so tomorrow we're going to talk turkey. president trump will take part in the annual turkey pardon at the white house. you can see the birds lounging around today. thanks for joining us. i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast. president trump says he's officially designating north korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. why he says he's making that move and what it means ahead. the democratic senator al franken facing a new accusation that he groped another women. this time while he was a senator. we're hearing for a woman that accuses roy moore of alabama of sexually abusing her when she was 14. her story ahead. let's get to it. a live look at the white house where the briefing is set to begin at any moment. there's no shortage of headlines on a monday afternoon.

we'll begin with president trump adding north korea back to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. the president says the treasury department will have more on penalties starting tomorrow. the president added this should have happened years ago. >> in addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, north korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil. our thoughts turn to otto warmbier, a wonderful man, and the acts by the north korean oppression. >> shepard: you heard the president mention otto warmbier. he spent a year locked up in north korea after accusations that he stole a poster. he died days after returning to the united states in a coma. north korea is joining iran,

sudan and syria as state sponsors of terror. notably saudi arabia is not on that list. the north koreans were so designated for a decade before president bush removed them in 2008. that decision like today's had to do with north korea's nuclear program. let's turn to gordon chang, a foreign affairs journalist and author of "nuclear show down." what significance has this? >> it's sending a signal to the president of china that the president is going to amp up the pressure on north korea. president bush, george w. bush, took north korea off the list in 2008. that was a political act. he wanted to aid nuclear negotiations. president obama, 2014, should have added north korea back on the list for its threats against american theater goers.

he didn't do that. this is another political act. the important thing is what he's saying, you're bad actors, i'm going to get you. >> shepard: what does it mean? >> the sanctions that the north koreans will see will be enhanced. a lot are in place anyway. with the designation, we can't sell weapons to north korea. we're not selling them weapons anyway. the u.n. security council has banned the weapons sales anyway. what is really important is what president trump put in place september 21 with his executive order. if he enforces that, that really is going to put the north koreans in a bad place. >> shepard: gordon chang, nice to see you. a second woman is accusing al franken of inappropriately touching her. this time when he was a senator. lindsey mens told cnn that franken grabbed her rear end in

2010. she said it made her feel gross and she told her husband what happened. cnn reports franken says he does not remember taking that photo but says he feels bad that the woman felt disrespected. last week los angeles radio host leeann tweeden accused franken of groping her. she also released this photo from a uso tour. senator franken apologized. a spokesperson told star tribune newspaper that the senator would not resign. he's spending time with his family in washington d.c. and will be through the thanksgiving holiday and doing a lot of reflecting. that was before this new accuser came forward. mike emanuel has the news. he's live in washington. mike? >> shep, good afternoon. no surprise some women lawmakers are angered by what senator franken has been accused of

doing. >> i'm talking about what the outcome would be if the ethics committee proceeds with an investigation, which i believe the ethics committee is going to do. but i did find the allegations against him to be credible, disgusting and appalling and degrading to women. >> some are talking about steps being taken in congress that would require lawmakers to take sexual harassment training every year. >> clearly we're not where we need to be. part of it is educating members and staff on what is appropriate behavior in the workplace. we have significant work to do. i'm encouraged the house is taking action. >> shepard: some breaking news. sarah sanders is at the white house at the briefing podium. apparently has a guest. let's listen. >> one of the primary goals of his asia trip is to pursue the

denuclearization of the korean peninsula. this designation will impose increased sanctions on north korea that will continue our progress towards that goal. additionally, a reminder that north korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism. the president's position is this: the north korean regime must be lawful. this afternoon, we have secretary of state rex tillerson with us to answer some of your questions on this topic. he's going to come up and make a couple remarks and then take questions and as always, i'll be back after that to answer other news of the day. mr. secretary? >> thanks, sarah. as sarah indicated, the president did make this designation earlier today, announced it in the cabinet meeting. i think it's just the latest step in a series of, as you can see, ongoing steps to increase

the pressure, i call it the peaceful pressure campaign. the president calls it the maximum pressure campaign. so there's no confusion, they're one in the same. this is to hold north korea accountable for actions they have taken the last several months, the last year or so. some of you will know that north korea was designated as a state sponsor of terror in 1988. so they have been designated before. that designation was lifted in 2008 as part of an effort to negotiate with north korea an end to their nuclear program. that obviously failed. because we can see where we are today. as a result of the assassinations they have attempted, using chemical banned weapons, puts the public at risk as well. that along with a number of

actions they have taken resulted in their designation as a state sponsor of terror. as sarah indicated, the practical effect is we already have many of these actions in place through the current sanctions. may disrupt and dissway some heard the parties of interacting with north korea. i think importantly, this is just continuing to point out north korea's illicit, unlawful behaviors internationally. we felt it necessary to reimpose the designation for that reason. with that, happy to take questions. i'm going to let sarah referee. i'm no good at refereeing. >> thank you. is this move an intent to incentivize kim jong-un towards negotiations? it's been more than 60 days

since we've seen a test. you think that timetable is promisi promising? why wait until we're back in the u.s.? >> no, we still hope for diplomacy. the timing of this is concluding the process. there's a specific designation process that we have to go through at the state department to meet the criteria to make such a designation. we wanted to ensure we met all of those requirements. again, this is part of continuing to turn the pressure up. we continue to turn the pressure up on north korea by getting other countries to join and take actions on their own. we've had other countries in our visits to vietnam, they have said they would curtail activities further. malaysia has indicated a curtailment, singapore has cut off all trade, the philippines have cut off all trade.

the deputy secretary state has been in africa. he had meetings with the sudanese government. they have halted all of their purchases. this has taken effect all around the world. this continues to tighten the pressure on the kim regime, with an intention for him to understand this is going to get worse until you're ready to talk. >> and in the 60-day window -- >> we're hopeful that he continues this quiet period. that's our objective. that he continues to be quiet as well. this designation is one that we're required to undertake from time to time. we've been monitoring the situation. we wanted to be sure we had sufficient evidence before making the designation. a process that started several months ago.

>> you mentioned that you've increased pressure against the north korean regime. have you seen indicated that it's work something how long before you go down this path and there's a change of strategy? >> we have a lot of anecdotal information that it's working and we have our intelligence services as well. we know that there are current shortages of fuel, based upon what we can gather anecdotally and certain intel sources. we know that their revenues are down because a number of the revenue streams are being curtailed now. so it's having an effect. is this the reason we haven't had a provocative act in 60 days? i don't want to suggest to you that i can say. but we're hopeful this period will continue. again, i think the president in his address in seoul, south

korea to the general assembly, i thought he laid out the case to them that he wanted them to come have talks. he wants to deliver a different future to the people of north korea. >> thank you, mr. secretary. a couple for you. the first, can you give us an example of a third party transaction that was not covered by existing american sanctions on the security council sanctions? >> there could be some equipment that could be added now. i think we already have north korea so heavily sanctioned so many ways with the u.n. resolutions that have been undertaken. but this will close a few additional loop holes off. >> and you and the president referred to assassinations plural. we know about kim jong-un at the

airport. can you give us another assassination on foreign soil? >> i don't have anything i can share with you specifically. >> there seems to be more unilateral sanctions to come. has china agree? have you given up? >> let me say this with china. we continue to talk with them, that they are surely committed to implementing all of the u.n. sanctions, which they have said they are. the last round of u.n. sanctions were finished products like jet fuel and diesel. we said you control that oil pipe line that feeds their factory. you can do that on your own to increase the pressure. whether they're doing that or not, we don't know. it's difficult for us to know whether they're taking actions

to curtail all supplies to them. >> secretary, earlier today president trump said that th this -- the treasury department will announce more sanctions. it's one of the highest level of sanctions. can you give us insight what those additional sanctions may be? >> i'd like to leave to it the treasury to announce them. they're similar to sanctions that we've taken in the past. we're going out broadly to more entities. i'd like to leave it to them tomorrow and not jump the gun on them. >> and have you seen today's announcement as more symbolic or something that has teeth to it? >> it's very symbolic on the one hand. it points out again what a rogue regime this is and how brutal this regime is and how little they care for the value of human life. so i think if -- that in and of

itself makes a strong statement, the nature of this regime. the practical effects may be limited but hopefully we're closing off a few loop holes with this. >> thank you, mr. secretary. if china does not agree to cut off oil shipments to north korea, how can we possibly get enough pressure on them to come -- >> their fuel supplies are already quite constrained. we have evidence that there are fuel shortages in north korea. obviously the civilians are by and large the ones that can't get fuel. so we see long lines of vehicles at petro stations and certain petro stations that appear to be out of fuel when they're normally open. fuel supplies are quite tight. they only refine a small amount of fuel internally. they have one finery that operates and it's at a low

capacity. so they're heavily dependent on finished fuels, which have been constrained significantly. >> the chinese action, is it essential? do you need china to cut off those oil shepments? >> i don't know that the it can -- cutting off of oil is the magic bullet that will bring them to the table. the north koreans have demonstrated in the past, they have a capacity to stand a lot. they'll make their people but they have an enormous capacity to stand a lot. i don't want to suggest that that one action is all it would take to get them to the table. >> i want to pick up on olivia's questions about the assassinations. how determinative is that that you make this determination?

and you ambassador haley spent time with the president today. can you tell us about that meeting and any substance that came up in it? >> the assassination in malaysia was a significant event that caused us to really begin to look carefully what else they might have been doing. that assassination involved the use of a chemical agent, a very dangerous agent in a public place. so that really got our attention. one of the things that we wanted to ensure that we had a sufficient certainty around their role in that particular assassination. so we've been working with malaysian authorities as well. been in conversation with them. wanted to let them have their own process obviously play out as well. with respect to ambassador bailey and i, we were just in the cabinet meeting today. >> without getting much into it, there had been a suggestion from the north korean media about

violence towards the u.s. president. that was a determinative factor at all? >> no. >> you talked about assassination on the foreign soil. russia has been accused of assassinations on foreign soil. should they be considered for the same sort of designation? >> i think we have to consider every country that would take a substance like that and use it illegally. >> two quick questions for you. how do you balance the impact of sanctions? you talked about the people of north korea paying the price. this is something that you consider when you talk about the sanctions? >> it's always a difficult choice you make when you impose sanctions on who will bear the burden here. the truth of the matter is, the people of north korea already

live under enormously difficult conditions. what we're focused on is a mission that will change north korea's trajectory, change their path. that's the best way we can help the north korean people in the future, is to have kim jong-un reverse his nuclear weapons program. allow us and the rest of the world to engage with them in economic activity that will provide a better life for his people. >> you believe that the united states is running out of diplomatic options to respond to the threat of north korea? >> i do not. >> for one last question. >> thank you, mr. secretary. you talked about the limited intelligence on north korea and on the regime. is there any evidence of any dissent in pyongyang at all or possibly reaction about the current government by other members of the kim family even or other opponents to him?

>> i want to be careful about how i answer that. what i would comment on is you're well aware of a number of executions that have occurred within his inner circle. within many of the military people that are close to him. so i'll leave to it your own interpretation. >> thank you, mr. secretary. >> thank you. hold on. we'll get to more questions. thanks to secretary of state for coming in and answering questions. as many of you to shift gears on, some happier notes, i'm sure a lot of you have started to notice that the christmas season has officially arrived here at the white house. this afternoon, the first lady

and baron trump will receive a beautiful 19-foot christmas tree, which will serve as the official tree on display in the blue room. the tree will arrive via horse-drawn wagon and be presented by jim and diane chapman and their son from wisconsin. the chapmans were grand champion winners of the 2017 national christmas tree contest sponsored by the national christmas tree association. the ncta has presented the official christmas tree since 1966. the grand champion grow erwins the privilege of present ago tree to the white house and we're excited to have them here today for the 52nd time. as you probably also know, we have other holidays like thanksgiving coming up. this will be our last press briefing before the thanksgiving holiday in this room. so i want to share a few things that i'm thankful for. i think it would be nice for you guys to do so as well before asking your questions.

obviously you probably know and it's no secret that i'm clearly very thankful for all of you here in the room. i think that goes without saying. in all seriousness, i'm thankful for my family, my faith, particularly for the brave men and women of the military, many of whom who are away from their families protecting the freedoms that all of us in this room and across the country enjoy. i'm thankful for the police, the firemen and first responders that keep us safe at home. i'm thankful for the incredible privilege of serving this president and the american people. this is how it's going to work today. since i'm here and i call on you, if you want to ask a question, i think it's only fair since i shared what i'm thankful for that you start off with what you're thankful for. anybody want to be first? april, you've been so eager. i'm going with you to start us off on what you're most thankful for. >> i'm thankful for life, i'm

thankful for my children and 20 years in this job. i'm thankful to be able to talk to you and question you every single day. >> i feel the gratefulness there. >> now my question. i hope you felt the passion. so the question is, if i didn't get a chance to ask secretary tillerson, there's a black hole when it comes to intelligence when it involves north korea. he was talking about that things will get worse until they're ready to talk. with that said, the rhetoric is still amping up. what is the concern about the intelligence that we don't know about? what do we know as relates to the nuclear capabilities of north korea and what are the concerns about the things that we don't know? >> i mean obviously the biggest concern is making sure that we take steps every day to protect americans. that's what the action of the president, that he's taken today and the treasury department will

take tomorrow, again, putting the maximum pressure on north korea to put a very large focus on denuclearizing the korean peninsula. that's the top priority and will continue to be our priority. we don't feel they're there yet and we want to make sure that we're taking steps to prevent them from getting any further into this process. i can't go really deep into specifics on information like that. certainly again, the priority of the administration is to protect americans and partner with our allies and our friends around the globe to do that. i think that's what you're seeing in some of the actions that took place today and you'll see again tomorrow. >> the back and forth twitter -- >> i'm sorry. i'm going to keep moving. >> i understand. but does the president -- >> i'm sure that one of your colleagues will happily ask. >> does the president regret his tweet -- >> april, i'm starting to regret

calling on you first. >> you're thankful for all of us -- >> i am, but i don't want that to go away. franchesca? >> i'm grateful for you calling on me regularly. i'll follow your lead. thankful for the service members and police. my dad is a police officer and my brother is in the service. thankful for their service. i want to ask about something that kellyanne conway said this morning on "fox and friends" about the alabama senate race. show brought up tax reform. they said the democrat in that race would not be a vote for tax cuts. she did not endorse the republican running, roy moore. but however, it opened the door to a question that we haven't discussed yet. whether the president would be supportive of a write-in candidate like luther strange or jeff sessions who is attorney general? both of those are going around.

>> actually we have addressed it. the president feels it up to the people of alabama to make that determination who their next senator will be. i've answered a number of questions on this topic and our position has not changed over the weekend. certainly still the same as it was when i answered the questions thursday and on friday. >> you said whether the president would support a write-in candidate -- >> we said we support the people of alabama making the decision on their senator. john decker? >> thanks, sarah. i'm thankful for my health, my family, my faith. i think i live in the best country on the face of the earth. >> isn't this nice? >> i'm thankful that you address us here every day. and my question is about the senate race and alabama. this is an unusual question. normally we wouldn't ask you a question about the republican nominee running for statewide office and whether or not the president is supportive of the republican nominee.

my question is just that. would you be pleased if roy moore wins his senate race in alabama? would the white house be pleased with that outcome? >> obviously the president wants people both in the house and the senate that support his agenda, but as i've said and as the hat check prohibits me from going any further, we think this is something that the people of alabama should decide. i'm not going to weigh-in anything further beyond those comments. blake? >> thank you, sarah. i'm thankful for my wife who is pregnant with our child. >> congratulations. very exciting. >> thankful for my family, my parents. >> good luck. number 2 gets harder. >> i'm thankful that they sent me to the university of michigan and not ohio state. go blue. i'll get that out there. my question is on taxes as well. the president said that democratic help is all but gone

for. you think you can get democrats on board? >> we would like to. i don't know why democrats don't want to support tax cuts for the middle class. as we said before, seems like something they should be running to cast their vote for and we welcome their support if they want to help in that effort. >> thank you. i'm thankful for the first amendment. kellyanne conway -- i want to ask a question a different way. she was here on the north lawn. she said that she warned alabama supporters not to be fooled by doug jones. is it the position of the white house that the voters of alabama are better off voting for an accused teen sexual abuser than a democrat? >> as i've said last week, the position of the white house

hasn't changed. we feel like the people of alabama should make the determination on their next senator should be. i'm giving you the answer of the position of the white house. jim? >> i'm grateful for my daughter and my family. i went to ohio state as opposed to university of michigan. >> we'll let that slide. >> my question is, does the question regret helping the ucla basketball players and what question does that send to other u.s. citizens held captainive by a foreign give? >> the president was happy to help the students. it's unfortunate that the president has built a strong enough relationship with president xi that he helped security the american citizens. when the president can use his office and those relationships to help american citizens held overseas, he certainly will do

that. again, certainly the president was happy to intervene. i think he's made that clear by taking that action upon himself to do that without being asked. certainly something that he's done several times in these brief short ten months that he's been in office where he secured the release of several american citizens and brought them home. steve? >> sarah, i'm thankful for surviving our 12 days in asia. happy to be back here. the presidents that not made a weekly radio broadcast for more than a month now. have they been scrapped by this administration and if so, why? >> no, we're always looking for different ways. we received a lot of feedback that the weekly address wasn't being used to its full potential. we're looking at revamping that and making it more beneficial.

we'll keep you posted. >> will there be one? >> there will be a thanksgiving message. i'll follow up with you on that front. >> sarah, i have a really quick roy moore question and then i want to ask you about welfare reform. has the president talked to roy moore since november 9, the day that these accusations first came out? >> not that i'm aware of. >> and today the president said that welfare reform is desperately needed. it needs to be reformed. what is he talking about? is he talking about food stamps, medicaid? what is he talking about? >> there's no secret the president has spoke about this during the campaign. something that he's mentioned briefly since taking office. when we have specifics on what that will look like, we'll roll them out. i don't anticipate that happening in the next couple

weeks. we're focused on tax reform. this is something that the president has a great deal of interest in and i think you can count on probably the first part of next year seeing more specifics and details come out. zeke? >> you mentioned friday that. [inaudible] >> you did break the rule. >> can you explain why the president thought it was necessary to. [inaudible] and if you can talk about the president's usual takes for the supreme court and the judiciary and talk about how the white house values or doesn't value diversity among the judiciary when -- [inaudible] >> certainly valued diversity not just in the judiciary but across the administration and always looks for more ways to

grow that, improve that. in terms of the release friday, the president hasn't added new names in nearly a year and felt like there was a good time for it. there's nothing more to read to it if there's a vacancy to fill. >> [question inaudible] >> individual to look at the specifics before i could comment. margaret? >> thank you. i'm thankful also for the first amendment. and for this exercise. >> it's good preparation for everybody for thursday with your family. you guys will already have thought through what you're thankful for. you'll be the most prepared. >> can you say whether the president or the white house actively encouraged the justice department to move forward with the merger with at&t and

time-warner? >> no, i'm not aware of any specific action taken by the white house. >> do you have a view on that? would you have any statement -- >> not at this time. >> my gratitude. i'm greatful to fill in for john roberts. i'm grateful to only have a month left. i have a lot to learn. my question is back to the ucla basketball players. president trump over the weekend, he called them ungrateful. i'm just curious. the players have already apologized in their briefing last week. so what more would president trump like to see from them. what would satisfy him? >> look, i think the president, like i said, was happy to intervene. i think it was less about the

players and the father of one of the americans releasing to have a problem with it. frankly, didn't seem like the father wanted the president to intervene, which would have been a sad thing if he hadn't. matthew? >> does he believe that he really should have left the players in jail? >> no. if that's the case, he wouldn't have taken the action that he did around certainly acted in order to help get those individuals released and brought back to the country. matthew? >> following on that, if that's not how he feels, why did he say that he should have left them in jail -- >> look, the president -- it was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father. again, i think the president was happy to see the release of these individuals and have them back in the united states. take one last question. john? >> thank you, sarah. i'm thankful for the position i have and the colleagues that are my friends. i'm thankful for my father, 96

years old and growing strong and to my wife, my heroin for saying yes on the fourth request. my question is about zimbabwe. [laughter] >> anything segue. best ever. >> that's the best pivot i've ever seen. >> will the administration recognize the new regime that apparently is being led by general chuenga in zimbabwe and will there be interaction with the government, and specifically about their cutting back on the influence of china and north korea in their country. >> i don't have any announcements on our relationship with zimbabwe at this time. certainly we'll make sure to keep you guys posted. again, i want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving and thank

you for participating in this very fun exercise. we'll be around today and tomorrow. thanks, guys! >> shepard: so aside from north korea, which we covered off the top of the news cast at 3:00 white house time, one of the big topics today seems to be kellyanne conway and her comments this morning. the white house adviser doing a 180 on whether people should vote for the senate candidate, roy moore of alabama. four women have accused roy moore of sexual assault or harassment. we'll hear from one of the women here in just a moment. four other women said he pursued relationships with them when he was a teen and he was in his 30s. roy moore denies the accusations. president trump has not responded to questions on the matter. in fact, he's not commented at all on those accusations or whether moore should quit the senate race.

listen carefully to what the president's counselor, kellyanne conway said on this network this morning on whether the people should vote roy moore? >> so vote roy moore? >> i'm telling you, we want the votes in the senate to get this tax bill through. >> shepard: vote for roy moore? we want the votes. they don't think the democrat will have the votes. so what is she saying? >> just last week, kellyanne conway said no vote was that important. listen. >> the principle is that there's no senate seat that is worth more than a child. we all want to put that forward. >> shepard: so no senate seat is worth more than a child. presumably what happens to these children, do they believe them or not believe them and if they don't believe them -- well, kellyanne conway said that president trump has no plans to campaign for roy moore. you heard the questions asked in the briefing room there and

reverting to we want alabamians to do what alabamians want to do except that kellyanne conway, adviser to the president said we want the votes. so dog whistles don't make noises or i would make a whistle. jonathan serrie is live in alabama. did you hear the whistle? >> i'm trying to piece it together from what i've been hering here out of the white house briefing and kellyanne conway. what i'm hearing is even though president trump is not officially campaigning for roy moore, he's certainly not campaigning against him. how does that affect the moore campaign? the moore campaign so trying to portray itself, trying to portray their candidate as the most likely candidate to enact the trump agenda. this morning trump tweeted something to the effect of doug jones and the senate equals no wall. referring to doug jones, his democratic challenger.

moore is trying to capitalize on alabamian's sense of independence, reminding them that the december 12 general election is about their decision, not what folks in washington are telling them to do, shep. >> shepard: jonathan serrie in birmingham. thanks. let's turn to alex isenstadt from political. i heard sarah sanders say leave to it the people of alabama. i heard kelly conway kind of say something different. >> yeah, it's interesting. we're hearing mixed messages from the white house on this. right now the white house is not taking any kind of hard line against roy moore. on one hand, they're saying perhaps it's up to the people of alabama to make this decision. on the other hand, we want roy moore to win. whatever you call it, they're not really taking a hard line tact against him. it's got to be frustrating for people close to leader mitch mcconnell who really wanted the

white house to put some pressure on roy moore, particularly after trump came back from the 12-day asia trump. republican senate leaders wanted the president to intervene and it's not happening right now. >> shepard: he did mention the al franken issue. there's photographic evidence but didn't involve a minor child. >> that's right. that's what makes this situation even more vexing. he's willing to attack al franken on twitter but not willing to weigh-in on roy moore. this issue is a sensitive one for donald trump because he faced his own accusations of sexual misconduct prior to the election. he has to be careful in terms of how he addresses this topic. >> shepard: very interesting. thanks, alex isenstadt from politco. it was a rhetorical response. that's what we just heard from

the white house after he tweeted he should have left the three ucla student athletes in a chinese jail. he should have left them there. the president reacting to comments of one of the students. you heard that and playing itself out in the white house briefing. we'll have the background an and update from trace gallagher. that's next. morning on the beach was so peaceful. until... it... wasn't. don't let type 2 diabetes get between you and your heart. because your risk of heart attack or stroke is up to four times greater. but there are steps you can take to lower your cardiovascular risk. talk to your health care provider today about diabetic heart disease. and find out more at heartoftype2.com. your heart and type 2 diabetes. make the connection.

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for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. >> shepard: more news, if you will, out of the white house briefing. the white house officially said the president was speaking rhetorically when he said he should have left three college basketball players in jail in china after they faced accusations of shoplifting there. sarah sanders speaking moments at the white house about it. here it is. >> it was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father. again, i think the president was happy to see the release of these individuals. >> shepard: the thing is, afterwards he said he should have left them in the jail. that's what he tweeted. president trump tweeted exactly that, leaving the students in

jail after the father whom sarah sanders just mentioned of one of the children or one of the players downloaded the president's -- down played the president's role in getting them out of china. the father's name is lavar ball. he's liangelo ball. liangelo is a students at ucla. the father told espn that everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out. president trump said he spoke to the president of china during the meeting in beijing about the releasing of the players. the president tweeted last night, quoting now, shoplifting is a very big deal in china as it should be. five to ten years in jail. not to father lavar. should have gotten his son out during my next trip to china instead. this is after he said he should have left him in jail. now he changed the tweet to be this. china told them they were released, very ungrateful. in another tweet earlier, the president said he should have

all three players behind bars. what is he saying? trace gallagher is live in los angeles. is the message here once i do something, you better be thankful for me or i should have left you in jail? that's what it sounds like. >> it does. and we should note off the top, the players themselves, talking about the three have thanked the president. and lavar ball is known for stirring things up. he has the big baller brand for the family and the ball in the family facebook reality show. they have done well. but lavar ball has made outlandish claims saying he could have beaten michael jordan one-on-one and his son is better than steph curry although lonzo has one of the lowest shooting percentages for a rookie guard in history. lavar ball said i'm from l.a.,'s seen worse things happen than a guy taking glasses.

my son has built up enough character and one bad decision doesn't define him. the critics say the president gave lavar ball exactly what he wanted, which was a great deal more exposure and this thing continues to go on, shep. >> shepard: trace, this has been kind of a political football along the way. >> and really, it's back and forth along the party lines. you have california democratic congressman adam schiff that said this. the president would have left american students in a foreign jail because their families didn't lavish sufficient praise on him? how can someone in a big office be so small and the white house also said this just minutes ago. watch. >> i think that the president, like i said, was happy to intervene. i think it was less about the players and more about one of the fathers of the americans

having a problem with it. didn't seem like the father wanted the president to intervene, which would have been a sad thing if he hadn't. >> a couple of things we should know, we found a case where a chinese woman was sent to prison for ten years for stealing a cell phone. legal experts said it would be highly unlikely for these players to get any jail time at all for shoplifting, although they also point out that in fact they could be caught up in the chinese legal system for several months. so in essence, they believe that the president did these families a favor by helping secure their release. shep? >> shepard: fair enough. trace gallagher, thanks, sir. america's top nuclear commander says he would refuse an illegal order from president trump or anybody else to launch or any previous president -- in other words, if you tell me to do something illegal, i'm not going to do it, including launching a nuclear weapon. the general might not get the final say because president trump would have options. the options are next.

prudential asked these couples: how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges.

>> shepard: there's new reporting and breaking news from the "wall street journal." the journal is reporting in a headline that was out 4 minutes ago, the u.s. justice department will challenge the at&t and time

warning deal. at&t trying to purchase time-warner and our competitors at cnn. seems like the justice department is getting into the middle of it. more details throughout the next hour as they become available. the country's top nuclear commander starting a debate after he said that he would resist an order for an illegal nuclear launch from president trump. the air force general john heighten on the left here said that an international security forum this weekend. a top pentagon adviser said he could tell the defense secretary to ord the launch. if the commander still resisted, you either get a new secretary of defense or get a new commander. jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. jennifer? >> the reports came at the halifax security conference. the general is the four-stair air force commander that

overseas u.s. strategic command near omaha, nebraska. he said if the president of the united states gave him an illegal order to launch a strike against another country, he would refuse the order. >> i provide advice to the president. if he tells me what to do. if it's illegal, guess what will happen? >> you say no. >> i'm going to say no. he said what will be legal and we'll come up of options. that's the way it works. >> a legal order to fire a nuclear we include defending the homeland if a nuclear weapon were fired at the u.s. an illegal order would include a preemptive strike. that's really what is being debated in light of the president's escalating rhetoric. >> what else could congress do to create checks and balances on launching a nuclear strike? >> congress could basically set up -- they could pass

legislation that required the defense secretary and the secretary of state to agree with the president. right now the president has the sole authority. remember, even if the president fires the defense secretary and gives the order, there's five land crews out in nebraska that have to turn the key at the same time. they would all have to agree to fire that weapon. >> jennifer griffin with news bubbling. nice to see you. thank you. the final bell will toll in a couple minutes on wall street. stocks are up on the day largely speaking. oil is off a little bit. the dow having a good session. neil cavuto and the best and business coming up. should news break out, we'll break in. breaking news changes everything on fox news. neil cavuto is after this. pill. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong.

>> today the united states is designated north korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. this designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on north korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime. >> neil: welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. you're watching "your world." when you thought the hermit kingdom continue be more alienated, the administration said they were going to do their darndest to make sure it was more ostracized by naming them a state sponsor of