armored cargoing at demonstrates. pulling back when they were hit with petrol bombs, stones and rocks. there is real violence on the streets of caracas venezuela, as we speak. neil, it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very, very much we have violent uprising, some are calling it a coup although certainly constitutional appropriated one. the fellow we recognize as the newly legitimate elected president of that country, juan guaido has called on the venezuelan people to rise up, give substantial support for a rally against nicolas maduro. here is the situation. maduro isn't going anywhere. the people, namely the top military generals who support him are not going anywhere. herein lies the rub. if they stick with him, continue to counter demonstrators, and some of the demonstrators have support of younger military

members that could get very messy, in fact extremely messy. everything hit a head today, the question going forward, what we will be doing about it, if we can do anything at all about it. whether this is the powderkeg that a lot of people feared would blow up when push came to shove and guaido was trying to say, all right, you call me the duly-elected head of this country, i am taking my rightful move to make that happen. nicolas maduro and the generals who support him are not giving up without a fight. we have reports of sporadic violence throughout the country, particularly in the nation's capitol of caracas where national guard vehicles were seen running over protesters in caracas. what is interesting to see whether all military members in unison fight the protesters. in the past, as i said, younger members, retired general, some of them outside of the country, have urged recognizing guaido

and saying maduro must to. but those in charge are still in maduro and they're not going anywhere. the white house we're told is monitoring the situation. secretary of state mike pompeo is among officials expressing support for guaido. just because you support the guy doesn't necessarily magically put him in the presidential palace. in fact he is outside of the palace. maduro sin side of the palace. he is not going anywhere. concurrently the president is meeting with top democrats and republicans on a infrastructure package. he says the two parties can eventually find agreement on. this is likely to come up in steakouts that are -- stakeouts are planned after they come out from the white house. various congressman, senators, take to the microphone to talk about infrastructure but possibly to talk about this, we'll take you to them. meantime former trump and bush 43 state department staffer christian whiton what happens now. christian what do you think? >> the day began with guaido and

the man who was political prisoner lopez, brought out of prison. they were meeting with members of the military who had defected from maduro to their side. very impressive start. also you have, you know, political unity in some sense. lopez is a man of the left but guaido is a centrist, broad, broad support for this protest movement from aways venezuelan society. it is really impossible, difficult i should say to tell if this is the engame or not, there has been sustained level of protest for some time but clearly there are good signs. you have broad protest and -- neil: i don't want to jump on you my friend, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer just left the white house, ostensibly to talk about what was agreed to on infrastructure. for all they know they might address this. >> building infrastructure for the future. it is about jobs, jobs, jobs. it is about promoting commerce and clean air, clean water.

so therefore a public health issue. it's a quality of life issue getting people out of their cars, not being on the roads so much. in every way it's a safety issue. so we're very excited about the conversation that we had with the president to advance an agenda of that kind. we did come to one agreement that agreement would be big and bold. our distinguished leader from the senate will announce how big and how bold. >> thanks. >> [laughter]. and, what remains to be seen is a, we agreed we would meet again to talk about how it would be paid for. but we're very pleased with the positive attitude toward recognizing the trillions of dollars of need according to the american society of civil engineers. the deficit that we have in our infrastructure. and now we have an opportunity to work together in a bipartisan

way, building infrastructure in america has never been a partisan issue. we hope to go forward in a very non-partisan way for the future. with that i'm pleased to the yield to the distinguished leader of the senate. >> it was a very constructive meeting. it is clear that both the white house and all of us want to get something done on infrastructure in a big and bold way. there was goodwill in this meeting. that was different than some of the other meetings that we've had which is a very good thing. first, we agreed that infrastructure is crucial to the future of america. we agreed it creates jobs. we agreed it keeps us competitive. we agreed for 25 years this kind of big, bold, bill we could pass would make america a better place this is not just one year or two year. we agreed on a number which is very, very good. $2 trillion for infrastructure. originally we started a little lower. even the president was eager to

push it up to $2 trillion. and that is a very good thing. then we talked about a number of things we would do. obviously roads and bridges and highways. obviously water. but also a big emphasis on broadband, that every american home we believe needs broadband. and emphasis on the power grid, so we could bring clean energy from one end of the country to the other. and several other issues. we told the president that we needed his ideas on funding. that the last bill he proposed which a was smaller, took as much money away, the speaker emphasized this, took as much money away as it put wasn't going to work. so where does he propose we can fund this, because, certainly in the senate if we don't have him on board it will be very hard to get the senate to go along. we said we would meet in three weeks and he would present to us some of his ideas on funding.

so this was a very, very good start. we'll see. we hope it will go to a constructive conclusion. [shouting questions] reporter: how hard is it to work with this president on infrastructure when he is stonewalling you on investigations? >> well, we can obviously we are here to do something for the american people. we have said all along in our for the people agenda, that we ran on, that we were there to lower the cost of health care for the american people by lowering cost of prescription drugs. we hope to work with the president on that. we said we're there to lower health care costs, bigger paychecks, by building the infrastructure of america and green futuristic way. we talked about cleaner government. for the first two we think we can work with the president on. while we may have our difficulties in other areas but we cannot -- we cannot, we cannot ignore the need of the

american people as we go forward. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: that issue come up in the conversation? >> no. you can ask the same question of the senate leader. reporter: to both of you right after the midterms the president suggested he wouldn't be able to work with you if you were simultaneously investigating him. get the sense that has passed? can i ask you what is bigger priority for democrats, investigating the president or trying to work with him? >> our priority is to honor our responsibilities under the constitution of the united states, to meet the needs of the american people and to honor our oath of office. i will yield -- >> let me say, please. in previous meetings the president has said if these investigations continue i can't work with you. he didn't bring it up. and so we're going, i believe, we can do both at once.

we can come up with some good ideas on infrastructure. we want to hear his ideas on funding. that is going to be the crucial point in my opinion. and the house and the senate can proceed in its oversight responsibilities. the two are not mutually exclusive. we were glad he didn't make it that way. reporters shouting questions] >> we'll take one more. >> what happened? you all turned into shouters. >> last question. >> i will take one from a woman. reporter: thank you. did you choose a leader among you to guide the infrastructure project and spending going forward? >> well have some of our members, we have our leadership there and we, i have a rule, when i go to a meeting with multi, with many members, and that rule is the purpose of the meeting is not to criticize the president of the united states and secondly, that every person has a chance to stay what he or

she came to say. so this is a, a collaborative effort. we hope it will be very bipartisan. but we will be meeting next about how it is paid for. that will engage of course the secretary of the treasury among others and our leadership in terms of the ways and means and finance committee. >> wait, wait. >> some of it also will bring from the committee of jurisdiction, for example, the transportation infrastructure committee which has its own funding mechanism this is a technical question you're asking. everybody appropriate to the solution. >> this is the last thing we're going to say. we agreed that the same group would meet in about three weeks and the president would present his ideas on funding and we would take it from there. if we had to break up in smaller groups after that, so we would. thank you. >> let me just add one point. i want you to take this home with you. because one really important

advance we made in the meeting the president acceptance or maybe just agreement, i won't say acceptance because he may have been thinking of this all along, that is that infrastructure, infrastructure should include broadband. and it is important to health care. it is important to education. it is important to commerce. and his embrace of that in addition to transportation and water issues was very important. >> thank you very much, everybody. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: did you talk about immigration? neil: those are prominent democrats attending the meeting. the meeting was first pretty much including just nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. it widened out to include every appropriate or referring committee in the house or the senate. we even had the house ways and means chairman richard neal there. the same fellow who subpoenaed

to get the president's taxes going back multiple years. some in the case of, some investigations more than 10 years worth of tax returns. but at this infrastructure pow-wow today apparently they reached broad agreement or are speaking from the same choir book on the need for infrastructure spending where they differ of course, is the same issue they differed over these many years, under multiple administrations, how to pay for it. one common idea is to raise the federal gas tax. it hasn't been touched since the early 1990s. ironically a lot of democrats are opposed to that coupled with keeping existing tax rates the way they are, including generous tax cuts too generous for corporations. chuck schumer called for taking some of those back. still open to raising the gas tax but not making it so punitive, that that tax, a repressive tax, would fall disproportionately on the poor, middle class that sort of thing. they haven't come to any agreement on that.

but their message was very, very clear. they hope to, and they found today's meeting quite constructive in that regard. so they both share the same goal for infrastructure spending that would include not only some of the obvious things like utility grids and roads and bridges, highways but broadband and water and energy and housing an even the border. "axios" reporter kaitlin owens with us now. kaitlin, there seems more for agreement on the goal but how to pay for it is the tricky part. >> let's not brush over this. the democrats said they agreed on $2 trillion for infrastructure spending. in context the administration put out before was 200 million. this is huge increase. "axios" reported over the weekend that trump told a top democrat he wanted that 2 trillion-dollar number which is interesting at the time which is at odds with the blueprint put out before. that is confirmed that is the

number they want to work towards. again as you said how to pay for it is a completely different conversation. neil: now the costs for instance, alone give you indication how far the white house wants to go. obviously everyone has to be cognizant we run trillion dollar deficits. we have 22, 23 trillion-dollar debt. this money doesn't come out of thin air. all those these days it does, we can print it out of the thin air. i wonder if you think any republican would be open to taking back some of the tax cut bill for corporations to satisfy one of chuck schumer's demands as a caveat to raise the gas tax? i can't think of one but i don't know. >> you know, neil, i would say no. i think the president has a lot of power over congressional republicans. i don't know that anyone wants to be on the receiving end of trump starting to say you know,

so-and-so, senate republican is standing in the way of giant infrastructure bill just so you can, for corporations to get bigger tax breaks. that is a terrible message. i think we've seen over the past two plus years that trump's bully pulpit, especially among his own party is huge. so i mean i think, he is always a wild card when it comes to these things. on their own no, no republican will want to raise the tax rate to pay for a infrastructure bill. neil: i found it very interesting, when you and i were talking there they plan to meet again in three weeks. i don't know that is the point which the president, democrats come up with a plan, how to pay for it. but it is interesting that they do plan to in three weeks, that is about the timetable for hearings to continue and commence on the mueller report. i'm wondering if, brings back the old, can you walk and chew gum at the same time. the history of congress is that they can't but what do you think? >> you know, i think both

parties have a very strong interest trying to walk and chew gum at the same time here. putting aside all the investigations, democrats want to show they can govern. they want to pass a bill gets signed into law. ideally it would be nice for a big win here, especially new democrats who got elected in moderate swing districts. president trump is running for re-election in 20206789 he wants more legislation to run on. he wants to fulfill some of his campaign promises. infrastructure was a big campaign promise. whether they can walk and chew gum at the same time is to be seen but there is a strong incentive for both to try. neil: thank you very much. kaitlin owens following all of this. to update you, three weeks from now they will come together again presumably with the is crossed and cross the ts how to pay for all of this, each one's definition how much of a commitment they want to make for infrastructure spending. republicans are arguing between gas taxes as they are now,

funding for the highway and trust fund we already spend over $100 billion a year addressing infrastructure. they want to know where that money is going before they add a penny to it. democrats saying whatever we're doing is not enough. that money is not enough. so therein lies the rub. back very quickly to venezuela what is happening in caracas, in case you just joined us here. there are demonstrations. some would call this a coup. the man we have supported to be the leader of venezuela is saying it is anything but. juan guaido is saying this is simply average folks exercising their constitutional right to recognize a democratically elected leadership. that is not the guy who is so far the presidential palace and intends not to go anywhere, nicolas maduro. here is what maduro has going for him. the generals. that is a pretty good thing to have in your corner. after this.

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neil: taking you back to caracas, venezuela, an up raising that is an understatement for those saying nicolas maduro must go. they're willing to challenge military officials on the ground. we saw tear gas used earlier on.

we are told generals and those in charge are trying to be as low-key as possible and least disruptive possible because obviously this could further incitement. we're hearing that the u.n. chief gutierrez urged maximum restraint in venezuela. appealed to all stakeholders to avoid any violence, take immediate steps to restore calm. this is coming from the u.n. this is the day obviously that we're seeing the duly-elected government of nicholas -- or juan guide dough, challenge nicolas maduro once and for all. you don't belong in power. get out of the presidential palace. i'm duly-elected. technically not as duly-elected but democratically recognized leader of that country the ahead of the constitutional state which is the state we're recognizing. nicolas maduro has support of most generals in charge, the ones that count, the ones with

the tanks and guns. he has also the support of china, iran and russia. juan guaido has the support of united states, canada, mexico, virtually every other central american country, latin american country, all of western europe, the european june -- union, virtually everybody else on the planet. maduro has the general, the guns and influence and he is not going anywhere. oil prices were all over the map when this accelerated. they since kind of stablized. a lot of that due to the fact that venezuelan oil is not nearly fact tore it was on the global market it was on the market couple years ago. phil flynn is joining us now. >> i absolutely agree with you, neil. first this market got the news about juan guaido and stance against maduro, oil prices spiked. the concern is what will happen

if we lose venezuelan oil? guess what, neil, there is not that much more to lose. under maduro, they basically ransacked the venezuelan oil industry. the country used to produce 3 1/2 million barrels of oil a day. fell recently to 600,000-barrels. the market is looking to see how this plays out, if guaido is actually successful and removes maduro that could actually mean more oil on the market. if maduro stays in power, they will continue to ransack the industry. you will have power outages and oil inventories will continue to go down. there is a day where the market will wait and see how the headlines break before they make a decision to see which way they go. neil: where does venezuelan go? >> exactly the bottom line here too, one of the reason we're seeing higher gasoline prices here in the united states is because of the lack of venezuelan oil.

the u.s. is very fond of that heavy oil. it produces a lot of gasoline, a lot of diesel fuel for this country. and lack of venezuelan oil is one factor in these rising gasoline prices. now you have a situation too on top of this where you have opec, their basically telling donald trump they're not in a hurry to raise production. i don't know where you tweeted that. that will tighten supplies even more. of course you have the ongoing war in libya. all the geopolitical factors right now are really raising a risk for prices and potentially the economy down the road. neil: all right, my friend. phil flynn following all this closely in chicago. the effect on oil prices here, just the appearance, or probability some oil in the world, not as much as it used to be from venezuela will be taken off market. obviously psychologically affects the supply equation amid a build-up in global demand that could lift prices. as he pointed out, phil pointed

out, not the factor it used to be. what is rashable in all of this though, venezuela was one of the richest countries on earth on per capita basis fueled on everything from tourism to that oil. in other words there was a good deal of oil enriching venezuelans lives. they were the envy of latin america. they are the envy today for reasons you would think. that is something the president already seized addressed congress earlier this year he spoke the dangers of promising too much to too many. you eventually run out of money. does that mean this becomes a political issue what is going on in venezuela. could you have a lot of money, a lot of riches, all fritters away, making too many promises to too many people. we have robin biro and boyd matson. boyd, one of the things that comes up, even all the money in the world, maggie thatcher famously said you run out of it.

then you have to come up with other solutions. usually it's a cutback on those services. a cut back on some of those comforts people got used to. then you have problems, don't you? >> that's right. what you see in venezuela today, you eventually run out of other people's money and socialist administration falls and people fall back on that pursuing their own drapes. the political component to it, the challenge for democrats, will be president trump will try to pin all of that on the extreme left-wing of the democratic party, who are throwing out a lot of things sound like socialism or are socialism if you're bernie sanders and that is going to be the test. that is not where most of america is. socialism sounds good in a democratic primary in the spring. but it is not where the country is in the fall. what joe biden is trying to do

in iowa today, green new deal, extreme stuff that is the kiddie table. let's get to the real issues. how do we move the country forward for hard-working americans who really need it most. neil: robin, this is interesting, you and i chatted about this, as well you and i, boyd, depends on the wording. if you don't call it socialism, but you talk about providing, you know cradle to grave benefits or government will pay for your education, provide your health care, a lot of people are for that. they obviously don't want to have to get stuck with the bill. i liken it to let's say you don't like being called fat. say you're calorically challenged. that might take some onus off of you. robin, polled on that subject, democratic supporters of some of the premier candidates, joe biden included they like some of these ideas espoused by some of the rabble-rousers in the party. i don't mean to desmarriage --

desmarriage them, but talk up government ploy vieded benefits. >> they are popular talking points in the primaries but once we get to the general election you will see all of our candidates on our side pivot away from that even bernie sanders to some degree. we see in venezuela these things are not sustainable. i've been pushing back against this for quite some time. i'm glad to see candidates like joe biden kind of striking a good balance by talking about issues that really matter to the working class while hitting some of those more aspirational ideas and at this point i would say they're aspirational. yes we have to do a lot more with the environment. the student, people are crippled with student debt that this is all true. we need to see where we can work together on some of these. in a way that is going to be financially beneficial to the rest of country.

neil: we'll watch it close. gentlemen, i want to thank you for that, with all the breaking news what is going on in venezuela right now, just update you, the defense minister saying an act of violence has been partly defeated here claiming that because of the military's actions, some members of its armed forces had been partly defeated, that the military top ranks remain very loyal to the constitution. again, this is depending whose perspective you're buying. sympathetic figure to juan guaido or sympathetic figure to nicolas maduro. to hear maduro's generals talk about, we will not tolerate this, nor by the same token are they opening fire on venezuelans. we're also told a lot of younger generals and the rest, younger members of the military, the ones who do not have lot of securities and protections the higher ranking counterparts do, they have sworn not to fire on

protesters. they are in sympathy with them. even those who are not will certainly not fire on them. we're watching that. that is a very important development to keep an eye on. god forbid it does escalate to something like that, all bets are off. we'll follow that closely. also following the president addressing these and other issues south of the border, including new asylum rules whether you're coming from venezuela or a host of countries for variety of reasons. the president outlined a plan to make it a little bit more difficult here to claim the united states as an asylum period. edward lawrence has more on that. hey, edward. reporter: the pictures we're seeing is exactly cause of unstable governments sending asylum-seekers to the united states forcing them to go this direction. kevin mcaleenan, homeland security chief, they arrested more people in the month of march than any other month over the past decade. the current situation has them

overcapacity and just growing. mcaleenan adds it is taxing their resources and money. >> while our 2020 budget will help address this crisis we will need additional funding even sooner. given the scale what we're facing we'll exhaust our resources before the end of this fiscal year which is why this week the administration will be sending a supplemental funding request to the congress. reporter: you heard that running out of money before the end of the year. democrats pressed mcaleenan,ites arrested people non-hardened offenders coming out churches or schools and going for regular check-ins. the president ordered new rules for asylum. woe like cases heard for 180 days. acting home lan security secretary says no one wants to hold kids for long period of time. the president called for setting fees for asylum-seekers for filing and work permits. anyone entering the country

illegally asking for asylum would be barred from getting a work permit. these rules would go into 90 days. this allows the administration and i.c.e. to get prepared for them. obviously they will need more money for judges if they hear cases within 180 days deadline. neil: edward lawrence, thank you very much. we told but the pow-wow just wrapped up at white house on infrastructure. among those attending richard neal. he runs the house ways and means committee. same guy demanding president's records going back a decade or more. the president says that is ridiculous. they have subpoenaed a number of banks including capital one and deutsche bank for those records. the president fighting back, saying don't you dare send those records to the banks. also telling those in congress you have no right to do this. it's a witch-hunt he says. it is going way beyond the original hunt. this could be the makings of a constitutional crisis. then ask yourself this, regardless what you think of the president what if authorities in power wanted to grab your bank

records for whatever reason and you didn't want that? after this.

neil: the situation in caracas, venezuelas the foreign minister is on the wires saying nicolas maduro is in his place of command as always and in control of situation. some of the video we're getting could question that word control. foreign minister estimates that the opposition leader guaido has backing of 30 or so soldiers. guaido's people are saying significantly more. what makes the drama building how the soldiers fall in line. generally less experienced ones, they have not had such a hunky-dory life in venezuela. generals are shielded from the country's poverty. problems getting ahold of basic

staples like food and medicine. they're okay with the maduro situation, with maduro in charge. the younger military types not so much. they have also vowed they would not fire on protesters if push came to shove. so far they have kept to that. there was tear gas used earlier. it is like a standoff here what can only be described as an attempted coup even though the people raising this issue of a coup feel that they are constitutionally in the right here. that they are the ones who have legitimate control of the government and pretty soon the presidential palace. some apparently not passed that along to nicolas maduro who remains in said palace. we will keep you posted. prices not budging. markets not budging. hopefully cooler heads prevail. the trump team is suing the likes of deutsche bank and capital one to block house

subpoenas asking for financial information upwards of a decade long before donald trump became president or even dreamed of running for president. the host of "the liberty file" on "fox nation," so much else, judge andrew napolitano on all of this. would i worry about, judge, with this, regardless what people think of the president, that is a slippery slope asking for records that go back that long. what if it happened to you and me? >> here is the house's argument. they have testimony from michael cohen supported by some documents which we haven't seen which says that the president inflated his assets for the purpose of getting loans from these banks. underestimated his assets for the purpose of tax exposure and they want to know if there was a person in the white house who has gotten away with criminal activity, so they have subpoenaed his records. that is the house argument. these are valid lawful subpoenas. the banks either must comply with them or wait until a federal judge rules on them. the president's challenge, in my

view is quite proper and basically says this was 10 years ago. it is none of the house's business. i don't care what michael cohen said to them. and we want you, your honor, to invalidate the legal term, is quash as in squash, the subpoena because it seeks personal, private information and there will be no end to what they're going to try and do to harass me as president. and the court will call it between those two arguments. neil: so didn't the mueller report as it was going and investigating, it passed along investigations to district courts and the like including this issue? >> that is a potential danger to the president. he could have fired bob mueller and his entire team. he cannot fire, cannot fire, the federal prosecutors here in new york city who did receive that information from mueller. mueller wisely said, listen i have expanded the scope somewhat. you gave me permission to go after manafort for bank fraud.

i'm not going after the president for bank fraud. i will send it up to the federal prosecutors in the area where it allegedly occurred which is here in new york city. so what the democrats want in my opinion is already in the possession of federal prosecutors here in new york city. they just haven't done anything with it. they either haven't found any crimes there or they're not ready to do it. neil: do you think they include tax returns? >> i don't know that. i don't know that but i do believe the subpoenas went out a while ago to deutsche bank. deutsche bank as you know, this is public knowledge has been his preferred lender to the point of many billions over the years for all the projects that he has done, some of which are almost within arms reach where we right now. neil: that is a pretty good bet in new york, arms reach. all right. judge, thank you very much. in the meantime we're looking at this military uprising. we're looking at the infrastructure plan. apparently it was not exactly

kumbayah, the infrastructure meeting because there were some differences but nothing, nothing, compared to what is going on in caracas right now. more after this.

neil: all right. some are calling this a coup, what's happening in caracas, venezuela right now, a large demonstration against nicolas maduro, juan guaido who we recognize as duly-elected president of that country saying in a video short time ago, that this is operation liberty that is now underway, with the goal to place the new constitutionally recognized government and a government recognized worldwide by everyone but china, iran and russia, the duly-elected government of venezuela. he says that maduro must go, insists on twitter, military backs him. maduro insists just the opposite that the military backs him.

top u.s. officials laid in with words of support for guaido. what we do not know, 100 exiled soldiers in nearby colombia are waiting for their orders. they're not sure what to do because they don't know what is next. what we know is that the markets are on tenterhooks, oil not budging, stocks barely moving, waiting cooler and hopefully calmer heads prevail. more after this. this is not a bed...

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neil: all right. welcome back, everybody. with the dow down about 40 points, sprint and t-mobile announced a agreement to extend a deadline for their proposed roughly 26 million-dollar merger deal. this looked like a good possibility. now anyone's guess. a jump ball. charlie gasparino at milken institute conference out in california. charlie, what are you hearing? >> i guess you could say this is semipositive for the deal, not necessarily sprint. i ran into the doj antitrust chief, mach kim dellrahim a new issue emerged that could push it into a positive light. here is what he had to say. big concern, antitrust 30,000 feet, going from four major wireless carriers to three. that the combined sprint and

t-mobile eliminates obviously a carrier and competition. let me ask you this i've been reading up on sprint's financials lately. you might just get just three carrierses any way if they don't merge? are you concerned that sprint might not be healthy enough to survive, therefore that is a factor in this merger? >> well of course. number of carriers and competition that you know, of any potential merger will lead to is a factor that we consider. whether or not a company is failing or will go out of business is a factor. there is laws about that. called a failing firm defense in antitrust. and there is, energy solutions was a recently litigated case where there was some pronouncements what the standards are that we look at and that is something, if the parties raise that we would consider. >> have they raised it? >> they have discussed in public talking about somehow a flailing company and it is a factor that we consider. and whether or not it meets the

standards, the legal standards we have to consider is a different story. >> how high up is sprint's financial situation on your consideration list? >> well it is certainly part of the review. >> well, there you have it, neil. i mean makan delrahim, the antitrust chief is looking if this deal doesn't go through sprint might go out of business. i'm telling you that is one of the major defenses that sprint and at&t are saying to the justice department antitrust division, to the staff, some of whom are pretty skeptical. what they're saying essentially this, you're worried there will be one less carrier we merge in wireless. got that. you are going to get one less carrier anyway because of sprint's precarious financial position if this thing doesn't happen. according to delrahim, that is something they're considering. if you're looking to gameplan this, it is on his radar screen, you have got to say this

argument is a net positive for the deal going through. not saying it is going through but it is definitely a net positive. you heard it here first. back to you. neil: thank you, charlie, toiling a way in beverly hills, california m beverly hills. more after this. moving? that's harder now because of psoriatic arthritis. but you're still moved by moments like this. don't let psoriatic arthritis take them away. taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness and helps stop the progression of joint damage. for people with moderate to severe psoriasis, 90% saw significant improvement. taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis.

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your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. neil: all right. the scene in caracas, venezuela,

protesters are saying juan guaido is our recognized leader, we think he should be in the presidential palace. nicholas maduro's supported largely by the military. he is the head of that country, he insists, even though recognition stopped some time ago. he's only backed by the likes of iran, china and russia. the rest of the world pretty much, by and large, is behind juan guaido. now, the military is in this odd role right now, bifurcated between top generals who by and large support nicholas maduro, and lower ranking types who have not had the job security or for that matter, been shielded from some of the country's economic ills, they have been able to get their hands on food and medical supplies, something the venezuelan people by and large have not, including some of the lower ranking soldiers who have sworn off firing on protesters so they are not, the only violence we have seen are tear gas cannisters exploding early

on. that's where it lies for the time being. blake burman is at the white house with the latest on all of this and the administration's views. blake? reporter: neil, this has been front and center for the white house and president trump throughout the day, as we can tell you at 6:00 this morning, that was the first time today that president trump was briefed on the ongoing developments inside of venezuela. maria bartiromo actually just interviewed within about the last 15, 20 minutes here, the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney, who made a point to say that it is important as to how this is defined by the administration and how this is defined throughout the united states by those who support juan guaido. mulvaney telling maria the following, saying quote, it is important we don't consider it a coup because we recognize guaido as the legitimate leader of the country, and we are watching it along with everyone else. the only messages i think we are trying to get out there is that we want to make sure that the russians and the cubans know they are not supposed to get

involved, and that we do -- and that we do and have said a bunch of times that all options are on the table. that from chief of staff mick mulvaney to maria bartiromo moments ago. the white house earlier today saying they are keeping all eyes on what is going on in venezuela. listen. neil, the chief of -- the secretary of state mike pompeo also sent out a tweet earlier today in which he continued to show the u.s. support for juan guaido. he said democracy cannot be defeated. as it relates to the white house, neil, the senior administration official saying they believe juan guaido does have sustained support from members of the venezuelan military but over here at the white house, they are also not sure exactly how much support is for guaido, how much support is for maduro as it relates to the venezuelan military, something very clearly that they continue to watch here throughout the

day. neil? neil: blake thank you very, very much. former bush 43 deputy undersecretary of defense says we should not assume this is the end of nicholas maduro. that probably is a very wise counsel, general. he does not appear to be going anywhere. he does seem to control at least the senior military, which is pretty much the military you want to control, right? >> yeah, that's right. i thought your analysis at the beginning was very good. it's the senior leaders there that are really on the take. they are profiting from the oil revenues. of course, those are problematic now for them with the sanctions. but these people are on the take and they are going to stay with maduro until the bitter end, then wherever he goes, many of them will probably go with him. neil: i know a solution was raised earlier to grant these generals amnesty. in other words, yeah, what you were doing was a little crooked, a lot crooked, you were bold in

taking advantage of something average venezuelans could not like access to food and medicine, security, the likes of which not even your lower-ranking soldiers could access, but that seemed to have gone away. now we are at the stage that should the government, the duly elected government as we see it of juan guaido take charge, they would mete out punishment for the generals, wouldn't they? >> it seems that window of opportunity has closed, certainly by what we're hearing and seeing. i don't think that -- i don't think they are going to any time soon, for any reason, jump ship. i think that -- i would like to think that today will end well for guaido, but as i have said in the beginning, i am just not sure of that. the russian support and the cuban support is significant. who has kept, you know, bashar al assad in power in syria? well, it has been primarily the support of the russians and iranians.

right now, diplomatically, maduro has the support of the chinese, the iranians and the russians as well as the cubans, and the cubans also have people in there protecting him. so i'm very concerned and somewhat skeptical that this is going to be the end of maduro. neil: if it is not, it could be the end of guaido. >> it could be the end of guaido and i am sure that guaido, if he does not keep a very large security force around himself, that his days are probably numbered. that would be absolutely tragic. it would also have a huge impact on the hemisphere that we live in here. in some ways, you're looking at an east-west surrogate war here. neil: what i wonder about is what, if anything, we can do about this. you mentioned russia, china, iran. i guess, by extension, cuba. no strangers to violence themselves, or putting down insurrections. we have had kind of a hands-off

policy, i don't know what's going on beneath the surface, but what do you think? >> well, first of all, we do need a military option. i hope and pray that that is never used because our history in that -- in this hemisphere, in south america, of military action is not a good one. that said, there do come times when you have to have a military option. but i would opt for a more covert option. keep in mind, covert action is legal as long as the president signs a finding and the congress is briefed on it. i think putting something together which may have already been done, we don't know because it wouldn't be covert if we knew what was going on, but i think there has to be covert support, certainly. the overt side of it is the diplomatic support that the trump administration has been giving guaido, and i think holding a coalition together, we've got over 50 nations now that are standing with the united states, with guaido,

against maduro, and that is very important as well. neil: you know, you hear about these, i think it's up to 100 generals, top colonels along the border in colombia, that's where they are residing, they support guaido, but there's only so much they can do. do you think that they would be trying to galvanize colombia to do something? >> well, colombia would certainly be a much better option than probably anybody else in the hemisphere there, maybe brazil, to actually do something militarily. if that's the case, then i think the u.s. military could then go in and prop up the colombians with training, material, equipment, intelligence, the things that would enable them, but i think the colombians are going to be -- continue to be reluctant to cross that border and take military action. it would be a good thing probably if they did. neil: you know, i think,

colonel, given your stellar military record, it carries particular weight when a general of your heft says go slow on a u.s.-only military response. i hope u.s. politicians step back and assess the importance of that. thank you very, very much. >> thank you, neil. good to be with you. neil: same here, my friend. all right, meantime, we are focusing on other developments, namely the political race that's going on right now. former vice president joe biden has shot ahead of the polls, he was always on top in the polls but has increased that lead and the media notoriety around the launch of his campaign, holding a campaign event today in cedar rapids, iowa. a poll showing him with a more than 20-point lead. that could change but let's get the read from detroit news editorial page editor nolan findlay who says a lot of democrats are pinning their 2020 hopes on stellar stalwarts of the party. very good to have you back. what do you make of how he has

sort of changed the mix here? he was always expected to be a heavyweight in this race. early on he appears to be. but is that a danger or a good thing? >> it's good to be with you, neil. i think what joe biden is doing and what we are seeing in the polls this week, this surge, he's reaching out to the forgotten democrats. the union workers, the blue collar workers, who were forgotten by hillary clinton in 2016, who were pushed aside by the bernie wave, and whom nobody seems to be talking to amongst this vast democratic field. he's talking about jobs, he's talking about fair play, you don't hear him getting into the weeds of climate change or offering a whole lot of free stuff. he's just speaking to that traditional democratic backbone, these union blue collar workers and they are responding to the message. neil: i don't think any democrat at least in the near future will ever be cavalier about cutting back appearances in the likes of

pennsylvania and michigan and wisconsin and minnesota, ohio, because of donald trump's win. if you think about it, biden's people have said donald trump collectively got about 70,000 more votes in these key states but it was enough to give him those electoral votes. joe biden is well aware of that, isn't he? >> yeah. we have been seeing a lot of democrats come through here. he's got his challenge in a michigan democratic party because bernie sanders did bring a lot of new democrats into the state party. he won this state very narrowly in 2016. if those folks are still around and they appear to be, they had mixed results in the 2018 state primary but if they are still around, bernie's in pretty good shape this time. neil: you know, you mentioned something interesting at the outset, that biden has not signed on to a lot of the more extreme positions, i wouldn't call them radical left as much

as those espousing a heck of a lot more government spending. he does subscribe, we are told, to the view that barack obama does, think big but also come up with ways to pay for that. having said that, though, the focus seems to be on winning back union voters, many of whom veered over to candidate trump, donald trump was saying as much, tweeting about biden's first couple of days on the stump. what do you think of that, that they could decide the election in these battleground states? >> i think they very much will. a lot of it rests on trump's ability to retain those voters. you know, you have had some, in michigan particularly, some disruption to some of the key industries, automotive and agriculture, because of the trump tariffs and the uncertainty on trade. they may not be as enamored of him as they were last time. joe biden isn't hillary clinton. joe biden is someone they can relate to a lot more than they could hillary clinton, who never did understand that voter.

neil: you know, i'm wondering, how you see the argument over the tax cuts going. we know they went to almost everybody. we do know, though, that the majority, they didn't get it. there are va ririety of reasonsr that, dhethey deemed it to be paltry, they didn't see it in their automatically deposited checks. that's a big issue for republicans, isn't it? >> it is a big issue for republicans because they have allowed the democrats to spin this into tax breaks for big corporations and tax breaks for the rich. but it's hard to argue against record low unemployment and that's what's going to matter here. if trump can keep the focus on what he's done to get people back in jobs, because remember, the condition michigan was in, not that long ago, was 14%, 15%, 16% unemployment rate. people here appreciate the jobs and are starting to see their

paychecks fatten. the auto workers got huge bonuses last year. that's going to play well. if trump can keep talking about the economic recovery, stay away from a lot of other stuff, i think it's a winning message here. neil: i know you and i have talked about this, but you could make an argument, whether you give the president the credit for this economic boom but we would surely blame him if it were the opposite, that he should be up a lot more in the polls and for some reason he's not. what's the problem? >> he's his own worst enemy. neil: yeah, right. >> he can't stay away from the stuff that turn people off, that divide people. character is an issue, his behavior, his demeanor, those are issues. he doesn't always seem presidential. in fact, he frequently doesn't. neil: you should hear the stuff he's tweeting about you. no, i'm kidding. i'm kidding. nolan, always fun you, my friend. such a clear thinker. >> you're very kind, neil.

nl neil: we don't have too many of that, print or broadcast. we do have clarification on infrastructure spending. lot of people raised their eyebrow when they heard nancy pelosi and chuck schumer talk about a $2 trillion infrastructure package and whether republicans would go along. apparently the white house has agreed to that, $2 trillion. now, of course, the devil's in the details as well as how to pay for it but they are both on board spending $2 trillion for infrastructure. we have the money, i guess. just where? after this. hmm. exactly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

we agreed that infrastructure is crucial to the future of america. we agree it creates jobs. we agree it keeps us competitive. we agree that for 25 years, this kind of bill we could pass would make america a better place. this is not just a one year or two year. we agreed on a number, which was very, very good. $2 trillion for infrastructure. neil: all right. if it's $2 trillion, that raised eyebrows because we do remember from the president's own budget, wasn't really a budget as much as sort of a blueprint for planned spending this year, that the figure was more like $200

billion, but indeed, the white house has written off on a $2 trillion plan. now, of course, committing that kind of money is one thing. how you come up with that money is quite another. moody's capital markets chief economist john lonski, capitalist pig hedge fund manager jonathan hoenig. jonathan, what do you think of the $2 trillion figure that might be what it takes to get infrastructure going? i have no idea, but i do know that we are running trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see for quite awhile. >> yeah. big smile on chuck schumer's face, $2 trillion. nancy pelosi. i'm sure the president, neil, will be smiling as well. almost reminds me of what benjamin franklin said about a democracy. two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. they will have the taxpayers for dinner because that's where they will come up with all this money. i really miss the old gop, the type of gop that opposed this type of government spending under obama. it always leads to cronyism, always leads to malinvestment, make-work jobs. did we not learn our lesson

under when obama said the shovel-ready jobs just weren't there? this is a real negative i think not only for the economy, but certainly for our dollar and the debt, the fact the gop wants to spend all this -- i should say waste all this money. neil: both are going headstrong on this. i guess they could look at higher gas taxes, john lonski, to pay for it. we are told chuck schumer doesn't want that exclusively because it would be onerous to the poor and those who find that sort of thing regressive and all of that. be that as it may, i'm wondering whether something like that would be so costly, whatever merits and benefits it has longer term, fix the roads and bridges, bring the grid up to speed, make for faster 5g, all that other stuff, it could lead to a slowdown. in other words, that the very taxes meant to pay for it slow things down. >> well, they will. it goes like this. everybody wants infrastructure spending but nobody wants to pay for it and nobody wants it in their backyard.

so i think this is going to be a difficult bill to pass, especially from budget hard liners and even if it is passed, by the time we get through all the environmental regulations and restrictions whand whatnot,e may not feel the impact until several years down the road. meanwhile, we may have increased gasoline taxes as you hinted to the detriment of economic activity. >> neil, it becomes a question ultimately of control. even chuck schumer and nancy pelosi mentioned this isn't just roads and bridges, this is schools, this is education, this is infrastructure, these are all elements of the economy in which the private economy can actually function but it's simply a money grab for politicians. we used to have an opposition to it from the democrats. we know they want to enlarge government so what worries me is there really is no opposition to growing that debt, growing that deficit. it continues to climb. neil: no doubt a lot of some of

these things have to be done. don't get me wrong. but i do want a better accounting for the $100 plus billion we already spend for this purpose every year through the highway trust fund, through federal taxes, the state and local taxes, the tolls and everything else, because before we start adding substantially to that, someone's got to convince me that that money is going to the uses it was intended, and not being squandered. that's a worry of mine. >> that's so true. we have to enhance the productivity of the tax dollar. taxes we are now paying. let's get more for our buck that we pay to the federal government. especially in areas like education, where today there may be far too many administrators of teachers. we are not seeing the improvements in educational achievement that are needed if we are going to remain one of the world's leading economies. my goodness, in a lot of these areas, mathematics and science, we rank way down on the list compared to other countries.

that's a shame. neil: john, if you're right, if what you're saying is right, these deficits, debt, no one is going to be addressing that any time soon, period. >> that's not going to happen any time soon. you know there's a new strain of thought within economics that we can't afford to keep increasing the federal budget deficit without doing any damage to capital markets or the overall economy, but i think that would be a risky experiment, to say the least. neil: mr. hoenig, i'm sorry, i meant that for you as well. what do you think? this is going to happen in one way, shape or form. i don't know to the degree but it's going to happen. >> i think unfortunately, it's those who will bear the biggest costs are those that supposedly they want to help, those so-called, those on the lower end. they are the ones who pay the brunt of, for example, the inflation that's caused by all that government spending. just take something that should be a layup like the post office, for example. all throughout europe and the rest of the world, the post offices are privatized.

the president might lead by example here. he's a great private sector businessman. get behind privatizing the post office and actually save the taxpayer money, not just looking at us like chum to be chewed up and spit out for shovel-ready jobs. neil: all righty. thank you, guys, very, very much. let's take a quick peek at the corner of wall and broad here. market's not doing a whole lot right now, waiting after the bell for some heavyweights to come forward with their earnings, including apple. that will be closely scrutinized. more like an entertainment mutual fund or exchange traded fund if you will, these days. we will be watching as sort of an economic barometer it's always been certainly for the last few years. more after this. i don't know what's going on. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here,

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treatment, a big part of the story for merck. sales of the drug topping $2.2 billion in the quarter. earnings were $1.22 a share, its revenues $10.8 billion. they boosted their 2019 outlook which investors like. the shares are higher 2.5%. pfizer surprising on the upside with earnings of 85 cents a share. strong results from its drug thinner and breast cancer treatment fueling their revenues. stock up 3.4%. pfizer also lifted its 2019 earnings forecast due to biopharma sales. mcdonald's has a secret ingredient to boost its top line. bacon. revenues of $4.96 a share -- sorry, revenues at $4.96 billion meet expectations, earnings were a disappointment. the world's biggest burger chain benefited from price increases in the launch of doughnut sticks and an add-on bacon option for both burgers and fries. i underline that.

neil? neil: thank you very, very much, gerri. in the meantime, we are following developments in venezuela right now. white house chief of staff mick mulvaney was just speaking to maria bartiromo, says we are all watching this closely. >> importantly, we do not consider it a coup because we recognize guaido as the legitimate leader of the country and we are watching it just along with everybody else. the only messages i think we are trying to get out there is we want to make sure the russians and cubans know they are not supposed to get involved and that we do and have said a bunch of times all options are on the table. neil: all options on the table. you hear that a lot under different administrations. "wall street journal" bill mcgurn with us now. would those options include u.s. military? >> i don't know. it depends maybe down the line. but i don't think we are going to do it right away. the irony is i think both the russians and cubans have troops there, right? supporting maduro. neil: and they are pretty good

at encouraging insurrection and clamping down. >> it's ghastly to call this a coup. the constitutionally legitimate interim president is trying to get power. i lived during the tiananmen square and the peoples power revolution in the philippines. the philippines ended well. tiananmen square didn't end well. one of the reasons is that marco's left and maduro is not going to leave. these hard line guys are just not going to leave. however this end, there's going to be a lot of blood before it does end. neil: now, if we don't interfere, there are a lot of people, you had a retired general saying it wouldn't be wrong for us to move unilaterally, maybe with the colombians, they might do something with 100 former colonels and generals who reside over there, who are encouraging the colombians to do something from there, but barring that, where does this go? >> well, we'll have to see.

the key is venezuela's military. a lot of them are cuban trained and so far, more than i thought have remained loyal to maduro. that's the real problem. if the interim president guaido can encourage them to defect, then he will triumph. neil: the problem is the higher ranking guys versus the lower ranking guys. the higher ranking guys are the ones who, with the maduro government, have been shielded from the food shortages, medicine shortages, that the people have experienced. >> they have been trained by the cubans and so forth. we can't underestimate that. they are not just neutral military players. i think -- neil: they could happily -- not happily, but they would follow orders and fire on the people. the lower ranking ones would not. therein lies -- >> it is such a tragedy. the people deserve better. neil: what happened? what do you think happened? >> what happened is this is what happened when you get a socialist regime and you find out after awhile, you run out of money, you start taking from some people and venezuela, as we were discussing before, has lots

of resources, talented people. this should be a rich, prosperous country. what makes it not a rich, prosperous country is socialism, right? especially, i mean, these people are struggling for toilet paper. the hardships are unimaginable. neil: you think about it, hugo chavez when he came to power, that's when all the oil money was there, they squandered all of that. >> right. that's the other thing. in addition to all their natural, they have this oil, they should be so wealthy. but they have adopted an anti-wealth system and as we learn, as we see from venezuela's example, those systems, they don't hurt the people at the top. they hurt the people at the bottom who have no basics and are just forced to scrounge for food, clothing and -- neil: everything. >> everything. it's ghastly. i think what venezuela really needs now is a lot of prayers, because it looks very ugly.

neil: yeah. this might not end well at all. bill, thank you very, very much. we are following it very, very closely for you here. the markets, if you use them as sort of a proxy on this, even the markets throughout latin america have been relatively constrained on the belief that cooler heads will prevail. that's the hope, anyway. but this has been going on a long, long time. now you have the guaido forces saying enough is enough, we are going to make a statement here. well, that statement could get very, very violent. more after this. when you rent from national...

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hey, robert. reporter: that's right, privacy and product, that's what it's all about today. privacy, really the headline here and really his theme was privacy focused vision. a privacy focused vision and how facebook is going to try and make communications more private, keeping them encrypted and allowing people, users, to go across the different platforms whether it's facebook, whether it's instagram or whatsapp and being able to see what friends are doing there but keeping those messages private. not a lot of details here. obviously facebook has had quite a year, you know, we could go through a litany of the different infringements they have, just last week setting aside some $3 billion for an ftc complaint. not a lot of detail filling in on how they are going to address those complaints. he did talk a lot about encrypting the interoperable service, saying the messages will be seen only by those who want to, obviously a nod to the scraping of phone numbers and some of the passwords that have been laid bare, not to mention some of the other issues that

have come out of this. he was talking about building in tools to keep it safe and to talk about removing groups. we know a lot of groups, particularly some violent groups, have used facebook in the past, didn't exactly say how they were going to get rid of those and weed them out, when you have two billion people plus on facebook. that's a lot of accounts to keep an eye on. whether or not this is enough to convince lawmakers, developers and importantly also shareholders that they have these concerns undercontrol remains to be seen in the days and weeks ahead as they continue to roll out these new products, trying to make them more encrypted as i mentioned before, making messages disappear a la snapchat, though we know folks have taken screen shots of those and doesn't always work out that they do actually disappear. but again, secure data storage, talking about moving them out of some countries where governments may have some prying eyes, then at the end, kicking off unveiling some products there, including the quest going to go on sale for about $400 with no cables. you will not have to be attached to a pc which has been a

complaint by a lot of people, the laymen waiting for vr to come to fruition. back to you. neil: you still have to wear the goofy glasses, right? reporter: you do have to wear those. when we are sitting together watching a game, it doesn't always lend itself to the most social experience, if you will. neil: no. nothing wrong with that. all right. thank you very much, my friend. apple is focusing on the post-iphone world, not forgetting it, but looking at services over hardware. might apple be taking a cue from microsoft the way it restrategized to focus on opportunities in the cloud? what do you think of all this, and what apple, i wouldn't say it's swapping out emphasis on the phone and all these other neat devices, but it's certainly spreading its wings a little bit. >> yeah, absolutely. it's going to be a big growth area for apple going forward. it's going to, you know, they are trying to hope the services

will make up for the slowing iphone sales. this is the second biggest revenue stream for the company behind the iphone, bigger than the mac and bigger than the ipad. they have a lot of potential there. neil: when you talk about services, i understand itunes and the cloud and all that but there's more to it, isn't it? >> yeah, tim cook was onstage recently with a big keynote presentation talking about a new tv streaming service, a new news plus service, getting people news, and apple pay credit card. these are the three big areas. neil: now, the good thing about that kind of stuff, for those who like microsoft, is the constant ka-ching. the money is coming in regardless of what's happening on the hardware side, right? >> absolutely. it doesn't infiltrate as much. hardware obviously it's -- like we said, it's every month there's a paycheck.

it's reliable. neil: you know, tim cook is getting a lot of renewed attention right now on sort of this unsung hero who was very, you know, nose to the grindstone, not really as big as life personality as steve jobs but very effective in his own right. i would be curious your take on him. >> oh, yeah, he's been extremely effective. he's made apple into the first trillion dollar company and the company is, you know, he has, you know, expanded apple much bigger than anyone ever thought. people didn't think it would ever get to be this big. you know, some people are still very bullish. they think it will get even bigger. cook doesn't really get the credit for his role when steve jobs was around. he was sort of the de facto ceo when steve jobs was in charge of the company, especially when he was sick. he took over, but he was kind of -- jobs never really had the temperament or patience to be

ceo. jobs was kind of the chief product officer. he was good enough at ceo to hire someone like tim cook to be the ceo behind the scenes. so when tim cook took over, he was sort of taking over a role he had already been in for several years. neil: yeah. i forget that, you know. sometimes there's a great deal of genius to have that kind of genius, to see that you need a different kind of genius, right? thank you. >> absolutely. yeah. neil: great job. i appreciate it. meanwhile, an isis leader long thought dead is alive and well, resurfacing on a video and scaring the you-know-what out of a lot of folks who thought isis was gone. apparently not. termites. we're on the move.

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neil: forget about a wall. what about the barriers that keep those who got into this country, here, the so-called asylum laws. a new law will stop the flow of migrants or those who are already here from extending their invitation to be here. very good to have you, hector. what the president wants to do is sort of tighten this all up, but that's easier said than done, isn't it? >> what's very clear, neil, is congress is not going to fix the crisis we have on the border.

that's something they have made very, very clear so president trump is taking these steps to make sure that we do fix the immigration system, to make sure that we stop the abuse of our asylum laws. these are the right steps. by expediting some of these hearings that president trump is proposing, legitimate asylum seekers will have access to asylum, that means they will be protected, while at the same time those that are abusing our system will be identified and they will be put into removal proceedings. neil: he's also called for introducing a fee or higher fee for their applications, for the privilege of trying to get work here, and furthermore, prevent them from working until their claims are approved. a lot of that seems common sense. i was surprised that latter part was even an issue. >> yeah, so we know these people that are abusing our asylum laws, we know that they are paying cartels thousands and thousands of dollars. now, as far as the work permits, that's part of the magnet that's causing our illegal immigration. if president trump puts a stop to those magnets, we will fix

the immigration problem we have on the border so yeah, that's the right move by having those work permits revoked, while these people have been inputted into the removal proceedings and final deportation orders have been given. neil: what i didn't understand is when critics have said some of these restrictions which were meant to tighten up laws and rules already in place would harm the process for those genui genuinely seeking legitimate asylum in this country. wouldn't this separate those who are using that as an excuse versus those who genuinely are seeking a haven out of fear for their lives and their family's lives? >> as a matter of fact, it's very important for us to distinguish those people that are seeking legitimate asylum, because with the current process, the way it works right now, is that those people that are seeking legitimate asylum, they are not given a fair shot because they are being left behind by those that are abusing the system. so right now, with the changes president trump is proposing,

it's actually protecting the legitimate asylum seekers. that's something congress should be supporting and people should be supporting, because right now, it is being abused and again, legitimate asylum seekers are not being given a fair shot. neil: do you get a sense, though, can the president move on a lot of this on his own, or does this all need congressional approval? i mean, i know some of his lawyers have argued these are going back to the rules which were originally in place, so some of the tighter application procedures and fees are different, i grant you, but isn't their argument that they don't need to go through, you know, congress on this? >> well, president trump has actually, is looking into his authority into these processes. we know that these executive actions can be challenged in court so we will let the supreme court decide on this one but nothing doing is not an option. what trump is doing is the right decision, it's the right move. we need to do something on this crisis. if not, things are just going to get worse. if you see the apprehensions

during march of 2019, we had over 100,000 apprehensions and if you look at the first seven months of fiscal year 2019, those apprehensions surpasses 2019. doing nothing is not an option. neil: thank you for all your hard work. we will follow this very, very closely. the president has put this together and it's caused a you-know-what storm but a lot of it goes back to principles that were standing before this sort of morphed into the political football it's become. meantime, speaking of political footballs, isis given up for dead, apparently alive and well. not only with sri lanka and other planned attacks around the world, but now evidence, we are told, that isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi is alive and well, making his first video appearance in five years. the french, we're told, aren't quite buying that that's him or that it's a current video of him, that he could be dead for all they know. so we could be getting

snookered. hard to to say. to terrorism analyst says we should expect an uptick in isis inspired attacks after the video itself. very good to have you. you are saying prepare for the worst, right? >> i am saying that we are going to see an uptick in terrorist activities because now all these terrorist sympathizers are looking at their leader on video, and they are feeling empowered, because he's asserting his leadership, he's asserting his authority. he is saying america may be telling you that we lost territory and yes, we may have lost geographical territory but the virtual caliphate is alive and well, neil. what most people don't realize is isis has 30,000 web sites in different languages, practically almost every language spoken around the globe. 30,000 websites. this is their presence on the internet. they are recruiting and they are growing. neil: can i ask a dumb question? of course you are used to that from me over the years, but do

you need a base of operation? like in the old days, with al qaeda, say it was pakistan or the taliban, pakistan and afghanistan. do you need a physical kind of homeland, if you will, or in this high tech age, can't you do any of this from pretty much anywhere, evidence what just happened in sri lanka? >> look, nowadays, with the age of the internet and the age of computers, you can literally start a business, as we have seen in regular businesses. my own organization started out in my guest bedroom with my computer. we are now over one million people. so anybody today with the power of the internet, you can be anywhere and what we need to address is the ideology that isis follows, and that ideology is worldwide. look, we have 1.6 billion muslims in the world who not all of them follow the exact same ideology, but let's say 1% adhere to the ideology, which basically the commandment of the

koran. most muslims do not follow the ideology, are moderates and do not want to blow up people. but let's say 1% of the 1.6 billion sympathize with isis, want to follow isis leadership, that's a huge number. right now, with their presence on the internet and especially on twitter, because their power actually is on twitter. you know, twitter started working with intelligence agencies and shutting down terrorist websites and terrorist activities and language on twitter, and the last half of 2016 alone, they shut down over 376,000 accounts. that's no small number. 376,000 accounts. they are operating on the internet and they are recruiting, and this is why what's happening at our border right now with mexico becomes a major problem and takes it to a whole new level because when you add the terrorist element of people being able to walk into our country and now inspired knowing their leader is still alive and well and operating,

that may pose a danger to those who are trying to come into america to follow on their leadership call to create terrorist attacks against the infidels. neil: to your point, you could argue 1% of any population could be a problem, but i think the issue here is that -- >> 1%. neil: -- seeing a video of their leader could galvanize that 1%. >> right. neil: thank you very, very much. venezuela's foreign minister saying nicholas maduro is still very much in control of this situation. that might be news to the guy who figures he is the duly elected president of that country, and the two sides aren't even close to each other. it's getting more violent and it's getting very, very worrisome. more after this.

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but dad, you've got allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands? neil: always waiting for updates on the chinese talks. trade reparable better lighthizer, treasury secretary steve mnuchin are in beijing as we speak. cobbling to the a series of talks points, to another series of talking points on and on. edward lawrence passing on something from the, i would like to say the two teams will be guided by important con sense reached by our two presidents work together, meet each other

halfway, driving mutual respect. ie, we don't have a deal yet. we're saying all the right things. the dow is up 22 points. on to my colleague and friend charles payne. hey, charles. charles: good afternoon, neil. i'm charles payne, thank you very much. this is "making money." up rise inning venezuela. we'll have latest on violence in the nation's capitol and how they are responding. president trump meets with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer on infrastructure. trump administration is asking for more money to address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border as the president calls for change how the u.s. handles asylum cases that and so much more on making money. military uprising taking place in venezuela as opposition leader juan guaido