station and fox news channel. and that's it for today. have a great week. and we'll see you next fox news sunday. the latest in firing of andrew mccabe in the special counsel investigation, please stay tuned to the station fox news. that's it for today. have a great week. we will see you next, fox news sunday. >> we often save -- beware of a lawyer thoroughly venturing be appointed pent-up, we the people are supposed to be the government. >> it's really hard to argue with the tax cuts did not move the needle on the economy. >> sure, we'll all run through it.

♪ >> hi, i'm bill bennett, and welcome to "wise guys." we have a good show for you today, some thoughtful discussion without interruption, but certainly there will be some disagreement. i am delighted to st this distinguished group. we areere at the prime rib restaura in washington, dc. i wish i could tell you it was my first time here or my brother's first time here. not true. we've been here before. to my right over here is oliver north. he is a distinguished american, a war hero, somewhat of an iconic figure in american life. we have with "wise guys" a wise girl, if i may, maria bartiromo. she is the host of "mornings with maria" and "sunday morning futures," which i watch...i shouldn't say religiously every sunday. i got to do something else, but i do watch regularly. bob bennett, or as we call him in our house, uncle bob, bob bennett, one of washington's most distinguished lawyers, represented bill clinton, represented cap weinberger, represented all sorts of other people.

ari fleischer, who was president george w. bush's communications director or press spokesman? >> press secretary. >> ...press secretary and is now head of fleischer communications. all right. let's get started. i was rereading. i really was rereading because i did read "the federalist" when i was assigned it the first time, and i was reading about powers and separation of powers, executive, legislative, judicial, didn't see anything in there about special counsels or independent counsels. did the founders make a mistake and not put a provision in there for special or independent counsels? you've been one, i think, or something like it, and i know you've had an opinion on this, bob. do we need them? what do we need them for? >> well, i think, first of all, there's a real difference between independent counsels and special counsels. i do think we need a special counsel when the investigation

involves the highest levels of government. it's somethinghat i in is essential, but it's unfortunate that we ever need them because you give so much power to one individual. but there's no question that it was justice rehnquist who wrote the morrison opinion that said independent counsels, since they can be removed by the president, is constitutional, and then congress did away with that, and now we have the special counsel statute. >> but while we're operating now with a special counsel, there are also congressional committees looking at the same things. why isn't the congress a good enough organization or institution to do this? we now have double, triple, and there are calls even for another special counsel

to look into what the special counsel is doing. >> well, i hate to offend my friends in congress, but they are simply incapable of doing a meaningful investigation. i have had many, many clients appear before them. you know, they're too partisan. they leak. it's a game. i just don't have any confidence in congressional investigations, and i've been involved in many of them, and i have been special counsel to the senate ethics committee and the senate foreign relations committee, and i still say that. >> but you have confidence in these special counsels? you think they've done a good job historically? >> it depends who you pick. >> okay. >> it all depends on who you pick. >> yeah, it's funny because i think, you know, there's something about a special counsel that is very transparent because

it basical tells the world, "well, we can't do this in house." >> right. >> and forget about the 93 us attorneys that could've done it or the 10,000 lawyers that you have at the justice department. they can't do it, either. you've got to get somebody from the outside to actually investigate. >> yeah. >> as a guy who has a little bit of experience both with congressional committees and with so-called independent counsel... >> not as an independent counsel and not as a congressional investigator but being on the receiving end. >> exactly. >> yes, sir. >> yeah, and absolutely right. there's nothing in the "federalist papers" or this wonderful document to which i took an oath to support and defend with my body if i... >> that's the constitution. >> constitution of the united states. number one, if the congress can't do its job, then they ought to step aside because the power to investigate the executive branch of the united states very clearly in this document, right, it is the role of the congress

to ensure that the executive branch is carrying out the laws. therefore, you don't need somebody from outside to come in with unfettered power. >> yes, but there's an important starting point we aren't addressing, and the reason that you have what's now a special counsel is because of ethical considerations, and that's important. special counsel is triggered when the top people at justice make the determination, in this case the attorney general, that he is involved in the allegations in one way or another, and therefore he must recuse, which is a proper and wise, ethical acally for an attorney general to follow. that then triggers a whole separa series of events as what happened here. now... >> [indistinct] >> [indistinct] >> here involving the trump investigation, the collusion charges, bob mueller. >> but the appointment... >> let me separate something. >> go ahead. >> independent counsel is no longer the law of the land as opposed to special counsel. >> right. >> and the difference is simple. independent counsels were accountable to no one. they were truly independent. that was a law that expired. democrats and republicans were both sick of it. the law expired, so you have

special counsel. a special counsel is reporting to the department of justice. it is a difference. independent was fully independent. special counsel, as we saw when bob mueller made his indictments of the russians the other month, that has to be approved by the department of justice, main justice, and so special reports to justice. independent never did. >> also, he's picked by the attorney general or his delegate, whereas the independent counsel was picked by a three-judge court, which sort of really gets you in the separation of powers, but there's one problem. here's the last thing i'll say about this. while i think it's essential, such as in the current case, beware of a lawyer with one case and a reporter with one story, and the idea that the whole law-enforcement machinery is being handled by a person directed towards a person

is pretty scary. when i was a federal prosecutor, i had 150 cases, and i'm not just saying this because i'm an admirer of colonel north. i never would've prosecutehi in 100 years, but you put somebody in that position with that one case, i'll tell you, it's a scary thing. >> but isn't there an issue? look, i'm surrounded by very bright people here. it strikes me that, up to this point, what's happened with mueller is that he's got a bunch of cases that had nothing to do with the original issue of "was the trump administration colluding with the russians before the election to affect the outcome?" and thus far, i think the american people look at it and say, "there's nothing there." >> well, this is the risk of a special counsel law, that every nail needs a hammer, and they start to look everything, everywhere, and they stray from their original mission.

>> yeah. >> on the other hand, if you are an investigator, and you do find evidence of wrongdoing, do you just look the other way because your original charge had nothing to do with what you just found? that's a hard call for a counsel to make. >> but again, would a us attorney have started a case on... let's, you know, use any one of the people who've pled guilty thus far... would he have started a case on that given the focus he was supposed to have on what the russians were doing in this country? >> fair question. >> i mean, when you look at what the russians have been doing, that's the real issue, and the russians are still doing it. >> but he's investigating people, and when you're investigating specific people, you're going to find out things in those specific people's lives, and it has nothing to do with any collusion. >> absolutely right. >> well, the framed that right into the assignment, that if he finds anying of... lookt my clit, president clinton. >> yeah. >> they found other things. [ laughter ] >> okay, long pause there, long pause. >> and i pause for a minute in this group whether i should open that door, but... >> sure, open it up.

we'll all run through it. >> but kenneth starr's mandate was not initially... >> it was whitewater. >> ...monica lewinsky and all the other things. >> whitewater. >> right. >> sure. >> so that's just the way it is. >> but is it... in the modern world, it pays to switch things up. and when you switch to esurance, you can save time, worry, hassle, and yup, money. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved hundreds. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. ♪ ♪ there are two types of people in the world.

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♪ >> let me ask another question. picking up on the first thing you said, isn't this partially an admission that things have gotten so partisan that we just really can't handle it through the normal institutional means? this is kind of...i mean, i know the specific reasons in this case because it was the attorney general, but don't we avail ourselves of this too often because we say, "well, partisanship has taken over, so we'll appoint someone who is a special counsel," but we still think independent, but is there really such a thing as an independent, totally independent, you know, neutral, totally neutral... >> pick up on what you said... >> i want to get maria first. >> well, look, i think the risk here is that there's so much information out there that the american people don't know who to believe and what to believe. i think it's true. i think here you have a situation where the special counsel is investigating people, and undoubtedly he's going to find out what these specific people

have done if any wrongdoing and whether or not it has anything to do with collusion, he wants to check a box that he's go indictments. and that's where we are, but i think at this point, people are saying, "well, who am i believing now?" it's just too much information for therage guy and gal out there to really understand where the actual wrongdoing is and if there was collusion. we know that there isn't. we're following this every day. the average guy and gal out there is just knowing that there's a special counsel looking at collusion, even if he's actually not. he's looking at specific people. >> but... >> ari, yes, go ahead, please. >> i was just going to make the point about partisanship, that if the attorney general did retain those powers and didn't give it to a special counsel, you'd still have charges of partisanship against that attorney general. >> of course you would. >> now the charges are against the counsel. partisanship is a part of the land today. that's why my starting point is ethics. if somebody has some type of ethical reason to recuse, they must recuse. >> but it was part of the landscape then, too, wasn't it? i mean, i in some ways see this

as almost a confession that we designed the system wrong, that, you know, separation of powers, division of powers wasn't right. maybe they should've, at the very beginning, said, "when you get really tough cases where people get really partisan, we'll have these special people anointed." >> there's not a grand inquisitor in this document. >> okay, good. >> that's what we've got. we have a grand... whether we call him an independent counsel or a special counsel, we're looking for a grand inquisitor who's going to get to the bottom-line truth. we the people are supposed to decide who governs us, and the congress of the united states cannot continue to abdicate its responsibility and allow this kind of thing to continue because it's so disruptive. it is partisan. there's a schism occurring in this country that is unhealthy to the future, and my goal is to look after those 17 grandkids of mine and make sure that they do have one. >> okay. >> one of the great outbursts or results from the "federalist papers" was a notion called self-interest properly understood. >> there you go. >> and self-interest properly understood, now we as individual americans will of course advocate

for ourselves, but the "properly understood" part of it meant, "and the nation, too." there was something inside all of us a couple hundred years ago where we put such much pride in building this nation that we also had an interest, a national interest in each of us, that's been frayed, and returning to that "properly understood" where we also want whas good for america even if it's not good for me invidually, is something that'd be healthy for this republic. >> are we there? this takes us to the whole question of the balkanization. again, it seems to me -- let's put special counsel, independent counsel in the rearview mirror for a second -- but just say that the point where we're at now is, we believe it is so balkanized, there's so much division, so much partisan antipathy, that the system is broken down, doesn't work, and this counsel thing is kind of a fix-it. has it broken down? is it worse than it's ever been? >> i don't think it's worse than it's ever been. i mean, we had a civil war in this country. >> yeah, okay, okay. >> we had... you talk about partisan, having duels on the south lawn

of the white house or the west wall of the congress or the capitol building, i mean, every time everybody says, "it couldn't get any worse than this," yeah, it can. i mean, things could get a lot worse, particularly when bad things happen overseas. we tend to divide ourselves when we're comfortable. we tend to pull together, i mean, 9/11 being the perfect lost opportunity. i mean, quite frankly, if i think george w. bush had gone out and said, "i want the american people to rally behind us and buy victory bonds," instead of "go to the mall," not to pick on you, but that's what happened, okay? there was a wonderful opportunity to pull the country together, and you saw that in the enlistment rates in the armed forces of the united states. we're pulling apart today because we're comfortable. >> do we not appeal enough to what ari has phrased "self-interest rightly understood"? do we appeal too much to the mall or the self-interest? >> i just want to say, i think we have to be honest about modern times. this is as bad as it's ever been in modern times.

i mean, they don't even talk to each other, the two sides. you know, they don't agree on anything, and they are fighting all the time to the extent that they're just trying to take down the other side. so if you just look at... i mean, i recognize, obviously, civil war, i'm not going to compare that, but when you look at modern times, the right and the left are as far as they've ever been in my opinion. >> i disagree with that. >> oh, really? >> well, i... >> i think, yeah, it depends on your definition of modern times, but 1968 was pretty bloody and bad... >> okay. >> it's pretty bad now, though. >> ...on our domestic shores. well, hold on. you had kent state. you had the national guard shooting people. you had a riot with the police initiating the riot at the democratic convention in chicago. you had violence in america's streets, not to mention the assassination of martin luther king... >> of course. >> ...and the destruction of cities. we've gone through far, fare worse. today, we have twitter, and people are letting it all rip with their thumbs. thank goodness it's just their thumbs. so yeah, i tnk we are a noisy democracy. we are a tough democracy, but i've seen a lot worse in my lifetime, and i'm just waiting for the day where we have a president where all americans finally say,

"i admire this guy," and i've got to tell you, that was george w. bush right after september 11th. this country did pull together. i've seen it as well. >> on top of a fire truck in new york city. >> yeah. >> powerful moment. >> i may disagree a little bit. i mean, annus horribilis, 1968, no question about it, and deserves to be called that, but a lot of those catastrophes were things we shared in and agreed that they were catastrophes, and they were awful, and they were national calamities. in terms of the divisiveness, i mean, they were horrible things. in terms of divisiveness, it seems to me you could make a pretty good case for now. >> well, i agree with maria on the partisanship point. i mean, we used to at least take comfort in some of our committees, like the intelligence committees, you know, but now... >> good example. good example. >> ...now, you know, you put on the news, and they have the ranking member, and then we have the... i mean, what does the man in the street believe? i mean, they...

>> well, how do you solve it? how do you address it? the independent counsel, obviously, is just for one context, one place, but supposing you have this terrible sense of partisanship and balkanization, whether it's the worst or not in modern history, how do you address it? what do you do about it? >> my view is, there will eventually be a point of pent-up demand on capitol hill to work together and get things done, that they'll eventually hit this breaking point where they say, "i didn't come here only to argue and do nothing." now, tax reform, when tax reform passed, got signed into law, you started to see the poll numbers rise for republicans or the president. there's a clue there for republicans -- get things done. break the partisanship. and this is where i see success, and the trick to a lot of this, frankly, is to abolish the filibuster. it's not in the constitution. it's added to the strife because you need 60 votes for erything, and you can't get 60 votes on anything. so if you want to return to the days of democracy and majority rule prevailing, abolish the filibuster, and whoever is in charge, it's on your shoulders now. deliver or don't. >> oh, meanwhile, nancy pelosi

is calling the tax bill crumbs... >> right. >> ...and calling it armageddon. "people will die." i mean, these are things that have come out of nancy pelosi's mouth. >> right. >> so i just think that, yeah, you can do that, and you can make sure the people understand, get things done, but i also think you need to change the players. i think some... there's something to term limits, and i think people want to see things get done, but they also don't want to see the same people in the same jobs getting nothing done, and i think it's really hard to argue that the tax cuts did not actually move the needle on the economy, so the democrats are going to have to answer that come november why not one of them voted for the tax plan. ♪ >> tech: at safelite autoglass

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>> life from news headquarters, here's what's happening. no information about president trump's plan to combat the nationwide opiate epidemic ahead of his trip to new hampshire. he plans to fully unveil his strategy. it will include possible death penalties for drug traffickers and address factors dealing with opiate crisis including over prescription and a insufficient access to treatment.

about 64000 people died of overdoses in 2016. looks like vladimir putin will extend his power for six years after winning the presidential election. an exit poll showed putin got nearly 74% of the vote with his closest competitor getting 11%. he was expected to win his fourth term. now back to the show. on the question of donald trump? >> yeah, it was pretty bad against george bush, but nowhere near this bad. >> no, not that bad. >> nowhere near this bad. >> i watched -- i mean, i've been here, watched both bushes, watched reagan, dan quayle, who i thought got an awful time, but i've never seen anything like this. you know who agrees with me? jimmy carter agrees with me. >> i mean, we also haven't had a president bush or reagan who attacked the fbi, who attacked the basic institutions of government the way president trump has.

i mean... >> fbi has done a pretty good job of its own undermining, hasn't it? >> well, no question about it, but... >> let me rise to the defense of the president. >> oh, i'm not attacking the president. >> no, but what i hear you sayingbob, is that you've not seen anybody go after the institutions of government like that. i would beg to differ. i think if you go back to the early part of the last century, you'd find that wilson and fdr not only tried to go after the institutions of our government but actually tried to create new ones in their image and likeness. he tried, in the case of fdr, tried to pack the court. i think...look, i want to keep coming back to ari's point about the american people. i think the american people are going to get to a point short of a holocaust, of a war, which the next war could be, short of that, the american people are going to get to a point where they say, "good governance is what i'm after." >> you got it. >> "you're running for office? i want to see what kind of government you're going to do," and you've got today lots of ways of getting that message out.

when i was running for the us senate in '94, all i had was the mainstream media, which was stacked against me, understandable. i'm a conservative republican. today, you've got all kinds of means, and donald trump knew that. for all of the bad things about his twitter account, the fact is, he went to the people over the heads of the press. i think we're going to continue to do that. >> but can you find... see, oh, and you said filibuster. i thought you were going to say the thing we need to get rid of... it's always how you start a sentence with a discussion of smart people -- "the thing we need to get rid of is..." fill in the blank. i thought you were going to say campaign consultants. [ laughter ] i mean, talk about the point you're just making. >> that's optional. >> is there a campaign consultant in the country who would give the advice that ari just offered? >> no, because the other side of that is, the polarization also plays so you can find your slice now in life outside the mainstream media and never hear what is basically centrist thinking. you just follow your slot. but i just think our fundamental system and the fundamental decency of our people always prevails.

>> mm. >> we talked about this on the last "wise guys." we're a self-correcting democracy. and our pendulum in america does not swing far right or far left. it typically swings muchloser to the center. in europe, my gosh, they've got communists, and they've got basically the follow-on to the nazis in some countries, and that's part of the legitimate political discourse? no, we're not that bad here thankfully. >> i've also got to back up what you said, bill, because the fact is, the fbi as an institution has not been attacked, okay? the president attacked the leadership of the fbi. many times, this president has come out and said, "the broad institution of the fbi is doing a very good job and actually trying to keep us safe, but the leadership..." i mean, there's a reason that 10 people within the fbi and the department of justice have been reassigned or fired. i mean, the fbi leadership has shown incredible bias. they wanted an insurance policy should donald trump win. you know, they were on both investigations, investigating trump while

protecting hillary clinton. we know what went on with this, you know, e-mail scandal and where the investigators treated it with kid gloves... right. ...jim comey writing an exoneration letter before they actually interviewed her. so i would push back on that, actually, and say the president has attacked the leadership of the fbi but not the entire fbi. >> well, why would... what i don't understand is, the leadership of the fbi are largely republicans. >> they don't act like it. >> i have dealt with so many fbi agents in my life and my career. they're mostly very conservative people. >> well, they're never-trumpers. >> mueller is a republican. rosenstein is a republican. >> that doesn't mean they're for trump. >> yeah. that label doesn't mean it anymore. >> no, but i don't... >> they're never-trumpers. >> i don't know that they would twist or distort, mueller anyway. you know, mueller is someone i know well. >> can he really effectively

oversee this investigation, which includes investigating the leadership of the fbi given he was part of that? can he do it? i mean, that's a... it's a fair question. >> i think he can, but i think you can never find the individual who's perfect. >> i want to come back to what ari said. so the confidence of the american people, the founders' vision that when the going gets really rough, they'll pull it together, the american capacity for self-renewal, people say the antibodies are kicking in. we're getting, you know, we're regenerating. do you agree? do you agree, in the long run? >> i do. >> maria, all right. >> i do. i think that's our mentality. that's who we are. let's go around. yes, you agree? >> sure. >> yeah. >> just look. fox news exists today not just because of the political process. it exists because the american people were crying out for some alternative to the other three big networks that dominated the news and that were all far to the left. you have a fox news. you have a president today who's certainly an iconoclast when it comes to the idea of a party apparatus,

and i see that as part of that self-correcting mechanism. >> self-correction, optimistic about the country, about the republic? >> i think i'm always optimistic about the country... >> okay. >> ...but i think we have some tough times... >> yep. >> ...ahead of us because, you know, i think all the networks, fox included, and the mainline, you know, they're all picking sides on things, and that troubles me, and you would think that there is nothing else going on in the world except collusion and trump. >> all right. that takes us to our next topic. very nicely done. thanks for the transition. >> i didn't know. >> this was not rehearsed. ♪ my healthy routine helps me feel my best. so i add activia yogurt to my day. with its blions of live anve pd tiotics, activia may help support my digestive health, so i can take on my day.

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>> if the influence or if the credibility of the press is going down -- they are different questions, but if people don't believe what they're watching, is it as powerful as it thinks it is, or is it as big a worry as many of us think it is? a lot of people worry about the mainstream media. a lot of conservatives do, but if people aren't buying it, not beeving it, is it having that iac that poncy? >> that's a great question, and another poll showed that in the october 2016 trust in the press to tell the news fully, fairly, and accurately was at a historic all-time low. i'll put it this way. there was a time 20, 30 years ago and beyond when the press was all-powerful. if there was a headline in the new york times, the american people accepted it. today, if there's a headline inthe new york times, the american people question it. the press has lost credibility to a tremendous degree compared to what they used to have. and that's their problem, and i would love to have somewhere i could go when i saw a headline, i accepted it. i knew it had to be so.

we've lost that. >> yeah. >> it's occasionally so. it's not always so. >> agree? >> yeah. i do agree, and i think that, you know, this didn't just start under donald trump. i mean, when you go back 10 years, and you look at the obama administration and sort of the divisiveness, "you didn't build that. pay your fair share." and then you had the financial crisis where people lost, watched the value of their homes decline and the value of their stock portfolios decline. people lost trust in institutions in general, the banks, government, congress. look at all of these other approval ratings. they're way down. people do not trust institutions in a lot of situations. >> i'll tell you. there's one exception i've noticed, and this is because of my work. and this is true, i don't care what the network is. when i high-profile person comes under investigation by the department of justice, it seems that people sign on to it.

they don't question the press. they don't question the department of justice, you know... >> which is all the more reason that he had to recuse himself... you mean they think... >> they accept what they are hearing, you know? >> ...jeff sessions, you got to keep the ethical... >> you mean that the guy is guilty. >> that the guy is guilty. >> oh, you're talking about the press's perspective, not the american people. >> because the story line is too good. the narrative is too good... >> okay. >> ...the powerful being brought down. >> i want to pick up on what you said, and that is, well, you put it your way about... i was thinking of aldous huxley, who talks about... this great phrase, the tragedy of a fact killing a theory. right. it happens sometimes. >> yeah. >> nice to work in the realm of facts, and tell us. >> well, the broader point was that the media can't be trusted. maria works in a part of the media where people tune in because it's believable. >> yeah. >> and it's... >> well, the fact is, is what i'm doing, business news and looking at markets and looking at business, this is all measurable, okay?

>> right. >> there's a reason that we know how the economy is doing. we got the gdp report out, and we're looking at growth of about 3 percent. we're talking about 4 percent growth possible for 2018. earnings for the s&p 500 are expected to be up 20 percent in 2018. wages, which we've been waiting to move for years, are up about 2.5 percent year over year. we're seeing things that are moving in the right direction, and these things are measurable. you cannot, you know, put on rose-colored glasses about something that's actual, measurable, and we can actually, you know, look at it, add it up and know what kind of growth and economic backdrop we're talking about. >> so you're in a safer place when you do your show... >> i think so. >> ...than a lot of people. okay. >> maria is also in a more in-touch place because the press's tendency is to so overplayan to scanl-laden news that they've exhausted the public, but the public cares so much more about their daily lives, their pocketbook... >> okay, okay.

>> ...how they're taking care of their kids and their grandkids. >> right. >> so there's such a passive acceptance of what maria talks about on the air, and passive in the good sense, that people absorb it because they want to learn more, and it drives their life. >> and it's accessible. >> and... >> it actually matters to people. >> that's it. >> these are pocketbook, kitchen-table issues. >> that's what i mean. people just accept it passively. >> and i don't think people... >> that's what they're interested in... >> right. >> ...have preconceived... >> ...as opposed to the scandals. >> ...notions of what you say. i think, when i watch you, i want to learn about what you're talking about. i don't approach it with an attitude that i already have. >> yeah. >> right, your attitude about the markets in the far east, yeah. >> but how much coverage does the gdp report get compared to the latest scandal news? >> you're right. >> not much. >> that's the problem. they don't get it. ♪ smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce

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♪ >> how much does a good economy...i'm not talking here about james carville, "it's the economy, stupid," in terms of predicting electoral success. how much does it soothe? how much does it ease the joints when that economy picks up? [ laughter ] yeah. sure, it'll have political ramifications, but is that more where people live than the other things we've been talking about? >> massively, and maria used the magic words, wage growth.

that's what it's all about today. this is now about "are the middle-class, blue-collar workers getting the first pay raise they've gotten in 15 to 10 years?" because they haven't. we just have been flat for that long, and when you start making more money, you just start to feel good about life. >> right. >> and that's what drives voter behavior, and it's the big untold story of the trump years. how much will wages increase and when? and let me give you a couple, st numbers on growth. from 1948 unl 2008, our american enomy grew at a rate of 3.4 percent annually. from 2008 to 2016, the economy grew at 1.5 percent annually. we've been starving for strong growth. it's the answer to everything. >> yeah. i agree. >> and it insulates us from other kinds of worries and anxieties. is that right? >> i think so. >> yes. >> does it? does it? >> i think so. >> people are feeling better. >> right. >> they're going to behave differently. >> go ahead. you're a little troubled by this. too much about money? too much... >> no, no, no, but chronic optimist... >> talk about how much you were paid by the marine corps. come on. >> the chronic... >> there are higher callings, right? >> the chronic optimist in me wants to believe that that's going to continue,

and i hope it does because i think my mission in life is those 17 grandkids that i got now, see? the downer in all of this is we tend, i think, in good times -- and these are good times -- we tend to be distracted from the things that could change it all, and i'm not talking about the politics so much as we've got a very serious threat facing this nation, and that is the nuclear ambitions of the iranians and the north koreans, and so all the news coming out of the closing of the olympics a few weeks ago or the start of the olympics even further back, is "this is an opportunity for us to have a negotiation with the north koreans." well, that's all the north koreans want, is another negotiation. they've had 10 of them now, and every time, they've taken advantage of it to advance their nuclear weapons program and their icbms, which are being funded by the iranians, and the end result is, if you have a single nuclear weapon go off anywhere in the world, this economic boom that we have going on right now

will stop like that. >> you're right. you're right, but, colonel, correct me if i'm wrong. how much of the middle east right now, when you look at the population, how many of the people are below 30 years old? economic activity changes a person's life. >> all true. >> if you get to that person who is under 30 years old, and you create an opportunity, and you let that pern sethat, "wow. there are economic opportunities. i don't have to live like this," maybe they will go toward good rather than evil. >> i would hope so. i would hope so, particularly when it comes to iran because that is the loose cannon in the gun deck. >> i think it's 70 percent of the people there are below 30 years old... >> exactly. >> ...certainly in saudi arabia. >> wow. >> so what we ought to be doing, for example, is having him go up on voa or any one of the farsi broadcasts and get the europeans behind it to start moving things in the right direction inside tehran, and we're not doing that in part because we're feeling pretty good about where we are right now. >> is it true that... i was just thinking about it when you were talking, maria. is it true? i think it's true that,

in india, it's one of the largest muslim populations in the world, but indian youth tends not to turn toward islamic extremism as it does in other parts of the world, tends to turn toward economic well-being. >> you've got a democracy. >> and india is a democracy. >> and there's growth. >> am i accurate on that? okay. >> don't forget the mumbai attack, which was islamic crazy jihadis. >> homegrown. >> well, and helped by external forces, meaning iran. >> but it's not so endemic in a huge population as it is in other parts of the world, and is it because of what maria was saying? >> yes. i think so. >> okay. so this... pick up a thread here. this importance of the economy and money and wage earning to the american people, which is paramount... you used the word... you didn't use it, but you used a word like it... is it underreported, the importance of it? is it underreported, you think? >> it's underreported by the press. it is always first and foremost in the minds of the people, and it's part of the reason the people have stopped trusting

the press because the press's agenda is so different from... >> not reporting what's important. >> ...the public considers important to them in their daily lives... >> right. >> ...which is why maria's fact-based statistics news touches people in a way that politics news has tired people. >> there's also a lack of connecting the dots in terms of the general media. for exame, this rollback in regulations that we have seen. under president obama, the federal registry, the number of pages in the federal registry went up to 96,000. that is equivalent to 15 king james bibles, okay? under president... >> and not as good. >> right, exactly. under president trump, he has cut the number of regulations down by 30 percent. why is this important? because in the last 10 years, business managers were sitting on cash because they weren't sure what new rule and regulation was around the corner, what they were going to have to do to hire more compliance officers to comply with the new rules, hire more lawyers because they were getting sued and they were being attacked, and so that's where all of

the money went rather than hiring new people, putting it into investment. that's what creates general growth, and that's why we've seen animal spirits triggered as a result of this rollback in regulations. >> and it's that economic strength that makes america powerful and good. it's the answer to military issues. the more strength we have in the economy, the stronger our military can be, and it's also the technological answer. if you want to worry about global warming and you want to stop driving this car or that car, wait. invest -- capitalism. the technological breakthrough that will happen one day that takes us off of fossil and on to something else is what's going to solve these problems, not government mandates or regulations. it's capitalism. it's freedom. it's economics. >> right. >> it is the free flow of smart people going to where the return is the highest that solves our problems. ♪ ♪ gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea can start in the colon and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. only phillips' colon health has this unique combination of probiotics.

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about drones? >> i was asking the colonel what happens if there is massive drone attack, just like the south korean in the opening ceremony of the olympics had these beautiful swarm of drones. >> oh, it scared me when i saw that. >> what happens if it's not a beautiful swarm, it's a attack swarm? >> we talked about a lot of issues in this thing, but there's a way of actually programming drones, or incorrectly called drones, but they program them and then launch them. using artificial intelligence, as long as you got a grid coordinate for them to go to or a car to follow or a license plate, you could be swarmed by drones that have as little as 2 grams of explosive in it that can kill you. it can penetra a helt. it can penetrate a flak jacket, thatou'vgot peopleg staying up late at night at the pentagon worrying about is, how do you defend yourself against something you cannot stop because there's so many of them, right? >> right. >> and there's no way to jam the signals or anything like that. what do you use, shotguns? >> yeah. >> i want to stay with you a second because we've talked about

the country and its problems and its politics and the importance of the economy, importance of facts. what about your world? are we worried about not having enough good people sign up for the defense of this country, or is this not a problem? >> well... >> is there still that big appeal out there in the hearts of young americans? >> i think i've probably interviewed several thousand, certainly, individuals and asked them, "why did you join?" and invariably, it comes back to 9/11, even though they were 2 or 3 years old when it happened and as recently as just a few weeks ago. i was just out at the hospital at walter reed and asking, "why did you join this branch of service?" and it's because of a role model. we need 60,000 people to sign up over the next half year to meet the numbers, and they'll get them as long as we're treating the veterans of this war properly. if the constant noise is, "the va has failed us again," if the constant noise is that they're being treated like victims by the media -- in many case they are... what does a guy want? he's badly wounded.

he's missing both legs. he wants to be productive for his family. invariably, about 60 percent of them are married today, unlike when i was a young guy, and it was, like, 10 percent. >> yeah. yeah. >> and they're looking for that economy to give them the opportunity. >> yeah. >> and so if you give them, if you will, a fair and balanced perspective and the opportunity, they know. they've been to places where you flick a switch, and the lights don't go on. you can't drink what comes out of a faucet, and they know in america you can do both, and they know in america you can use your god-given gifts and talents as long as there's an opportunity outhere. so my encouragement to every employer i talk to is "hire a vet." you don't...you can't put up a sign that says, "veterans only need apply," but you can say, "veteran wanted." >> right now, will we get that 60,000? >> well, as long as we've got a good enough economy to put the guys who are getting out into good jobs, they will encourage others to join. >> okay. well, good. we raised a lot of questions. did we settle any? maybe, more or less. i think we agreed on some things, but that means we can have another show this week and settle them next time.

thank you very much, wise guys, wise lady. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> breaking tonight, president trumps lawyer confirming within the hour that the president is not considering firing special counsel robert mueller despite the frenzy of speculation from the left that mr. trump is about to trigger a constitutional crisis. good evening. welcome to the next revolution. i am steve hilton and this is the home of positive populism. judge name is with me and coulter will be joining