that on fox business at 8 p.m. your money, your politics, your life. it's important to you, we just don't mail it in like other business networks, for example, that will be on tupperware commercials. we believe you deserve more. we continue now on fox. ♪ >> president trump arriving in cleveland, ohio, just a couple of minutes ago. he's here to tout the benefits of his tax cuts at a small business round table. elizabeth: the state of hawaii declaring a state of emergency after a erupting volcano on the island causing a earthquake and damage. leland: the buckeye state heads to the primary polls on tuesday and capitol hill where both parties are fighting for control this november in the midterm election.

and hello from cleveland noon eastern. we expect the president to take the stage at about 1:20. those remarks live as they happen on this special edition of america's news headquarters. i'm leland vittert. liz, it occurs to me that we're a couple of hundreds yards from where you were in november and i've got to tell you, it's a little bit warmer, but no less divided here. elizabeth: that's right, i'm elizabeth prann. thank you for joining us. we remember that president trump won ohio in november by eight points. that being said, it's no indication what we'll see on tuesday and you're getting a preview for us. leland: definitely, a preview, both from the democratic side, the republican side, as well. some of the issues here, the primaries here in ohio are the first state-wide election since the buckeye state went for president trump in 2016. it was key on his road to the white house, but there are big questions now about just how big

his coat tails are. as we speak the president is here at a campaign event for his pick. first though to the hot ly contested race to replace john kasich. there were four republican candidates and there are now two, one of them current lt. governor mary taylor to joins us now. nice to see you, ma'am. appreciate it. beautiful day to be in cleveland. >> welcome to cleveland. leland: it's great to be here, we'll start with this, on the senate side, both candidates are wrapping themselves in who is more trump than the other one. is that true in the governor's race? >> so what we see in ohio and it might be different here than anyplace else. president trump enjoys unbelievable support from republican primary voters. every poll i've seen the events over 170 events there's extraordinary support for our president today in this state, as much if not more than in

november of 2016. leland: is that true only of primary voters or is that true state-wide? >> so, right now we're really looking mostly or-- >> obviously-- three days. >> it's three days out. so, it's important to support the president. that's what, you know, we have learned in this state for the last year and a half and it's important to support his policies. leland: what policies, is it specific to policies or is it specific to his view of the world? >> it's important to support his policies. leland: what policies? >> so you think about what he's going to talk about today, the tax reform, the tax cuts, trump tax cuts and talking to small businesses and understanding. this is having a really good positive impact. i talked to small businesses who said the economy looks great for them. and that's great news. it's putting ohioans back to work and in ohio we support and i support president trump, build the wall, secure our borders. shut down sanctuary cities in the state of ohio and across our

country. keep our people safe, keep the promises you made. that's in fact what the president is doing. leland: you have been lt. governor for longer than the president has been president. valerie jarrett saying a lot of economic growth we're seeing in ohio and states in the midwest, yeah, perhaps president trump had something to do with it, but the economic boom of 2010 through 2016 also contributed to it. is that fair? what can you trace directly to president trump? >> so if you think about where we could have been today, we're at the end of that ten-year cycle where the economy would have-- if you look back in history would have curved down and in fact, it hasn't done that because trump policies are working. although we've made progress in ohio and i think you said or i heard earlier, lowest unemployment we've seen in how long. leland: 3.9%. >> it's extraordinary, but when i talk to business owners today, they say the economy is better than they expected and their

outlook for the future is better than they expected and president trump's been in office for a year and a half, and a lot of that's attributed to the policies that he's put in place and the other things he's doing to improve the lives of americans. leland: one key part of president trump's message has been this, i'm an outsider, i'm not a politician and i promised i would not use the word outsider during this entire show because i've heard it too much on television in the ads. but it's this idea of a different type of politician. the attack on you is a little different. i want to show you an ad that's running in ohio and get your reaction. take a listen. >> is mary taylor ready to be governor? taylor can't keep her staff, raising questions about her leadership and oversight. she was busted using the state's airplane for personal use and taylor is dogged by rumor that she skips out on work, a slacker whose work schedule is almost untraceable. mary taylor, unfit and unqualifi

unqualified. leland: implicit in that is this idea that you're just another politician, is that a tougher reputation to shake in this current climate? >> so, this is what i haven't seen this one, just my opponent lying about me on tv because he can't defend his own liberal record. in fact, it's not true. i spent 16 years working in the private sector as a c.p.a. i understand what it means to create a job in the private sector. my opponent has been on the public dole for 42 years and has had no private sector experience. so, it's unfortunate we are in that silly season as we call it in politics. what we're trying to do is focus on what i bring to the table, not only my private sector experience, but policies we push to mako makoo-- make ohio a better state to work and live. leland: and you said president trump won by eight.

and we have a tossup come the general election. win or lose come and talk to us about it. eappreciate you being here. >> thank you. leland: liz. elizabeth: great interview. two controversial fbi employees who worked closely with former embattled employee james comey has left the bureau. >> both of the individuals played roles in the controversy surrounding the fbi. jame baker was one of the top lawyers and one of jim comey's aides. and he was on suspicion of leaking classified information about a reporter about the so-called trump dossier. that led him to being released-- reassigned rather late last year. the other is a name that will be familiar to a lot of our viewers. lisa page has been in the cross-hairs for months now. we as a part of specially counsel robert mueller's team unless text messages were

discovered between her and another critical of then candidate donald trump. they're facing blowback from a federal judge. on friday in a hearing for charges against paul manafort, the judge elliott suggested that mueller's team lied about the scope of their investigation and seeking unfettered power to bring down the presidency. saying you don't care about mr. manafort's bank fraud. you're interested in information to get you to mr. trump towards impeachment or prosecution. now, the president picked up those and once again blasted the investigation as a witch hunt. >> none of that information has to do with information related to the russian government coordination and the campaign of donald trump. it doesn't have anything to do. it's from years before. >> and mueller's team argued it

has broad authority to investigate here because deputy attorney general rod rosenstein not only authorized them to investigate russian interference and collusion, but any matters that come up in the course of their work. liz. elizabeth: thank you so much, appreciate it. leland: well, president trump is here in cleveland. he is at a campaign event for one of the republican senate candidates right now. and then he's going to talk at a small business round table. talking about tax cuts and the effects on the economy here in ohio and that's what the president and the white house want to be talking about. the white house though still doing damage control and the president still facing questions about what his new attorney, rudy guiliani, had to say about payments made to none other than stormy daniels. back at the white house is our alison barber. >> president trump is not here anymore. he left for cleveland a little earlier this morning. voters in ohio are set to go to the polls on tuesday and

president trump recently endorsed republican senate candidate congressman. he expects tax cuts at the round table, but surely that will come up as well. and the president left the white house around 10:00 this morning as he headed to marine one. reporters slouted questions at him. questions about ohio, and prisoners in north korea and about 0 stormy daniels. he didn't answer questions, he mouthed thank you and then headed to marine one. today's trip is overshadowed by the $130,000 payment daniels received from long time attorney. president's newest attorney rudy guiliani told sean hannity that trump reimbursed cohen. >> they funneled through a law

firm and president trump paid it. >> and that seemed to contradict statements and the president disputes that. >> rudy is a great guy. he's learning the subject matter. >> why did you change your story on stormy daniels. >> we're not changing any stories. >> here is what president trump said on air force one in april. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment? >> now, guiliani released a statement clarifying his remarks. he said that the payment was not a violation of campaign finance laws. he said the payment would have happened whether or not president trump was a candidate and running for office. he also said, quote, my references to timing were not describing my understanding for-- of the president's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters. president trump says that he paid cohen a retainer and the

reimbursement was done through that. leland. leland: just about an hour away from the president's remarks, we'll see if he addresses any of this. ellison barber at the white house. thank you and liz has got more. elizabeth: here with more white house reporter for the washington examiner, gabby, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. elizabeth: i want to start with the stormy daniels news and i don't want to harp on it. i want to get your take, the job rates is lowest level, 3.9% and then a story of trump's denial of hush funds. >> the juxtaposition is incredible. there have been so many accomplishments for this administration on economics and seeing the way the economy is flourishing right now. it's disappointing for a lot of white house officials to constantly deal with the questions and the legal troubles that the president is facing now with not only his personal

attorney and the issues of stormy daniels the mueller investigation as well. i think that white house aides are frustrated. the president is surely frustrated. he talked about this yesterday during his remarks at n.r.a. convention how this is just one large distraction. he likes to use the phrase witch hunt, but i do think that it really overshadows the positive things that this administration is doing when you have the constant flow of news surrounding stormy daniels. >> when we look at some of the headlines and look at what came out of the headlines with guiliani this week after his appearance on sean hannity. you can't tell me that that was a surprise. i know that they-- >> for a lot of white house officials it was. >> was it really? is that what you're hearing behind the scenes? >> i spoke with at least two senior administration officials who are in the communications sides of things and they didn't know that rudy guiliani was going to be appearing. >> but the president. >> the president knew. he and rudy guiliani consulted beforehand. they are on the same page, but a

lot of lower level staffers and senior communications officials were completely caught off guard. elizabeth: let's move on. the president is obviously in ohio and he's going to be boasting some of the economic news you have been talking about and we'll hear a lot about small business tax reduction, that 20% number that we have been talking about, but are people in ohio really benefitting from the tax plan? are we already starting to see really its effect? >> it has been incremental, but there are certain things that have taken place since the tax plan passed. he has a lot of material to work with today on the trail. he can say there are several ohio based companies who have begun reinvesting their tax savings, whether they're offering increased employee wages or creating new jobs. key corps is one of them, fiat chrysler, juergens, they've benefitted from the tax plan and reinvested in ohio economy. and middle class families that have benefitted from this.

he can talk about expanded child tax credit and how that's offered greater flexibility for working families. i think they're feeling the impact of this, maybe not as much as republicans hoped, but the president can campaign on that. elizabeth: my next question is, he does very well in front of crowds of this nature. and in ohio in march he was touting plans for an infrastructure bill we haven't been talking about at all lately. that being said we know the primary is on tuesday. is this going to give republicans a boost? there's no such thing as a coincidence. he's there for a reason. >> yeah, there are competitive house races happening in ohio. the first district is an example of that. extremely competitive primary for the governorship. he's there for a reason and he has not endorsed-- he has endorsed a candidate, but it's an important appearance for him to make three days before the primary. i'm sure he's going to be talking about not only republican chances in 2018, but

the small business benefits of the tax plan and other ways. elizabeth: in general, he flourishes in this setting. >> absolutely. but ohioans love him. it's a state he won. they feed off of his energy in campaign rallies like this. this is president trump's natural setting. elizabeth: all right. wonderful. thank you so much. of course it's a small table, a round table, it's not a campaign rally, but that being said it usually draws a crowd. gabby, appreciate it. tomorrow on fox news sunday chris wallace talks to former u.s. attorney general, attorney jose joseph diogenova and lanny davis. and howie kirtz will have an interview with former white house chief of staff reince priebus about rudy guiliani's comments and how the media

covers president trump. leland: and former president george h.w. bush. he's back home after weeks in the hospital. he was in the hospital for an infection following the funeral for his wife barbara. doctors report that he's doing well and he's happy to return home. bush is 93 years old and is america's longest living president. . elizabeth: hawaii now under a state of emergency as the big island is dealing with a triple threat, an active volcano, toxic gas and the biggest earthquake in more than 40 years. this as more lava from the volcano spews into nearby communities. adam housley is live with the details. hi, adam. >> hi, elizabeth. first of all, a lot of people call and ask if they're going to hawaii, mind you, there are a number of islands there, this is the big island of hawaii, whether or not they should go. the governor says even if you're going to kona, the same island

as the big island and you're fine there. the big island had its largest earthquake since 1975 and in this remote area where this is taking place on the big island, about 1800 people have been evacuated. and specifically the community, it's a rural community. i actually drove through a couple of years ago, called lalani estates. and monday the most recent. kilauea, one of several big volcanos on the island as been active since 1983. the last outbreak was 2014. this began on monday. there have been a number of small earthquakes before the big one and six vents opened up of the you're looking at video from the u.s. geological survey coming from yesterday. there have been six vents opened up from this eruption, there has not yet been a specific or a large lava flow. they're looking for that as they might imagine, waiting for that to possible happen. there are all goertz of--

all sorts of geologists out there and watching the volcano as it continues to be active. if there's good news on this, there's no significant lava flows and i think only two homes have been lost, that number is fluctuating a bit. the volcanic hyperactivity has led to some disruptions in this more remote area on the big island. you can see a picture from the distance where the volcano's national park is located and the park has been closed, closed yesterday afternoon, due to all of this. evacuated 2600 visitors there as well. and the hawaii national guard has been deployed to help with the efforts. and including a group from the guard's 93 rs weapons of mass destruction civil support team. they're there to check the air quality tests. amazing to see mother nature at work, but unfortunately those who live near the hawaii volcano national park, it's a serious

situation there. and if they're in hilo, they're okay there. and pretty nerve wracking to see if you're there the volcano is active and flowing in some ways. elizabeth: adam housley with the latest. thank you very much. appreciate it. a quick correction during the report. the federal judge is ts elliss. leland. leland: president trump now at a private campaign event here in cleveland. about an hour away from his remarks. we will have those live as they happen. before that, we head to ohio state university. you talk about the future of american politics with the leaders there. and the state's largest county, the sheriff there why he's losing the battle against drug cartels. >> so in a way, you're not just fighting the drug problem in franklin county. you're fighting the drug problem

across america. >> across america and a great amount of this comes from south of the border and right up there.

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>> welcome back to cleveland. as you see, one of the huge

freighters steaming out into lake erie. a nod still to the manufacturing mecca that is the state of ohio. obviously, manufacturing and small business, a huge part of the conversation as they get ready for their state-wide primary. president trump just a couple of hundred yards from where we are right now stumping for one of the senate republican candidates. as it is, democrats and republicans can't seem to get along very well in washington, shocking. we assumed that sentiment would be the same when we went south to ohio state university to speak with the leaders of the both the college republicans and democrats. what we found surprised us. might surprise you as well. we started the conversation with how both the rnc and the dnc are looking now to college campuses as the possible deciding factor in tuesday's primary and beyond.

>> the main tack -- take away in 2016 college students need to pay attention, they're responding and listening and coming to where we are and take our energy and in their campaign. and it's been effective. >> i assume you're seeing the same thing engagement of millennials. and how do you decipher whether it's lip service by a group sort of courting what they see as potentially vocal and free labor, versus, hey, there's been a sea change and they really care about the issues that are affecting college students? >> there have been several candidates campaigns, clubs, groups that have behind the scenes reached out to us, connected our members to internships, to jobs, volunteer opportunities and you can really tell that at least for a large number of them, they really do value our input now, you know.

obviously we're going to be the largest voting block this election and every election going forward for decades so i think that part of the cynical side of me sees that as politics, but it really does seem like they're valuing our input and taking our opinions into account. leland: we obviously hear republicans talking about the tax cuts. we hear the president touting it. are college students seeing that effect? does it matter? >> to a certain extent, yes. just because we know when we graduate, most of us are going to have a significant amount of student debt. i know i personally am, a lot of my friends are, and so the next step then is finding a job with enough financial security that we can start to pay down that debt and get on with our lives. there's a little bit of talk, not like we're sitting around on friday night and talking about tax reform although i admittedly do that with my friends. leland: are the social issues and sort of the anti-trump,

anti-p anti-populi anti-populism, are that talking about that-- >> i think that resistance to trump, that's sort of faded and now what can we do to build. and that's most prominent. >> and you mean student debt. >> and it's hard to see past the big block. that's the main barrier that we have to being economically comfortable and i think that's sort of a big factor that college students think as they go into their career fields. how can i repay this loan. how can i get a job to maintain my passions and balance two things in my life. leland: the conversation we had here is remarkably civil compared to cable news, compared to discourse and candidates on the stump. why is that? >> we're very fortunate here, at least in ohio state and i know it's different at other campuses that we are really largely able to kind of see past the politics. alexis and i have had lunch together and i would consider

her a friend before an adversary. we disagree on virtually every policy issue. leland: what's the secret sauce? other than the beautiful campus here, why is that? why can you all get along and interact and work together in a way that washington can't? >> just seeing each other as people first, and politicos second. leland: alexis, is there hope? >> yes, i mean, i would use sort of this analogy. 80% that you don't agree with, 20% that you do and i think nick and i are in this very, you know, college that is so unique and individual and we can go to that journey together and it's sort of like a solidarity you get going through that journey. elizabeth: great conversation there. still ahead, we're just about an hour away from president trump's business round table in cleveland. these are live pictures as people just begin to gather there. plus, president trump says a date has been set for his anticipated meeting with the

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>> welcome back to cleveland. as you look at the skyline of this now booming city screen left. screen right, folks getting ready for president trump's small business round table discussion here in cleveland. that's set to begin just about 50 minutes from now. part of the president's visit here, stumping for one of the candidates vying for the g.o.p. senate nomination in tuesday's primary. whoever wins takes on sherrod

brown, a democrat here, one of ten democrats defending a senate seat in a state that president trump won. mike gibbons on this trail asking for the vote of republicans in ohio in the primary. thanks for being here. >> thanks, leland. leland: when i watched the interview and other candidates in the race and i've read some of your comments, what strikes me is that everyone is trying to wrap themselves in the i am more trump than the next guy, i'm more of an outsider than the next guy. why is that message so important in ohio? >> i've traveled the 88 counties in this state and the one line that i give that always gets applause is i'm not a politician. i've never run for office before. i'm tired of the career politicians we have in washington and that's why i'm running. leland: that's why you're running. how does it -- why do you think

that resonates? >> i think that everybody else is tired of them, also, and i mean, you know, i think i've got the opinion-- my own opinion is the opinion of most people in the state of ohio. leland: is the argument on the flip side, in order to sometimes change something that is as profoundly screwed up as washington is and there's pretty much agreement on that fact, you have to know a little bit how it works and in a way, president trump has learned that himself in 18 months. >> he's run month. i think we have to change the roster in the u.s. senate, have more people who aren't trying to keep the system they're using right now in place. in everybody's pushing to keep power and they're all working with each other, which is the case in my election here, you're never going to change it. leland: it is noteworthy that the president, who is the non-politician politician has endorsed somebody who is a politician in this race, that's

congressman renacci, who is with the president right now and here is his interview yesterday with bill hemmer. >> mike gibbons and others running in this race want to talk about the outsider and they want to say i'm the insider, they're the 0 outsider. i'm in business and i'm still a c.p.a. and pretty much bringing my 30 years of business experience to washington. i know that's what the president likes, and i also know that's what the people like, and i do have now a couple of years in the house to understand how washington is broken to get a head start on it in the senate. leland: all right. so you both agree that people in ohio want somebody who is not a politician. >> correct. leland: but i saw you laughing during that clip. >> well, he was a lobbyist before he ran for congress. he's been in four terms in the 16th district, congressional district from ohio. he is-- he has run for three offices in the last two years. he started running for governor. and by the way, you know, the

narrative is that president trump chose him. mitch mcconnell recruited him, contributes to his campaign and arranged for the president to support him. i was donald trump's fund raising co-chairman in this state, gave him the largest personal donation i've ever given to a candidate. and he offered me a job in the administration. and made 800 calls for him and he think hits agenda is important and i still do. leland: how about the agenda-- what's important for ohio and his agenda. >> as the country goes, ohio goes. you know, we've had eight years of a president that made every small business man in this country feel unworthy. i mean, you didn't do it on your own. i'm a guy who started a business 28 years ago and remember the 20 hour days and i still have them from time to time.

he made me feel like i had not accomplished anything, made me feel like what i had done was really just, other people doing it. donald trump understands what it takes to run a business, to start a business and whether the democrats-- >> do you think he and for that matter you understand though what it's like to work in those businesses, what it's like to work on the factory floors that exist in ohio or the distribution centers? >> i can tell you this, i will be the only senator that can finish a driveway if i get there. my family was a working class family, i have been very blessed one of the reasons i'm running right now. had a sun who joined the military, naval aviator. leland: congratulations, we thank him. >> and i felt i needed to contribute and this is my shot at doing it. leland: and as they say, this is in the yoke who founded this country and good sentiment to give back. and mr. gibbons, we appreciate it. we'll talk again soon.

liz. elizabeth: a live look at ohio where president trump will be holding his business round table 40 minutes from now. the president is exhibit expected to seek and we wi-- he's expected to speak and we'll take you there live. and the meeting with kim jong-un, what president trump says he's expecting at the meeting. get your groove on with one a day 50+.

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leo, i knoh!i'm late. my wallet! card lock from capital one. instantly lock your credit card. in case it goes... arrivederci. mona! that smile. technology this convenient... could make history. what's in your wallet? >> president trump says now the date and location have been set for the meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un, which could take place in the coming weeks. joining me now for in-- the author of "nuclear showdown" author gordon chang. >>. thank you for joining us. >>. >> thank you. elizabeth: i'm get it out. and the fact that we're learning that three hostages may be coming home. >> yes, that's really important. i mean, that's a pre-condition for talks, but also, we need something else from the north

koreans. there's possibly a fourth american there, david sneddon who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2004 from china. many believe he's in north korea. i'd like to say the north korean lead tower say whether they're holding or not holding sneddon. >> and a, do you expect to hear that news and is the president overplaying his hand when he indicates it's the next few days, and when you're trying to deal with this rogue nation. >> many people have said and i understand the criticism. but many things are going on that made it wise for the president to say that. there's going to be a lot of discussions, it's not just the u.s. versus north korea. south korea as well and i'm sure there are considerations that made it advisable for the president to start talking about

this, but i'm sure that we're going to have a conversation about the timing of these announcements when the three actually are returned. elizabeth: i want to sort of ask you, what do you anticipate that will take place before their meeting? and how much information will we be getting, especially if the meeting is at the dmz leading up to the meeting and then after? because president trump is certainly one to disseminate information on twitter. you see something completely opposite, obviously, from the regime in north korea where there's no media, no twitter and nothing. and so, i'm curious as to what we're going to see when this meeting does take place? >> there's another source of information and that is south korea. because there are a number of people in the south korean government who have their own agenda and they're going to further that by actually making comments, as they already have been. so, i think that we're going to learn a fair amount from seoul as well. and this is going to be important because you know, president trump goes into that meeting, it's absolutely critical, that first discussion

with kim jong-un, that's going to set the terms for negotiations that could drag on not only for months, but for years. elizabeth: you brought up south korea a couple of times and i do want to bring china in. they want to have a presence here and how are they going to do that? >> well, the chinese are left outside these talks, that's a good thing because during the six-party talks 2003-2009 they were generally a maligned influence. it was great for president trump to accept kim's offer of direct talks because that puts china outside the room and china is desperately trying to get back in with only limited success. elizabeth: gordon, we hope to have you back and obviously, there will be a lot of news out of south korea in between now and this meeting. we hope to have you back. thank you very much. >> thank you, liz. elizabeth: leland. leland: one of the real crises here in ohio and around the country, the opioid epidemic. how one ohio sheriff's office is doing its part to tackle this nationwide crisis.

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>> welcome back to cleveland, as we await the president and his remarks. something he has talked a lot about over the past 18 months is the opioid crisis. roughly 60% of the u.s. population lies within a 500 mile drive of columbus, ohio. making it a mecca for retail and wholesale distribution. it's no different for the drug cartels making ohio home to the second highest rate in the country. inside the drug room in the franklin county sheriff we had to wear gloves against seized drugs so powerful toughing them could cause an overdose. >> it's fascinating to think at the top of this we're in the drug room. 40 years ago, marijuana, crack cocaine. and even though this is in double plastic bags, we're still wearing gloves. >> absolutely.

any little minute amount that might escape out of that or get on top of the surface as your handling, you can get an exposure and overdose, quickly and die. leland: you've had officers who had-- >> we had deputies this exposure one recently from siu and includes bus had officers a couple weeks ago that had exposure. leland: is that a testament to how potent the drugs are becoming? >> absolutely, you cut it with fentanyl, carfentanil and so powerful, they go farther and farther, but extremely dangerous to touch. right here you've got probably, $100,000 here. leland: $100,000. and to put it in a matter of lives, how many people could this, for lack of a better term, kill. >> depends on the purity of the fentanyl. leland: but dozens? >> pure, many more than dozens. many, many, more. hundreds. we have overdose on the street, as detectives we like to get

there immediately within 24 hours and interview that person who overdosed and track at that backwards to the dealer and try to find out who is supplying that way. well, you know, sometimes it's a fatal overdose and in those cases we want to find the dealer and get them charged and get them in jail. we can't get there fast enough. now there are so many overdoses and we don't have enough people to get there so, the longer the time delay, the less information we get the less effective we are. so if we could get there within six, eight, ten hours, we're really successful. if we're three days, four days later, they don't want to talk to us. leland: and the dealers know this? >> yeah, they know this, it's no secret. leland: one of the reason there are so many drugs in this room, as much as ohio is the center for distribution centers for shipping companies in the world, the cartels figured out it's the center of of distribution for them, too. >> middle in the america, we're right in the center with highways cross here, middle of the country. yeah, absolutely. leland: so in a way, you're not

just fighting the drug problem in franklin county. >> no. leland: you're fighting the drug problem across america. >> across america, and a great amount of this comes from south of the border, comes right up here. leland: is building a wall the answer? >> well, there are walls and fences and i'm sure that will help in some capacity, but you know, it will get through no matter what. leland: people are willing to pay for it. >> they find a way to get it across. leland: there's two schools of thoughts as relates to overdoses. one is, give narcan, the antidote to everyone, allow junkies to pick it up for free so they can give it to their friends. >> rights. leland: the other side says if you do that, it encourages more and more dangerous use, more and more trafficking. >> right. leland: where do you come down on it. >> my feeling, you know, we took an oath to protect life and. leland: and that comes above the idea of law enforcement? >> exactly. my feeling is, if we're there and we have narcan, we have the ability to save somebody's life

we do it. it doesn't matter if it's two times, three times, ten times. we do it, and hopefully, somewhere in that process, the light bulb will click on and maybe that person will take treatment. leland: noteworthy, liz, the sheriff tells me one of his biggest challenges for all the meetings and the task forces, the one people they can't get to show up and talk about the issue are addicts themselves. elizabeth: unbelievable. what he said so many overdoses and so hard for them to get information when the people are no longer with us. leland, great work. of course, much more ahead in the next hour of america's news headquarters. the president minutes away. stay with us.

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and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. so get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? >> leland: president trump in cleveland right now. we are just minutes away from a round table of small business leaders to talk about the benefits of his tax plan as the country enjoys now record low unemployment. >> elizabeth: hawaii declares a state of emergency after an erupting volcano on the big island causes a major earthquake and serious damage. >> leland: we are live today in the buckeye state, just ahead of their tuesday primary and also live in washington where the fight continues for control of

capitol hill in the midterm elections. and welcome to cleveland as we are on the shores of lake erie, ahead of the primary. liz, it may look like da deja vu you were here in november of 2016. it's quite a bit warmer. whatever news god decided i would be here, i'm pretty happy with. >> elizabeth: when i was there, we didn't know donald trump would be our president. we know a lot more now. i'm elizabeth prann from washington. >> leland: good to be with you. the primary here in ohio is both for the senate race, we've got republicans running in that, that's one of the reasons that president trump is here. he is stumping for his favorite candidate, a little bit more on that when the president takes the stage in about 20 minutes. there is also the race for the

governor's mansion, john kasich, the republican governor is term limb meted. it is a -- term limited. it is a fierce fight. we talked about the fight for the republican nomination. the frontrunners, dennis kucinich who is backed by barry sanders and his democratic party and richard cordray has the endorsement of senator elizabeth warren. nice to see you. we appreciate being with -- appreciate you being with us. does this represent the split in the democratic party between barry sanders and the elizabeth warren wing? >> i don't think it represents a real split i in the party. bettery sanders has not shall -- better nissan deers has not -- bernie sanders has not made an endorsement in this case. he said he's not endorsing in

ohio this year. was we're doing is we're presenting a case to the voters of ohio. in our case, betty sutton and i are running on the kitchen table issues that people talk to us about all over the state, things that worry them at night, things that worry them when looking out for their families, including affordable health care, better education for their children, and spreading out economic opportunity across the state so nobody is left out or left behind. >> leland: where do you have to be where president trump won by 8 points to win back the governor's mansion. you have an "a" rating from the ara. at the same time, you're trying in a primary to go after voters who are far left of an "a" rating from the nra on the issues. >> what i try to do in a campaign is talk about what i would do in the office and make promises that i can keep and promises that people care about making sure we deliver on. in our case, it is focusing on those kitchen table issues and

letting people understand -- >> leland: what are kitchen table issues. what can you deliver on that needs change? >> these are the economic issues that dominate people's lives. >> leland: people tell me the economy in ohio is booming. you go to columbus where you're from and there is construction everywhere. >> people are worried about their health care. there's a circus going on in washington as to what's going on with health care. people are worried about being diagnosed with a condition tomorrow and do they have access to affordable health care for themselves and their children. education and training, everybody understands that's the key to the future. we have an education system in ohio where a for profit charter school experiment has devastated many of the schools, taking tons of money putting it into flailing online schools. >> leland: let's get to the politics of this race. dennis kucinich, the former

mayor of cleveland, is running against you. he has had time inside politics, time outside politics. he was on shannon bream's show last night. take a listen. >> one of the main criticisms they have of you, is you spent so much time here with us on fox news. here's richard cordray talking about that. >> he knows the game they're playing. he goes on to say they were fair and balanced. he took their money and made their choices. >> house poodle, your response? >> arrrr. >> leland: your response to the response? >> look, i think i stated it for what it was. everybody makes choices in life. when i was standing up for consumers and fighting to see they're treated fairly, he was a paid commenter on fox news. >> leland: you're on fox news right now. we appreciate you being here. is somebody giving their opinion

and defending their ideals which he did many times on our show, is that something to knock him for? i'm not clear what the attack is. >> he said one thing on fox news and said different things in the campaign. >> leland: what specifically -- what did he say either on fox news or other place that's you have issues with that you feel he's been disingenuous about now. >> he praised president trump's inaugural speech and scrubbed his twitter feed. he gave speeches to cpac's conference. he's trying to on lit rat object rate his -- obliterate his past. people don't like it when people say one thing in one setting and another thing in another setting. i think it's not a good thing. >> leland: there was a time where hi hip consider sigh was n as a -- hip pock cr hipocracy ad

thing. >> elizabeth: twjames comey's tp advisors are leaving on the fbi. we have details on what that will mean for the russia investigation. >> both of these individuals were involved in the events surrounding the russia investigation, as well as other controversies at the fbi. lisa page has become the poster child among republican lawmakers for their argument that top fbi officials allowed personal politics to impact their work on investigations. page was a legal add a vicar to james comey and andrew mccabe. she was also a member of robert mueller's team until justice department investigators uncovered text messages between her and top fbi agent peter strzok which were highly against donald trump. baker was one of jim comey's closest aids and was the fbi's top lawyer. he was reassigned last year

after the justice department investigated him for allegedly leaking classified information to a reporter about the so-called trump dossier. special council robert mueller's team is under fire for charges against paul manafort. at a hearing in virginia friday, the judge questioned the special council's authority in the case, given that some of the charges against manafort date back to 2000 a 5. they suggested investigators were on a mission to bring down donald trump, telling them you don't care about mr. manafort's bank fraud. you care about what information mr. manafort can give you to lead to mr. trump and an impeachment or prosecution. he argued some of the information mueller is using came from a previous doj investigation and not their own. this morning ala they said it fs them to show how these charges

fall underneath the allegation. >> this raises serious questions. it's not enough to throw out the indictment. it will depend on what the special prosecutor can produce. it really is a stretch to go back to 2005, talk about conspiracy theories. these guys must have been planning this for the last 18 years and they would get money from the bank in order to -- it's such a stretch. >> mueller's team said they were given broad authority to investigate any matters that come up in their work, even if it's unrelated to russian interference or collusion. >> elizabeth: let's bring in robert degrees cou degrees drise insight. with your experience, the congress created the fbi back in 1935, the whole point was to be an say political entity, under the doj. i want to ask you if that still applies today. i think we both know the answer. the timing of these two individuals, why now?

>> i think on the broader -- the damage the fbi is really i think at the top levels are viewed as more political, which is unfortunate. i think these political corruption cases, i think the vast majority of lying agents in the fbi are say political doing classic bank fraud, anti-terrorism, don't have a political angle to them. these political cases and public corruption cases, the public has the view that things aren't on the up and up and i think that's unfortunate. i think they're going to have to do a lot of work the next time one of these comes around on the reputation. >> elizabeth: there's unbelievable individuals there who are hard working. the morale behind the can't be at an all-time high. >> it's improving some now with director wray. he's keeping out of the news. he's trying to fill that say political role and not be seeing as taking sides and being seen as defending the agency and the work of the agents.

i think that's what needs to happen. i think the less said the better as the director of the fbi in order to maintain the confidence. >> elizabeth: the resignation that we learned of this morning of not only baker but also page, i'm curious as to why now. this could have happened last week, two weeks ago. i mean, we're talking maybe the i.g. report is coming up. >> it's speculation. they were demoted i think to other places so it may not have been the most fulfilling career they were pursuing right now. i suspect it has to do with the i.g. report coming out because as happened with mccabe, the i.g. report, the speculation is that it's going to be pretty tough on a lot of different people involved in the clinton investigation, including them. if they're not employees of the department of justice, the i.g. has no jurisdiction over them and won't be able to punish them or fire them or anything like that. there could be a a referral toe d.o.j. the i.g. report is coming close,

i believe. >> elizabeth: the story of the russia investigation is -- you have critics, you have those who support it. the fact of the matter is, it's still ongoing. i'm curious about a number here, a cost. i mean, not only with just time and employees, but it's sort of dragging on. >> yeah, as far as these things go -- >> elizabeth: they take time, right? >> it's not been unusually long. i have clients that have been caught up in this thing and there's some significant legal bills for individuals that really had nothing to do with anything from anyone's perspective and never mind what the government's legal bills are for this thing. i don't think the cost is the most important thing. i think it's the certainty or the uncertainty that's happening now that people really want to get this resolved and hopefully if the special council's at the point where he's getting ready to consider interviewing the president, that should be a signal that he's towards the end. >> elizabeth: if that is sort of the final straw, of course i'm not asking you to give me some

type of time line, but obviously perhaps buttoning up the investigation, is that what we're thinking? >> that's the hope. the problem is there was a legal dispute over the ability to compel testimony from the president or a grand jury, that's another 12 to 18 months because there would be various levels of appeal up to the supreme court. the other alternative the special council could just write the report, talking to the president, and could say here's what i found, here's what other people said and the president declined the opportunity to confront what other people said. mueller would have a decision if the president didn't testify. the president would have a decision whether to fight all the way up. because even to get a ruling from the supreme court, do you want this hanging over his head for another 12 to 18 months? >> elizabeth: never a dull moment. thank you so much for joining us. i know we'll have you back because it's not going anywhere any time soon. thank you so much. leland? >> leland: not going anywhere at all. the president at some of these

events, like the one he's about to have in a few minutes, has spoken about the mueller investigation. we know what he thinks about it. he's called it a witch hunt many times. we're waiting for the president here in cleveland, about six minutes away from the scheduled start, although it could push back a little bit. his remarks live. one thing he hasn't talked much about, although he did distance himself from his comments that were made by his attorney, rudy guliani, specifically the president about those payments that were made to stormy daniels by one of his other attorneys. he'll soellison barber is at the house where they're still in damage control mode this weekend. >> reporter: president trump left the white house about 10:0. a group of reporters gathered and we shouted questions at the president as we typically do. i tried to ask if he's excited about his trip to ohio. others asked about the status of the american prisoners in north

creekorea. there were a few questions about the payment to stormy daniels. president trump did not answer any of the questions. he mouthed thank you and headed to marine one. today's trip to ohio is somewhat overshadowed by questions about the $130,000 payment daniels received from michael cohen in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement. questions spurred because trump's newest attorney told sean hannity the president reimbursed cohen. >> they funneled it through the law firm. >> funneled through the law firm and the president repaid it. >> reporter: guliani's remarks seemed to contradict previous statements made by cohen and the president. president trump disputes that. >> rudy is a great guy but he just started a day ago. he's learning the subject matter. >> why did you change your story on stormy daniels? >> we're not changing any stories. >> reporter: here's what president trump said on air force one in april.

>> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> reporter: guliani released a statement, quote, clarifying some of his remarks. he said, quote, there is no campaign violation. the payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the president's family. it would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not. he says my reference to timing, my references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge but instead my understanding of these matters. president trump says that he paid his attorney michael cohen a retainer and the reimbursement was made through that retainer. leland. >> leland: allison barber live at the white house as we await the president here in cleveland. liz has more. >> leland: george h.w. bushies back -- >> elizabeth: george h.w. bushies back home today.

they sent out a statement saying he was discharged from the hospital after a treatment for infection. his doctors report he is doing well and is happy to return home. he was admitted last month for an infection following the funeral for his wife, barbara. bushies 93 years old and -- bush is 93 years old and is america's longest living president. >> leland: an active volcano in hey which which hahawaii has pae under a emergency. at the same time the island was rocked by the biggest earthquake in more than 40 years. they have got the volcano. now a lot of questions about tourism as folks head to hawaii for their vacations. adam housely is following it from our west coast newsroom. >> reporter: in regards to tourism, again, there are a number of islands that people go to when you go out there for

vacation. there's the big island, oahu. for the big island, we're told you'll be just fine unless you're going to the hawaii volcano national monument, you're fine. that location has been shut down. it began with a number of earthquakes that gradually got larger to a big one less than 24 hours ago. there are six vents that have opened up in the ground as kilauea continues to erupt. take a look at the video that came in last night, showing this splatter into the air of the lava from these vents. again, six of them now opened we're told, at least six. the positive news is that it's not threatening any major developments. this is a more remote area. 1800 people have been evacuated and there's no massive lava la w

as we've seen -- lava flow as we've seen in recent years. the volcano has been active ongoing since 1983. the eruption is in progress. it's called the lower east rift zone. the earthquakes began before this. the seismic activity has increased over the last several years with the largest magnitude being at 6.9 earthquake, the largest since 197 15*. 1975. we know geologists are out there. they brought in the national guard to help monitor the air quality and help assisting in the evacuations of the folks that live in the remote area. there's 70 members of the hawaii national guard there at this hour. there's concerns about sulfur dioxide in the area where people live. they're telling people to comply. it's about two things, one, the safety and security of those who

live there and also the amazing pictures that come in that show kilauea, this active volcano that's been erupting above sea level for 100,000 years, showing some amazing video coming in. back to you. >> leland: it is incredible indeed. all the better if you can stay safe watching it. adam, thank you. liz. >> elizabeth: arrests all across russia as demonstrators take to the streets. why they're marching against vladimir putin. and president trump will meet with an asian leader ahead of his meeting with kim jong un, how that could impact his summit with kim. we are minutes away from president trump's remarks at this business round table. when he takes the podium, we will take you there, live. woman: i stay active by staying in rhythm. and to keep up this pace,

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>> elizabeth: ahead of president trump's anticipated summit with kim jong un, mr. trump will meet with his southern counterpart, president moon jae-in. jillian turner joins us with details of their meeting. >> president trump will host

president moon on may 22nd in advance of his anticipated summit with kim jong un of north hkorea. >> we've actually worked out a time and a place which will be announced shortly. >> where? >> very soon. >> the negotiating team has settled on a location for the summit but they're not quite ready to disclose their choice just yet, likely in keeping with the president's stated goal of never broadcasting national security plans in advance. that's not keeping the president from teasing the event. >> we're having very substantive talks with north korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages. >> also in play is the status of three korean american hostages being held illegally in the

north, one since 2015 and the other two since 2017. they've reportedly been relocated from a labor camp to a private hotel near pyongyang. experts say it's a sign that indicates they may be released in advance of the trump/kim summit. >> we're having very substantive talks with north korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages. >> kim jong un has long been detaining american citizens to use as bargaining chips in his dealings with the international community. it's nearly one year since the death of otto warmbier, who was tortured to death over the course of 17 months. >> they used him as a political pawn for as long as they could and when they could no longer -- when he was of no value to them,

they essentially sent him home to our family in a body bag. >> the ideal scenario for the trump team is to complete the release and transfer of the hostages before the start of the summit. administration sources say they want the two leaders to focus exclusively on the nuclear issue during their face-to-face meeting. in a gesture of goodwill intended to speed up the korean reunification process, the north moved its clock forward by 30 minutes to sync with the south, a small step in the right direction, according to efforts. >> elizabeth: its probably really symbolic. >> i think it's the first step in a series of hundreds of steps that will be taken. >> elizabeth: thank you so much. appreciate it. >> leland: and a fox news alert as you're looking live at a small business roundtable here in cleveland, ohio. president trump just left an rnc fundraiser that he was here, among those at the fundraiser his pick for the republican

senate primary, that primary on tuesday here in ohio. he was there at the fundraiser, raised somewhere in the mil mils of dollars and now he heads to this roundtable discussion with small business leaders to talk about the effects of his tax cuts here in the buckeye state. we have been talking for the past hour and-a-half or so about the political climate here in ohio. it is as divided as it has ever been, but there is a lot of optimism about the economy itself here in ohio, things almost universally people tell us are getting better. the president is going to tout his tax reforms and his pro-business message as a catalyst for the success here in ohio. with that, bring in white house correspondent kevin cork across from the president's venue there

in cleveland as we are on the shores of lake erie. kevin, we've been here for about 8 hours in the -- 48 hours in the buckeye state. you get the feeling that there is an optimism about the economy, whether you say it's because of president obama's policies that have carried through and continue to lift the economy here or whether it is because of president trump or a combination of both. it's hard for anybody, even as we had somebody who was a democrat running for governor, to say things are that bad here. >> well, listen, i think you hit the nail on the head, my friend. let's be honest about it. if you live in the cleveland area, do you care who gets the credit? you frankly don't. you just want jobs. you want people frankly to be able to take care of themselves. >> leland: i'm going to interrupt you for one second. i'm able to see the president walking in here and shaking hands at this business roundtable. we expect the president to speak. unclear how many others are

going to speak and introduce themselves as he goes around this group. 1:20 eastern, the president is 10 minutes late after coming from a fundraiser as he gives a thumbs up and sits down to begin his roundtable on tax cuts. >> i'm very honored to be here. thank you. so many of those beautiful hats. do we love those hats. remember, you have to win the great state of ohio and did we win the great state of ohio. [ cheering and applause ] >> and i always say--i sols say thisalwayssay this, how are we w compared to the election and the answer is always better. we just had a couple meetings with some of the folks. we have great, great people in this state. this is a very, very special place. this is a little bit of a

business roundtable today. we're going to be talking with secretariasecretarysecretariase. i've known jim for a long time and he agrees with what we're doing and he agrees, you look at the steel plants and steel mills are starting to open again. i just left the president of united states steel, and he said it's incredible what's happening. we did a thing called tariffs and we did it on steel and aluminum. we're doing a lot of other things. my group just got back from china. we're going to have to rework trade with china. that's been a one-way street for decades. we just can't have it happen. so we'll do that and we have a lot of respect for president xi and we have a lot of respect for china but it can't go on that way. that will all work on.

we're doing very well on as you know, north cree cree y we'll se what -- north korea. we'll see what happened. we have the location set up. we have the date. so i think that will be something very special. if you remember, we were into that, others from the administration were saying that's going to be the toughest problem and certainly it's a problem but there are many problems that we'll get solved. we broke 4% yesterday. you saw that, first time in -- you know there are two ways of saying it, you could say first time in 20 years or first time in this century. [clapping] >> and we really we're doing great from that standpoint and we want to get our workers back. we want to get our -- we want to make our product here. we want to make our -- everything here. this is a america first now, folks. this is now america first. it's enough.

what we've been doing for the last long period of time, long period of time -- [ cheering and applaus.>>. [ cheering and applause ] >> we have make america great again, we have america first, you can choose whatever you want or you can choose both. i want to choose both. the choice is america first. other countries, they put themselves first. we've had where we talked about america, well, the fact is, we want to be first. water going to make our country great. and you know what? people from other countries, they're going to do what they have to do but we're going to bring it to a level playing field. you look at our trade deficits with every country, virtually -- i don't have to ask how are we doing with this country or that country. for the most part almost every time we're doing badly. we have deficits with everybody.

don't let anybody tell you that trade deficits are okay. they're not okay. we have massive trade deficits with china. we have massive trade deficits with mexico, who would think, $100 billion trade deficit with mexico. who would think that? and that doesn't include lots of other problems. you see that on the border. i thought they would be much tougher and better to us on the caravan. didn't quite work out but that's okay. that's okay. it's going to end up working out. our borders and our laws are a mess. our immigration laws are a disgrace. and mexico has some of the toughest immigration laws in the world. can't just go into mexico. but they a how these people to come up through mexico and come into our country. and they know that our laws are so weak that once they get up there, it's the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen. you've seen catch and release. you catch them and then you release them. okay? that's what it is. catch -- this is a democrat rule, sherrod brown.

you catch them and release them. just to show how ridiculous, we have judges, we have thousands of judges -- do you think other countries have judges? we give them trials. that's the good news. the bad news is they never show up for the trial. they release them and they have a trial and it's supposed to take place in a year. a year. not the following day. but that's okay. there's only one problem. nobody ever shows up. they're in the country. welcome to the united states. and these are the laws that we're suffering with. this is why you'll see and the wall we have to build, how about the wall where everyone scales the wall? [ cheering and applause ] >> now, we are fixing and building walls now but we need much more money. we're doing the job right. we're going to do the job. we may have to close up the country to get this right. we either have a country or we

don't. you can't allow people to pour into the country the way they're doing. you take a look at the mess that's on television right now. this is a total catastrophe. these are laws passed by democrats so we have open borders. they want open borders. we have to have borders. if you don't have borders, you don't have a country. so we're going to have it. [ cheering and applause ] >> so step by step. we've made a lot of progress and we're going to be making a lot of progress on that too and we have actually-it's very interesting. in san diego, they wanted a wall built. we have the money to build a wall. we have $1.6 billion for fixing and building. in san diego, california, where we have a lot of problems, we have a governor that is not cooperative, wants to have between sanctuary cities and letting people come in with open borders and everything else, it's not easy for the border patrol people, it's not easy for ourize people. how about the -- our i.c.e.

people. the mayor of oakland notifies people that i.c.e. will be coming. everybody splits up. all of that work and all of that everything to do what they had to do turned out to be a big bust. it's very, very sad. and let me tell you, that's called obstruction of justice. you want to know, that's called total obstruction of justice. so we're getting it straightened out. it will be straightened out soon. we passed the biggest tax -- if you look, you take a look at the tax -- i call it the tax cut plan. they wanted to go with the tax reform plan. i said how come since reagan nothing has passed having to do with tax cuts? and being a non-politics, i say how is it possible not to be able to pass tax cuts? they said well, it hasn't happened since ronald reagan he anywhere near what we're doing. but essentially tax cuts, even at a small level. i said i don't understand. you're going to reduce taxes for people and you can't get votes? they say no, sir.

i say i can't figure it out. then i found out, they don't call it tax cuts. they called it tax reform. well, tax reform might mean your taxes go way up. it could mean a lot of bad things. so i said here's what we'll do. we're going to call this tax plan the tax cut plan. tax cut, c-u-t. tax cut. we're going to cut taxes. we're not going to reform. we're going to reform too but we're not going to reform, we're going to cut taxes. [ cheering and applause ] >> so i couldn't believe it. i couldn't believe it. because i looked i studied like four or five attempts and they failed miss ray bring. miserably. i wanted this to be called -- they didn't want to do it, they thought et was hokey. i wanted it to be called the tax cut, cut, cut, cut plan.

i actually did. i would have put it in. i would have put it in. you know that, charlie? and they said that's a little -- in front of the united states, i said okay we'll call it the tax cut and jobs plan and we did that and got it passed and it's the first time, the biggest in our history. [ cheering and applause ] >> and the stock market since the election, the stock market is up almost 35%, think of that, almost 35%. [ cheering and applause ] >> and honestly, and companies are doing even better than that. companies are doing better. they are ready to just do numbers that you've never seen before. and we do need people coming into our country. at 3.9% unemployment, we need people coming in but i will tell you this. we want people to come in to our country on the basis of merit, not picked out of a --

[ cheering and applause ] >> so we're working on merit systems because we need people to help. we have up in wisconsin, we have fox con coming in, that's a friend of mine, they make many of the apple iphones and apple equipment and i said to tim cook, who is now investing $350 billion, apple, and they're bringing much of it in from foreign lands, from overseas. they're bringing it in because of the new tax plan, because it gave them the incentive to bring money. the big companies are bringing the money back and they're investing it in the united states. tim cookies bringing $230 billion back from overseas, money you would have never seen, and apple's spending $350 billion on new plants and a campus, so it's great. it's great. so we have a lot of things happening and in ohio you know what's going on, the auto companies are starting to come

back, they're starting to expand. i was greeted at the airport by great people and some of them were coal miners. and one of them said -- they're dressed in beautiful, actually a black shirt, i said give me one of those, i'll wear it if i play golf. it was beautiful. they greeted me off the airplane. there were a lot of people waiting at the airplane. i went over. they said sir, we're coal miners and since the day you got elected, we've been pulling filling up the trains. i asked what do you do? they said we load trains. that says it all. they said we load trains and from the day you got elected we've been loading trains. i asked before that, how was it? they said not good. he said i haven't had a day off since the day you got elected. and that's happening and it will be happening even more so. [ cheering and applause ]

>> so when it's all together and when everything is really set and it's really going well, it's going much better than people even understand, our military -- we've got $700 billion. i didn't like having to do this last budget because there's a lot of things the democrats put in that i hate. but i had to get money for our military. our military was depleted. we weren't getting the new equipment. you've seen the same stories that i do and we needed help and i got $700 billion and then i got $716 billion and, remember, that equipment is all made here. it's made in the united states. we make the greatest missile systems, the greatest planes, the greatest military equipment and a lot of other equipment, including commercial planes. we make the greatest military equipment in the world. you've got to see that recently when you saw what we did in syria where they said oh, we shot down 40 missiles. i don't think so. i called up. i said how many were shut down? none, none.

stealth ha missiles. it's called stealth missiles and every single one -- [ cheering and applause ] >> we shot at 109 and we had 109 hit their target. france and the u.k. was great. they helped us. they were with us all the way and we appreciate that. we make the greatest equipment in the world. but we had to fix our military l. we also wanted something that has a tremendous impact on ohio is the opioid disaster, drugs generally but the opioid, we got $6 billion for opioid prevention and work and rehab and we need help. we need help. and we're very, very tough. one of the reasons we want the strong border is a lot of this stuff comes in from different places, but it comes in from mexico, it comes along the southern border and we're stopping it. we're making it much tougher but we can't do that unless congress gives us the tools that we need. we have to get rid of catch and release. we need strong, strong tools.

we don't want the lottery system. we want a merit system. can you imagine a lottery system? can you imagine it? we take people based out of a lottery, a lottery. you think the country's putting their finest in the lottery? i don't think so. i don't think so. all right. think about that. [ cheering and applause ] >> and you know the problem is that these beliefs are so deep-seated in the democrats, like a sherrod brown, i mean, have you to -- we need the votes. jim will be fantastic. you're not a big lottery system man, are you? okay, good. otherwise i'd have to take away my endorsement. no, we want a merit system where they come in based on merit. we're going to get a lot of things done. we have a lot of great people running. i think we're going to do very well in the mid-terms. the poll numb ters numbers are y good. the question is whether or not -- they actually say i'm popular. can you believe it?

of course the fake news doesn't think so. fake news. [ cheering and applause ] >> no, it's been -- we've been doing very well. we had a poll, 51 or 52, which came out very nicely and then i turn on like one of the networks and i see donald trump who is not very popular, and i say what are you talking about. you saw the poll came out that i'm above obama, above obama. [ cheering and applause ] >> and then you turn to the fake news and they go donald trump, who is not very popular, and i'm saying to myself how do they get away with it. it's going good. we're doing well. it actually amazes me, when you can be a 51 or 52 on a poll that was -- it was very accurate for the election one of the more accurate polls for the election and you're in that category and

i get nothing but bad publicity. i say how is it possible that i can do that. it's fake publicity. i have to tell you, there's some great professionals too in that world. i don't want to make it like everybody. the amazing thing is the people are smart. they get it. you see the jobs. now you have choice too. just like we have the veterans choice, we'll get that very soon, by the way, you're going to have choice of jobs, of jobs. [ cheering and applause ] >> people would have one job and they were afraid to leave that job. they didn't want to leave that job because they didn't think -- you know, they were working -- you've got to love what you do. now you can have a choice. there are a lot of jobs. there's a lot of job openings and people that weren't hiring for years and years and years, all of a sudden we have jobs. one of the folks my people were so impressed with is on my left is charlene and i'd like to ask some of the people up here to

just talk a little bit about what the tax cuts have meant because the tax cuts have helped so many people in such a big way and charlene, do you think i could start by maybe asking you to say a few words? >> sure. >> thank you. thank you. go ahead. >> mr. president it's a privilege and honor to be here today. >> thank you. >> my name is charlene thornton. i'm originally from mai maine. the reason i'm here is because i wrote a letter to you. i didn't really think it was going to be read but it was. they're listening. so the subject of my letter was to let you know that this tax cut and jobs plan was affecting us positively. we also wanted to let you know that we were here supporting you. >> thank you. >> my husband kevin was -- he worked in a steel mill and it closed down in 2012 due to the

company going bankrupt. so he was then -- there were a lot of people that lost their jobs at that time. our whole area was saturated with unemployed and then he spent the next one and-a-half years retraining and at the same time searching for a job. fortunately, i was employed for one of those years, the first year of it. i then became legally blind and could no longer work, couldn't drive and we have no transportation public in our area. also, so essentially what happened was we fell on such hard times that we had to surrender -- our car was repossessed. we almost lost our home. we struggled every day to make ends meet. we basically lived off of my credit cards and both of our unemployment which wasn't enough

to cover things. finally he found a job, january of 2014. he is still with them. but because of the tax cuts and the job plan, they're taking out a lot less taxes than what they had been prior to. we have actually seen in several checks 200 to $300 less taxes than what they did before the plan. [ cheering and applause ] >> and those are real numbers. i actually went back and looked at his income and the taxes before and after and i was amazed. so it really is working. so i do want to thank you, mr. president, for making our lives a lot less -- more enjoyable. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you.

>> this is my husband, kevin. >> kevin, would you like to say something? >> yes. thank you. first of all, thank you, mr. president, for inviting us, giving us the opportunity to tell you our story. i've been a life-long resident of hubbard, a small city northeast of youngstown. in 2000, i started working for what would be known as r.g. steel and stayed there until its closing in june of 2012. they told us all to go home. the mill had gone into bankruptcy. 50 days later the mill was sold for scrap. all of us that worked there, we loved that place, we really did and we were all deeply impacted. there was 700 of them. we all lost our jobs. i was out of work as she had said for a year and-a-half and there was a brief period in time where we went with no income at all, no paycheck, nothing coming

into the house. but thankfully, thankfully in january of 2014 i found employment with the current company i'm working with and it's a great company too with great people and room for us to expand and grow. i had to drive an hour and-a-half to one of their facilities. and i did that for three years until i was recently -- i was able to relocate to a facility closer to home. and that took off a burden for me. the company i'm employed with has been seeing huge amounts of demand for their product. they have this tax cut that we're having, it's enabling them to purchase new machinery, open up buildings they previously had closed and to hire more people. and i didn't think that i would ever be able to say this in my life, but i think i can now. at this rate, i think i'll be able to be gainfully employed

until my retirement. >> good, good. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you. i've been hearing that from steel companies and in particular from u.s. steel where i was with the president as i said and he -- they're just talking about opening plants now and so many things have changed and that's because of our stance and also on the tariffs, the 25% tariff on steel, 10% on aluminum, plus it gives us the right now other countries want to negotiate with us because of it. you're seeing things happening now. again, we're going to take care of our people. we've been taking care of a lot of the world and they never appreciated it, a lot of this world never appreciated what we do. we fight wars for them and we fight all sorts of things and then they take advantage of us on trade, on top of everything else.

so we're going to keep a lot of friends but they're going to respect us again and they started to respect us again and that makes me feel very good, so thank you, kevin. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you, mr. president. for having us here today and i'm truly honored. i'm sheri sealy, coo of sealy's furniture and appliance. we've been in business for 66 years. we're family owned and operated. we have 148 awesome employees, several are here today. we do an annual sales volume of $34 million. it's because of the dedication and hard work of our employees that we earned the number one independent furniture retailer of america award a few years ago. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you. i'd like to recognize my husband, dale sealy, sitting in the front row. he is our president.

it was his father who started the company in 1952 with a pickup truck and a hot water heater. i mean, sealy's furniture i believe is truly the american dream success story. and i have to say that immediately upon your election, which dale and i were more relieved than you can even imagine -- >> thank you. >> we chose to move forward with an addition to our showroom. we contemplated that for seven or agent years. we didn't feel it was the right time. we felt with your strong leadership, now was the time to invest in our company. in the next two weeks we're going to be opening our new bargain bonus center and everybody at the store is very excited. >> that great. >> so -- that's great. >> so thank you very much for that. [ cheering and applause ] >> and then we were more excited when your tax cut bill passed in december and at that time dale and i wanted to reward all of our employees. we decided to wait a few months so it would be a surprise.

so in march of this year we awarded all of our full-time employees a $1,000 bonus and we gave all of our part-time employees - -- >> good. [ cheering and applause ] >> we gave all of our part-time employees a $500 bonus and i must say, mr. president, they were so excited. it was totally unexpected. we had several employees who got so emotional, they cried. just thursday one of our delivery drivers came into my office and said sharey, i have to tell you. i thank you again for my $1,000 bonus. i was going to use it to do repairs this summer but i chose to do something different. and he said i just put $1,000 down payment on a vacation i'm taking my family on this summer. >> that's great. >> so that means a lot to dale and i. >> thank you, sheri. that's beautiful. thank you. say hello to that gentleman. thank you. [ cheering and applause ] >> good job.

>> i do want to thank you for everything you're doing for this country. i want to encourage you to stay the course and if you ever have any time of any kind of discouragement, i want you to realize that there is millions of americans across this country like my husband and i who pray for you, your family, your -- [ cheering and applause ] >> and your success. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you, sheri. >> thank you. thank you for making furniture great again and thank you for making america great again. >> thank you very much. thank you. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you, sheri. >> i'd like you to hear from one of our employees. >> yes. thank you. thank you, so nice. >> mr. president, m my name is shantell. i've been with sealy's for 22 years as a furniture sales

associate and designer. i'm a proud daughter of a coal miner. my husband, mark and i live in pennsylvania, an hour north of pittsburgh. we have two amazing children. our daughter britney is 23. she's a nurse's aid at a local nursing home and one of your biggest fans, our 17-year-old son, dylan, who graduates this year. when sheri asked if i wanted to come, she knew how much dylan respected you and so she did invite him also so he's very excited to be here. our health insurance comes through my husband's employer and before obamacare, we had no premiums. we had no deductibles. once obamacare came into effect, my husband's employer, which is a small company, was unable to cover the premiums any longer. so we now have very high premiums and also higher

deductibles. last year, we had two medical situations involving my son and then later on in the year my husband that required several days in the hospital. and my husband actually has more surgeries coming. and with the bonus that you made possible, we were able to pay down some of our medical bills. so i just really want to thank you, mr. president, and the sealy's for making that possible for our family. >> thank you. thank you. that's very nice. thank you. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you very much. that's great. you mentioned obamacare, it's been a disaster. we actually had it beaten except for one vote, you remember that beautiful night. it was defeated by one vote. they changed. but one of those things, but we've actually done a great job because in the tax cut plan we got rid of the individual mandate. [ cheering and applause ] >> which is the most unpopular

part. and now we're going to be doing other things like association health insurance and we have our great secretary of labor who is in charge of that and i guess over the next few weeks we're going to have a very, very big announcement on health care. we have a few of them because alex az a ar will be making a big statement. by the time we do these various plans that we're doing and they're fantastic for people, and they cost the government relatively little and maybe i could ask alex acost. >> arthel: a few words about. >> the story you shared with us is a story we heard from so many americans. there are 11 million americans and their families that work for small businesses that can no longer afford health care. and that's a big, big problem. and so one of the things that folks don't know is that

obamacare puts a greater burden on small businesses than on corporations. and so the president's vision is there a way that small businesses can band together so they can just get the same access to health care as the big corporations. so we're working on a proposal to do just that and the president's very focused on this and that's something that the department of labor is hoping to announce in the very, very near future many that's going to be transformative. 11 million americans and small businesses that don't have access to health care that could have that access under association health care plans. [applause] >> and let me just add one final word, the president touched on the tax cut and job's act, and i just we wanted to say that the president has