lou: good evening, everybody. president trump long battled the corrupt deep state, the radical dimms, the resistance rinos and the national left-wing hide yeah. the leftist state news and the radical corrupt dimms investigation use anonymous sources for their complaints against president trump. we take up a few tonight. the president was elected

because of his anti-establishment campaign. we'll analyze some of those unnamed sources and contrast them with our unnamed sources. they are amom plus officials with our anonymous highly placed officials. we'll report, you decide whose unnamed anonymous sources you choose to believe. they give pull user prizes -- they give pulitzer prizes to people who got it wrong. lou: we'll be talking tonight with general jack keane. we'll be talking about what's required to make sense of america's role in the middle east. we'll be talking with dr. michael pillsbury on the china trade talks and what is

needed to rational aize a trade talks. we begin with breaking news out of the middle east. the taliban to hold a new round of intraafghan peace talks for two days next week. those talks will be held in china. the talks monday and tuesday will be the first meeting between the taliban and the afghans since an earlier round of peace talks in july. after those peace talks failed with the united states in september, the taliban sent a delegation to beijing to talk with china about ongoing peace discussions. china's foreign ministry announcing beijing will continue to play what it termed a constructive role in the peace process. that's because perhaps because of china's $3.5 million invest

come in building roads in afghanistan. the pentagon drafting a plan to pull our forces from afghanistan if the president should decide to pull our forces from afghanistan as he did in syria. the pentagon withdrew 2,000 troops from afghanistan this year bringing the total still? afghanistan to 12,000. 8 years ago in 2011 we had 100,000 of our troops in afghanistan. you are require president erdogan and president vladimir putin met today. the two leaders agreed to create a safe zone in northeastern syria which will be free of kurdish fighters that turkey views as a national security threat. the safe zone will cover 75 miles of the turk-syrian border.

they will implement a 6-day ceasefire to allow kurdish forces to evacuate the area. once that ceasefire isn't over turkey and russia almost begin patrols of the area. joining us is jack keane. general, good to have you with us. this is a perplexing time. the president announced the full withdrawal of our troops from northern syria, now we'll have as i understand it, 200 troops to protect the oil fields in northern syria. >> i don't know what the number is but i heard the same thing you heard. i think the mission is more than that. to assist the syrian democratic forces that number of in the neighborhood of 60 plus thousand

to provide support including air support. they coordinate for that air support to contain isis in the area which is attempting to resurge. rent pentagon reports just came out the end of last week that indicate you -- this pentagon i.g. report, 12,000 to 14,000 isis in the area. not so much that we'll defend the oil fields. but they will insure iran doesn't cross over the river and seize the oil fields. lou: won't that be defending them? >> u.s. troops are not going ono to be on the ground protecting oil fields. we'll assist the syrian forces to patrol. and we'll maintain surveillance to make sure iranian proxy

forces don't come over. if they do them be hit by coalition air power. the british and french have been on the ground with us and have been in this fight against isis. they somewhat get ignored and that's unfortunate. lou: where does the oil go in those northeastern fields. >> when isis had control of it they would put it on the black market and they would drive it up to turkey to do it. it would give them millions of dollars to fund their campaigns. not all oil fields are operational. they would have to be returned to a state of repair. but we don't wants the iranians to have that. it would be an obvious gain for them. wait would impact is president trump's economics sanctions. maximum pressure against the iranians and we don't want that

to happen. >> i would think since we have 200 troops there we can't determine where that oil will go, and certainly we are an energy independent nation as the president pointed out. the president also pointed out when he talks about bringing our troops home to cheers. there seems to be and resistance in the industrial military complex to not allow even 200 of our troops to come out of the region. we have dominant air power. it spheems like one cable from the state department to tehran saying if you go near them, we'll blow you to hell might be sufficient. what is this insistence, this reflex on the part of the it in industrial complex to have 200 of our troops.

they couldn't stand up against a sizable force no matter what. >> they are not there to defend anything. they are there to assist the kurds and assist the arabs in getting air power. 60,000 plus syrians are containing isis and who will protect the oil fields. lou: so we are not projecting ourselves into the civil war? is that what you are saying. >> no, we are there to defeat sighs *. we destroyed the caliphate. they are trying to resurge. we are using a minimum amount of forces to assist the syrians. we have a small involvement of americans assisting the local indigenous forces to solve a problem with radical islam that could harm the united states. but who is doing the fighting and most of of the dying? the locals are doing it. that's a model in place by the trump administration.

i say take the deal. lou: i stay the president has it right. get our troops the hell out. and this reflex to keep our troops in position for nebraskae nebulous cause us is deeply troubling. the idea we are going to have our troops there -- it's like napping your fingers at the bar and being asked why are you snapping your fingers and the answer is to keep the pink elephant away. and by god it's working. this country with its forward leading combat whether it be isis or al qaeda, jihadists or radical islamist group, frankly, we have para-military in our

intelligence. we have a vast number of resources that could be forward deployed to carry out intelligence. i don't understand this. >> the military isn't making the decision to keep the troops there. no troops stay or leave without presidential authority. i'm reading the same things you are reading. lou: we are both -- >> we are arguing over 200 guys coordinating british and french air power on the ground. and the pay yofd for that i think is pretty significant. lou: i just keep thinking about those folks who died over there. try to explain that. it's a hard one intellectually. >> you ask those guys on the ground or the 2,200 who have

been there. do they want to get out of there? no. they want to finish this thing. they know it's about security for the american people. they want to make sure isis does not return and iranians don't grab the main resources for their own good. lou: it was you and senator graham who wrote an op-ed for fox news talking about turkey paving the way. it sounds like it's a win-win as you and senator graham put it. but it sounds like to me, forgive knee, more of the same. and the president with an opportunity as an historic president already to seize the highest moral ground possible, and that's to get our troops back in this country out of

these endless, endless wars. general, it's good to have you with us. thanks so much. jack keane. a highly placed administration source tonight dispute two headlines being placed along the national left-wing media. bloomberg reported that president trump is mulling over the fact of replacing mulvaney with mnuchin or kellyanne conway. we have a source, too. and that anonymous official says that isn't the case at all. the other report, about the prospective future of the department of homeland security. that's problematic as well.

>> multiple administration sources tell us the white house is strongly considering chad wolf to replace kevin mcleanen as department of homeland security secretary. lou: anonymous sources, same stories from anonymous sources weren't quite what they should have been. in fact lack foundation i think is the expression. it's stories like these that are something president trump rails against time and time again, fake news. well, listen to what he told sean hannity last night. >> all these people from the "new york times" which is a fake newspaper. we don't even want it in the

white house. we'll probably terminate that and the washington post. if you take a look at the "new york times" and look at the kind of reporting they do, it turned out to being wrong. lou: the white house is following through on those comments by the president. the white house confirmed those subscriptions to those newspapers will not be renewed. up next, who senator chuck grassley says is behind the slow rollout of inspector general michael horowitz report on fisa abuse. it has been delayed again and again and again. no one is more interested than attorney sidney powell. she joins us here next. house republicans accusing adam schiff and the rest of his radical dimm gang of using unfair tactics to keep their so-called impeachment inquiry secretive and whatever evidence they have might have, conjured

or otherwise, absolutely secret. congressman matt gaetz joins me after the break. we'll be right back. here, it all starts with a simple...

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lou: the top u.s. diplomat to ukraine on capitol hill under subpoena and behind closed doors. william taylor reportedly telling investigators there were two channels of policy make on ukraine. one regular as he put it and one highly irregular. republicans said taylor admitted the news of withholding u.s. aid didn't leak out until almost 5 weeks after the president's phone call. also, putting taylor in the position of again won who is reciting from hearsay. the radical dimms worried they are losing control or have lost control of their impeachment inquiry narrative. top congressional republicans say they are being blocked by those radical dimms, prevented from viewing the transcripts of

the people interviewed in this sham impeachment inquiry. >> just when you thought the process couldn't get any more unfair, we found out democrats will not even allow republicans to have a copy of the respective transcripts from each of the witnesses we interviewed. we can't make cop this. we can't get a cop question which i have never seen happen before. if we want to look at the transcript there has to be a democrat staffer actually watching republican congressmen reading transcript. lou: the reason they have never seen anything like this before is because they never witnessed an effort to overthrow a president in the guise of a quote-unquote impeachment

inquiry. joining me is congressman matt gaetz. it's an extraordinary moment to see what adam schiff is doing and getting away with. i have got to cop plummet you and the republicans in our conference. you stood together in your effort to censure adam schiff for his scurrilous conduct, and that's a great healthy sign for the republican party. i want to begin by congratulating you. it's good to see cohesion in support of this president in the republican caucus in the house of representatives. >> we are going through an unprecedented process when you look at how secretive and unfair and corrupt with adam schiff making up evidence, leaking i have, then not allowing the

evidence to have scrutiny or review by republicans. the only reason adam schiff is behaving this way is because the evidence isn't any good and doesn't justify any impeachment. democrats did all they could to highlight taylor said there were dual tracts of foreign policy. and when he texted that to ambassador sondland. he said no this is not aquid pro quo. the president has been very clear is there not the linkage of aid to any future activity. and congressman ratcliffe asked, is there any ukrainian we can point to at any moment in time who knew this aid was even on a hold in any way? the answer is no. if democrats are not able to

establish that ukraine was even aware that military aid was being temporarily withheld, they would of course not be able to prove some extortion they claim the president engaged in. claiming threats to cia officers. who happen to have experience in the white house and capitol hill. >> there are allegations, there is reporting that the very people who are cloking themselves in the anonymity of whistleblower status had political objectives. were engaged with presidential campaigns and that is a fact we would know with greater certainty if we were having open, public hearings. lou: it would be important to keep refer together transcript of the phone call between zelensky and president trump.

an independently objective real evidence in front of you can only result in one conclusion, and that is that there was no quid pro quo. to continue to bring this ancillary, most of of it third party testimony from people that were supposedly actors in this pathetic excuse for a drama, know very little and make only these rather vaporous allegations based on nothing more than hearsay. >> if we were having open public hearings we have want to ask these witnesses what their thoughts would be if an american president leaned over and said wait until after the election, tell flat mir then i will have -- tell vladimir i will then have more flexibility.

president obama was talking about his futility after a future election. but this is largely a reaction the humiliation experienced after the failed russia hoax. remember they were talking about going back and impeaching judge kavanaugh? they have impeachment fever and they are trying to pin the tail on their favorite impeachment theory of the week. lou: adam schiff and nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house. you would think that two people so concerned about the constitutional crisis they say this impeachment inquiry constitutes, you would think they wouldn't flee to jordan and afghanistan in the midst of it, but instead would be working overtime weekend to proceed with the nation's business.

instead they go aloft and afar to escape further -- well, further questioning about what is a pure star chamber proceeding, a kangaroo court. congressman, good to have you with us. a top i.c.e. official warned dozens of criminal illegal aliens are being set free in los angeles every day because of sanctuary city policies. timothy robins telling the senate judiciary committee telling the committee it used to be between 75-100 a day that were turned over and because of the sanctuary status it has dropped off dramatically. >> today we receive less than 5 because of the sanctuary policies. which means with all things

being equal. there are 70-75 criminal illegal aliens hitting the streets in just one city, los angeles. that's a problem that's being ignored.

>> those trade talks between the united states and china are set to resume later this week. treasury secretary steven mnuchin and robert lighthizer will be talking by telephone friday with the vice premere of china. part one doesn't address human rights, the con strarn d the cot

stream of black listed chinese companies and the appropriation of u.s. intellectual property and technology by various means. joining us, dr. michael pillsbury, it's good to see you. it's highly irregular, is it not, for there not to be paper? to have this deal in its current form on paper to proceed? it is -- this is to me an extremely unusual situation. >> yes, because president trump is a bold negotiator and there is no precedent for these kind of talks. the chinese deny any intellectual property theft and deny forcible technology transfer. even the basis for the talks is

in digs piewt. what the president has done is first get that 150 pages we heard about in may, and now the chinese are wriggling out. so the effort to get paper is important. we don't have any precedent for what president trump is doing. obama, presidents before, they didn't try these tough negotiations to pin the chinese down, and as you can tell, the chinese are fighting back. lou: it seems to me successfully when you can't even move to at least in may there was paper to commemorate the deal and their agreements that they later would reject. and renege on. without paper that sounds like it will be a more efficient reneging should that be their decision. >> one thing we are can counts on, both sides are trying to

influence the situation. each is trying to bring pressure to bear. president trump has a lot more levers he can apply. i think he's in a modest phase. phase one has been successful because of the tariffs. but there are many more elements of leverage the chinese can try. the chinese escalated the last few months. their operations to influence media outlets have increased. i think we'll see pressure both sides trying to get a better deal. lou: i can't understand why the national left-wing media doesn't want to report to the chief greet unregistered foreign agents of wall street, the chamber of commerce and the business rounds table working directly and and th d and an ii.

we watch the spectacle of the chinese making it known in presd prestigious news publications, they will be willing to accept a partial deal. and the only one who proposed a partial deal was the chinese. we are coming right back. joseph mifsud and hiss connection to spygate. sidney powell will join us here as well. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, hmm. exactly. so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner?

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lou: we are back with michael pillsbury. the president is talking about a deal. we are hearing other voices in the administration say this isn't ready -- it can't cooked at this point. it isn't even on paper. this is deeply troubling. as we see continued human rights violations. we see continued issues -- they are carrying out of -- they we have seen no difficult munition

of their cyber attacks or theft. some believe their attempts to steal intellectual property has ratcheted up, not down. where is the good faith if they intend top reach a deal with us. >> i think what you are alluding to is the effort to track chinese operations and people in our companies who ought to be awear, the foreign agents registration act it's five years in jail for each violation. you can register online. people don't like to do it because you are calling yourself a foreign agent. but if you make money from the chinese, then lobby and call the president on the phone and saying mr. president, take it tariffs off. you are getting into that area where you better register as a

foreign agent. lou: what if your company is saving hundreds of billions in labor costs and manufacturing product in china. what would be the penalty do you think for that, presuming to advice the president that it would be good to do whatever the hell xi jinping said. >> hudson institute released a report from a visiting scholar from denmark. he had fbi and others come to his workshops. he laid out a series of changes that would make certain stricter for companies that make money one way or another and try to influence our policy. lou: you just sent tremors of fear through many on wall street, across corporate america. i wonder if it will give them pause. we'll see.

michael pillsbury. do you have think we'll see a deal? >> i don't know. i'm impressed by the president's optimism. he thinks it's close. and he has put steve mnuchin in charge of the whole thing. it depends on steve mnuchin's negotiating skills against the chinese. lou: would you have describe him as a dove or a hawk? >> i would describe him as the secretary of the trelings are you. thanks, lou. lou: either way, it's a bird of some sort. on squall street stocks finished lower. nasdaq down 59. volume on the big board 3.5 billion shares. some of thebank set to take control of' wework. it's going to have an ipo.

some of thebank paying $1.7 billion. another 2 billion into the company. you can see how income is being distributed at wework. it's valued at $8 billion. that's down a bit from $47 billion valuation. not so shiny. we'll be right back with attorney sidney powell and spygate. and michael flynn, her client. stay with us.

lou: joining us tonight, sidney powell, author, and attorney for general michael flynn, her client now. i want to start with william taylor today. two channels he said for policy make with ukraine. one regular, one irregular. what's the big deal? >> i don't think there is a big deal except democrats try to

make things sound bad when nothing is wrong. the president, use whatever means to get things done in ukraine as long as it's lawful. lou: don't you find it a bit shocking that the irregular channel was referring to is the european ambassador gordon sondland, and kirk volcker and the president's attorney rudy giuliani. and we see that, you know, the suggestion that -- let's putting this full screen up. two headlines to consider. "the washington post" saying this, the putin and hungary helped sour trump on ukraine. my goodness. the "new york times."

hungary's orban gave trump harsh analysis of ukraine before key meeting. >> it's just terrible. i can't imagine how we function every day. lou: this from john solomon. ukrainian embassy confirms dnc contractor solicited trump dirt in 2016. we can go further. alex vogel in "politico," january 11, 2017. ukrainian government officials tried to help hillary clinton and undermine trump. disseminating documents implicating a top trump aide in corruption and suggesting they were investigating the matter for trump's team.

for god's sake, sydney. this is such clumsy nonsense on the part of the radical left. they can't even understand, begin to understand that truth matter's here. >> they are grasping for straws. there is nothing they are doing that makes any sense. there has been corruption in ukraine for a long time that the president is hoping to root out along with everything else, and that's where the crowdstrike computer operation is based. it was running the server and it's implicated in the spygate mess. there is a lot to uncover there. >> there is plenty of us. we have plenty in front of us, and a lot of it is not as simple as we would wish. former cia director john brennan, james clapper, out for interviews with u.s. attorney

john durham, his special investigation. you are representing obviously michael fine. what is the role there with general flynn? what do you expect to be the outcome? what do you hope will be the outcome? >> i think mr. durham will uncover significant wrongdoing when he digs deep enough into what was going on with the cia, particularly mr. brennan and mr. clapper. i see their fingerprints in different places in the wrongdoing against general flynn. i expect more of that to be public as soon as my filing can be unsealed. we just filed a brief under seal that's significant. we are wear iting for the government now to agree to limited redaction so it can be publicly filed. but yes, brennan and clapper are involved in all of this, and i think john durham is going to

make that clear. lou: stay with us. we are coming right back. when we do, i think you will be delighted with what you hear.

lou: joining us tonight alex vogel, and former counsel for

the republican senatorial committee. good to have you with us. let's start with the democrats. nancy pelosi goes off with her so-called bipartisan with one lame duck republican in tow to jordan and afghanistan in the midst of what they have been telling us was a national crisis that required their immediate and urgent attention. how do you rationalize what the radical dimms have become. >> the dance speaker pelosi is trying to do where she spear headed the impeachment and tries to protect her vulnerable voters from voting on it and tries to fulfill what would normally be the role of speaker which includes doing things around the

world. but that's not a balance she is managing well around the world. lou: your intenacious makes me think it's a highly noble truth. >> the role of speaker is noble. the way she is playing this i think is not. not only do you have an increditly non-partisan investigation to come after this president opposed to bottom line basic legislation which is what the speaker should be focusing on. lou: are you excited about the fact that we watched 185 republicans vote to support the president yesterday? i am. somewhat that reflects is people discussed with this process. yes, so-called impeachment is a political process. but the behavior of people like

mr. schiff are opening this up to have americans question the process and the institution. i think it's reflected in that vote. lou: meanwhile the president put usmca forward. no interest on the part of the noble speaker we are discussing here tonight. so just exactly what will the dimms have to say about their accomplishments of 2019 if they won't even vote on what is surely a bipartisan issue, usmca? >> it is bipartisan. there isn't even an argument against moving ahead at this point. they are flat out not doing it because it doesn't fit with their broader agenda it's not a win for the president, it's a win for america. that's why everyone is behind it and i think they will pay a price for it. lou: schwarzman paying a prize,

hosting fundraising for rino romney. this is sort of a strange thing because romney demonstrated himself to be petty, bitter and i are relevant. why would schwarzman -- maybe he doesn't like the president? >> i don't weave into it that much. ' he has supported romney in the past. lou: i read more of it now that you mention that. he's in support of romney's political action committees and the active campaigners on the senate side. i think that's more of the driver than where senator romney and the president are at this point. lou: alex, thanks for being with us. we thank you for being with us. please join us tomorrow.

a reminder to listen to my reports three times a day coast to coast on the salem radio network. thank you for being with us. i hope you enjoyed it. cheryl: it is 5:00 a.m. here are your top stories at this hour. the heat is on for dow component boeing this morning and the earnings report. the company likely lost billions over the grounding of the 737 max and there's a scathing report from indonesian regulators, plus a high level executive is out. how is dennis mull ingberg going to respond today. lauren: the nba season kicked off with protests over hong kong, plus shaquille o'neal sounding off on the nba's china controversy. cheryl: showdown in pennsylvania today, trump versus biden, both delivering economic messages in the state. thlauren: the most