facebook.com/lizclaman. kevin giddis of raymond james. [closing bell rings] the dow is ready to close, are you ready for this, 26,020. this is the 40th time the dow will close above that level. that will do it for "the claman countdown." time for "after the bell." connell: stocks are in the green boosted by trade. the dow starting off the month of march in positive territory. triple-digit gains. s&p 500 and nasdaq both up today as well. so, good way to start off the month and end the week. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: happy friday to you. connell: that's right. happy march. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." we have more on the big market movers but first here is what is new at this hour. ♪ melissa: president trump is back in d.c.

the president getting ready to address the conservative base at cpac tomorrow as the administration works on finalizing a trade deal with china. the latest from the white house. plus the chaos in venezuela. opposition leader juan guaido vowing to return home this weekend despite life-threatening security concerns. we're live in caracas with the update. begging for a second chance. dozens of new york politicians and business leaders firing off an open letter to jeff bezos calling on the ceo to reconsider amazon's decision to cancel its second headquarters in the big apple. among our guests this hour, one of the local officials asking amazon to take a second look at new york city. democratic congressman gregory meeks, plus karl rove, former senior advisor to president george w. bush. and guy benson, from townhall.com. connell: very good. these markets with the dow, dow up 112, fighting in final moments of trade to make it 10

straight weeks of gains. it looks like it will just fall short. it would have been the longest winning streak since may of '95. deirdre bolton on floor. we need to be up 115, just a few points short? >> that is right. the trend, we're looking at weekly number. nasdaq seemed to make the 10 week stretch. s&p 500, it's fine of the look at the dow intraday, you can see the low point of the day. that is when the atlanta fed came out said according to its modeling first quarter of gdp for the u.s. will be .3%. you can really see the effect that had on the markets at that time although to your point, connell, crawling back up if you like. take a look at boeing. that was one of the support points for the dow. nike, not a dow-listed stock, one of the stars of the day, signing a huge contract for egaming. china's biggest group if you like league of legends, nike provides jerseys, gear.

this is the new, new thing. as we know from teenagers watching twitch, which i point out amazon owned. people say this is the frontier, the next level of entertainment for the next generation. of course i would be remiss, not a publicly-traded company yet but a lot of people here talking about lyft which is due to list on the nasdaq actually probably in april, lyft. that one was obvious. the question for lyft, essentially scooping its larger rival uber, perhaps beating them to the public markets first but the larger question which is interesting to follow will investors tolerate a lot of revenue but still losses? in other words no profits yet for either company but in the paperwork we learned from lyft today they did log revenues sales of $2.2 billion last year. we'll think about how investors have that. connell: always an issue. a lot of anticipation. thanks, deirdre. melissa: larry kudlow national economic council director sounding very optimistic about

china trade this afternoon. stuart varney he take a listen. >> we have vastly greater than buying soybeans, trust me on this. it is virtually a revolution on u.s.-china trade. it could be historic breakthrough and i will make this on the optimistic side. melissa: we have carol roth, creator of the future file legacy planning system. paul, i will start with you, what do you think about what larry said? >> there is clearly positive developments. i think the market is expecting, you know, hopefully an agreement with china on trade over the next couple weeks. as you know president trump has suspended the potential 200 billion in tariffs which was supposed to go into effect i believe as of tomorrow. but i do believe also there are very recent developments that put some of this at risk particularly canada's recent announcement today of the extradition hearings, letting them proceed against the huawei cfo which as you noah way is the

largest private company in china -- huawei. i think the collapse of the north korea summit could actually cut both ways as well. i think, you know, i think president trump made a strong showing that he is willing to walk away but on the flip side if china didn't live up to their expectations as far as supporting the u.s. in those discussions that could be problematic as well. melissa: interesting take. carol, how about you? >> larry kudlow is one of the biggest proponents of free-market capitalism. while he is a cheerleader of free markets he is not a cheerleader where there isn't information to support that. the most recent thing we heard in terms of the negotiations there were six separate memorandums of understanding that could be worked upon. we could see a point where maybe not all six come forward. even if we get one or two, something that puts at least the tariff piece behind us, i believe the market will see that as real positive. while some of that is already priced in, i do think we have a

move to the upside on that. connell: want to talk about more about the huawei story that canada followed up with, the extradition for the executive there, that will be coming, the hearing next wednesday when you look at huawei, andy purdy, huawei's chief security officer was telling maria bartiromo his concerns about big tech. listen to this. >> china government doesn't speak for us. we do not speak through the china government. i applaud united states and others to crack down on global threat of property period of time which has been a disgrace over the last 15 years we haven't done enough about it. connell: paul, this is company is something else. i got an email yesterday, not just me, a number of reporters was supposedly from huawei. this is copy of it. don't believe everything you hear. come visit us, see what is going on. here is what is interesting about the email, paul, it was

sent or forwarded to us reporters by the chinese embassy in washington. it came through the government. what do you make of this company? what is going on here? >> there is right to be concerned or skeptical. i saw the interview with maria bartiromo. what she also got him to say he admitted there are actually communist party officials on the board of directors at huawei. so that is concerning. but there is something else that, you know you may not be aware, i actually wrote it down to make sure i got it right. under chinese law companies or firms are compelled to support, cooperate with, collaborate in national intelligence initiatives. connell: right. >> so i think that is very concerning as well. connell: especially, carol, we talked about this, this company is huge. i know you're laughing, huge in 5g which is a big story we're all following. >> absolutely. it is a type of network that the folks who are strong in cyber security are saying more vulnerable to hacking. if you follow any cybersecurity

experts over the years, there are many pieces of technology that have come out of china with various pieces of spying equipment. everything in china is tied to the government. so it is nice that they sent awe cute letter. they took out beautiful ads in newspapers all across america. hey, they're not spying. if you want to believe them i have a bridge to sell you as well. connell: paul, carol, we'll be back. melissa: tesla has until the end of today to deliver its largest-ever bond payment. it's a whopping $920 million. ashley webster in the newsroom with the latest. ashley, how much cash did you give them? >> i threw in my dollar. that is about all i got, believe me. we knew it was coming, right? that 920 million-dollar bond payment. indeed it came through by the end of the day. had tesla's shares stood 359 bucks or more, they would make

some of the payments through equity. the stock is down to 294. the bond has to be paid in cash. that uses up nearly 25% of the cash that tesla has on hand, however, on the upside that already proves some critics wrong who in the past believed tesla would not have the cash to make the payment in the first place. tesla has generated positive free cash flow the last two quarters. the fact it had to make good on the bond through cash, investors may ask a higher price on convertible bonds in the future of the yesterday the company announced a major change in it is business model. it would begin shutting down stores and sell vehicles only over the internet. the unusual move is designed to cut costs as it offers the model three compact at starting price of $35,000. make no mistake the bond payment comes at a difficult time for tesla chief elon musk.

he is fighting the sec over tweets that the agency claims violated a settlement that saw him step down as chairman and pay a 20 million-dollar fine last year. muck agreed to step down as chairman for three years and pay $20 million in fines. in a tweet he said quote, something is broken with sec oversight. he is not giving in. tesla by the way facing a fresh challenge this year as the 7500-dollar tax credit on electric vehicles will be gradually eliminated. there is good news. they are able to make the cash payment but more problems of course, especially if he stays away from tweets. guys, back to you. melissa: people get addicted to the twitter machine. >> they do. melissa: it's a problem. ashley webster, thank you. paul and carol are back with us. paul, wow, a lot of crosscurrents there at tesla. first of all the model 3 or the new car they're coming out with is the design they had said before would run the company

into bankruptcy if they tried to do something like this. now he is is trying to do it, going all internet sales. there are some crosscurrents here. what is your take? >> listen, i'm a u.s. certified public accountant and expert in accounting finance and diligence. melissa: you seem more exciting that than. >> i know. any company, looking publicly announced any company that announced a lack of profitability, closing stores, staff layoffs, decreased capital expenditures, negotiating with suppliers to reduce costs, and has a billion dollar cash payment due today on top of that, you know, those are things i would be concerned about. melissa: yeah. carol, like any good accountant paul took all the sexiness out of tesla and laid it out in front of you for what it really is. if you take elon musk and all the hype out of the equation, it is what paul just said. what do you think? >> i'm not an accountant but i'm a recovering investment banker

we always sell the sexiness of it. this it entrepreneurial story playing out in real time. i think what elon musk has done is tremendous. probably the biggest mistake he made is going public. usually companies still trying to figure these things out and ramp up, having all kinds of cash issues would be better served in the private markets. now we have opened the kimono we all see what is going on behind the scenes. in addition to all the things paul laid out, the fact you have had the people in the financial arena, accounting rena, chief financial officer, chief accounting officer going in and out of this company like a revolving door is very, very scary. this convertible note issue will use 25% of their cash at a time they need to ramp up. i give elon musk a lot of credit, he is very scrappy but i wouldn't want to be a share hold at this point in time. melissa: close the kill moan know. paul, carol, good stuff. connell: taking names and making

lists congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez sounding the alarm on her moderate colleagues, warning democratic leaders to stick with the party's progressive wing. the gop striking back against socialism. we have karl rove coming up, former president george w. bush senior advisor. also guy benson townhall.com. melissa: tim cook pressed on political diversity. one investor calling to expand its ideas across party lines. connell: escalating violence. embattled venezuela turning to a key ally for help amidst rising tensions in that region. we're live in caracas with the latest straight ahead. ♪ elped me up my game. i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo!

you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum- just to help you improve your skills. boom! mad skills. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade. (butcher) we both know you're not just looking for pork chops. you're searching for something more... ...red-blooded. right this way. you thirst for adrenaline, you hunger for raw power. well, you've come to the right place. the road is yours, dig in.

connell: breaking news as president trump is back in washington following a summit with north korean leader kim jong-un in hanoi, vietnam. let's get to blake burman with breaking news coming out of the president's twitter account. blake? reporter: i will get to the tweets in a second as the white house had to defend the president, comments he made yesterday, thursday in vietnam during his press conference there. it was comments involving otto otto warmbier. the president said he doesn't believe that the north korean dictator knew at the time about the treatment of warmbier. he was released back to the u.s. in june of 2017, but died days later because he was unresponsive and had brain damage. warmbier's family released a statement that took issue with the president's comments. we have been respectful duke the process and now we speak out.

kim and his evil regime are responsibility for the death of our son otto. no excuses or lavish praise can change that. earlier today the white house did not back off the president's initial comments. >> he has deep affection and shares grief for the warm bier family. chairman kim did not know the, the president is saying is, that there is no indication chairman kim knew what happened to otto warmbier when it happened. reporter: ten minutes or connell, they read in full, quote, i never like being misrepresented especially when it comes to otto warmbier along with others. previous administration did nothing. he was taken out on our watch. of course i hold north korea

responsible for his death. otto and his family have become a symbol of passion and strength which will last many years into the future. i love otto and think of imoften that is from the president moments ago. connell: blake burman from the white house. melissa. melissa: she is making a list, in case you didn't know it. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez threatening to compile the names of moderate democrats who vote with republicans. this is according to a new report in the "washington post." joining me to discuss this, karl rove, former senior advisor for president george w. bush and a fox news contributor. i need to pick your political brain here, karl, because i can't decide how this story is going to go. it does -- is she in control of what's going on with the democrats as she continues to push out here further? or are they going to kind of come in and rise up and try to -- as she makes this list of people she are going to primary, will they send someone her way

to try to get her back in line? what do you think happens within the democratic party? >> i think nothing good comes from this. she is acting like a bully. she is a freshman member that hasn't demonstrated she has the ability to raise money and direct political activity in certain way. she is backed by a group called justice democrats, a far left movement inside of the democratic party and they will back challengers in some instances but look, the nature of the districts we're talking about here, 32 seats now held by democrats that were formerly held by republican members of the house and those districts were won by donald trump. my sense is, even the democratic party in those districts will tend to be a little more to the middle than ocasio-cortez's district. if you look at it last year, virtually everyone of these people is a moderate, in many instances they beat somebody further to the left of them in the democratic primary.

i think it will end up being a hollow threat that will hurt her ability to lead and it is going to be further evidence of the disruption inside of the democratic party. melissa: when you talk to, when you look at what is going on with her, the people who dislike her the most are moderate democrats. much more republicans have a fun time with her and progressive love her. it is moderate democrats who are really upset about the attention she is getting and the like but they're dismissing her in a way. when they say she sort of has no leadership, no infrastructure. she only got 15,000 votes, it reminds me of president trump when he got out there and republicans dismissed him and said he wasn't part of the party, and it feels like kind of the same tension. they said he had no grassroots organization. he may be winning popularity polls but that is not the electoral college. he doesn't know how to do it. then he won. she is not going to back down. you know, how do they finally

come to terms with her? are they able to get rid of her or does she -- >> look, they're not going to knock her out in her district. my point she is unlikely to knock them out in theirs. we won't know for a year or so. you're right, she may be sue which againerries, a political figure, comes out in 2019, sweeps field in front of her, smashing more centrist-minded democrats left and right but i don't think so. i think she is striking out at people, trying to threaten them, coming across as a little bit of a bully. a year from now, unless she delivers on this, taken a couple people out, clearly played a role, you know what? she came here, talked a big game, wasn't able to follow through on it. i'm not afraid of her anymore. melissa: she seems like a bully in this instance especially. there is fine line are you bully or are you promoting unity within your party or keeping

everyone together or a bully, brow beating them. >> anybody who says i'm bottoms and talks about making lists always makes me think that they're a little bit taken with themselves. melissa: or fascist. karl rove, thank you so much. >> you bet. connell: this will be an interesting one to watch. melissa: without question. connell: meantime the weather, in with a roar. the month of march kicking off with cold weather across the country, winter storms, coast to coast. when it is set to strike coming up for you, vying for another shot. governor andrew cuomo's latest move to try to lure amazon back to the big apple. will it work? we'll talk to the democratic congressman gregory meeks calling on the company to give new york a second glance. he is next. limu's right. liberty mutual can save you money by customizing your car insurance,

so you only pay for what you need. oh... yeah, i've been a customer for years. huh... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you're here to buy a usethat's smart. suv. truecar can help. it's great for finding a new car, but you already knew that. it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. so no matter what you're looking for, there it is. this is how buying a used car should be. this is truecar. (upbeat music) ♪

melissa: take two. of the governor andrew cuomo lobbying jeff bezos to reconsider amazon's decision not to build the second headquarters in new york city as 80 of the big apple's biggest business

and political community leaders write an open letter urging the same. kristina partsinevelos is live in the newsroom with the details. kristina? >> that's right of the governor of new york reached out to amazon, had several phone calls to convince him to come back to new york city. they even took out an entire page in "the new york times." like you mentioned you had a lot of business leaders sign it. earlier today you had governor cuomo who spoke in are chaseter and he talked how businesses have the power to shop around, get lowest tax incentives and best subsidies in general and amazon did just that. listen in. >> you have businesses that are shopping states. we just went through the amazon competition where amazon took it to a new level where they literally said, we have 25,000 jobs. we will take bids from states and cities nationwide. and who will offer us the best package. but amazon just did it on a higher level what happens every

day. >> amazon said part of the reason they left because of the backlash they faced from local politicians. i reached out to several politicians getting their comments. i receive one from new york assemblyman ron kim, he opposes amazon to come to new york. he said it is time to oppose giving megacorporations billions of dollars in the name of economic development. studies have shown, corporate welfare, especially company specific subsidies do not work. i reached out to several others including alexandria ocasio-cortez. they didn't respond. amazon hasn't responded to this story either. we still know that amazon is going ahead with the second half of its planned campus in virginia where we know that there is a protests that have started there too. back to you guys. melissa: yeah, they're mad also. kristina thank you. connell: we're joined in the studio with one of political leaders that signed on to the letter kristina was talking about, new york democratic congressman gregory meeks. thanks for coming in.

you joined us when we did our show from long island city. you were in washington that day. many people were surprised by amazon's move to new york. you guys that support it are not giving up. what are the odds they can come back? >> i think it is 50/50. there's a reason why amazon chose new york. the talent that is here. the opportunity to grow that's here. the neighborhood that they're in. connell: yeah. >> it is perfect. so these things have not changed. and i think that, as you heard from the governor and all of those, a list of individuals whether they be from business, from government, from labor, which comprises all of who we are in this city and state. connell: sure. >> we know the importance of having an amazon here. connell: the other thing that hasn't changed as you know is the opposition and amazon's point it seemed when they said, hey, we're not coming to new york, that is not going away. this is the just the start of it. if it is this bad now we don't want to put up with it for

years. what do you say to that? >> if you look at a poll that was done, majority of citizens want amazon here. majority of officials want amazon here. we didn't expect amazon to pull out. we thought they would fight as what we do in new yorkers and in the end that is what we want to have done. connell: it is splitting your congressman, isn't it, congressman? >> it isn't splitting our party. i don't know any party that people are 100% on everything. connell: we saw it, vice president talked about it yesterday, larry kudlow talked about it, the idea that 2020 is about socialism. this story speaks to that. >> if you look at new members of the house, 63 new members of the house, overwhelmingly those members come from districts that are moderate districts. connell: you're right about that. >> only really, focus, so it

shows that is not a real split. there is a dialogue and conversation in the democratic party. there is a lot of die have versety idea. connell: small vocal minority to your point. >> yeah. we'll debate those things. connell: real quick before we let you go, a gentleman on from virginia making similar arguments what we heard in new york so i will throw a couple of them at you and maybe you can try to refute them. number one, housing costs go up. companies like this come in, we get kicked out. kristina talked about it is crony capitalism these subsidies. what do you say to the people making these kinds of arguments? >> number one when you talk about the $3 billion. it is not a check being written. connell: it is tax incentive. >> tax incentive you do. the key to me, what is the return on investment? that is basically the city making 3 billion-dollar investment. the return, anticipated return is $28 billion. connell: right. >> i will take that return on

investment every time. the 25,000 jobs are significant to me because they're, they are, most of those jobs are $150,000 or more, which increases your tax revenue in the city. then you look at all of the small businesses around that development. connell: right. >> they will do more. that means they will have to hire more individuals. so the net gain far outweighs the net loss. and what is also significant for me is the fact that next to the facility is public housing. connell: right. >> so those, rents for those individuals are locked in. i'm a product of public housing. so to see amazon right across the street, and individuals that can see what they can do, if, once they get their education and grow up that is incentive. connell: that is interesting angle to it. >> important piece. connell: you say there is still a chance, 50/50 we'll continue to follow it. come back to talk to us again. >> will do. connell: congressman gregory meeks. >> good to be with you. melissa: u.s. economy at risk.

a stern warning from republican leaders about the sharp rise in socialism. we'll talk to guy benson, townhall.com coming up. crisis in venezuela. u.s. issuing new penalties against venezuelan officials for blocking humanitarian aid at the border. we're on the ground in caracas. that's next. ♪ that helps you find a stock based on what's trending or an investing goal. it's real-time insights and information, in your own customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology, for smarter trading decisions. and it's only from fidelity. open an account with no minimums today.

melissa: racing for confrontation. venezuela's opposition leader juan guaido promising to return

home this weaken despite a series of threats to his power struggle with disputed president nicolas maduro. fox news's steve harrigan is live in caracas with the latest. steve? reporter: melissa that's right, juan guaido the opposition leader recognized by the u.s. as president of venezuela, recognized by more than 50 nations, has come under threats, threats by the maduro government, threats to his family. it is unusual situation where the opposition leader is out side of the country. it is not clear how or when he can get back into the country. guaido was in paraguay, he was in brazil and colombia and going to ecuador and going to argentina. he says he is coming back here, not explaining how, by monday. he says he will carry out the role of president immediately upon his return. you have a sitting president here, maduro, who still controls the police, who still controls the military, really all the

levers of power here. it is not clear exactly what guaido will do as president. all we expect him to do is lead protests march. we expect more in the future. meantime the u.s. continues to ratchet up pressure on the maduro regime. six heads of security have been targeted by the u.s. assets were frozen in the u.s. those security chiefs were responsible for blocking humanitarian aid, desperately needed aid on bridges from colombia last week. melissa, back to you. melissa: i know this country is trying to put economic pressure on the leaders there. what impact is that having? what impact are the sanctions having? >> you're right to point out those sanctions on venezuela oil. that is the key source of cash for this regime, selling oil to the u.s. without that their exports have gone down 40% in the past month. so we're likely to see a real hit to their spending. what we could see in the weeks ahead, and this could be

dangerous, would be gasoline shortages. that could really spark trouble on the streets in venezuela. melissa. melissa: wow, steve harrigan, thank you for your reporting. stay safe. thank you. connell: as we continue here, paving the way for the future. why tomorrow's spacex rocket launch is crucial for upcoming nations. we'll take you live to cape canaveral on that story. apple today holding the annual shareholder meeting. interesting the discussion turned from tech into politics. we're live on the ground with that from cupertino. that is up next.

connell: we saw tough questioning today for tim cook, the ceo of apple, who was taking questions from investors about privacy and also about politics at the annual shareholders meeting out west. to fox business network susan li there in cupertino. we're also joined by david mccabe, covers technology for "axios." it is always interesting, susan, i will start with you on this, to see in your reporting from the scene there that, you know, politics and some of the issues we talked about a lot came up at the meeting in regards to how much diversity in terms of ideology on the apple board of directors. tell us how it all happened. >> it was a 100 minute presentation, q&a with tim cook as well and there were a lot of proposals on the table. that include approving the board at apple, also the executive compensation. two shareholder proposals.

one of them very controversial. it was part of idealogical diversity that conservative shareholder activism group brought up to the table to apple. what they wanted to do was to have all the board members express their political leanings. not surprisingly overwhelmingly this was rejected by the votes, by shareholders but it led into a very long discussion, in fact probably took up most of that 100 minutes that presentation, and people were just asking him cook, once again, where do you stand in terms of hearing different views in silicon valley? tim cook says we are not for a polarized world and we want to hear divestty. connell: interesting, david, it came up at apple's shareholder meeting. al gore is on the board. reasons you could talk about it at apple this issue, we heard it from conservatives claiming they are censored, whatever the case may be, applies to companies more like a facebook or especially twitter. you hear a lot about that. >> that is absolutely right.

the people who bore the brunt i would say at this point a concerted pressure campaign from the right against these companies have been internet companies seen as vehicles for speech one way or the other. the claim of course, as you said people are being censored. this shows there are broader apprehensions on the right or feeling they can prey on broader apprehensions. people that make the products, the tech products that transformed our lives. they can attack the companies being too liberal. one thing came up in the meeting donation apple made to the southern poverty law center which conservatives have often criticized this is civil rights focused group. you know, as companies do express their values in certain ways, clearly the right taken an opportunity to attack but i think the resounding defeat of this proposal suggests that in terms of shareholders, they're looking more bottom line than politics. connell: that is the interesting thing, susan. you said it wasn't even close to

being approved. 98%? >> 98% rejected this shareholder proposal but then an interesting question came in the q&a to tim cook, a woman stood up, i have a friend that works at apple. he feels because he has a conservative, he is a conservative, he doesn't feel like he has the right or acceptance to voice his opinion. what should he do? tim cook said ask him to come to me, talk to me about this he talked about donations as well. we're not a political company. we don't have a pac. we haven't donated one penny to any political campaign. connell: david, final point, the issue, we heard about it in the past, do you think this issue companies will have to deal with more and more in a more proactive fashion than they have? >> i'll be honest. i'm covering politics and technology companies for a long time. these sort of cycles happen every once in a while. we saw it with facebook years ago and we're seeing it with

facebook now. the internet companies have taken steps to build relationships on the right. it doesn't always diffuse the tensions. the complaints keep coming. at some point these companies say, you know what? it is not worth it. connell: thanks for coming on. susan, good reporting out in california. melissa? melissa: sounding the alarm on socialism. the trump administration expressing concerns about major flaws about the economic system as the popularity grows on the left. guy benson, townhall.com political editor is live at cpac and he joins us after the break. how about those song lyrics? what song lyrics? tell him again. tell him again. repeat it. yeah, same thing. (advisor) so with a nationwide annuity, you can get protected... our grandparents checked zero times a day. times change. eyes haven't. that's why there's ocuvite. screen light... sunlight... longer hours... eyes today are stressed.

but ocuvite has vital nutrients... ...to help protect them. ocuvite. eye nutrition for today.

>> it was freedom, not socialism that gave us the most prosperous economy in the world. >> our socialist friends want to

tax and regulate more of everything. question cannot permit that stop prosperity killers, stop job killers, stop incentive killers. melissa: conservatives taking aim at socialism. here to discuss live from cpac, guy benson, townhall.com political editor, "benson & harf" radio show host, also a fox news contributor. did you think, guy, when you went to cpac this year the main conversation would be about battling socialism? >> hey, melissa. happy friday. actually, yeah, i was sort of imagining that a lot of the speakers on stage would be dealing with the issue of socialism, not just in its worst form as we're seeing in venezuela but the creeping democratic socialism on the left here in the u.s. it has been a major refrain all day behind me. we made the vice president there. the whole conclusion of his speech was talking about, and warning about socialism, revving up the crowd. it doesn't surprise me given the

direction of a lot of people in the democratic party. if you look at primary shaping up in 2020, some of the ideas are very statist in nature and i think in some ways low-hanging fruit at an event like this. melissa: how do you make the case against socialism to other young people? you're someone who is so eloquent, is good at talking to younger crowds, debating back and forth? how do you break it down for them, without pointing to something like venezuela? you say in its obvious form, they come back well, that is not what socialism is really like. in the right circles it is more like sharing? >> you can point out the failure of socialism around the globe over many decades. that may not have a lot of currency with younger people. i think, the way i try to go about it, melissa, talking about the incompetence of the centralized federal government. if you really trust the federal

government to do basic things correctly, let's look what they're already doing. look at programs already in existence on health care. examine whether or not they are being handled properly, facilitated properly. i think you can make an empirical case they're not. and that just handing more power, more control over the government is a bad idea. and you know, even if, even if the goals are reasonable, if the goals are laudable, something we all share, we can make that point but getting from point a, to point b, what will it cost, what type of freedom will it cost you, and will it actually work when this giant government bureaucracy tries to implement it. melissa: guy, they will say, i will be the devil's advocate, what is your better idea? the way i go i have huge college debt. i can't afford the apartment. minimum wage is too low, on and on? how do you respond what is the positive message about capitalism? >> i would say capitalism has brought this country to the richest society in the history

of humanity. so even though there are definite flaws in our system, in our country, no one denies, that, no one has lived in more material wealth across every measurable metric in the history of humanity than what we're enjoying in this country now. so whether we want to throw out that entire baby with the bath water, move to totally different system i think, we shouldn't take for granted, what capitalism has done for us. and you know, just on the example that you asked about, with college debt. a big part of the problem, aside from overhead at these colleges, is the government getting involved. the more government intervention, the more government propping up some of these systems, inflating the cost of college, colleges and universities are saying well if uncle sam comes in with more free dollars, let's raise the cost, jack up the cost. the point is federal intervention, government intervention has already contributed to the problem. why would we turn to that same leviathan for new solutions by

handing them more power? melissa: guy benson, fantastic. have a good time. see you soon. >> see you soon. connell: like you were prepping guy benson for a debate. melissa: he is always ready. that is why i wanted him on. connell: spacex is getting ready for a major rocket launch. we're live in cape canaveral with the details next. ...

connell: let's get to spacex preparing for this launch tom and phil keating is at the kennedy space center in cape

canaveral. hi, phil. >> good afternoon, spacex's 17 year long goal to get a space capsule up into space is just about 10 hours from happening, this is a first of its kind test mission for human exploration, and that is launch pad 38 a behind me, historic launch pad 39 a from which the apollo capsules as well as most of the shuttles launch well here is fresh pictures that is the spacex falcon 9 rocket standing on the pad upright ready to blow with the all-important crew dragon space capsule on top for state x and nasa this launch is critical all to learn whether that capsule is fully safe for astronauts to fly it. no humans on board this test flight but remember star man launched by spacex last year and flying a car to mars? on board the crew dragon is a mannequin named ripley, covered with sensors to learn what astronauts might experience on the next flight when there will be people in there. as well as the capsule itself. excitement here is huge. the crew dragon early sunday

morning is going to actually dock with the space station, and then five day mission splashdown on friday. connell: that's pretty cool. melissa: busy day for elon musk. all over the show that does it for us here is bulls & bears. >> ♪ ♪ david: remember that one from the 70s, not giving up new york governor andrew cuomo still trying to convince amazon to reconsider building its second headquarters here in new york. hi everybody this is bulls & bears even david asman, joining me adam lashinsky, jonas max ferris and gary b. smith. >> i've had many conversations with amazon, i hope, that they recoid