or mexicans. maybe greedy financiers or maybe greedy wall streeters. we've seen this story before, neil. it is not a question do tariffs work. we're not sure there is empirical evidence. every time tariffs are tried, job losses, higher prices for consumers. there are great unemployment levels now, why would you pretend to raise prices at a time the u.s. economy is doing so well. boggles the mind. neil: their argument is now is the tile to do it, from a

position of strength. you don't agree? >> i don't agree, neil. what makes us strong? people often like to point out about the good ol' days before nafta. they forget tremendous convenience trade brought to us, neil. we could all be the on the assembly line again. we all could be farming, thankfully a lot of jobs were not only taken over by mechanics or outsourced as well. people who are anti-trade they're fighting a fan mom -- phantom foe, neil. trade always win, win. people want to buy these things from neil, from china, neil, because they improve our lives and improve our bottom lines and that savings is reinvested into new wealth. this isn't novel. it is in the wealth of nations. it is in henry hazlett's economics in one lesson. i don't think anyone in this administration has read either. neil: i put you down as a maybe on the president's approach to

trade. jonathan hoenig, thank you very much. >> be well. neil: that argument that concern seems to be winning out. more sellers than buyers. despite a record-setting pace of deals, xm scooping up pandora, and comcast and fox in the battle of sky, won by comcast, 40 billion-dollar purchase there. barrick gold and randgold and 6 billion-dollar deal. i could go on and on. i could talk about michael kors and versace. the are rampant. not enough to offset fierce that gains are short-lived, i must stress, for one day.

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christina parts negative loss. -- kristina partsinevelos. definitely a lot of new yorkers are not happy about the traffic is. president of the united states making news, that there is possible, quite soon there will be a second meeting with north korea. he commented early this morning when he arrived around 8:15 a.m. he also said he received a beautiful letter. we don't know what is inside the beautiful letter, but a beautiful letter written from north korea to the president of the united states. a change of tone last year the president in his speech during the general assembly, leader of north korea, kim jong-un was "rocket man" and threatened the country as well. you have that going on. earlier this morning there was a kickoff, a world meeting about drugs, opioid epidemic. the president did lead that meeting. relatively short, less than an hour. listen to what he had to say. >> the call is simple, reduce drug demand, cut off the supply of illicit drugs, expand treatment and strengthen

international cooperation. if we take these steps together we can save the lives of countless people in owl corners of the world. reporter: so, all corners of the world. the president also has meetings throughout the day, bilateral meetings with several other heads state. you have south korea this afternoon. the leader of france, emannuel macron as well as egypt. all these meetings will happen over next few days. there are several over the course of the next few days. general assembly has 193 members. they get her to negotiate and discuss various topics. on wednesday, that is when the security council meets, that is a 15 member committee. the president alluded it will be focused around iran. they said not explicitly about iran but if it was, they would have to give iran a seat at meeting. they're talking about decrease of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction as a whole.

these are things happening. a lot of bilateral meetings and a big speech in front of the general assembly. the security council meeting on wednesday, neil. neil: kristina, thank you very much. let's bring in the former ambassador of south korea. on the news, kristina pointed out those two leaders will have a sit-down and chat maybe briefly but still at or near the united nations. ambassador thank you for coming. >> good to be here, neil. neil: what do you make of that? obviously the south korean leader wants to pave way for another meeting between the president and north korean leader kim jong-un. where do you think this is going? >> well the south korean leader is coming in with a very positive report on his had summit meeting in pongyang last week t was a very positive meeting in terms of stablizing the relationship between north korea and south korea. they agreed to a lot of retention reduction measures and projects although those can't go

ahead until sanctions are lifted. pushing the president to reingauge with kim jong-un on the other big question which didn't show very much progress last week. that is denuclearization. i heard the president say that he might have a meeting very soon. i would urge him to go a little bit slower. we still don't know for sure whether kim jong-un is ready to denuclearization. he is offering kind of gestures but the real task of dismantling weapons, production facilities he offered nothing. we need mike pompeo engaged. the new special representative engaged and not set a meeting until we get something concrete on denuclearization. neil: i don't know what is in the latest letter the president received from his north korean counterpart. i do know in prior letters he has been effusive, often times in his praise for the president. we're told the president likes that. who wouldn't like that. i would prefer a letter like that than someone ripping me a new one but could that affect the president's thinking?

they seem to be making overtures, when only over ture is kind words for the president? >> that is the danger. we saw some of that at the singapore summit in june where there was great personal chemistry and a lot of flattery in both directions but we ended up with a very ambiguous agreement. no clarity on whether they're really ready to give up their nuclear weapons. so personal chemistry is a nice thing. but doesn't necessarily equal solutions to the substantive challenge and the kim dynasty, the current leader, his father, his grandfather talked a good game about denuclearization but never delivered. now we're under a real threat they have nuclear weapons. they have missiles pointing at us. we still don't know whether he is ready to go all the way towards denuclearization. neil: there was a critic of the kim jong-un regime to the days his grandfather was in power, they're very good at buying

time. it is all about buying time. a cynical jaded read what is going on now. do you buy that, the north koreans are playing a waiting game that benefits them? >> that has to be the most likely scenario here. they're using the old playbook. on the other hand the change in the north-south relationship is real. it is quite different than anything we've seen in the past. we need to put kim jong-un to the test. maybe he is different than his parents and grandparents. maybe if he figured out he wants to live a long life, he is a pretty young guy, he needs to make a deal and trade his nuclear weapons for economic benefits, for getting rid of sanctions and become a stable country through its own economic development. you know, we don't know that. a lot of people hope that is the case. we need to test him with concrete road map. here is what you need to do. here is what you get in return. we'll see whether he bites or just weasels off the line.

neil: i like that weasels off the line. ambassador, thank you very much. good seeing. >> you you're very welcome. neil: we're getting clarification what will happen to rod rosenstein right now. this is coming out of sarah sanders office. concerning his future. at the request of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein he and president trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories. because the president is at united nations general assembly and full schedule of meeting with leaders, they will return to meet on thursday when he in washington, d.c. not clear that rod rosenstein's job is safe but appears to be safe for another few days. they will sit down and chat on thursday. ahead of that he still has a job, would so appear for now.

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neil: all right. lost in everything going on today with the markets. finally life of their own are the december. they're back with a vengance. i think by last count, $17 billion worth today. the one grabbing most he had lines is xm buying pandora. deirdre bolton with the details on that one and wind at market as back. you wouldn't see it today. >> i'm not saying every single combination is how every single

business leader wanted it to go. in general to see combinations in the billions, you gave that headline i think you do have to have ceos feeling pretty confident about the willingness to tie up take a bet, roll the dice. cirrus and pandora. two sides are complimentary. they are bringing something other side didn't have. neil: right. more than likely to be approved by regulators? >> yes. i think it is confidence from the point of ceos. we were talking about the anniversary of the credit crisis. i remember after that, in 2009, everybody saying confidence has to come back for ceos to make decision. this was frozen. whether markets are up or down given a day, most north american ceos feel pretty good about the next 15 to 18 months or they

wouldn't close. neil: this is all stock deal. means you have to have extra confidence that your stock is not going to be hurt? >> yeah. i think what is interesting, years ago, john malone's deal-maker on the sirius side said more or less at a conference, you know what? we would buy pan door about this price. at the time pandora was, we got this covered. neil: rod rosenstein leaving the white house, ralph? is that -- he is obviously not been fired or quit. but he is leaving the white house right now. he obviously did come in an suv. good to know. it was raining we were worrying about him walking to the white house earlier. the president we're told is going to meet with him amno, aman know, appears the attorney general is not fired. that might have been the case. but he will wait until thursday when the president is back from the united nations. i rudely interrupted my friend

deirdre bolton. the futures, what trade stuff is going on. kavanaugh and the judge banner back and forth with recriminations. wall street is certainly on board. >> all those surprises, when i was reading this morning and this, and this. there has been a lot came out over the weekend in regards to kavanaugh. of course as you just alluded to there, stepping out rod rosenstein. it is trumping at least sentimentwise $17 billion of deals. it does show -- neil: backdrop and money these guys made and lower tax cuts, a lot don't know what to do with that money. when they buy out competitors or looking to beef up operations, buy back stocks and all. tangential effect stocks generally go up. >> they generally go up. there is a few asterisks to some deals we've been talking about today. meaning there are a lot of

critics say pandora is changing hands at a quarter of it is price, its high in 2014 meaning is it too little too late? is this a hail mary pass? i don't think it is. meantime you have apple, amazon, youtube, a lot of people listen to music. you have spotify. people are saying this was a good idea a few years ago when pandora said, no thanks, we're good. neil: pandora always gets my music picks wrong. chants and next thing they're recommending enemy them songs. >> a little mix-up. neil: we'll see maybe they can make this work. a lot more coming up. the dow down 184 points. rod rosenstein safe in his job for now. after this.

neil: all right. thursday should be the day, we are told the senate judiciary committee will hear from christine blasey ford, the woman who charged that as high schoolers, she was attacked by brett kavanaugh. she will speak first, we are told, and later on, brett kavanaugh, but all of this coming at a time there are still other accusations. edward lawrence following all the back-and-forth on capitol hill. reporter: this new accusation comes while brett kavanaugh, judge brett kavanaugh, was at college. while at yale, deborah ramirez told "the new yorker" that

kavanaugh exposed himself at a party to her. ramirez says they were both very drunk and there were a lot of other people in the room. this new accusation comes as kavanaugh and his original accuser, dr. christine ford, are supposed to testify on thursday in front of the senate judiciary committee. the white house releasing a statement about kavanaugh on sunday, saying this is a smear, plain and simple. i look forward to testifying on thursday about the truth and defending my good name. the president this morning said that he is still behind his latest pick for the supreme court. >> judge kavanaugh's an outstanding person and i am with him all the way. we'll see how it goes with the senate, we'll see how it goes with the vote. i think there's a chance this could be one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen the a candidate for anything. reporter: democrats on the judiciary committee are saying there needs to be a full investigation. listen.

>> i think this is exactly why i support senator feinstein's request that we slow down this process, have the independent professionals from the fbi actually investigate these new, concerning allegations. reporter: today, lining the halls of this building, this senate building, 200 or more protesters were in the hallways in front of senator jeff flake's office, also in the main rotunda behind me, saying they are in support of the accusers against kavanaugh and would like senate republicans to end the confirmation process. neil? neil: ed, thank you very much. you often hear talk of the blue wave coming in november. an nbc/"wall street journal" poll showing democrats have an edge in this regard, a 12-point lead over republicans about what americans' preference would be in the election to take control of congress. the key advisers group, olympic media manager and last but not least, former bush 43 presidential writer, ned ryan.

katie, what is your sense of the sentiment numbers? i know they can shift and are hardly accurate when it comes to the election but they are the latest we have to go on. it shows a widening gap favoring democrats. do you buy at least that the sentiment is shifting in democrats' favor? >> well, i wouldn't necessarily be surprised, neil, if we are just looking at historical context. usually the party out of power does do better in this midterm so it would make sense that the democrats are polling well but again, as you said, polling is so flimsy and oftentimes very hard to necessarily base concrete evidence off of. so we will have to wait and see but within that poll, they did say enthusiasm from republicans is up as well and that is certainly a good sign. neil: i was wondering, speaking of the enthusiasm issue, if for whatever reason judge kavanaugh never makes it to the supreme court, could it backfire on democrats? in other words, could there be such rage on the part of republicans that the enthusiasm

gap builds for them and folks who wouldn't have gone to the polls, do? >> you know, i think that's a very good point. there's a high likelihood that that would actually be the case but predicting these elections and looking at polls is probably easier to predict the stock market and what it's going to do versus the political scene and what we live in today. neil: you're right about that. ned, one of the things that comes up in this whole kavanaugh issue back and forth is the risk of voting for him or against him. there's a separate pendulum that swings that the risk not voting for him, especially if your democratic senator is running for re-election in states that donald trump won handily, you have more cover, if you will, to vote against the judge. do you agree with that? >> maybe a little bit, neil. i'm more concerned about republicans who again have the majority are the ones calling the shots, not doing what they should be doing, listen to these accusations, have a vote and confirm kavanaugh because i tell you what, if they capitulate on

this and there's no vote to confirm kavanaugh, i think it will have a negative consequence on them in the midterm. i want to talk about this poll. this is registered voters and i'm very skeptical of generic ballots with registered voters especially in midterms which are base elections. it's much better to look at polls of likely voters. if you look at those it's five to seven points advantage for democrats. neil: very good point. >> nbc even admits when it comes to likely voters it immediately drops to eight points. the other thing i will say, republicans know what they need to do. they still think it's a coin toss they can keep the house. there are three issues based off a poll of 1,000 likely voters, they need to focus on three messages. making the middle class tax cuts permanent and with likely suburban voters that are persuadable, two issues resonate with them. they react negatively to abolishing i.c.e. and positively to republicans defunding sanctuary cities. republicans know what they need to do. they better do it between now and the midterms.

neil: a big concern was maybe the kavanaugh hearings are raising this issue that among suburban female voters, they are losing traction. again, these polls could be suspect, but do you buy that? are republicans in danger of losing women, even when chuck grassley comes out and says i'm doing everything i possibly can to accommodate this accuser and her concerns and her battle for fairness and all that, but its an issue for republicans? >> well, i think one of the problems here is that there is just so much endless negative coverage coming out of this. you do have people like chuck grassley coming out and trying to be as accommodating to dr. ford as they possibly can be, but you have this shoddy reporting coming out of "the new yorker" and people like the "new york times" saying they interviewed dozens of people and couldn't corroborate the ramirez story, you have all of these alleged witnesses from ford who say they don't even remember this party or they weren't there. but the problem is that if one person or two people or these women in the suburbs read a head

line, all they read is that "new yorker" headline, that might be the only impression they have to go off of on judge kavanaugh, and perhaps on republicans' behavior on the supreme court judge and that could potentially impact them negatively if people aren't reading beyond these headlines that may or may not be accurate. neil: what bothers me about some of the headlines, harkening back to my print reporters days, so indulge me down memory lane, if i submitted a story like this to any one of my editors based on no corroboration, a charge, i'm not taking anything away from the woman who makes the charge, but in fact, if it cannot be corroborated, my editor would say neil, just wait until it can. now we get the stories out before they can and, you know, that is what prompts this cynicism today on both sides. i think it's a slippery slope. >> i agree. that's why the confidence isn't there when they read these stories, because when things like this happen, i mean, you start to really hurt your

credibility. it's a shame that that's the environment that we're in today but this isn't the first time that it's happened. and it's probably not the last time. so it will be interesting in november, are people going to vote with their wallet because the economy is strong and they are in a better position financially, or are they going to vote because of what they read in the latest headline that may or may not be accurate. neil: you know, i think most people do vote with their wallet, except in midterm elections. if you will indulge me, in 2014, for example, we had a very strong economy, stronger, and yet the democrats lost seats in that. now, you could argue there was residual fallout from the health care thing and i grant you, but a good economy is less of an issue in midterms unless it's off the charts. this one in the market run-up prior to today is off the charts, maybe it makes a difference. what do you think? ned first. i apologize for not being clear. >> i think it will have some

impact. if you look even at that nbc poll we were discussing earlier, 64% of the voters thought -- said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the economy, even more interesting is that 55% of them said they were more likely to vote for a candidate that would actually have tax cuts for american businesses. the only people talking about that are republicans. so i do think that pocketbook issues are always present in voters' minds when they go to the polls. with midterms, though, they are base elections. often those are more visceral issues. the republicans have to start talking about sanctuary cities, abolishing i.c.e. and also not forget to talk about impeachment because we all know democrats if they get the majority back in the house will go for impeachment proceedings. you have to have some of those visceral issues to go along with economic and tax issues as well. neil: democrats say that is not their goal but that is the view a lot of republicans have expressed. is it your sense if we get to the midterms and the democrats were to take the house, some have even said the senate, if they get momentum, all bets are off?

>> i mean, we'll have to see. of course, president trump will have a significantly harder time getting his way if democrats do take one or both chambers, the house and the senate. of course, we won't necessarily know until then but we can be certain that there will be a significant more amount of tweets coming from him if that is the case and i imagine our lives will probably be a little worse off for them. neil: you mentioned the tweets. the president could do himself and republicans a favor heading into the midterms and with the new hearing involving judge kavanaugh not to tweet, not to talk, not to say much on the subject. >> yeah, well, i don't know if that's going to actually happen. we'll have to wait and see. the thing is, between now and november, there's still a lot can happen between now and then. neil: guys, thank you all very, very much. again, there are other factors for this market, now down about 181 points. a lot of it has to do with trade. a lot of it also has to do with uncertainty. you also hear that people can pounce on the latest

developments. i can tell you, though, that it's ignoring about $17 billion worth of big deals today and it might be just sort of a comeuppence here. we are not done with the trading for the month, but it has been a poor in for technology stocks. the story could be not so much what happened to the dow but what happened to technology. the market has found other leaders. they're not the cool guys. after this.

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neil: all right. let's take a look where we stand right now, in and out of session lows, down about 182 points. a lot of issues that we're running up on talk we might get a trade deal, now running down on fears not only are we not going to get one but it will cost us a lot ahead of even struggling to get one with holiday shopping season looking to be a lot priceye epricier if consider some of the goods china has slapped tariffs on, that you pay, not the government. better than 5,000 items affected there. better than $60 billion worth of goods. we have done the same on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. why is it in the middle of market watch, everyone says calm down, i still see dow 30,000 which would be about a 12%, 13%

rise from where we are and john sees it happening by the end of october. that's about right. is that right? >> i think it could be right. neil: you seem to be vacillating. >> i'm not vacillating at all. 20,000, i said 25. they all laughed. neil: you did indeed. what do you think of what he's saying, charles? >> not unreasonable. maybe october is soon. neil: his prediction. he may be unreasonable. >> that's a different story. we only have an hour left in the show. listen, if you get back to fundamentals and what we are seeing, the underlying economy, the earnings picture has been huge. remember the first quarter, the numbers were so phenomenal and the c.o.o. of caterpillar said something about a high water mark and wall street took it and ran with it and this is it, it can't get any higher. then the second quarter blew them away. now indications are for the

third quarter to do the same. i don't see fundamentally why we couldn't be at 30,000 at some point this year. neil: what is the bullish case for you, john? >> i think back february, march, i thought after the second quarter, then people will start saying wow, these tax cuts are really sticking and there are other effects from these tax cuts and now people are seeing growth at numbers that obama said could never happen. they are seeing household wealth, the highest ever in history. unemployment, the lowest in six years. african-american unemployment, the lowest in history. now people are starting to really believe the trump train is still on the tracks and it's full steam ahead. no one wants to get in front of it and i think the growth numbers, there was $1.7 trillion out there that's starting to be repatriated back to the u.s. as that money comes in coupled with the tax cuts, people are starting to get paid more money, maybe a little inflation, they may raise rates just a little bit but that's good because that means people are making more and

spending more and i think a little inflation might even be healthy right here. neil: well, the fed is expected to raise rates this week and maybe an additional hike later in the year. can you live with that? >> yeah. i think wall street can live with that because expectations have been in the high 90s for both. that wouldn't be a surprise. it will be interesting to see what they have to say on top of that. i think it gets back to two things, to john's point. the american consumer first showed enthusiasm in these numbers and now we are seeing it in actual spending. they could keep it going for some time. debt to disposable income ratios are significantly lower than they were in 2007. now businesses are making huge investments, the kind of investments i get excited about. we are seeing it on both sides, businesses and consumers. neil: when you notice a lot of these big trucking concerns, other ones are seeing boffo business, all that. >> in july they ordered almost

53,000. some of that might be expensing, but that's the highest number in history in one of the slowest months historically. you got to be confident. you got to say i need that as a business. by the way, it's a long-term thing, not that i will need it for this holiday season. i will need these to meet demand over the next three or four years because as a business, you never want to be flat-footed when demand is there. if you miss that window of opportunity, in the business, that's one of the biggest sins you can commit. neil: we are hearing because of the trade back and forth we will look at a pricier christmas shopping season. >> i think that may be a little bit of a price but i also think that companies are now starting to believe in themselves, with interest rates coming up a little bit, and people are getting more easy access to capital so people can start small businesses, can make that extra money -- and they can weather a little pricing. when you think about it, it's really patriotic to think if china wants to rip off the u.s., let's get more stuff made here

and i'm willing to pay a little more for stuff that's made in america. neil: i don't think these -- first of all, tariffs are what we pay, not what governments pay, but if he were to prepare the american people for that possibility, that would be -- >> i said that a lot right out of the gate and i still believe that. i will say, though, wall street has to make up its mind. over the weekend, jpmorgan put out this report that everyone is talking about and they said potentially this could hit the bottom line, s&p bottom line for the year. either it's going to hit corporations or hit consumers. they can't have it both ways. if consumers are going to pay the price increase, it won't hurt earnings at all. now, if you can't pass it on, that's a different sign. what we have seen, more and more industries with pricing power anyway. neil: it's not a given there's a 10% tariff, right, the company is going to pay that entire tariff, right? >> no, but you would expect they will just put that into their cost of goods and the consumer will ultimately pay. charles is right. charles' point, this is not

going to hurt companies. this is going to hurt people. i think the little bit that it's hurting, trump has already done a heck of a lot for those people because the tax cuts and deregulation have helped them grow their businesses and i'm willing to pay another 25 cents for something that's made in america if that means we're not -- neil: you are like a gazillionaire. real quickly, the thought on the president and all the unknowns, the invariables when it comes to rod rosenstein, when it concerns his own supreme court pick, the mueller investigation. if he's in trouble, do the rules still hold, the market runup is in trouble? >> more so when there's a lot of question marks out there. when this rosenstein news broke, it was obvious the market which was already weak got weaker a whole lot quicker. we want to see more stability out of the white house. neil: better to see the president in there than not in there? >> the president is the key factor what's happening right now. rosenstein in, rosenstein out, the market shrugs this stuff

off. the macros are huge. neil: we shall see. the markets were not shrugging off where he was. it was like a where's waldo episode earlier. no idea where the guy was. >> is it true they will have kavanaugh and rosenstein in the same room until thursday? neil: can you imagine? oh, my god. we want to pass along, a lot of you asked whatever happened to rosenstein. he did show up, albeit very, very late, but there's no firing or quitting today, we understand. the deputy attorney general is going to be meeting with the president on thursday when he's back from the united nations. maybe then we will see his future, but he did eventually make it to the white house and i guess it was hurry up and wait. you need a partner that is willing to break free from conventional thinking. we are a different kind of financial company. we are athene, and we are driven to do more.

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i'm susan li at the floor of the new york stock exchange. lot of merger activity. let's start with sirius xm, paying $3.5 billion including debt for pandora. sirius is doing this because they want to get into streaming

which is higher margin. currently sirius has around 36 million paying subscribers, 23 million trial subscribers. you include that into pandora which has 70 million active monthly users, that's a big expansion for sirius xm. of course, they are tying up into this $30 billion company to try and rival that of spotify which currently has 80 million paying subscribers, 83 million paying subscribers. this is a $6.6 billion market. that's how much americans spend on streaming music each and every year and it continues to grow. this is a play on the strong consumer theme which we know consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. speaking of consumerism, the other big deal of the day is the sale of versace to michael kors. on the back of this, take a look at michael kors falling close to 8%. i guess people are thinking michael kors and sirius xm, both stocks are falling today because maybe they have overpaid for

these assets. one lucky investor in sirius xm is george soros. he gains as well and is also betting big on streaming itself, also owning $122 million in spotify. i guess with all that, the consumer dollar flushing around in the u.s. economy might not be a bad play. neil: not a bad play at all, you think about it. the whole group comes into play. thank you very, very much. the president of the united states was calling the north korean leader rocket man a year ago so what is so out of the question to now potentially make overtures or have his administration make overtures to the leader of iran? take a look. >> you can bet the president will have well-deserved strong words for the iranian regime which is among the worst violators of u.n. security council resolutions, if not the absolute worst in the world. he will call on every country to

join our pressure campaign in order to thwart iran's global torrent of destructive activity. neil: all right. the word we are getting now is he just might meet, president trump, with the leader of iran, mr. rouhani. it could happen before you know it. the former adviser to vice president dick cheney on that. how likely would that be and how big a deal would that be? >> well, the iranians are insisting that it will never happen, that they would see that as somehow giving legitimacy to president trump's decision to pull out of the iranian nuclear deal. but the iranians really have got to weigh the fact that they have got sanctions coming down the pike that are going to take between one to two million barrels of iranian oil off the market come november. their major source of revenue. and their economy is already reeling. they have people protesting in the street. they actually need a new deal

with the united states so i would say nothing's impossible. neil: you know, the attack on soldiers, two dozen killed, you don't see that sort of thing every day. that might have shaken the regime to the core. what's going on there? >> well, we actually have seen a constant level of low level protests in iran since the beginning of the year. not just in tehran but across the country. this particular attack on the heart and soul of the regime, the islamic revolutionary guard corps, occurred in a province which is the core of the iranian oil producing industry. so this is a real serious threat to the regime. neil: do you think it's serious enough that it could risk toppling the regime? >> i think what's happening in places like that province which is not predominantly persian population, it's an arab sunni

population, between what's happening there and what's happening across the rest of the country, the complete collapse of their economy, collapse of their currency, complete dissatisfaction and realization that this regime cannot answer the basic needs of the iranian people, together with this enormous pressure from the united states, i think the islamic revolution is looking at a very, very difficult next year or two. neil: all right. john, thank you very, very much. oil was up, as i showed you there. stocks are down, as i also showed you a little bit earlier. in the middle of that, concern right now about the future of an investigation of the president of the united states and how that affects one rod rosenstein, who apparently is still hanging on to his job until at least thursday.

neil: all right.

thursday could be the day that rod rosenstein is fired or finds out his fate, because it wasn't today. apparently the word from the white house is they did want to talk to the deputy attorney general at the white house and there was that drama, sort of where is the guy and what's happening and what was the purpose of bringing him to the white house, either to meet with the chief of staff john kelly or to map out his future. the details of which could be known by thursday, when the president wanted to sit down with him and find out for himself what he meant by these reports he was invoking the 25th amendment to heave the president out of office, whether that was true, whether it was a joke or a snide remark. let's get the read on all of this and the future of a very, very important person in this mueller probe, fox news senior judicial analyst andrew napolitano. judge, first on rosenstein, the president is going to meet with him. there is talk then and there the president is going to fire him. if he did, what would you make of that?

>> the president has been taking the pulse of his closest advisers since friday when the "new york times" report on rosenstein came out, basically saying this is what he thinks. give me five reasons why i should fire him, you give me five reasons why i shouldn't. the prevailing view amongst republican office holders in congress is do not fire him now, because it's going to cause blowback which will affect us in the midterm elections. the democrats will say you fire him because you want to interfere with the mueller probe, you want to put somebody else in there as bob mueller's boss who won't give bob mueller the free rein that he now has. there's another reason why, if you ask me, i would say he should not fire him at all, and that is because the minute he's fired, he is bob mueller's best witness. he was present at all the meetings when they were deciding whether real or pretextual, the reasons for firing jim comey. that would be a beast in the night for donald trump if rod rosenstein were to be a witness against him. neil: do you think any of this

is true, that he was talking about rosenstein invoking the 25th amendment? i even took a leap to say even if it were the case, it was in spring of 2017, very different environment, and you could argue that the two have grown closer since then. where it's a moot point of whatever -- >> i will tell you how close they have grown. last friday, before the story came out, rod rosenstein was the head of the team that talked donald trump out of releasing the fisa documents, because the national security, and they successfully did so. if i were the president on thursday, i would say look, i don't know what you said, you may have said it in a pique of anger. this guy mccabe was a bum, we think he's going to be indicted for perjury and we think you were saying it to get under his skin but i need you. you are the chief operating officer of the department of justice. want you to call general kelly, this is a suggestion that

governor sununu made this morning, call general kelly every morning at 7:00, tell us what's coming, every night at 7:00, tell us what happens because i'm really interested in the efficient management of the doj and for better, for worse, you're my guy. for heaven's sakes, don't think out loud, even if you are having a bad day, don't think out loud because i don't want to see it on the front page of the "new york times." that's the conversation i would have with him. this guy has great experience and great respect amongst the lifers in the doj, talking prosecutors and fbi agents. it would be traumatic to the doj were he to be fired over this. neil: wouldn't that be a little unsettling, too, get up at 7:00 in the morning, 7:00 at night to review? >> maybe that's a little much. if i were the president, i would bond with him. i wouldn't repel him. neil: let's switch gears on the

kavanaugh situation. you raised -- now with all the allegations coming up, he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, but the president could entertain a recess appointment. >> my colleague maria said is there anything these people can do on their own. i said well, yes. dr. ford could go to a police station in maryland and file a criminal complaint against him because there is no statute of limitations on sexual assault. are they going to confirm somebody to the supreme court who is under a criminal investigation for sexual assault? the answer, no. what about the president? well, the president could call up mitch mcconnell and say i want the senate to go into recess. the senate never goes into recess since president obama attempted to make recess appointments during a so-called recess which were reversed by the supreme court. but if the senate truly were in recess, because the republicans wanted the president to do this, he has what's called recess appointment powers. he can replace anthony kennedy with brett kavanaugh and brett kavanaugh would sit as a full-fledged member of the

united states supreme court until the end of the term of the next senate. stated differently, until january of '23. that would give the senate four years in which to hold confirmation hearings and decide whether or not to confirm him. neil: if it is that easy why don't all presidents do it? >> i don't think they want to set that precedent though, as i said, bill brennan was appointed by eisenhower immediately on to the supreme court when the senate was in a break, and then two months later, he was confirmed and had it for life. neil: anyone who was appointed this way, were they ever thrown out? >> no. everyone who was appointed as a recess appointment ultimately -- neil: how many? >> i would say about a half dozen times. ultimately was confirmed and got the lifetime appointment. neil: do people know that on capitol hill? >> i think they do. neil: is that what they are holding in their hip pocket? >> i don't know. i do believe thursday will be a confrontation unlike anything we

have seen since arlen specter cross-examined anita hill. there is no arlen specter because of the metoo era. i don't think anyone can cross examine dr. ford as aggressively as anita hill. at the end of the day, we will have an impression who is the more truthful person, this person we never heard of, dr. christine blasey ford, or the nominee the president has been touting, judge kavanaugh. if it's a tie, if they are equally credible, i think he loses. if he's more credible, not talking about reality, talking about perception, if he's more credible, he will be confirmed. neil: amazing. amazing, amazing. judge napolitano, thank you very, very much. all right. you don't like the leg room you have in airplanes? it's a moot point for the judges who fly private. but for other people -- >> because i'm short. neil: they are furious about

this. how would you like the government to take care of that for you, to rule leg room, bathroom size, all of that on your airplanes? after this.

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neil: all right. think things are getting cramped in the air? congress is looking to do something about it down here. make room for passengers on

airplanes by, well, expanding the room in those airplanes. it is an unprecedented role for the federal government, but one greeted favorably by a number of flyers who say about time. hillary vaughn is at los angeles international airport with more. hey, hillary. reporter: hey, neil. congress is trying to put a stop to the ever-shrinking space on board which means if this bill goes through, the faa will require airlines to provide a minimum amount of space to travelers which means there's going to be restrictions on how small seats can be and also the space between each row. the proposal headed to congress this week would establish this minimum space size. there is also some other considerations in the bill. if passed, it would ban airlines from kicking passengers off the plane once they have already boarded. it would also require airlines to explicitly detail their policies for handling flight delays and if a flight is canceled or delayed because of weather, airlines need to be up front if there were any other

factors involved in that as well. there is also going to be a crackdown on what animals are allowed on board. any passengers that are trying to pass off their pet as a service animal, they are going to be cracking down on that. also, no animals in the overhead compartment at all, no matter if they can fit. that's another thing that's on the table. also, flight attendants are going to be required to get at least ten hours of sleep in between shifts. pre-check is going to be expanded to several more airports. that's wrapped up in this bill as well. also, two other things not allowed on board. phone calls and smoking of e-cigs. that's banned in this proposal as well. this is all part of the funding budget for the faa that's expiring on september 30th which means congress needs to pass this through this week if they're going to keep the faa and their programs funded. we will see if all these proposals are voted in by congress this week. neil? neil: the only one that surprises me there is no animals in the overhead compartment.

someone had to put that in writing. all right. hillary vaughn at lax, thank you very, very much. in the meantime, [ inaudible ] ringing the opening bell at the new york stock exchange. this has gotten to be a booming sort of wall street favorite, animal care and treatment and all the implications but even by wall street initial standards, the reception it's gotten is off the charts. >> yeah. i think the care and wellbeing of an animal has never mattered more to society, all over the world, than it does today and i think it's both on the pet side, a cat, cow or chicken, it matters. it's been demonstrated more so here recently just by everything from the pet, 9 out of 10 homes have a pet in the united states

but even the milk, meat and eggs, they care about the animal. neil: gerri, what do you think? >> let's define that performance you just mentioned. it was a better first day return than any billion dollar ipo since twitter. it was impressive. i want to talk about drug development just for a second because we are talking about drugs for animals, for livestock and for pets, right? and the development procedure is far different for humans and it's one of the reasons investors like the category. >> regulated by the fda and very, you know, much of a comprehensive process, but you're looking because of the differences in animals, three to seven years versus maybe nine to 13 on the pharmaceutical side. it can be a drug development costs $25 million up to $100 million. our drugs are smaller, a blockbuster in our industry may be $100 million in revenue but it persists longer. it's a cash business, not a payer business so you are able to be selling directly to

farmers and veterinarians. neil: what are the implications for humans? >> what are the implications in what way? neil: in other words, if we are pouring a good deal of energy and effort into helping animals and then the natural question people ask is how does this longer term benefit humans? >> i think, look, animals, the significance of animals today, especially if you look on the livestock side, the united nations said we need 75% more meat, milk, eggs and fish by 2050 because of i think the western diet, as carbs and sugar become a lot less, you go to costco, two out of three diet books and cookbooks are driven by protein. as well as people get more money, you know, protein becomes a bigger part of the diet. >> protein is a bigger part but the fda came out with rules that have not helped your company. they want to make sure the antibiotics don't get in the human food chain. what's that done to your business?

>> we very much said we will innovate in the future. we were part of the whole antibiotic resistance forum back with president obama and we said hey, we would bring more than two dozen candidates into our pipeline, antibiotic alternatives. we have done more than half of that. we see it as a disruptive way of opportunity. but remember, the ultimate food safety comes from a healthy animal in our business. the veterinarian knows the condition. if we can provide an alternative which we have nutritional health products, enzymes and pro and p prebiotices and animal only antibiotics if necessary. there's a focus on the animal and a healthy animal creates that high quality food that we need. veterinarians got to stay in the center. we see it as an opportunity. >> there has been a cost to the bottom line. according to your prospectus. >> absolutely there has. what we have done is coming into this, before the ipo, repositioned our business relative to this.

the other is i think very, very importantly, is the pipeline. i think unusual, we are coming in in one of the big drivers to our value as well is we have launched three new products a year since 2015. we are coming in with nine products. we will launch another three this year. that represents about 10% of our company. i think back to this is an industry that rewards innovation. you are able to innovate a little bit more in terms of numbers of products and that creates that durability and diversity investors like and customers need. neil: investors in the u.s. or elsewhere? where are the animal friendly markets? >> it really depends. on the livestock side, you can imagine everybody, every major geography wants to be able to have their own food supply so you are seeing asia, the poultry and pig market grow in asia, latin america is more cattle, here in north america we have diversity. livestock is geoexpansion. pets, probably more today it's been more the western, you know, the united states, europe, australia, japan. but look for these emerging

cities. our next area of opportunity in pets, two big drivers emerging market cities as well as just that aging pet. we have added about two years to a pet's life, little over a decade. it's bringing chronic disease very similar to people so we are launching a new portfolio on osteoarthritis. neil: the worldwide environment, we have trade battles and tariffs back and forth, that could affect livestock that we market and sell abroad, et cetera. you have heard that argument, and this could be a wrinkle for your company. >> yeah, so for our company we worked very hard to diversify. so making sure we've got sizeable businesses in each one of the geographies that are not dependent on trade. that's number one. i do think, though, for livestock and animal agriculture, trade's important. to feed this world it's going to be meat, milk and eggs are going to have to move as well. neil: does it worry you? >> it doesn't worry me from our business standpoint. it is a need relative to creating food security and providing the protein to people

in the most productive way and the way that doesn't impact the environment as well. >> you have been growing through acquisition, you added $5.4 million novartis, integrating that into your operation. it sounds like you will be doing less acquisition now and growing through new products. >> lilly is in a real position of strength now, as a company launching products, during an era where they were positioning these new products to launch, we came in and really built a top tier animal health company. through acquisition as well as through innovation. now we are in a state where we believe we have the size and scale, we have the geographic spread to be able to grow organically with new innovations as well as geographic expansion. neil: this isn't economically dependent. if you really love your animal, bottom line, that's what matters. >> it's a lot more of a recession-proof business. good incremental growth, coming from two really diverse industries that still have the connection between pets and livestock.

>> how big a deal are generics in this category? i always think about that. >> generics, i have been in the industry 30 years, have always been present in our industry but we have a cash business. farmers, veterinarians, probably the most noble customer base. these are humble, very much focused on the care and wellbeing of animals but also very innovative and visionary. so being able to address them in a cash business direct with value, you can differentiate your portfolios. neil: look forward to it. thank you for taking the time. congratulations. gerri willis, thank you very, very much. market still not moving, not budging. a lot of worrying. after this. we've been helping you prepare and invest for retirement since day one. why would we leave now? because i'm retired now. so? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement... . .

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neil: all right. that will do it here. take you to trish regan take you through no doubt next busy hour. trish: busy, busy. thank you very much, neil. president trump is standing by his man pledging support for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is facing another accuser talking about an encounter decades ago. the details are hazy like they were before. i'm trish regan. welcome to "the intelligence report. ♪ >> judge kavanaugh is an outstanding person and i am with him all the way. trish: brett kavanaugh set to defend himself to the senate judiciary committee on thursday against christine blasey ford