down well with investors. we have been down 400 all morning. now, at 2:00 eastern time this afternoon, vice president mike pence, he joins our own charles payne on "making money." that's at 2:00 eastern. right now, it's neil's. neil: thank you very, very much. rarely do we see one key figure on the planet really dominating all the coverage on the planet of general news and business news. that has been the role of donald trump today, making waves and busting heads halfway across the globe. he continues doing so. let's give you a taste of what he said so far. take a look. >> the china trade deal is dependent on one thing. do i want to make it. in some ways, i like the idea of waiting until after the election for the china deal. >> they're american companies.

[ inaudible ]. the tax will be substantial. >> we will put them on payments. what is your number? >> the number we talked about is 70% increase. >> where are you now in terms of your number? >> we are at 1.4%. >> you're getting there. neil: whether you are a fan of the president or not, you have to just be startled at what you are seeing here on global tv live. negotiating with the leader of canada saying why aren't you coughing up more, what kind of progress are you making on that and all of a sudden justin trudeau say we are about 1.3%, 1.4% live for the whole world to see, not behind closed doors for no one to see. and talking as well with macron of france about how much are you putting and why did you say that nato is brain dead and why did you say that behind my back when you can tell me to my face.

so macron did raise it to the president sitting right next to the president but that's the way it's been going today. as the president, when it came to tariffs that are targeting much more countries and of course, some that kick in a little less than two weeks from now, that's just for starters. it's going to be a long day and long couple of days. to blake burman in london with the latest on the trip that doesn't seem to end. blake? reporter: nighttime here in london and we have already had a day's worth of headlines. three mini press conferences already scattered throughout the day but perhaps no bigger headline than what we heard from the president earlier this morning in which he suggested it could be a full year before a trade deal is struck between the u.s. and china. the markets of course sold off because of that and in the third of three meetings that the president has had today, he was then asked about what has been going on at the corner of wall and broad, and the president downplayed it.

listen here. >> we're at a critical stage. they've called us today and they've called us yesterday. we're having ongoing discussions and we'll see what happens but if the stock market goes up again, i don't watch the stock market. i watch jobs. jobs are what i watch. i watch making the proper deal. reporter: however, as you know, the president's twitter feed suggests otherwise, often when the market is soaring, a presidential tweet will follow. i mentioned three meetings today. that one, one of them with the nato secretary general, another with justin trudeau, and a third with emanuel macron. the macron meeting awfully interesting. just hours beforehand the u.s. trade representative's office said it was going to be going forward with $2.4 billion worth of tariffs in response to france's digital services tax, something the ustr says is discriminatory to companies like apple, amazon, facebook and google. sitting right there next to

macron, the president says he is willing to go dollar for dollar with france on any tax. >> they're not my favorite people because they're not exactly for me but that's okay. i don't care. they're american companies and we want to tax american companies. that's important. we want to tax them. that's not for somebody else to tax them. and as the president knows, we taxed wine, we have other taxes scheduled, but we would rather not do that, but that's the way it would work. reporter: the president also said the digital services tax, france's digital service tax, is the least bit of the problem as it relates to the eu. as you know, he's trying to strike a much larger trade deal with the european union and he contended today that the eu was formed in part to take advantage of the u.s. neil? neil: it gets better and better. thank you very much, blake burman in the middle of all this. one of the people couldn't have

better timing coming here is "wall street journal" at large host. you have covered a lot of these events globally over your m pressi impressive career. what strikes me is normally stuff that is said behind closed doors is out in the open for the world to just take in. >> absolutely. this is the president's style. he says what he's thinking at any particular moment. it comes out, he says it, then may say something different a few minutes later, may tweet something else. neil: i love the canadian prime minister, how much are you paying. what are we paying. >> put him right on the spot there. then the french president with his brain dead remark, stocking up on bottles of french wine getting ready to tax those more. this is the president's style. it's interesting, i don't think world leaders have still quite adapted to it. nor clearly have the markets in a way because they respond -- we don't know whether there's going to be a trade deal with china. neil: you think there's talk he could wait until after the 2020

election was a negotiating ploy or he's just had it with they are going to move, not going to move? >> i think the chinese assumption has been for a long time that president trump needs a deal before the election so it will goose the markets, it will take some of this uncertainty that's around about the economy -- neil: he was getting annoyed that the chinese -- >> that's right. look, so far, it has to be said the economy is doing okay. we are going to get job numbers this week, unemployment is still at a 50-year low. there is uncertainty about trade but it's not directly affecting the economy. there might be a bit of a sense in the president's mind we have done all right so far with this uncertainty about trade, maybe it could go through the election. neil: what's interesting is tariffs are back front and center. i was adding it up, i know you do the same, but with argentina, brazil and china, of course, those kick in on the 15th, apparently that's a train that is not being stopped, and of course france responding to what

they are doing on the digital tax front, are offering 100% tariffs on everything from french wine to cheeses and all that. where is this going? >> well, these are relatively small beer, if you forgive the pun. neil: i like that. i like that. right. >> small glasses. they're not huge. the brazilian ones and argentina amount to something like 5% of total aluminum and steel imports. the french wine, if it happens, is pretty small. by the way, the president in his remarks with macron said look, we would like to match the french tax, if anybody is going to tax these digital companies it should be us. again, these are small symbolic things -- neil: but they are playing with grenades. eventually people expect you to deliver on that. >> china is the big game. china is the game. everybody knows china is the whole game. again, even with china, we have seen these tariffs have already been imposed. china retaliated with tariffs.

we have seen an escalating tariff war, the threat of further tariffs not imposed as yet, and as i say, the markets just off the all-tame higime hi economy is performing quite well. neil: but we could be a hell of a lot worse off. >> to be fair, part of the reason the markets have been relatively [ inaudible ] except for today, there is an expectation there will be a deal. nobody really thinks there's going to be immediately an outright trade war where tariffs stay in place and get higher on a significant portion of u.s. and china exports. neil: what did you make of the president saying he doesn't focus on the markets? obviously what he was trying to get at here is the markets have a bad response to my tough position, so be it. but he does very much pay attention. >> when the market is at all-time high he said the market is at all-time high, thank you, enjoy your 401(k). of course he keeps an eye on the market. of course he's just playing games. again, i think there is a sense that look, the chinese really expect a deal. they think he will have to make

a deal for political reasons in 2020, before 2020 or sometime before the election, and i think he just wants them to think you know, don't be so sure. we could spin this out. we don't have to have a deal before 2020. that might encourage them to make more concessions the u.s. needs. neil: he likes to keep people guessing. >> he's very good at that. neil: this might be among the last polls released before brits head to the polls in a couple days but right now, conservatives are polling at 40%, labour at 33%. for boris johnson, if that holds, that could be a big win. >> there have been a slew of polls, i think three today, i have been watching quite closely. the conservatives have an average lead of about ten points in the polls. neil: amazinamazing. >> that should give the conservatives a sizeable majority. that means brexit will happen probably by the end of january. that is very good news for boris johnson. neil: the deal he's got in place will be the deal, an expanded party that --

>> exactly. the elections are next thursday. parliament will come back immediately. he will try to get that deal done. interestingly for the u.s., if he gets that deal done, they will work quickly to get a u.s. trade deal. that's become quite controversial in england because people are worried about the u.s. demanding concessions on health care and stuff like that. but they will be looking and u.s. officials i spoke to in the last day or so are quite optimistic about the prospect of a trade deal between a united kingdom outside the eu and the united states. that could be good for both countries. neil: we will see. unless we just slap tariffs on britain. >> i'm sure that threat is around the corner. neil: thank you, my friend. meanwhile, the president talking to macron about this digital tax, saying he wants to be the one to heap taxes on these companies even though they are the ones that don't flip over me. we slap taxes on businesses that do foreign businesses here.

to national taxpayers union executive vice president brandon arnold on all of that. what the president is saying is that you don't slap taxes on american companies, that's something i do, that's something we in the united states do. what did you make of that argument? >> well, we have cut tax rates, of course, on our corporations as well as smaller businesses here in the united states which is a good thing. what we don't want to see here is countries placing discriminatory taxes on american companies and that's exactly what france is doing here. this digital services tax is intended to target the largest tech companies in the world which of course are by and large located in the united states. this is amazon, facebook, google, these are hitting american companies in a discriminatory fashion and that's why the ustr ruled the way they did yesterday in saying we are not going to tolerate this kind of nonsense from the french. neil: so we respond in kind by, in this case, doubling tariffs 100% doubling the price of the goods on wine, cheese, fancy

handbags, all that stuff. where is this going, you think? >> well, that's the concern. we are right to fight back here because france is instituting very poor unfair tax policy. we are right to fight back. but we need to do so strategically. if the end of this discussion is simply imposing tariffs on french products, we are in trouble because we will just see escalation. that's going to hurt the french economy. that's going to hurt the american economy and cost us jobs. that's a problem. what we need to do is find an exit strategy here that not only sends a message to the rest of the world because let's be clear, there are other nations right now that are contemplating similar taxes right now. we need to send a message but we also need to work constructively toward a resolution. that's something we did frankly with japan when we crafted a trade deal with japan earlier this year. we had a provision in there that prohibited digital services taxes across the board. we should do so in all of our trade deals going forward, whether that's with the eu, the uk, as is possible, and frankly it's something we should have done but failed to do in the

usmca. neil: what's novel here, i don't want to belabor the point, it's something to go after a u.s. entity on antitrust concerns, that's happened in the past with microsoft, amazon, google, et cetera. this is targeting them on a specious theory that let's get a digital tax because these guys have a lot of money because they are not putting the same on, in this case, french technology concerns. >> yeah, that's right. that's why this is such a discriminatory tax. it should be struck down by international bodies and i think we should -- there certainly is a process going on currently, i think we should flag this for the wto. that doesn't mean we shouldn't take unilateral action. i think it's appropriate for us to do so. i just want to make sure we are doing so in a manner that de-escalates the problem eventually, that solves this problem by getting the dst off the books, not one that leads to a further escalation and trade dispute we have been having with france and the eu broadly on other matters outside of the dst and get to a situation like the one we have with china where we have a protracted trade war that's very bad for our country. neil: yeah.

protracted all the more. very good seeing you, my friend. be well. it's the trade war with china that shows no signs of ending and the president's comments that it might not be resolved until after the 2020 election about a year away that has stocks under the pressure they are under after the dow lost about 268 points yesterday, it's down about 400 points right now. only merck is surviving the carnage for the time being. these are all pretty much multinational concerns, if you think about it, that are exposed to all of this. today, not in a good way. more after this.

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ahhhh! -ahhhh! elliott. you came back! song by song i try and make it easier for anxiety.o get help. depression. panic attacks. people don't want to talk about it. so i share it. the struggle and the joy with my mental health. i bare it on a stage, under a spotlight, and invite everyone to join me. what's your mission? use godaddy to help make it happen. make the world you want. neil: you know, you always wonder when markets have the money heading out some place, it always has to go some place else. for the time being, it seems to be in the relative safety of the

u.s. bonds, treasury notes one of the examples with the ten-year treasury at 1.70%. remember, we had gotten up for awhile to as high as 1.77% so that represents a slight change that bears watching. seeking out some of the safety of the bond market as they try to sort out what happens in the stock market, then there is this. >> well, if it does, then the democrats have done a very great disservice to the country which they have. i think it's very unpatriotic of the democrats to put on a performance where they do that. i do. i think it's a bad thing for our country. neil: all right. real quick before i get to the particulars, just to clarify, the yield you are seeing is a drop adjusted today but over the last week or so, since tuesday, we have seen the ten-year note

yield collapse about 13.5 basis points. we were up a week ago at this time at around 1.83 yield on the ten-year note. that represents some of the ongoing consternation about where we are going from here. meanwhile, we've got the "washington examiner's hugo gerdon, on what the republicans are doing with this impeachment fight by not showing up. what do we glean from that? >> the white house is not going to turn up to participate in jerry nadler's, the judiciary committee hearings. that's in part because there's been no detail given to the white house and you know, pat cipollone had decided at the white house that, you know, there's not a strong enough basis to go ahead. it hasn't ruled out participating at some later date. but the thing that's really important, i think, neil, is that the democrats have made it very easy for the republicans to defend president trump because the process so far has been so

manifestly unserious. the democrats are running this impeachment inquiry on the basis that they want to get it done and get it out of the way for the election so they are thinking, they can displaying the fact they are doing this for political reasons. that undermines the message they are trying to put forward which is that they are doing this more out of sadness than anger, they're not doing it for political reasons and that the president has actually committed crimes. they are undermining their own message so they are really helping president trump and the republicans to defend. neil: you know, i can see that point but if you are itching to get your side and it's the point of view you want expressed, out there, and you're not out there, then it's all tilted. i understand republicans will be doing a lot of the questioning too within the judiciary committee but the president's people have rightly complained they have not had their own counsel there to respond to this, to deal with any of this. there's been a lot of back and forth. i wonder if they risk losing the public narrative at a time when democrats, we are told, are racheting this thing up to go

way beyond just the ukraine situation. >> yeah, look, there is always a risk in any litigation or quasi-litigation kind of scenario, the sort we have now. there's always a decision by the defense to decide whether or not, for example, they are going to put the defendant on the stand or, you know, obviously there are people, witnesses who could be crucial for fact witnesses for the democrats such as don mcgahn and mick mulvaney and rudy giuliani who are not currently participating, but the democrats have decided not to litigate, not to try and force them and yes, there is the opportunity for the democrats to get their narrative out and the president risks not getting his out, but if the hearings so far under adam schiff are anything to go by, it's become very apparent that the democrats are not really trying to do anything other than create a narrative, and polls show that at best,

voters are not turning against the president. at worst for the democrats, they are actually losing support for impeachment and you simply cannot impeach a president and get away with it with voters if the voters are not going along and thinking there has been a serious crime. neil: if you do want to get your point across or keep your powder dry, the administration might be thinking save that for senate trial if it comes to that. >> yes. absolutely. yeah. neil: always good catching up with you, my friend. be well. have any of you seen the controversy building over this new ad about a woman who receives one of these peloton bikes, she's thrilled and happy about it, thought the husband did a great job, touche, she's delighted. turns out it's sexist and evil. she looks happy to me. after this.

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neil: all right. peloton stock is down about 7% today. a lot of stocks are getting a selling workout, if you will. but this is particularly noteworthy today. kristina partsinevelos has the latest on the controversy that might be generating the selling. kristina: what is not to love, over $2,000 stationary bike for christmas. of course, online critics aren't loving this new peloton ad, just released for the holiday season. the ad appears to show a woman year-long selfie journey after her partner gave hrer a peloton for the holidays. people are criticizing this ad for many reasons, one of them is that it's sexist because the man seems to suggest the woman should work out more. here's one twitter comment. quote, when you have to videotape yourself exercising to prove to your husband that you are making every effort to look thin for him, hash tag, peloton. other negative comments revolve around the small size of the model. this one tweet reads the holiday peloton ad where the skinny

athletic model undergoes a transformation over the course of a year to become a skinny athletic model who now rides a stationary bike really pulls at the heartstrings. the social media backlash isn't anything new for the company, though. last year, some complained about the million dollar modern home featured in the peloton commercial. aspiration aspirational, anyone? the company still has a market cap of $9.6 billion even though the stock is down today and it has more than 500,000 users. many of them die-hard fans who have busted that over two grand for these bikes and $40 a month. they must be doing something right. neil, i just want you to know, peloton has disabled the comments on their 30-second commercial, yet all of us are still talking about it. neil: we are indeed. they could settle this by just offering, you know, a man getting the bike. kristina: they do have an advertisement from last year where the man is riding the bike

of the woman in secret. neil: got it. got it. they just need a guy like me hopping on one of these puppies and this debate would end right away. kristina: in spandex. neil: you don't want to go there. thank you very much. fascinating story. real quick, peek at the corner of wall and broad. the dow down about 363 points. this is all donald trump related. he's getting back in the face of the chinese saying i could live and we might not be able to see a trade deal until after the 2020 presidential election. that's still about a year off. also upping the ante and saying those tariffs he was planning, you know the ones for argentina and brazil, they're still on. now france is caught up in this. they have a digital tax they want to slap on us. he's ready to slap a similar tax on their wine and cheese. it's his way of saying the united states, you can always eat velveeta and try california wines. they're delicious. more after this. so what are you working on?

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i'm not going to let people take advantage of american companies, because if anyone's going to take advantage of the american companies, it's going to be us. it's not going to be france. and so as you know, we are taxing their wines and everything else. neil: all right. so these new tariff threats are out there. u.s. businesses waiting on them to get the actual hit.

grady trimble on how some say that could be a good thing. that's a little confusing. help me out. reporter: i will try to help you get there. first, the industry groups obviously aren't happy about this. a lot of these same products are subject to the tariffs because of that airbus ruling. now they are facing potentially an additional tariff on $2.4 billion worth of french products. you mentioned cheese and wine. it also includes handbags, makeup and soap. industry groups say customers who buy french wines and cheeses, for example, could eventually have to foot the bill for the tariffs. they say a 100% tariff would be devastating for their businesses. so the french champagne exporters are calling for macron to help. this is what they say. we deplore this announcement which after the dispute over airbus targets french wines again and always in the context of a dispute between france and the united states that doesn't concern our sector. on the flipside, this could be

good for some businesses. american businesses. if retail prices for those french products go up, is it possible that consumers switch over to american domestic products? on top of that, i did talk to the president of one industry group who says prices for domestic products could go up as well, as he put it, just because they can. that wouldn't be good for the consumer, necessarily, but it could be good for the businesses because their margins would increase. neil? neil: thank you very, very much. so the impact from all this, from senior wealth adviser courtney dominguez. courtney, i'm looking at this wondering what would, assuming this goes into effect, and that might be a leap there, i touched on this during the break, a negotiating point, but what would we see? how soon would we see it? >> i think people are underestimating how much of an impact this would be. we are throwing out these numbers like 2.4 billion, which sounds like a huge number in our minds, but realistically it's pretty minimal when you think about the u.s. gdp is $21

trillion. if you just think about that, it's a pretty minimal impact. even if they go into effect, which i agree it's too soon to know if they will or if this is just negotiation tactic. even if they do, i don't think it will have as much of an impact with investors that are pricing it into the markets right now. neil: for americans who want to get their hands as quickly as they can on french cheese, french wine, all of that, i always tell them california or virginia varieties are excellent but they don't listen, if it doesn't affect cheeses and wines already here, it would affect those already on their way here, right? >> that's my understanding. exactly right. i think we might be able to get different cheeses, different wines, but as an investor if you are looking at your 401(k), use this as an opportunity because this happens like clockwork. people panic and sell but nothing has really happened right now. it's just the uncertainty of it. the economy is still on strong footing, we are still seeing solid data so whenever anybody else is nervous, take advantage and buy more shares.

prices are lower right now. neil: hickory farms is not part of this controversy. i just throw that out there. the other thing, we have this other wave of tariffs that go into effect on december 15th. i guess that looks much more likely now, talking about the better than $250 billion worth of chinese goods that make their way here. that would see a substantial pop in prices. what are you looking at there? do you expect it to even happen? >> that's again, i think it's too soon to see if it's going to happen or not happen. i think it's more the uncertainty of knowing how long that's going to last that's overweighing investors, overweighing businesses and how much they want to deploy their cash right now. so i don't think it's going to be a long-term impact. i think again, you will get some of the knee-jerk reactions from businesses and investors, but i think long-term, if the markets dip on that, use it as an opportunity. i don't see this as a long-term effect. neil: a lot of people get nervous because they say december has almost become like october, ever since last december, where we started out okay, then the floor fell out

beneath us, a lot of people ran out of the market. you would have been wise just to stick with it and see the great appreciation. is that kind of your sentiment now? >> not at all. i think that's something investors do a lot, they think just because something happened in the recent past that it's going to happen again. so right now we are having a few down days in december and everyone is saying it's going to be a bad december again, i want to get out of the market. i think it's preemptive to think that right now. there are just some headlines that are hitting and some nervousness. nothing fundamental has changed with the economy or the market. i don't really see that in the near future. neil: all right. so when you look at the environment right now, you mentioned the tariffs, the impact has been minimal. a lot of it because some have been delayed, adjusted or absorbed by american distributors and retail companies, but that can only go on so long, right? >> yeah. which is true. but i think we kind of have to look at the underlying data. unemployment is still at 50-year lows. companies are hiring. that's across the board. that's with minority groups, people with college degrees, people without them, consumers

are feeling that and their paychecks are rising while inflation has been pretty low. even if our paycheck is going further it's not affecting the consumer as much as people expect it will. neil: thank you so much for stopping by. the dow down about 363 points, all dow stocks, dow 30 stocks down with the exception of merck. merck mildly positive right now. a lot of that money is headed into the relative safety of bonds. that's a good place short of putting money under a mattress and that's where the money seems to be going right now. we have the yield on the ten-year note which started out the day 1.85%, now at about 1.70%. you have to take my word for that because that's what's happening. more after this. the epson ecotank. no more buying cartridges.

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neil: elon musk is in court today, testifying in a defamation case against a british diver that he had branded a pedophile in tweets, when they were rescuing those boys caught in a cave sometime back. we will keep track of that. he could be facing some steep fines here but we are on top of it. meantime, sell-offs to start december, reminding some investors that, you know, what the market giveth it can taketh back very very quickly. we all remember how the year ended last year with a 2,000 point sell-off in the very last month of the year. so is this a warning to investors that what goes up can also go down, wait it out, don't panic, what do you do? to the securities and exchange commission chairman, jay clayton. he joins us now out of washington. chairman, very good to have you. thanks for coming. >> thanks for having me on. neil: you know, it gets a lot of attention when you have big days like this.

the president was indicating today that he doesn't watch the markets, he was talking about trade and all of that. obviously he does watch quotes and watch the markets but investors, you know, get a little too market-obsessed every day. as a business network we monitor it as well. do you think this is an overreaction today, investors just keep calm? what do you tell folks? >> look, i think your guest courtney, who was just on with you, did a very nice job of explaining that the markets digest the news of the day. that's what they do for us. that's how they function. and markets are going to go up and down as the news changes. our job at the s.e.c. is to make sure that that digestion of information as it gets reflected in prices happens in an orderly transparent and fair way. and this is ordinary market function we are seeing today. neil: obviously, markets change a great deal over certainly the decades i have been covering

them. it's instantaneous today, you find a tweet from the president or reaction from say macron of france or the chinese trade delegation, and boom, the market can turn very very quickly. so for investors who go day to day on this sort of thing, is there value in thinking more long-term? i would suspect it depends on their age but what do you think? >> look, i'm not in the investment advice business these days, but i think history demonstrates that main street investors are main street investors who invest regularly for the long term. for many, many years, that has been the appropriate strategy. it's very difficult to be a main street investor and be a day to day market timer. we don't prohibit people from doing that, but it's not easy. our main street folks who invest in the long term and do so on a regular basis are generally

happy that they approached it that way. neil: mr. chairman, are you curious that as we put the finishing touches on this trading year, that so many initial public offerings have such bumpy rides, whether it's owed to the fact it's an inside trading class that might have had the advantages but calling a commission to reassess how these things are handled, what do you think? >> let me say something generally about the process. it's something i believe and my colleagues at the commission believe, which is that companies that go through that process generally come out better companies. the questions that we ask -- the questions that the investors ask of companies and the company has to respond, our rules say you have to tell people the truth, which is extremely important. they come out better companies. now, we were just talking about

price discovery in the marketplace. when a company comes to market, there's naturally going to be a price discovery process, where buyers and sellers meet and you expect some volatility early on in a company's trading history. that is natural. as people adjust to the company and its new disclosure, what supply and demand for the company's stock in the marketplace is, so i don't think we are going to -- in fact, i don't have any plans to recalibrate our rules around the ipo process. i will note that the rules we have in the use of direct listings have evolved and will continue to evolve as technology evolves. neil: speaking with jay clayton, chairman of the securities and exchange commission. in some ways, you are calling into question all these companies after the tax cut simply used a lot of that to buy back stock. they are free to do with that

mon money, but there did seem to be a division within the s.e.c., not directly from you, but what is the s.e.c. position on that? some have expressed concern companies have over done it. where are you on that? >> let me split the issue of buy-backs into two. the question of whether to buy back your stock or not as a company, that's a capital allocation decision. when a company has what they believe is excess cash on their balance sheet, do they buy another company, do they dividend out that cash, do they invest in something else, door they repurchase their stock, that's a decision for the company, how to allocate capital. if the company decides to buy back stock, our rules do apply. we make sure they do it in a fair and transparent way. that's where the s.e.c. comes into the buy-back question. neil: do you have any concern, though, that so many companies did that? some did share the loot with the workers, so to speak, but the overwhelming majority did it to buy back stock.

again, to your point, they are free to do that, but do you think that going into this big corporate tax cut that brought the top rate from 35% to 30% to 21%, that it would be used so disproportionately this way, that it wasn't quite the way that those who were pushing it, including the president, thought it would be? >> look, that's not really our job at the s.e.c. as to how tax policy is going to affect -- neil: it doesn't bother you, if that's how it ended up? it is what it is, to your point? >> if that's how it ends up, we want to make sure it's done in a very fair way and transparent way, and that the marketplace understands what a company is doing with that cash. that's our job. to the extent anybody's not being transparent with what they're doing with their cash, we want to know about it. neil: public companies that do announce this and say we are buying x number of shares or, you know, $5 billion worth of stock, that's the way they

communicate that, are you okay with that? >> i think that that's exactly what we want people to be doing. telling their investors, telling the marketplace what they are going to do with their capital. whether it's buying another company, paying a dividend, buying back stock, then if they are buying back stock, when they enter the market, they are doing so in a way that's fair to all market participants. neil: all right. so you are not for curtailing that. just to be clear. you are not for curtailing stock buy-back. >> i want to make sure that to the extent they're done, they're done in a fair and transparent way. neil: understood. mr. clayton, thank you very much. chairman of the securities and exchange commission. >> thank you. neil: the read from the vice president on all these fast-moving developments. charles payne had a chance and will have a chance to sit down with him, get a sense of where things are going. after this.

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the problem netflix is facing, in five years they will have maybe 150 million global subscribers and so will disney, but the difference is disney's making a profit and netflix never has. somebody else is going to have to take over netflix. neil: think about companies that sit on a lot of cash, apple. what do they do with that? >> well, apple needs content. they have started to ramp up and put out all kinds of -- neil: possibility of them buying netflix? >> very likely. neil: all right. echoing what charlie gasparino has been reporting, netflix could be in play. whether it will be bought is anyone's guess. charlie back with us now. he put it in terms that you have as well, that a lot of content

but still losing money and eventually -- >> tons of debt. neil: tons of debt. then what? >> listen, that doesn't mean apple will buy them. apple has been very very -- neil: will someone buy them? >> there's only a few that can buy them given where the valuation of the stock is and the fact that you would be assuming a gazillion dollars worth of debt. apple would be -- it would have to be a company with a lot of cash. apple has a lot of cash. neil: amazon. >> amazon. they don't have as much cash. neil: verizon? >> maybe. porter thinks amazon is going to buy something. he's positive cbs/viacom as well. listen, there are different plays going on. here's two things i think -- i got some breaking news on t-mobile/sprint. before we go there, two things, if you are trying to play the game here. number one, you have to look at it from a regulatory standpoint. will the justice department, whether it's the trump justice department or if you have a democrat in charge, will they allow any of these big tech players to get much bigger.

because let's face it, the only companies that can buy a netflix are these big tech players. i mean, some of them are out because they have done deals already, or are big media companies like at & t. they're not going to do another deal. comcast, they are out, right, because the justice department -- we are not big enough, to be honest, to buy netflix. can amazon, can google, can those type of companies buy netflix. apple, it's a regulatory thing. the other thing is do they want to buy them, do they find it more efficient to use their cash on hand to create their own content. so far, that's been the way they have approached it. so netflix has not been bought yet. neil: disney doesn't need it. it's rapidly building its own. switching gears, you've got news on t-mobile/sprint? >> every time you think this is over, it's not. there is obviously a lot of regulatory issues, there's a big case that's coming down, state attorneys general from california, new york are trying to sue to break up this $26 billion merger, creating i guess the third largest wireless

carrier. here's what we do know right now. mid-august, sprint has had major financial issues, regulatory issues as was reported in the "journal" and financial issues, losing money and subscribers. the stock is down about 8% in the last month. we understand that the officials that are putting together this deal are actively discussing a repricing of the deal. the deal, it's a complicated pricing structure. it's like, something like .103, i got to get the exact number, sprint shares for t-mobile shares, comes out to a $26 billion merger. suffice to say they are looking at sprint shareholders getting less, maybe t-mobile getting more, because sprint is worth a lot less than it was when they did the deal. neil: charlie gasparino, thank you very, very much. the sell-off continues right now. because the president says a trade deal with china can wait. can it? today, the sellers are not waiting. more after this.

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we'll put them on a payment plan. i'm sure the prime minister would love that. where are you at? what is your new mexiumber? >> the number we talked about is 70% increase. >> they'll be okay. i have confidence. just slightly delinquent. some are way below 1%. that's unacceptable. we want to tax american companies. that's important. we want to tax them. that's not for somebody else to tax them. so the president knows we taxed wine, we have other taxes scheduled. but we would rather not do that. but that's the way it would work. neil: all right. the president had a field day with leaders right next to him, going after those said leaders.

a lot of this normally happens behind closed doors. not today. a point of reference, we do tax foreign companies here. they do business here, we tax them here. what the president is complaining about in the case of france is that they went the extra mile of starting a digital tax that would only target american companies and that's not fair and not right and he is slapping back taxes and tariffs, the likes of which will hit french wine, very pricey cheeses, all of that. you always have velveeta and some of the boxed wines that are very popular. so there are alternatives. anyway, what the president had to say on that front sort of rattled the markets, because he was adding tariffs, or potential of them, on top of what he wants to do with argentina and brazil and reinstate tariffs on foreign steel products coming into this country, notably from both countries, and doing the same with china, in a battle that could take us to december 15th and all those tariffs that we hoped, a lot of people on the corner of wall and broad hoped would get delayed if not outright canceled are back on again for the 15th. the president also indicating,

and this is what really started the sell-off bright and early, that he could see the possibility that we don't have a trade deal going until at least after next year's election. we've got edward lawrence following all of this and there's a lot to follow. reporter: yeah. the tariff man may be back. the president as you said there, no timetable for a trade deal with china. he's talking about a phase one, phase two and phase three trade deal. he said he could maybe get to it possibly after the election. you may be seeing a warning sign here to china from the president. the chinese have been pushing to get tariffs rolled back in order to get a phase one trade deal. the u.s. has been pushing back against that. that's become the sticking point related to all this. the president indicating that on that world stage, that he is fine with the status quo in collecting those tariffs. listen. >> i have to make the right deal. i'm not going to make a deal that's not going to be great for our country. and it can't be an even deal. if it's an even deal, it's no

good, because china, other presidents and leaders of our country have really let us down because they let china get away with -- get away with something that should never have been allowed to happen. reporter: in fact, my trade sources are saying that december 15th tariffs are going to be added in place basically on everything else that china imports into the united states. now, we are talking about a 15% tariff on about $160 billion worth of stuff like those on your screen there, phones, laptops, toys, tablets. the caveat here is that if there is progress, enough progress for the president, or if a phase one trade deal actually makes it down on paper, president donald trump could change his mind and not impose those tariffs but as of today, those tariffs are set to go into place. back to you. neil: thank you very, very much. all right. does this have the making or at least hint of what happened last december, it was a bumpy month, actually got bumpier as the month wore on here.

that was then. could it all be happening all over again now? connell mcshane is with me. what do you think? connell: in many ways, we are so far away from that it almost buys people like the president some time to kind of have these conversations, negotiate as they seem to be doing today. neil: is that what you think? i heard that from others. they think it's really negotiating. connell: probably. we have seen this, i mean, we have grown used to this over the last few years. if you think about it, everything that the president said today was probably just some sort of a trial balloon. there was no actionable, you know, executive order or piece of legislation or anything behind really any of this. so you throw out the possibility of tariffs here, you might extend the deadline there. but you haven't actually done anything. of course, the markets react to that, but at the end of the day, we will see where we are. we are down now, what, a little over 1%. less than 1.5%. not the end of the world. to go back to your point about last december, it did feel like almost the end of the world on some of those days. there was a ten-day trading stretch last december, i forgot

how crazy it was, i was looking back today, where in 6 out of the 10 days the dow was down 350 points or more, and there was also a day in that stretch where it was up over 1,000 points. neil: and where we got as low about a percent away from a bear market. connell: bottoming out on christmas eve, then came roaring back. neil: when you look at this, and the back-and-forth on this, is it your sense that the president is tiring of the chinese, you are hearing it from some of your guests that they are going back and forth on things that just seem to frustrate the president and now he cynically says i don't really see a deal imminently? connell: there's a number of signs now, not just what we have seen today but the comments yesterday, over the weekend, going back a couple of weeks, where all signs now point to the fact that there's nothing coming soon. we have also been conditioned to find out that that could change as quickly as one tweet or one comment tomorrow. but we are being set up for that, whereas a few weeks ago, we were all but being set up for the fact that phase one, even if

that was not the end of the road by any means, but phase one, whatever that would mean, would be signed by the end of the year. now almost nobody thinks that. you are just seeing a bit of a readjustment for now. again, we haven't got to the point where we were last december, where people were kind of panicked to some degree. there was so much volatility. neil: that's a good example. if you sold out and just left this market, people who were selling, getting out on the dips, ended up looking like dips that they didn't stick with it. that's been the lesson. i guess i got to stick with it. connell: exactly. yeah. i guess that's the larger point. that's in the back of your head. if we didn't go through that and there wasn't so much craziness last december, mostly to the down side, as you said, the dow down by 2,000 plus points but also for the upside, the roar back after bottoming out on christmas eve, if that wasn't kind of in -- neil: all of this, we still have yet to get a trade deal with china. connell: right. it's almost -- there is a little bit of groundhog day element to this. we are having the same conversations we were having last december which sitting us up for some sort of trade deal but we are lowering the bar on

expectations and everybody has to set that bar. again, it is difficult to plan. that's still out there. if you are a business and watching all this, it is just a difficult environment to go say well, here's what things are going to be like in six months or in a year, and that is back in people's minds as well, the uncertainty for lack of a better way of saying it is certainly back there. is that your car pulling up? neil: it is. it's your ride. it's right outside. this is at buckingham palace. the president has arrived. he's going to be meeting with prince charles and kamila. as we are watching this, how do you think this trip is going here? i was saying a lot of the stuff we normally see behind closed doors is happening for all the world to see. i think no matter what you think of the president, that can be refreshing. >> yeah. the curtain has been torn and everyone can see exactly what president trump is doing. he's going to be tweeting about it, he's going to be answering shouted questions from reporters, he's even going to be

negotiating trade deals with other countries while he's talking to the heads of state of european nations. i think that right now, there's a lot of movement because of what he has talked about with these trade deals but this is a win for president trump in london right now, to be able to talk about nato and talk about how they have increased funding by $130 billion since 2016. so that's a big takeaway from him. we have to see how the rest of the visit goes. neil: you know, a lot of times, you reminded me of this, someone said something critical or it sticks with him and he has to get it off his chest, either, you know, making a comment on the side or more likely, in his case, bring it up with them right there. macron and his famous comment that there's a brain death of nato going on and it owes in large part to the president of the united states, who has not provided adequate leadership. the president didn't waste a moment to rip him on that and they had this sort of tense

discussion on the subject, and others, including french tax on digital products out of the united states. how do you think that went? >> well, the irony here is obvious because not long ago, president trump said that nato was obsolete, now macron says there's a brain death. the difference is obviously that that funding has increased and trump sees himself as taking more of a lead with nato than he had in the past. but president trump made clear explicitly that if anyone was going to be taxing u.s. tech companies, it was going to be the united states. and what did he counter with? those tariffs you were discussing a second ago on everything from french cheese to luxury handbags to champagne. that's the type of tariff that i think is going to be very popular in this country and if you are watching from the middle of the country, you've got to be thinking yeah, stick it to the french. neil: really a big target, luxury handbags filled with french cheese.

jeopardy there. by the way, we are still watching outside buckingham palace right now. back with connell mcshane as we well. this is a chance for the president to meet with prince charles and camilla. we are told later on he will meet with the queen, with whom he's enjoyed a very good relationship, endearing one. but when it comes to boris johnson, rumors are they are very very close with the understanding boris johnson didn't want him involved directly and that's because the elections are so close, didn't want to rattle cages. >> less than two weeks, nine days, i believe. the 12th of december is the election in the uk. i think those of us who, i don't know if you do, but watch "the crown" on netflix, especially when the president is overseas, in particular when he's in the uk, you feel like you are watching season seven in realtime where that negotiating earlier in real time, now he goes over and is meeting with prince charles, you love it because that whole show, if you think about it, you see behind

the scenes of the royal family and their interaction with world leaders. like you said, there is no behind the scenes anymore. we are seeing everything out in the open. neil: by the way, we are just learning, talk about the open, camilla was to meet with the president along with prince charles. it will just be prince charles. phil, can we glean anything from that? i apologize. i was thinking of another camilla, harris. i can separately -- see that? not at all related there. she's dropped out, kamala harris, dropped out of an event that would feature new york titans. that's a separate issue. on this meeting today, phil, are you impressed with how at least the president has changed the posture of all of this? >> i think what is very interesting is that trump has shown that he can be very delicate when it comes to certain interactions with heads of state. he's able to rub shoulders with british royalty which is something that he wanted to do when he was in new york --

neil: i'm jumping on you again. she did more than just drop out of this wall street event. kamala harris has officially dropped out of the presidential race. for awhile a frontrunner in the democratic presidential contest. there have been a lot of stories, real clear politics reported as well about staff dissatisfaction, former stafferers complaining about their treatment and the tone and tenor of the campaign. she's dropping out. what do you make of that snfr? s >> this is huge news. if we rewind the clock to a year ago, kamala harris was one of the rising stars. we saw what she did on the judiciary committee during confirmation hearings of kavanaugh. she became a progressive darling. a lot of hopes of the party were put on her because she was quick on her feet, very persuasive in the way she talked about a lot of different issues but the core problem was kamala harris did not come up with a fundamental issue. she tried to, you know, run the field with a number of different

topics and there were headlines about how she got her campaign on the phone during a conference call to figure out what their fundamental message was. when you have to go to your campaign and say on a conference call, what are we all about, that's a big problem. i think this opens up a lane for some of those other candidates who now have a little bit more breathing room ahead of the december debates because while she did falter at times, she was always a presence onstage and now they will have an opportunity to take a spotlight from her. neil: connell, maybe you can update us. senator kamala harris dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. she was the only african-american candidate whose polling numbers and national media attention had put her in the top of the field, but as the campaign wore on, even after that very, you know, good performance in the first debate where she was taking on joe biden and others, it was short-lived and now she's out. connell: isn't that the point, how short-lived that was, that attack on joe biden back then. i think phil hit the nail on the

head in describing how the obituaries of this campaign will be written in the next few days. they always say, you have moderated debates. many times the question, why are you running. why are you running for president. there never was a definitive answer from senator harris or from people representing her. like you said, there were many stories -- neil: could you see her as a potential running mate? connell: it's certainly possible. depends who the nominee is, i think, and what that nominee would need in a running mate or what she or he would think they need in someone to be a running mate but this was a candidacy that was better on paper than in reality and it just never executed from the beginning with a coherent message saying why are you running for president. neil: i want to thank you both for that. i apologize for the confusion. no one's fault but my own. i was looking at prince charles and immediately thought camilla would not be joining. that's on me, no one else. but i will blame someone else later on.

kamala harris, the california democratic maverick senator, is now out of the race for presidency of the united states. more after this. in your printer ready for another school year? what's "cyan" mean? honor roll. (imitates whooshing, booming) the ink! dad! dad! i'm so hosed. yeah, you are. that can save youh tha lot of trips to the store. get ready for the dean's list. who's dean?

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neil: all right. kamala harris is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. there might have been some things telegraphing trouble here. of course, recent staff members who had been complaining about the environment there within the campaign. apparently it was, to put it mildly, testy. then the candidate dropping out of a fund-raising event in new york that featured some wall street titans. that was the first thing that went. now this news. former ohio state democratic senator capri cafara, what do you think? >> well, i'm not entirely surprised. i will say that i am a little bit surprised that it came this quickly and this swiftly because

we have been getting these reports that she's been losing staff, for example, and that we've had senior staff i think that has gone to mayor bloomberg who has recently announced his democratic candidacy. so obviously, there has been some trouble in the kamala harris camp. now i think really, the question becomes where do kamala harris supporters go, to joe biden or to mike bloomberg, to elizabeth warren? i think she was a very strong rising star and i think still is and still has a bright future in the democratic party, but she did not seem to build a coalition necessary for longevity and i think that because she did not have a clear message, i think it's not as obvious where her supporters would go now that she's leaving the race. neil: if you're looking at just those african-american candidates who intrigue democrats, you have deval

patrick, the former massachusetts governor, obviously cory booker, who indicated he's got to do something and soon. what do you think? >> well, even though there are african-americans in the race, now kamala harris is not but you mentioned the other two, just because you hold a certain race or gender does not guarantee you are going to have a monopoly on the african-american vote or the women vote, for example, and we know that vice president joe biden has a very strong coalition in the african-american community. i think that then raises the question, does the exit of kamala harris somehow strengthen joe biden's hand even more in the african-american community, or does it somehow dissipate to the other two african americans. as i said before, i think that because kamala harris did not have a leading issue necessarily, you know, whether it was immigration or reproductive rights, even though

she has a law enforcement background, she got a little flack for her background as chief law enforcement officer in california. she hasn't really had a group that's coalesced. because of that, it's not, as i said, as obvious of where her supporters will go because it's harder to show that alliance to say, for example, well she was strong on, you know, trying to take out big banks as well as elizabeth warren, so now that she's gone, they will go to elizabeth warren. i don't think it's that obvious. neil: i'm wondering, too, about what you get being in these debates, we know right now that michael bloomberg will not be in the next democratic debate. but it didn't seem he was too upset about it, maybe because he knew he would be the center of attention there, but the debates themselves had not dramatically changed the equation for anybody, have they? >> the only thing i think the debates have done are two things. one, they have given a very

small maybe 12 to 24-hour news cycle jolt for people right after the debate is over so for example, we have seen tulsi gabbard had that back-and-forth -- neil: but it didn't improve her numbers. >> kamala harris and joe biden, you get these jabs. so maybe, you know, that can do a little bit of a boost within the 24-hour news cycle and sometimes it's given people an opportunity to raise money off of it to get to the next debate but it has not really changed the calculus as far as the poll numbers have gone. that's on both sides, whether it's been a strong debate performance or in the case of joe biden, you know, he's just basically treading water. his poll numbers, you know, are at least nationally stabilized on a state by state basis, that's a whole different story. neil: real quickly, at the risk of getting my producers here, i would love your thoughts on

this, the process now, especially with proportional voting, that even if you don't get a whole lot of votes in a state, you get some delegates, do you think even with a dozen plus candidates still in the race, it's possible we get to a first ballot and no victor? >> yes. i do. i have said that all along. i think that it's going to be, as people drop out, it's going to be obviously there's going to be more consolidation. that's common sense. but because as you mentioned, you have to get at least 15% of the vote and there's no winner take all in any state due to the democratic national committee rules changing in the last year, so it's anybody's game. particularly as long as we have a larger field in front of us. so i think we might have to hold on and see whether or not we will have a floor fight. neil: we will watch it closely. capri, thank you very, very much. we mentioned london. also that it's where the president is meeting right now with prince charles, later on a big shindig featuring all the

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♪ ♪ neil: all right. it wasn't $10 billion but it was a record $9.4 billion in online sales that is forcing retailers to get very creative these days. lauren simonetti is at a luxury experience in manhattan. lauren: yeah. that's a lot of money. $9.4 billion on the internet and instagram is the new retail therapy. how do you get people to not only come to a store, but spend a lot of money here? let's talk to the trendsetter himself. he's the head of brookdale place. major shopping destination. lot of luxury here. how do you get people to spend

their money here? >> it's about creating a great place, we call it place making and it's really about understanding people aren't just coming when the lights are turned on and stores are open but bringing people in. so we have a great arts and events team that holds upwards of 100 plus events a year. lauren: look up, you can see the light show for christmas, right? >> exactly. that's going to launch tonight. also, we have a lot of restaurants here, 20 plus restaurants that do a total of over $100 million a year in revenue. so creating a dynamic destination and bringing people in will allow them to shop. lauren: clearly people like to eat. we do know that. if you look over our shoulders, the louis vuitton store is over there. it started as a popup a few years ago. now you are nearly tripling the size of that store here in this location. >> yeah. i think louis vuitton came short term to try something, realized it worked and it's a mix of stake holders that are shopping here. we have 40,000 office workers, 20,000 residents of battery park city, 15 million visitors coming downtown every year. lauren: location is key for brookdale place but can you do

what you are doing, does this work in another location? >> i think it can. certainly location helps, density helps. we have a million square feet of office above this complex so that helps. it's that place making concept when you give people reason to come by. lauren: what really surprised me, we are talking about all this money being spent online with our smartphones, when you look at the amount that's actually spent on luxury, it's happening in store, only 12% of overall luxury sales happen online. so your shoppers come here, they are buying something expensive and not getting a discount. what does that say about the economy? >> i think all the sentiment right now, all the indicators is that the consumer is doing well. i think especially the luxury consumer is still demanding they come, actually touch and feel something, if they will be spending that much money, versus a more commodity product you might buy online and get delivered to your house. lauren: neil, over to you. neil: thank you very, very much. i get nervous when they want to

improve the shopping experience. anyway, we are learning more on kamala harris from my buddy, charlie gasparino, who said democratic sources have been relaying that her attack on joe biden actually backfired and her currency went down along with it, that she probably would have been possibly joe biden's vice presidential pick if he gets that far, but now it looks highly unlikely. then there's the issue with tulsi gabbard, whether she was exposed on some criminal justice issues that also backfired on her. people still say she is a player but she's wounded, basically had no choice but to drop out, couldn't raise money. that of course can be a death knell for any candidate. but sort of wrenching over what prompted this and what she could have done to avoid this is now a moot point. she's out of the presidential race. we are still down to more than a dozen candidates still very much in it. after this. nationwide helps you invest for your future, brad.

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neil: all right. well, the president might be trying to school the chinese on trade, but it seems that china is schooling us on schools. susan li has the details on how it seems possible that the chinese now have the smartest kids in the world. susan: smart is defined differently around the world. i will show you the findings of this survey. it did find china was number one when it comes to math, to reading and to science as well. and china is represented by four specific regions, beijing,

shanghai, and -- you're looking at me like where are these places? so as you see, china number one, singapore, macao, hong kong, this is just reading, by the way -- neil: we are 13? susan: yes. u.s. is 13 when it comes to reading. that's probably the highest score they have across the three subjects. number 37 when it comes to math. that's actually below the oecb average. number 18 when it comes to science. this, by the way, is not being solved by money amongst the richest nations in the world. they found that first of all, education didn't really improve in the last 20 years or so going back to 2000, and even those that through the moew the most improving education didn't really get that far, even those who put 50% more resources -- neil: is the school day longer, more focused? susan: definitely it's longer. i can tell you that. i think it's also cultural and societal as well.

this is the country of scholastic excellence being appreciated, encouraged, i can tell you that for a fact. neil: how long is a typical school day? susan: in china? don't forget a lot of tutoring comes after class as well. i had friends who have had kids that have been basically doing their homework until 10:00 p.m. at night. nie problem with this study is that china's represented by four specific regions. these are really rich regions across china as well. in this study, they found that actually, the poorest 10% performed above the average so socioeconomic status doesn't really matter in china. i would argue these regions don't really represent the poorest part of china because i would be -- i guess i would be surprised to see the same sort of results there as well. neil: in science and math, is that their draw? susan: yeah. it definitely is. it's encouraged by the government as well.

again, this goes back to the order in society where math, science, some of these s.t.e.m. as we have talked a lot about, s.t.e.m. areas are exactly what the government is promoting. neil: do they go to school year round? susan: i think so. there is no summer break. you maybe get a few days off for chinese new year. no christmas. no thanksgiving. but it's pretty much school, school, school for 20 hours a day, 355 days a year. neil: i should tell my kids that. could be worse. susan: but really smart, though. getting high grades in math and science, is that necessarily smart? i would argue that the education system in china does not promote i would say ideas, innovation, imagination. neil: the heart and the mind, right? susan: personality. neil: okay. susan: obviously i'm a student of that. neil: you are indeed. thank you very much. the wealthy are giving a lot

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neil: all right. we are hearing now, being told the house intelligence committee will be publicly releasing its impeachment report shortly. we are also told that republicans have their own conclusions that they are going to announce either tomorrow or the day after, so two different reads out of the same intelligence committee that paves the way for the judiciary committee to begin its own impeachment proceedings separately. a lot going on there. meantime, the season of giving is on. while a lot of democratic hopefuls are giving it to the rich, the rich are actually giving it to a lot of folks. jackie deangelis has the story on this giving tuesday. jackie? jackie: good afternoon to you, neil. well, of course what's important here is estimates are suggesting $500 million in donations will be collected today but

researchers say that overall, charitable giving is down, actually. 20 million fewer households donated in 2016 compared to the year 2000. there are several reasons for this. first, some people say they just don't have time to go to church anymore, that this is connected to tithing and also their religious beliefs. at the same time, the cost of food, housing, health care, they have gone up so there's less disposable income. itemized giving from low and moderate income earners decreased all the way up to 2015, but donations from upper income earners, they actually were on the rise until that point. as a matter of fact, the wealthy were accounting for 75% of all itemized giving. the question, of course, is will this change and the reason for that is last year, new tax changes made it more incentivized for the standard deduction. the itemized deduction is where the charity things used to go. so this comes at a time when you

have presidential elect candidates like bernie sanders and elizabeth warren saying the rich don't give enough. but back in 2015, the most recent stat that we have, the top 1% gave one-third of all of the giving. the white house made a statement on giving tuesday as well, encouraging people to give of their time if they can't give money, saying quote, in part, as you and your loved ones continue to celebrate the holiday season, i encourage you to seek opportunities this giving tuesday to improve the lives of others and your community. neil? neil: very nice. give what you can. jackie, thank you very, very much. charles payne gives a lot away, just sitting down with the vice president of the united states. we've got a preview he's ready to tell me a little about right now. charles? charles: great to be down in the nation's capital and of course, tariffs are back in the news big-time. i began the interview with vice president pence on the notion that instead of just being a tool to get the better

relationships with our trading partners, perhaps this administration may consider actually using tariffs, not necessarily the ones that are in place but using tariffs permanently to bring jobs back to america. this is what he had to say. >> the president has also been willing to i don't tuse the pows economy and access to this economy and tariffs to leverage changes in our trading relationships with nations around the world. i think it's that combination that's working for american workers and it's working for the american economy. charles: so obviously, the administration is thrilled with the results they have seen so far, thrilled at how well this economy has done. again, it's something i always tell folks. keep in mind we do have $360 billion in tariffs in place, we are going on two years and the economy has had a pretty good run. neil: all right, my friend. thank you very, very much. look forward to that interview. charles payne in washington. how a fifth generation family business became one of america's

largest marketers of beef. the co-owner of omaha steaks is next. as a struggling actor,

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it's important to you obviously not only the meat you sell but the way you treat the people who sell it. it's kind of integral. could you explain how that works? >> sure. i mean, we have built a fifth generation family business treating our customers like family and treating our employee team like family. so it's really important as we follow our mission, which is to deliver exceptional experiences that bring people together, that that really permeates not only the products that we sell and the way we treat our customers, but also the way we treat our employee team. neil: it's interesting, too, what you have been able to do, when you have to sell people online, they don't have the advantage of testing out a product. they have to get it, if they like it, they order it again, they tell their friends and so it goes. so you were kind of doing that long before we had the amazons and all of that. explain how that went. >> i'd like to think of omaha steaks as the original food tech

company. we started the meal delivery business in the mid 50s and have been shipping now millions of packages a year to our customers that way, and it's been a great ride, and with some great technology to help us along the way, you know, the internet being probably the most important technology lately. because we have a 100-year family business, we are able to offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and that speaks to the quality of our product and the fact that people can't touch it, they can't see it necessarily before they try it, so we back it up with all the force of our hundred year fifth generation family business. neil: i know you were steeped in this from when you were a little kid. i read a story where you said i have done just about every job in the company starting in the box room at age 10 to my first real job after college in production. did you ever want to buck the family business, saying i'm going to launch on my own and do something totally different?

>> i thought about it for about 15 minutes, then i decided you know what, i think i will give the family business a try. that was 35 years ago. i guess i'm a lifer now. neil: the rest is history. who are your customers? i know they are hard to generalize but who are they? >> sure. so our customers are steak enthusiasts and we really have kind of three groups. we have steak enthusiasts, we have convenience seekers, people looking for easy meal solutions, and we have people interested in making sure they have good protein in their diet. it ranges in age from people who are just kind of in their mid 20s all the way up to people in their 70s and 80s. we've got a lot of empty nesters who rely on the convenience of omaha steaks and we have a lot of families who rely on omaha steaks for everyday meals. of course we have corporations and individuals and professionals who use omaha

steaks as gifts as well. neil: so the way of plant-based, you know, alternatives, beyond meat, whathave you, do you worry that that is going to take some of the thunder away? >> i don't really worry about that, because the beef industry is very big. it's a $60 billion industry. while we do hundreds of millions in revenue, we are still a niche player, if you will, and we dominate the niche that we're in. our customers are steak enthusiasts and beef enthusiasts and they're not coming to us for highly processed plant-based meat alternatives. they are coming to us for that real steak experience. we do notice that some people are eating a little bit less beef, but when they do eat beef, they want to eat the very best. that's why they come to omaha steaks.com and choose their proteins there. neil: obviously, you take in

your own product. you like your own product. is there one particular product you like more than others? >> that is a great question. i can tell you are a man of taste and distinction for even asking that question. i love the omaha steaks private reserve new york strip. it's absolutely, i'm a big new york strip guy. i have always liked new york strips. if you go to omaha steaks.com we have a full line of private reserve which is like our best of the best. i would encourage anybody to try them. they would make a great place on your holiday table. neil: there you go. always a marketer. todd simon, omaha steaks co-owner, senior vice president, very good seeing you. thank you. you want to know where the beef is with the intelligence committee report? see what i did there? it's out. the report is out. not the beef, the report. hillary vaughn in washington, d.c. with the very latest. hey, hillary. reporter: hey, neil. house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff releasing

the report, saying he believes the president abused the power of his office to solicit foreign interference into our election for his own personal political gain. we are poring through this report but this is new because the intelligence committee has officially wrapped up and concluded its investigation, handing the report then to the house judiciary committee, which we know is going to hold its very first hearing tomorrow. the hearing happening in front of the house judiciary committee, is not going to turn up more facts in this investigation or witness testimony related to the president's dealing with ukraine over military aid. instead, the judiciary committee hearing will hear from four law professors from harvard, stanford, george washington and north carolina school of law. they will give their take on what the constitutional grounds for impeachment are. the president today says he does not plan to watch the house judiciary committee hearing tomorrow, but he did say that he would be willing to have his people, including secretary of state mike pompeo and chief of staff mick mulvaney to testify

in front of the senate if there were a senate trial. >> they have three constitutional lawyers and we've got one. that's not even smart. because it's not going to matter. and they take three and they give us one. whoever heard of anything like that? no one. i want them to testify but i want them to testify in the senate where they will get a fair trial. reporter: today, republicans from the intelintelligence, ovet and foreign affairs committees released their own report on the impeachment investigation, saying quote, the evidence does not prove the democrats' allegations that president trump abused his authority to pressure ukraine to investigate his potential political rival. vice president joe biden. there is still no deadline for when the house would vote for impeachment. speaker pelosi announced that the house will delay their holiday recess. neil? neil: thank you very, very much. i'm reading that report as hillary is speaking. one line stands out. the impeachment inquiry has found the president personally and acting through agents within

and outside the u.s. government solicited interference of a foreign government, ukraine, to benefit its re-election, in furtherance of this scheme the president conditioned official acts on a public announcement by the new ukrainian president of politically motivated investigations including one into the president's domestic political opponent. it is clear to see from this report that the democratic majority authors have said the president abused his power. but that warrants a high crime and a dmisdemeanor. that at least reading from this is impeachable. more after this. ♪ there are things we would change about work. and there are things we wouldn't. ♪

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neil: comments coming in fast and furious that kamala harris bowed out of the presidential race. cory booker said, she was a trailblazer. i have loved serving with her in the senate and every moment weigh run into each other. her campaign broke barriers. love you, sister.

mayor buttigieg also saying that she went her career advocating for the voiceless and vulnerable. i'm greatful for her leadership she brings to the senate and the debate. with the dow down 330 points i turn it over to my colleague charles payne. charles: i'm charles payne this is "making money." stocks are singing today that trump may want to delay a trade deal with china until after the 20elections. i think this is like three card monthty. they might follow the red king, there are issues investors should be watching. we have expert what is you should know and be doing during this downdraft. we have reaction from the white house on the president's comment on china. i just sat down with vice president pence of the united states for an exclusive interview. mr. pence making news with the latest on the trade deal and our booming economy.