[closing bell rings] on pace for the worst week so far this year. dow jones industrials, well, below 200 points? that is great. s&p 500 seeing declines. hand it every to "after the bell" to take it over, guys. melissa: stocks ending in red today as concerns over slowing growth in europe the dow ending down 202 points. we were down 320 points earlier today. so it is an improvement. it's a four-day losing streak for the three major averages the first time it happened since christmas eve. doesn't feel like christmas. i'm melissa francis is i'm connell. connell: i'm connell mcshane. here is what is new at this hour. ♪ some breaking news on the trade deal with china. why the meeting to finalize an agreement with president trump

and president xi xinping may be delayed. paul manafort facing decades in prison. could spend the rest of his life behind bars for bank and tax fraud. american is back on american soil after being jailed by venezuelan officials. the white house plans to expand sanctions on the maduro regime. melissa: exxon verizon biggest winners today. gerri willis on the floor of the new york stock exchange. gerri? >> that's right. it could have been worse. we were down as much as 320 points on the dow earlier, finishing down 201 points. that is better than it could have been. what is going on here, ecb lowering growth expectations for the european union and inflation forecast as well. their growth forecast went from

1.7% to 1.1%. they say they will make cheap loans available to banks. should be good news for the economy. a lot of companies do business there worry. here are the companies dragging on the dow, 3m, big international company. goldman sachs. caterpillar, mcdonald's. the stocks accounting for almost half of the dow's losses today. we'll talk about krogers. this is not a positive story. double miss on earnings and revenue. 48 cents a share. that was light. 28 billion a share on revenue that was light as well. the stock down pretty handily here, almost 10%. finally a stock breaking late this afternoon, at&t and time warner, that tie-up, house dems asking the white house and justice department to turn over documents that could show whether trump intervened in the merger. house chairman jerry nadler is among people requesting that

information. understand this move is coming as "the new yorker" reports that trump directed then national economic counsel director gary cohn to use the justice department to block the deal. that is where the investigation seems to be coming from. they're trying to prove agrave abuse of power. at&t shares not at affected at this time. connell: gary b. smith, kadena group president, fox news contributor and joined by adam johnson "bullseye brief" author. adam, the general direction being lower as gerri said the concern about europe going to stimulus mode as their economy slows, how bad is it over there? >> europe is pretty bad, no question about it. they thought gdp growth would be 1.7%. instead it is only 1. is%. that is not great. i'm actually not long any european stocks. my thing is american ingenuity.

i'm excited about what happens here. there is certain contagion effect. that is what you're seeing in the market. connell, we ran 20% from the christmas eve low. we're due a little give back. connell: that is exactly what i was going to ask you about, gary, when you have that, you hit the low on christmas eve, to adam's point, you have a run, maybe it is normal to take a little bit of a pause. what is happening in the market do you think? >> you summed it up. like we've taken a super ball slammed it down on christmas eve like the driveway when you did as a kid. maybe they didn't have super balls when you were a kid. they did when i was a kid. it would go soaring up and finally would peak. that is the move we've had, 20 plus percent as you stated. we're just due. i understand what adam says about the europe slow down. i think there are a lot of other

factors. number one factor, people said we'll not go 120% on the year. take a little something off the table. melissa: that makes sense. huawei launching a legal battle against the united states ahead of a summit between president trump and his china these counterpart. edward lawrence has breaking a details that a final agreement may be in jeopardy right now. reporter: the trade agreement may need a little bit of a nudge. chinese officials are talking about sending their top trade negotiator to the u.s. again instead of president xi xinping. china's version of our congress is meeting all this week. out of that a growing number of chinese officials worry that president donald trump wants to make a show to help the stock market but not actually make a deal with china. officials are having trouble separating the different military and diplomatic moves separate from the trade

agreement. chinese government saw president trump walk away from the north korea deal. they're upset about the u.s. flying bombers in the south china sea closer to contested islands. fur ruffled by the delegation some senators want to send to taiwan over anniversary of the taiwan relations act. this adds up to pushback against president xi of actually doing a trade deal with the u.s. as of today the chinese narrowed down the calendar for meeting in mar-a-lago in last week of march after president visits france and italy. white house says u.s. has a date. they're awaiting confirmation from china. we'll see if president xi is the one who shows or another high level delegation. president trump saying again today things are moving forward and going well. another story people are talking about, huawei is suing a u.s. government over the ban to sell their products in u.s. national defense authorization act he says violated the company's due process. >> the u.s. government has never

provided any evidence supporting the accusations that huawei poses a national security threat. reporter: chinese foreign ministry supports the lawsuit. some senators welcome it. senator marco rubio said on twitter, can't wait until discovery phase so i world can see how they cheat, steal and spy for the government of china. huawei hired a well-known washington law firm. back to you. melissa: gary, how big of an impact with huawei is having on the trade deal sore strategically set up for the reason? is that why we're having a fight, is that a stick or maybe shows how serious the government wants to be? i don't know. how do you see the whole thing fitting together? >> a couple different factors going on. i think any lawsuit will fail.

you will not go any judge is not going against what congress has said. that is good. i think it is good publicity for the chinese saying wait, the u.s. is being unfair. to your bigger point i think this is detriment al to the trade talks. this comes down to a matter of honor. like saying the chinese treating. no counttry will take that. even though they most likely r i think this puts any trade talk on the rails now. melissa: does it adam or shows our government is serious? >> i think there is good cop, bad cop thing happening here. if you simultaneously say we are negotiating a good faith in china the country but you can say yes, you know there is this one bad company huawei that has done some bad things, it allows you to play two sides of the same coin. so i think almost a strategic thing that is playing out. i would like to see admittedly

in fairness to huawei i would like to see the evidence. melissa: me too. >> if they have really done something bad, there is a backdoor to spy on us, let's see it. melissa: gary, adam, thanks. connell: we're awaiting the sentencing of paul manafort today, president trump's former campaign chairman on bank and tax fraud charges. let's get to break burman live at the white house. blake? reporter: paul panama for the was set to be sentenced 30 or 40 minutes ago. that sentencing hearing is running late as we await to hear the fate of paul manafort president trump's former campaign manager down the homestretch. 2016 campaign. to be clear, manafort was convicted of tax fraud charges predating his days on the trump campaign. manafort faces 19 to 25 years in prison as we await the sentence. there is also another court hearing, another court sentencing in a washington, d.c., federal court next week that manafort awaits as well for

potential more charges and more years, that could be added on to that. manafort's health could potentially come to play here. he was seen wearing by reporters in the room a green jumpsuit with a a cane. was said to look unwell. had physical trouble lifting up his legs. bottom line we await to see sentencing of paul manafort, first indictment in the mueller probe dating back to 2017. it will be the longest prison sentence to date. one of the big questions with all of this, connell, we find out momentarily how many years paul manafort will be headed to federal prison at some point. whether or not president trump decides to pardon him or not. connell. connell: blake burman at the white house. melissa: howard schultz speaking out. the former starbucks ceo not backing down as the left continues attacks ahead of 2021. we'll bring you comments.

connell: a new poll revealing american voters have an unfavorable view of the majority of the candidates on the left but who is bucking the trend? melissa: more severe weather heading for alabama just days after deadly tornadoes destroyed lives and left homes in tatters. we are live in the fox news weather center with the latest. ♪ what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪

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connell: striking back at his critics former starbucks ceo howard schultz talking about the potential 2020 run to the white house speaking with fox news correspondent gillian turner. >> surprised me the level of ferocity of attacks coming from the democrats. it is unfortunate. it is not going to sway what i believe in my heart about how

broken the system is, what i think i need to do. i came from public housing, from nothing. my station in life did not define me. i'm living proof like many other people of the american dream. that should not be vilified. that should be sell is greated. connell: doug schoen, former clinton pollster, bob cusack joins us from "the hill" where he is editor-in-chief. this idea he is surprised by the veracity of attacks. you know the business here. democrats think he will take votes from their nominee and hand re-election to the president shouldn't exactly be surprising, should it? >> no. connell, think about it, you're running for president. you take arrows in the back especially when you make a difference. democrats don't like third parties or jill stein or schultz running. it is not a done deal he will run. he is is staffing up. he is spending a lost money. every indication he is going to run. he doesn't have to make the

decision for another year. connell: sometimes people will step up, hire terrific talent like doug schoen, and sometimes they don't run. >> you did. connell: saw that with mike bloomberg, joking aside you worked for. it is similar type of candidate in 2016 said i can't run as an independent. now he says i can't run as a democrat. it brings up question whether there is room in either party for a true centrist? >> i would like to believe there is though practically very difficult. i think the mistake howard schultz made coming out of the box had nothing to do with the american dream or public housing. it had to do with the fact that he positioned himself as sort of a moderate liberal dissident democrat, rather than saying i'm taking ideas from the republicans, some from the democrats. he had a narrow program that hasn't served him well. connell: seems he is trying to get around that, word in "the hill," your publication

online there is publication about howard schultz going out hiring, quote, unquote, republican talent, republican operatives. he is trying to say i take from both sides i guess. >> yeah. no, that's right. he hired steve schmidt, who used to be a republican, not as much now. bill burton as well. he is also, and bill burton used to work for obama. now he is also hiring a couple of officials who used to work for house campaign side. he is paying them well. connell: i would think, those are the types of staffers he is hiring? >> yes. connell: rnc establishment folks. while we're talking about the democrats, doug, bob, get your take on the "gallup polling" that is out on former vice president joe biden. not just on him, but showing that he has highest favorability rate among candidates. he is not a candidate yet, doug. not surprising name recognition

wise he would. maybe the disappointment of the field favorability rating for some other folks is not very high. what do you make of that? >> i make we're totally polarized country. among democrats alone they're all pretty popular. we're seeing more left-wing you are, more popular you are with democrats, particularly those who vote in primaries but not as the "gallup poll" shows with the entire electorate. connell: wonder what that tells democrats or what it should tell them, bob, the type of candidate that makes the most sense this time around? some say with sherrod brown getting out and bloomberg doing the say the moderate lane is wide open for former vice president to step in. >> that's right. i think amy klobuchar in minnesota is also in the name. biden with the name i.d. this will get nasty. give it couple months. joe biden voted for iraq war. that was mentioned repeatedly. republicans are fearful of

joe biden against trump. the question can biden win the primary when the party moved left? connell: that is the question. do you see this, doug as well, you talk to reporters off-line, they do think that the best, the biggest threat to the president's re-election is joe biden, that fair? >> i think it is fair now but this is a party that wants minorities and women, young people and fresh faces and joe biden -- connell: he is not the nominee then? he doesn't get through? >> i wouldn't too much money on joe biden. i would like him to win. i'm certainly much more comfortable with his world view than alexandria ocasio-cortez or -- connell: don't worry, doug, she is only 29. >> you know, i didn't worry about her before she ran for congress and right now too many she appears to effectively taken over the democratic party. so i am an old-fashioned centrist, probably with the emphasis on old and i worry

about joe biden who is older still than me. connell: that is the other issue we've been talking about. thank you, guys. melissa: facebook changing its tune. how the company's big plans seem to be taking a page out of the chinese playbook. political turmoil continues in venezuela following the arrest of an american journalist. we're bringing you the latest details on this developing story

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melissa: breaking news right now. costco reporting second quarter results. let's go back to gerri willis with the numbers. gerri? >> that's right, melissa. costco, washington-based warehouse retailer reporting earnings that handily beat estimates at $2.01 a share. up from an estimate of $1.69. strong performance on the top line. bottom line a narrow miss, 35.4 billion in sales, versus 35.67 which was the expectations.

same-store sales, cover that quickly. up 5.4%. that is excluding gas sales at the nation's largest retailer. e-commerce sales were up 24%. a good number there. the shares are trading lower all day long, 1% and change. they swung to the positive on this news, up 2.5%. i can tell you kroger came in with a double miss. i think that hurt the stock today, but not so much now. the stock has definitely turned around. back to you melissa. melissa: gerri, thank you. connell: an american journalist arriving back in miami after being detained in venezuela. this coming as the u.s. prepares to slap additional sanctions on financial institutions supporting the disputed president nicolas maduro and his regime. go to fox news correspondent steve harrigan who is just back himself from venezuela. appears this journalist arrived, right, steve in he is back safe and sound on u.s. soil? >> that's right. landed in mimi a short time.

cody wedel, 27 years old. a u.s. citizen. been working four years in venezuela as a freelance journalist. he was detained by military intelligence agents. he had a ski mask placed over his head and was deported. here is what he had to say at the miami airport. >> said they had an order, an order to raid my apartment and, the reasons for that for that order, espionage, extraction of military artifacts and treason. reporter: he had a ski mask pulled over his head. he was surrounded by military intelligence agents with weapons. and he was accused of treason. he does seem pretty calm after all of that. he said it is likely the government of nicolas maduro did not like his reporting including one report where he said as much as 90% of the rank-and-file military soldiers in venezuela now oppose the government of

maduro. connell in. connell: boy, obvious attempt to intimidate there. bring up a wider question what is next generally speaking as the battle goes on between maduro and guaido, what are you hearing? >> opposition leader, juan guaido, is the man the u.s. backs as president of venezuela. 50 more countries back him as well. he has not been arrested perhaps for fear how the u.s. could react to that. he is still a free man moving around venezuela. senator marco rubio of florida has said that the time for maduro to remain in office is running short. >> maduro thinks he will wait out trump trump, look i've been on the president's good side, bad side, a little bit of both. when this guy, president is on something like a dog on a bone. he will not let go. he will never give up until maduro is out of there. reporter: short term next move likely to see from the opposition leader, more street protests scheduled for saturday.

connell, back to you. connell: steve, great reporting throughout the crisis. melissa. melissa: joining us to react, anna quintana, heritage foundation senior policy analyst. what do you make of what happened to the reporter there? >> maduro continues to stifle all dissent. he continues to stifle journalists not towing the party line. issue like journalists like cody is they're reporting the truth, they're reporting what is happening. it is widespread known fact that the majority of the military don't support maduro. the only reason why they have not defected, because cuba's police state propping up maduro kept these folks from, the police state, rather that is protecting maduro kept these folks from defecting. melissa: how would, how have they succeeded in that? that is, that is what the rest of the world waiting for those folks to defect. how is it cuban forces have been

able to stop them from doing that? >> the same reason why the castro regime has an able to maintain power since 1959. they have this world class police state system that, with this incredibly strong counterintelligence system that is able to identify and deter all defections. i mean that is -- why castros are incredibly, they're powerful as dire as the economy is, that is what is propping up and protecting maduro. the fact of the matter is the united states will have to continue ramping up pressure. so are our international partners. there are over 50 countries, majority of the western hemisphere do not support maduro. they need to do a lot more to support u.s. efforts. melissa: we have analysts on that it's a matter of time that maduro and his team is leaving on a plane or they will get dragged out into the streets and there is no good ending for them from this. sounds like though you don't subscribe to that theory

necessarily? >> i don't. i think people need to stop taking for granted the ability for these thugs to maintain in power. again the castro regime has been in power since 1959. i think that is a fact that many people who don't necessarily follow latin america consistently as a lot of us do forget about. the situation in venezuela is bad. it is horrible. there is a dire humanitarian crisis but frankly the situation can always get worse. there is always, i mean, just when you think you reached bottom, the bottom can always get deeper and i think what maduro's strategy is always been, when the situation gets bad, continue riding things out, to exhaust and to exhaust kind of other folks' patience and exhaust the patience of international community and that is what he is doing right now. melissa: are there more things the u.s. should be doing besides sanctions? others said putting economic pressure on it? enough. >> i think that is inaccurate.

i think economic pressures financial pressure, target the sanctions are not just financial but visa sanctions. a lot of regime officials, families are in the united states. when their families are deported from the united states. they're no longer allowed to lives of luxury in the united states, that matters and hurts. other partners should do that as well. other partners are part of this coalition where the regime officials have millions upon millions of dollars stored. where the children of regime officials are studying, own apartments, own homes. they should not be allowed to live comfortably while 90% of that country is living in poverty. melissa: ana, thank you. appreciate your time. >> thank you. connell: the workforce in focus. president trump meeting with the top ceos as companies search to find skilled workers. will the effort help to close what we call the skills gap? jay timmons coming up, president of the national association of manufacturers, he spoke with the

president at the white house. plus remaining in power from prison. this is some story. how disgraced pharmaceutical executive martin shkreli is reportedly running his company from behind bars. melissa: amazing. ♪ and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

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jo martin shkreli, remember him, the pharma bro? infamous for hiking a aids drugs.

16 months into a 7 year prison sentence. reportedly making big plans behind bars. kristina partsinevelos with this one. >> the things you can do from behind bars, according to "wall street journal," martin shkreli is running an entire pharmaceutical company from jail. here is the ceo hiked the price of an hiv drug from $13.50 per dose to over $750 per dose. that is 5,000% increase. he bought only one-of-a-kind wu-tang clan album, one copy. refused to let anybody listen to it. ceo, maybe you heard about this, offered anyone, $5,000, any stranger who would grab a stand of hillary clinton's hair to disrupt her book tour. the judge called it a solicitation to assault in exchange for money. now according to "the wall street journal," he is using a contraband cell phone in

prison at the moment, run his company phoenix ag. this company has changed several times as a pharmaceutical company. according to shkreli he believes this company could potentially be worth over $3 billion by the time he gets out of jail seven years from now. he is in jail because he swindled investors, he manipulated the stock price, but he believes that his company now could potentially be worth literally $3 billion. it has cash on hand of about $37 million at the moment. he has done things, according to the "wall street journal" like fire his current hand-picked ceo by cell phone called him from jail while the ceo was on vacation. he called other firms from his cell phone. except i have to point out, except when he was in solitary confinement. he has been in jail less than a year-and-a-half. even has a blog. you can fine online. he got twitter account that got deleted on tuesday.

"wall street journal" says he cuts his own hair. he made prison friends. the names are crispy and d-block. he has seven years total sentence. there he still needs to pay $7.6 million to the federal government for part of his conditions, pending appeal. but according to court filings he only has $5 million cash on hand. he had to forfeit that wu-tang clan album, and one-of-a-kind pick cast so i. he has another lawsuit. -- pick cause -- they're buying rare drugs in developpent in s is private company, still opportunity. >> kristina, thank you. >> what is a story. what a story. melissa: all right. connell: main thing i took away, cuts his own hair? that seem a little weird? melissa: that was the main point. that was the thrust of the story. connell: fox news alert. shkreli cuts his own hair.

facebook looking to change up the entire strategy. what mark zuckerberg's idea looks like something straight out of china. we'll explain that next. plus just as alabama is trying to recover from the deadly tornadoes the state could be hard hit again with severe weather. details ahead. ♪

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does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪ connell: privacy for mark zuckerberg insists he is overhauling facebook with

privacy-focused vision, teasing the most popular messaging platforms, whatsapp, which it owns and instagram making it harder to avoid facebook. what is going on here? is it trying to emulate apple where it touts privacy standard or china, where one messaging app that touches just about every citizen in the country? let's bring in the cyber guy. "axios," journal, other people that facebook is trying to be wechat. >> i think it is both. wechat has. you can read this 3200 diatribe of mark zuckerberg online, i so speak. here it is. connell: right. >> in that you think the guy is being innovative or trying to get us all to believe he is innovative but reality is he is taking three platforms he acquired, putting them all together, taking the messenger app out of those, each one of them, saying to us, oh, i'm

going to combine them all. where did you get that idea? connell: right. >> in china there is one billion users of wechat. he is saying -- connell: that's why, facebook is not maybe allowed to operate there but wechat is not necessarily operating anywhere else. facebook is looking at it, we can have everybody else here. >> i think what he is doing is saying if we can't play in that neck of the woods, what is he doing right we're not doing? he is seeing nobody doing that space? connell: one-on-one communication. ultimate irony, huge american iconic company suddenly copying a chinese company? are we worried about the opposite for years? >> also the bigger irony on that, labeled with this, we will be all about privacy encryption. that is like the bank robber telling me, give me your money, trust me, i'm coming up with a greater better safe for it. connell: that is a problem for zuckerberg and these companies. look at trust surveys out the

other day, facebook has really fallen. >> to some degree. seen erosion of user base in the united states last year 15 million users falling off facebook, but chances are they went to instagram he owns or whatsapp. connell: if that is their brand now, do they trust him? >> if you look at numbers coming out of the last quarter of facebook you would think there would be some punishment there but there really is not. revenue is really strong. connell: they are so big. >> they are so huge and dominate the social sphere. the question for investors, is this going to make money, this next pivot that he is up to and i would say sit down, relax? this guy, his number one chore in life has not been about what is it good for you and me, it has been how do i milk out of the two of us and everybody else their privacy and everything else that will drive the most revenue? he will figure that part out. connell: which is hard sometimes on encrypted messaging.

the bigger may here, speculation i read about, been hearing about is on mobile payment which is huge in china again. all the rumors on tech side that facebook is going into some cryptocurrency. >> that has been out there that they will dabble in idea of cryptocurrency of their own and use what's app which is his property to trade that. connell: does that make sense to you? >> what makes sense when you become such a monopoly, when so many people globally, minus china, are engaged in your company, you have the tools and resources to buy whoever gets in your way, you say what is next. this is the idea of becoming a currency trader. connell: they want a situation, they being facebook, this is the wechat advantage in china, doesn't really matter what phone you have, facebook can look at other competitors in the big tech sphere, well, tough luck,

apple, google with android, doesn't matter whether you have iphone or android phone to use our whatsapp. we don't care anymore. >> exactly what wechat did in china. a billion people who use the app of 800 million who live in china, which tells me more extension of the product beyond the bounds of product, zuckerberg sees that how do i get my finger in the same place a touch point of someone who doesn't even choose to engage us still has a touch point with us in their life? and i think that is where he is headed. connell: we'll see. facebook 2.0 or something like that? >> is that what they're going to call it? he hasn't named it. i am suspicious of every single thing this guy does, when he does some public-facing message i'm here for you. you're here for the bottom line. connell: good to see you. melissa: new warning about the skills gap in the workforce. next, jay timmons from the

national association of manufacturers sounds off on the growing jobs crisis and what he told president trump at the white house. ♪ want more from your entertainment experience?

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melissa: tackling a jobs crisis. president trump meeting with top executives from across the country as the manufacturing sector is facing a growing skills gap. here now is jay timmons, the ceo of the national association of manufacturers who met with the president at the white house. jay, i want to talk to you a little bit about the numbers in your industry right now. >> sure. melissa: we always hear the president is saying he is bringing all these manufacturing jobs to the u.s. but if we look at the data that you have, there are too many jobs and not enough people to fill them. >> that's a problem. melissa: as of today there are

428,000, roughly manufacturing jobs that are open. >> right. melissa: but then look what is on the screen right now. this is from the manufacturerring institute and deloitte, they said over the next 10 years there will be about, the difference between those two numbers, about 2.4 million jobs go begging. what is the disconnect there? >> think about where we were 10 years ago, if you used the terms job crisis you started the segment with, we would be thinking about all the people unemployed looking for jobs. today we have so many jobs open in all sectors of the economy but not enough people to fill them. manufacturing as you point out, almost half a million jobs. that number grows over the next 10 years. because we eventual lined our educational curriculum with the needs of the future, the job needs of the future. so we're working very hard to make sure we correct the imbalance. i'm really pleased the president and ivanka trump and secretary ross have taken on this

challenge head on. melissa: this is really a staggering problem because, from every industry that you look at you're hearing similar things. we can't find the people that are trained properly for the jobs that we need on one hand, we have this ridiculous student debt crisis all of these people going off and getting degrees in like psychology and pr and, whatever else it is. and then you have all of these jobs open and no one is getting the right training for them, can we turn that around fast enough to turn the tide and how do we do it? >> i sure hope we can. it is funny that you bring up psychology because we just completed our two week state of manufacturing tour, took us to eight states, 25 cities and towns and two dozen manufacturing facilities and several schools where we talked to young people who were pursuing a career in manufacturing or looking at it as a possibility. in two instance i ran across folks, young people who had degrees in psychology and said, they didn't really like that

work. so they wanted to do something more meaningful. so they were looking at manufacturing. it is actually kind of funny that you say that because people are looking for new opportunities that give them exciting, well-paid careers. to your point, that don't drive up 100, $200,000 in college debt. manufacturing is the way to go. melissa: one of the things that i have learned as i have gone out and looked at this it doesn't take the taxpayer. >> that's right. >> companies are willing to do the work, do training, partner with local middle schools or high schools to start engaging people because it is an investment. they need the help. they need the government to clear away the red tape. do you think this administration, do they hear that message and can they get that done? >> this administration has been better than any in our lifetime clearing away red tape on regulations that make it difficult for us to compete and succeed. yes, i do believe that will be the case. i'm glad you said that

businesses are taking this on because they are. melissa: yeah. >> but i will say that seven, eight years ago we weren't so good at it. today you see investments and see these companies, they're investing with, partnering with community colleges, technical schools, primary and secondary education. my own daughter, third grade, third grade. brought home a heart to give me which was so cute. i didn't think it what it was, she said i printed this in my 3 d class. melissa: i have kids that same age, they're reaching out to them across the board trying to get them heading into the right direction because we have to do something about our workforce. jay timmons, please tell me you come back soon? >> i will come back and talk about 90% optimism rate that manufacturers have for the future of their companies. melissa: thanks for putting that

in. thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you, melissa. >> good interview. now companies have to do it. melissa: it's a huge topic. we have to bring it to them and we have to focus on it and so does the whole country. connell: no doubt. alabama working to recover from the deadly tornadoes. now believe it or not the state could face more severe weather. we're tracking a potential storm there next.

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connell: president trump set to visit alabama tomorrow after the

tornadoes there killed nearly two dozen people. now that area is bracing for even more severe storms. let's get to fox news chief meteorologist with the latest. rick? >> when you get severe weather in the month of march, it is generally across parts of the south, so areas that were hit last weekend and yeah, you're right, we have some more coming this weekend. we are heading into severe weather season so everybody certainly needs to be prepared for that. we have energy that's been out here across parts of the west. we are likely going to see the west coast calm down a little, although we have one more system moving in but that's good news. you have had too much precipitation. that storm moves out of here saturday, here's where our severe threat is sunday, little bit farther towards the east. the worst of that weather was a little to the east of this and i think what happens on sunday will be less severe, at this point it looks that way, than what we see on saturday. here's the future radar, how this goes. this energy pulls out across parts of the plains and by the time we get towards saturday morning, a really significant line of storms here headed towards the mississippi river valley. one other thing i want to tell you real quick, along with the

severe weather is more rain. this area is waterlogged and major flooding has been the case. more rain will come this way over the next week. connell: thank you, rick. watch the president tomorrow in alabama, among other things. melissa: yeah. yeah. got a lot to watch there. all right. that does it for us. here's "bulls & bears." david: hi, everybody. former starbucks ceo howard schultz slamming both democrats and republicans over what he says is one of the most significant issues facing america right now, that neither party is doing anything about. we will play that for you. this is "bulls & bears." glad you could join us. i'm david asman. joining me today, kristina partsinevelos, liz peek, jonathan hoenig and gary kaltbaum. >> i believe that the two parties at the extremes are so steeped in their level of ideology and are not facing and not addressing issues. we are sitting with a $22 trillion national debt with over $500 billion in interest

expense. this presiden