and maybe it's because president trump speaking at an event on parental leave did not mention the china trade deal, he simply said that he would talk about it later. neil it's yours. neil: thank you, stuart very very much we'll be looking at that re-election and the confluence of events today the odd timing of this trade news, on the very same day, articles of impeachment are being brought up against the president of the united states. we're told it's coincidental but it is an amazing coincidence. we are on top of that, on top of all of the major market averages sprinting ahead and for the time being two of the three of them have fell under record territory , but they are still within a stones throw all three of them are revisiting that so let's get the read from the white house. what could be the impetus behind blake burman and all of this chatter, certainly on tariffs would see maybe progress on a deal. what do you think? >> well the president, neil, we can tell you is meeting with the top members of both trade and economic teams later this afternoon, we are led to believe

here potentially within the next couple of hours here at the white house, to figure out a way forward, give a final word as to what exactly will happen regarding not only the december 15 tariffs that are slated to go into effect as we stand here on december 12, but also, other china decisions and other trade deal decisions as well, whether or not there could be a potential phase i trade deal potentially a rollback of existing tariffs you get the idea that meeting taking place here soon. the president today though, did sound somewhat optimistic tone on twitter just a little while ago in which he wrote the following. he said getting very close to a big deal with china they want it and so do we, but within about the last half hour or so, the president once he went before the cameras also made a point to stay very tight-lipped about what is going on between u.s. and china negotiations. president trump: we're working a deal with china but i wouldn't say up until now, they've loved me. reporter: all right, so that was the president just a little while ago. we also heard this morning from

the agricultural secretary purdue who said that they are getting closer to a potential deal that would result in a large scale agricultural purchase, but he also said that they still remain as he put it, challenges. >> to the president between 40 and $50 billion but when it comes down to the deal that's one of the problems here. china wants to commit behind the door but they don't want to put it out like we had to do in contracts and that's part of a challenge. reporter: so neil, all of the focus here remains on the president, his decision and whether or not the tariffs from the u.s. will go forward on sunday. keep in mind though, that china has also threatened some $75 billion worth of tariffs on sunday as well, including re imposing auto tariffs potentially so this meeting here at the white house within the next couple of hours should get a better sense if not later today, most likely, by tomorrow as to what the president might decide. neil? neil: do you know what change

though, because i know about the commitment, the white house wants to see from china that you're going to not only tell us that you're going to buy stuff but spell it out and stick to it and have a plan that we can make sure that you're following through on this, or there will be snapback provisions where everything goes back to the tariffs as planned but what happened? >> a change with what though? because right now, we haven't really gotten anything from the president. you know, it was said to me, neil, today it was reiterated keep in mind the president has already made a decision and the decision is to go forward with tariffs on december 15 but what we're awaiting to find out is whether or not that will happen, or if he'll make a reversal. there have been all of these headlines, neil, but as we've been saying for a few days now, the president still needs to give final word, and that's what we're awaiting here out of the west wing, so i know there's all these headlines out here but it's getting close to deadline

time and i think we'll have clarification here shortly. neil: we hope, because some day is when everything presumably hits the fan. >> neil and i would even remind you the last time there were tariffs that were announced the president did so by tweet on a friday, so could happen between at any point between now and tomorrow. neil: very very good point. all right, just stepping back, blake thank you very very much. we're just trying to remind you of the paver you'reian nature of the markets and how afixed they are to trade on the upside or downside over reacting sometimes with every bit of bad news here, you know, lifting tariffs is one thing, talking about them is quite another, scoring a deal quite another from that. we're just keeping pace of this, we don't care whether you're on the right or left on this, as we say we're not red or blue just following the green and the market is proven once again this issue, trade, dictates the course of stocks, certainly in the very very near term let's go

to susan li and financial market strategist. susan li, i'm wondering if we're getting caught in that oh, we'll have a deal, and pouncing on it, just as we when we get bad news in the white house, with tough words it is proof, i guess, that not impeachment, not anything else of the usmca thing, this is the one issue that dominates trading isn't it? >> yeah, well it's the largest trading relationship in the world, especially on a one on one basis. now all week long we've been hearing that china needed a little bit more than just the delay, of december 15 tariffs, so that's because president xi has to sell this deal, yes to the people of china but also to a group of standing members which is a 10-member group including president xi that rules china that this is a good deal for china as we got something out of this and this is after president trump signed that hong kong human rights and democracy act which some people

thought was a slap in the face for the chinese leadership so they need more than just a delay of december 15 tariffs, and for their part i would say china has also been stepping up to buy soybeans at 13 times from september to november a 50% in terms of purchases in november alone so this might not be a generational trade deal that might take a second term but this is at least better for the markets and at least it's not going in the wrong direction. neil: you know, whatever your views of the president, do you feel that we changed direction a bit too easily based on the details this is the same president before today talking about that we could be on the verge of a big deal, he said wait until after the election if need be so do we pounce a bit prematurely? >> yeah, that's why this is a game of psychology than anything else when it comes to investing so let's step back a bit and remember where we were last december. that was a december to remember. we had the same news that the

market sold off. this year, we're having that ebb and flow whether it's on again off again and the markets are up at the top, so no surprise, new all-time highs and the trend track is on target. it's going forward it's 10 years of essentially straight up in the stock market and the other positives that we can see is looking at my board above me there's a 20% chance there's a rate cut in majority r so there's a lot of positives out there but i think sometimes we do over react and you have to focus on the price and see where we stand after a couple of days but let's remember the dow is up 20%, s&p is up 25% and nasdac is up more than 30% in the last year of trade. neil: you know, all of this happened of course on the same day that we have the house judiciary committee, marking up the final articles, the two articles of impeachment, coincidence? >> i think in a sense, i think because they're doing that it ensures even more in the way of dividing washington, when washington is divided,

politicians can't get together to do anything unfortunate for the economy and that certainly helps investors. i think also this is an acknowledgment my perfect world presidents and countries would have nothing to do with the private act of trade, but this is an acknowledgment from both sides that they see how damaging tariffs would be. they keep pushing back what they know would be damaging and that's got to be comforting to markets that ultimately when all of this is said and done, there are pragmatic minds on both sides who realize we must move away from the tariffs that would needlessly set back what is a great trading relationship. neil: you know susan when you talk to traders and their mood obviously this has been a year, unless everything falls out of bed in the next couple of weeks it's one for the record but i'm wondering if it has just been contingent on things that are more on hope. i mean, some of the other stuff, particularly both of our other guests we're getting into the fundamentals, the earnings, the

better-than-expected economic news, the busy consumer, the robust holiday shopping season, those enough are reasons for stocks to continue marching forward, not just, you know, hedging bets on whether we're going to get a deal or not. >> i think there are a lot of realities to push markets higher the fed says we're not going to hike interest rates at least expecting one but not many people believe they will actually pull the trigger and they might not do that for the year after as well and election years are very good for stock markets on average up around 12% for the s&p with 90% hit rate that it'll actually go up during that year and as people say, yes , ceo's might be pessimistic but consumers are confident and one of those two parties are usually right and it's usually the consumers that power two-thirds of the u.s. economy so i think there's a lot of positives to hang your hat on. neil: there is the other issue with the concentration of impeachment not that it goes much further than a trial in the senate and short lived and

unless something really, you know, huge were to happen, the president does delay the potential government shutdown, and at what point does wall street get worried about the collateral damage that could come of these distractions? >> well wall street is always, that's what we get paid to do is to look to the future and see what the potential concerns are going to be but looking at that wall of worry, we can see the vix right now is about 15, so it has rallied in the last couple weeks, we had a little bump up here when we had the sell-off last week that was most important is the way that the stock market came storming back. not only stocks, but crude oil and interest rates have also moved higher so those are all very positive signs and signs of stability, so i think there are many many more positives out there. again that's why we wake up in the middle of the night. we have to be worried about something but right now the market and the target from the drop to the top we saw last

october to december that puts the s&p target at 3,500 on a full b recovery. we still haven't gotten there, so that's still 10% higher for those optimists like me. neil: you know, you were touching on this idea that hard to repeat this here but we have had repeats of years in the past what are you looking at early 2020? >> well, for one, again, i think this division when washington is divided when they're distracted by things like impeachment they can't create laws which really is if you look historically, that's been correlated with good stock markets. what i'm not looking for is the fed. i think that's just some sort of mirage that people chase. if central banks could decree good markets then japan would have the most valuable stock market in the world and europe wouldn't be too far behind it. we have great markets here ultimately because we've got the best companies in the world. if you look at what drove this rally in the past year it was apple, microsoft, google,

facebook, amazon these are brilliant companies. this is not the fed let's not insult our economy by presuming those guys could drive prosperity. this is good company doing it on their own. neil: i want to thank all of you very good read, meantime when we come back home depot is one of the few dow stocks under selling pressure but there are a lot more pressure earlier on. what if i told you, it has its own little financial crisis that deals with the opioid crisis? most people think of verizon

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grady trumbull in chicago with the details connecting all of this. reporter: all right, neil, so home depot executives told investors that shoplifting at its stores across the country is up, in fact its gotten so bad that it's cutting into profits, and they say one possible explanation could be the opioid crisis. here is part of what the ceo told investors and analysts. we have a hypothesis this ties to the opioid crisis but we're not positive about that. the assertion there presumably that drug users need money to fuel their addiction, so they are stealing goods and in many cases selling it online, so what they're talking about specifically is organized retail theft. in one example they gave they say authorities found millions of dollars of product in a warehouse and like i said the crooks end up selling it online and all of this comes on the heels of a national retail federation survey and two-thirds of retailers who responded say retail theft appears to be on

the rise. some of the top items stolen include designer clothes, baby formula, razors, designer handbags, none of that, you would find at a home depot but nonetheless, home depot is dealing with its own minor crisis, and so what they're doing is investing in high-tech solutions to this problem. one example they gave on that, in that conference yesterday is that they're trying to make it so that power tools don't work unless you buy it at the store, so a stolen power tool wouldn't operate correctly, and another thing they're doing is taking high value items off displays and just working with law enforcement to try to enforce and catch the people who are doing this. neil? neil: all right, thank you very very much. i want to get the read on this and how big a deal this could be from michael barns. he is the former white house officer policy advisor under president bush 43. i do want to talk to you about separate legislation working its way through the house to curtail runaway drug price inflation but

on this home depot matter that extends to other retailers, some of them share warehouses and the like, how real is that? >> i think it could be realistic. it's something that we hear about in the treatment community where there is information about people for example, stealing laundry detergent for sale on the street to be able to get the funding to support their drug habit associated with the disease of addiction, and so i do think that home depot is right to look at how it protects its own profits but it also really should look at how it can be responsible as a corporation to help reduce the demand for drugs and help people actually number one, prevent illicit and other problematic drug use but then get people into treatment as well. neil: you know, i'll belabor this with one more question. home depot itself said organized criminals are stealing millions of dollars worth of goods and other retailers are feeling the same effect as this crisis escalates. now this is only coming a couple

of weeks after home depot had telegraphed a strong holiday shopping season, a very robust expectation for 2020. what changed? >> i don't know, because that message is conflicting, neil. if you hear about organized criminals those are not people who have the disease of addiction, right? so i don't really get how they're making the hypothesis about the overdose crisis impacting theft and therefore, their profits, if they're also saying that it's related to organized crime, so i think they need to get their facts straight first of all, and this might be perhaps an excuse for their profit outlook being grimmer than expected. neil: meanwhile switching to what the house wants to do to lower drug prices there's some things you like in that, others you don't. i think they're trying to say that whatever the inflation rate is, companies, drug manufactures couldn't go beyond that in a given year. that strikes some as big brother interference, but what do you think? >> i do think that price controls are bad, they're

especially bad as it relates to the development of medicines that can treat conditions like alzheimers and cancer and it's not just the pelosi and house democrat bill that actually contains that particular provision of price controls. the senate version that's pushed on a bipartisan basis by senator grassley and widen, that also includes that inflation-based penalty for drug manufactures that raise their prices above the rate of inflation, so that's a price control, but if you look at the house side of their legislation, they go far beyond that, with price controls that actually implement european- style price caps based on those price caps from other countries, and enforce that with the tax of up to 95%. what all this means in any instance is that when companies can't pay for their research and development because they're not able to get the funds back associated with the development of new drugs, the people are not going to get access to innovative medicines and the government between 3 and 30% of

new drugs might not come to the market, if this house version were to be passed, it would be disastrous for americans. neil: do you know the president supports pieces of it, right? >> yes the president supports the senate version, which does include that price gap based on inflation, and so most republicans do not support that but i do think there would be enough republican support combined with democrats in the u.s. senate so they could pass this version which raises the question as to why the democrats wouldn't be willing to take-up this less extreme version of drug pricing legislation instead they went for the really really disastrous consequences version. neil: all right, we'll watch it very closely michael barns thank you and your patience on this latest home depot news. again it's the first time a major fortune 500 company has cited the opioid epidemic as having a direct hit on its sales and its return on investment, which is getting hurt by drug dependencies that are now hitting crisis levels.

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neil: all right, well they say boris johnson rolled the dice by having this big election, remember britain wasn't looking at one until at least next year but he wanted to strengthen the conservative grip on parliament and get a clear majority to force the brexit changes he wants. we'll know after today. i think tomorrow morning some time, ashley webster keeping track of it all in her majesty's kingdom, ashley? ashley: [laughter] hey, neil yes, we will probably know maybe eastern time about 1:00 a.m., long day, long night, but, there's a lot of parallels that can be drawn between what's happening in the uk today with its general election and what's coming up in 2020 in the united states. it is capitalism versus socialism. same story here as it is in the united states. boris johnson conservatives much like the republicans take a look

at their platform if you like. they want to cut taxes, they want to reduce regulations, they are promoting free-trade, big trade deals especially with the united states but other countries around the world and keep government out of the way and empower the individual. now let's take a look at jeremy corbyn's labor party and his policies not unlike the very progressive democrats in the united states. he wants to tax the rich and businesses. he wants to nationalize the utilities. he wants to take government control of gas, electric, water, even the rail lines and boost public spending and he will do that thanks to the rich and businesses and also like to enforce a 32-hour work week. there is a real strong stark contrast, neil, that the outcome of this could be a precursor to what we see in the united states a big win for boris could be a good omen for donald trump.

now i want to flag this if i can , alexandria ocasio-cortez, a oc also weighing in on the uk election and she commented on a video put out criticizing boris johnson and she said in this tweet, this video is about the uk, but it might as well have been produced about the united states. the holding of wealth by the few is coming at the cost of people 's lives. the only way we change is with a massive surge of new voters at the polls. uk vote. i'm not sure her message was heard by too many here, probably many have never heard of her, but the contrast, neil to get back to that point, are very very similar. it will be have interesting to see how this plays out. if you believe the polls, boris johnson will indeed win and get the majority he needs, but do you know what? you have to vote and count them all up before we can say that with any certainty. neil: all right my friend thank you, great reporting as always. ashley i will never get any sleep webster from london.

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neil: all right, this was the thing that got everyone talking in the market suddenly surging close to 300 points that is the dow, all three averages were briefly at record territory, on optimism that the united states was dropping its plans to impose tariffs or at least drastically cut them on better than $350 billion worth of chinese goods in this country and then separately another $160 billion worth of goods that will see big tariff hikes on december 15 that might not come to pass and now we're getting word from texas senator right now that that trade representative lighthizer told him that an announcement could be possibly imminent regarding u.s. tariffs on china. that doesn't mean a deal is scored with china. just means that the imposition of tariffs will be put off. again, what's involved here is making sure the chinese make commitments that they are not just saying they will be doing this but will have a metric to follow the department of agricultural advisor will be

joining me shortly, ahead of that we want to keep you posted on what's happening in the house judiciary committee debating these two impeachment articles ahead of an expected vote but we're already told it's having an impact on another trade situation, the usmca, the new york post editorial board member kelly torrence on how one is effecting the other, kelly jane what do you think? >> yeah, it's interesting democrats are actually complaining that mitch mcconnell is going to wait until after the impeachment trial in the senate to bring the united states mexico canada trade agreement to the senate for ratification but it seems a bit rich to me and that deal was assigned over a year ago, november 2018, and they've had it for a year now, and nancy pelosi had really been stalling, i think, because she didn't want to give donald trump and the republicans a win. my understanding is their poll ing shows they're not doing as well in swing states, democrats as they would like to be and of course this is

something that a lot of people in those states really want to see is some changes to nafta, so -- neil: but why would mcconnell risk angering certainly the president, we're told the president wasn't too keen on this strategy, and sort of just give a bone to nancy pelosi on this? >> i'm going to assume that mitch mcconnell probably made the argument that you want something really good to happen after the impeachment trial. i think donald trump's unlikely to be removed from office. i think the senate is not going to take that step, but you know, it's going to be an ugly scene and have a lot of speeches complaining about the president, and what democrats see as his bad behavior, so how about come out of that and then have a huge win, and in fact it was one of donald trump's biggest campaign promises in 2016 to renegotiate nafta. you'll have that in the voter's minds closer to the election than you will anything that was set in the impeachment trial. neil: maybe you're right.

i just think that it's a risky strategy, but we'll see kelly jane always fun thank you very very much. >> thanks so much, neil. neil: now to the aforementioned department of agricultural, well they're playing russian roulette on trade i guess. >> on kelly's comments on the usmca, i think that it's a good strategy on mitch mcconnell's part. i think he's putting impeachment at the front and center and he says look when you want to try and impeach the president this is what we get done. neil: but you can walk and chew gum at the same time. yes of course you can but he's not going to be out done, so to speak, on no pun intended, have pelosi put a trump card on the table. neil: got it. >> and i think he said you know , we'll get it done. we know it's going to go through the senate so it's going to get done when mcconnell wants it to get done. neil: so let's switch gears to the china thing and the fact that they are going to commit to buying more agricultural goods you know this, far better than i that they are sort of like me with diets. they talk them up but they don't

deliver. >> me too. neil: what do you think of this? >> well look, the markets are on fire today, as you know. i mean they took off this morning even before they opened up the european markets did this aforementioned meeting or the meeting going on with lighthizer and trump, the president's trade reps in d.c. right now has been harolded all week so this is -- neil: do you know your source i imagine better than mine that something did develop very very quickly because this is the mirror opposite of what we were told just 48 hours ago. >> the fact that senator cornen is interesting an ag state guy came out and said something is imminent, ambassador lighthizer will have an announcement and i think that's significant. neil: what would you like to see >> i would like personal and this is my mr. president, please this is just my own personal opinion, i'd like to see the tariffs frozen for right now, because i think there's still a lot of discussions that have to take place. neil: it looks like that'll

happen. >> and i think if that happens, china will deal. china would deal in good faith. it's again and you and i have had this conversation several times. they need to make a deal. they can't feed their people. forget about all of the intellectual property and technology transfer and all of that. the people need to eat and they can't feed them so they got to buy the stuff somewhere. brazil has a lot so they can plant soybeans, you know, where are the soybeans going to go? brazil. neil: is it your understanding we're going to go back to the levels that we had prior to all of this? it has to be significantly better than that. >> i think it's going to be significantly better. look i said this the other day on a radio show i was on. my mother is an educator so the educational people but the government people live in their own, they don't create profit. they don't create the inertia that fox does, that acorn trader does, you know, we've been led to believe by a lot of

government people that the profit, the word profit is a dirty word. it makes you feel unclean, contrary to popular belief that's how the taxes are paid here in the united states and the state, local and federal tax , so we finally have a salesman for america. trump. you may not like him. you may not buy it, because you buy the brush from somebody else , but he's a great salesman. neil: so you think that some of the things is that beijing would agree to these purchases i guess will provide a means by which we will follow that, that some intellectual property protection and china's financial services sector cannot all be wrapped up? >> we've talked about this too. that's a lot to put a bow on, and i think they may not get all of that but they get something i think right now. neil: well you've been pressed in a lot of these developments. thanks, department of agricultural advisor and again the latest indications are this is coming to us from senators and others who say a deal at

least on the tariff part of this is imminent. we don't know what imminent is, i don't know what soon is but the definition of that is imminent. so in the meantime, why tim cook , of all people, is right now, saying you know, a lot of people pile on us, but some monopolies they're okay, after this. >> ♪ ♪

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neil: all right it's a big shin dig for oracle holding its annual conference whatever you want to call it in san francisco , apparently the homeless situation there is so out of control, that oracle has decided to look for let's say safer locations, deirdre bolton with the details. >> hey, neil $64 million is the amount the city of san francisco

may miss if you like by one of the biggest tech events leaving that city and going to las vegas so caesar's forum won this three -year contract from oracle for its event, the open world conference. it's a big loss for san francisco, as we mentioned that $64 million number that is not negligible and some to your point, neil are questioning whether san francisco can hold on to big events the city has high hotel costs high rates of homelessness, open drug use and occasional violence in the streets. now the ceo of the hotel council of san francisco says that "a major conference leaving town effects all the hotels, all the related businesses, even in the best of conditions san francisco traffic is congested" this event pulled in more than 60,000 people for four days. one consultant said that conference just got too big, and the shoe didn't fit any more. now, las vegas does have some advantages, cheaper hotels certainly one.

if you look at the average daily room rate in las vegas it's $129 so that's almost half of san francisco's average, which is $255. on the downside though for las vegas, some companies they've moved events there and then later they choose other cities, because they didn't think there was a matching tone between their business gathering and gambling. oracle did send us a statement, we'll just flash it quickly on the screen for you, neil. oracle excited to offer ad month earn state-of-the-art experience , and basically it goes on to say we're not leaving san francisco altogether, just for this particular one event. neil back to you. neil: you know, vegas has the far better breakfast buffets, i'm just saying, i'm throwing it out there. >> on the neil cavuto index, the most important. neil: all right, thank you very very much. >> thanks. neil: deirdre bolton on all of that. tim cook is defending his company and of course a lot is at stake with this ongoing china tariff situation which could

dramatically lift the price of the iphones. charlie gasparino on that and a lot more. good to see you buddy. charlie: thanks for having me it's kind of interesting because this is the latest rift you've seen between silicon valley leadership. not necessarily the workers but the leadership and the democratic party. you saw what bill gates when he started talking about when he was questioning about wealth taxes, and some of the plans that the progressives that control the party right now, the elizabeth warrens. neil: okay if they double the taxes but not all of it. charlie: when you start getting to that level then i start doing the math. he's not the only one. tim cook has been actually out there more about critiquing, not saying where he's going but critiquing some of the far left impulses of the part. now you remember, elizabeth warren has a plan right now, that says basically, apple might have to break up, i mean, facebook might have to break up. he just wants to unwind these companies and thinks they're too big. she's not the only one. i think among the progressives,

that's the bernie sanders types and maybe even others and the second tier progressives, that's kind of the right of passage that big companies need to be broken up. silicon valley leadership is getting scared and tim cook that's why you hear him on trade issues, on size of companies, finally more and more like an official from the doj, the trump doj. neil: good at math, right? charlie: the about i trump doj, he's very good at math and here is what i'll tell you rank-and-file yes they give a lot of money to the democrats. look at the contributions i've been doing some of that from big tech gives a lot, they have been giving a lot of money to republicans. it is not like, they're not like the left wingers as they were in the past. they loved barack obama. they are worried about elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, and all the rest of them that are that far left. neil: got it. thank you my friend, charlie gasparino.

well forget about robert deniro not getting a golden globe nod. how is it possible for the irish men jonathan morris messed out on that i'll talk to him. you are the one... nothing shines brighter than you. you are my rock... nothing is stronger than you. you are one-of-a-kind. i love every facet of you. you are my diamond. for the diamond in your life, there's only one diamond store. zales. it's the "you are my diamond" event. get 30 % off everything including these one of a kind deals. exclusively at zales, the diamond store including these one of a kind deals. most people think as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity.

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some people say that's ridiculous. i dress how i feel.

yesterday i felt bold with boundless energy. this morning i woke up calm and unbreakable. tomorrow? who knows. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. make the world you want. neil: all right, well, now we're told it's using some of the donations meant for the poor to address the budget deficit. i don't know if there's anything , you know, illegal if you can say that in terms of the vatican. i do know that this fellow would know, jonathan morris, of course just coming back from the fame of the irishmen. you've got to see the movie if for no other reason than jonathan morris, and of course, the jump ball but anyway, very good to see you my friend.

>> thank you. neil: first of all the vatican. can they do this? >> yeah, so this reporting that was done by the wall street journal, excellent reporting from what i can tell. he says that a worldwide charitable collection that is given then to the holy father to the hope at his discretion to be used, and it says it very clearly in all of the paperwork, he can use it as his discretion but it's advertised, really, as a way for him to give money, from the vatican, from the catholic church to areas most in need especially when there's a tragedy like a hurricane or something else. neil: and the people that donate to that have no idea that in this case it's actually not going to that but to help the vatican with its debt. >> well to be fair, if somebody were to dig deep and to ask those questions, where does all the money go they would have found that yes, two-thirds of the money was actually going to operations at the vatican, and

only 10% at least based on this reporting, this last year, was going towards the poor, so it was transparent if you dug but the question is the average person in the pew, when this collection was made in june, are they made aware that a lot of this money is going? neil: obviously they aren't aware because this is like a big news item, should the pope explain it more? >> yes. neil: but he's not. >> we'll see if he does after watching neil cavuto. neil: okay, i'm sure that'll do it. i want to switch gears a little bit here because when you were a priest, you submitted your intent and you had to get the pope to approve it, right? >> yes. and i've requested voluntarily requested permission to be relieved of my duties as a priest. neil: and how long were they weighing that, the appropriate? >> it was very very fast actually about three months from when i asked and so i'm grateful

neil: and i haven't had a chance to talk to you since this big decision, but i'm curious. >> oh, yeah i made it very public that my decision was because i struggled for a long time in the priestlewd with obligations and wanting to be able to marry and have a family some day, if god blesses me with that. i think that i need to take this question very seriously. neil: in some remote regions of the world do you think they should? >> i do. neil: when you were doing the irishmen, i don't want to give it away but you had a very prominent role in that, i loved it. you were fantastic by the way, but were you a priest then? >> i was a priest then. neil: you played a priest in the movie. >> i play a priest. and to robert deniro's credit, they took, they interviewed a whole bunch of people, professional actors and a few priests and they were trying to get it right. neil: you said you don't have it right. >> i said you don't have it

right. i said this is not how i would do it and they said well how would you do it? how would you counsel somebody whose going through, this man, here playing the irishman in this film he had lived a life of violence, and at the end of his life he was an old man. neil: you were not letting him off. i think that we have a clip of the movie featuring jonathan morris but take a quick peak at this. >> okay. neil: it's frozen. this is god's way of saying you shouldn't have left so soon. >> [laughter] i can play the part right now if you'd like. neil: you were terrific and i'm not just blowing vatican smoke. >> thank you. neil: but do you think when you were sitting face to face in this picture and all of a sudden you're advising a gangster, did a lot of horrible things, it looked like you were kind of winging stuff and he was winging

responses. >> you know, it was all about as i tried to put it, at the end of someone's life who i think for all of us, but in his was kind of an extreme case of how do you get to the point of perfect contrition for sins for our past and he was saying to me i don't feel anything. i don't feel anything, and then he would show signs that the fact that i'm talking to you right now is already kind of maybe that's enough, and you know? neil: right, it was almost like he was reaching out and i don't want to get into the weeds or rob people of seeing this movie but his guilt is over the years, his children not talking to him and all but i think we have this bite now jonathan but this is from the irishman, take a look. >> i'm going to be back to visit. >> okay, very soon. >> after the christmas holiday. >> okay. >> god bless you. >> you too, thank you. neil: so you revisit him, you keep seeing. it got me wondering.

does god forgive even the most reprehensible figures? he's not going to heaven is he? >> thank god i'm not god, right but i think that's the difference between the human heart and the heart of god, that god's heart is open to forgiveness of all of us. neil: you were saying all right you'll go to heaven. you're just listening, and he wanted to talk but he couldn't reveal too much. >> yeah, it was what we talked about was one thing is our feelings. do i feel sorry and another thing is making the decision of the will and this is what i tried to work with him on, like a decision to reject evil, and to accept good, and feelings follow the will, so sometimes we don't feel sorrow sorrowful but we can be sorry. neil: i don't know what's more outrageous, jonathan, that you didn't get a golden globe nomination but i don't know which. >> the oscars are still coming. neil: [laughter]

it's an all-star cast and jonathan r month us, key among them, it'll make you actually cry too a little more after this

neil: all right. they are taking a break in the house judiciary impeachment markup meeting that could go on pretty much all day here. two counts they're looking at here but the two sides are far apart on this. this is going along partisan lines. i would like to contrast that with what's happening at the corner of wall and broad. we are up about 117 points on the dow, having nothing to do with impeachment. at least for those who trade stocks, it's a non-event. they are much more focused on issues of trade like china and promising developments, we're told, that could have the president holding off tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of chinese goods coming into this country. now, the cynic would look at that and say interesting timing,

all of that on the same day they are drawing up articles of impeachment. that would be me. anyway, it is what it is. the hope is that something happens and gels pretty soon, at least on the tariff part. li lifting or push back tariffs isn't the same as a deal but any progress or lack thereof on trade, stocks soar when it looks like progress is being made, tumble when they don't. remember not that long ago when the president said you know, we might not get a deal until after next year's election, stocks were tanking on that. even pushing back tariffs was enough to get a rally going here. all three averages were in record territory briefly. all three are just under it right now. we are following it closely with mike murphy, jessica tarlov and john thomas. john, i was mentioning ending with you, beginning with you, that it's really the impeachment

stuffs is a non-event because they think it will go no further than the house, then you know, given the makeup of the senate, it's done. so that's not rattling. is this a wise course for them to go? >> for the democrats to continue to move down for impeachment? look, we are seeing today that mitch mcconnell is signaling that he has the votes not just to move on but actually vote on an acquittal for the president because he wants to give the president that narrative. not just that he wasn't removed but that he was exonerated. that he was vindicated against this witch hunt. neil: are you annoyed mitch mcconnell by the same token is going to push off any action on usmca until this? that's the one thing they said nancy pelosi was dragging her feet. >> i actually am. this is something that republicans have been begging to pass for some time, and then when you finally had nancy pelosi break and say she'll vote for something, and the real reason is, there was a string of

polls that came out last week that showed that trump is winning in a lot of battleground states and that voters are not -- they want congress to focus on issues they care about. neil: the majority there said enough with the impeachment. >> they want congress to get things done, especially on the economy. mcconnell should take advantage of that. not play politics. neil: jessica? >> i think the polls definitely matter, especially the marquette poll out of wisconsin that showed a 22 point swing against impeachment amongst independents. we know that democrats need to pick up those states that handed president trump the 2016 election. what i think nancy pelosi was paying attention to is what was actually going into, we heard from chairman grassley talking about how much compromise had been made if that bill. democrats got a lot of the things they wanted in terms of negotiations on prices, steel prices and things like that. she was also paying attention to someone like richard trumpka, i was paying attention to his

twitter feed after she siaid sh would sign it. democrats know they need union votes to pull this off. neil: afl-cio. >> yes, sorry, i should have specified that. that matters a lot. unions are backing this. we know the core constituent whconstituents for the 2020 election. usmca is better than nafta, and they serve the constitution and citizens. that's why we can impeach and do usmca at the same time. neil: didn't look like that. one thing, i don't believe in coincidences. sometimes i do. i always thought the timing of her remarks a couple days ago on usmca on the very same day we are formalizing articles of impeachment is no more coincidence than this action today on the part of we are lifting tariffs when they are finalizing the same impeachment issues. it's just weird. >> it's a lot of politics, in my

opinion, and i guess what's good for one side is good for the other side so they will try to one-up each other. what i don't like about it, it seems like we have a sitting president right now and he's fighting all different angles as if it were an election currently but less is getting done for the american people, because the president is fighting on all different fronts. i think he's elected now. you want to fight over the upcoming election, let's fight over it. i'm all for that. right now, we should get back to running the country. neil: i'm wondering if maybe they will try and do that, work on getting progress on the trade front or at least move the ball forward there to show that we can, both sides walk and chew gum at the same time. and that this in an odd way will push that. what do you think? >> i hope that's the case. i'm not as optimistic, perhaps, as you are on this. neil: i didn't say i was optimistic. >> fair enough. i'm not optimistic on that point. i think usmca, to jessica's

point, is a win for both sides now and the pressure the democrats are feeling because look, every side is always thinking about the re-election. whether it's trump getting re-elected or their own hides, getting re-elected. here's how i think the force working against the democrats doing something is that trump will claim the biggest win of them all, and i think the democrats have been so focused on wanting to drive this impeachment narrative and not give the president an inch of a win. there is conflicting forces here. >> there is the little sticky fact that democrats have passed over 300 bills that are sitting on mitch mcconnell's desk waiting for him to deign to consider them. hr-3, prescription drug pricing bill, in honor of elijah cummin cummings. >> they know they are going to pass. >> that doesn't matter. what matters is they are putting forward legislation that benefits americans. they spent time and energy on this and republicans run around saying you are not doing anything, the do-nothing

democrats. i heard more about that in the impeachment hearing from certain members of the republican caucus than about -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> the final markup wasn't ready. that was a gop talking point. neil: democrats, say what you will, proposed a lot of things that kicked it over to the senate, a lot of that stuff sits and stews, i get it, they are worried it looks that way to a lot of voters so they said we better move fast on this. >> i think republicans are incredibly effective messengers about things like that and the economic numbers are in support of their argument. president trump is doing well, that's the one issue actually where he is over the 50% threshold in terms of managing it. neil: good area to be doing well. >> absolutely. people vote their pocketbooks. if we are being realistic, it's hard to unseat a sitting president. that doesn't happen too often. if the economics are going in his direction, democrats certainly need to get on board -- neil: you giving up on the election? you think it's his? >> yes.

get my tag hat out of the closet or whatever it is. we have to be honest about the indicators and democrats need to do things like the usmca to say we are out here fighting for your economic futures as well, plus we can do health care, sensible immigration reform, things that republicans really let fall by the wayside. neil: what i can't understand is this pavlovian response to trade. we were talking about companies and robust earnings, regulatory relief, lower taxes, you know, we talk a good deal about the strength of consumers, something else you were on very early, i remember we had a blip in retail sales and everyone was saying that's it, the consumer's done, so why rely on just trade to dictate your move because it does. >> it really does. the initial reaction, you saw this morning we were up over 300 points as headlines came across. a lot of that is algorithms just searching headlines, looking for something that says trade deal and so then they are saying buy. the buy orders come.

then you see it settle in. those initial reactions to headlines, anyone at home trying to trade off headlines, probably a bad idea. neil: surely they must know, the president saying we aren't going to have a deal until after the elections next year, he does it again to sort of say i'm very optimistic, why do they continue this abusive relationship with trade and the president? >> i think if you look at the market we are at all-time highs. neil: i understand that. but it's all based, good or ill, on whatever he's tweeting. >> i would argue the initial movements are based on the headlines but you have to have some real underlying strength to support the market. neil: we don't get these tariffs pushed back, what the market gives, it can take away. >> remember last february we were here talking about a deadline in february and oh, my god, what if we don't get it done by that deadline, this whole nine-year bull market could really be thrown off track. neil: don't you think he's

playing us like a puppeteer? >> you think he has a plan? oh, you mean his hands are flying around? i'm with you on that. neil: don't you get uncomfortable about that? why are we being used. i'm not saying it to be disparaging. it's a little too orchestrated. >> i would say it differently, that he's pulling the strings instead of having his strings pulled. i think the proof is in the pudding. neil: gepetto did that. >> you can't orchestrate the economic numbers. you can't make up the jobs numbers. neil: that's fine. go with that stuff. this other stuff, oh, he might have a deal, might not have a deal, it's a little weird. >> the usmca is actually more important to the underlying story than the china deal. neil: i would agree with that. i would agree with that. >> he also has some wiggle room because the underlying economic numbers are so good right now. if those start to soften, then i think the voters and the markets hold him more accountable for toying with us as it relates to a deal with china. neil: but if you were a trader,

would you base buying or selling on whatever the white house statement is on china? >> no. absolutely not. just given the fact that -- look, i think there is probably some truth to the white house statement. they probably have a couple good hours and they are optimistic. quick, go put out the tweet. then it goes to nothing. so if i were a trader, look, if i were a trader you also don't want to be the last guy out so there's pressure on both sides. >> it is incredibly risky, this kind of approach to tariffs could backfire. if you do have a strong economy, which he does at this moment, and you have had in the past just a few months ago, the head of the remain farmers union fro saying this is terrible, what's going on with these tariffs, over $100 billion worth of goods that could get a tariff slapped on, on sunday. you are just coming off this jobs report. why wouldn't you say we are holding off no matter what? you are facing impeachment and you have strong numbers. >> it's incredibly risky but if it works, it will be the hugest

win. neil: i like that. we will take a quick break. also, walmart under some pressure over this controversial sweater that's now getting a chance on amazon. did anyone check the puppy out beforehand? just asking. after this. woman: friction points, those obstacles that limit a company's growth. i try to find companies that turn these challenges into opportunities. but by going out in the field, and meeting management, suppliers, competitors. in the end, it's these unique companies with creative business models that will generate value for our investors. that's why i go beyond the numbers.

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neil: all right. amazon, in a little bit of trouble here on concerns after hackers somehow managed to get ahold of a camera in a kid's bedroom and actually talked to the child, the young girl, i'm told. mike, this is weird but again, it reminds people about technology and how far it can go. >> very weird, very scary, but you're right, the knock on these things all the time, the cameras

and speakers in our homes, was that although they offer convenience, there's also risk, who's watching you, when can someone be watching or listening to you. you know, i always say that if you have nothing to hide, someone can listen to, when it's your ipad computer people can listen to but when you start talking about 8-year-old kids, that's different. neil: keep my kids out of it. >> we had to worry about the deep state, big business -- >> you didn't actually have to worry about the deep state. >> now pedophiles. not only was the guy talking to the 8-year-old child, he was playing christmas music to like lure the child. it's just a bizarre thing. >> i'm not sure he's a pedoph e pedophile. neil: it does raise a lot of concerns -- >> first thing i thought, oh, great, every pedophile in america will see this and get an idea. neil: what do you think? >> i have always been very uncomfortable with home tech. i don't have any, my cell phone comes with me everywhere and i'm acutely aware of how often siri

just comes on magically because she thinks i've asked her something. but i have never wanted alexa or any of that because it does concern me and it's not like, if you have nothing to hide, that that's the issue. cameras are picking stuff up, you are doing things in your home all the time. it's not wrong but it's certainly private. i don't have any children. this is hugely concerning, though. neil: there have been other stories. >> absolutely. and the data breaches from this. they are recording everything that's going on on your computers, picking up all of it. this is how a lot of the credit card fraud happens. neil: you're right. this is something that has bipartisan rage. this is something that will get a lot of bipartisan rage as well. this santa cocaine sweater, bestseller on amazon after being pulled from walmart. again, again. >> again. yeah. i don't know. with technology, though, you have access to things like this and you have stories around it and things go viral and everyone

wants one. i'm dealing with my 16-year-old daughter today who wants to go to a concert that i'm not in favor of. you know, again -- neil: teenaged, you say dad's coming, too. what do you think of that? >> i'm actually tired of the political correctness from our retailers. ts li it's like i grew up, my family didn't drink, didn't want me to drink, but they didn't say the local stores couldn't sell alcohol. just don't buy it. i went on walmart.com before this hit. they are selling a beanie that says marijuana in giant bold text with a big marijuana leaf. so that's okay. but a snowman that obviously is referring to drug use, but -- neil: i would not have picked up on it, seriously. >> i wouldn't have, either. neil: now they look like lines of coke, but what's interesti , interesting -- >> there's profit to be made. >> i'm not sure this is as universally detestable as it was made out to be.

by the people who were so upset with walmart doing this. amazon is supposed to be the marketplace, right, for everything. i don't really see a problem with it. i was thinking about it, you know, mitch mcconnell who got called cocaine mitch actually fund-raised off of that and had tee shirts that say cocaine mitch. it seems a little extreme. neil: what did that mean when they called him that? >> it was a political rival attack ad that they dubbed him cocaine mitch for a debunked story about -- involving drugs -- >> but he leaned into it is the point. neil: i got it. okay. understood. don't go too far. they will be coming back. right now, the dow trying to revisit those highs now, about 143 point advance. ten dow stocks, whittled down to five, still down, under a good deal of selling pressure is home depot. of course, it has its own drug-related issues that have

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neil: all right. what happens in washington state doesn't necessarily stay in washington state, and for renters and landlords, it's big. very, very big. fox news correspondent dan springer to tell us what it's all about in seattle. hey, dan. reporter: yeah, hey, neil. this could end up being a case of be careful what you wish for. tenant groups say this first in time or f.i.t. law will level the playing field and wipe out property owners' bias in the rental market but landlords argue it violates their century-old right to lease to the person of their choice. in overturning a lower court ruling, the washington state supreme court said quote, the f.i.t. rule is unquestionably an experiment but it's one the court said is constitutional and does not amount to a government taking of private property. the law requires landlords to post all the criteria renters have to meet, then they must

lease to the first applicant who qualifies. supporters say this will end unconscious bias that frequently hurts minorities and people with disabilities. >> even without consciously choosing to favor like one group or another, like we know that that favoritism still happens and is still pervasive throughout society. reporter: but landlords and property rights advocates point out that anti-discrimination laws are already on the books and being enforced, and this law takes away the ability to choose the most qualified tenant and the one who will be the best fit with neighbors. but here's the catch. the law may backfire because landlords are simply raising the minimum requirements. before they simply put out a single page of criteria. now many landlords post four pages of criteria, among the new requirements, income has to be three times rent, credit reports can't show late payments, and any negative comment from a past landlord is grounds for denial. many smaller landlords are selling their seattle properties.

>> it's chasing people like us away who really have a tie to the property and want to be part of the community. reporter: and seattle may go even further. an ordinance was just introduced that would prevent any evictions over five months of winter, no matter what hardship that created for the property owner who has to pay the mortgage. neil, i'm talking to these landlords. they are saying they are selling to private investment firms, big firms, and what they are doing is the first thing, raising rents. neil: thank you very, very much, my friend. keep us posted on where this goes. dan springer. in the meantime, we told you about what's been guiding these markets northward today. a lot more earlier today. this idea that the president is very close to pushing back, if not eliminating tariffs, many of which were to go into effect 12:01 a.m. sunday morning on the 15th. now it looks like the president is going to be holding a meeting with key advisers, presumably trade advisers, at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, about an hour from now. more after this. i'm your mother in law.

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neil: all right. we're told the president is going to be meeting with key advisers on china trade about an hour from now. what do farmers make of the idea that we could be inching closer to at least a pushback on tariffs that were to go into effect in just a matter of a couple of days? kristina partsinevelos has been talking to a whole bunch of them in omaha. kristina? reporter: exactly, which is why

i've got jay hill here. you are a first generation farmer. let's start a walk and talk. 35 years old. you have a diversified farm, just on the border, but neil just brought up china trade deal and how we are inching closer, yet seems like it's a story we have been hearing quite often. how does that make you feel given you are so involved with this and it affects you directly? >> i think the biggest thing we have to look at is what is our long-term objective. if we are going to have one country that's going to be able to strangle the way we operate as a farm or as agricultural nation, the biggest thing we have to do is plan for 2030, plan for 2040. even though we know we are going to come to some kind of agreement, the biggest thing we can look at is what's our future play. we are trying to build industries that's not going to let us necessarily be strangled by one country. reporter: how do you feel? >> like you are in a ping-pong match. it's a back-and-forth. at the same time it's going to make us as farmers, it will make us sharper as we go forward in this industry to make sure we are doing something that's not

just going to strangle us by one entity out there. reporter: sticking with theme, we have over $22 billion of federal funding coming in including subsidies. you aren't taking any subsidies, right, but you had talked about, this is off camera, the effects of extreme weather and how nobody is really talking about that on a larger scale and how that affects your farm. >> yeah. there's a lot of people that have a lot of different ideas when it comes to climate change. the biggest thing we want to do in agriculture is not only make sure we are viable as an operation but, two, we want to make sure we are taking care of the things that feed and clothe the rest of the world. when it comes to climate change, it's another thing like the china tariff war, we need to plan for the future. as we look at what we need to do and adapt to make sure we are actually sequestering carbon, doing things that are climate friendly, we will put it into our playing cards. we don't want to have the rules written against us. we want to be the people that are on the innovative side, on the front line that's actually going to write the regulation that helps not only agriculture but everyone that uses it.

reporter: i will throw it back but just on that topic really quickly, are you getting pushback when you bring that up, there should be a bigger focus on extreme weather? >> i think that's why we're here. agriculture reunifying ourselves and trying to understand what direction we want to head as producers. reporter: there you have it. that was a really good way to end it. we will be here all day talking to farmers. lots of really important topics to cover, especially with trade being so topical today and affecting so many farmers. you are right on the border, too. neil? neil: my thanks to jay, kristina, thank you very much. the read on this imminent deal or maybe pushback tariffs from indiana republican senator mike braun, a big agriculture state. senator, what have you heard on this? >> first of all, i want to shout out to that farmer. we need many people like him here in the senate, when he's talking about climate 10 to 20 years down the road, talking about thinking ahead on new markets. that's refreshing. what i heard on the chinese

thing is that lighthizer is in there right now in our senate luncheon so he didn't talk about that yet. neil: our trade representative robert lighthizer. go ahead, sir, i'm sorry. >> exactly. when it comes to china, i think they will do the two-step right into the 2020 election. they are playing the long game, great patience, great endurance. they've got some problems in their own economy. so i think they will probably come our way, when it may mean deferring these tariffs, might be buying more agricultural products but i wouldn't trust them. because i think until 2020, november, we can't really tell what they are going to do. that's my take. neil: so you would be for some mechanism that can monitor whether they are keeping their word, whether you check it every month or quarter, i don't know what the plans are, right? >> yes. verify. i don't even trust. i just say verify, because if we don't do that, we are giving them all the benefit of the doubt and their behavior over

the last decade, especially recently, would say be careful. neil: yeah. you know, senator, mitch mcconnell has said that if indeed the president is impeached in the house and it comes to the senate for a trial, he's clearing the calendar so they can focus on that. even the usmca thing, the trade accord between ourselves and the canadians and mexicans, you think that's a good idea? would he be feeding the narrative the democrats say it's republicans who can't walk and chew gum at the same time? >> that's a faux argument. we have been waiting six to nine months and now when you are dropping impeachment on the doorstep, i don't think that's bona fide. i do not think impeachment will take as long as many think, because i don't think we are going to get any new information. this will be the fourth rendition from the behind closed doors to the public hearings to the congressional experts, and i see republicans in the senate

having more solidarity than they did a month ago. so we will get to the usmca and sadly, we are doing it now because i think pelosi is running to political issues where it looks like impeachment is falling flat, especially in the swing states. that's the nature of the beast of my new job now. so many times we do things when it's based on the wrong reason. neil: do you worry we are getting caught up in impeachment, even the senate, even if it's quick, a lot of things could suffer in the meantime. we could have a shutdown, could have a budget that isn't ultimately approved. i know you have separate concerns about this one, even a defense measure you say we can't afford. what do you think? >> we can't afford what we are doing in defense, and i think defense is the most important thing the federal government does. maybe along with infrastructure and our safety net programs that are going to pot as well. but i don't think this amount of time delay, there had been some of it off for christmas anyway, i think we have learned how to work with some dispatch on

things that we know will be signed by the president. usmca's a big winner. i'm disappointed with a few of my colleagues that don't like the part on biologics and biosimilars. that's defending a broken health care industry so that's misguided. it's going to pass with ease and i don't think we are going to linger long in the senate on impeachment. so i'm okay with that. all i'm saying is finally, pelosi was playing footsie with it for the last six months. neil: senator, always good catching up with you. thank you for taking the time. >> good to be on. neil: in the meantime, you don't hear this out of a company, saying it might miss some sales and earnings estimates, not because of something that it did wrong or the consumer is all of a sudden slowing down but the opioid crisis. we will connect the dots for you after this.

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done in washington, despite the back-and-forth on this. house expected to vote a little later on on curbing prescription drug prices. the two parties are far apart on this particular issue, not surprisingly. hillary vaughn has the latest. reporter: hi, neil. two senate leadership sources tell me this bill is dead on arrival, if it passes the house and heads to senate, which means it's not going to become law. speaker nancy pelosi says today if republicans in the senate don't back this bill, she thinks it will blow back on them. >> i think that it is going to be too hot to handle for the republicans not to -- reporter: pelosi's bill would allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices which senate republicans have criticized as socialist price controls, putting the government in charge of negotiating drug prices directly with drug makers. the secretary of health and human services under this bill would be required to argue down prices for at least 12 drugs a year. the bill also puts a limit on

out-of-pocket drug costs for medicare enrollees, capping it at $2,000 a year, and leaves drug companies and the government to pick up the rest of the bill. the congressional budget office predicts pelosi's plan could curb medicare costs by $345 billion over ten years, but it doesn't save anything if the bill doesn't become law. the senate also has their own plan to lower costs of prescription drugs, but that has not been evaluated by the cbo. neil? neil: thank you very, very much. meantime, home depot is still raising eyebrows and generating heat over its argument it might miss some numbers, having nothing to do with a bad job but the opioid crisis and a lot of people dependent on those drugs stealing everything they can get their hands on. it's not that simple but it is a mess. back with me, mike murphy, jessica tarlovand john thomas. mike, it wasn't too long ago that home depot was telegraphing strong sales, a good christmas season, a good 2020. what happened? >> i think some execution problems for the company, but i

think one thing when you look at home depot, they are not being disrupted by amazon which was a concern at some point. i look at home depot as one of those rare companies that any sort of weakness or any sort of quarterly hiccup that gives you a pullback in the stock is an opportunity because there's nobody out there, it's them and lowe's and nobody -- neil: were you surprised they cited this as the latest hiccup? >> yes. i didn't see that coming. but you know, that's one thing i don't like, when management places blame elsewhere on something externally, because there's always something, if you wanted to place the blame on something, there's always something out there. they need to deal with the security in their stores better, then. neil: yeah. apparently they said they were caught off-guard themselves, it was a much bigger crisis than they thought. some of these companies, i guess they share warehouses and this is a problem apart from home depot. what do you think? >> it's also easier to sell stolen items with the internet nowadays. if you steal a power tool, it's easier to ditch it online, sell it on ebay and others.

but look, the company needs to get their stuff in check. shrinkage is nothing new to any retailer of any stripe. now, thinking about the times that i have recently been to home depot, and it is a larger -- it's not as controlled at entry and exit as an abercrombie or even a target, so i can see how it's easier, but the articles i have read said they should nip it in the bud with new security measures like power tools that won't be able to turn on without certain unlocking mechanisms but to shift blame on people's drug problems seems a little thin. neil: well, it's this dependency that republicans and democrats have been bemoaning, there was a white house conference on this in early days. i thought we were getting ahead of this but we're not. >> i think we are getting ahead of it insofar as there are very few things democrats and republicans will openly say they are both concerned with and

opioid continues to be that. obviously new hampshire is the number one most affected state for this followed by kentucky. it is a huge crisis. the ceo of home depot did say we think it could be this, we're not completely sure, and when i was digging into the numbers, we lose $51 billion in goods annually because of this problem so i don't think it's fair obviously to attribute it to -- neil: how does it happen, that it's sold in the open market to feed the habit? >> or organized. they were saying it's actually, you don't think of gangs typically being people you would identify as opioid users. this is actually organized crime employing people or paying them off with the goods, however it works, for people who are addicted to opioids. >> i would argue, look, the president's agenda of securing the border would reduce some of the opioid crisis but also a lot of these drugs are being mailed and delivered by u.s. postal service. that's how it's happening. so the feds i think can get

involved and update their tactics to reduce the effect of the opioid crisis. >> we also still have an overprescription problem. with all this conversation about hr-30, the democrats' prescription pill proposal hillary vaughn was speaking about, we need to continually be looking at what medication is being doled out and for how long. when people are getting free reins to have a prescription for 10, 20 years and aren't getting rehabilitation at the same time, we know these are highly addict difference dru addictive drugs. there is a big problem in the system with doctors sending people away with a prescription instead of real treatment. >> great setup. he takes it to the republicans, she takes it to the democrats. i will bring it back to the markets and say now that -- >> well a well-organized panel. >> now that we are addressing it, the drug addiction problem has been bad for everyone in the country. to address it and get it straightened out. neil: i would like to switch gears. elizabeth warren and her plans apparently are not adding up.

>> shocking. neil: she way, way understated or overstated the impact from this, the money that would be raised. this is a moving target, i know, when you get into the trillions, it's big. what did you think? >> we had this with her medicare for all plan as well that cuts out private insurers. elizabeth warren is really suffering right now in the national polls and state by state polls and one of the things that people identify is first and foremost, the health care bill. people don't want to give up their obamacare. they want a good public option. as an alternative. which is why joe biden was doing so well there. i do not understand, it is so obviously not a winner, especially when we were talking in the first segment about the need for union support. the unions are completely opposed to this. they fought very very hard for their high quality health care. there's a new gallop poll that says 8 in 10 americans are happy with their health care. if you want to come into an

election saying we will give you medicare for all and on top of that, your private health insurance is going, you will have a problem. on the wealth tax, democrats don't even like it. if you listened two debates ago, joe biden went at her hard about that saying this is not how we will meet our goals. when the numbers don't add up and people are looking for a moderate, and someone who is quote, electable, i think you are in trouble. >> here's the problem, when you run as the i've got a plan candidate, people might actually look at the consequences of your plan. and the numbers don't add up. neil: she had a plan but didn't have the numbers to back it up. >> the numbers don't add up and here's the consequence that regular voters will understand. when there's that -- neil: that's not being off by a little bit. >> this is not a rounding error. what's going to happen is, if she were to become president, if her plans were to get implemented, where do they find that shortfall of money? oh, it's not just the 1% of the rich that can front that deficit. it comes from regular middle class folks. so her only way out of this hole is to jack up taxes on everybody. neil: that's kind of what bernie sanders, say what you will of

him, has been very consistent saying the middle class will be included in these higher taxes but they will get far more in higher taxes -- i'm sorry, in benefits than they will of paying for it. >> if i was talking to the democratic candidates, i think people feel a lot better now about their jobs, they feel better about the wages they are earning right now, so whether they are blue or red, republican or democrat, people want more money in their pocket. i think that has to be part of your message. neil: everything comes back to money. >> i'll take money from any billionaire out there that wants to give it to me, but at the end of the day, people want to keep more money in their own pockets. once people start reaching into your pockets, i think voters will go elsewhere. >> there is also something very clearly happening in the division between bernie sanders and elizabeth warren here. as bernie explains, as often as he can, i wrote the damn bill. he has been -- he has some great debate lines. the fact about not being high at that moment when cory booker said that. bernie sanders is now being

looked at as in second place behind joe biden in national polls and in second place in a lot of the early states. >> you left hillary out. isn't she at the top? >> she would go to the top. i'm probably the only hillary fan at this table. neil: sorry to jump on you there. the dow up about 121 points. we are waiting to hear, the president will meet with key advisers on china and the trade situation, and whether he's going to push back tariffs. doesn't mean the trade deal is imminent but at least pushing back the tariffs, something wall street wanted to see. they are making more money on just the talk of that. more after this. you are the one... nothing shines brighter than you. you are my rock... nothing is stronger than you. you are one-of-a-kind. i love every facet of you.

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>> see that smile on your face and give. come on, give me a little smile, now. there we go. neil: you know, it's kind of hard to get to santa these days between everyone busy at home and going in different directions. what if you could just hook up with a virtual santa? we wihave talk to santa co-founr with us. how does this work? >> so it's all done with the magic of santa. we have a network of several hundred santas that have all been through santa training, specialized video training, and have all been through a background check. typically it's the moms and dads, grandparents that sign the children up for this, and what makes it really magical is they fill out this exhaustive questionnaire so instead of santa coming on the screen and simply saying what's your name,

little boy, he comes on with a big hearty ho, ho, ho and knows everything about the child and says neil, i'm so proud of you for those awards and those through-the-roof ratings and winning the spelling bee and the science fair, but have you been cleaning up after that new puppy like you promised your mommy you would? and the children's eyes go wide when they realize santa really does see everything. neil: you know the reaction this gets from traditional -- i caught a "wall street journal" piece that was very flattering, but i think they talked to a lot of older mall santas, 76-year-old, said i don't think i could do it without children in front of me. some santas are simply doing it for the bucks. what do you say? >> well, there are certainly some that are driven by the bucks but i think most people that go into serving as santa claus do it out of just a love for putting a smile on

children's faces. and nowadays, you know, there's less traffic at the shopping malls, i think parents are more concerned about kids picking up a flu or other bug, standing in those crowded lines, and we are able to provide such a more personalized and interactive experience. neil: how much does it cost to do? let's say you want to hook your kid up to have an online chat with santa, what are we talking about? i know it's in tiers but explain. >> it's tip typically $34.95. there are some premium pricing if you want to chat with santa at 7:00 p.m. on christmas eve. obviously there are only so many ways we can make that happen. earlier in the season, we provide all kinds of discounts. we also bring santa to children through some partnerships with corporate sponsors. in the past, one of the big beverage providers has sponsored

video chats for families of active duty military personnel. neil: oh, that's nice. >> where not only does santa come on the screen with the children, but then lo and behold, in another window, there's mom or dad in uniform from afghanistan or some other forward theater. neil: that makes sense. that could be a very different dimension on all this. i wish you well. it's a great idea for a lot of people who can't get out and do that, especially conservative members or those who travel a great deal and aren't able to do it. that's a nice thing. wish you well. merry christmas, my friend. >> merry christmas to you. neil: by the way, it's christmas in the saudi kingdom to the tune of $2 trillion. i will explain after this. and etfs are commission-free.

, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk something up all day long we have been seeing stocks jump time before high about 134 1/2 points on china trade talks very least will the push back

tariffs to go into effect hundreds of billions of dollars we will see what happens for now dow 134 points, s&p, nasdaq within striking distance of record goal again jackie in for charles payne. >> i am jackie for charles payne this is making money, breaking right now. here we go again. the market rallying on reports that the united states is offering to cancel sunday's new chinese tariffs and news of a high stakes meeting being held at the white house in about 30 minutes. plus too little too late democrats pick issues trade prescription drugs is this just smoke and mirrors with impeachment full swing before year's end it is parent's worst nightmare chilling message a hacker sent to little girl, through their home security camera all that and more, on making