>> harris: grab the news on fox. the president just did a land mark trade deal with south korea. learn about it. we talked about it this hour. i'm harris. here's dana. >> dana: fox news alert. we are awaiting the white house briefing. it will begin any moment as the trump administration welcomes to news that kim jong-un did meet with the president of china. hello, everyone. i'm dana perino and this is "the daily briefing." president trum on twitter saying there a good chance kim jong-un will pursue peace but the u.s. pressure on the rogue nation cannot let up. press secretary sarah sanders didn't say much about the meeting yesterday. when did the chinese government let the white house know about it? >> reporter: well, they said something about it a little later on in the night. you're right, she didn't answer it when she was asked during yesterday's briefing. the white house said the chinese government called them on

tuesday and briefed them about kim jong-un's meeting in beijing. they also said during that phone call, that there was a message, personal message from president xi that was passed on to president trump. president trump tweeted that he got that message last night and that, according to president xi, the meeting went very well and president trump is looking forward to meeting. this is the first time kim jong-un has taken a trip outside north korea since 2011. the administration said it is proof that their, quote, campaign of maximum pressure is actually working. >> a lot of countries around the world coming together and recognizing the destablizing threat that north korea poses. without this maximum pressure campaign, this kind of thing wouldn't be happening. tremendously pleased to see president xi reaching out to president trump yesterday and telling him that north korea reaffirmed its commitments to

denuclear saying of the korean peninsula. >> reporter: south korean officials announced president trump agreed to meet with kim jong-un by the end of may. sarah sanders talked about that yesterday as well and said they were still moving forward with that plan but as of now they don't have a specific date or time for when that meeting might take place. >> dana: mean time, there are reports that the incoming national security adviser met with the soon to be former nsa adviser h.r. mcmaster. do we know anything about that meeting? >> reporter: one of our white house producers, kristen brown, saw ambassador bolton at the white house yesterday about noon. we don't know why he was here but "the weekly standard" is reporting he and mcmasters had lunch together and discussed the transition. sources telling "the weekly standard" that the meeting was, quote, cordial and professional. we reached out to the white house to try and get more information about why he was here and whether or not they met and what they possibly discussed. but so far we haven't heard back. >> dana: all right, thank you very much. >> reporter: you bet.

>> dana: so the supreme court is hearing arguments today on whether maryland democrats unfairly redrew a congressional district map to favor the party in 2011. changes led to the ouster of ten term republican congressman rosco bartlett. maryland is just one of seven states that has seen court battles over its redistricting in this election cycle. let's bring in chris stirewalt. jerry manering is something people say is at the root cause of polarization. do you think it's a big deal? >> i think in 2018 everybody always ought to take a chill pill because we keep it at 11 all the time. some things are only a 7. that's okay. look, gerrymandering makes us dumber, makes our politics dumber. what it does, it incentivizes extremism. there's no question about that.

from a cultural sociological point of view, gerrymandering has made american politics much, much stupider. democrats' claims that it makes them a minority are probably not groundless but far far overstated. democrats claim the cause of the republican majority in the house and persistent republican majority since 2006 and 2010 is because of gerrymandering broadly overstates the importance of it in flipping seats. so it makes us dumber, but it doesn't make us republican. >> dana: it does seem to be more of an excuse of procedure rather than figuring out a message and policy that's more attractive and persuasive for voters that you are trying to reach. >> and also having the courage to let people run in the districts as they are. we go back to the conor lamb example in pennsylvania, or the example in virginia or alabama. there are many of them. democrat, if they are willing to

let their candidates run where their districts are and not where the party's donors and base exists, they can win in a lot of places that they look like they can't. they're contesting a special election in arizona that's getting under way right now. all of these places could be potential places for democrat, but the candidates have to be able to match the voters in those district. >> dana: the supreme court hearing this today, the decision presumably out around june. that would usually be the time frame of that. does that have an impact on this year's midterm elections? >> so far in the test case of pennsylvania where the state supreme court there redrew all the districts, the u.s. supreme court said, nah, bro, we're not going to dive back into this thing, we're gonna let it stand the way it stands. we're talking about big consequences here for 2020. so far the supreme court has seemed quite unwilling to dive into these issues with an election happening in real-time. >> dana: the supreme court might also hear about another issue in the future and that is about the census.

12 states have now said they are going to sue the trump administration over a decision to add a question about citizenship to the census. i think we have those 12 states here starting with you know california announced it yesterday. new york, pennsylvania, some of the bigger states. but they're not alone. 12 states. i just wanted to get your take about the constitutionality of the history of the census. what it is for and why the trump administration and its supporters would say it is perfectly reasonable to ask a question about citizenship when you're trying to take account of who is in the country. >> right. who are the members of congress supposed to represent? the primary purpose of the census, one is for scientific knowledge because they were taking a very forward looking approach to things back in the day thanks, guys. but also for the primary purpose of how many seats, how much representation do you get in congress? we use those figures for a lot of other things.

it goes down to a zip code level, allocation of federal welfare dollars, federal highway dollars, all of the spending. does have the second order consequences. second quarter is who gets how much representation in congress and while the constitution is very plain, the purpose of the census is to count everybody, of course they had probably slavery in mind as they were talking about that. but it is to count everybody not just citizens. it's also not an unreasonable or racist or unfair or unkind point of view for people to say that the congress should represent the citizens of the united states not everybody who happens to be in the united states at any given moment. >> dana: this morning i think they put their finger on it, especially when a state like california is worried about resources. this morning in their vitals news letter, they said if noncitizens are afraid to complete the census, their state population could look lower on paper than it is and that in turn skews the calculation of state's per capita income and

decreases the amount of money they receive for medicade. one of the biggest drivers of federal dollars back to the states. >> any cynical republican thinks -- it's gross if you're doing it for that reason. i know you're out there somewhere, gross people. so that would be gross in the first case. but in the second case, i would say this cuts both ways. if, in fact, illegal immigrants, people in the united states illegally, are afraid, they're also going to be afraid in te s texas. they're probably going to be more afraid in states governed by republicans where there are more hard line rules. so arizona, texas, virginia, other states that have large populations where there might be illegal immigrants. those guys will probably suffer just as much or more than california would under this. >> dana: i might ask you one other question. this just in moments before the 2 p.m. show started "the daily briefing." apparently, this is according to "the new york times" president trump's lawyer talked about presidential pardons with

the attorneys representing michael flynn and paul manafort. this is a big scoop. for me, i'm thinking even if those conversations took place, it didn't happen. so if a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? but you can bet sarah sanders, she's gonna get questions ab this. >> it has not happened yet. this story is very interesting but a dowd, of kourbgs left as the president's lawyer just about a week ago. now that he's gone, people in his orbit may be free to say, oh, yeah, this is where you have sources, a reporter. you remember these moments where one of your sources is finally unincumbered to start telling. i'm guessing somebody who knew was privy to this knowledge that, oh, yeah, and he offered a pardon to both flynn and manafort. we should remember the context here. >> dana: did he offer it or did

they discuss the possibility of it? there's a good distinction there that needs to be made. >> it basically was, look, if you're getting hemmed up on a technicality, if they're dragging you in there over nothing, a false uttering kind of thing. if it is they snared you in a martha stewart snare, then, look, maybe the president will have good feelings about pardoning you. that, of course, depends on the infraction being minor, which in manafort's case, the charges are far, far, far, from minor. they are huge. we don't know what they have against flynn. neither were able to take the president up on that. to the point of the authors of the piece, it is certainly reflective of the president's state of mine or his attorney when it comes to what they were going to say. >> dana: we'll continue to follow that story. thank you. >> you bet. >> dana: 20 nations taking action against russia after the

poisoning of a former spy and his daughter living in england. britain's ambassador to the u.s. joins me. but first here's the state department. >> russia needs to stop this kind of behavior. we've seen it in the u.k. we've seen them responsible for killing thousands and thousands of innocent civilians in syria. we've seen what russia has done in ukraine as well. russia needs to stop its actions.

>> the u.s. trade representative secured changes that will reduce the trade deficit and insure it is good for the prosperity of the american people. this is a big deal for the american automotive industry. it's a big deal for our parts manufacturers. it's a big deal for our pharmaceutical companies and a big deal and major win for american workers and american businesses. continuing on the economic front, fourth quarter gdp numbers were up 2.9%.

this reflected strong consumer spending at the end of the year and increased investments from american businesses. according to market watch, hiring is strong, unemployment is low and recent tax cuts are putting more money in people's pockets. accordingly, the u.s. is likely to grow even faster this year than it did in 2017. the council of economic advisers released a report on the economic benefits of expanded infrastructure investment, estimating the president's plan would deliver employment gains and increase gdp growth. the president will be traveling tomorrow to richfield, ohio torque deliver remarks on his infrastructure initiative in front of an audience of local worker. they will be at a training site for members of the international union of operating engineers local 18 a diversified trade union representing heavy equipment operators, surveyors and mechanics in the construction industry and engineers who work in operations and maintenance in building and industrial complexes.

following on the success of tax reform, infrastructure is the next piece of the president's successful economic agenda. these workers represent the hard working americans across the country who will participate in the rebuilding of our nation's infrastructure sparked from the president's vision. it will be worth tuning in to see the president lay out that vision. with that, i will take your questions. >> are pardons on the table for anyone involved in the russia probe? >> look, i would refer you back to the statement from ty cobb in the report that you're asking about in which he said i have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion at the white house. >> can you say no one here has discussed pardons in this case? >> i can say that ty cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this. he's got a statement on the record saying there's no discussion and there's no

consideration of those at this time at the white house. >> is he worried about what michael flynn or paul manafort might tell special counsel muleer? >> you've continued to ask about this topic every single day. there was no collusion. we are very confident in that and look forward to this process wrapping up. >> the attorney for stormy daniels filed a motion. do you have a response from the white house reaction to that? >> nope. we have addressed this once again extensively and we have nothing new to add. for any new questions i would refer you to president's personal counsel. i'm not going to get into a hypothetical question. i would refer you to michael cohen on that matter. >> we haven't seen much of the president since last week. he went to a news conference that didn't end up taking questions. >> he took a few questions at

the end. >> why haven't we seen much of the president? why won't he commit to do a formal news conference? >> the president has a major speech tomorrow. he's been incredibly active all week long. we've taken major action in trade negotiations, as well as expelling intel officers from russia out of the country this week. there have been a number of major things the president has taken action on. he's giving major speech tomorrow. >> will he take questions from the press? >> we take questions from you every day in a number of different formats. right now i'm standing up here taking questions from you, which i did yesterday, which raj did monday. the president is speaking directly to the american people tomorrow. >> sarah, the president said michael flynn is a good man. he's also said paul manafort is a good man. i'm wondering if the president believes he has the right to use the power of his office, power

to pardon to protect them from what he might see as unfair punishment down the road. does he believe he has that right? >> look, i would refer you back to ty cobb's statement. there's not discussion or consideration of that at this time so there would be no reason for me to have had a conversation with the president about that because that is not being currently discussed at the white house. >> the question is whether he believes he has the right to use the power of his office. >> the president has the authority to pardon individuals. you're asking me about a specific case in which it hasn't been discussed so i would not have brought that up with him. >> the president who has the power of the pardon, not ty cobb. so has the president -- >> which is what i just said to phil. >> not exactly. the president has the power of the pardon. has he considered, would he consider pardoning paul manafort, michael flynn or rick

gates? >> as i said, an on-record statement from the president's attorney, here at the white house on these matters has made there's no discussion or consideration of this. >> another matter. the trade dealthat you spoke about at the top of the briefing regarding the u.s. and south korea. as part of this new trade deal, each u.s. car maker would be allowed to export 50,000 vehicles per year to south korea. right now it's capped at 25,000. but last year, if you look at most recent history, no u.s. automakers sold more than 11,000 cars to south korea. what makes you think that demand will arise so drastically? >> it also affects the parts component which is a major piece of this deal. we're going to continue working with auto manufacturing in this country. one of the other things that we've seen is an increase in by

across the board and people actually making things in america again due to deregulation, due to the tax cuts. we expect business in america to grow and, therefore, the trade component to grow as well. >> as for the automakers, do you believe the actual number of vehicles sold will increase dramatically as a result of this trade deal? last year 11,000. the new number 50,000. by next year will we see a dramatic increase in that number? >> look, this wasn't something that happened overnight. this is certainly a step in the right direction to help remove the trade deficit that we have. we're very excited about the progress that's been made not just with auto manufacturers, but also an agriculture sector and pharmaceuticals as well. >> a report today on president trump and amazon caused the company's stock value to tumble roughly $53 billion.

is the president, as that report said, looking for ways to go after the internet retail giant? >> look, we have no announcements and no specific policies or actions that we're currently pushing forward or considering. >> not asking for an announcement, but has the president looking for ways to go after amazon? treasury secretary steve mnuchin said the white house does favor an internet sales tax and that's something you could be looking at. so is that something the president is pushing for behind closed doors? >> look, the president has said many times before, he's always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses. this is no different. he's gonna always look at different ways. but there aren't any specific policies on the table at this time. >> one more question on kim jong-un's visit to china. when was the white house made aware of that trip? >> the ambassador from china came to the white house yesterday and briefed members of the national security team who then briefed the president.

>> sarah, alton sterling. charges against the -- >> can you speak up? >> there were no charges in the alton sterling police shooting. what did the president have to say about that? particularly as he is a strong supporter of police. then you have the issue we're in the midst of the issue that happened, shooting of a young man in california behind his grandmother's house with a cell phone. >> certainly a terrible incident. this is something that is a local matter and that's something we feel should be left up to local authorities at this point in time. >> he was strongly behind police. he supports police, as much of america does. but wants to weed out bad policing. what does he say about weeding out bad policing when you continue to see these situations occur over and over again? >> certainly, we want to make sure all law enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law. the president is very supportive of law enforcement.

but at the same time, in these specific cases and these specific instances, those will be left up to local authorities to make that determination and not something for the federal government to weigh into. >> one more. eric garner who cried out 11 times i cannot breathe. his mother is still looking for an indictment of police officers in new york. has the president asked them what the status is? does he think something is going to happen? what? >> not aware of any specific actions. again, these would be local matters that should be up to the local authorities. kevin? >> quick point on north korea and maybe a fast follow on the census. on north korea, how would you characterize the administration's mood after the meeting in china between kim jong-un and president xi jingping. the president almost sounded optimistic. but at the same time, if we look back historically when madeline albright went over there, the north koreans were sort of cheating the whole way through. i would imagine there's also

skepticism. how would you describe the white house's sensibilities now? >> certainly we're going to be cautiously optimistic, but we still feel like things are moving in the right direction and that the meeting yesterday was a good indication that the maximum pressure campaign has been working. you saw him leave for the first time since becoming the leader of north korea, leaving his country for the first time. we consider that to be a positive sign that the maximum pressure campaign is continuing to work. and we're going to continue moving forward in this process and hope for a meeting down the road. >> we were talking about may. is that still sort of the goal? >> certainly we would like to see this. obviously this is something of a global importance. we want to make sure that it's done as soon as we can. we also want to make sure it's done properly and we're working towards that goal. as we said before, the north

koreans have made that offer and we've accepted and we're moving forward. >> i was going to ask, u.s. code title 13 221. effectively says that you can be fined if you don't answer the census truthfully. no one's been fined dating back to 1970. would the white house support the idea of fining individuals that don't answer the census or fail to answer it honestly? >> look, the goal is to have data that we can use for specific things and we think that having accurate data is parent. i'm not aware of a mass campaign to start fining individuals. we certainly want people to follow the law. we want them, whether it's the census or anything else, people should follow the law and the law should be enforced. >> ty cobb's statement deals with the president. i want to ask you very specifically, did the president direct john dowd to talk to the

attorneys of paul manafort and michael flynn about potential pardons? >> i'm not aware of any conversations of that nature at all. >> did the president have a reaction to these revelations? >> again -- >> did you ask him specifically? >> i did not talk to him about it specifically. but again, i have been in a number of conversations. it's never come up. ty cobb would be the lead representative for the white house on these matters has also gone on the record to discuss and declare that these conversations haven't taken place. >> you said these are local issues. with respect, this seems to be an issue that the entire country is grapplingwith. these tensions of communities of color an police departments. does is president not need to show leadership on this issue? >> look, we certainly, when the president has talked about a number of issues, we want to find ways to bring the country together. certainly not looking for any place of division. i think you've seen that in the policies that he's put forward.

he wants to grow the economy. he wants to do that for everybody. he wants a better america for every american. and that's been a repeated thing out of this white house. but when it comes to the authority to on the rulings that have taken place in the last few days, those are things that have to be done at a local level. they are not federal decisions at this time. >> there are a lot of african-american moms feeling as though their sons are die. doesn't the president feel like he needs to do something about that? >> i think we should do every single thing we can every day to protect the people of this country. i think the president, whether they're black, white, hispanic, male or female, rich or poor, we look for ways to protect the individuals in this country, particularly children. that's why you've seen the president take an active role over the last several months in school safety and looking at ways. we want to do that across the board, whether the kid is in a school, at home, no matter where they are in this country, kids

should feel safe. that's why this company focused on the safety and security as a big part of the priorities of this administration, both through securing our borders and stopping the flow of drugs, stopping the flow of gangs, stopping the number of school shootings by the stop school violence act, the background system. i'm not saying it's perfect. until every child is safe, we can always do more and we're going to show up every day for work trying to do exactly that. [ talking at the same time ] >> i'm sorry. i couldn't hear. >> a federal judge in maryland refused to throw out a claim against the president saying washington maryland have the right to sue. wonder if the white house might have some comment on that case? >> i can't comment on on going litigation. i'll have to keep you posted. >> quick one on north korea and if i might on something el. you told us last night personal message that xi jingping had for president trump.

what was in that message? >> it was a personal message. we feel like we've made significant progress and we're going to continue moving forward in this process. i don't have anything to add beyond that. >> quick question on stormy daniels and the lawsuit that was offered overnight, or the motion that was made overnight. you said you addressed these issues extensively. but you haven't answered the substantive question about whether the president was aware of the $130,000 payment that was made under an agreement in which he is named to keep stormy daniels quiet. can you answer that question? you said you weren't aware. are you aware now? >> the president denied the allegations. we've spoken about this issue extensively. i don't have anything else to add. anything beyond that, i would refer you to outside counsel. >> questions on big tech companies. amazon. the report said the president is, quote, upset with amazon and

its ceo jeff besos. have you ever heard the president talk about amazon? are they currently competing on a local playing field? >> i have heard the president talk repeatedly about making business practices across this country level for everyone across the board. we talked about it privately and publicly. it's something he wants to see happen. beyond that i don't have anything. richard? >> two questions on immigration. first, is the president going to turn the immigration policies kept away from the u.s., high tech workers, special workers that instead would go to canada for instance? >> i'm sorry. i'm not sure i follow. >> is the president concerned with the immigration policies that kept away from the u.s. specialized workers, high tech workers, a fear that they'll go someplace else? >> not at all. the president is concerned that we aren't doing enough to create

a strong work force here, which is why he has put a big emphasis on work force development. something ivanka trump has been directly engaged in and the office of american innovation have played a big role in pushing for very strong policy shift to improving the work force development of people in this country so that we have lots more skilled workers to fill some of those high tech jobs you mentioned. >> as you know, senate candidates in utah just said that more hard liner on immigration than the president because he is opposed for instance to citizenship for dreamers. would the president sign a bill that would give citizenship to dreamers? >> we put out a number of solutions to fix the daca problem. democrats have shown their unwillingness to do so and that they want to you daca recipients as political pawns instead of actually fixing the problem. we'd love to come up with a long-term solution if democrats

decide to show up for work and be part of that process. we'd love to do that. i'll take one last question. trey? >> thank you. following the president's tweets today, is he encouraging other cities or counties to join the doj lawsuit against the state of california? >> look, the president is encourages people to follow federal law. there's a reason that we have laws in this country and he expects that individual cities and states should follow the federal law. >> if i could ask you about the president's former lawyer john dowd. are there any actions mr. dowd took while he was serving the president that president trump was uncomfortable with? >> i'm sorry? >> were there any actions john dowd took while he was serving president trump? >> i'm not aware of any specific actions. thanks so much, guy. have a great rest of the week. >> stormy daniels, why has he not spoken on stormy daniels? >> dana: let's bring back chris stirewalt, who stayed with me.

almost like we were in the same room together. couple hundred miles apart. >> exactly. >> dana: sarah sanders take a question, as we anticipated, with that breaking news right before "the daily brief" started that john dowd, the president's former lawyer, he just left last week, approached the lawyers of paul manafort and michael flynn about the possibility of pardons. sarah sanders referring to a statement by ty cobb, who is another lawyer representing the white house in this. he said that the only question he gets about pardons are ones from the press. but you can bet, chris, that this story is not going to go away. >> no, it is not going to go away. this is one of the reasons administration and we see increasing amount of parallel between the trump administration and clinton administration of 20 years ago, where the press secretary has to be basically a lay attorney. the ability to answer these questions with very, very distinct sentencing and what the

definition of is is to preserve the president's ability to pardon these people if he thinks it's to them helpful, to not get caught in a lie. georgetown might have to offer her an honorary law degree when this is all done. >> dana: i will tell you, that is definitely true when you are the white house press secretary. the communications people all are the ones that have to deal with the leaks, in my experience. communications folks are not the ones leaking, but having to deal with it. i'm always curious as to why the white house would not have designated someone to be this person that answers all of these questions because, as she ticked through a lot of the things that are happening. she started with the news about the economy and the uptick in the gdp growth to 2.9% last quarter. >> yep. south korea. >> dana: news south korea and the united states have a new trade agreement, which is good news for all consumers and business people in both countries. there's a lot of good things to talk about. she'll be talking about infrastructure tomorrow. leading the briefings are questions about the mueller investigation. >> mueller investigation or the

lawsuit between trump's attorney and the sex worker who alleges that their relationship and all of that jazz. it would be nice if the president's personal lawyers would step up and handle some of that. >> dana: do you know what? i watched an entire briefing and stormy daniels did not come up once. >> they got it in. they totally got it in. >> dana: i might have been drinking my green juice. i missed it. can i ask about one other thing? i heard sarah sanders answer april ryan's question about alton sterling. this is the man who was killed by police officers and a decision was made in louisiana in baton rouge that there would not be any prosecution of those officers. listen to what sarah sanders said. >> certainly, a terrible incident. this is something that is a local matter and it's something we feel should be left up to the local authorities at this time.

>> dana: chris, my ears perked up because, you know, it is true that before the internet and the cable news and everything, that a lot of these stories would have remained local story. that has not been the case in the last 15 years. whether it was regards to police who are killed in the line of duty and how we treat them, and then individuals that are the subject of a terrible situation. i suppose there is not going to be a prosecution, so i can't say there was anything that was untoward that happened there, unless it was just an accident or unfortunate situation. but to say that it was just a local matter, i imagine that ruffled some feathers. >> and the attorney general down in louisiana said there are new additional videos that they will release of police body cameras from surveillance videoses nearby that show why, that explain that the one view we've had of this does not give an accurate picture to folks. plus, we have the toxicology

reports from the deceased's bloodstream at this time. he's saying when we put it altogether, this doesn't add up to criminal misconduct by the police. but, in the interest of the federal government if anybody's civil rights are violated anywhere in the united states, that's why we have a federal government. that was an opportunity for her to say, i don't know about this case, but any time there's wrong done to people, any time an american citizen's rights are violated -- >> dana: she did. other reporters picked up on it. she gave a more fullsome answer along those lines. chris stirewalt, thank you. >> you bet. >> dana: a record number of women running or likely to run for congress this year. more than 500 according to rutgers university. jennifer palmieri was a top adviser to hillary clinton's 2016 campaign. she has advice for women who want to run. she also served as communications director for president obama. her book "dear madam president" is out this week. i'm glad you could be here

today. the book is quite special. it's a small slim volume. >> slim, yeah. >> dana: i like the rose gold as well. >> yeah. they did a nice job with the design. >> dana: do you think if hillary clinton would have won you would have written a book as well? >> no. >> dana: no? >> i see -- i think i had two experiences. one we share, which is being, i watched what happens with the women candidate at that level, presidential campaign. and then the other is being a woman who worked in politics, as you and i did. pretty high levels in the white house. and i had a lot of great mentors, men and women both. but it's a high pressure situation for women. i felt like i got lessons from both experiences. i think if she had won, i might bear some of the obstacles that i think women face, and it's not that men are trying to hold

women back or that everybody that didn't vote for hillary did so because of sexist attitudes. but that it's a sort of revealed to me about how we still have questions about women and ambition. >> dana: and that word ambition? >> there's something about it i just don't like. i think for women in power, you hear that a lot about women in power, not just women in politics. i think it's because we've spent many hundreds of years making politics sort of suited for men, and women still don't play a role. >> dana: you told npr that around september of 2015 that you had a feeling that you could possibly lose, that she could lose the election to president trump. said he just rolled over 16, 17

candidates on the republican side. you know this quote well. in september of 2016, hillary clinton also said this. >> to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of trump supporters into what i call the basket of deplorables. right? the racists, sexists, homophobic, islama phobic. >> dana: i was curious if those two moments came together? just from a communicationcommun. you're in the green room and you hear something. did you know at that moment that was going to be a big deal? >> i wasn't there, but when i heard about it, yeah, i did know it was going to be a big deal. and it is, you know, as she said torque be grossly generalistic, which you never should do and to characterize the, i think to

characterize the motivations of voters is a dangerous thing. >> dana: you had some time obviously to think about the loss. i know you probably play it over and over in your head. this book is broader. it's about advice to women. >> right. >> dana: do you think in your life time, our life time, that there will be a woman president? >> i think that there will. >> dana: you still are optimistic about that? >> i really am. the book goes well beyond politics because i think that you see women, i mean women are running for office in record numbers. >> dana: do you think more women are running in response to hillary clinton's candidacy or in response to president trump? >> my impression is it's in response to president trump. i think that it was, you know, a lot of women voted for president trump. i get that. i think for women who didn't, it was surprising and it was unnerving that they thought the country was going to make a certain decision and it didn't. and that told people, oh, maybe we're doing things wrong.

i said in the book i felt like we ran her as the female fax imly of the qualities we look for in a male president. >> dana: they're trying to wrap me. my last question is, given that, do you think if you were to run it again and just let hillary be hillary that she would have won? >> there's all these other factors. it's a different world that we're in now. i think the first woman had to go through that path she did. now i hope the next candidate has an easier path. >> dana: congratulations on the book. i like the rose gold. jennifer palmieri, thank you very much. an unprecedented pledge from north korea. china saying the rogue nation is committed to getting rid of its nukes. how will that affect the proposed summit meeting with president trump? how do you chase what you love

with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira.

it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ready for a new chapter? talk to your rheumatologist about humira. this is humira at work. >> dana: china saying north korea is committed to denew

khrarization between the meeting between china's president and j kim jong-un was confirmed. i wonder if you could help me figure it out. what is the truth here on this meeting between china and north korea? because i have read lots of commentary from both sides saying this is china saying to kim jong-un, you better come here so i can make sure you are doing what i want you to do leading into this meeting. then i read that kim jong-un is saying, there's a new sheriff in town. i'm not my father. i am in a better position because i have nuclear weapons. which is it? >> i would suggest commentaries don't know any more than i know. who i do think know are representatives of this country who have had a regular dialogue with leadership of china on this subject. >> dana: and so, everybody here is looking after their own nation's interest. what's interesting to me is that leading into this today, and the

white house press briefing that took place during this hour, sarah sanders, press secretary, talking at length about agreement that the united states just made with south korea for a free trade agreement. so, a lot of the alliances both on diplomatic and militarily are all happening simultaneously as we lead into this possible summit in may. >> well, certainly is. what's important here is that we've got longstanding relationships with nations like japan. we have a treaty with them. we have treaties with other asian nations. we have a responsibility to help defend those nations and we also have a responsibility to confront the threat of the nuclear armed north korea. i think that's what's happening here. hopefully, these negotiations will be clear and successful. >> dana: do you think kim jong-un thinks about denuclearization the way we might think about

denuclearization? we had the news this morning that there is another reactor that is now able to be seen from space. so we've gotten word about that. then i think in some ways that makes things more difficult going into this discussion. >> well, look. they can't get any more different or simpler, in my view. the reality is that both sides have to sit down and we need to get clear cut responsible actions on the part of north korea. they've got to be available and enforceable. we've also got to enlist the assistance of china to ensure that there is not a northeast asia nuclear race here. it's in china's interests as well. >> dana: do you think china was delivering that message to him yesterday? >> i would hope so. but, again, i think only the leadership of the united states and china really know that. >> dana: indeed. well, we'll continue to touch base with you as we lead into may and see if this meeting

actually happens. we'll touch base with you as we get there. admiral robert natter, thank you. >> thank you. >> dana: government working to manage a major crisis, cracking down on opioids as the death toll soar. the fda commissioner makes his first appearance on "the daily briefing" to discuss how his agency is battling addiction. >> we'll be suing certain drug companies for what they've done with the opioids. we'll be bringing the suits at a federal level. male vo: when that hurricane hit, the entire community came together as a whole. ♪ it was such an overwhelming response to help others. no one thought that they were going to do this before it happened and everyone just did it. i think that's the way that human nature should be looked at.

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>> dana: trump administration following through on a campaign promise to combat the opioid crisis as the death toll rises from the highly addictive drugs. the cdc statistics show 63,000 people die from overdoses in 2016, up more than 10,000 from the previous year. of that, opioids accounted for

two thirds of the fatalities. synthetic overdoses doubling. let's bring in the fda commissioner scott gottlieb. i wanted to ask you, sir, is the opioid crisis the worst thing you're dealing with? >> i think it's the biggest health crisis facing the agency. this began as a problem with prescription drug. we see people transitions to street drug. most of the new addiction still happening to people who are first exposed to opioids from a lawful prescription. we can try to cut down the new addiction by rationalizing prescribing. we have tools to do that. we've been focused on tphart of the mission. >> dana: president trump said recently and the attorney general talking about suing certain drug companies for problems possibly ones in the past. but is this a productive way to do it if you're also trying to work with though companies to find pharmaceutical alternatives

to treat opioids or treat pain? >> well, litigations by the justice department, i think that we've all made mistakes in the past in terms of my agency as well, in terms of our view about the addictive potential of these drugs. i think we go back 15 years ago, we didn't recognize how adetectivive these products could be. now the key is to try to recognize that we need to bring down the rates of prescribing. it's not just that too many presreup shuns are written. they're written for too many doses. we need to work with the companies. also work with companies to try to development treatments for addiction to help the people who are currently addicted. >> dana: i know congress allotted 5$500 million to fight the crisis but states have not spent the money on that. maybe they're waiting to figure out a way to fix the problem. because what do you spend the money on? >> lot roff that's focused on treatment. states have to make decisions about how they're going to portion that money on treatment. we recently got a slug of money,

$94 million in the omni budget that will focus on the prevention. lot of the synthetic drugs are coming through the mail. >> dana: what about, tell me what you're doing on nicotine. i know there's some controversy, any time people talk about nicotine, especially e cigarettes and there's controversy regarding e cigarettes. what are you trying to do? >> we're trying to reduce the addictiveness of nicotine. at the same time, we're looking at opportunities to transition currently addicted smokers to products that could be reduced, modified risk products including potentially e cigarettes. they need to put through regulatory. they might pose far less risk than smoking combustible cigarettes. we're also trying to open up the market for nicotine replacement therapy. trying to bring more product variety for adults who still want access to nicotine, but we

want to render the cigarettes themselves minimally or not addictive. >> dana: my last question for you. i'm interested in one of the things i believe that you said going into your job is that getting more drugs into generics sooner will help lower the price of prescription drugs for americans. you've made a lot of progress on that this past year. is there more that can be done? >> that's right. we approved a record number of generic drug. we think there's a lot more that can be done. we see activities in the market place that are impeding the ability of generic companies to bring generic drugs on to the market. we've been trying to attack those what we call shenanigans. sometimes branded companies make it hard for the generic companies to do their studies. >> dana: i think we only have 90 seconds. the president has said that this issue about right to try. legislation is important to a lot of members. the vice president talked about it a lot. the president talked about it in the state of the union.

and this would be allow people to try to do treatments based on drugs that are not yet approved by the fda. what is the role the fda has in trying to get right to try passed? >> we've been providing technical assistance to congress. there's a couple bills working through congress. one was passed in the senate, the other is in the house. it's going back to the senate. we provide technical assistance to the committee that was drafting that bill, trying to build in certain patient protections, which they did. we think there's certain patient protections built into the legislation. now it is up to the senate to see if they can pass it. >> dana: well, we appreciate you coming in today. we will touch base with you. the opioids issue is something fox news covers a lot. we're interesting in how we can both prevent people from getting addicted and treat them if they are. >> thanks a lot. >> dana: thank you for joining us. busy hour. we have more to come. two more days left in the week. i'm dain in -- dana perino.

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>> shepard: it's noon on the west coast where the press secretary is denying there's been any talk of pardoning key figures in the mueller investigation. that's after a report that the president's lawyer talked about possible pardons for michael flynn and paul manafort. the report and the reaction ahead. also word of a new russian connection to the trump campaign. investigators revealing a link between the former deputy campaign chair rick gates and somebody with ties to russian intelligence. plus, chinese officials say the north korean leader kim jong-un is willing to give up his nukes. at least under a couple of conditions. now president trump says he looks forward to meeting with the north korean