13.3 men, women and children are taking anti-retroviral treatments and providing 6.4 million orphans with care and support. i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: it's 3:00 in washington where it's official. michael flynn has flipped. the one-time national security adviser entering a plea deal and promising to tell all, including that a senior member of the trump transition team told him to contact the russians. we have team fox coverage from the fall-out. what judge napolitano says could be a political crisis and the reaction pouring in. >> we're repeating the horrors of water gate and the shredding of our constitution. >> i don't see this going any further. i've seen no evidence indicating there's a connection between general flynn and the president. >> shepard: it is going further.

it's not over. even stocks rocked by the news diving to sessions lows after it broke. reaction from the president? none yet that we know of. a planned photo open cancelled. reporters escorted away from the room. let's get to it. first from the fox news deck on this friday afternoon, president trump's former national security adviser michael flynn says a senior transition official told him to contact the russian government after the election before the inauguration. this comes as we learned today that michael flynn has agreed to cooperate with the feds. flynn pleaded guilty to a felony count of lying to the feds in front of a federal judge this morning. he's the first to make a guilty plea in special counsel robert mueller's investigation. according to now unsealed feel

documents, michael flynn says a senior transition official said open the dialogue with the russian government. that was in december. flynn resigned in february after the white house said he lied to the vice president and other administration officials about his conversation with the russian ambassador. the feds didn't name the senior official in court documents but abc news investigative reporter brian ros reports that president trump himself directed flynn to contact the kremlin. fox news has not confirmed this. during a news conference in february, the president said he did not direct flynn to speak with the russian ambassador and said that flynn was just doing his job. here's that exchange. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> no, i didn't. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries. and his counter parts. so it certainly would be okay if he did it. i would have done him to do it. i didn't direct him but i would

have directed him because that's his job. i didn't direct him but i would have directed him if he didn't do it. >> shepard: flynn released a statement that read in part -- >> shepard: the president has not commented publicly. in fact, the white house cancelled a scheduled photo open with the president and the libyan prime minister. the event could have given reporter as chance to ask questions on camera. for instance, why did he lie. why have there been a series of lies from people so close to the president. all regarding russia. a lawyer for the president says mike flynn's plea deal does not implicate anyone in the trump administration except michael flynn. flynn was one of the president's earliest supporters and even participated in a lock her up chant against hillary clinton saying she should go to jail for sending classified e-mails from

a private server. >> lock her up! lock her up! you guys are good. >> shepard: that taunt came back to taunt flynn outside the courthouse this morning. >> lock him up! and they may. flynn faces up to five years behind bars for lying to the feds. but if the cooperation holds, the government indicates that it's agreed his incarceration would be zero to six months. the special counsel is looking into russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the kremlin and the members of the trump campaign. the white house and vladimir putin have repeatedly said there was no collusion. now we know there have been plenty of lies. team fox coverage. mike emanuel is on the hill with reaction. john roberts has breaking news.

john? >> yeah, shep. i learned from a source with intimate and full knowledge of the investigation and this is a single source but is a very knowledgeable source, that the trump transition official that was not named in the court documents, someone called a ptt official, the one with whom michael flynn spoke on december 29 about what to say to sergei kislyak is k.t. mcfarland and is now the u.s. ambassador to singapore. running more traps on this is a source with full knowledge of the investigation and a person who has seen all of the information that flynn provided to investigators. says that that unnamed official in the doj charging document is k.t. mcfarland. now to where we are now. that the great irony about all of this is in about ten minutes time, the president is going to talk to the press corps in the

mansion here at the white house. but it's all off the record because it's the white house press christmas party. the agreement going in was that anything that the president says will be off the record. it's not likely that he is going to mention any of this when he talks to the press at the reception. i can tell you this that the white house was taken by surprise. they watched news reports and saw what was going on on twitter. after talking with officials, i'm getting the sense that the white doesn't think this is going any further than michael flynn. the point here, he's being charged by the fbi and pleading guilty to the same offense that got him fired at the white house. ty cobb, who is the internal attorney on the russian investigation for president trump in a statement saying "the false statements involved me or the false statements to the white house officials that resulted in his resignation in february of this year. nothing about the guilty plea or

the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. the conclusion of this face of the special counsel's work demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion." the new wrinkle in all of this, shep, is this idea that on december 29 flynn contacted the transition official who we're told is k.t. mcfarland to find out what he should say in his telephone conversation with sergei kislyak. the president was march largo. the next day we heard from vladimir putin that russia was not going to up the ante in terms of any kind of response to which the president tweeted back that putin is a smart person. what we don't know is who else knew about this at the time. certainly the white house gave us no indication, shep, that

this phone call between flynn and kislyak was anything more than an icebreaker, get to know you sort of thing. we'll pull on that thread and see where it goes. >> shepard: the charge suggested that multiple members of the transition team were aware of the machinations here. >> it does. a lot of people that were there that day. president trump was immersed with meetings with his national security team. i was also told that while the president said in that press conference on february 16 that i did not instruct michael flynn to talk to kislyak about the sanctions. i would have. it's a good idea. you can connect the dots there and say the president knew what he was saying. he just didn't tell flynn to do it. >> shepard: k.t. mcfarland is a former fox news contributor that viewers may recognize here from the upper east side of

manhattan. john, this statement that the members of the trump team don't believe will go any further than michael flynn flies in the face of everything that is logical. a prosecution does not give a plea deal to someone unless they believe that someone has something on somebody higher than he. that's just how it works. >> shepard: yeah. one would certainly think that, shep. it is a wild card now that flynn is cooperating with mueller's investigation. what else does he know? i've talked to officials that have combed through thousands upon thousands of documents and they say that there's nothing in there to even suggest wrongdoing. we should point out that what flynn has been charged with has nothing to do with russia or collusion. it has to do with lying to investigators for whatever reason. so there could be a lot more there, you know, this could be the tip of a very big iceberg,

shep. the folks i talked to say that they don't think that this is going to go any further than it already has. we'll see. but there is another report out there because the other thing that flynn was lying about was a call that he made to russia to get them to try to dial back on a u.n. security council resolution regarding israel. a record out there that it was jared kushner that made the request to flynn to make that phone call. so we're pulling on that thread as well, shep. >> shepard: john roberts, as the news develops. team fox coverage continues. reaction from lawmakers. mike emanuel is on capitol hill. what are top national security democrats saying about mike flynn? >> shep, prominent national security democrats say that michael flynn was not just a 2016 campaign aide, he made it to a senior post at the white house. >> we've seen them try to distance themselves from the former campaign manager, paul

manafort. but they can't distance themselves from president trump's national security adviser who has acknowledged a crime. >> the top democrat on the house intelligence committee drew his own conclusion about what this means. big picture. >> these are very serious charges. this involves a national security adviser of the country lying to the fbi about his contacts with the russians on two serious subjects. and unfortunately, it's part of a broader pattern of people in the administration and the campaign lying about their contacts with the russians. >> nancy pelosi is calling this a dark moment in our nation's history, shep. >> shepard: mike, what are republicans saying? >> the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, senator richard burr didn't want to talk about it today. >> i have no comment. >> do you feel pressure to end the investigation because of the president's concern? >> others expressed their

sadness for general michael flynn who had a distinguished military career before getting in the political arena but also praising robert mueller in his serious probe. >> mueller has a mandate. he seems to be fulfilling that mandate. personally, i hate it for general flynn. i've known him a long time. he served his country for decades in the military. this is the way the process works. nobody is above the law. we'll see what happens. >> other prominent republicans on capitol hill are calling today's news disturbing and disappointing, shep. >> shepard: mike emanuel on capitol hill. thanks. as chance would have it, while mike emanuel was reporting just now, the president sent out a tweet. that tweet reads "the media has been speculating that i fired rex tillerson or that he would be leaving soon. fake news. he's not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, i call the final shots, we work well together and america is

highly respected again. if general flynn and the investigation of russia is on he's mind, he's not indicating it here if this is an attempt to change the subject, it's failed. much more ahead on michael flynn and his decision to flip on members of the trump team, including members of the president's own family. we'll get into what this could mean and the legal questions surrounding flynn's plea and we'll hear from judge andrew napolitano and what he calls a constitutional crisis. that's on a very busy afternoon on the fox news deck. . or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. ♪ let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. lease the 2017 is turbo for $299 a month for 36 months.

experience amazing at your lexus dealer. and there's a big difference between ordinary... and the best. which egg tastes more farm-fresh and delicious? only eggland's best. which egg has 6 times more vitamin d, 10 times more vitamin e, and 25% less saturated fat? only eggland's best. which egg is so special, i'd never serve my family anything else?

for me, it's only eggland's best. better taste, better nutrition, better eggs.

>> shepard: continuing coverage on fox's top story. michael flynn admits now that a senior member of the trump administration team told him to reach out to the russian officials and he did so. fox news senior judicial analyst judge andrew napolitano told the fox business network that we could be on the verge of a constitutional crisis. the judge is live on the phone. how so, judge? >> if robert mueller has enough evidence, credible evidence, with which to charge the president of the united states with a crime, the constitutional crisis will come, does he indict the president, which has never happened to a sitting president or does he transfer this evidence over to the house of representatives, which then will have political --

>> shepard: he could be indicted? >> he could, shep. again, this is not happened and we don't know where it would go if a sitting president is indicted. not all the evidence is going to come from general flynn. general flynn will lead them to others whom they will contact and indict and from whom they will extract information. he will probably also lead them to tangible things like e-mails and notes and memos and maps and the type of forensic evidence that prosecutors like to use. >> shepard: larry litman writes for "the new york times," it seems that president-elect trump directed mr. flynn to make contact with the russians. if mr. flynn testifies to this, abc's brian ross is reporting he will, it presents another impeachable offense along with the obstruction of justice. it brings the matter outside the purview of the criminal courts into the province of a political scandal indicating abuses of power well beyond those in the

watergate and iran contra affairs. your reaction. >> it would depend on when this occurred. if it occurred while he was a candidate and the purpose of communicating with the russians was to facilitate and encourage or justify their interference with the american political process, you have a very serious criminal offense, which would probably constitute an impeachable offense. if it occurred afterwards, after he was the president-elect, when he knew he was going to be president and was not concerned about be being president, you then have the interference with a foreign policy of the lawfully elected president, barack obama. that is an offense. i don't know if they are impeachable. certainly are in the category of offenses that would be impeachable. beyond this, the president of the united states has steadfastly repeatedly and consistently denied that he had any knowledge of any involvement

with the russians. if general flynn contradicts that in a credible way under oath, we have a serious problem on our hands. >> shepard: the crux of this as we have discussed here repeatedly and specifically about five months ago, why all of the lies? why? now the lies from flynn and manafort and papadopoulos and why lie after lie after lie. what is motivating you to lie? it appears that is at the heart of whatever this is. >> as i read the transcript of the statements that general made in court today and the documents he signed that were submitted to the court, shep -- this is why it's significant, as to when these conversations occurred, it appears that the conversations had two motivations. one was to interfere with the obama administration's foreign policy because once we get into this, we'll do something different. the other was to shield, to

deceive, to cover up whatever communications had occurred with the russians between the russians and the campaign before the election. yesterday you and i discussed this on your show. we talked about 30 known communications between the campaign and the russians. we know there were more. these would be the ones engaged in by general flynn himself. >> shepard: judge andrew napolitano, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> shepard: continuing coverage ahead of the fallout over michael flynn. first, john conyers is not resigning, not today. his lawyers doubled down. denied the claims of sexual misconduct against his client leaving many questions about the future of the congressman ahead. stay with us. what's inside the box. it's what's inside the person who opens it. give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions.

save 30% for the holidays at ancestrydna.com. morning on the beach 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.

>> shepard: more breaking news from capitol hill. a lawyer for john conyers says his client is not resigning despite multiple lawmakers calling for him to step down. top members of his own party have made that call. multiple former women staffers have accused conyers of sexual misconduct including one that says he invited her to his hotel room, stood there in his underway and tried to get her to touch him. conyers has repeatedly denied the claims against him. here's his lawyer during a news conference minutes ago. >> he will continue to defend himself until the cows come home. because unequivocally, unmitigatedly, he's indicating he's not sexually harassed anyone. >> shepard: even though he has not resigned from congress, john

conyers this week stepped down from his post as a top democrat on the house judiciary committee. he's now 88 years old. he recently went to the hospital we're told to be treated for dizziness and shortness of breath. his lawyer has said whether he worried about his health will allow him to continue. matt finn is live outside congressman conyer's home in detroit where the news conference happened. matt? >> shepard, there was some talk and expectation at the press conference that the congressman would resign but it's not happened. instead, his attorney is doubling down and continuing to deny any sexual harassment allegations against the congressman, primarily maryann brown who spoke to the press about her alleged sexual harassment allegations. the attorney for john conyers said that maryann brown attended social events with the congressman and convinced the congressman to hire his daughter.

that wouldn't have happened if she was an alleged victim of sexual harassment. he also said that the congressman's health is not good. he had undergone some tests and his doctors want him to continue to do some tests. here's more of what congressman conyer's attorney had to say. >> it will be congressman john conyers who will be the one to decide what it is he's going to do in terms of whether he's going to continue to represent the people. it's not going to be washington. >> there was also a $27,000 settlement between the congressman and maryann brown. today the congressman's attorney said the settlement was done legally, it's not an admission of guilt but a settlement to prevent further expensive litigation. there was also a confidentiality agreement with the congressman and mrs. brown but she chose to break the agreement. that's now why they're naming maryann brown.

shep? >> shepard: there's support for congressman conyers, correct? >> yes. two former employees for the congressman are speaking out on his behalf saying they witnessed the relationship between the women and the congressman and it was not inappropriate. one gentleman said she never expressed to me, mrs. brown, or to anyone that she was harassed in any fashion. in fact, she requested that the congressman hire her daughter. the congressman did hire her daughter. the congressman was concerned about women rights. the gentleman's name is shawn campbell. so right now the attorney saying that it's not off the table that he could resign and that could come in the next 48 hours. >> shepard: matt finn in report. there's report that the republican congressman blake ferrenhold is the lawmaker behind the $84,000 taxpayer funded settlement with a former

staffer accusing him of sexual harassment. that's the reporting of politco and others at this hour. the money apparently came from a little known treasury fund devoted to paying out settlements. we know one payment went towards a settlement, a sexual harassment claim over the past five years. the office of compliance, which handles workplace complaints on capitol hill releasing the information today. trace gallagher has more. what do we know about this claim from farenthold? >> we know the texas republican was sued by lauren green. she accused congressman farenthold of having dreams about her. she said that the congressman routinely drank to success.

she said if she complained, she would be fired. that lawsuit was settled out of court. that was public knowledge. we didn't know that taxpayers picked up the tab. green's lawyer won't confirm his client is the one that received the $84,000, but we have confirmed since 2013 only one complaint of sexual harassment has been settled out of the congressional slush fund and the amount was $84,000. >> shepard: what is farenthold saying? >> his office is only referring us to previous statements that they made when the case was resolved. at that time the congressman denied any wrong doing and said the reason he settled is because the ongoing cost of litigation and trial would have cost taxpayers a lot of money. so in essence without admitting the $84,000 was paid out of a congressional slush fund, farenthold is certainly intimating that in the end he saved the taxpayers a bundle of money.

at the time he said while i'm 100% support more transparency with respect to claims against members of congress, i can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the congressional accountability act prohibits me from answering that question. we should note other settlements have been made out of this fund, but they relate to age discrimination, disability, race and veteran discrimination accusations. only one sex harassment accusation, shep. >> shepard: thanks, trace. the senate ethics committee announcing they're opening a preliminary investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against al franken. six women have accused the democrat of touching them inappropriately. the most recently, an army veteran. she said senator franken groped her while they were taking a picture in 2003. in response to the accusations, senator franken says he never intentionally engaged in this kind of behavior.

he's apologized and he says he's cooperating with the ethics investigation. ahead, why did he flip? we're hearing the reasons from a source close to michael flynn himself. plus, what sort of political fallout could the president face? that's coming up after the bottom of the hour headlines next. you can't predict the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

>> shepard: fox report now. headlines from the fox news deck. the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, tells reporters we have the votes to pass the tax bill. a live look at the senate floor there where lawmakers have been debating the bill and voting on an amendment. the missile north korea launched earlier this week could potentially reach washington. that's the warning from the south korean defense officials. they say it's bigger than previous missiles the regime has tested. south korea's president apparently told president trump about his military assessment in a phone call last night.

an crowds lining the streets of nottingham england to see prince marry and his new american fiance. the couple making their first official trip together. the news continues on fox news channel. coming up, the investigation surrounding mike flynn. cause i e driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. and i don't share it with mom! right, mom? righttt. safe driving bonus checks. only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it.

>> shepard: continuing coverage on fox's top story. michael flynn and what may have led him to flip. we're hearing from a source that he felt emotional and financial pressure to plead guilty to lying to the fbi. remember, the president vigorously defended michael flynn and his character. paul manafort and george papadopoulos, they had their white house involvement down played. michael flynn was said to be a good guy. mr. trump asked robert mueller if he could easy on the flynn investigation. that didn't happen. we'll have more in just a

moment. well, now there's a report from abc news that flynn felt like president trump abandoned him in recent weeks. now he's promised to tell all as what is clearly the star witness for the prosecution. the chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has more. catherine? >> what i can confirm from my contacts close to flynn, he felt in the course of the campaign that he and his sources slaying dragons for president trump. and now after the election, president trump is in the top job and michael flynn is looking at the destruction of his finances and also today pleading guilty to the felony charge. my contact said that flynn not only felt financially broken but emotionally broken and that for the sake of himself and his family, they could really not sustain another two to three years of litigation to fight the

charges with the special counsel. so it was a financial decision, it was an emotional decision. it was about some distance from the president and also given his military experience, 33 years, he felt that he needed to step up and take responsibility for making some bad decisions. and then deal with the consequences, shep. >> shepard: katherine, we're hearing from james comey. >> well, this is not typical behavior of a former fbi director or current fbi director using social media. the former fbi director posts an image on instagram today of waters flowing through the rocks downstream and use that as a metaphor of how justice will prevail in the end. people can make up their own minds of whether that is appropriate or not. we have independent other news which raises interesting questions about the flynn case

as it goes forward. we were able to confirm from a source that is familiar with comey's testimony to congress while he was still fbi director that his agents had concluded that they felt flynn had either misspoken or was confused but did not deliberately mislead them about the conversations with kislyak. if you fast forward eight months to today, robert mueller's investigators reached a different conclusion that flynn deliberately misled them. so what we have to watch for now, if there's new evidence that helped them reach that conclusion, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge live at the courthouse. thank you. let's go to john bussey from the "wall street journal." he's also a fox news contributor. so we now know the list of people that lied is getting longer and longer. we know the number of contacts with the russians is getting larger and larger. what we don't know is why all of the lying and why all of the contacts. we don't know that. >> yeah.

so mueller is peeling the onion back. we're getting some answers to some questions and a lot bigger ones are still outstanding and now have been presented for the public to consider. why was the charging document just one charge? because we learned today explicitly that flynn is cooperating with the prosecutor and has more to say. so bigger fish down the road. that's the presumption that we can reach. why was president flynn trying to get the fbi director -- >> shepard: general flynn. >> why was the president trying to get general flynn off the hook with the former fbi director. >> shepard: which he clearly was. >> he said don't go after him. he's a good guy. >> shepard: can't you just go easy. >> same thing with members of congress. down playing the need for investigation, calling it a witch hunt. now we're beginning to see the answer to that why. that is that flynn has information that could be

damaging to the white house. in the charging document, is this mention of the discussion about sanctions. did you have a discussion with kislyak about doing something with the sanctions. >> shepard: on the same day the sanctions came down. he lied about contacting that day. then lied about the content of the conversation. now we know the truth of the conversation but we don't know if he said sanctions and how they came together. if you're going to do something nice for him on sanctions, why? >> yeah. the sanctions have been put in place by the obama administration as punishment to russian for interfering in the election. the fbi asked him, did you talk about sanctions? flynn said no. that's the lie that he was caught in. it's explicitly said there was the discussion about sanctions. that he had with kislyak. so what was that about? you know, another why comes up now. why was an incoming administration having a

discussion with the russians about possibly rolling back or doing something with the sanctions -- >> shepard: why would you do that? >> why? that leads to the bigger why that is still unresolved by the events today, which is we have a president that has been very keen on talking up better relations with russia. he's been tough on china and the -- >> shepard: tough on australia and angela merkel. >> neil: but russia seems to get a pass. we don't know the answer to that why. it may be as the president says, look, you know, it pays to have an ally even one that you haven't gotten along with for decades, pays to improve relations with that country. or is there something else. does it have to do with the election, does it have to do with sanctions, does have it to do with what flynn is now telling investigators.

>> shepard: we know that four of the people within the president's realm have either been indicted or have pleaded guilty. what we don't understand yet is the degree to which the president was involved, if at all. is flynn the answer to that as their new star witness? >> we don't know. he's getting almost a pass on a number of charges. >> shepard: an incredible deal. >> a great deal. >> shepard: a long list. >> yes. remember, the fbi is looking at collusion with russia and possible subsequent obstruction of justice. we don't know yet which way this is headed. >> shepard: if this is a ruse, fake news is a lie. >> i think that michael flynn pleading guilty to this charge today explicitly gives an answer to that question. it's not fake news. >> shepard: john bussey, thank you. >> pleasure. >> shepard: coming up, back to the white house for more on the

flynn fallout and how it could affect the president's agenda going forward. stay with us. keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future.

yours. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. touch is how we communicate with those we love, but when your psoriasis is bad, does it ever get in the way? embrace the chance of 100% clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to help people with moderate to severe psoriasis achieve completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms, or if you've received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. ready for a chance at 100% clear skin? ask your doctor about taltz today. and go to taltz.com to learn how to pay as little as $5 a month.

>> shepard: as we have been reporting, the president is blasting reports about a plan to replace his secretary state. the president says rex tillerson is not leaving. back to john roberts. john, this developing and this hour, the president sent out a tweet and we're hearing from rex tillerson now? >> yeah, the president obviously is blasting this as fake news even though i've been told by a number of people inside and outside the building that a departure of the secretary of state at some point early in the new year is widely expected, which is why they want to have a plan in place to replace him. when he met with the prime minister of libya today, rex tillerson was asked about it. he had a chance to -- as the horse's mouth, at least on his side, correct the record. listen here.

>> can you say something about how this is being handled? >> it's laughable. >> it's laughable, the secretary of state said. don't forget, a lot of these questions the way they have been posed are you going to push out the secretary state or does the president want you to leave or are you being fired? i'm not told, shep, by anybody in the administration that he's being pushed out. they're just planning for a logical chain of succession should he choose to leave early in the new year. so this may not be a case of the president pushing him out. it may be a case of the secretary of state just deciding he's had enough of being secretary of state and he wants to go off to the next phase of his life. there is a lot of talk here at the white house about what to do when he leaves. that's what we've got on that, shep. >> shepard: john, while you're here, how if at all does this

flynn guilty plea and beyond affect the president's agenda? >> let me ask you this, question. how many people are talking about a historic vote on tax reform in the senate today? not a lot. that was supposed to be the big news of the day. it's been completely blown off the headlines. it's looking like there could be a vote later today, which would be a huge feather in the president's cap. that was his signature legislative agenda issue that he wanted to get done. now all anybody is talking about is michael flynn. now that this is inside the white house, even though flynn is not there, it's going to be a cloud over everything. certainly it is going to muddy up the waters as the president tries to enlist russia's help in reigning in north korea and what to do about syria and try to get that place a little more stable and transition to a political solution of what to do with bashar al-assad. so it's basically going to create a mess for a long time

here at the white house until robert mueller comes out and says there's no there there or we're taking down a big fish. >> shepard: we don't know when that will be. john roberts on the north lawn. thank you, sir. stocks took a huge hit after the news about michael flynn. here's a live look at the dow. what a recovery it's been this afternoon. there's reasons for the drop and there's reasons for the recovery. we'll have them all for you coming up. millions of us suffer from the symptoms of dry eye. theratears® unique electrolyte formula, corrects the salt imbalance that causes dry eye. so your eyes will thank you. more than eye drops, dry eye therapy. theratears®.

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. we are the driven... the dedicated... the overachievers. we know our best investment is in ourselves. we don't take no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community.

who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner.

>> shepard: stocks tanked today for a while. abc news testified that michael flynn is ready to testify against michael flynn that the president himself told him to make contacts with the russians. it was a precipitous drop.

we were up pretty good, a few points against the 11:00 hour. off the chart it went. i'm not positive. i think it was done about 350? >> 343. >> shepard: 343 says gerri willis. the recovery is an interesting one. we're down .2% right now. 50 points. the reason for that is, tax plan came in. the republicans in the senate say we have the votes to pass this thing. wall street loves that. gerri willis is here with us. what does that tell us that wall street loves this tax plan? >> corporate taxes are going down. if you pay a lot of corporate taxes, transports are expected to benefit from this, you saw your stock price do well typically during the conversation about tax reform. the reason technology is doing well, big companies like amazon don't have much in the way of earnings. >> shepard: the real drop

happened when the abc news came out. is that about instability, uncertainty? >> it's more specific than that. wall street doesn't like washington to do anything at all. >> shepard: be quiet. >> a constitutional crisis or impeachment would be bad. wall street was chewing through it and see what it meant. top to bottom, that was a 400-point move. 400 points. the vic's spikes amazingly high. people were worried. but the turn around came moments later, 11:54. we saw lindsey graham say we have the 50 votes we need. here we go. the market made a big turn around. we've seen a big gain in the dow, which is a major market index this week. >> shepard: biggest ever. we're still at the biggest week ever. >> that's what i was going to say. you can have a big move like this, even if we ended 150

points down, we'll have the biggest week of the year. 24,000 is nothing to sneeze at. some day we're all going to refire. >> shepard: hopefully before the bottom falls out. history says what goes up must come down. >> old stock market lore. >> shepard: this is a new world. no. >> new old world. >> shepard: we have one more. that's when we get back. neil cavuto is next. at the lexus december to remember sales event. lease the 2018 es 350 for $319 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. the uncertainties of hep c.

wondering, what if? i let go of all those feelings. because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. ♪ this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box.

it's what's inside the person who opens it. ♪ give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions- and open up a world of possibilities. ♪ save 30% for the holidays at ancestrydna.com

>> shepard: on this day in 1959, antarctica bail a military-free continent. representatives of a dozen countries including the united states, the soviet union signed a treaty in washington. it was the first arms control agreement of the cold war. it banned weapons testing in antarctica, including nuclear weapons and set the continent aside as scientific preserve.

world leaders first signed that treaty 50 years ago today. "your world" with neil cavuto is coming up on america's choice for news and information on cable, fox news channel. >> neil: so much drama, so many constitutional survival questions. we thought what do we do to lead our show today? live on the very riveting, exciting floor of the united states senate. the best that i could do, folks. welcome. i'm neil cavuto. this is "your world." because what is happening down there actually is fairy historic. we're going to get to the other historic stuff with the former top adviser to the president pleading guilty to a charge that he lied to the fbi. that is a big deal. but this is a big deal, too. don't let the demeanor feel you. they're going to go into sort of a