tv The Five FOX News August 6, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm PDT
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top-rated provider to do the work on your schedule. the app makes it easy. the power of angie's list makes it work. download snapfix for free. this is the fox news alert. i'm bare baron washington. you're looking live at the state department. we're pre-empting "the five" today as we await a news conference from president obama. he just wrapped up this week's summit with african leaders. the meeting with reporters comes as the president's foreign policy sunday severe strain. the assassination of an american general in afghanistan. ongoing conflict between israel and hamas. russia's actions inside and around ukraine. there's also plenty to talk about, obviously, here at home from the president's latest tumbling poll numbers to immigration, the corporate tax
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dust up, and fears over the outbreak of ebola in africa. let's get a preview now from chieief with white house correspondent ed henry. >> reporter: it's hard to remember a time when a president has been on defense on so many national security issues. any of them could come up as a question today. on top of that the ebola virus which has been getting a lot of attention around the world, it came up here at the african summit that's something he'll be asked about. he wants to reassure americans about. but then you come back here at home and there were some pretty tough medicine in that "wall street journal" members nenbc n. 76% say they don't think, they don't have confidence their kids will have a better life than they do. that's tough stuff for a president who is moving closer to lame duck status and for him
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politically is facing these mid-term elections in a few months where control of the senate which might end up running control of his agenda for his final two years in office is very much up for grabs. the bottom line is the president has been trying to pick-off these issues like minimum wage, immigration reform where he thinks he can put republicans on the defensive. on foreign policy and domestic affairs he's been having difficulty. >> back in july of 2006 president bush in his second term fighting an iraq war that was going south at that time had a 39% approval rating in this very same poll. as the white house looks at these poll numbers, you know, obviously they are trying to get the u.s. economic picture out there, the out and about, and the dichotomy between these numbers and what they are talking about on the stump is dramatic. >> you make an important point. george w. bush 39%. look at the nbc poll 40%.
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it's basically the same as where george w. bush was then and he was seen very much as being paralyzed. what is the president doing? he's taking more questions from us. he used to do these news conferences a little less frequently, if you will but in recent weeks he's been taking a lot more questions pep has to get his message out even if he faces defensive question he wants to go on offense. number two you make an important point about the economy. think about the news conference last friday. he had a pretty positive july jobs report. he said the engines are being revved up. this poll comes out from nbc news today that says a large majority of the country says they are not feeling the recovery, they have vast economic anxiety. the president can tout these things. the onomy turning around and a lot of people aren't buying it. >> last thing. logistics. he's running a little bit late. he has a history of running late for these events. we don't know how late yet.
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he'll have an opening statement. what is the white house telling us and perhaps how many questions will he take? >> you mentioned president bush and where he was at this point in his presidency. one of the things he did is focus on africa and george w. bush fought malaria, hiv/aids in africa and spoke here at this summit at the state department today. so i expect the president from signalling from the white house the president will talk a lot about this africa summit at the top because he thinks this will be a legacy item for him as well. he's getting u.s. businesses to invest africa. he thinks it will help not only the continent of africa but u.s. businesses here at home. but then he'll move on to the questions. there will be questions likely about russia, ukraine, what's happening in gaza. there are so much on the plate right now. >> you got one lined up just in case? >> always have one in the pocket. >> let's bring in our panel.
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ron fournier. a.b. stoddard. and charles krauthammer. jonah, what do you think? >> i'm not sure. he's looking for an opportunity to turn the narrative on the economy. i think he believes the economy is doing much better. he has an argument to be made on that. it's clear from the poll the american people don't agree with him and they are not feeling it. and i think his overriding problem is he just -- he is being buffeted at all sides by events outside of his control and i think he's trying desperately to get in charge of the narrative again and seem like the guy in charge and i'm not sure it will work. >> ron, we keep talking about this poll. approval 40%,disapprove 54%. right track, wrong track, 22% right track, wrong track, 71%. what do you make of these
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numbers at this point in this presidency? >> short term, obviously, disastrous for the president. he's in the same place president bush. that's not a good place. longer term, it's an indictment on washington. 75% of the people in this poll, i'm sorry 80% of the people in this poll believe the political system is failing them. that's republicans and democrats think our political system is failing them. 75%, this one makes me want to cry, 75% think their children will not do as well as them. that's the american dream that we see slipping away from us. >> foreign policy, a.b., handling of foreign policy, approval 36%. that tracks with, again, two other polls right at that number. at this point foreign policy in the second term should be something that a president is probably turning to for refuge. >> the world is more unstable than it has been in obama's lifetime. he knows this. he's let the syria situation slip away. he drew a red line.
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he let it get crossed. what's happening with putin and what he's doing in the ukraine is festering while we have been basically a bystander in a conflict between the israelis and hamas. less leverage than ever before. this is something you're seeing in the polls as americans, as ron pointed out, number one concern is the economic future of this country and their own kids, and what it's done to them. 49% of this country believes that we are still in a recession. then they look around the world and see how unstable and chaotic things are and they are terrified. >> charles? >> if these numbers keep going south or stay in the high 30s it increases the chance that president will come out hinting and leaking they will do some massive executive order on immigration that will legalize a lot of people up to 5 million in some reports and the white house is not denying that.
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and that would completely scramble the deck. because what it would do, a, energize his base. second it would infuse the hispanic vote which is generally fairly low in mid-term elections. but lastly, i think this is impeachment bait. they know it's such a violation of the separation of powers that it will raise impeachment talk which for the democrats who remember 1998, that saved them from the six year disaster in '98 and i think obama is cynical enough to plunge us into a constitutional crisis to gin up the vote, to bait the republicans into impeachment as a way to save his party in the mid-term election. >> you're looking live at the state department. we're awaiting the president. we were originally told by the white house this would start at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. we've been told by the white house it will be at least 5:15
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to 5:30 for the president to come out. we went around the horn and had guesses about how late the president may be. charles was at 5:03. very optimistic. >> charitable. >> i was at 5:05. >> a.b. at 5:06. >> ron looks good at 5:21 and jonah 5:09. obviously this is an important time. this is serious stuff. we want to take the president on all of these issues when he's getting asked about it. thoughts? >> i think tardiness at these kind of things really feeds the narrative, i hate using the word narrative that i alluded to before. the immigration crisis at the border. there's this general sense of life out of balance, that things are chaotic. there's an interesting debate on
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certain parts of the right these days about why the american people are so upset about obama's foreign policy when he's doing what they want him to do which is stay out of everything. i think part of the answer to that is people also want to be proud of their president. they want to be proud of their country. they are accustomed to the idea we're leaders in the world and it seems both domestically and internationally that the government, that our institutions and the president himself who campaigned on this post-partisan no red, no blue states super competent agenda, that he's just simply overwhelmed and when you show up late at these big summits, it seems like he's still being buffeted by events out of his control. it's bad stage craft. >> i agree with everything you said except for what time he shows up for news conference. most people are at work right now desperately trying to hang on to their jobs. they are not sitting here watching this. >> it feeds a sense -- >> i covered president clinton
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for five years as a governor and two terms as president. i lost about a year of my life waiting for him. he makes obama look like mr. punctuality. the fact that he's having so many news conferences finally the communication staff at the white house got some humility and realize they can't go around the media, they do have to speak to folks who cover them and do represent the public. and i think that's an interesting development. but him being late, i just don't think -- >> i covered president bush for many years and he was usually pretty punctual. when they said he's coming out he was there in a minute or two. we'll pay some bills while we have an opportunity. we're waiting the president's news conference. from a dry mouth then you'll know how uncomfortable it can be. [ crickets chirping ] but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath?
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. this is the fox news alert. you're looking live at the state department awaiting president obama. he's delayed here wrapping up the african sum. he'll take questions from roberts. one of the reporters is ed henry. >> reporter: he was working on some legacy items today here at this u.s.-african summit.
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the bottom line as he tries to get his agenda done there appears there are some big signs that public opinion is souring on him big time. as president obama tried today to showcase himself on the world stage two new major national polls had absolutely grim news for his leadership on both foreign policy and the economy. despite his cheer leading a recovery. >> the good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger. things are getting better. our engines are revving a little bit louder. >> reporter: voters actually believe that engine may be stuck in neutral based on a new "wall street journal" nbc poll that found widespread economic anxiety with 64% being somewhat or very dissatisfied with the state of the u.s. economy while 35% are very or somewhat satisfied. his approval rating in the "wall street journal" nbc poll is 40% and 41% in a new cbs news poll. despite a couple of months of the president hitting the road
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on the economy for a series of day in the life events with real people. >> american manufacturing, energy, technology, autos, all arbooming. thanks to the decision that we've made and the resilience of the american people we recovered faster and come farther. >> reporter: voters don't appear to be buying that which is worrisome for the president's party heading in to the mid-terms. >> what we're looking sat hyper partisan, very political administration and i think that voters are fed up with it and they are furious with it and they want to -- the throw the bum mentality is pretty strong. >> reporter: that mentality may hurt congressional republicans since the "wall street journal" poll found just 19% of adults expressed positive views of them. for the president he's also getting hammered on his handling of the various national security crises which used to be a stronger number for him. the "wall street journal" poll finding 62% are somewhat or very dissatisfied with america's role
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in the world. 35% are very or somewhat satisfied despite the president's strong defense his approach. >> it's not a measure of american influence on any given day or any given moment. there are conflicts around the world that are difficult. >> reporter: one bright spot for the president in this "wall street journal" poll women support a democratic congress by a margin of 51% to 37%. that's something the democratic party will be focusing on in terms of turn out, war on women, same kind of stuff we heard in 2012. >> what do you think might dominate this news conference? you talked to your colleagues. >> reporter: it's clear a lot of folks want to talk about foreign policy when you have a summit here. there may be a question or two about africa. they will try to pivot what the president is doing around the world. i asked him back in april about what the obama doctrine is and he said while we were in the
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philippines on that asian trip, you know, look you hit singles, you hit doubles, sometimes you hit a home run. his point is you don't always swing for the fences, you try not to make mistakes. that kind of philosophy has come under criticism in recent weeks and months as to whether he's too passive. you heard from bill plante from cbs saying does america have influence around the world any more. the president pushed back on that but i suspect there may be more questions along those lines. >> ed, stand by. we are. we're back with our panel, jonah, a.b., ron and charles. what about that point the construct of obama foreign policy? don't make errors. you know when he talks about it, he talks about, you know, the american people don't want to put troops around the world but the american people do, according to these polls want some leadership. >> i think that's absolutely right. there's a sense as was said
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earlier people, they don't want war. that's what obama means by making mistakes. we won't start wars. we understand that. he had a mandate of not starting any wars. he interprets that to mean do nothing, stand aside, watch what happens in ukraine, watch what happens in syria. you threaten action which no one asked him to do over the red line on chemical weapons. that was obama's idea entirely on his own and then backed off. he did nothing from iraq. he with drew from iraq on a set date despite conditions on the ground. he wound down on afghanistan. he tried to do something there. he did a surge which has not succeeded. so essentially what he's done is taken a passive role. the result is almost predictable. if you're a super power and your influence is deterring bad guys over the 60, 70 years since the "second world war" when we
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became a super power and you withdraw it it's like in physics, it will be filled and it is what it is filled with. isis in iraq, isis in syria. the bad guys, of course, in northern africa. the spread of islamic terrorism. putin into ukraine. every where. that's a predictable result. that's the wreckage of the obama doctrine. it wasn't one. it was a negative one. don't make wars. but there's a lot to do between zero and making war. that he hasn't done. >> a.b. >> charles is right even in afghanistan where he tripled down moving past his predecessor, really owning that war, he rarely ever spoke about it. we watched for years not only president obama resist using military action but he doesn't even rhetorically support our
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positions many of the times. how many times has he spoken about what's been going on bebetween the israelis and hama in the last few weeks. how many times has he talked out loud from the bully pit to americans and europeans as about israel's right to defend itself. it's not only a retreat in terms of military force, but rhetorically his leadership is quiet. and so americans have come to interpret not much is going on except for when bin laden was killed. he done make the case all the time. and so there's a lot between dog nothing and being in retreat and being passive and using military force and i don't think america knows what we're up to any where if president obama is doing it, making the case for lethal aid to the reblgs in syri -- rebels in syr. interesting now as he invites
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more opportunity to spar with the press, he'll try to talk about the african story is a good one for him and the economy. but every time he talks to the press now with four hot wars going on, even though as i say we don't call them wars any more, he'll continue to get questions about his handling of these overseas conflicts. >> overseas contingency. >> ron? >> two problems. one, a very confusing unsettled time and the public is looking to their president to put it under an usual, explain what's happppening. what is this era about. hard thing to do but he hasn't tried. to for a man who became president because he understood the bully pulpit, he understood the art of theater he dismissed it once he became the president. i don't need media. i don't need do these speeches. he hasn't taken advantage -- i know it's a vastly changed bully pulpit but hasn't taken advantage of the tools to explain what his policy s-where
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the world is going in a very consistent manner. he's used it to get photos out of his kids. but he hasn't used it to explain what is the new world order and what is he doing about it? >> jonah, when we talk about people and digesting news events oftentimes it seems america can only deal with one chapter at a time. we have the benghazi. the irs. the bowe bergdahl. you name the story, it's hot. then it goes away. and it seems by these polls that despite the white house and their pr strategy of get through it and it's going to go away and turn the page, the book is still there. the book of this feeling that things are not right. it's still there according to these polls. >> right. i think that's right. and let's be fair to obama. a sentence i don't always use. that the news cycle has gotten
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brutal on all politicians as you refer to these red hot scandal week to week thing. and their inclination is to ignore it because they think it's petty and beneath him. at the same time getting back to ron's point, in the beginning of his presidency, he was wildly overexposed. i don't agree he didn't care about the bully pulpit. one of the remarkable things about his presidency, there's this idea that he could persuade people and he's never sold anything in his presidency. he gave 52 speeches in his first year about obamacare. he never once got the thing on popular. he's relied on the power of his own celebrity, a lot of photo ops in the beginning of his presidency.
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when they hit diminishing returns he sort of gave up. >> that's my point. there's no one unifying strategy to what the presidency is about and where is the country headed in this new world. >> i don't think he knows. >> he's the one who has to take these chapters and instead of dismissing them and put them in a book. >> but it's between foreign and domestic. he has an agenda on domestic. cares about stuff on domestic. he gave 50 speeches on obamacare that didn't succeed. gave speeches on the stimulus. he talks about the economy, minimum wage. he has either zero interest in foreign affairs or believes america doesn't have a leadership role. he believes as kind of a doctrine that america ought to retreat and withdraw and therefore he doesn't use his rhetorical powers but he does on domestic stuff. >> we are awaiting the president of the united states, a speech and a news conference from the state department as he wraps up
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a summit with african leaders. we apologize to our colleagues at "the five" for taking over at this time. do you have the day off. we'll be back after this. they t. but the energy bp produces up here they t. creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america.
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this is a fox news alert. you're looking live at the state department. we're awaiting for president obama. we're going to turn to politics. last night was a primary. the republican governor of traditional red kansas he could be in political trouble this fall for actually keeping his campaign promises. meanwhile another member of the gop establishment who just survived a strong challenge from the tea party backed opponent say republicans need to learn to just get along. chief political correspondent carl cameron has those stories. >> reporter: pat roberts used his primary victory speech over milton wolf to warn that if the gop remains divided it will
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fall. >> we cannot afford a fractured party. the stakes are just too high. >> reporter: even before the polls closed yesterday wolf pledged to support roberts if he won. >> it's important that we as republicans unite. we have a president in this white house who is destroying our country with his policies. >> reporter: this morning republicans held a unity raffle in topeka to focus on the fall. roberts is considered safe for re-election but for senator brownback re-election could be tougher. >> kansas is leading a come back for this country. we created and got more jobs in kansas than ever in the history of the state. >> reporter: kansas had an unemployment rate of 4.9% in june. brownback was elected four years ago promising to cut income tax and did. democrats are pummelling him for it. state revenues have temporarily decline and the kansas budget face a short fall this year. the state may have to tap its rainy day fun and for that its
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bond rating has been reduced. >> it's tough to cut taxes. >> reporter: calling it a budget battle with democrats, brownback argued that the state economy is strong and his democratic opponent paul davis is an avowed obama foot soldier who wants to take money out of taxpayers pockets and put it back in the coffers. >> voters have a chose between my opponent, a liberal from lawrence a two-time obama delegate who believes all answers to all problems lie with the government solution or myself, a reagan republican. >> reporter: davis argues the democrats can cut quality of life in kansas. >> don't delegate kansas to an obama liberal. >> reporter: the voter registration in kansas heavily favors republicans. democrats think they can knock off brownback even though paul
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davis the democratic nominee is arguing brownback's tax cuts need to be postponed if not repealed even though some of them would benefit low-income voters. >> carl, thank you. we're back with our panel, jonah, ron, a.b. and charles. a.b., we're 90 days from the mid-terms. kansas is an interesting story with the governor facing some heat potentially in that general election. thoughts about last night going forward? >> well, there's only one more senate incumbent republican that the establishment pro actively and vigorously tried to defend, five of them have come across the finish line, finishing up with pat roberts last night but senator alexander has to defend himself in a primary this thursday. this has been, remains a divided party. there's still, if not a tea party, an anti-establishment force that's still fighting the establishment.
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the establishment has been fighting back very hard in 2014 after facing some tough losses in previous cycles. so that's been the shape of primary season so far. now we're going look at whether or not republicans can actually after holding their own pick up six seats in the senate to hold the majority. polls are favoring them to do so. there's not one galvanizing issue that voters are mad about. they are mad about a lot. in a low turn out election it's going very tough for democrats to get their people out. obama is trying many different ways. but it's still looking like republicans have a very good shot to take a majority in the senate. >> jonah >> i think that's right. we heard and it was ed henry's report how congress has low approval too. i understand why you have to report that. it is historically. >> it's very low. it's often trotted out as it spells bad news for republicans in the mid-terms. i don't think there's any historical evidence that low
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approval for congress translate to actual races. in 2006 and 2012 tissue was either president bush or program. ultimately this will be a race about obama and that's why his lowering and worsening approval ratings will be dispositive. >> do you buy that? >> i agree. i look what happened in the 24, 25 mid-term elections and see a four percentage decline in turn out so far. 15 of those 25 states have been record low turnouts. looking beyond november the public is completely fed up with politics. it is sick of both parties and sick of parties, most of all including the media only looking at the next election and they are trying to send a signal that they are upset with politics as usual. they have nowhere to turn because both of these parties aren't getting it done. >> charles? >> you have widespread disaffection but we've seen low numbers for congress for a long time. generally it means you don't
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like congress in the abstract but you re-elect your own congressman. there's that huge dichotomy. the single indicator how the mid-term will turn out is the popular of the incumbent presiden if you have a president at 40% you know the party will lose very heavily. the odds are prohibitive for republicans holding the senate unless obama's numbers improve which is why again i think they will roll the dies on immigration in september. >> is a lot can happen between now and november 4th. a lot can happen in 90 days and if there's this move on immigration, a.b., it's going to change the dynamics within the republican party on this issue. not that it may affect so many races across the board just by looking at the demographics but it's going to affect something. >> first it's impeachment bait as charles said before.
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there are republicans who say you can brush off this impeachment talk because it's only from sarah palin or a few people from the base but it's not reached critical mass. it could actually if he goes ahead with executive action and there's a full amnesty push from the white house during this recess. it becomes impeachment bait. charles is right that could really change the dynamic in this mid-term. what's really unfortunate is that both parties right now think this border crisis, which neither party is solving, really resounds to them in political benefit this fall and i actually completely disagree but i do think if president obama goes too far on this, whether it's within his legal right or not the outrage will be so incredible on the republican side it will probably bring more democratic losses this fall because i agree that i don't know that latinos will turn out this fall as a result of this issue. but it also could -- it could
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become a constitutional crcrisi. >> hispanics are down on the president so i agree with that. just real quickly it's interesting the number for governance that gap is much more upset.. i don't think that changes things in november. chances are democrats lose the senate. but, again, we're deaealing wita president here -- let's assume for a second legally he can do that. should he do it? even if you agree like do i that we really need to do smething about these 12 million people who are in the shadows. even if you believe that and believe it's legal there's an argument to be made he should not do it. the fundamental reason he became president he was promising there's no red state, no blue states i'll bring the country together. he's a polarizing president. this is a nuclear bomb that would make this country more divided in a way most americans just don't want. >> last word. >> i agree with a lot of that. >> not all of it? >> we'll discuss it after. >> transcript. >> everyone likes to talk about
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the problem republicans have with women and they do, particularly unmarried women. the democrats have a huge problem with the white working class and not just in the south. they have it in the west and industrial areas. if you legalize in this hail mary move it seems obvious to me the white working class who are suffering who thinks we're still in a recession, a huge demographic block won't have a backlash against the democrats. it's not a win for the president. >> we're waiting on the presidt from state department. we'll continue our show on the other side of the break. something about your personal data. you want to listen to this about hacking a major break and the u.s. economy and corporate taxes right after this. for drinks, ea. i have very well fitting dentures. i like to eat a lot of fruits. love them all. the seal i get with the super poligrip free keeps the seeds from getting up underneath. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles
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the white house told us originally this event would start. the panel's predictions ron was closest at 5 lone 21 when it might start. that was 23 minutes ago. we'll continue our show. your personal information, financial records, credit card numbers, you name it, may be in the hands of russian hackers tonight. we'll tell you about the latest major cyber heist and how it affects you. >> reporter: the biggest heist in data history. 540 million unique e-mail addresses culled from over 400,000 websites. this could mean big headaches, loss of privacy and added costs for consumers and billions lost by corporations that could make good on this fraud. >> this is much more serious than any credit card breach i heard about. >> reporter: it was pulled off by a small group of hackers
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working in russia. >> they will probably pay it lip service. at the end of the day guys like this will continue to operate. >> reporter: they tapppped into any website they could crack. they report udly haven't used the data for their own but have sent spam. the fear is this cyber war could be hard to win. >> until the industry gets serious about security across the board we'll don't see these stories every week. >> reporter: last october hackers in vietnam got their hands on 200 million personal records at an american brokerage firm. in december 40 million credit card members and other details were stolen from target store accounts by hackers in eastern europe. with all this at risk a digital industry has been spawned. milwaukee firm that uncovered the russian scam is offering to check data at a price.
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>> in the bottom line is we're using the internet, it's wide-open. >> reporter: security experts tell us companies have to get away from using passwords and instead use better security. in the meantime we have to keep changing our passwords like it or not. >> yes we do. so are you worried that your information has been compromised? let me know @facebook.com/bretbaiersr. tonight the obama administration is considering more executive action by the president but this time against the american companies. melissa francis is in new york tonight with an explanation. melissa, good evening. i heard neil talking about this earlier. saw a couple of pieces on this. hat is this about. why should anybody be concerned? >> reporter: it's a growing trend and i feel we see a new headline on this every day. about a company buying another company overseas or they merge
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together and end up moving their hours to that new country because they feel it's a better tax environment, better are regulatory environment. the one that made headlines was walgreen's they bought alliance boots which is based in europe, a swiss company. they already own a piece of it. they bought the rest of it. it would have made logical sense for them to move their headquarters to switzerland. immediately the tax rate there is approximately 17.9% depending on local tax and this and that. they pay about 35% here. right away they would have had a big tax savings. it's what their investors wanted. they decided against this because there's a lot of political pressure right now. >> walgreen's announced they will keep their headquarters here. why? because of this? because of allegiance to the country? >> reporter: it has to do with political pressure. they were very worried about the backlash that they would receive. walgreen's is a company, 75% of
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americans have a walgreen's within five miles of their home. you know, the president has started a large pr campaign, a lot of people in washington against companies moving out of the country for this reason. so they were worried about the backlash. and that financially in the end it would end up costing them more if people stopped shopping there because of the negative response that they got. >> but yet interestingly their stock took a major hit today. >> reporter: investors, you know, they are not sure that's really the best decision for their money in the long run. they look to the bottom line. they saw them save between $2 billion and $4 billion. investors rejoiced when they heard they might move the headquarters. when they didn't they didn't like it. money goes where it's treated best. companies don't make these decisions based on politics, based on emotion.
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they have a fiduciary responsibility. >> how much money are we talking about? who could be leaving. >> reporter: we're talking about billions of dollars. reports say there's about 12 different companies that are thinking about doing this. 47 have done it in the past decade or so and cost the government billions in terms of tax dollars. the real cost is in jobs. because when a company leaves and it takes its headquarters elsewhere they take the good jobs, the corporate jobs, the research and development, the high paying jobs out of this country. and you have to ask yourself how do we get them to stay? is it by putting a gun to their head and saying there's legislation that doesn't allow them to go or do you create an environment where they want to stay, they want to create the jobs, they want to expand? and that's really the question. >> that would take some bipartisan effort in the building behind me. thank you very much. we're still waiting on the president and we're going to take a break right now as you look live at the state
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department. we're told people are stirring there. that's very exciting. we'll be right back. s that. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker? i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.
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start at 5:00 p.m. it's now 5:54 and we're told it could happen soon. let's bring in our panel. jonah goldberg. ron fournier. a.b. stoddard. and charles krauthammer. charles, we just finished this piece and the report by melissa francis about what's called inversion, basically it's companies making decisions about corporate taxes. >> and the reason they are going abroad to establish headquarters is because we have the highest corporate rate in the world. so it makes complete sense for any country to want to go abroad. so it's exactly what's wrong with big government. you have high taxes. and then to crack down on people who are looking for loopholes you get new regulations that would say out law it or punish them. the answer is staring us in the face. corporate tax reform. the president himself said we should lower the tax rate and close the loopholes.
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that's win for everybody. it does help everybody. it eliminates the irrationality of the loopholes and exceptions and nobody will do it. because you don't have a president who is pushing it. reagan did it in '86 one of the great successes in economic policy. obama is not doing it. >> a.b., those votes are there on a piece of legislation for reducing the corporate tax rate alone, but it never gets to that point just that bill. it's always tied with something else and then they go to their corners. >> ght. there's obviously no trust left to do any kind of mini bargain let alone grand bargain and everybody take the knife on tax reform. we don't have an environment that would permit. at the same time this is an election year. the administration thinks this is a great issue. it might be legal he says but wrong, unpatriotic. democrats are not going to agree that yes this is a bad
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environment for business and that's why they are leaving it's about taxes. pelosi said they want the inversion language this new ban in the spending bill that will pass at the end of the year, te continuing resolution because we'll have proper budget process once again and so they are going to try to make it another campaign issue. >> lo walgreen's. they decide, okay, we're going to listen, we're going to stay and put our headquarters in the u.s. despite the fact we can save $2 to $4 billion and their stock takes it on the chin and lose a ton of money because investors say why are you doing that. >> damn if they do, damn if they don't. if they do leave they will be called unpatriotic. the poster child for this is senator joe manchin. he's been talking about corporate tax reform for years.
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his daughter meanwhile grows up and becomes ceo of one of the largest generic drug companies in the world, started in west virginia, moved to pittsburgh. a success story in the stiff pittsburgh. she decides to have her company just a few weeks ago declare itself no long ear citizen of the united states and move overseaso the netherlands. this is a company that makes all of its money off the u.s. treasury by selling drugs to medicare and medicaid which is overseen by her father. first of all he said he didn't know anything about it. second of all he can't do anything about it because the leader of his party and the folks he's working with on the other side of the aisle aren't doing their jobs. >> jonah. >> since this is normally "the five" spot greg gutfeld would have a banned word of the day. the banned word would be economic patriotism. it's an outrageous phrase. used to be the height of mccarthyism to question
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anybody's patriotism. obama is going around questioning the patriotism of these corporations and of their leadership for responding to precisely incentives that barack obama keeps in place. there's a whiff of fascism to the whole discussion and hypocrital to attack other's patriotism. >> is there a wrongdoing for a company make being their money off medicare and medicaid. it's perfectly legitimate to criticize them. i would like to get a lot of corporations out of the business of making money off of the government. it's worth criticizing. talking about it in terms of patriotism, either everyone gets to talk about their patriotism or nobody does. >> does this make you bob beckel? what's going on. >> make medana perino. be rsonably conservative on this. if you had rational tax laws
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with lower rates you could eliminate the loopholes none of this would happen. there's a perfect indictment of crony capitalism. you start with high rates and over regulation, it gets complicated. all you can do is call people names and attach more regulation. you should simplify. >> anything? it's now 6:00. welcome to "special report" in progress. we're awaiting for the president to arrive at the state department as you look there, there's been a lot of reporters including our own ed henry standing up for a long time waiting for the president to make some sort of statement at the end of this african summit and take questions. ed it's been quite some time. what's the logistics. >> reporter: we're still waiting for the president. a lot to cover when he finally does make his statement and then move on to questions. you laid out some of them before in terms of russia, ukraine,
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