airborne and he and the first lady arriving during a time of heightened tension between the u.s. and north korea. happy friday. welcome to "happening now." i'm melissa francis. happy friday. >> jon: it will be a great weekend. i'm jon scott. president trump making a stop at perl harbor before travelling on a 12-day tour. the president expected to take a tough line on nuclear threats from the north and press leaders of other nations, namely china, to follow suit. we are live from the white house with more. >> reporter: no doubt north korea's at the top of president trump's agenda. he believes the chinese are engaging in unfair trade practices and has been unhappy about chinese aggression in the

south china seas. that will be a big topic as he heads off on this big trip to asia. as he left the white house he announced he'd be extending his trip for one extra day to attend the east asia summit in the philippines and addressed the special council's into russia and the infamous meeting with george populouse and said he didn't remember that much about it before adding this. >> all i can tell you is this, there was no collusion. there was no nothing. it's a disgrace, frankly, they continue. you want to look at hillary clinton and donna brazile where she stole the election from

bernie. that's what you out to look at. >> this is the book called "hacks. the inside stories of the break-ins that put president trump in the white house." and accuses hillary clinton of hijacking the party. and yesterday senator warren use the word "rigged" that's something president trump picked up this morning on twitter by reviving his favorite nickname saying pocahontas just stated that democrats lead by the legendary crooked hilary rigged the primaries. let's go fbi and justice department. and one response was you may think your tweets are cute but they won't stop the mueller investigation or your people out of jail. president trump is putting the pressure on the justice department and fbi to

investigate hillary clinton's campaign, its influence on the dnc and the now infamous dossier. jon, his critics are continuing to call the behavior inappropriate and not appropriate for any press to put pressure on a justice department to investigate anyone or anything, jon. >> jon: just another friday morning in washington at the white house, right? >> reporter: you know it. >> jon: thank you. >> reporter: thanks. >> president trump leaving for a trip and many positions remain unfilled and he addressed the matter last night during an interview saying the opens at the state department won't impede his agenda. >> i'm a business person. i tell my people where you don't need to fill slots, don't fill

them. i'm the only one that matters because when it comes to it that's what the policy is going to be. you've seen it strongly. >> joining me is glen hall news editor for "the wall street journal." >> i don't see him as bragging as much as stating a fact. we have seen in the administration he's a hands-on directing of policy president and not the kind of president that fully delegates and lets others take the lead. >> melissa: there's tons of duplication is that the same thing? >> that's what they brought to the president. we don't need all the positions and the big government to get the job done. it's one thing president trump said during the campaign and making good on the promise. >> melissa: there's a lot on his

plate. what are the more important points. i imagine it has more to do with north korea's neighbors than north korea itself. >> north korea is the number one priority but you're right, without a united front with china, japan, south korea and others it's hard to see how you make progress getting north korea to stand down on its nuclear ambitions. >> melissa: what's it look like though standing down on nuclear ambitions? what would you want to see china step in and have them do? does that involve handing stuff over? what's it look like? >> china's the key player here. if they were to be much more engaged the way the president is intended to pressure them to do you'd see more impact and bringing north korea to the tables for discussion. right now we have a stand-off.

until there's a united front it's hard to imagine meaningful talks bringing progress. >> melissa: the second piece of the puzzle has to do with fair and free trade between china and the u.s. the whole idea of getting things back on a level playing field. i never knew how much to take that seriously or was that a pressure point with north korea and the nuke program? where do you think is the balance there? >> i think the president is sincere in his effort to try to rebalance the trade. it's an interesting time because there's newly consolidated power in china and this is the first meeting face to face since that happened. it's going to be very interesting to see how far president trump pushes that and i may come in conflict with his other goal of getting them to help with north korea.

>> melissa: what's the relationship like? >> it appears they have a pretty good relationship. one of the ones president trump has sought to cultivate on a personal level though they may disagree on big issues and the other has been japan's president abe where he's met with more than xi jinping. >> melissa: there was talk about start trade war. i don't know how many people took him seriously and people realized it was his bargaining position. >> i think he wants u.s. goods having a better chance to be sold abroad in every country and there's not so much cheap chinese imports coming into the u.s. economy but rather a more balanced trade going in both directions. i think that is the number one agenda when he talks about

opening up the trade door or renegotiating the trade contracts. >> melissa: glenn hall, you are always so smart. thank you so much. u.s. news editor for "the wall street journal. we appreciate your time. >> jon: you're pretty smart yourself. >> melissa: thank you, i'll take that. >> jon: republicans are facing pushback against the tax reform bill. groups representing realtors and small businesses coming out against the plan as well as multiple republicans from high-tax states who oppose the elimination of the state and local tax deduction. president trump does promise it will be a boon for all americans. >> that's why we're working to give the american people a giant tax cut for christmas. we're giving them a big beautiful christmas present in the form of a tremendous tax cut. it will be the biggest cut in the history of our country. it will also be tax reform and

it will create jobs. >> jon: leland who memorized the tax cois in washington for us. >> reporter: hure hearing almost everything the same them from almost all republicans on capitol hill. >> when you lower the tax rates and simplify the code so much so nine of ten americans are filing on a post card style system there's a fairness that's missing. middle-class americans get that. >> jon: a >> reporter: all right. there's a tax bill that leaves fewer brackets and the top rate of 39. % in place and raising the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1600 and leaving in place the 401(k) rules for

environment. however, republicans from high-tax states like new york and leonard lance in new jersey say the changes in the state and local tax deduction are deal breaks. how many republicans from those high-tax states hold out could change things significantly. on the business side the gop wants to slash the corporate rate and cut the rate on small business ym and pass-through income to 25% and double the death tax exception. and senator democrats chuck schumer and others say it's simply another tax cut for the richest americans on the back of the middle class. >> we see what our republican colleagues are doing. the bill comes out thursday. they want to start marking it up monday and a bill of enormous

complexity that affects so many. that's a disgrace. >> reporter: they kept republicans from passing anything and republican senators hope they can get breathing room by convincing at least a few democrats to vote for the bill. so far none have been willing to come forward, jon. whether the tax code gets revised or not it would be only someone like you who could possibly memorize the whole thing. >> jon: i've memorized some things in my life but the tax code isn't one of them. appreciate it, thanks. >> melissa: is the u.s. economy bouncing back after taking a hit from the hurricanes in texas and florida? what the latest jobs numbers tell us. plus, new development in the new york city terror investigation as isis takes credit for killing eight people. >> good luck. every time they hit us, we know it's isis, we hit them like you folks won't believe. morning on the beach was so peaceful.

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>> jon: it appears there is a burst in. hiring across the country. a rebound from the hurricanes that devastated several states in september. u.s. employers adding 261,000 jobs in october and employees may have the advantage. many businesses have are struggling to fill open position. meanwhile the unemployment rate decreased to 4.1%. that's a 17-year low. the number could be misleading because many people have stopped looking for work and not considered unemployed. >> melissa: new york city is putting up new concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from plowing into pedestrians. this after tuesday's attack in lower manhattan that killed

eight people along a bike path. bryan is reporting live. what's it look like down there now? >> behind me is a memorial for the eight victims killed on tuesday. we're at the begin of the bike path where the terror began. you see the flowers and photos and people coming by on their bicycles and stopping to take photos and pay their respects. this as new york city responds to take action by putting concrete barriers along the bike path on the west side of manhattan. some are small, others are large concrete barriers around the intersections to prevent vehicles from getting on this path. now, this as reuters reports isis has claimed responsibility for the attack in its weekly newsletter thursday. the group called the attacker a caliphate soldier.

they believe sayfullo saipov acted alone. meanwhile, chilling new details by a man driven by him five days before the attack. he was registered as an uber and lyft driver. the british designer and his girlfriend were picked up at the airport by the suspect. >> we'd been in about an hour and we talked for an hour. get the idea of a person. he seemed absolutely normal. [audio difficulties] >> reporter: the friend has since condemned the attack and said it's not representative [audio difficulties] >> melissa: we're having

problems with the connection with bryan. >> jon: the accusations of sexual harassment and worse continue to crash over hollywood. police launched new investigations into movie mogul harvey weinstein after kevin spacey has been accused of harassment and assault. plus, new vehicle barriers going up where the terror attack in new york city took place but not everyone is on board.

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>> melissa: authorities are looking into claims by paz de la huerta who says weinstein raped her twice in 2010. los angeles police are also investigating claims from 2013. and meanwhile, actor kevin spacey is facing accusations of his own. eight current or former staff members on "house of cards" said spacey touched them without consent or made unwelcome comments. netfl netflix has suspend ed production for now. >> jon: isis is now claiming responsibility for tuesday's terror attack in new york city. its newspaper calling sayfullo saipov a soldier and concrete barriers are going up now along the attackers route but they're getting some criticism. joining us is michael balboni a former security director. first of the claims, what do you

make of them? >> it comes late, later than usual. what the attitude normally is they'll take immediate credit for it if further the theories which is this is someone who is self-radicalized. it speaks to the continuing need of isis to create this virtual caliphate since they lost their physical caliphate in the middle east. so what we're anticipating this is the new normal for their activities. they'll try to inspire folks remotely. one of the things that's come out is this individual did the attack in new york, followed the isis magazine directions almost exactly. veep even coming down to papers in the car with sayings they wants, isis forever. >> jon: what about the part

where you jump out of a truck you just used to hit a school truck carrying what amounts to a paint ball gun. >> probably the most consistent theory is he wanted to have death by or suicide by police officers. he wanted to get out with the guns and try to create a confrontation and have the video of him being gunned down in the streets of manhattan which would in the isis mind set would hopefully inflame other supporters and sympathizers to their cause. >> jon: so that part didn't turn out the way he planned. >> in the isis and inspire magazine they talk about a secondary weapon. after the vehicle attack is completed they would come out with a knife. it's what we've seen in the british attacks and actually in

germany as well. he didn't have -- he had knives in the car and apartment but didn't bring them with him. he took the two weapons which were non-lethal and suspect he wanted confrontation with the police officers. >> jon: so they're putting up concrete barricades now along the bike path along new york city's west side highway. will that be effective do you think? critics say you can wall off the bike path but if someone crashes their bike and breaks a leg or something you won't be able to get to them as quickly. >> it comes to the controversy of fortifying an urban center. they have to take action to ensure the public. once you had a violent event in a facility you have to take

steps to reassure it's safe. the challenge is this type of attack can happen anywhere at anytime. it doesn't take any training or trade craft. you don't know the person's going to do something until they actually do it and therefore there's so many different avenues the individual can travel down. walling off parts of the city may have some effect. we saw it in times square after a recent incident where someone was fleeing from a robbery but can you do that everywhere and we answer is know. >> jon: isis may want to learn a lesson from london in world war ii. the nazis did more with the blitzkrieg of london than isis has done to major cities in the west. and the british took it hard but they kept on going. it was not all of that

psychologically damaging to them as the nazis thought it would be. >> that is the experience also in israel. israel's had tremendous attacks. there's all sorts of incidents where there was a bombing at a bus station and the next day the israelis go back and stand in the same bus stop and get back on the bus. it's that emotional reality and resiliency we're trying to make sure everybody understands. at the same time, this is not acceptable and never will be. we'll do everything to go after the individuals who want to do this and want to recruit. but we have to do a better job, jon, we have spoke n about this on the countering of the online propaganda. >> jon: michael balboni. thank you. >> melissa: president trump making his first official trip to asia and relations remain

strained with north korea. pyongyang reacting to a show of force in the area and a stunning new accusation from the former intern chair of the democratic national committee. she claims the clinton campaign rigged the 2016 primary. our panel is on deck to discuss this intersection. -- next. that will add trillions to our national debt and hurt our economy. it's time to tell congress... don't borrow more money from china. and leave more debt to our kids. keep your word. tax cuts shouldn't add to the national debt.

>> melissa: president trump travelling to asia for a 12-day tour of five nations and the nuclear threat is a top priority during his visit. meanwhile, two u.s. super sonic bombers flew over the korean peninsula today drawing a strong response from pyongyang. chief national security correspond jennifer griffen is live from the pentagon with more. what was the reaction? >> reporter: the b-1 bombers took off from guam and it was a preplanned mission but it's no accident it coincided with the president's trip to asia. it got pyongyang's attention. korean state-run agency just released the following statement, quote, the gangster like imperialist are trying to stifle the dprk with nuke at any cost. they led bombers at the anderson

air force space on guam stealthily drill and they are super sonic and carry the largest conventional payload in the u.s. air force arsenal but were not armed last night. another error in the statement is the b1b lancers didn't fly over the korean peninsula. they were off the east coast according to the u.s. air force. we can expect more force of shows measures while the president is in asia but this also shows how easy it is for north korea to misread u.s. intent especially if they think the warplanes are nuclear capable and they aren't. the security adviser indicated the administration is considering returning north korea to the u.s. state sponsors of terror list. >> the president's cabinet is looking at this as part of the

overall strategy on north korea. a regime who murders someone in a public airport using nerve agent and a dispodic leader fits with terrorism with a range of other action. >> reporter: the president will be in asia for 12 days. for the first time in a decade three aircraft carriers will be in the vicinity. north korea could be preparing for another missile test. >> melissa: jennifer griffen, thank you. >> jon: the website politico with an excerpt of donna brazile saying hillary clinton effectively rigged the democratic primary against bernie sanders by taking control of the dnc's financing nearly a year before winning the

nomination and it's sparking comments from donald trump and democrats. >> the mainstream media is fake and phony i don't know they'll pick it up but that's a big story what you're saying. >> this say real problem. as democrats now we have to hold this party accountable. >> quickly, senator, do you agree with the notion it was rigged? >> yes. >> jon: let's bring in a senior policy writer for u.s. s for and an editor for "the washington examiner." here's what a statement a democrat put out. >> earlier today we heard from donna brazile what many people had discussed for a long time had turned out to be true. the dnc secretly chose their

nominee over a year before the primary election occurred. >> jon: she has long been a critic of the democratic national committee and was part of the leadership for a time and then resigned, as i recall. this got zero coverage. no mentions at all on any of the big three networks' evening newscasts. does that surprise you? >> it does surprise me because it's a fascinating attack on a senior democrat in hillary clinton and confirmed, proved what was clear to a lot of people and it was decided a year before the election and supporters have -- and it showed

how badly president obama damages the democratic party. one of the reasons hilary was able to take over the dnc so early was he left it $24 million in debt. it was basically bankrupt and she had to financially rescue it. the other extraordinary point is why does a senior democrat right now want to attack hillary clinton? i strongly suspect it's an effort by senior democrats even if they don't expect her to run again they want to make absolutely sure so they're exposing the stuff they have found out unearthed from the last election. >> jon: have you described it, david, as a nuclear weapon dropped on the democratic party. if that's the case, why isn't it getting much attention? i mentioned the three big networks didn't mention the

story at all. >> in fairness they only have 22 minutes a night and you have a flood of news. a tax bill and new fed care nomination and the mueller investigation. the story is out there but backward looking. this opened up a grenade when they're trying to unit ahead of the elections donna brazile threw this grenade. some said she's trying to sell books and it's not fair because some of it was known. we know hillary clinton had an agreement with the dnc. what is new is donna brazile, the chairwoman said it compromised the party's integrity but it basically gave hillary clinton full control of the strategy and fund-raising a

year before she had the nomination. this is going to make it harder for the democrats to reunite as they head into the 2018. >> jon: i want to turn our attention to what happened with twitter. the most powerful man in the world lost access to his twitter account for roughly 11 minutes yesterday. here's how the president wrote about it. he said my twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue plemployee. i guess the word is getting out there and having impact. what do you think a twitter employee on his or her last day of work was able to shut down the president's account? >> i have a certain amount of sympathy for twitter on this. there are always rogue employees in organizations on their last day they leave. the thing is twitter has grown so spectacularly quickly there are probably things still there, legacies of when it was a smaller company they'll have to

get around and fix. but they're not certifiably insane. it's not where the corporate executives said let's shut down the president's twitter account. you have to say losing donald trump from twitter for 11 minutes will not cause anyone to shed any tears. >> jon: it does boggle the mind if they don't have the safeguards in place for somebody to simply shut down the account. what would have happened if the employee decided to announce we're launching nuclear weapons against north korea or something like that? one wonders what a rogue employee could accomplish. >> it's troubling one employee has this power. we don't know how high up in twitter's organization this employee is. i'd be curious to know that but on the broader scheme that's why these tech companies becoming more pervasive in all of our lives are earning more scrutiny

from congress whether it's facebook, google or twitter. their power is pervasive in our lives including the president of the united states. i think through the next year and beyond that they'll be getting grilled by lawmakers on capitol hill and getting more scrutiny by the wider public. >> jon: it's pretty astounding. originally the company said it was a glitch but then turned out to be this rogue employee. gentlemen, thank you very much. >> melissa: a fox news alert. we're get verdict in the bergdahl case and it's reported there's no jail time. we have a live report on all that straight ahead.

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>> jon: the controversial case of soldier bowe bergdahl charged with desertion before the enemy it appears is coming to a close. laura ingel has the latest. >> reporter: army sergeant bowe bergdahl will spent no time and he'll be given a demention and pay reduced but no jail time for desertion. he pled guilty last month to endangering his comrades by walking off his post in afghanistan in 2009. this is a case we've been following closely and then captured by taliban allies and held for five years. prosecutors on the court-martial were asking for at least 14 years in prison pointing out to the judge his fellow as large as were seriously wounded for searchs for then private-first

class and he was shot in the leg and now walks with a limp. they searched for bergdahl though some of them knew he walked away on purpose. the sentencing phase of the t tribunal lasted eight days and could have gotten life and they started deliberating his fate yesterday after his lawyers pushed for leniency and asked for no prison time and got their wish arguing he previously undiagnosed mental illness when he walked off base that day. a doctor who testified say it includes a personality disorder and ptsd. once again army sergeant bowe bergdahl will spend no prison time for his desertion in 2009. >> jon: and getting a dishonorable discharge. >> reporter: that's what we're getting from the court. >> jon: the argument will go on but the verdict is in. thank you.

>> melissa: to former federal prosecutor doug burns for reaction on this. what's your initial take? >> i think a lot of people are going to be very upset and surprised. there's going to be a good deal of monday morning quarterbacking obviously. the prosecutors asked for 14 years prison time. i think everybody's going to have to dissect exactly what the judge did, what the reasoning was. my initial reaction is a little bit surprised, obviously. >> melissa: you talk about the cost it took to bring him back. we just heard about those wounded looking for him and there's the tremendous cost of the terrorists released from guantanamo bay in exchange for him. we put people back into action who were obviously very dangerous. that's another cost and thing that frustrates people. >> you just articulated the aggravating factors exactly right, melissa. the time and resources. the effect on those who were

with him and you're exactly right. again, i'm just hearing this and reacting and i'm a little surprised. obviously what i'm going to do and i suggest everybody does is it look at it closer and see how the judge broke it down. obviously there's the relationship between political discussions and court-martial and legal discussions and we go from there. >> melissa: part of the defense was a previously undiagnosed mental illness and talked about the fact he had ptsd but they didn't know it at the time and a personality disorder. are those things that would have been noticed before this happened? does that sit well with you, that defense? >> but now you point out a mitigating factor ostensibly so they may have been an important factor the judge took in. there'll be those who will argue that that's not significant enough to have resulted in a

non-prison sentence at all. but at the same time, as you highlighted, there's a factor that was potentially taken into account in reaching this dishonorable discharge with no prison time result. >> melissa: others made the argument that president trump said disparaging things about what was traded for him and that made it more difficult for him to get a fair hearing in this case. >> there was definitely some commentary. i think -- i'm not 100%, the judge may have referred to that in passing at one point, melissa, saying something about unfortunate remarks. i'm not 100%, as i said. but if that's true that would be something not necessarily a formal legal part equation but judge are human beings and i've been around them and practicing 32 years and maybe there was

some upset on the president's remarks on pending litigation. >> melissa: too you're just joining us no jail time for bowe bergdahl in the case against him for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. we'll be right back. (honking) (beeping) we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges.

>> melissa: they're calling it a bombshell. the bombshell by donna brazile is picking up steam. the president saying it was illegal and should be investigated. >> and remembers the president's fire and fury comment? well, the national security adviser saying don't expect mr. trump to tone down his rhetoric. whether that's the right

approach -- >> and we'll discuss and we'll see you then. >> melissa: the department of justice has identified at least six russian government officials as suspects in the 2016 hacking of the democratic national committee and prosecutors are now looking at filing criminal charges against them. joining me now is morgan wright a cyber security analyst at the center for digital government. morgan, i always wondered why this doesn't get more attention. the entire system was hacked and so much was caused because of this and the dnc didn't want to hand over their servers for inspection, right? >> they didn't want to collaborate and there's the podesta e-mails. this was a keystone cop events from the beginning. >> melissa: why do you think they didn't want to cooperate? >> i think donna brazile has a

lot of the answers in her book. i think there were smoking guns and things they were worried would be exposed and basic security measures would have happened like have two au -- thig will go on for years. the whole discussion and the indictment forthcoming reminds me of what happens with china. they're trying to make a statement. >> melissa: i'm glad you brought that up. you talk about indicting russian hackers. did they get arrested? they're not handing over -- >> not hardly. putin will not meet us at the border at east berlin and hand people over. it won't make it difficult to travel but the minute the indictment comes out they'll have to expose information on how they go about collecting information. we'll get more insight from the indictment on how they did it.

they'll hold some stuff back for national security concerns but here's the one lesson too, though. as much as you try it hide your trails in cyber space it's no anonymity or true privacy. as long as you have time and money you can track down and put the fingers behind the key board of would was doing this. >> melissa: real quick, any doubt it was russia? >> no, these are standard tactics. >> melissa: morgan we have to go. i appreciate it. president trump travelling to abroad to asia and what the president's trip could mean for efforts for the u.s. to de escalate the situation.

>> gotten a good plan for weekend? driving any contractors or any -- not many know that about you. i go i my quick tractors. i do have some plans but and

they might involve wings. >> and go out flying, very impressive. let me know. i'll come join you. >> thank you for joining us. >> "outnumbered" starts right now. >> we begin with the fox news alert. a military judge has found that bowe bergdahl shall serve no prison time for an endangering his comrades when he walked off the post in afghanistan in 2009 for it he also gave him a dishonorable discharge, reduce his rank to private, and that he must pay four fifths pay equal to $1,000 per month for ten months. he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and face up to life in prison. service members were wounded while searching for him after he vanished. he ended up getting held captive by the tele- band five years. and this fox news alert. on a big blow for democrats. former interim dnc chair donna brazile has acknowledged the committee tipped