tried two leading brands. he said you can't tell the difference. >> non-meat products should go from four 1/2 billion to six 1/2 billion in three years. stuart: i want a my time is up. meatless varney. neil cavuto it's yours. neil: thank you very much. the dow is up 140 1/2 points. my thanks to david asman filling in my absence yesterday. much appreciated. i try not to say that when it is connell mcshane but david i kind of like. i kid. the aforementioned connell mcshane is here. we'll start picking apart these numbers, what is going on with noelle nikpour, danielle mcglocklin as well. s&p technically in and out of record territory. records established last fall. we're very close to doing that for the dow and the nasdaq as well. but for now, it isn't so much what the markets are doing, so much what they're yapping about

in washington d.c. take a look. >> you think this is impeach impeachable? >> yeah, i do. >> i don't think we should defeat donald trump through impeachment. >> i have called on the house to initiate impeachment proceedings. >> i think he made it pretty clear he deserves impeachment. >> i believe congress should take the steps towards impeachment. >> without question toward the realm of impeachable offense. >> move forward with impeachment on the president. >> i think the speaker is encouraging talk of impeachment. that is up to the house. if they want to do that they can. i think the american people would like to move on from this. neil: president is pretty much echoing that in variety of tweets and statements making throughout the weekend saying, look what has been happening around us here. in the old days if you were president, good economy, basically you were immune from criticism. remember the economy stupid?

of course as the president likes to say it has been the economy it, has been the markets. benefit for him has not been as robust as some of his predecessors who enjoyed strong economic activity. what is the fallout? let's get to noelle on that. is it your sense that we're missing something here? the president says look, i don't get the due credit i'm getting, should be getting. you and i raised this before. you know, normally with an economy like this, markets like this i could argue the president should be 10 points up in the polls. some of that is of his own doing, no doubt, but what is going on? >> it is that, himself. i don't mean -- i'm a republican. he is my president. our president. he is almost his worst enemy because he has got such strong policies. he has made good on all his promises. this guy should be over the top with popularity but it is, it is the lack of maybe humility.

it is the, the over the top personality. it is name-calling. he promised when he was elected he would be more presidential. we're not seeing it. we're still seeing campaign tactics. look, i like president trump's policies but if you really want me to be honest somebody in this business i have to tell you -- neil: there is this disconnect with the president, always, you know, chafed that he is not getting the same benefit to those who presided over economic comebacks. >> that is almost, no way to argue otherwise. probably eight and 10 point, premium is the right word. 43% on average where president is this morning on "real clear politics." hard to argue with the economy strong as it is, power of incumbency, a lot of articles, studies done for this, you

shouldn't be at least over 50% and set up well for re-election. this is interesting situation to the democrats it proves the other stuff matters. now that we have the mueller report for the most part with exception of redactions, the other stuff is more than personality. it is also actions. particularly with the actions that were taken right on the precipice of having obstructed justice. democrats have a decision to make. how do we keep that in the news? obviously helps, political liability for the question unquestionably without going too far. a lot of people think impeachment proceedings might be too far. neil: might be too far. not news to those of largely technology stocks that dominate the nasdaq. it too trading intraday above records reached last fall but it is interesting then this idea that the president isn't getting any bang for the buck, what is happening with all the people making a lot of bucks on the corner of wall and broad, the economy, et cetera. then he is not getting fair

treatment even coming to the mueller probe, there is poll out this weekend, it is not on on the top five issues for american voters. it is not in the top 20 that could change with more revelations shared with the american public but what do you think. >> bill clinton with cloud of impeachment, his drumbeat i keep working for the american people. donald trump is saying that but what we're seeing from the tweets today is, there is enormous amount of anger, of -- neil: to be fair, republicans overplayed their hand, right? democratic leadership is concerned that the democrats are doing same. >> remember what happened to newt gingrich in 1998. contract with america 1994. '98 house republicans paid the price. this bill clinton, private conduct, articles impeachment, obstructing justice not getting witnesses to say things.

democrats have difficult decision. part of the base think there is reason we have impeachment. more than enough in the 448 mueller report and there is enough considering starting there but pelosi has to be careful. >> one thing to your point, democrats need to be careful on focusing on impeachment. bernie sanders i do not like his policies what so every he made a great valid point, saying, democratic partparty does not need to make the mistake focusing on impeachment. focus on health care. >> if you completely let it go, what their thinking is, if you talk to democrats, you completely let it go, back to what we started with strong economy -- >> drumbeat. >> probably what they think, they don't want the conversation to be unemployment low as it is, economy is strong as it is, the president can use the argument to get reelected. you can use that to push back with. he gives them things on other than personality and tweeting rest but there is substance with

the mueller report. >> a poll interesting look into young voters, they care about ethics an morality. they don't think baby boomers about them. they are concerns about the president concerns with morality. democrats always thought a little bit, about generational responsibility. they need to pay attention to it. >> we'll see if the millenials will vote though. neil: approval numbers, just one poll, not real clear average of these polls which is one you really want to rely on but it dipped post mueller report released, some of the details, not that impeachment is inevitable, raised questions about the president. jared kushner, famous son-in-law saying a lot of this is unfair. look at this. i would like you all to respond to it. >> quite frankly the whole thing is just a big distraction for the country. if you look what russia did, buying facebook ads to sow dissent and do it, it is

terrible thing but investigations and all the speculation that happened for the last few years had much harsher impact on democracy than a couple facebook ads. they spent 160,000. i spent $160,000 on facebook every three hours in the facebook on the campaign. what they accomplished ensuing investigations are way more harmful to our country. neil: what do you think? >> i mean, debatable about whether or not the investigation has been more harmful than what the russians did i suppose but there is no doubt that jared is obviously downplaying what the russians did. hacking of emails for example, all the stories that produced in the negative fashion. we talked about it ourselves. john podesta emails and everything else that was out there. there are other examples in part one of the mueller report go through it. not enough to charge the president or anybody in the inner circle with conspiracy necessarily. there was more there, there, than a few facebook ads. i understand his larger point is debatable but that obviously

is -- neil: difference between some of those committee chairman and those in the leadership of the party itself who are urging go slow, have hearings for sake of hearings, talk to the same people who talk to mueller, i get that. maybe talk to mueller i himself. do you think democrats like republicans during the clinton scandal overplay their hand? >> they have to be very careful about that. they have to be seen to be doing something. there is reason we have impeachment. 2020, elections are not there for the same reason impeachment is there. we have mechanism that constitutional. democrats have to rock con with it. one thing jared kushner said, one thing may be a problem for the president, in as much as anything else in the mueller report, jared kushner said it was terrible thing. we never seen the president acknowledge what russia interfered with the election. gone against 17 intelligence agencies. think what happened in helsinki. that continues to harm him. what may come up with the house,

they may say why do you keep, not only why do you keep making this russia narrative going away. why do you keep doing it? concerned about legitimacy of your own election and harming our national security? neil: i don't see kushner intimating a russians got a lot of more bang with the buck than i did. that is my cynical read. what do you think? >> well you know, i think that to your point i think that you know, when you were talking about what jared kushner had said, i think that jared kushner, he made some valid points but you know, the messenger -- >> look at monday morning quarterback -- >> really identify with him as much because of who he is. if this was coming from somebody else maybe that would be better but it is coming from within the family. neil: but you're very connected to a lot of republicans. it is one thing for democrats not to let go.

i wonder whether the president can let go. he feels tempted to up date. his i tick. if he keeps going be key keeps on with the fodder. >> look at tweets, look great job, why am i not getting more credit, those are the tweets he needs to stop doing. his work can speak for itself. his good policies should speak for itself. he doesn't need to say, hey, can you acknowledge me some more? neil: yeah. >> this stuff is wrong. neil: i don't know. i look at it, market confidence, bill clinton, if you think in retrospect, connell, that was before you were born, one of the things i discovered that he dodged impeachment. i really think the backdrop of markets was so sound. richard nixon not so much. i'm not comparing the scandals. that was a fact. i think in this economy markets that are not really red or blue, they are just green, they made a

lot of green with this president. they don't want this disrupted. that might be the saving grace for this president. if it looks like these hearings, begin to develop into something more than we give them credit for, then it could be a different story. >> yeah, they're definitely not focused on it say now. neil: right. >> earnings came in this morning were very solid they're helping to drive stocks. you're right. that easily could be the saving grace for the president. but danielle made the point earlier on, if you are the president stay focused on that, and don't allow the other stuff to creep in as democrats will do it. some people will cover it, people will talk about. i guess legitimately so, don't add to that yourself with dozen tweets in one morning. >> you're absolutely right. in the end when you go to the voting booth you will think about that economy. you will have a lot of cannon fodder, you will have a lot of he said/she said, in the end you will be like i have a job, economy is great. consumer confidence is up. you will probably --

>> this other stuff definitely matters to some degree, matter how much. his approval rating would be higher. >> they are not going to convict either. that is the other thing, do you hand the president a victory on impeachment. political calculus. neil: might be. thank you all very, very much. strong backdrop as s&p and nasdaq inching intraday territory. the dow is up 150 points i think away from a record itself. we're following all the major market averages. oil helping matters. oil prices shooting up when we try to stick it to iran. the problem in so doing is, it has the effect of sticking it to drivers as well. after this. i'm working to make each day a little sweeter.

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neil: all right, we're putting sanctions on anyone who trades in iranian crude. the effect is to sort of strangle the iranians, but the other effect is could strangle those who rely on the oil around the world. that include china issuing a formal complaint over this. former u.s. cole commander how this could potentially have trade conflict between our two

companies? good to have you. the president is arguing he is justified to doing this. we're dealing with the devil so to speak. anyone that deals with the devil you know, has to look at the consequences. by extension the chinese say, this is out of the blue. can't do it, not fair, what do you say? >> when you look at it, neil, one has to remember what we're negotiating with china is really based on our national security, not just on the economic consequences that have impacted us for years because of how the chinese do business. iran is a nation that is still the number one state sponsor of terrorism. the recent designation by the trump administration of the iranian republican guard corps as a terrorist organization, these are closing out the loopholes for years we already know have resulted in deaths of over 600 americans. the defacto war in last we'll start going after and holding iran accountable. the fact that other nations like

china are adversely impacted by this, we see oil prices going up, yes it will affect americans at home. we may pay more for gas initially but at end of the day it will be much less expensive to close off iran and crush their economy that way, than it will be for us to have another conflict with them in the middle east. neil: how sure are you that this would prevent that? >> i would say that i'm very confident because the iranian economy was teetering on the brink when we negotiated the iran nuclear agreement. it gave them relief, which gave them several years to be able to work within. now what we're doing is beginning to resqueeze them, faster, harder, more to the point what they have to get which is their oil. yes, it impacts our allies as well. it affects japan. it affects taiwan. many of these countries were given six-month wafers. that time is over.

while china may complain, china is going to complain no matter what they do. they don't want any interference with any nation, because they want to run their communist dictatorship, human rights violations the way they see fit in order to stay in power. they will continue to complain about this, but in actuality they will not do anything. next step, what sanctions will the u.s. put in place against china or are we just going to continue to slow roll the economic talks to get more leverage when it comes to those and insuring our economy stays safe as well as our national security interests. neil: commander, thank you very, very much. >> thank you, neil. neil: all right. oil prices are revisiting highs we last experienced back in october. crass prices following suit. the question how long, price futures senior analyst phil flynn, what do you think. >> going into memorial day we'll see national average prices above $3 a gallon.

nobody wants to hear that. they are wanting to go on vacation. they will definitely pay more. in the cost of crude oil, neil, it will be upward near $70 a barrel. a lot of people doubted that president trump would actually go through with this they thought because he is always showed concern about the impact of higher prices for oil on the economy, that he would not do this he went ahead and did it. he sent a strong message to the iranians and the rest of the world that they will not stand by and allow these state sponsors of terror to continue to do business as usual. now the thing is right now the trump administration is really counting on saudi arabia and the united arab emirates to raise production to offset the loss of these barrels. in the statement we're hearing from the saudis have been pretty soft. they're saying yeah, we will keep the market stable. we'll add some barrels but we want to see the barrels come off before we raise production.

the reason why they did that, back in october they preemptively raised production because president trump said he was going to put the tough sanctions on iran. he granted waivers, prices crashed. now this time the saudis and the u.a.e. say yeah, we're going to help you out but not be in a hurry to do it. because they're not going to be in a hurry, that means your oil and gasoline prices will be higher. neil: that builds in the equation, demand will continue to be strong. that we're not falling into into worldwide recession. since the original concerns a couple months ago. play this out for the summer. what are we looking at for gas prices? >> you know, listen, gasoline demand right now is at a record high despite the fact that gasoline price have gone up for a record amount of days. they keep going up, staying steady for a record amount of time. so far we haven't seen it at pump. the good news, neil, the u.s. economy is so strong right now it is, we're seeing a lot of consumers able to handle these

higher gasoline prices better than they have in the past. at the same time, this increase in the price of oil actually helps the u.s. energy industry which creates a the love high paying jobs. there is a expansion effect across the economy. that is a good thing. you talked about the price of oil when it crashed last year. we were pricing in economic armageddon. that hasn't happened. this is why we're seeing prices shoot right back up and they will probably get back close to where they were last october which was in the mid to high 70s. neil: others are looking at the armageddon, i remember distinctly, my friend you were not. there is that. >> thank you, sir. neil: isis now taking credit for those easter attacks across sri lanka. were they in response, that is, the isis inspired attacks, because of what happened in new zealand? after this.

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neil: she lang can's president is saying warn of attacks were not shared with him. fox news national security analyst walid phares whether this could be coordination or response in attack on muslim places of worship in new see land some weeks earlier. what do you think? >> look, even when there was terror attack with the mosque in new zealand and i mentioned at the time this attack will be used by isis and other jihadists t was clearly the case. videos were used in the propaganda. the question to know, if isis decided to do a strike, call them local jihadists in sri lanka justs it just in response for that, i doubt they

have their own strategic goals would be weakening, she -- sri lanka ally's national security. neil: the authorities were given ample warning something like this could happen. not down to a time or section of the country but it was apparently widespread. where and how did they drop the ball then? >> well, let me begin first by the first reaction. no country including ours, neil, on 9/11, spain in 2004, britain 2005, can say we can preempt any action by the terrorists especially if it is the first one. my question will be from now on will the sri lankan government be able to stop it or contain it? they received information, many governments, we share information with many governments around the world. sometimes those governments react postively, quickly, sometimes they don't. look at iraq. we're sharing with the iraqis all the time. all the time they are attacked.

egypt, northern sinai, many other countries t would be difficult to say sri lanka received exact information, did not rye act. they received a report but didn't have a history of jihadi attacks. that is my assessment so far. neil: you may be right. the reports there would be some targeting of christian churches. they just didn't know where or when, to your point. having said that, it almost raises the inevitable tit-for-tat, another tit-for-tat to respond to muslim or mosques in the future, as a result of this attack. and back and forth we go. >> that is exactly the where the american advice to the sri lankan government should be supportive and heavy. the largest two communities, they have had their own civil war for a long time. so, colombo's government should be very wise in the reaction. that is what they're doing right now. they are deploying security. making sure even social media is

not used by the jihadists for that purpose. but who knows. another she screweddist strike is possible. , that covered 10 to 11 targets. this is really impressive to me because the size of jihadist possible demography in sri lanka is not that large in terms of the calculations. neil: this is a shows coordination and wherewithal on heart of terrorist groups to coordinate that could suggest this notion, for example, that isis has been sidelined might be a bit premature? >> if you call isis an international jihadi group, no. they lost their real estate in syria and iraq, absolutely and that's great. with what they have the caliphate, they were recruiting by the thousands. now they're in the underground. them and al qaeda can recruit in the under ground and flex muscles against countries that have not seen jihadi terror attacks before. we're almost in the situation of

preisis 2014 this is where we are. neil: walid phares, former trump foreign policy advisor. fox news national security analyst. we do appreciate that. let's look what is going on with the dow jones industrials. up 165 1/2 points. roughly 160 points from records achieved last fall, s&p and nasdaq already at intraday records, peeking in and out of them. obviously makes it happen, if you close over those levels. but a lot of this buoyed by better-than-expected earnings which we're still early in earnings season. one at of five s&p 500 companies have reported but of those that have, 3/4 of have handily beaten street estimates and top-line growth, more than half of them, have beaten revenue estimates. more after this.

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neil: all right. well it is official, whatever official can be, fox news is conforming that joe biden will

declare his third run for the white house on thursday. there had been some organization issues for the former vice president. has high name recognition but again, whether he can deliver the goods and carry the torch for barack obama, something that he will of course be emphasizing, we don't know how much of that will be coordinated in these other cities. i know scranton would be mentioned, philadelphia, some strongholds where he wanted to sort of ping-pong on areas he considers democratic strongholds, strongholds he could capture. we do know thursday will be the day. we don't know the line-up for that particular day. new york city democratic mayor bill de blasio pushing his own new green deal. kristina partsinevelos, with the backlash he is getting since. >> trying to make the big apple turn into the green apple. saying on twitter, 12 years will take the tide, we have only 12

years to turn the tide, save the planet. wewe gave a press conference either day, discussing banning skyscrapers from using steel and glass. >> they can use a lot of glass if they do all the other things to reduce emissions. putting up monuments to themselves, harmed our earth, threaten our future, that will no longer be allowed in new york city. reporter: you have him speaking about this he wants to cut emissions within the next five years in new york. he is getting a lot of pushback. everything you're seeing on the screen right now, are massive skyscrapers. that is what new york is known for. a lot of them are glass. he is suggesting they will have to be retrofitted. cover of the "new york post" today highlighting his come comments. making a reference to the "flintstones," a associated press calling out reporter,

de blasio takes his gas guzzling suv from manhattan to brooklyn to work out at ymca gym. how could you suggest new york become all green and you're use aghast guzzling suv. de blasio he is part of brooklyn. he need to go back to the brooklyn to stay connected to the people. overall de blasio's suggestion if you don't cut emissions by 30% by 2030, all of these big real estate developers could face massive fines to tune over a million dollars if this goes through. back to you, neil. neil: you raise a very good point. we have got hundreds of these glass skyscrapers all over the island. we'll see if it stops. we'll see what happens. kristina, thank you. former white house counsel don mcgahn being subpoenaed. host of "fox nation"'s "the liberty file." this is the guy who presumably stopped this effort the president had to fire bob mueller. >> right.

neil: and there were a number of occasions where the president was pushing that. would it have made a difference? i'm getting sidetracked, would that be outright obstruction if it ended up he got somebody, sessions or, you know mcgahn to fire him? >> well, it would be difficult to prove because obstruction of justice requires a corrupt purpose. so if the purpose of firing him was to stymie the investigation, to keep the investigators away from himself, the president, then that purpose would be corrupt. if the purpose -- neil: you really couldn't glean intent. >> unless a person says i'm doing something, sometimes president trump famously says why he is doing it you have to infer intent but, bob mueller argued in the report, the repeated efforts to fire him, asking corey lewandoski twice to do it. asking don mcgahn twice to do it. asking don mcgahn, you tell it to bob mueller?

well you have to untell it that type of stuff -- neil: is that obstruction? >> yes. neil: in other words is that something that could be fodder for democrats when they meet to have hearings in the house. >> yes. that doesn't mean they should impeach him for it. impeachment requires a broad national bipartisan consensus which at present time doesn't exist. in terms of is obstruction of justice an impeachable offense. yes. how do we know that? because the articles of impeachment against richard nixon and bill clinton both included obstruction of justice under the constitutional phrase, other high crimes and misdemeanors. neil: just to be clear, it would sounds to me, i'm not a lawyer, you are if you are trying to fire the guy investigating you that would be deemed obstruction of an investigation? >> yes. unless you can come up with some non-corrupt purpose for firing him. and no non-corrupt purpose was

articulated. neil: so, just saying that you felt the investigation was going too far, or this guy might be overreaching, wouldn't be good enough? in fact that would put a nail in your coffin? >> i would think so. by that respect, corey lewandoski diverting the president's wishes, about don mcgahn we began this segment rejecting to his face, the president's wishes he may have saved his presidency. neil: that not the way the president interprets it. >> no, railing against mcgahn. where do you think this whole mcgain affair goes? >> i don't believe the president can prevent mcgahn's testimony anymore than richard nixon could be prevent john dean's testimony. the time to prevent his testimony is before he testified before bob mueller's grand juries. that is the time to assert executive privilege. not having asserted it then, the president waived it as well. mcgahn doesn't work for the

white house anymore. they have no legal control over him. i expect he will accept that subpoena, show up and testify and then it will depends what they ask him as to what he says. neil: all right. now, the president knew i guess, it was given a heads up on all those who said that mueller's folks wanted to talk to them. what he didn't know, again, if you buy these reports, judge, mcgahn spent more than 30 hours, 40 hours talking to the team. would that be a concern to the president should mcgahn testify before congress? >> i would think so especially since mcgahn, like proper lawyering, kept notes of his communications with the president. the president was outraged at this. i guess the lawyers that he has employed in his work here in new york city did not make notes when he was speaking. neil: but he is in that capacity, the president's counsel doesn't the president have executive privilege? >> yes. but he waived it letting him go meet with mueller. so the 40 hours, 30 hours, whatever the number was, that

wasn't all before a grand jury. i think it was probably the lion's share was before bob mueller's prosecutors and fbi agents and some before a grand jury. neil: meanwhile, while i got you here, the president is looking at those who overstay their welcome on visas in this country, notably from countries like chad, liberia, nigeria. his legal ground? >> can do that. he has the authority to reduce the permissible number of visas from countries that overstay them. some of these people that overstay the visas actually help the economy. that is the reason for their overstaying. the president himself has said he wants those type of people to be here. so this is very difficult thing to do. he basically is going to punish a group of people, even though many in that group are actually doing good for the united states. neil: where and why did you select these particular countries, right? to your point, the criticism has been, there are many, many

countries whose over stay their welcomes. >> the president articulated yesterday in an executive order that he signed that the department of homeland security gave him a list of countries where statistically there is repeated pattern of people from those countries overstaying their visas. question, does he have the legal short to address this, or does he have to address this? he has the legal authority to address that because overstay something a violation of the conditions of the visa. neil: interesting, judge, thank you very, very much. >> you're welcome. neil: good to see you again. samsung delay over the 2,000-dollar phone. shame me once, remember the phones that would catch fire? this one you fold it and it breaks, shame me twice? after this. experience the style, craftsmanship and technology that have made the rx the leading luxury suv of all time. lease the 2019 rx 350 for $409 a month for 36 months.

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neil: all right. we have these three particular issues, key dow components all, disney, mcdonald's, microsoft, all hitting new highs which could explain why the dow itself is within spitting distance of all-time highs reached last year. right now up about 162 points. about 160 points or so from those record highs. s&p and the nasdaq already intraday hitting record highs today. we'll see where they close. let's get the read from gerri willis who is at the new york stock exchange. gerri, this could be the day,

right? reporter: absolutely. right now it is all about earnings but currently the s&p and nasdaq trading at all-time highs. we'll see if they can close at those levels. talk about twitter reporting a double beat this morning with earnings of 37 cents a share, handily beating expectations of 15 cents a share. revenue coming in 187 million. it was 17% gain in monthly active use is and positive guidance on revenue for second quarter that really fired up the stock. twitter shares were up 17%. the biggest gain since october of 2017. i have to say president had negative comments about the company. it came in just a little bit. hasbro though making twitter look like a piker. the toy-maker on pace for the biggest message increase in 23 years when tickle me elmo was a big seller. it has real earnings of 21 cents a share, versus expectations of a loss of 10 cents a share. revenues were 732.5 million,

versus 661.3 million. the company is attributing to improvement of cost savings and higher demand domestically and in europe, neil? >> thank you very, very much. we're looking at updated statistics. one out of five s&p hundred companies have reported. right now 78% of those, or about eight out of 10 of those have come in beating street estimates this is one i look at, because maybe it indicates forward momentum, top-line growth, revenues. that surge hit more than half of them, have beaten on the revenue side. so that is something you want to see if you're looking forward to top-line growth. they're actually selling more, regardless of what the price they're selling whether that's more. on unit by unit basis something a lot of market bulls follow to see that they can remain bulls. meanwhile, i don't know what your view is on this 2,000-dollar samsung foldable phone but for a lot of folks there's a problem, it breaks and

that has been enough for samsung to say, it will push off certain introductions, particularly on this foldable phone for the foreseeable future. how long that could be? anyone's guess. a guy who was tell graphing it, warning us about it,. what is going on here? how big of a deal is for them? >> it has got to be a huge deal. yesterday morning on "mornings with maria," we were talking about how they delayed announcement in china. it was unaware if they were going to delay rolling out the phone. within a few hours that is exactly what they did. this is a very bad case, this will be bad for their pr, with their public relations. we saw that with the galaxy 7 that literally was catching on fire. we saw announcements on airplanes, you have to tell us and have to turn it off. neil: is this of that magnitude or what? >> not in terms of the magnitude. neil: prwise. >> it just doesn't look good.

we have seen foldable displays at the consumer electronics show, for a decade and finally are in a device that everybody will get their hands on. there was a lot of excitement but worse, it is in reviewer's hands, they will put the thing through its paces outside of the laboratory. neil: guys like you got it? >> yeah. we'll open it up and put it in my pocket and put it in my pocket with keys. i have not gotten hands on it but probably won't get hands on it. neil: will it alter people's views of foldable phones in the future? >> i think so. this was first push in america to have a foldable phone. huawei has one. we'll not see that. apple is still standing back we'll take a wait-and-see approach with this as apple does with new technology. it is a bad out of the gate moment. one thing if they shipped three million or four million of these things one or two had an issue. in this instance literally the

first three people that publicly got their hands on them that have these. pretty significant problems for a device that has a healthy price tag of $2,000. neil: when i noticed someone demonstrating here, i did see the crease when it opened up. a lot of people say, oh, you get used to that. a short time the young guy was showing me, i saw that crease. i saw that. that is the point which the phone was breaking my point was, you know, i'm not a guy like you, knows this stuff inside out, that would be annoying to me and get old. >> that would. it is interesting the things that the average public is going to notice. and interesting from a technical standpoint, oh, it is two different screens, meet in the middle, you will see the seam. it shouldn't see the seam. that is the point of a foldable phone. you open up from half size display to a seven inch tablet. >> it was folded up, it looked weird, the screen, the actual screen on the phone that you

would most use, grabbing out of your pocket. >> right. neil: it was small. it was not very, you know, it didn't look right. >> the color temperature seems a little off on the external display. when it comes to folding technology i wanted more of a clamshell device. i wanted something the size of my smartphone, gets smaller. not necessarily the size of my smartphone that gets bigger into a tablet. business travelers may have a different take what they're carrying around with them. if you're going to be flying a lot, traveling a lot you want to minimize the amount of stuff you have with us. we'll have to see when they finally push this out what sort of guaranties they will be able to give the public to say, okay, we heard about a few problems. we'll going to correct those. neil: they might fix this, address, this might be too late. people heretofore thinking about the technology, i will go with the phone i know. >> we'll wait until someone -- neil: 1000-dollar phone. >> 1000-dollar phone. maybe 599.

[laughter] neil: thank you very much. meantime we have the dow up 155 points. good day for technology. good day for those betting on technology. one of the things lifting the nasdaq into report territory and s&p 500. microsoft, disney, couple key dow components at records themselves of will it sustain itself the next three hours? we'll see after this. i'm working to make each day a little sweeter.

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neil: welcome back, everybody. you're watching "coast to coast." we have the s&p 500 and nasdaq, at least as things stand now, into record territory. whether they close at that is anyone's guess. you have to go back to the fall of last year to have that experience. the dow, about 160 points away from levels reached last year. again, little bit further away there, but again, the markets are impressed by the stronger than expected earnings we have been seeing, the fact that this is increasingly looking like a quarter we will not see earnings contract. they might grow ever so nominally but they will grow. that is already flying in the face of a lot of sentiment going into the quarter that we would see about a 2% to 4% correction that so far, so far doesn't look to be the case. anyway, investors seem to be brushing off all this talk about impeachment, might be a little bit early for that, but edward lawrence has the latest from the white house just the same. hey, edward. reporter: yeah, hey, neil. the impeachment talk, that's still bubbling up.

big name democrats still talking about impeachment today. in fact, presidential hopeful elizabeth warren saying today they should move forward with those proceedings. however, house speaker nancy pelosi telling democrats on a conference call the president engages in unethical behavior but they need to hold off on impeachment. the white house not worried. >> they don't want to get to the truth. they want to get to this president. at this point, i don't know what jerry nadler thinks he's going to get that robert mueller didn't except for some political points with the base, because as we now know, there is no collusion and no obstruction and for him to continue down this road when democrats have been in office now for 100 plus days with no accomplishments. reporter: this is all about the 2020 presidential election. in fact, president donald trump may have company on the republican side. maryland governor larry hogan considering running against the republican president, in a republican primary. larry hogan in new hampshire today.

listen. >> obviously i have very strong concerns about the future of my party and the future of the country, and so i'm going to take as much time as it takes to make that decision. i think you know better than most the filing deadlines for i think new hampshire is november. reporter: interesting denials coming out of the white house here today. in fact, the ex-security chief here at the white house scheduled to testify before the house oversight committee. he did not testify this morning. he wrote a letter late last night saying he could not testify unless white house counsel could be present for that. in fact, just minutes ago, the oversight committee chairman, elijah cummings, releasing a statement. he will schedule a contempt for denying the subpoena, he will schedule a vote for that coming up. he also says it shows quote, this assertion -- there's no assertion of any privilege of any kind by president trump based on these actions, it appears the president believes the constitution does not apply to this white house. that debate is not done. today is also the deadline that the ways and means committee gave the president or the

treasury department to give up six years of the president's tax returns. that has not happened as of yet. neil? neil: edward lawrence, thank you very, very much. governor hogan considering a run against the president. he would follow bill weld, the former massachusetts governor who has already launched an exploratory committee to look into his challenging the president for the republican nomination. again, when weld was with us not too long ago, saying the more, the merrier. we shall see what happens. let's get a read on the backdrop for all this, the economy and the record-setting markets. to prudential chief market strategist and "wall street journal" editorial board member, former speech writer. with that backdrop, i know it's so crucial in every election, and i would think given the strength of the economy and the markets, whether you want to give the president all the credit, we certainly blame presidents when it's not going that way, so why isn't he

benefiting more? >> because first of all, there are worries that the economy was beginning to stall. so we saw a december, it just scared the daylights out of many consumers. we saw retail spending at that point slowing down. that's the kind of thing, if it continues, and we have bouts of that leading up to the election, there is going to be those who say the economy really isn't as strong as the white house is suggesting. however, however, if we continue to have the economy not just stabilize but expand, that should be very helpful for the president for this administration. but it so much depends on whom the democrats put up, so what the average consumer is hearing is wait a minute, maybe i don't want to go that progressive, but perhaps i want to just have something in the middle, and if i don't have something in the middle, perhaps i stay with what we know. remember, incumbents always have the advantage.

we know what to expect from an incumbent. whether you like it or don't like it, at least you know. neil: a lot of things are so bad for the incumbent, jimmy carter comes to mind, it doesn't work out that way. bill, is it your sense the impeachment hearings to begin or the mueller hearings, i should say, leading some democrats to talk of impeachment, how is that playing out? >> well, look, it's splitting the democrat party. even nancy pelosi is skeptical about them. one thing the mueller report did, i think, is it removed the possibility of republican votes for impeachment in the house. after they found no collusion, i don't think any republicans are going to join the democrats, even adam schiff has said if you are going to go down this route of impeachment, you want some bipartisan cover. then you have the second chunk of democrats. remember, connor lamb, a year ago we were talking about he was the future, he didn't really even mention trump in his campaign, like a lot of them. he campaigned on health care and so forth. i'm not sure they want to do it.

i think in addition to being skeptical about impeachment, jerry nadler has been waiting two years to get his hands on this committee to do it, what nancy pelosi really doesn't want in addition to that is for a vote to come to the floor and not get enough democratic votes, which is what i think would happen. they would stop it beforehand, i think. neil: in other words, it wouldn't move in the senate. >> right. but on the other hand, you could see a logic in the sense of what they want to do is wound the president going into 2020. neil: they could wound themselves. there's an editorial today talking about that theory. he's no fan of this president, spokesman for bill clinton, saying that might be a foolhardy mission. what did you make of that, for democrats? >> well, exactly, because again, you go back to the congressional elections and there was a message. the message was health care, health care, health care. neil: by the way, nowhere on the top issues americans are

concerned about was mueller in this latest poll. >> exactly. that's exactly right. and notice the stock market on the day the mueller report came out. the market closed up. the market basically took a little bit of a drop when it first came out, then -- neil: it was relief, maybe. that could be short-lived, or no? >> it could. the markets are very important. they're not the economy as milton friedman used to say all the time. i'm the wrong person to ask if i tell you i follow very consistent buy high, sell low policy. neil: did president bush follow the markets to the degree this president does? >> i don't know, i don't want to speak for the president. my guess is no. neil: big problem when they're tanking. >> well, they blame for it, too. neil: to your point, for good or ill, they are attached to whoever is living in the white house. >> well, absolutely. every president also worries about the federal reserve. the difference is they didn't go out tweeting it and talking

about it. neil: they thought it. >> of course they did. messages were delivered to the fed and said no rate hikes right now. but it becomes public, everything becomes public and i think that's why many of the president's advisers think how about top twestop tweeting for because statistically his ratings have gone up when he's held off tweeting. neil: is that right? >> yes. neil: there you go. thank you both very, very much. i want to bring in the daily call foundation news editor into this. you know, chris, we were talking about even nancy pelosi, i think to bill's point, was saying go slow on this, and others kind of echoing the same, steny hoyer, but not everyone can resist the temptation to at least talk to these folks, put it out there, embarrass the president, see what you can make of it, even if it doesn't make impeachment. what do you think? >> i think that nancy pelosi's

got a different set of goals in mind, keeping her majority, expanding it in the u.s. senate, than a lot of the people who are running for president. unfortunately for nancy pelosi, her time as just the speaker for the entire democratic party may be coming to a close, as some of these candidates on the national stage start rising up in the democratic primary. when you have joe biden and bernie sanders and liz warren and kamala harris out there, she may have to take a back seat and their goals seem to be a little different from nancy pelosi's because they want to appeal to the democratic base. they want to get those votes and the democratic base wants to resist. if that means kamala harris and liz warren come out and say we need to impeach this president, that's what -- that's going to define the conversation. neil: they also want to win more than make a statement even if it's a justifiable statement, even if they think in their eyes this president should be impeached and a lot of them do. but they must know that by going so zealously in that direction, it could boomerang on them. >> you would think they would,

but last night's town halls showed what looked like a race to go as far left as you can. when you had people, a sitting u.s. senator saying they should give the vote to people like the boston bombers, that's a move part of the left where pelosi would be comfortable, for example, and she's not a moderate. it's part of the left where she might be comfortable trying to hold on to these seats won by, for example, connor lamb in a more moderate district. neil: with joe biden's announcement due later this week, thursday, handicap where he stands. >> i think that biden still could run a very powerful race. if he's capable of claiming the mantle of barack obama. now, that's the most difficult aspect for him, and the problem with joe biden as well, he has the ability to reach out to more moderate people, to a working class, the middle class environment that the democrats lost in the last election. he's never won a national race on his own, not without president barack obama standing in the shadow of president obama. he's been defeated pretty quickly before through gaffes

and also the democratic party moved to his left. but hey, he's been consistently at the top of the polls and he's going to be a real contender. neil: so was hillary clinton, right? >> true. and she was defeated. neil: chris, thank you very much. good catching up with you. >> thank you. neil: all right. we already know that the administration is going after iran with these sanctions, but extending them to those who do business with iran to get that oil. we also know the effect has been negative for those who want cheaper gas in this country. for how long? after this. heading into retirement you want to follow your passions rather than worry about how to pay for long-term care. brighthouse smartcare℠ is a hybrid life insurance and long-term care product. it protects your family while providing long-term care coverage,

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neil: all right. oil is over $66 a barrel, first time this year. not surprisingly, regular gas averages around $2.85. there is a delay here but we heard from a number of oil analysts over the last couple of days that that is the direction, that gas prices are going to move up not only based on summer demand and the predictable amount of people on the roads, but now from slapping these sanctions on iran and those who trade and buy oil from iran, the short report editor and founder, steven short, says if production does not increase, these prices will continue to go up. good to have you. thanks for taking the time. what are we looking at?

>> oh, right now, we know, neil, based on the relationship between crude oil prices and retail gasoline prices, with a three-week lag, that by the end of this month, or i should say in about three weeks' time, gasoline prices will be near $3 on the national average, as you just alluded to. the triple a average right now is about $2.85 a gallon, that's the national average. for every $1 move in the price of crude oil, you are getting about a 2, 2.1 cent reaction at the pump three weeks later. over the past three weeks we have had a $5 rally in crude oil prices so that $2.85 average will be bumped up to about $2.95, $3 at this point based on, of course, we have had the strong rally in crude oil which is now being supported with a number of geopolitical headlines, the waivers on iranian oil just being the last in a slew of bullish headlines. neil: i'm wondering whether the

reaction to the crackdown on iran, given its role in the overall energy market, i know we don't buy oil from them per se, other countries do, but is it overdone? in other words, are prices jumping too much on this aberrant move? >> fundamentally, the answer is yes. but what we have watched over the past two months is wall street is back in oil. the risk trade is on. seven consecutive weeks now, we have year-to-date highs in spec position. the amount of risk wall street speculators are taking, for every $1 a bearish hedge fund is trading against oil, bullish hedge funds are betting $11. that ratio tells you just how bulled up wall street is. now, the problem here is that that 11:1 ratio is within statistical norms of what we witnessed since 2006. what i'm getting at here is wall street is long, they have the penchant to get longer at this

point. they demonstrated they are willing to take on a lot more risk. to your question, was this move in oil prices in the last two days justified, fundamentally, no. but because you have so much speculators in the market, they are inflating the bubble right now, so there's no telling at this point that we cannot go higher. neil: we are just getting larry kudlow on the wire saying that this move to end iran oil waivers will not boost oil prices. obviously he's not looking at the markets today. but that it wouldn't have that effect. do you agree with that, that take this gyration today out of the equation, it's a nonevent? >> well, i think we are on the fence there right now. crude oil production in the united states this summer will be 1.6 million barrels a day greater than it was last year. last year, u.s. exports of crude oil rose by nearly 900,000 barrels a day. so the u.s. is the world's largest producer. we are putting more oil on to the market.

we expect to see a 20% decline here in the united states in net imports, that is to say, imports less exports will be down by 21%. so here in the united states, we are inoculated from the gyrations at this point. the question now is for mr. kudlow, can the saudis really step up. saudi exports now are 400,000 barrels a day below the record base set back in 2012. they are now producing crude oil at about 86% of their capacity. they are the only basically non- -- or excuse me, opec country that is not producing at capacity. this is really up to saudi arabia right now. do they have the wherewithal to ramp up production and get that extra 400,000 barrels on to the market. if that is the case, and the u.s. can offset this, keep in mind when we are talking about iran, we are talking about 1.2 million barrels a day of exports. iranian exports have dropped on average over the past two years

by 25%. so the globe has already gotten used to lower exports of iranian oil. if those iranian barrels, exports, are dwindled down to zero which is not going to happen, let's say it does, then the saudi arabia, united states and other non-opec producers, talking about russia, will have to make up that difference. they probably could. from that standpoint, it should not but should is a useless verb when it comes to trading. neil: i like that. thank you very, very much. >> thanks, neil. neil: meantime, elon musk is aiming to have one million robotaxis on the road next year. deirdre bolton has been following that. deirdre: by 2021, he says no steering wheels, no pedals, no humans. what we do know about elon musk is he's a fantastic salesperson. he also has lots of big ideas and what we also know is he often falls short of timeline goals. even his most ardent fans say

okay, he's a little too ambitious with the date line. i think this time is probably not an exception. more cynically, a lot of people say okay, he has this analyst meeting very recently, within the past 24 hours, and that in general it was slightly underwhelming so there was also this hey, look over here, we are going to have robotaxis. that's the cynical view. they are on their way, whether it's going to be tesla, whether it's going to be alphabet's waymo, whether it's going to be uber, i had even read things that said apple was really defining and working with 3d sensing chip companies that would basically give a driver or driverless car a 360 3d view of the road. a lot of car makers trying to get to this point. perhaps tesla will be first. neil: even if they are not entirely self-driving, the technology where cars will take over for you temporarily, bmw has that, volvo has that, so there are variations of this team.

the leap is when it's all robo'ing. deirdre: exactly. elon musk saying if you don't own a tesla in three years it will be like owning a horse. gene munster was on your show and said listen, if you were at this event, it is actually difficult if you are there because you get to do a lot of the test drives and he said it's difficult when you're there to not drink the kool-aid. he said if you're crunching the numbers and worrying about the company, tesla has said they will be cash flow positive from this point on. however, in ininvesting in all this autonomous driving, is your goal to be cash flow neutral, which is to say they are dumping a lot of cash. i should point out for people who are following samsung, one of the chips that goes into the tesla car is made by samsung. neil: would you get into a car if it pulled up in front of your compound, would you get into a vehicle where there was no driver? deirdre: i'm not quite ready for no driver. i'm ready for a very relaxed driver, perhaps doing other

things. but is there just in case. i'm ready to be in between. i'm not quite ready for no human whatsoever. neil: my wife versus no driver, i -- deirdre: no, stop, stop. that's bad. you are going to get in trouble. neil: of course. she's my wife. deirdre: of course. neil: all right. kim jong-un wants to meet with vladimir putin and they will be chatting tomorrow. i believe in vladivostock. that's unusual. is that putting a little pressure on the president? our president? after this.

neil: it was isis. that's what officials say about those attacks over easter weekend that killed more than 300. fox news foreign correspondent has the latest. benjamin? reporter: that was the announcement many people were waiting for, that isis have

claimed responsibility. ever since the attack itself, there were many experts who said this small domestic terror group was not capable unilaterally of carrying out such a coordinated, sophisticated attack such as this. together with the fact that over 40 sri lankans went to fight with isis in iraq and syria, this announcement was expected. the death toll now has risen to 321 with 500 injured. today, the prime minister of sri lanka warning there were more militants out there and more bombs. now, we are also seeing chilling surveillance video, reportedly of one of the seven suicide bombers calmly walking across the square in the capital colombo wearing a heavy backpack, entering st. sebastian church, walking right into the center of that catholic church before then blowing himself up. today in sri lanka, funerals began as the country observed a day of mourning. the country is under a state of emergency now and the military is operating under enhanced

wartime powers. so far police have arrested at least 40 people in connection to the bombing. we are also now sadly learning the identity of the four americans who were killed. amelie and daniel lindsay, siblings. 11-year-old keiran, who attended school in d.c. and 40-year-old dita kowalski. there's a big talk of security shakeup in sri lanka after security officials didn't heed warning calls of an imminent attack. the fbi are now sending agents of their own to help with this investigation. neil: benjamin hall, thank you very, very much. kim jong-un and vladimir putin face-to-face in russia on thursday. the foundation for defense of democracy's president cliff may says the u.s. needs to pay attention to this pow-wow. what do you suspect is going on? >> from kim's point of view, he's trying to show he has other friends that he can write to and

visit with besides president trump. from putin's point of view, he always wants to suggest that he needs to be reckoned with, whether it's in latin america, whether it's in the middle east, whether it's in asia. he's trying to make russia great again and great means that he's powerful. neil: he also needs money. i'm talking about kim jong-un. would russia be any more forthcoming than we have been to make up for the sanctions that we have not loosened against the north korean regime? >> no, i do not think so. putin cuts deals, he doesn't grant favors. i don't think he has money he wants to give away. it's hard to make investments in that country. putin would love to see a russian pipeline going all the way to south korea and i think kim would like that, too. i don't think the u.s. will allow it. russia also has north korean workers and when i say workers, i mean slaves, that may have to leave under the sanctions. in other words, one of the things kim does is he exports

people as a resource, exploits the hell out of them wherever they are, takes a lot of the money and they work hard and come back at some point. that may not be able to continue. i don't think there's a lot tangibly financially, economically that putin can offer kim. neil: so going back to kim jong-un and donald trump and whether another meeting could or even remotely would yield results, i mean, they left the last one early, would there be any benefit in a third meeting? talk about upping the ante and the stakes. >> my view is that there's no benefit in a meeting now. what needs to happen next with north korea, a little like what's happening now with the islamic republic of iran, is really to exert maximum pressure. we do not have maximum pressure on north korea right now, i would say. if we do, and if that comes to pass, then should kim say hm, i see my economy and my regime

possibly crumbling beneath my feet, then it might be time to get together for another meeting and discuss how he gets out of that dilemma and he gets out of that dilemma by doing what we believe he said he was going to do, denuclearize. neil: that's been the promise and the commitment but as you pointed out, not yet. i am curious what you make of the fact that kim jong-un and the north korean regime in general said we really don't like your secretary of state, don't want to meet with him, don't want to talk to him. the president standing by mike pompeo, but is that really going to be enough of an impediment that the next time the president sends someone else there? >> i don't think the president will send somebody else. this is an old trick that kim and his father and grandfather used. we need somebody new to negotiate with, somebody we can -- who hasn't seen our card tricks before and somebody we can befuddle more easily. i don't think that will happen. i think the president has faith in john bolton and mike pompeo and i think he should, but i also think he should be thinking about now really exerting

maximum pressure. the sweet talk has done as much good as it's ever going to do. fewer carrots, more sticks would be the prescription. neil: thank you very, very much, cliff may. >> thank you. neil: social security running out of money. you heard that one before. but technically by next year? after this.

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of your family history with ancestry. get started for free at ancestry.com ...or trips to mars. $4.95. delivery drones or the latest phones. $4.95. no matter what you trade, at fidelity it's just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. neil: all right. tim cook is with a lot of interesting folks there and he's saying apple's greatest contribution to mankind will some day be health care. i'm thinking the myself we've got these phones and all these devices and he's talking about health care. that raised a lot of eyebrows. exactly how will apple encroach in this area where it gets to be the thing it's most known for? a lot more on that later. meantime, social security, medicare, they are running out of money. the trump administration is launching a program to at least try to rein in medicare costs

but all of this comes as we are getting word that social security could technically be running out of money as soon as next year. there is always a trust fund they can tap and other sources they can tap, but no one really expected them to start tapping so soon. which brings us to market watch columnist extraordinaire who predicts taxes will go up to deal with at least that portion. good to see you, my friend. >> great to be here. neil: so how bad is the social security thing? i know the math wasn't favoring them but i thought it would for a few more years. >> a lot of this is accounting noise. we are running into a deficit i think next year. technically, the trust fund doesn't run out of money until 2034, 2035, thereabouts. this is accounting stuff. people say it's going to run out of money. it's effectively run by the federal government. the issue here is -- neil: we raised the trust fund anyway for a variety of other purposes. >> look, what's going the happen is taxes are going to go up. that's my prediction. the reason being round about 2034, you are either going to

have to cut social security benefits very sharply or you are going to have to raise taxes to basically keep benefits as they were. by that stage, people who are either on social security or near retirement are going to make up a majority of the voting age population. the population's getting older. older people vote more. i don't think anyone is going to be able to run for office on a promise to cut people's social security when so many people depend on it. the reality is, the number of people who can survive with diminished social security payments in retirement is pretty small. most people -- neil: those who favor this approach, namely those who are collecting social security, be okay with those taxes being hiked, limiting how much they can get for free before taxes kick in? >> well, that will probably be one of the solutions but i don't think that's going to be -- there's certainly not going to be enough and probably won't be the major element. neil: how about means testing? that has always come up. >> again, these are all cuts.

the problem you are going to have, the political problem you are going to have is by the time we get to the point where it's an actual real financial crisis as opposed to an accounting crisis, that's going to be 10, 12, 13 years from now, people who are reliant on social security, expecting social security, are going to make up effectively the majority of the voting population. older people vote much more than younger people and there are more of them. i suspect they will not tolerate any significant encroachment on their benefits. they are going to demand a hike in taxes. that would basically mean about 1.5% of gdp. basically a 10% hike in the total tax take of the federal government to balance the books. neil: so the same with medicare. you could make this no income ceiling and that might apply for all of these programs, the first thing you do is address the money coming in, and if you remove the ceiling, then everyone is paying more and it

all goes into that, but what's the impact of that? >> 1.5% of gdp for taxes, that includes medicare. medicare is more addressable on the spending side because of course, you can provide health care more efficiently, whatever. the truth is, social security consists of checks going out. there's no way of me cutting the check i send to you without you getting less money. i can't send it more efficiently or whatever. so social security, any cut in spending is going to be a cut in benefits whereas with medicare, it's possible they can rein in health care -- neil: the administration is looking at this but there's just not the political will to do it. it's suicide, right? >> one of the ironies is that if we had run social security the way norway runs its sovereign wealth fund we wouldn't have this problem. social security's entirely invested in federal treasury bonds. so essentially, it's like a company that invests its pension fund in its own stock. if we had invested the social security trust fund in a global index of equities, essentially

the trust fund would be massively -- neil: wasn't that among the things george bush jr. was considering, and he got pilloried for it. >> his problem was he wanted to turn it into individual accounts. neil: only a portion of it. >> all you really need to do is actually just invest the whole thing or a large chunk of it directly in -- neil: you would still -- markets enter bear territory. >> the last ten years, social security's average annual return on new money has been 2.3%. u.s. stock market's done 13% a year. global stock, 10%. of course you have bear markets but of course, one of the advantages of social security is that if it's invested in equities and if there's a bear market, uncle sam is still there who can basically -- neil: guarantee your minimum. >> guarantee through a bear market. it's the one institution that -- neil: that was played out and thought to be very risky, very

foolish. you are attaching yourself to the gambling world of wall street. >> a lot of that was i think to do with the idea that you would have individual accounts. one thing we have learned is that individuals do not tend to be very good at managing money professionally. which you would not expect. we don't perform our own, we are not our own doctors but we expect somehow people to manage their own 401(k)s and oftentimes unfortunately, they buy high, then they sell low, then they buy high again. it hasn't been successful. it's been a mess but i think the result is taxes are going to go up. that's just a political likelihood. neil: aren't you the bearer of great news. always good seeing you. thank you. good to see him in the flash. a lot more coming up including what's happening with the dow. concerns are out there, the market has a funny way of showing it at least today, closing in on a record three key dow components including disney, mcdonald's and microsoft at all-time highs. more after this. did you know with vanishing deductible,

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neil: fox news confirms that joe biden is indeed going to announce his presidential candidacy on thursday. it would be his third run. this as that mayor from south bend is surging in the latest new hampshire poll and we've got

the former harry reid communications director john summers on the implication of all that and the committee to defend the president, ted harvey and axios reporter, seth kype. you know, when i'm looking at these numbers, i'm wondering if joe biden, who always looks good from afar but once in a race, from his two presidential runs, far from good, should he be worried? >> i think it will be interesting to see how his standing in the race changes once he officially announces. he's had this luxury of continuing to be a top contender before even officially running in the race, and obviously, i think the former vice president is prepared to face more attacks once he does put his name in the hat officially. so i think we are going to see that change the game. we are seeing standards really campaigning hard and enjoying the lead as a top contender. i think once he officially

announces it will change the game for biden. we will see how much impact it has on his standing in the polls. neil: i'm curious, you hear those in the white house say they are most worried about joe biden, he's the one who could represent the biggest threat. do you concur with that? >> well, i think that he definitely brings the moderate side of the democrat party and that's why he's looking to get in. everybody else that's running currently tois to the far left, supporting single payer health care, they all co-signed on to the green new deal. those are issues that the swing state voters out there, they are not going to support. i think biden has the ability to grab that in the democrat primary but i think he has the ability to run a formidable campaign. regardless, it's going to be tough for him after the mueller report came out saying there was no collusion. if you see the stock market today, almost breaking records and unemployment being at all-time lows, trump is on good

footing going into the 2020 election. neil: you know, john, there obviously are a lot of democrats running for president right now, and they are unsure how far to take this whole impeachment thing. some of the party leadership, nancy pelosi, steny hoyer, others are worried if they get a little too aggressive, it could come back to bite them. where do you stand on it? >> i think it's worth continuing to go down the road of understanding exactly what happened and what president trump did. the mueller report did not exonerate the president. in fact, it actually very specifically said that it didn't exonerate him. i think people have a lot of questions still. i don't think the mueller report -- neil: i believe you are saying on obstruction of justice. but you are not concerned that by going after maybe legitimate points of contention in that report, democrats overdo it as republicans did going after bill clinton? >> i think it's okay to ask questions. i think it's okay to get mueller to come up for hearings. i think to go directly from here to impeachment would be a

mistake. but to continue investigations to get a better understanding of what went on and more importantly, to try and come up with solutions so it doesn't happen again, i think that's an important thing to go through right now. neil: those are the good intentions. good intentions to focus on key issues have a way of starting out that way but then go far afield. what are you hearing from people, how far will these hearings go? i guess much depends on testimony and the like. but what's your prognosis you are hearing from people? >> well, of course we are going to see democrats continue to pursue issues that came to light through the mueller report but i think there is a lot of debate within the party over how far should they take this, how much do they want the next few months to be wrapped up in the mueller report, how much do they want to get into this battle with the trump administration and trump supporters who are going to point to the report and say look, we have been vindicated and how much will they want to argue those nuances. i think that will depend on how

these hearings go, what new details come to light and when we hear from mueller, when we hear from these other important people who are involved in the report. i think there is internal debate. there are of course the further left members of congress who are wanting to pursue impeachment who are riled up, but a lot of the leadership including nancy pelosi are much slower to reaching those conclusions. they don't want this to end up being a reason to rile up trump's base. they don't want to end up helping the president in the long run as we head into 2020. neil: you know, it is remarkable, if you think about it, given the strength of the economy and the markets, whether you want to give donald trump all the credit for that, as we always like to remind people we would be blaming the president, democrat or republican, if things went south. i guess it's only fair. but having said that, shouldn't the president be up a lot more in the polls given that, or is he hurting himself? forget about all these guys throwing, you know, little nicks and cuts at him. is he the problem? does that worry you, that he's his own worst messenger?

>> well, i think it's incredible that the president is doing as well as he is currently because you have had two years of the media doing everything they can to destroy the president. you look at the reports that have come out where cnn and msn, 90% of their reporting over the last two years has been negative reporting against the president. when you have that kind of unpaid attacks by the democrats against the president, it's surprising that he's not doing worse. i think as people start to realize there was no collusion, everything that the democrats have been running on for the last two years is an absolute lie, and they start to look at the meat and potato things that people really vote on, which is the economy, they are going to start to see that this president has done an incredible job despite the fact the attacks that he's had over the last two years. >> let me be very clear. democrats did not run on that in the last election. we actually ran on health care. and the president is the one

who -- yes, we did. go check the polls. it's not hard to figure that out, ted. you just have to be honest with yourself. neil: are you worried -- [ speaking simultaneously ] neil: you might have run on health care but right now focusing on the mueller investigation, justified as you think it is to have hearings and pursue some things, that it was nowhere on a list of top voter concerns, not in the top five, not in the top ten, not even in the top 20 issues. do you think that boomeranges on democrats? >> i think it is important to focus on the meat and potato issues that people care about. i agree with ted on that point. it is also important to make sure that congress exercises oversight. that's part of its constitutionally mandated duties. so there's nothing wrong with doing that. >> two years worth of investigation, $25 million. >> we have the ability to chew gum and walk at the same time. >> they came back with no collusion. >> keep repeating your talking point. the reality is -- neil: you eloquently expressed your point very well.

but thank you all very, very much. as these fine folks were speaking, we have the dow surging about 135 points but of special note on interest rates, what's happening with twitter? with much better than expected earnings and an increase in monthly users, way beyond what people thought would be the case, that stock is surging 16% just today. that's just today. after this.

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neil: welcome back, everybody. the dow up 132 points. look at the dow 30. oil prices are up. they're at six-month highs. that would benefit typically the two predominant oil components within the dow. exxonmobil. canceling each other out. among the 11 sectors shown, one of the stronger sectors shown. sort of like a good market barometer if it holds. cracking down on iran, having short-lived effect of lifting underlying prices. also got earnings. almost a quarter through this process, come in s&p 500 companies. have been better than expected. something we follow very closely here. even though sound as little wonky. top-line growth. revenue growth. could signal the future of

companies. when the stuff you're sell something increasing and dollar value of it is increasing that is sort of the wind at your back. that is the wind at all the market averages back. kristina partsinevelos take you through that in the next hour. kristina: this is a first. never had a split screen. i can feel the excitement from neil. i'm kristina partsinevelos in for the great charles payne and this is "making money." coming up we have the s&p and nasdaq on track for record closes as earnings season rams up. but gas prices though, they're soaring as well. i know you guys feel it at the pump. we'll. nancy pelosi says there are no plans to move forward with impeaching president trump. this has a couple of 2020 candidates call for his