more kids. good news indeed. good for you, charlotte. thanks for that great story. i'm dana perino. here now is shepard smith. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house where we're investigating the report that president trump once tried to fire the special counsel, robert mueller. we'll tell you what our reporters hear from sources inside the white house and how the president is denying the story. president trump on retweeting a far-right british group. >> given the amount of offense it caused, do you regret the retweets? >> no. >> do you wish you hadn't done it? >> the debate over the dreamers. people as children were brought here to the united states by their parents without documents. the white house with a new plan giving nearly two million a pass to citizenship. the one democrats says is not a proposal, it's a ransom note.

some conservatives are not supporting it either. nobody seems to like it. let's get to it. happy friday from the fox news deck. president trump pushing back against "the new york times" report that he tried to fire the special counsel, robert mueller, who had been on the job a few weeks. >> fake news, folks. fake news. >> what is your message today? >> "new york times," fact stories. >> shepard: the times told the white house counsel don mcgann to get rid of robert mueller, but eventually backed down when mcgann threatened to quit. a source tells fox news that is not what happened. saying the. only talked about the idea of firing mueller. the meeting about dismissing the special counsel happened weeks after the president fired the former fbi director james comey over what the president himself

called the russia thing. president trump said earlier this week he's looking forward to meeting with the special counsel, mueller, and he will absolutely do so under oath if his lawyers let him. robert mueller is looking into moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, possible collusion with team trump and whether the president himself obstructed justice. president trump has said there was no collusion and no obstruction. the chief white house correspondent john roberts is live in switzerland travelling with the president at the world economic forum. hello, john. >> shep, good even, good evening from davos. when this story first started to bubble up and that was in early june of last year, we were able to ascertain at the time that the president did indeed have conversations with his staff including his white house counsel, don mcgann about whether or not not to fire the newly appointed special counsel, robert mueller. but did the president talk about it or did he order the white house counsel to fire muler?

i've been told by several sources back then and today that the president had a conversation that went something along the lines of i can fire him if i want, i have the authority to do so. something new i learned today, that he told mcgann what about the idea of going to rod rosen stein, the deputy attorney general and talking to him about it and engaging his thoughts and taking his temperature on it to which mcgann responded that that would be a terrible idea to consider firing the special counsel, that it's something that would blow up in the president's face and if he didn't have enough problems already, it would only add on to those. so shep, at this point, it appears there were conversations about firing mueller, but i'm told it did not get to the point where the president said to mcgann, take him out. shep? >> shepard: john, we're hearing from democrats that from many of them firing mueller would be a red line. >> yeah, we heard many of the same things in june when the story first broke. adam schiff, the ranking member of the intelligence committee

came out and said that if president trump were to fire robert mueller, then congress would take steps to implement the special counsel law again. we're hearing from senator mark warner of virginia that said firing the special counsel is a red line that the president cannot cross. any attempt to remove the special counsel, pardon key witnesses or otherwise interfere in the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and all members have the responsibility to make that clear immediately. from senator dianne feinstein of california, if he fires bob mueller, i expect congress won't stand for it and will take action. shep, we should point out, there's no indication that president trump now is thinking about firing robert mueller. he's been asked about it several times again since the story first broke in june of last year and every time he's asked, he says no. by the way, one other thing to add, wired magazine reporting that facebook staff that were associated with the trump campaign have been interviewed by the special counsel's office. the person that reported that

adding the caveat that just being called for an interview doesn't indicate that the president is guilty, which in all fairness, i'm sure people associated with donald trump would like people to keep in mind. shep? >> shepard: i'm sure. john roberts in davos nor us. let's go to chris wallace live in washington. hi, chris. >> hi, shep. >> shepard: nuances, depends on the source, depends on the reporter, i guess. >> yeah. i'm not sure it matters. we're kind of slicing the salami fairly thin here. either the president ordered mcgann to fire the special counsel and he threatened to quit or he talked about it and mcgann said it was a terribly bad idea. clearly the conversation was brought up and mcgann helped talk the president out of it. the real significance here isn't that fine distinction. it's that you have to figure the special counsel who apparently was hearing the stories, one version or the other from current and former white house

officials that this event happened in june of 2017 just after mueller was set up as the special counsel is going to look at this as part of a potential pattern of obstruction of justice. remember, you've got a month before comey was fired by the president and before that, the president asked for a loyalty oath from comey. some where in the middle of that, he suggested to comey, go easy on mike flynn. so the idea that there were serious consideration, whether it was an order or just talk to fire robert mueller is something that you have to figure robert mueller will pay attention to. >> shepard: why wouldn't he? this matter of an interview with the president, much has been discussed on this the last couple days, whether he would be under oath or not. doesn't seem to matter. if you're being interviewed by the fbi, you have to tell the truth. aside from that, are they working on the rules for this sort of thing? do we know? >> absolutely. we're told that the president's

lawyers are in active negotiations with representatives of the special couns counsel's office. there was some talk about written questions and answers. nobody thinks that mueller will sit still for that. if you have an answer, you'll want a follow up to the answers. so you couldn't do that. so they will sit down, you know, as you say, if they sit down in an interview, you don't have to put him under oath. any lie to the fbi is a crime as we saw because george papadopoulos and michael flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. there's talk about the length of the interview, there's talk about what subject matter, how broad the scope will be. you got to figure the president eventually will be sitting down with robert mueller and his investigators in person to answer questions. if he doesn't, remember, mueller could go to a judge and get a court order and subpoena him to

testify under oath. the big difference there, the president wouldn't have his lawyers with him. he would be all alone with the grand jury and the prosecutors. >> shepard: he would have the pleading the fifth option, right? >> well, legally, yes. politically, can you imagine the president of the united states -- look, i don't think he would do it. if the president of the united states pleaded the fifth in obstruction of justice or collusion -- well, we'd have a lot to talk about. >> shepard: the gaggle outside john kelly's office, he was -- he couldn't have been clearer, chris. the president was crystal clear, yes, i'm willing to do this. i'm completely willing to do this and completely willing to do it under oath and i look forward to it. then came his lawyer. >> yeah, but his lawyer just said -- the president didn't have the one wiggle room where he said subject to my discussions with my lawyer. you have to give yourself a little wiggle room among other

things. i'm sure the lawyers were frustrated because they're trying to negotiate the best circumstances for this interview. so they're saying, look, we're still going to talk about, this it's like chuck schumer. having full payment for the wall on the table after the shut down ended and said, no, the wall is off the table. well, no, once you put it out there, it's hard to take back. >> shepard: it was a one-time offer like a red light special. as this moves forward, chris, it seems the white house is ready. they keep saying this is about to be over, about to be over. eventually they'll be right. the country has to move on at some point. >> yeah, robert mueller doesn't. if you're the prosecutor, you're going to take whatever time you need to do it. i agree with you. the country is long ready for this to be over and to have this cloud removed from the president or find out that he did something wrong but not to be in this kind of limbo that we're

in. prosecutors and investigators and lawyers, anybody who has ever been involved in a lawsuit, move at their own pace. it's interesting. first some of the president's lawyers were saying, this is going to be over by thanksgiving. then they said the end of the year. others say a couple weeks. so when you hear all the interviews going on, we're talking months before this is over. one suggestion is one of the reasons the lawyers keep saying it's almost over is they're trying to keep the president's blood pressure under control. >> shepard: an audience of one. chris, looking forward to the big program sunday. >> me too. >> shepard: we don't have football this weekend. you have the pro bowl. i don't know if that counts. does that count? >> no. the worst -- fox isn't carrying it? >> shepard: i hope not. >> it's the worst all-star event in sports. >> shepard: i used to sit here with jane skinner. she used to love that trip to hawaii. she and penelope.

they don't even go to hawaii anymore. >> that was fun when you and jane used to talk to each other. that was great. >> shepard: it was fun. >> you and i are -- we're old-timers here now. >> shepard: i'm old. that's a fact. it was 12 years ago yesterday, jane and i were showing a pcs phone where fox news was streaming on the phone. it was a revolutionary brand new idea. that's how old we are. >> hey, kids, get off my lawn! that's what i say. >> shepard: watch "fox news sunday" this sunday. chris will speak with the chairman of the house oversight committee, the south carolina republican, tray gowdy. he will be up there on the show. he's on the intelligence committee. that ought to be a good one. the white house legislative affairs director mark short on the president's agenda and his second year in office. second year has begun. that's this sunday on "fox news

sunday." check your local listings. i like the new graphic there. nice. it does not matter who is reporting on the robert mueller situation is correct. that's the word from the federal prosecutor that says all that counts is the intent. if the president intended to get rid of him to obstruct the investigation, that's all that matters. he will explain that next. first, allegations about hillary clinton's first presidential campaign and bomb shell word that the candidate herself fought to keep an accused harasser of women on her staff. oh, by the way, he was her spiritual adviser. that and steve wynn accusations coming up from the fox news deck on this mercifully finally and long last friday afternoon. smile dad.

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>> back to fox top story. "the new york times" reporting that robert mueller knows president trump tried to get rid of him. could that affect his investigation? the. denies the report. the source tells fox news talked about firing mueller saying he has the authority to do so. let's bring in jeffery cramer, former federal prosecutor and assistant u.s. attorney. he's managing director at berkeley research group, a

management consulting firm. good to see thanks. >> afternoon. >> shepard: do the details of how it went down matter? >> you know, a little bit. i think it's a matter of degrees. in other words, what's been reported either president trump directed his white house counsel to go to the department of justice to fire mueller or if he was just thinking about it. if he gave a districtive, that's stronger. but regardless, which is accurate and obviously mueller knows which is true, i think it colors or gives atmosphere to the firing of james comey. so that's where it plays in here. >> shepard: so it's intent that matters? >> intent is the only thing that matters with obstruction. while you can -- it's hard to infer what someone intends to do, you look at their actions. if you want to know what someone is thinking about doing, look to see what they did. that's how you prove intent. >> shepard: i believe there's

confusion. i say this because we get so many correspondences from viewers. literally by the hundreds, even thousands they're saying that he can fire anybody he wants. and he can, except -- >> except robert mueller. that's what it comes down to. it's an understandable belief. the president of the united states heads the executive branch, the department of justice works for him. the fbi works for him. but this is a special counsel. that is slightly different. the only one under regular circumstances that can fire a special counsel would be the attorney general. he's recused himself. that leaves it to the deputy attorney general, in this case, rod rosen stein. so while the president can say he can fire anybody and people would think that, not in this case. only the deputy attorney general can relieve robert mueller. >> shepard: when you interview as a prosecutor a very high profile target, i guess, if that's what the president is, if you -- when you interview someone of that level, do you pretty much know the answers to

all of your questions or in some ways are you seeking to find out something new? >> a good question. i think whether you're interviewing someone who is high profile or a lower level person, you know a lot of the answers before you ask them. you're armed with e-mails in usual cases or other witness statements and you have that here. so you know a lot of what happened. but you don't know everything. that's why you're asking questions of the witness. some people think that prosecutors are trying to trick the person to lying and then you have them on lying to an investigator or if it's under oath, perjury. i don't think that's what's happening here. mueller and his investigators know a tremendous amount just from the documents they reviewed, the dozens and dozens of witnesses that they talked to. so this is a tough one for the president who as we've seen perhaps isn't the best student of sitting down and learning a script. it's a little hard to go into an interview with really career

prosecutors that have been doing this for a long time. >> shepard: jeffery, based on who prosecutor mueller has hired, who he's charged the, who is cooperating with him, can you take all of the things that you know about this case and get some sort of idea about where robert mueller is going with it or is that too speculative? >> you know, normally it would be speculative. investigations, federal investigations, you don't know what is happening. however here there has been -- i don't want to say leaks but a lot has been revealed who has talked to mueller. we know the latest example today, which was -- so we know some information. based upon that, it's fair to say a couple things. one, we're getting down to the end. the president and maybe a little cleanup interviews at the outset may prove to be if the evidence is there or a report to

congress. that's safe to say. but the other thing, obstruction is the focus of this, but you can't forget about the contacts with russia and step back for a second. if a candidate gets anything of value from a foreign government, that's illegal. that's the basis of the obstruction. so we do know some things, probably more so than in a normal investigation about where we're going. the only thing and it's a game of chess, gamesmenship is will the president sit down for an interview or the courts get involved. >> shepard: thanks, jeffery. hope you come back. >> certainly. >> shepard: president trump said he didn't know anything about a far right british group when he shared his controversial videos on twitter last year. have you heard about this? this group claimed that the video showed muslims being violent. except officials say that's not entirely accurate. now the president has admitted in a television interview in great britain that he didn't

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>> shepard: this is shaping up to be the worst flu season in 15 years. so says the cdc. 37 children have died of flu so far this season. that's according to the centers for disease control in atlanta. we're experiencing the worst flu season in the united states since the flu outbreak nearly a decade ago. the cdc reports 6.6% of all people going into a doctor's office and emergency rooms are complaining of flu-like symptoms. even though we're well into the season, the cdc is still recommending get your flu shot. two reasons.

it's not perfect this year, but it can help you to prevent getting the flu and then if you do get it, it will make it not as bad as it would otherwise have been. get the shot. it saves lives. president trump says he's willing to apologize for retweeting the messages of an anti islam british political group last year. in november, the president caused controversy over there when he shared videos from britain's first. the group claims the videos shows muslims committing acts of violence. we quickly learned one of the clips was misrepresented. today president trump admitted to a television host that he didn't verify all of the videos. he also said he didn't know anything about the group behind the videos and he didn't mean to offense anybody. trace gallagher has more. >> shep, during the interview with piers morgan, the president indicated his position that he's the least racist person that

anybody will meet. when he retweeted the videos, he wasn't endorsing anyone. he went on to say that he has a great relationship with prime minister theresa may even though people say they don't, and that he loves britain and loves the u.k. piers morgan pressed the president on the videos not being verified. watch this. >> they were unverified videos. at least one of them. >> they are. but i didn't do it. i did a retweet. it was a big story where you are, but it was not a big story where i am. >> of course, that's not accurate. it was a big story in the u.s. we covered it on this program and it was a hot topic during the white house briefing on november 29th where at the time the white house never argued the videos were legitimate. instead, sarah sanders' contention was that the president's retweet was his goal to fight islamic terrorism and the threat is real and the

president was talking about the threat, not the videos. he was doing to do that that he's tough on islamic extremism. as for whether the president apologized or said he's willing to apologize, piers morgan thought he said he was sorry. morgan said the apology means a lot to the people of britain and the president responded, okay, good. shep? >> shepard: trace gallagher, thank you, trace. president trump says he thinks conservative republicans say they will support his immigration plan. they say no. it offers a past for two million dreamers but limits other immigration programs. so far reaction from republicans is mixed. those on the right, not happy. democrats say the white house is holding the dreamers hostage. there's much to be said about this, and they. have we'll let you listen in just a moment. first, dozens are dead after a hotel fire. what we know just two minutes away in bottom-of-the-hour

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>> i'm lea gabrielle with the fox report. more of today's headlines. students at a high school in kentucky back in class today after police say a teenager killed two classmates and hurt more than a dozen others on tuesday. hundreds of people gathered for a vigil in benton, about 100 miles north and west of nashville. police say they don't know why the 15-year-old boy opened fire at the school. he's facing murder and assault charges. a fire ripping through a hospital in south korea. official says they think the fire started in the emergency room and the hospital didn't have a sprinkler system. no word on what caused it. officials in pakistan burn thousands of pounds of smuggled drugs and tens of thousands of bottles of alcohol. this happened in the port city of karachi. the contraband was worth millions of dollars. the news with shepard smith continues after this. 31 mpg combined estimate.

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>> shepard: the white house has put out an immigration plan and president trump says he thinks it will win over republicans in congress. hardliners say it amounts to amnesty and they're livid. all over the twitter machine and everywhere else. while democratic leaders are accusing the white house of holding immigrants hostage. the white house plan would give nearly two million young immigrants a path to citizenship. that includes around 700,000 dreamers or immigrants whose parents brought them to the u.s. as children without documents and also includes hundreds of thousands of others that would qualify for protection under daca but never applied. the plan dramatically cuts down on immigrants that -- on who immigrants can sponsor in the united states. under this plan, no parents, no adult children, no siblings. instead, the plan allows only spouses and children. the plan also ends that visa lottery system which gives thousands of green cards a year

and promotes diversity. supporters say that that will help cut the backlog on existing applications. critics argue the move would dramatically eat away in general. the plan calls for $25 billion for a border wall system meaning a wall in some places, other security measures in others. president trump this morning told cnbc that he thinks republicans that have been tough on immigration will go along with the plan. >> these are people that have very strong opinions on daca and on immigration in general. i happen to think they're largely right. look, we're going to try to make a deal on daca. we have a good chance of making it. >> shepard: the president says he's shifted a lot on dreamers, that he's willing to shift more and that he thinks republicans will do the same. so far the reaction from the president's own party has been mixed most generously.

the chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. people on the right of his party, the ones that speak all the time, are livid. >> no question about that, shep. some republicans do like the proposal, others have very vocal critics. texas senator ted cruz does not like offering a path to citizenship. he said this is to the left of president obama. arkansas republican tom cotton says the immigration frame work is generous and humane and also being responsible. this afternoon the attorney general was out selling the plan. >> that means welcoming the best and brightest, but banning and deporting gang members, identity fraudsters, dunk drivers and child abusers making them inadmissible. this merit-based system would better serve our national interests because it would benefit the american people, which is what this agenda is all

about. >> today the president said the nation's current immigration system is stuck in the past. >> shepard: and democrats are hating it, too. >> some have not spoke out publicly. others have been vocal critics. joe manchin came out earlier in the week and said he was in favor of the border wall in some places but has not spoken since details came out publicly. dick durbin blasted it saying dreamers should not be held hostage to president trump's crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of american tax dollars. corey booker says this plan is unfair to the young people, the so-called dreamers. >> to use them as a political pawn right now is to me reprehensible when everyone knows these kids right now are suffering, they're in severe anxiety, upending their education and their work. i don't want to use this moment to negotiate this out but this current proposal and the idea of

billions of dollars for a wall is unacceptable to me. >> maryland senator ben cardin says lawmakers should ignore the proposal and continue with their bipartisan talks. all will be facing deadline pressure soon, shep. >> shepard: mike emanuel on the hill. thanks. let's go to a.b. stoddard, columnist at real clear politics. did you hear nancy pelosi on this? listen. >> that plan is a campaign to make america white again. it's a plan that says over 50% of the current legal immigration will be cut back. that many people will be sent out of the country. >> shepard: for the moment at least, the far right hates it, the left hates it. where are they going with this? >> a true compromise is when everyone is missable. it's a good starting possible. it's clear as senator cardin indicated that this is not the final plan. president trump admitted that he's likely to massage his

priority list once more as he's done several times. this is not really ultimately where it's going to end up. shep, this is comprehensive immigration reform, this is a massive restructuring of immigration policy that has been in place for a minimum of half a century. a real cut back to legal immigration that the democrats will fight. in terms of getting a deal, democrats have to make the decision, are they going to do a shut down fight on february 8 or are they going to continue with the word they gave that they'll get through the budget fight and do this separately and they will be needed. 60 votes in the senate will be needed to bring the democrats to the table, this is a bill that sounds like it's something that can pass the house, but -- >> shepard: really? even with the freedom caucus? >> well, there's enough people like senator cotton that were going to want to move this along and going to say the amnesty component is met with enough concessions on the other side

with regard to ending the visa -- >> shepard: the freedom caucus is going to say amnesty, sure? but might, but holy moley. >> i'm not saying it's a given. this was designed to be something that could get more of the house on board. the stuff being talked on the senate side cannot pass the house right now with the majority. so they're trying to get a conservative bill that restructures the legal immigration system to bring them to the talk. the freedom caucus on the house side, i don't know for sure if it will pass the house, but seemed like that's what this was designed to do. we're a long way from a deal. but if democrats are shrewd, they will not play games with the budget bill again. a deadline of funding the government. they will separate this out and then republicans and the president will have to put something on the table that brings eight or nine or ten senators to a vote on the senate side. >> shepard: what happens on february 8? >> on february 8 is the next deadline --

>> shepard: what do you think will happen? >> i think it depends on the democrats again. really is up to them. if they walk it back and they say it's true, senator mcconnell, the majority leader gave us his assurance that they will move on to a fix for the dreamers so we're going to vote for this funding bill in good faith because we know he wants to pass a fix, it's on the republican's lap. if they shut it down, they'll pay a steep price. if the president wants to fix the dreamers, he in the end might taylor this down to a dreamer fix, wall-funding bill, which would be a concession for each side, narrow the scope. >> shepard: i'm trying to find the person from the left that will say yeah, build your wall and what we need is people at the ports. that's their position anyway. i'm not saying they're right. >> yes. the ones running for president like senator booker. there's a center of people that know that you have to have border security paired with a daca fix. you won't get one or the other.

>> shepard: it's going to be interesting. you talk about a massive overhaul. half a century this has been in place. great. how you have a great weekend. >> thanks, shep. >> shepard: president trump telling world leaders it's america first, period. some analysts say that could hurt american shoppers. more on that in his speech at the world economic forum coming up.

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>> shepard: another bomb shell from the reporters at the "new york times." that newspaper is reporting that hillary clinton kept a senior adviser on her 2008 presidential campaign even after he was accused of sexual harassment and after her campaign manager recommends she fire him. the man is burns stryder. he was secretary clinton's faith adviser that reportedly sent her

religious passages. his accuser, a 30-year-old office mate. we don't know anything about her. she reportedly signed an agreement not to talk about anything from the campaign. according to former campaign staffers, she told a campaign official that mr. stryder had rubbed her shoulders, kissed her on the forehead and sent her a string of suggestive e-mails, including one during the night. that's a quote. the times reports the report went to clinton's campaign manager that urged hillary clinton to dump the adviser. she wanted him to stamped. the campaign docked strider's pay and order him to undergo counselling. strider was leading an independent group which supported secretary clinton's 2016 campaign. but that group reportedly fired him over workplace issues. including harassment accusations. strider has not commented on the times report.

neither has clinton's former campaign manager, a spokesman for hillary clinton provided a statement from a law firm which represented the campaign in 2008 saying to ensure a safe working environment, the campaign had a process to address complaints or misconduct or harassment. when matters arose, they were reviewed in accordance with these policies and appropriate action was taken. the complaint was no exemption. another one, billionaire casino owner steve wynn is facing sexual misconduct accusations of his own. that's according to the "wall street journal." the newspaper with which this channel shared common ownership. the journal reports dozens of people that worked for steve wynn describe a pattern of inappropriate behavior, going back decades. according to the "wall street journal," a manicurist at wynn las vegas claimed that steve wynn forced her to have sex with

him. the woman's supervisor told human resources and wynn paid the employee $7.5 million in a settlement. the journal reports steve wynn's lawyers admitted that he made the payment. but the idea that he ever assaulted any woman is preposter rouse. he said his ex-wife is encouraging the accusations because they're involved in a nasty divorce. wynn's wife said she had nothing to do with the article and we learned that the massachusetts gaming commission reports that its taking these accusations seriously and will conduct an investigation to decide what steps, if any, to take. steve wynn has a $2 billion resort scheduled to open in massachusetts next year and also wynn resorts are down in trading today almost 11%. president trump pushing his america first agenda on foreign leaders. but some analysts say it could

cost americans more money. the reason? new taxes on product from other countries could drive up costs here at home. president trump told the world economic forum in davos, switzerland that the u.s. is open for business but will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair trade practices. >> i will always protect the interests of our country, our companies and our workers. we will enforce our trade laws and restore integrity to our trading system. >> shepard: president trump telling business and political leaders that the united states is committed to free trade, but on terms it considers fair. rich edson is monitoring things from the state department this afternoon. hello, rich. >> afternoon, shep. over the next couple months, this will tell us the decisions that the trump administration makes how dramatically president trump plans on changing the trade relationships. the trump administration is considering higher tariffs on steel and aluminum. he's already threatened to

withdraw from nafta. there's renegotiations there. possible a chance with the relationship to china. a consideration of tariffs for the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. earlier today at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland, the president called out china. >> the united states will no longer turn a blind eye to under fair economic practices, including massive intellectual property theft, industrial subsidies and pervasive state-led economic planning. these and other predatory behaviors are distorting the global markets and harming businesses and workers not just in the u.s. but around the globe. >> even though the president vilified china in the campaign and at times during his administration, he's held off on massive trade changes to china.

>> shepard: thanks, rich. one analyst estimates more than a third of the american work force is freelance without a long-term commitment to any one employer. so what is behind that shift? check that out next. my name's dustinhey, dustin. grab a seat. woman: okay. moderator: nice to meet you. have you ever had car trouble in a place like this? (roaring of truck) yes and it was like the worst experience of my life. seven lanes of traffic and i was in the second lane. when i get into my car, i want to know that it's going to get me from point a to point b. well, then i have some good news. chevy is the only brand

to receive j.d. power dependability awards for cars, trucks and suvs two years in a row. woman: wait! (laughing) i definitely feel like i'm in a dependable vehicle right now. woman 2: i want a chevy now. woman 3: i know!

>> shepard: there's word more americans are changing the way they work. instead of staying at some company for decades and rising up through the ranks, lots of people are freelancing and setting their own schedules. this has been going on awhile. >> yes, it has been. there's no uncle that gets a gold watch when he retires after 30 years of work at the same company. more and more of us are working like this. not you, not myself, but if you can send in your work electronically, maybe a computer programmer or an artist, a

musician, basically this is now worth $1.4 trillion. that is what freelancers are contributing to the u.s. economy. that is a 30% increase from last year alone. >> shepard: really? >> i know. big numbers, right? part of it is it's a little hard to count because some freelan freelancers also have day jobs, part time jobs. it's hard for the government to even know how to count them. but a company like we work has built its entire business model on this. essentially you go in, you rent office space. for $45 a month, you get -- a little video of the office. you have plants. how bad can it be? you have equipment, computers, tables, chairs. that is the third largest startup in the u.s. it's worth $20 billion. they rent space to freelancers. their capitalizing on this. we spoke with one recruiter. he said more of this to come. here he is. >> the work force is really flexible.

more and more employees out there want to be working freelance. right now estimates are 53 million americans are working freelance right now. that's 34% of the american work force. and projections are that half of all americans could be working freelance by the end of the >> shepard: wow! >> yeah. most people say by 2027 majority. like blowing by 50%. >> shepard: you lose your benefits, lose those company connections that mean so much. >> not so much for the 401(k). freelancers have to be more special. but we spoke there's a risk to being a big part of a company anyway. they can cut you. at least at this point, we know who our clients are and our business is serving and we have a better sense of our health. >> shepard: ride on. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> shepard: we got just a little bit more and top of the hour headlines from cavut. don't miss that.

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>> shepard: a new star is circling the globe and looks like a disco bar. this is the humanity star with the man that created it. rocket lab created it. it's not a real star. it's a shiny satellite. its creator says he wants the humanity star to remind people we're all justice any specs in a big old universe. this map from its website shows where it is in real time. the company reports everybody in the world will be able to see the humanity star pass overhead at some point. on this day in 1784, ben franklin blasted the decision to make the bald eagle a symbol of america saying the turkey was a more respectable bird. congress had decided to use the eagle on the great seal of the united states but ben franklin called the bird lazy, a coward and bad moral character says it steals fish from other animals. he suggested putting moos on the

great seal instead. are you serious? he said -- moses, not moose. the bald eagle won out, thank goodness. that was fun. see you monday. >> neil: all right. i know you guys might be getting tired of hearing this, especially if you're not the markets, but the markets had another record. it's the 99th since the election of donald trump. while we're at it, the other market averages are at records as well in the middle of a so-called constitutional crisis. was the president trying to fire a special prosecutor looking to the russian collusion thing in the middle of the debates back and forth and who texted whom and what implications would have for the security of our country. all of those are sound issues that everybody is getting into. the bottom line is wall street doesn't see much there. the tax cuts, the improving earnings, all the companies coming out left and right saying because of the tax cuts, because