mark, one of our favorites here at "countdown." [closing bell rings] we look to be at session lows. the dow down 180 points. s&p lower by 23. nasdaq down 53. as president talks about mulling stimulus. melissa: we may already be in a recession? what was that guy smoking? broad retreat on wall street. all three major averages ending the day in the red on gains of economic slowdown fears. what is going on here. investors digest another day of earnings as well. the dow ending down 170 points. how do you like that negative nellies? the s&p 500, tech-heavy nasdaq also ending in negative territory. i'm melissa francis. people are talking this whole then down. connell: we're talking ourselves into it? melissa: i do. connell: is that the idea? melissa: i do. connell: i'm connell mcshane. this is "after the bell." president did a lot of talking. here is what is new at this

hour. how about avoiding downturn or recession. the trump administration examining proposals to boost the economy amid warning signs of at least a slowdown. the president made comments in oval office, being very careful. melissa: you don't want me to get hysterical. connell: you're sitting this close to me. latest on white house plan, what the president had to say. new details on apple's streaming service. how the company plans to take on netflix. how it compares to disney plus. as well as major change at one us airport. what you need to know before you head through security. melissa: fox business team coverage. gerri willis on floor of the new york stock exchange. blake burman at the white house and kristina partsinevelos in the newsroom. we'll start with blake. reporter: melissa, president trump said a little while ago talking about a recession is quote, inappropriate be. he also talked down any potential recessionary fears, talking up the possibility of tax cuts, new tax cuts down the line. for the past day or so, we've been hearing from the

white house very publicly as well, this idea of a potential payroll tax cut, payroll tax cut wassing into really seriously looked at, how president trump just a little while ago said it is something he has been thinking about for a little while. he also talked up the possibility, or at least endorsed a possibility of indexing capital gains. >> i'm not talking about doing anything at this moment but, indexing is something that a lot of people have liked for a long time. it is something that would be very easy to do. payroll taxes, i've been thinking about payroll taxes for a long time. whether or not we do it now or not is, it is not being done because of recession. reporter: the president also let loose against his critics who say that the trade war with china is unnecessarily harming the economy. the president is saying at one point quote, it is about time to take on china. he also said, quote, we're winning big. the president also saying at one point, quote, my trade deals

aren't causing a problem. this is something that had to be done. we also heard from the president once again, reiterate as he said for last 10 days or so, that the federal reserve should cut rates by 100 basis points though connell and medical list sea clarified a little bit saying they should cut over time. back to you. melissa: okay. blake, thank you for that. connell: let's bring in liz peak, foxnews.com columnist. gary kaltbaum capital management president. both fox news contributors. there is a lot in in the oval office conversation. the president forever said trade wars are easy to win. that was out the window today. he said someone had to take china on. he said it could be tough in the short term, to me, sounded like what he was saying i'm not willing to cut a deal anytime soon. i need fed to cut rates to keep buying me more time, to keep

this going. i don't know what you think? >> well all evidence in is that no deal is going to be had. no deal is going to be had anytime soon. china's been retaliating. so i think president is now in a box. i'm keeping my fingers crossed this does not worsen. he comes back, puts tariffs on again. i think markets are fragile and economies are fragile and it wouldn't take us much to get to a little tipping point. the other part of the equation, i don't understand the president saying everything is so strong but we need to cut rates a point. everything so strong but we need to print more money. everything is so strong but we need tax cuts. i'm not saying that he is desperate. i'm saying that sounds desperate. i don't think markets will like it too much. connell: i get it. liz, we're reading between all the lines, more about buying time on the china thing. that said, the easy flip side of all of this at some point, back against the wall, president can say all right, now time to cut a

deal and market takes off. that leads to uncertainty. we don't know what is next. >> the whole conversation about interest rates has to be looked at what is happening outside of united states. we are lone man out. most developing country debt is yielding negative interest rates. we're at two, 2 1/2%. that just doesn't work, folks. he is totally right. as of this morning the market was banking on 100 basis point cut between end of next year. probably what the president was talking about. i agree with gary. bringing up these things, not the fed, again, i sort of sympathize on the fed cut situation. but in terms of tax cuts i do think it may sound like the white house is really concerned. they, i actually don't think they are that concerned. latest thing we have from the atlantic fed just as an example, they upped the increase, they upped the estimate of third quarter growth. it is not all desperately negative right now. i think, really time to take a step back, have a little

perspective here. connell: all right. melissa: home depot ending in the green despite mixed second quarter results. gerri willis at floor of new york stock exchange with more on this. reporter: home depot, they did very well indeed. as we see they're up 4.4%. this company really having a stellar report today. even though revenues came in slightly lower than we anticipated, earnings were higher than expected. so that is very good news. the company is saying that lumber costs are dropping. that is a large proportion of their total sales which mean their sales have dropped. now home depot, as you know, used to be focused entirely on the new home market, the market for people buying and catching up. now with people holding on to homes longer and longer they're hoping to ramp up sales for those folks. but lots of focus on home depot. it is the only dow component, retailer reporting today. they did very well indeed. the stock did well, but of

course that wasn't the news across the board. we also had tj maxx which had a lot of trouble. that stock in the red. so really been mixed reports for retailers. back to you. melissa: gerri, thank you. our panel is back. gerry, let me ask you, apple reportedly committing to more than $6 billion in original programing ahead of the launch of apple tv plus. what do you think about this in terms of the streaming wars? they want to get it out before disney, whether i'm selling a show, or i'm a viewer, it sounds pretty good to me? >> i think apple knows that if you look at the iphone numbers, the ipad numbers, the watch numbers, not that great. they have to go elsewhere. the good news services are way, way up. they're trying some other things. whether or not they will hit big i don't know. i worry about the whole streaming thing because how many eyes are there in this country that can watch all this stuff? there are so many different parts out there. i got to believe somebody is

going to get bought. i think disney will do well. i think netflix may have problems on price. netflix may have to lower price that will hurt their stock. i think apple will do fine. i think big story will be disney going forward. melissa: i think gary doesn't binge-watch late into the night all different programs. >> not enough eyes. melissa: the way rest of us do. not enough eyes? you only need two. you can watch five million programs every day. just ask my family. >> apple, do they have a proprietary service in the realm that they are banging to grow? we know what happel has done in the past. their way forward is somewhat questionable. they do not have proprietary lock on consumer in this sector. everybody is committing so much money to the streaming services. not everybody will come out a winner. melissa: i will start writing scripted programing. let me tell you. >> really. connell: going after silicon

valley. a group of state attorneys general preparing to launch an investigation, targeting big techs, facebook, amazon, apple, google and the like. doing so as soon as next month according to "the wall street journal." more reporting from our own kristina partsinevelos who is live in the newsroom. kristina? reporter: the department of justice confirmed they are in talks with state attorneys general to look at market power of big technology, the antitrust chief. he himself said they will be looking specifically at the markets which these tech firms operate. it is not just about price and competition. they will look at actual product quality, innovation, how did they acquire a lot of these companies? for example, facebook buying instagram, whatsapp, they will do so very, very shortly. "wall street journal" saying potentially in the next month t could involve about 20 states. so far i have confirmation from north carolina. they are in talks with texas. i reached out to major players like facebook, twitter, amazon google.

twitter, amazon, google only ones responded but they will not provide comment. the focus of the probe are large firms acting like monopolies and stifling competition? you have the ftc, the doj, congress, now potentially state attorneys general that will all scrutinize their views on big technologies. so he reached out to richard newman. he is an ftc investigation and defense attorney on why the state level is so important. he said, the states getting involved in a, is a natural consequence of the federal probe. it is potentially significant for a number about reasons, including that states are not necessarily bound by the same political constraints as federal agencies. so we have that. the legal perspective. what about eninvestors that are holding technology right now? i reached out to a tech expert, dave maney. he said, and i quote, that in the short term, it means trouble for big technology, lots of public shaming, inflammatory statements from politicians and negative publicity.

i like to say free market don't stay free. their own companies like building monopolies and crushing competitors. big tech has played the game true to form. you can see a little bit more apprehensive about the ways of big technology, but you did see the stocks take a little bit of a plunge today, with the exception of apple. keep in mind though, that this could take years, these probes could take years. connell: right. reporter: could be overhanging shadow for all of them. connell: we'll put you on it for the next decade. reporter: i have a job. melissa: more on president trump's breaking comments. what another round of tax cuts could mean for the middle class and for the democratic field on the 2020 stage. we'll talk to james freeman of "the wall street journal" he loves tech chat. that's next. plus not an obligation. new questions surrounding the deadly explosion in russia. as the country resumes sharing radiation data with other nations. why officials are sounding the alarm on the timing of the mess

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melissa: breaking news. president trump looking at various tax cuts reportedly to boost the economy. the president telling reporters at the white house, his administration is mulling options, such as reducing capital-gains taxes. oh. but caution that a proposal isn't imminent. bring in james freeman, assistant editorial page editor at "the wall street journal." so, what do you think of this talk? how much do you think there really considering it? and, does it make people feel better or feel worse about the economy? >> oh, the thought that maybe the economy needs it so this is why he is rolling it out? melissa: yeah. >> i don't think there is really a bad time to encourage more economic growth. in terms of the prospects obviously tough to get a package through the house. offer nancy pelosi break for

local state and tax deduction to go along with something. melissa: i like that. >> intriguing about capital gains part he could do it administratively without needing to go through congress. melissa: he could? >> it has been an argument for a long time. he has a pretty good legal case if he wants to make it, in the law, the, the cost of, whatever asset you bought originally, it is not precisely defined. so seems reasonable if the government would say look, if inflation, took away all your gains over the years, you held it, and you're basically telling it for the same inflation adjusted price you bought it for, you really shouldn't pay a tax. i think that is logical. makes sense to anyone. i think he has legal argument to say that. melissa: what do you think about, all the negative nellies out there, talking down the economy, especially when you hear in the mainstream media, piling on about the indication from the bond market, which has now evaporated that oh, we've

seen so many signals, there is recession coming? could they kind of talk it into recession or are people, are people at home aware of how much they make and how much they're paying, they're not listening as much to these folks? what are your thoughts? >> markets, people, do respond to messages. psychology can play a roll. i think what we should be concerned about is beyond just talk. we did see a decline recently in that, in that business investment, that really took off after the tax reform in 2017. so, there is a reality here. now the other reality is the main street economy is outstanding. corporate executives, multinationals are concerned. but main street, consumers, small businesses they are optimistic. employment is, at record levels. wages are rising. so, lots of good news in the economy. it is obviously, not in recession. we had, december growth last

quarter so there is concern. but i think there should be concern because ultimately you really do want to see that healthy business investment to allow people to raise their wages. melissa: yeah. you might as well cut taxes. there is never a bad time for that as you said. while we have you here, i want to ask but the business roundtable story. changing its stance on the purpose of a corporation to deliver to all stakeholders. i love that phrase, stakeholders, including special interest groups. you asked a sharp question, why would a company seek to override the wishes of the community by allowing a non-elected special interest to decide on corporate policy priorities? tell me a little bit about that? >> yeah. i think the executives, these are the ceos of some of the largest companies in the country. they're kind of sick of getting beat up by elizabeth warren and other liberals saying that business is the problem or that, that they're exploiting people

or they're not paying enough wages, whatever the case may be. so they want to say, look, we didn't do all this work in communities and we're very environmentally sensitive, et cetera, et cetera. unfortunately they, this is a dangerous idea when you say companies don't belong to shareholders. they don't just answer to shareholder. they need to answer to stakeholders. now, i think anyone would say, if you're talking about, you got to treat employees well, treat customers well, got to obeys the laws of communities you operate in, that all makes sense but this stakeholder idea also includes organizations that don't have any stake in the business. melissa: yeah. >> environmental groups pressuring these companies to change. and what's really i think disturbing is, these are, essentially groups seeking political, political agenda, whether on environmental policy or what have you, who couldn't get it done in the normal political process. now they want to ask corporations to do the work. i think it is dangerous if

companies get away from the idea, focus on serving customers, generating return and innovating. >> other thing is, when you talk about serving stakeholders, there is, it is subjective. >> yes. melissa: whether or not they have been served. whether they're happy. there is no way to measure that. the beauty of serving your shareholders is that you see it in your profits. you can even say when you treat employees badly, they're unhappy, your profits go down because they aren't working hard. you can always come back to the math which is measurable, but these new things they are talking about, things floating around in the air no one can measure. >> as you suggest. this may be a way for ceo who is not cutting to obscure the results look how conscious i am. melissa: yeah. >> i talked to a few signers of this document, ceo's, i'm not sure they really thought this through. i don't think they had lawyers kind of study what exactly they were promising here. i think there is some concern. they may think they can define

this commitment however they want but outside groups will start demanding certain definitions. they may not like it. >> james. thank you. come back. good stuff. >> will do. connell: not backing down. there is one business we'll talk to in a moment who has been calling out u.s. retailers, for actually encouraging chinese companies to steal intellectual property, if you can believe that. brian harker, president of the company leading that charge is next, about a high level meeting that he had today at the white house. then the mystery behind jeffrey epstein's death. why investigators questioning his actions two days before he died. that is also coming up. ♪ they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say

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melissa: denying a smear campaign. china defending its right to spread beijing's views online after facebook and twitter accuse it of manipulation. let's go to susan li who is live in hong kong with the latest. susan? >> so much news to cover today. we also saw the embattled hong

kong chief executive, carrie lam, first time since hundreds of thousands, up to a million taking to the streets alone on sunday. and again in her press conference today, the chief executive rejecting calls to form an independent inquiry. looking into hong kong police brutality against protesters. rejecting calls to withdraw the hugely unpopular extradition bill which sparked these 12 weeks of protests. again saying that is basically dead, but not eliminating it. but she did extend one olive branch to the protesters. >> we will start immediately a a dialogue with people from all walks of life. this is something that we want to do in a very sincere and humble manner. i and my principle officials are committed to listen, to what the people have to tell us. we want to reach out to the community as soon as possible. reporter: reaching out to the

protesters, face-to-face discussions which president trump says is probably pretty important as well. these rallies will continue. we have another one called to revisit the hong kong airport this weekend. we'll see how many actually show up. up with concerning piece of news circulating across hong kong that has residents concerned detainment after british consulate employee. his same is simon chung. he works in the trade and investment decision. he is a hong kong resident traveling to nearby chinese city shenzhen for a business meeting. meant to come back the same day. his girlfriend says he has been detained 10 days in china. the british consulate is working with the family to get his return. it makes hong kong resident nervous about traveling across the border, especially with the ongoing pro-democracy protests. guys? melissa: susan li, thank you for that. connell: this idea of fighting the good fight when it comes to trade. one american company taking its

case against china intellectual property theft to the white house. brian harker joins us, president of bt and f. joins us from the washington newsroom. relatively small company, i want to talk about your relationships with some larger companies in a moment. can you tell us about the meeting with some trade officials, i believe on peter navarro's colleagues at the white house today and what was your message to them about personal experience with report property theft? >> absolutely, thanks for having me. we talked with peter navarro about the intellectual property theft from chinese companies. they were interested in a hong, grave star industrial. they went from nothing to being multibillion dollars. they were very have had in that process. connell: how did that work? i read a little bit about it, in the most simple terms, how did they steal?

how did they do it? >> sure. there are multiple ways. trade shows, working with actually companies, enticing them because they are very large suppliers to home depot and lowe's. they would say, hey, would you like your product into those stores? you share intellectual property with them, nda, no matter what documents you sign with them, they go off and run and make it for them. connell: they have a relationship with big guys in the u.s. one of the things i'm intrigued by, sounds like you're pointing fingers at likes of home depot and loews? you think they play a role? >> absolutely major retailers in the u.s. can play a role, either direction. they can encourage or discourage the theft of intellectual property. unfortunately this is some of the discussion we had with the white house is the laws and protections in place, almost make that relationship collusional. they want to be able to do these things and steal intellectual

property. connell: how so? >> yes, exactly. one of the things, is major retailers are legally indemnified, which means if you sue them, which you must, to start because they're the distributor but that flows down to the supplier such as grade star. what happens, it really takes the retailer out of the picture legally. makes you fight the chinese company directly. so again we're bringing issues up, the most of the public don't understand how this works. connell: i wanted you to explain your point of view from personal experience, to us. so then the question becomes, you know, what can we do about it? we hear that is part of a trade deal. from what i understand, on the chinese side, they supposedly already agreed to some of this. they would quote, unquote, crack down on intellectual property theft. it's a really broad term. what does that need to mean? what needs to be in there? enforcement, the way it is written, what is the most important thing that needs to be in the deal before it is actually signed? >> enforcement is a very big

issue. that is one of the sticking point in the negotiations. also i think the white house was interested what we can control here. you know, different things we can do, different regulations, different approaches. because again we've been in the trenches fighting this they were looking for input, feedback on this. connell: like what? what is real quick example of that? >> as you know the big case of huawei the blacklisting. is there a way to blacklist other companies? that was based purely on national security. connell: okay in other words that list could expand beyond just huawei? >> correct, correct. so if you have a mechanism in place where a u.s. company could identify, not just, somebody infringing but habitual offender. connell: white house is looking at that. what we would call a predator. somebody does it over and over again. connell: interesting, final point, is there anywhere close to being resolved? >> i think that, there are definitely some accomplishments.

i think they're making progress. but i also think there is a sticking point that are slowing it down. connell: enforcement, other things. brian, appreciate it. thanks for bringing your experience. come back. >> thank you so much. melissa: beyond meat on the rise. shares surging after upgrade from jpmorgan. sighting additional testing and partnerships with quick serve chains. beyond meat is currently teamed up with several restaurants, dunkin' donuts, subway, carl's jr. connell: crazy. melissa: to me, but i'm sure someone loves it. connell: still haven't tried it. but i might. melissa: no, i'm not going to. connell: you will not get in on that, right? okay, fine. a nuclear weapons watchdog revealing new details around a mysterious explosion in russia. there is the putin response to all of that. up next we get into some details on that. melissa: starting today, travelers wishing to hydrate at the airport, might have to get creative. what you need to know before your next trip. that is coming up.

connell: and then a different kind of mass migration. strong winds, sending more than 150 air mattresses through the air during an outdoor movie event that took place in denver. melissa: like they're dancing. connell: eyewitnesses -- like art. pretty good rhythm. witnesses say mattresses were airborne for like 30 minutes. melissa: wow. ♪ with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands? managingaudrey's on it.s? eating right? on it! staying active? on it. audrey thinks she's doing all she can to manage her type 2 diabetes and heart disease but is her treatment doing enough to lower her heart risk? [sfx: crash of football players colliding off-camera.] maybe not.

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connell: flipping the switch. russia resuming sharing data from radiation monitoring stations after several went silent following a deadly explosion according to a nuclear watchdog. we have more from jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. jennifer? reporter: this has been a embarrassing incident for president vladmir putin. a day after a nuclear watchdog group raised concerns that russia's radiation monitoring stations in the past a radiation plume that resulted from a cruise missile test august 8th had been turned off. two of those stations were mysteriously turned on. they are sharing data with comprehensive nuclear test ban organization. the group praised russia for its excellent cooperation. president putin pushed back that suggested there was a radiation leak from the rocket accident.

>> translator: you need to take note of the geography. there was not any accident in siberia. if you mean that took place in the north sea, that is a different region of the russian federation. there is not a contamination risk. there is no danger of radiation. we sent experts there, notably independent experts who are controlling the area. reporter: russia offered confusing an conflicting explanation nations for what happened on august 8th, when experts believe they attempted and failed to test a nuclear powered cruise missile known as skyfall which left at least five russian nuclear engineers dead. a foreign minister reacted to a u.s. test, a type of cruise missile banned for decades under the inf treaty that the u.s. pulled out of it. the u.s. military tested a ground launched version off the coast of california on monday a top russian diplomat expressed concern that the u.s. action will detablize and you know mine arms control.

connell? connell: jennifer griffin at the pentagon. melissa: john venerable, heritage foundation research for defense policy. start first with vladmir putin's response there when he said they went off, they went back on again, nothing to worry about, there is no radiation what is your take? >> melissa, great to be with you. very chernobylist, whitewash of whatever taken place whatever was on the white sea on the northern tier of russia. a lot of masking, a lot of misinformation. normally the wind blows from west to east in the northern hemisphere and the recent prevailing wind has gone from north to south and then as it coasted around, it went back toward the east. that is basically the same plume path where you saw these notification sites, these radiation censors being shut down as this plume hit those two

locations, very suspect. obviously something that i don't think anyone can trust right now. melissa: now that they're back on, do we know what reads look like? >> the reads are going to downtown over time for several reasons. one they could mask it like putting a big sarcophagus over chernobyl. put something over top of a nuclear incident that would basically shield it. the second side, the fire, whatever the explosion may have died down and gone out and with it you no longer you have that rising cloud, that plume we can trace. so those are two very realistic thought process of why they have actually been able to turn those sensors back on. melissa: if that is going on, what would the damage be to the rest of the world, to the surrounding area? you know, what's the danger? because obviously this is nothing close to the size of chernobyl, but everybody watched that show on, you know, network

that documentary was on, everybody watched it. what are, what's the possible fall out from this? >> there are several different things that affect it. one is the type of wind that goes by. if it's a very low level wind, five to 7 knots, that gives the radiation staying power over the there is a town 18 miles east of the test site was on white sea. that town has population less than 200,000. another couple miles east of that, for a total of 500,000 people in that area. they were the ones that will be most affected. radiation peltz will help. you heard about the help of those exploding, no pun intended in the region. as far as the rest. world goes much smaller impact from chernobyl. time will tell like it did in the incident. melissa: john, thank you. >> absolutely a pleasure. connell: new trust created just days before his death. the mystery behind jeffrey

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connell: breaking news. we just learned that walmart is suing tesla's solar power subsidiary in new york state

court. allegation is at least seven walmart stores experienced fires caused by tesla's solar power system. this is accusing tesla of what they describe as widespread negligence. just this weekend tesla launched a program to enable customers to rent solar panels directly from them. after-hours trade down a little bit for tesla. melissa: banning plastic water bottles. san francisco international airport moving to end sale of plastic water bottles in its facility. part of effort to become the zero waste airport in the world by 2021. fox news's claudia cowan is live at the airport with the latest. i hope you didn't bring a water bottle, claudia, or plastic one. reporter: you know, the problem is, melissa, you have to bring your own bottle now, fill up with water, once you pass through security. let me show you we're outside of a starbucks in terminal 2 at sfo the barista as on the other side of that wall making coffee has

been pulling all bottles of water off the store shelves. the other restaurants, shops and kiosks here at sfo doing the same thing. getting rid of all the plastic water bottles they can no longer sell starting today. a move aimed reducing trash and pollution. the they are shaking their head at the logic. the ban does not apply to every drink that comes in a plastic bottle but just water. they say 10,000 bottles are sold every day, their bowl is to send zero waste to landfills in 2021. that is a step in the that direction. you can buy soda, tea, drinks in plastic bottles. san francisco has taken a stand against plastic bags, plastic straws, they will go after sugary flavored drinks in plastic bottles eventually. if you do need to buy water once you get to sfo, you have a couple of options. buy it in a glass bottle like this for $5.35.

or get your sparkly water in a can for three bucks. wait to get it for free on the plane. back to you. melissa: that is ridiculous. those are also containers that need to be recycled whatever. claudia, thank you. connell: huh. close call caught on camera. watch this. this is, that was a lightning bolt that just about hit that guy. the man walking in conway, south carolina. just walking home. you know, this was surveillance video that caught the whole thing. here it is again. you can see how close it came, right there, how close it came to zapping the guy. i guess reason we're showing you, obviously he walked away uninjured. still pretty crazy. melissa: wow. all right. raising more questions. new court records revealing accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein signed an updated will days before his death. fox news's rick leventhal in the newsroom with details on this.

rick. reporter: melissa we obtained a copy of the will filed august 8th in the virgin islands, two days before epstein hung himself in his jail cell. the documents show that the estate is valued at $577 million, which could be chopped up by numerous lawsuits filed against him, including three more victims filing last night. an attorney for the latest accusers hopes to establish a fund, similar to one set up to pay victims of the catholic church and 9/11 attacks to resolve all the claims quickly. how much money the women get and how long it takes depends on many factors, including willingness of attorneys for epstein's estate to settle. two women were abused by the hedge fund manager at 17. another who says epstein confiscated her passport so she couldn't leave his private island. u.s. attorney's office asked the judge to drop criminal charges since epstein killed himself and

can't be prosecuted. they say the prosecution will continue. some of epstein's powerful friends might be in trouble. >> the way you find this, have a credible victim say, mr. x did the following with me. he was introduced to me by epstein. and here's what happened. here is how i was pressured into illicit sex. >> are any of your clients, do any of them have a mr. x story? >> yes they do. some do. several. a few. >> are they interested in pursuing those mr. xs? >> yes. that will be done in the near future. reporter: there is still a possibility of criminal charges, not just against other men who may have taken advantage of these girls but against epstein's inner circle, people allegedly recruited, scheduled and groomed the victims. melissa? melissa: wow, rick leventhal, thank you. connell: the state of play. it could be changing for the nfl. football plans want to stay tuned for this. why the owners are backing an effort on the field.

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connell: back to the possibility of big changes in the world of professional football, driven, it seems, by a chance to make more money. nfl players and owners open to expanding the playoff field, nfl network had that report first, and there's a little more to it than that. our guy is here sports reporter mike guns, hello, sir. >> hey. connell: part of this and we go through it in order is if these negotiations between the union and the owners go through, i think a lot of people support that that like football shorten that pre-season which i don't think anyone cares about. >> there's a couple things on the table right now first is yes the preseason. right now it's four games, nobody wants it the players hate it and you look at the jets, the linebacker, williamson last week tears his acl in a meaningless pre-season game. out for the rest of the year. everyone knows he makes the team you should do maybe two games at

most. think about maybe doing three though, the nfl, but that's one aspect of it. another one would be perhaps extending the length of the regular season, 17 or 18 games from 16, and the players absolutely hate this, because it's more injury as well as, you know, they aren't getting paid for that so the one that actually might make sense and actually probably has the best chance of actually happening would be extending the playoff teams from 12 to 14. and actually i agree with this one the most. connell: for a couple reasons number one, it's obvious i guessing more people are going to watch a playoff game than a regular season game so the tv ratings, revenue would be higher but you hit on the other thing that the players would just make more money if they get in the playoffs. >> right exactly what it comes down to is the nfl wants because it's a ratings and revenue equals playoffs so the more playoff games that's what you get out of it. players can leverage for more money out of this and also you're getting two more teams now the opportunity to go to the super bowl. you got to be in the playoffs to make it and then from a fan

standpoint, i'm all about it, because it's a meaningful football game. that's what we want, baby. >> well as a jet fan over the years you wonder how many teams do they need to have in order for the jets to qualify this year. >> everybody is in, although and that's another point you mentioned, looking at giants there but you mentioned the jets too, and the year and a half or whatever it is and they didn't play them at all in the preseason. >> there's no point in the preseason games. there's really not. it's just an opportunity to get hurt so that's what they might have cutting down the amount of preseason games in exchange for another week of playoffs. >> that's another thing with the regular season so everything in the league now seems to be obviously they want to make more money but they also because they have so much criticism after players retire, and we see why they ended up dying and all of these things with head injuries and the like and brain damage they want to protect the players as much as possible and the best way to protect them funny enough is to just have them play fewer minutes, play fewer games, and

that doesn't make you money so they are trying to balance this so that's why the playoff thing makes sense. >> it definitely make sense but what's interesting is the fact that the cva is up after the 2021 season and the players have a very good argument here and the last time, they negotiate was 2011 it was a five-month lockout, but now you'll have players concerned about more money, perhaps guaranteed contracts. the cte thing, that's a big issue right now. connell: guaranteed contracts come up because that's one thing a lot of people. >> the only score without guaranteed contracts is the nfl. it's the most dangerous one. >> they could cut you tomorrow and that's when we work together on the radio we were hoping that was the case with you. >> still going strong. [laughter] connell: one shot before we get you go. >> you are still going strong. >> go jets. >> thank you. melissa: i love the idea of trading preseason for later. it's a letdown. connell: you know what they do to fans like if you have a season ticketholder they force you to buy the tickets and

nobody shows up anyway, you're out the money and don't go to the game. melissa: but later on when the season is over it's like i want a little bit more. makes perfect sense. that does it for us. connell: we'll see you tomorrow. bulls & bears starts right now. president trump: we're right now the number one country in the world by far as an economy if you go from november 9 to present you're talking about almost a 60% increase in the stock market. you're talking about unemployment numbers that are the lowest in history in many categories, and overall, almost the lowest ever in the history of our country. david: the u.s. economy is solid that's the message from the president as new reports surface as the administration is looking to bolster growth even more, amid warning signs of a slow down or even a recession. welcome, everybody. this is bulls & bears thanks for joining us i'm david asman. joining me on the panel jonathan