lou: good evening, everybody. this has been an historic day, and tomorrow promises to be as well. the senate, and later tonight the congress as well, will have passed what is an 1159-page bill that is known as h.j. 31, appropriating monies for the homeland security department, incorporating the border security conference committee's border security compromise, so-called. that keeps the government running, no shutdown, if indeed president trump does sign the legislation. the late hour of the congressional vote means the white house will take up the bipartisan, bicameral bill in

all likelihood throughout tonight and prepare it for the president's signing tomorrow. we are told president trump will sign the $333 billion legislation into law tomorrow morning and also sign an executive order, an executive order declaring a national emergency to begin to take dramatic steps to confront the crisis at our southern border, a national emergency. and importantly, president trump's order means the border wall will be built. the president has gained as well important support from his own party to support his national emergency declaration. that support includes senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i've just had an opportunity to speak with president trump, and he -- i would say to all my colleagues -- has indicated he's prepared to sign the bill. he will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. and i've indicated to him that i'm going to prepare -- i'm

going to support the national emergency declaration. lou: and as the republicans rally behind president trump, the leaders of the radical dems -- nancy pelosi, chuck schumer -- seem shaken and insure, and their remarks today protesting the president's action failed to note either presidential history or the simple, plain facts of it all. >> there is word the president will declare a national emergency. i hope he won't. that would be a very wrong thing to do. >> it's important to note that when the president declares this emergency, first of all, it's not an emergency, what's happening at the border. a humanitarian challenge to us, the president has tried to sell a bill of goods to the american people. the president's doing an end wrong around congress about the power of the purse. lou: no, it's not about the power of the purse, it's about the constitution and the national emergencies act of 1976. we'll take up that history and

the law here tonight. president trump clearly on the right side of both. more history made today, the senate confirmed president trump's nominee as attorney general william barr. barr now faces among his first test as the nation's top law enforcement official whether he will open investigations into the illegal surveillance against a presidential candidate, against a president and intervention in a presidential campaign and election. and ultimately, the attempted overthrow of a duly elected president of the united states. the top of the fbi and department of justice was ridden with political corruption. former acting fbi director andy mccabe, who supported -- as apparently did most of the fbi and doj leadership -- hillary clinton. and who admits setting in motion much of the fabricated and politically-motivated investigations of fictional trump-russia collusion and

equally outrageous claims of obstruction of justice. >> i was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who who might have done so with the aid of a government of russia, and that was something that troubled me greatly. lou: mccabe out selling his book, making the rounds. he still claims his innocence. you may have noted the tone that he took. this as the chair of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr, now confirms and backs the president of the united states. senator richard burr declaring there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of the fraudulent collusion narrative, a narrative constructed entirely by the department of justice and the fbi in their efforts to destroy president trump. tonight we take up what has been a very good day for president trump and the nation. with us tonight, top republican

strategists ed rollins, gregg jarrett, senior fellow at the center for the national interest, christian whiton. our top story, without question, what has been a very good day at the white house. president trump now in his 755th day in office. he is building political momentum by the day now toward 2020. chief white house correspondent john roberts has more tonight from the white house. >> reporter: in a statement, the press secretary saying he was taking the emergency action to insure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border. the president is once again delivering on his promise to build a wall, protect the border and secure our great country. in a joint statement, the speaker of the house and senator chuck schumer said: declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency. >> the precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met

with great unease and dismay by the republicans. and, of course, we will respond accordingly when we review our options. first, we have to see what the president actually says. >> reporter: the way it all played out was exactly what south carolina senator lindsey graham suggested more than a month ago. >> there are some things in there that are good for border security, and relate him march toward -- let him march toward filling in the gaps by executive action. >> reporter: the spending bill gives the president $1.37 billion for pedestrian fencing in the rio grande valley sector. but there are also restrictions that the president is bristling at. the bill stipulates that border wall cannot be built in several areas including the national butterfly center west of mcallen, and it puts handcuffs on changes in spending. there are 354 instances in the bill where the phrases "none of the funds" are used to place

rerestrictions on how the money can be used or moved around. declaring an emergency may allow president trump to move some money around from other departments to add to wall construction. it will almost certainly land him in the courts, but he will be able to tell his base he did all he could to make good on his central campaign promise. the house speaker said it also sends a message to the democratic base. >> that the president can declare an emergency on something that he has created as an emergency. an illusion that he wants to convey. just think of what a president with different values can present to the american people. >> reporter: white house officials say their attorneys have been looking at the ins and outs of an emergency declaration for weeks now, and while they do expect this will end up in the courts and likely in the ninth circuit court of appeals' jurisdiction, press secretary sarah sanders said the white house is very prepared for a legal challenge. lou? lou: as they well should be. john roberts at the white house.

thank you, john with. joining us tonight to take up all of this, heritage foundation senior legal fellow hans van spi cover sky, fox business political analyst ed rollins, good to have you, as well as james freeman, assistant editor at "the wall street journal," fox business contributor. hans, let's start with you. nancy pelosi ignoring -- if we could put up, quickly, a full screen here of the number of national emergencies that have been declared by presidents of which there are 31 still active. by the way, as nancy pelosi talked about for the base, the democratic base that they'll find out what they can do with emergencies, they weren't paying attention when president obama himself declared 12 such national emergencies. the national emergency is clearly within the power of the president of the united states. >> well, yeah. congress passed a statute, as you mentioned, in the mid 1970s that lays out the

procedures for this. and, you know, that statute leaves it well within the discretion of the president to determine what is a national emergency. i've got to tell you, i think nancy pelosi has lost touch with reality if she doesn't think that the huge amounts of illegal drugs coming across the border like fentanyl, which is now the leading cause of overdose death in the united states, and the tens of thousands of illegal aliens constantly crossing, if she doesn't think that's a crisis, like i said, she's lost touch with reality. lou: and losing a, importantly, a political battle because that is what this has all been about, ed rollins. >> right. lou: this is a party that is coming behind, forming up behind president trump. he is gaining momentum. this is his 755th day in office. guess how many days he's been under investigation if by east committees, the -- by east committees or the special counsel?

755 days. >> probably another week or two before that. [laughter] lou: well, we know months before that. months before that. but the reality is that he is gaining political momentum. the party is forming up behind him. >> absolutely. lou: the law's on his side, history's on his side. this is looking very good for the country to have a leader who finally is emerging from what has been an assault by the left -- >> right. lou: -- and the fake news media. >> and as he get stronger, the democrats get weaker as they see who, basically, gets further left in their 20-some-odd candidates. this is an important decision to have made, and the wall is a critical factor in stopping an emergency. and as you said, there have been 58 times since the bill was passed in 1976 that we've had national emergencies. i actually oversaw the office, the intergovernmental office, in the reagan white house. clinton did it 17 times, obama did it 12 times, george w. bush

did it 13 times, so it's not like there hasn't been national emergencies in the past. lou: and this national emergency, james, great contested debate for years now over immigration, illegal immigration and border security. this will, the declaration of the national emergency and the president's action, this will settle part of that debate; that is, that there will be border security. it's, i think, none -- it's just breathtaking to many that there would be a debate about a superpower, any nation that would not be automatically defending its borders. >> well, he obviously has not been able to persuade a majority in the congress. they don't agree at the moment even though they may have said earlier it was a crisis, they don't agree at the moment. and so you'd like this to go through the normal legislative process -- lou: why would we? the normal legislative process has been a disaster. we have been watching this for, since 1986 when amnesty was

patsed. we have seen -- passed. we have seen border security erode. we've seen lives devastated and destroyed by drugs that are coming across, methamphetamine, marijuana if, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl. the majority of those deadly drugs, 70,000 opiate overdoses a year. how can anyone in good conscience not want to control that border and stop the import of those deadly drugs alone? forget illegal immigration, terrorists. you name it, sex trafficking. those deaths alone should be enough to want to secure the border for any american. >> well, i think you want to get funding the way our constitution sets it out and get the approval of the congress or see to -- lou: the president had the approval -- >> look, i think he has an argument. lou: an a argument? if he has the law. it's called the national emergencies act of 1976 giving him that -- >> and i agree with you he's on a threshold level the inability

to defend the border, to maintain the beingty of a border -- integrity of a border does seem -- lou: does that seem you'd be a little concerned about a president who didn't want to protect the -- >> well, you do have to be concerned about a precedent -- lou: a precedent? we've got 31 acts -- >> do you want to expand the ability of a president to do that? lou: james, of those 58 that ed just referenced, president obama wrote 12 executive orders. three orders already by this president. 31 of those executive orders over those administrations are still active which means succeeding presidents have had to sign those every six months in order to keep them in effect. >> right. lou: this is a historical precedent. it is, without question, his lawful, lawful prerogative to issue such an executive order. we're going to take this up in greater detail, the politics of it, the economics of it as well.

importantly, all three of our panel will be back with us as we continue to discuss what has been a great day for america and a great day for this white house. up next, the coup d'etat was real. the effort to overthrow a president, to intervene in a presidential election. former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe admits the plot to undermine this president began almost immediately, part of it after james comey was fired. much of it long before that. we take that up after the break, fox legal analyst gregg jarrett joins us next. stay with us. ♪ i can't tell you who i am or what i witnessed, but i can tell you liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (♪light musical cords) novethat means, throughouth at novemeber, to raise awareness about prostate cancer, city of hope is urging men to stop shaving, and get screened. but, here's my problem. when i grow out my beard, i end up like this. i mean, have you ever? and you know how long this took me? what do i have? a couple of little hairs here? i mean man, it's useless. how about this? how about this? very lincolnesque, don't you think? how about this? ow! (laughter) well that's not the way i heard it!

for all you men watching, do what i can't. let your beards grow. and while you're at it, get screened. noshaver with city of hope. grow it. show it. know it. (laughter) cityofhope.org/noshaver

this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today.

lou: well, he's out peddling a new b. former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe telling cbs news that he opened an investigation of obstruction the of justice targeting president trump, and he says he and other politically-corrupt members of the justice department leadership held talks about actually removing the president from office and invoking the 25th amendment. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that, were i

removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanished in the night without a trace. i wanted to make sure that our case was on solid ground. lou: wow. his case on solid ground. the president responded to mccabe. he tweeted this today, saying: disgraced fbi acting director andrew mccabe pretends to be "a poor little angel," when, in fact, he was a part of the crooked hillary scandal and a russia hoax, a puppet for leaking james comey. i.g. report on mccabe devastating part of the insurance policy in case i won, said the president. the president has to be just absolutely beside himself in watching this. but in another quarter, also rejoicing in the fact that the truth is e memorying. -- emerging at just the opportune

moment. a couple of years earlier would have been better, i acknowledge. joining me now, gregg jarrett, fox news legal analyst. great to have you with us. this is riveting. this is revelatory. mccabe, i love the tone he's taking. he looks like a teenage boy scout there. [laughter] i can't imagine that he would try to overthrow the president of the united states, would hold -- would bear witness to rod rosenstein actually wanting to invoke the 25th amendment, actually willing to wear a wire to take down a president. >> think about this, every american should be frightened that a handful of unelected individuals in law enforcement thought they knew better than the american public that elected donald trump. and so they plotted in an illegal, illicit scheme to depose president trump, to overthrow him. the e equivalent of a coup because they didn't like the man or his policies.

that's frightening. lou: and to put it, i think, into just a little different context, there were no facts for them to make the assumption -- >> right. lou: -- that there was any possibility. it was a phony trumped-up -- excuse the pup -- >> the russia hoax is disassembling, and we're beginning to peel back layers of the onion and finding out the level of corruption which is really quite astonishing. lou: this is a historic moment for this president who, as i said, has been under investigation literally every day that he's been in office. >> oh, yeah. he was sued his second day in office for emoluments. he hadn't even unpacked his bags yet, and he was being sued. lou: this is the beginning of, i think, a historic turn for this president. he is emerging at the victor on every issue that he has

confronted, every challenge he's cop fronted. >> -- confronted. >> right. lou: momentum moving toward 2020. mccabe, rosenstein -- who had lied, but who was the author of the memorandum -- >> right. lou: -- that led to the firing. >> right. he volunteered to write that memo. lou: it doesn't suit me that he suddenly got, he became a coward in the face of the democratic party's outcry. this is a man with unknown motivations. it is far more complex, i think, than we know right now. >> he is manipulative and nefarious. he continues to hide his own wrongful conduct by obstructing lawful subpoenas from congress. he has a lot to answer for. it will not end well for rod rosenstein or andrew mccabe. lou: and paul ryan, who would not submit subpoenas -- >> right. lou: -- he has a lot to answer for.

>> he'll be back driving the wiener mobile. previous job. lou: well, as we turn to the idea of investigating the investigators, william barr, the new attorney general, sworn in just this evening. is he going to investigate? do you have -- >> he said he would. in his confirmation hearing -- lou: i know what he said. do you have confidence that he will actually go after this group of nefarious criminals who lead the justice department -- who led the justice department and the fbi? >> i think he's always been an honest and honorable man, so when he said in his confirmation hearing he would investigate them, i believe he will. lou: all right. gregg jarrett, good to have you here. >> thank you very much. lou: thanks so much. and gregg has a new book. a brand new, updated version of "the russia hoax," bringing to bear the latest developments. he's going to be doing several of these because this thing is

really taking off now. [laughter] we recommend it to you highly, the russian hoax." gregg jarrett, thank you. up next, the left-wing national media in hysterics tonight over the president's plan to declare a national emergency. >> this is currently congress surrendering their principal authority under the constitution, the power of the purse, if they allow this rogue action to take place. >> the president has pinked the nation -- punked the nation, taking the news cycle hostage. >> you're going about trying to get your wall in a way that sets a bad precedent. >> it's the beginning of the discussion. the debate and probably, almost certainly, the court fight over that national emergency. lou: we'll have a lot more on that like the facts, the history, the constitution. ed rollins joins us here next. but before we go to break, a look at the $22 trillion u.s. national debt. it's official, we're going places we've never been before.

$22 trillion plus and rising quickly. we're coming right back, stay with us. ♪ ♪

lou: president trump telling two radm governors to shape up on twitter. president trump asked california's governor gavin newsom to pay back the $3.5 billion the federal government gave them for that now-defunct high-speed rail project between l.a. and san francisco. get this, the california high-speed rail authority tells us they've spent already $6.2 billion. 22 sites are under construction, just 2 completed, of course. and earlier this week the president telling new york governor andrew cuomo, well, he wanted some help with those higher -- [laughter] those higher limits on taxes, state taxes. and the president had a thought for him. this president is very

solution-oriented. he said, governor cuomo, why don't you open up your state to fracking, and that'll help your stagnating economy. particularly the northern parts of the state. the governor lamenting the fact that people are leaving his state in droves because of higher state taxes. what do you think? cuomo's the one who said, you know, america was never great again. he's talking to the man who's doing everything he can every day to do that. i would have had a different response, i assure you, to the good governor. joining us once again, former reagan white house director, ed rollins are. what does it take, do you think, for andrew cuomo to go down to washington and beg the president for help because he can't run a state and he's got an out-of-control budget? >> well, he's not going to do it, to begin with, and the president's -- lou: no, i'm talking about andrew cuomo. i mean, what is going through his head? >> oh, you know, he's an

egomaniac, always has been. thought he could be president, decided he's not going to make that chase. at the end of the day, pennsylvania with fracking has just a reinvigorated their economy. we're right adjacent to them, we won't have fracking. we have high taxes. we lost amazon today which is another major issue -- lou: new yorkers drove 'em out. [laughter] you're a capitalist enterprise -- >> not a good place to do business. but it's -- lou: but i have to give the folks credit in new york who said, you know what? giving away all of the services and infrastructure -- >> right. lou: -- public goods is not a very smart idea. i know a lot of people, the libertarians will go nuts when i say something like that. but the truth of the matter is corporate america has to stand up and pay their fair share. i mean, good lord, they've been outsourcing jobs for year, offshoring production and now they don't want to pay taxes. >> especially when it's been

reported that amazon hasn't paid taxes for -- lou: you know, we're getting far afield here. [laughter] >> let's get back to something i know about. laugh. lou: let's get back to the president signing the declaration and signing the joint house resolution 31, $333 billion and the compromise legislation. he gets $1.4 billion, but he's going after more monies through transfer and supported by majority leader, what do you know, mitch mcconnell. >> well, it was very important for mcconnell to do that, and i think it's very important for the president to do this. the president's lived up to his promises again, and i think to a certain extent he'll charge for it. want to talk him to court, great. the courts got that settle these issues. the quicker they do it, the better. lou: the court just has to not enjoin the president. and, by the way, if this is a court that would enjoin the president of the united states

in declaring national emergency, it's quite a court, because there is precedent. 58 of these national emergency declarations, 31 still active, as i said earlier in the broadcast. that means that succeeding presidents have had to reauthorize those --? >> sure, absolutely. lou: -- declarations, and pelosi's acting like she never heard of one? i mean, give me a break. let's turn to what the president can do here now. he's got a new attorney general. he has everything seemingly moving his way. he's got andrew mccabe making not only a fool if on himself, but shedding even more light on the toxic and politically-corrupt fbi and justice department leaderships over these past years. >> well, the idea that he was even going to talk about the 25th amendment, which has nothing to do with the job of the president. it's when the president's incapacitated, to use that as the excuse to get him out, it's criminal. it literally is a treasonous

act -- lou: and he's out selling books. >> well, he's not going to sell many book, and he should be indicted. and what i would want to know is if he did approach the vice president, as he claims on this show, what did the vice president do after that. lou: absolutely. and a very good question, it is. >> right. lou: as always. ed rollins -- how usually just has good answers, but he's got good questions tonight too. >> i've watched you for many years. lou: it's been a pleasure for us both, has it not? [laughter] >> as we have aged. lou route we've aged? >> you haven't, i have. [laughter] lou: oh, well. i guess i could convince myself of that. thanks for the thought. up next, for the second year in a row amazon to is going to pay nothing in taxes. why should they pay taxes? it's amazon, come on! plus, we'll have the latest from venezuela with former state department adviser christian whiton. he joins us next, we'll be right

back. treating advanced lung cancer. treatments like keytruda with chemotherapy really break through barriers that we had not too many years ago. (avo) another tru story with keytruda. in a clinical trial, significantly more patients lived longer and saw their tumors shrink than on chemotherapy alone. (dr. kloecker) it's changed my approach to treating patients. (avo) keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you have advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer and you do not have an abnormal "egfr" or "alk" gene. keytruda helps your immune system fight cancer, but can also cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body. this can happen during or after treatment and may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have new or worse cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, severe stomach pain or tenderness, nausea or vomiting, rapid heartbeat, increased hunger or thirst, constipation, dizziness or fainting, changes in urine or eyesight,

muscle pain or weakness, joint pain, confusion or memory problems, fever, rash, itching, or flushing. these are not all the possible side effects. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune system problems, if you've had an organ transplant, had or plan to have a stem cell transplant, or have lung, breathing, or liver problems. (dr. kloecker) any day you can give good news to a patient is a good day. (avo) living longer is possible. it's tru. keytruda, from merck. with more fda-approved uses for advanced lung cancer than any other immunotherapy.

>> nicolas maduro telling the press he won't resign. he says he's unviolated u.s. envoy elliot abrams to go to venezuela after the two held, according to maduro, secret meetings in new york. joining me now, christian whiton, former state department senior adviser in the trump and bush administrations. good to have you with us. christian, let's start with the idea of secret meetings between maduro and elliot abrams. your sense about the veracity of the maduro claims and, secondly, the idea that abrams should go talk to him. >> you know, i doubt that the talks took place, and i'm certain they didn't take place at a senior level.

after all, secretary of state pompeo is over in europe. elliot abrams, pompeo's senior envoy for venezuela issues, was busy yesterday being heckled by the clowns up in the house of representatives, so i don't know if he was up in new york. it's not a particularly big deal if it is. i mean, sometimes it makes sense to talk to our adversaries especially if we are trying to orchestrate their exit, and that's what maduro should do, is exit. as for the idea of elliot going down to venezuela, he himself has said the time for dialogue is over, and that's probably just an effort to buy time. he really needs to see that the writing is on the wall and cede power. lou: it looks as though that is the farthest thing from his mind, that's the appearance, as he digs in and the military doesn't seem to be offering any support at all to juan guaido. >> right. you know, however, there are some signs -- and there'll be

more crises, which is what you need to constantly test that support of the military. in some senses, the military has already shown its limitations, and there are reports that they have gone to maduro and said, listen, don't ask us to start shooting people in the streets, because we're not going to do it. maduro was able to order the police and military to stop aid, but there are going to be more attempts -- lou: imagine that, a leader refusing help and food, sustenance for a starving people. your view on china/u.s. trade talks? they seem to be still at an impasse. finish. >> right. and i think the market has way overvalued the chance. i mean, people seem to assume a deal is coming together. so far the chinese have only offered a package of goodies, and there's a lot of mendacity. "the wall street journal" reported said say, okay, we'll buy a bunch of semiconductors. what they offered was $20 billion over, or a little bit

more over six years, it doesn't make a lot of sense because we don't actually -- we don't finalize them. lou: and i love their generous offer to buy a whole bunch of soybeans as if we were some sort of agrarian, third world country. i thought china was the emerging nation. apparently, in their view, we are that. the idea that scraims malloy has focused on iran and talked about the threat that's posed. what are we seeing here, christian? we've got just a little over a minute. what are we seeing in this confrontation, public confrontation and contradiction by the intelligence community leaders of the president's views on north korea and iran when it looks like, frankly, they're damn fools? >> right. no, the president has done a remarkable job. he's stuck to his guns, and we see this this week in europe. pompeo is in warsaw, in poland, and they have orchestrated just a coming together of a great

number of nations concerned about the middle east but, really, concerned about iran is the primary force of evil there. and that stands in contrast to our supposed good buddies, the french, germans and even the british who have been working against us. what pompeo's done has shown that new europe and the rest of the world is on our side. lou: christian whiton, thanks so much. >> thanks, lou. lou: up next, william barr is official hi our attorney general -- officially our attorney general. will he clean up the corrupt department of justice and fbi leadership? we'll take that up with honest von spakovsky, he joins us in von spakovsky, he joins us in just a moment. time and time again, you know when i'm doing street magic..i'll walk up to someone and i can just see they're against me right? they don't want to be amazed. they don't want this experience to happen. ♪i needed to try but then the magic happens. and all of that falls away. (amazement & laughter) it's the experience of waking up and seeing things

the way you saw them before they became ordinary. ♪i need never get old i'm looking for that experience of wonder. we all want our kids to grow up safe and healthy. so we show them how. and we tell them with honest conversations that let them know what we expect. that's especially important when it comes to alcohol and other drugs. kids need to know the dangers and how to avoid them. and when it comes to pain medications - opioids - they need to know that they should never be taken without a prescription and never shared with friends or family. it's dangerous and illegal. so, talk with your kids. because when you talk, they hear you.

♪ lou: we're joined again tonight by hans von spakovsky. hans, great to have you back. we appreciate you staying with us throughout the broadcast. as we look at this president ready to sign a national emergency declaration tomorrow, is it, in your judgment, clear and unequivocal that he has a constitutional legal authority to do so? >> he does. and i find it strange that we already have democrats talking about going to court about this given the fact that the law that

they papassed actually -- that they passed actually has a process for congress to end and stop this kind of declaration. all they have to do is pass a joint resolution through congress. the fact that they're not even talking about doing that tells me they realize they actually tonight have the votes to do it. lou: and i want to turn to the fact that there's an effort in the legislation, h.r., joint house resolution 31 passed today to try to stop the president from securing the border, giving local jurisdictions the ability to stop the wall, they say, outright. wanting to preserve butterflies in a national reservation. all sorts of nonsense and limiting the use of money. your thoughts about those attempts at constraint further of executive power. >> well, i think they're a bad

idea particularly when it comes to securing the border. i do have to say i don't think the state government of texas is going to allow any local jurisdictions, towns or anything like that to try to impede the building of the wall. all you have to do is remember about a year and a half ago the state there passed a law forbidding local towns and cities from establishing themselves as sanctuaries. so i don't think they're going to allow any local jurisdiction to exercise this kind of power. lou: and that law, obviously, escaped the attention of the democratic leadership, certainly, and perhaps the rino leadership of the republicans. let's turn to william barr. >> sure. lou: we haved had what seems to me to be an outright confession on the part of andrew andrew mccabe of his crimes against the country. do you believe barr has the

stomach and the principle to go after these people who so obviously conspired to overthrow a sitting president? >> you know, i think he does. all he has to do is contrast his prior stints at the justice department, particularly as the attorney general, one of highly ethical, very professional behavior. i mean, contrast that with eric holder who politicized the department to the extent never seen before. and i think he's going to be, william barr's going to be very concerned about possible prior abusive behavior by fbi officials. i just find it absolutely shocking that the number two person at the fbi would so not understand his role, that he would think that he has the ability to try to invoke the 25th amendment against the president? that is just crazy. lou: he didn't care about the law. he didn't understand the law or the constitution or chose simply

to ignore it for the crudest of partisan purposes. hans von spakovsky, as always, great to see you. thank you. >> thanks for having me. lou: up next, the white house says the economy is firing on all cylinders. the market agrees. let's see what "the wall street journal"'s james freeman has to say about us all. he'll be with us next. st liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh- uh uh - i'm the one who delivers the news around here. ♪ liberty mutual has just announced that they can customize your car insurance so that you only pay for what you need. this is phoebe buckley, on location. uh... thanks, phoebe. ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

lou: james freeman, assistant editor of the "wall street journal" is back with us. it's good of you to stay through the show. let's start with first of all, the idea that this president has been hounded, harassed, attacked, assaulted by a complicit left-wing media that continues to bray and hound him even as it's clear it was a conspiracy at the top of the department of justice and the

fbi to depose this constitutionally elected president of the united states. >> sometimes we say the president is not dignified or that people think -- lou: what do you mean we? i never say that. >> i think maybe he's been too polite in his twitter comments about andrew mccabe. it should be chilling to every american that this unelected official takes it upon himself to launch an investigation based on a president exercising his constitutional authority. lou: this is a man running the organization, the top law enforcement agency in the country, the department of justice working with him. and he just creates out of whole cloth this ridiculous narrative talking about the president's integrity and colluding with russia without a damn bit of

evidence of any kind at any quarter. the only unlawful act has been revealed to be the acts of the investigators. these corrupt excuses for public servants sitting on two of the most of prestigious organizations in our government. >> i would like to hear from the fisa judges. i don't think americans had any idea how easy it would be for an administration to turn the surveillance powers of the government which we thought were intended to go after terrorists on bad guys on an opposition political party. lou: it turns out chief justice john roberts who this charge of the fisa court is after all a liberal. he now is acknowledged as such. it looks like partisan work that reaches even to the supreme court. >> i blame john roberts for a

lot. i think it's very possible -- that those judges were misled. lou: i don't think there is any doubt. but this is a chief justice who put all left-wing judges into those fisa courts. it looks like a complicity that goes beyond. only for the sake of appearances should at the very least no chief justice put all liberals on to any court. >> i'm for courts that are not all liberals, i'll agree with that. lou: you want to give the good chief justice a pass? >> i don't think he's the villain. lou: not in this particular story. i'm not. he's one of i think many suspects that should be investigated thoroughly by william barr, do you agree?

>> i agree. but we need to understand how two years later we are still waiting for collusion evidence. lou: as a citizen don't you think we ought to investigate and bring to justice every one of those s.o.b.s who sat at the top of the justice department and fbi and abused their power and tried to depose a lawfully elected president? >> yes. lou: there we go. another amazing moment of electric agreement between two great minds. james, thanks for bringing yours to the show. it raises the average every time. that's it for us. we thank you for being with us. gordon chang and pastor robert jeffress among our guests tomorrow. what an extraordinary day.

tomorrow promises to be every bit as extraordinary. thanks for joining us. have a good evening and good night from new york. we'll see you lauren: it is friday, february 15th. here are your market movers. in hours, president trump is expected to declare a national security over border security, after signing a major spending bill. amazon pulls the plugs on plans to build a second headquarters in new york, taking 25,000 high paying jobs with it. we're breaking down the numbers and what it means for future business. forget elon musk and richard branson's missions to mars. nasa wants to take you to the moon and soon.