>> sandra: we're chatting at the commercial break. all right. we have special coverage tonight of the president's event in west virginia. 7:00 eastern time it begins. he says a big announcement is coming on the fox news channel. i'm sandra smith. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in washington. now we know president trump pushed mexico's president to stop telling people that mexico won't pay for the border wall, which it won't. president trump admitted the wall was a political problem. that's according to a transcript from "the washington post" and it's not the only one the paper got. we're also learning new details about what went down with our president and the leader of our close ally, australia. something on which we accurately reported, but the president called fake news. plus, president trump ripping congress over the deteriorating relationship with russia. and how lawmakers from both

sides are pushing a plan to keep the president from firing the special counsel, robert mueller as he investigates the russia connection. let's get to it. good thursday afternoon from the deck. days after the inauguration, about a week, president trump told the mexican president that the border wall was a political issue. the least important thing we're talking about. the border wall. that's according to "the washington post" quoting transcripts of the president's phone conversation with the leader of mexico. the post reports president trump told mexican president, the only thing i'll ask you, you and i have a political problem. my people say mexico will pay for the wall. your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language, but the fact is, we're both in a little bit of a political bind.

i have to have mexico pay for the wall. i have to. i've been talking about it for two years. of course, you remember, building a wall along the southern border that mexican would pay for was one of trump's campaign pledges. he promised mexico would pay for it at every campaign really. >> we will build a great wall along southern border. and mexico will pay for the wall. >> but mexico said it wouldn't. according to the washington transcript, president trump told the mexican president, if you're doing to say that mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then i don't want to meet with you guys anymore. i cannot live with that. i'm willing to say we'll work it out but that means it will come out in "the washington post" and that's okay. the post obtained a transcript of president trump arguing with

australia's prime minister the next day over an agreement on refugees. all of this, by the way, is available online. you can read it right now, all of it. president trump brought up the boat lift. cubans coming to the united states under carter. he called though cuban refugees from the boat lift brutal people. he brought up the attacks of 9-11 and the boston marathon bombings in the context of refugees. none of those attackers were refugees. he chastised the australian prime minister for allowing refugees in his own country. he said i'm the world's greatest person that doesn't want to let people in the country. now i'm agreeing to take 2,000 people and i agree i can vet them all but that puts me in a bad position. makes me look so bad and i've only been here a week. later president trump said if my executive order doesn't mean anything, i look like a dope.

finally as the conversation was wrapping up, president trump told malcolm turnbul i've had it. this is the most unpleasant call all day. putin was a pleasant call, this is ridiculous. the white house declined to comment on these transcripts. an unnamed u.s. official told the paper the president is a tough negotiator that is always looking to make the best possible deals for the american people. an unnamed source. for context, we already knew some details of the president's conversations with both of these leaders. this news hour reported at the time back in february that president trump said the conversation with the australian prime minister was the worst call of the day. we reported that. we reported at the time that the president said the putin conversation was pleasant, but that this one with the prime minister of australia was

ridiculous. we reported that. we and others, television and radio, internet, journalists reported that. when we did, trump tweeted this. thank you to prime minister of australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that fake news media lied about. very nice. the media did not lie. we reported the truth. then president trump misrepresented the truth and not for the first time. now the white house is focusing on the leaks that let the world know the truth. our chief white house correspondent john roberts is live on the north lawn. john? >> shep, good afternoon. i'm told the president is angry over these transcripts were leaked to "the washington post," but he's not that upset about it. not hit-the-roof upset. the president believes this was a long time ago, back in january. we knew most of what was in there. this just adds context in perspective. it is interesting when we see

these transcripts to see how boxed-in politically the president thought he was after the mexican president said i'm not going to pay for you wall. don't forget what the former president of mexico said. we can't repeat that. take a look at this. the president says to him, you cannot say anymore that the united states is going to pay for the wall. i'm just going to say that we're working it out. believe it or not, this, the wall, is the least important thing that we're talking about. politically this might be the most important thing to talk about. in terms of dollars or pesos, it's the least important thing. the president talked about the drug crisis and the problems that the drug gangs and cartels are creating for people here in the united states. they're sending drugs to chicago, los angeles and to new york. up in new hampshire, i won new hampshire because new hampshire is a drug infested den, which brought a sharp response from the democratic

senator who tweeted out that the president's words about new hampshire were disgusting. also saying "instead of insulting people in the throes of addiction, the president of the united states needs to work across party lines to stem the tide of this crisis." and more from that phone call with malcolm turnbull the following day that the president had where they talked at length about the refugees that president obama had agreed to take to the united states. the president, you pointed out, saying he looks like a dope if he honors this agreement. he saidly be seen as a weak an ineffective leader by my people. this will be a killer to which turnbull said you can say it's not a deal that you would have done but you are going to stick with it. that's what stuck in the president's crawl and a short time later he ended the phone call. there's a lot of people looking at the idea that this was leaked out. bob corker, the senator from

tennessee, was one of them. listen to his reaction earlier today. >> i've encouraged the president and now i encourage that to general kelly to fire every person that's had anything whatsoever to do with back biting, undermining other people for their own benefit or leaking. and not to be cautious about it. if there's even a thought that somebody was involved, get rid of them. >> we'll hear more about what this administration plans to do about leaks when the attorney general, jeff sessions with dan coats, the cia director, rod rosenstein and others hold a press conference to see what the justice department plans to do about rooting out classified information across this administration, shep. >> shepard: and the president is taking aim at congress for what he calls dangerous relations with russia and the healthcare failure. the president tweeted "our relationship with russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low.

you can thank congress, the people that can't even give us healthcare". the arizona republican senator john mccain fired back with his own tweet writing, our relationship with russia is at a dangerous low. you can thank putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors and threatening our allies." senator mccain is not the only republican blasting the president's tweets. yesterday president trump signed a bill slapping new sanctions on russia as punish meant for the election meddling and moscow's military action in ukraine and syria. the new law requires the president to get the okay from congress before lifting any sanctions. president trump called bill seriously flawed yet he signed it. he signed it "for the sake of national unity." and then this morning he blamed the congress for all of it. the house and senate had enough votes to override the president's veto. according to our chad pergram,

senators could leave today even though the president wants them to work on healthcare. the president is off the vacation tomorrow we learned. john roberts on the north lawn. >> the president made no effort to hide his displeasure over congress handing him a bill that he said was deeply flawed and leaving open the idea that the parameters of the bill may be open to interpretation and that the president and the white house might not follow them to the letter. what the president is worried about is that this bill ties his hands to some degree in conducting diplomacy and making deals with countries like russia that the president says he has a better nose for doing than congress does. we showed you bob corker fully supporting the president on the leaks. watch what corker said about the president lashing out at congress over this russia issue. >> the relationship that we have

with russia is solely because of putin. the activities, the things that he has taken against western democracy. i'm actually very proud of the fact that congress continues to assume it's right for all foreign policy. >> another member of congress on the republican side saying the problem is not congress. the problem is vladimir putin and vladimir putin's behavior on the global stage. this is going to do nothing to improve relations between the white house and congress and the president is going to need them if he hopes to after the august break, which as you suggested starting earlier than senator mcconnell wanted rather than next friday when they come back to pass a healthcare bill because the president believes they have a chance to do it. the president teasing us earlier today with a big announcement in west virginia tonight. don't know exactly what it is. whispers tell me it may have something to do with coal exports. we're digging, shep.

>> shepard: john roberts live at the white house. thanks very much. for those that may question the transcripts, they're available for you. here's how you can find them. go to google and type "washington transcripts." they'll be the first thing you see. every word between the two leaders and our president is written there. coming up, we'll speak with a senior reporter from politco about washington's relationship with russia. more on these newly released transcripts. there's breaking news on a story we've been following for a while now. a woman who had been texting her before, you should kill yourself, you should kill yourself. they charged her with manslaughter. and now there's a verdict and a sentence. it's coming. this is joanne. her long day as a hair stylist starts with shoulder pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? no thanks.

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>> shepard: continuing coverage of the washington transcripts released today of the president's conversations with the leaders of australia and mexico. let's turn to josh gurstein from political. we always knew and have reported here, the matter of mexico paying for the wall was a political matter, not a real matter. the conversation with australia's leader was exactly as we reported it. the president said the media lied about it and now it turns out he misrepresented the truth. what is your biggest take away from the transcripts? >> to me, i can understand in

theory in the abstract why the white house should feel they should have private confidential conversations with foreign leaders. it does have a negative impact on his ability to conduct foreign policy. as you're alluding to, it seems the president's obsession with leaks and secrecy is in order to defend the space in which he wants to deny or depart from the truth. he wants to keep the option open to tell the american public something different than what actually happened and is angry when these transcripts or news reports come out that dispute the accuracy of what he said. it's difficult to get behind the drive for secrecy and to crack down on leaks when there's so many contradictions between the president and the white house's official line and what the facts appear to be. >> shepard: a contradiction between the presidents line and facts. now we're hearing republicans are raising red flags on this matter if not push back on it to

what degree is there almost open rebellion among some on the hill regarding these matters? >> i mean, at the moment, i would say it's not really open rebellion. it's scuttlebutt and things that senators and other lawmakers say many private and behind closed doors or will say to reporters on background or off the record. there's very few direct enunciations with exception to discrete matters like the russian policy. over time, senators are beginning to see them break off their work schedule. you're also seeing them push back more often i think against the white house. the question is does that situation exacerbate itself over time is this something that john kelly can nip the bud. >> shepard: anthony scaramucci in his short times as

communications director said his objective was to stop the leaks. he said he would fire everybody if he had to. now we understand there's going to be an announcement about a initiative to stop the leaks. what do we know about that? >> we know, as john roberts said earlier, the attorney general, jeff sessions and the director of national intelligence, dan coats, are expected to announce sort of a crack down, increased prosecution, increased investigation of leaks. there's indications that there's statistics showing more investigations of leaks have been opened in the last few months under president trump than in the previous year under president obama. but that said, president obama was pretty assertive in going after leaks or at least his justice department was, bringing about 10 prosecutions under the espionage act when there were one or two on previous presidents. remains to be seen how aggressive they'll be in pursuing leaks. it's a tricky business usually running down exactly where this

information came from, especially when you talk about these transcripts of diplomatic conversations that circulate widely across the government. >> shepard: thanks, josh. breaking news is coming to out out of taunton, massachusetts. a judge just sentenced this girl. this is michelle carter. she gets a 2 1/2 year sentence but will have to spend 15 months behind bars. she faced up to 20 years. michelle carter was just 17 years old when she told 18-year-old conrad roy to get back in a truck filled with toxic gas in 2014. that boyfriend died of carbon monoxide poisoning. a judge convicted carter of involuntary manslaughter in

july. he said her instruction to roy via text caused his death. hear that again. her instruction caused his death. michelle carter's lawyer argued that roy was determined to commit suicide no matter what and nothing she could have done to prevent that. carter's father says his daughter made a tragic mistake. she texted him that he should kill himself from another location, then he got into a car fixed with carbon monoxide and she was just sentenced to prison for texting him to kill himself. going on vacation never feels good when you know that a ton of work will be waiting for you when you return. that is a position that senators are facing as they get set to head out on their summer recess. they're well a well of the problems they face come

september. the president is also off to vacation. they're all going on vacation. the news continues in just a moment. you always pay your insurance on time.

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>> shepard: lawmakers in congress are packing up for their summer recess despite the president's pleas and grows list to do things. besides healthcare, the senate has to avoid a government shut down and how to reform the tax system. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. you don't do that from vacation. >> shepard: shep, good afternoon to you. there's questions about whether funding for the border wall might threaten a government shut down on october 1 and the senate republican whip clearly worried about his colleagues getting sidetracked. >> we have a lot of things to do before the fiscal year. i don't want the cart ahead of

the horse. we need to not be distracted by the stories of the day. i understand you have to cover those. we don't. what we need to do is maintain our focus on getting our work done. >> when lawmakers returns after labor day, the to-do list is the debt creel, bipartisan healthcare hearings and tax reform. things can get complicated as one senator notes. >> we have a problem moving things through. the house, the senate and the white housework independent. you have to work together to get things done, so it will be important to work with the white house. >> the focus will be when they return being as efficient as possible with their time, shep. >> shepard: what are you hearing from democrats, mike? >> chuck schumer emphasized that democrats want a seat at the table when it comes to fixing the tax code. schumer says he hopes republicans learned from the healthcare failure. >> i hope the fever is breaking.

there's a desire to move past the acrimony of the healthcare debate around get to a place where we can work together to advance legislation that helps the american people. i'm hopeful that the discussions between the republican leader and i will produce a package of nominees we can pass today. >> it's worth noting the senate has confirmed 78 nominees today ranging from the u.s. ambassador to nato to the u.s. ambassador to the united kingdom. mcconnell notes they confirmed more people this week than the senate has all year, shep. >> shepard: mike emanuel live on capitol hill. thanks very much. the president tweeted this morning about the united states relations with russia. he talked about how they are add a very low level. one of the lowest he can remember and how -- or remember, i should say and how largely you can thank congress for that. the same congress as he put it that can't get healthcare done. so the president is saying the fact that relations with russia are bad is the fault of the

congress. much has been said about this on capitol hill today. lots of discussion among republicans and democrats. erika warner joins us now live on capitol hill for us this afternoon. >> erika, nice to see you. >> hey, shep. >> shepard: the president signed the congressional -- bill that was passed in congress. he didn't have to sign that. it would have just become law without his signature. he could have vetoed it. he could have overriden it. now he's blaming congress for something he signed. >> you're talking about the russia sanctions bill, of course. yeah, he lashed out at congress over twitter on that. saying relations with russia are at the lowest point ever and you can thank congress for that. that did not go over well. one republican senator in particular, senator toomey of pennsylvania said that he was shocked by that tweet.

he's not one to take shots at trump. other republicans kind of more mild in their responses. just pointing out that vladimir putin is the one to blame for poor relations with russia obviously, not congress. >> shepard: what are individual members of congress, especially in his own party, how are they reacting to this? >> well, i would say that tensions that have been kind of under the surface between republicans and the trump white house really since trump's election, since before his election when many or most didn't support him are bubbling to the surface in the past couple weeks. it's been a number of factors. the failure of the healthcare bill with trump then urging the senate to keep trying on that and senators saying no thanks. trump telling mitch mcconnell to kill the filibuster rule and break the senate rules. republicans saying no, we're not

doing to do that. trump throwing jeff sessions under the bus. senators really aghast at that. pushing back hard. the white house budget director, mick mulvaney making comment about what the senate has to do and senators saying stay in your own lane. so it's out there in the public now, this tension. >> shepard: what are the prospects for some change in this tension over this break? the president has now a 17-day vacation. he's going to go to his private golf course in new jersey. members of congress going away with their family or whatever they do. is there something that could bring them together in this period? >> i'd say the one positive thing that we are hearing from republican senators is the appointment of the new white house chief of staff, john kelly. that is what republicans will go to when you ask them about how are things going to be going forward, what is going to happen in the fall.

they are very hopeful that the way of doing business in the white house is going to change and that it's going to be less chaotic over there and that things can go more smoothly. senator blunt, one of the members of leadership, saying that he hopes that under mr. kelly that issues will be resolved more like the gorsuch nomination, that went smoothly as opposed to how healthcare wept. it flows from the top in the white house. we'll see how much control mr. kelly can exert. >> shepard: good to talk to you. i hope you get a congressional break as well. do you? >> yes, we do. >> shepard: thank you. there's news developing right now. normally when there's big news developing that we don't have, we wait until we do. our friends at the "wall street

journal," we share common ownership. greatly respect their news coverage and admire them for that matter. they have a gang buster story that has broken in the last five minutes. i'll read you the headline. mueller empanels washington grand jury in russia probe. special counsel robert mueller has a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase. that's the headline in the "wall street journal." it's the bottom of the hour. our coverage continues. lawmakers from both parties working on ways to make sure president trump can't fire the man who is leading that investigation. the bills that could protect the special counsel, robert mueller, also next. and some of our nations election software so vulnerable that a teenager can hack it. that's according to cyber

security analysts that says he's stumbled into one state's system. what it could mean for future elections on a suddenly extremely busy news day. stay with us. where's gary? 'saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico. goin' up the country. later, gary' i have a motorcycle! wonderful. ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides.

>> i'm lea gabrielle. a teen got stuck on a bungy rope ride. the ride stopped working last night. crews rescued the teen with a ladder and helped get two other people down safely. they say everybody is okay. the feds investigating an explosion that caused part of a school to collapse killing two people. fire officials in minneapolis say a natural gas leak is what caused the blast yesterday. they say contractors were doing work in the building. nine people were hurt, one critically. forget planes. the future of travel could be a tube. the hyper loop propelled a pod

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>> shepard: there's breaking news now on fox news channel. our corporate cousins at the "wall street journal" are reporting as follows t special counsel, robert mueller, has empanelled a grand jury in washington to investigate russia's interference in the 2016 elections. a sign that the inquiry is entering a new phase according to two people familiar with the matter and speaking to the "wall street journal." the grand jury began its work in recent weeks. so this grand jury, according to wsj's reporting, is already seated and has already begun it's work and began doing so in recent weeks. the journal reports it's a sign that mr. mueller's inquiry is ramping up and that it will

likely continue for months. mr. mueller is investigating russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether president trump's campaign or associated colluded with the kremlin as part of that effort. a spokesman for mr. mueller declined to comment. mr. trump has vigorously disputed allegations of collusion. the president has called mr. mueller's inquiry a witch hunt and a nothing burger. so a grand jury is empanelled. senators are now with this in mind introducing two bipartisan bills today that could help protect the special counsel who is leading the russia investigation should the president decide to fire him. the justice department appointed robert mueller as the special counsel after the president fired james comey. president trump has been critical of mueller. at the time of the firing of comey, he admitted the russia investigation was on his mind.

some senators have said that they're worried that trump may try to fire this man, james comey, as well. or i should say robert mueller. republican senator tom tillis of north carolina and democratic senator chris koonce of delaware say their bill would let special counsels challenge their removal in court. sponsors of the other bill, the republican lindsey graham of south carolina and the democrat corey booker of new jersey say they bill would require a court to sign off on firing a special counsel. for now, what happens if the president does decide to fire him? now that the wall treat journal reports a grand jury is empanelled and has been working in recent weeks. let's turn to elisa collins from "usa today." what happens if the president says "you're fired?" >> lindsey graham has said this would be the beginning of the end of trump's presidency. this is a strange topic where you see republicans and democrats and a hyper partisan congress coming together and say

do not fire him. republicans are saying don't fire him, don't make it harder for us. let's let this special -- if there's nothing there, let him find that. that's what republicans are saying. tom tillis is interesting. he's pretty part line, doesn't like to cause drama. we know lindsey graham has been outspoken. the fact that tom tillis is on one of these bills signifies a shift in the way the republican party is handling to me. >> if in fact the president were to fire him, there's recourse, right? it's not as if he would just disappear from the investigation immediately. >> well, if the bills pass. we don't know if they will make to it the floor. but yes, in theory, the fact that we've seen now two different bills today before this "wall street journal" announcement but all within hours means there's really an appetite for blocks to make sure that president trump doesn't do this. the graham-booker bill would stop it before it happens so if

they wanted to fire him, they would have to go in front of a panel of judges and say here's why, lay it down. the tillis coons bill would be after the fact. it's less intense. mueller could go back and appeal his firing in front of judges and say i was wrongfully terminated. you'll see different but the same idea. they want mueller to stay in place. >> shepard: it was the last couple days that robert mueller we were informed had hired a 16th lawyer, a prosecutor, to work on this case. what do we know about that prosecutor? >> to be honest, i don't know a ton of health care land, but it's the same thing as a grand jury. it signifies a ramping up of this. each person they add means he's taking this seriously. you can expect the white house on the other end to be pushing back on this. so they're already going through the history of the different -- the mueller team and saying this

one donated to the clintons and this one has donated to democrats. look, it's bias. they're setting it up for whatever mueller comes out, if it's negative to trump or his associates, they can say this was rigged from the beginning. >> shepard: where do you see this going in the next couple days? now with the "wall street journal" reporting that the grand jury is empanelled, has been working in recent weeks, you'd think there would be added urgency but the recess is to begin now. >> right. they just broke. let me tell you, that i bet republican senators are thrilled that they just got out of town before reporters could ask them about it. you're going to expect them to be pretty quiet on this. mueller's investigation has been pretty quiet. the fact that we're even knowing about this grand jury, they've been working for weeks. they kept this under the radar. you can expect them to keep this quiet unless there's some small breaks and you can expect congress to stay out of it.

i think the fact that these bills -- this does mean something. there's an appetite from both parties to make sure that mueller keeps doing his job. >> shepard: great to talk to you. eliza collins with us again, from "usa today." the markets are reacting from this news. when the news broke the dow was up about 36 points. we're now in the red for the first time in a few hours. an urgent crossing from the reuters news agency, u.s. stocks extend losses in late trading. we'll go live to the white house for any empaneling on a grand jury for the russia investigation according to our reporting from the "wall street journal." the news is breaking now and continues after this.

>> shepard: continuing coverage of the "wall street journal" reporting that a grand jury has been empanelled investigating the russia meddling in the united states election and possible team trump collusion. one of the reporters whose by line is on this story is dell quintin wilbur who is on the line with us and broke the story for the "wall street journal" which posted in the last 20 minutes or so. it's nice to talk to you. thank you. dell, are you there? >> thanks for having me. great to be on your show. >> shepard: thanks. the -- there was already a grand jury for mike flynn. it's our understanding that you contacted the white house and the white house's attorney wasn't aware of the second grand jury. is that right? >> that is true. >> shepard: what did they say, the white house counsel, if anything? >> he said ty cobb, a special counsel to the president, you know, said that he hoped he wasn't surprised this happened.

this is pretty typical investigative step. he hoped anything that mr. mueller could do is to speed his work, they would appreciate it. so did the white house. >> shepard: and you're accurate, grand juries are powerful tools. can you explain in what way? >> they allow prosecutors to subpoena records. you open a grand jury investigation, and then you have the power as a federal prosecutor to demand records from people that you collect, you gather and you can put witnesses before a grand jury under oath to lock in their testimony. it's like both a basic step and one that signals, hey, this is heating up. i found enough here to justify getting more information and doing more work. >> shepard: if i may, how did you find out this grand jury had been empanelled? >> we can't get into that. even though you're my corporate cousin. >> shepard: we do have a few people watching. understand. we talked about the hiring of the 16th lawyer on this, thomas

zeno. you write as others have discussed that may be a hiring of significance. >> thomas is not the 16th. it's greg. what thomas said about him, a top prosecutor, well-rested, handle add lot of the tom hinkley matters here in d.c., he says what that shows, no one of his stature is leaving private practice to join an investigation that is going to die shortly. they're going to join one that has some legs in it and that could go somewhere. it's significant. >> shepard: the timing is interesting to me with the two bills coming up in the two separate bills that are under consideration at least. the recess just happening, the president going on vacation and now this. a lot is coming together here on a thursday afternoon. >> shepard: yeah, better than a friday afternoon. you're getting tired of the scoops coming at 5:00 p.m. on friday as i am. >> shepard: the president has called this a witch hunt and a

nothing burger. the empaneling of this grand jury does give those that are making the investigative effort here a lot of new tools to work with. >> yes. completely. that's the point. this allows them to look at more avenues, lock in testimony, gather more documents and do things like that. as we say in the story very clearly, this does not mean somebody is getting charged with a crime. this means they need this tool legally, that they believe there's a pretext to have a grand jury, that there could be crimes to gather the evidence to flush it out. a lot of grand jury investigations don't end with somebody being charged. it's a tool. like stuff that goes before the grand jury, prosecutors don't talk about it, agents don't talk about it, witnesses -- maybe this will be like the clinton lewinsky investigation where we were staking out the courthouse in d.c., watching witnesses come

and go. that is important. >> shepard: time will tell. stay with us, if you would. i have to get a quick commercial break. i'll let you know donald trump's personal attorney has just commented on this matter and we'll have that for you after this. hey! this is lloyd. to prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. he's agreed to give it up. ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so... more pills. yep... another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? for my pain... i want my aleve. get all day minor arthritis pain relief

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>> shepard: continuing coverage of the "wall street journal"'s reporting that a grand jury has been empanelled and working on the matter of russian meddling in the united states election and looking into the possibility that there was collusion on the part of members of team trump. one of president trump's lawyers has just responded to this report. john roberts has that live on the north lawn. john? >> it's a relatively new member of the president's white house counsel team, ty cobb, noted

lawyer around these washington parts. he said they have not been notified whether or not robert mueller has in fact empanelled a grand jury. cobb told me "we favor anything that brings this investigation to a swift conclusion." other folks that i've talked to said, you know, this isn't a big deal. it's a routine investigatory tool. but we have seen in the past this these grand jury investigations can go different directions. the white house is accepting this of what they thought the process would be. i don't know that anybody thought that robert mueller would engage in this investigation and not at some point empanel a grand jury to hear some sort of evidence and perhaps testimony on top of that. but folks that i've been talking to have been playing this idea down, suggest that it's really no big deal. something that they expected and again to quote ty cobb saying they favor anything that brings this investigation to a swift conclusion. it would though, shep, on the

surface seem to change the overall urgency of all of this. but folks that are very familiar with the legal industry know that this is just something that investigators do in order to find out if there's enough evidence to bring charges against anyone. shep? >> shepard: fair to say at the white house this afternoon with the presidential vacation coming in a matter of hours, they're in wind-down mode and has that changed at all? >> no, they are in wind-down mode. there's -- a lot of pods that you see on people's driveways, the portable on site storage systems, whatever you call them, here, people are packing up their offices and putting them in the pods. they're going to be leaving some for bedminster. others will be across at the eisenhower executive office building, this place is really shutting down between this friday and the 20th. the president will be going to bedminster for most of that time if not all of that time. and now this drops in the middle

of it. but again, the why that it's being portrayed to me here, no big deal. at least on the surface. the empaneling of a grand jury would appear to be a bigger deal in terms of the investigation than it was a short time ago. >> shepard: just for context, john, i understand they're putting in a new heating and cooling system in the house? >> the air conditioning has been broken in many parts of the west wing for a time. they're probably going to put new paint and carpet. the president said it's a dump. he tweeted today it's one of the most beautiful places to work and live. it's not a dump. from the diggs we live in, the original description may be apt. >> shepard: it's tight quarters in the place where you work. that's without any question. even by manhattan standards, your cubicals are small. >> we liken it to living in a

submarine. >> shepard: well, we all live. nice to see you, john. hope you get a vacation. >> next week. >> shepard: enjoy it. back to one of the reporters that broke this story for the "wall street journal." we knew there was a grand jury empanelled in the michael flynn investigation, that in the state of virginia. now this word. you've written if nothing else, this is for convenience for the special counsel. >> yeah. shepard, if you spent any time in washington, you know from getting from your offices to d.c. out to alexandria isn't easy. now you can walk across the street. if you won't to take stuff, it makes it easier. it signals like if it was just flynn and they had this investigation with flynn in northern virginia, you wouldn't need a new grand jury, right? you would keep doing that work. this shows it's broadened. according to legal scholars that

we've talked to? >> shepard: dell wilbur with the "wall street journal." thank you. >> thank you. >> shepard: more breaking news in to the fox news channel. this from "the new york times." the democratic governor of the state of west virginia, jim justice, is changing his party from democrat to republican. that's what "the new york times" is reporting now citing several sources. the times reports the governor is expected to announce the switch tonight during a rally with president trump back at home in west virginia. you may remember, the president earlier if you watched fox news channel, he promised to make a big announcement at the rally tonight. governor justice is a billionaire coal and real estate business man who ran as a conservative democrat and did not endorse hillary clinton in 2016. a final look at the dow before we close things out for this hour. the dow was up 36, went into

negative territory but has recovered a bit. should news break out, we'll break in. breaking news changes everything on fox news channel. "your world" with neil cavuto is next on the most powerful name in news. this is fox news channel. >> neil: okay. shepard, thank you very much. we are trying to find out a little by more about the special counsel, robert mueller, in this whole russia thing empaneling a grand jury in washington to look into the probe here. we're told by a number of lawyers, this is something that is more procedure than anything else. doesn't mean there's smoking guns or he's close to doing something or a monday widespread basis here. it did surprise a lot of folks here. this could send a couple signals and where the investigation could be going ahead of the president on a big campaign trip to west virginia tonight. the reaction at the white house right now with