and balanced. we are never going to beat the destroy-trump media. thank you for being with us. always set your dvr, never miss an episode. let not your heart be troubled. by the way, why is your picture all over -- more as ratings. my ratings are high too if you know. we are number one in cable and you are killing it and i'm happy and proud of you. >> laura: hannity, first of all, your show tonight was awesome. >> sean: it ruins reputations. >> laura: i can watch sara carter, john solomon, i coulder watch them for the whole night. those guys are just like energy facts, data that the old mediah don't want to publish. >> sean: i said at the beginning i needed for our estimate. but the great news is you now s are killing it and i said this to you last week, we are really proud of you. congratulations. we can't do this without this audience. >> laura: thank you.an absolutely. >> sean: thank god -- we lost three quarters of fox primetime and we are still killing it.

we are number one, thank god for this audience, and i mean that. >> laura: thank you for being a mentor to me all these years. it's only been 20 years or something like that. >> sean: it's been a long time. i'm the old man here. i get it, rub it in. i don't care. >> laura: you are a young man and i'm not messing with you. >> sean: a bridge between two generations of fox. how about that? >> laura: that's what i like to think. >> sean: i would love to bera the bridge. >> laura: you take care. good evening from washington. i'm laura ingraham and this is "the ingraham angle." history is made in the middle east and a possible game changer here in the russia pro. we are going to talk to john solomon for part two of a huge story he just broke on "hannity" on a possible conflict of interest by special counsel bob mueller. meanwhile, amid protests from palestinians, there is gratitude in israel as the u.s. opens its embassy in jerusalem. victor davis hanson and mike huckabee, he was there, are here to put it all in perspective. also, president trump wasn't

elect to make china great again what's going on with that? why is he suddenly trying toat save chinese jobs? we ask marco rubio about that coming up. and commencement speakers say the darndest things. you've got to hear these attempts at words for the ages. but first, results versus resistance. that's the focus of tonight's "angle." today the world watched as donald trump made good on his promise to move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem. three previous american presidents had promised to do this. >> jerusalem is still the capital of israel and must remain an undivided city t accessible to all. >> as soon as i take office i will begin the process of moving the united states ambassador to the city israel has chosen its capital. >> jerusalem will remain the capital of israel and it must remain undivided. >> laura: but one from

promised, he actually delivered. remember, congress passed a law authorizing the embassy to move back in 1995, but every president has delayed it until now. benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister of israel celebrated the significance of the moment. >> president trump became the first world leader to recognize jerusalem as our capital and today the united states of america is opening its embassy right here in jerusalem. thank you, president trump, for having the courage to keep your promises. it's a great day for our fantastic partnership, but i believe it's also a great day for peace. >> laura: of course if israel is jubilant and trump chalks up another achievement, well well well the media reflexively whale and failed politicians and diplomats of yesteryear grouse.

>> it doesn't help. to some extent it hurts, but it exposes a lack of a diplomatic strategy. i hope that the administration is seeing it and understands what the consequences are going to be if they do actually want to restart the peace process. >> this decision was on board and on tethered. peace process is comatose. >> in the long run it will not advance peace process. it will make his own policy more difficult to achieve and implement. that's the real issue, and it greatly inflames an already very turbulent violent region. >> laura: as opposed to what? george mitchell, what you negotiated? look, if the old guard, the so-called wiseman of diplomacy knew so much, such smart guys why are we still struggling in 2018 to bring peace to the i

region? you had your shot and it didn't work. t and let's face it. now it's trump's turn. so what the critics failed to acknowledge is that president trump is engaged in an international strategy that is already paying some dividends. he's remaking alliances in the middle east and taking the old bargaining chips off the table. he's changing the old and frankly the stale dynamic that was in place. trump is a reordering the status quo and he's forcing our international partners into new ways of thinking and acting even if it seems uncomfortable. say what you want, and a lot of you do, about the president's approach, but he has reinvigorated the prospects of peace in places we never would have thought change whatever happened. and he's created new possibilities. who would have thought only a year ago that north korea would be willing to melt down its nuclear testing facilities or even come to the negotiating table?

no one thought that, except maybe president trump himself. at home, the economy is booming and the president is demonstrating that bold innovative leadership can get real results abroad and at home. he's appointing tops are not legal minds to the federal bench, we know that. he is untangling regulations that choke, stifle american businesses large and small.nt and now he's even tackling prescription drug prices. he did that last week and is going to be working on that. so even as the media are loathha to cover any of this, at least fairly, the public i think gets it. so trump's numbers are climbing. but the only group of course that hasn't gotten the memo is the resistance media and their pals in politics. o they consistently ignore the president's achievements while grasping at any straw to assail him. today's straw was a side comment made last week by a white house

aide during a private meeting about ailing senator john mccain. >> a white house aide marks him and they interject that they stand with the person mocking john mccain for having brain cancer. >> they don't believe in apologies and it's easy to assume that the president of the united states was okay with this being said. >> she has still not publicly apologized and she is still an employee here at the white house. >> this show something about the culture of the trump white house that has nothing to do with politics, liberal, conservative republican or democrat. that there has been a kind of indecency that has been oee permitted. >> laura: i'm sorry. i had to be awaken from that montage. come on. the staff called mccain's family personally and apologized. they want a public apology for what was a private, leaked comment. i was thinking about this this afternoon. can you imagine what team obama

set about trump and his staff his team or any of his supporters behind closed doors? i shudder to think what they said. you know what this is really aln about. trying to revive the president's comments about mccain made during the campaign about him being a p.o.w., which were unfortunate comments, but to do that in an effort to somehow hurt trump now. it didn't work then and i don't think it will work now. while the media and their friends in politics obsess about thoughtless comments and nonessentials, few members of the media seem interested in doing their actual jobs. pursuing the stories that actually touch and affect our lives. what about holding our institutions accountable to make accountable to the people that pay the bill. why are the media so in curious about fbi's investigation ofth hillary clinton and comey's

decision not to indict her? what about the reports of partisanship in the fbi?? possible corruption within the mueller pro. where is the reporting on devin nunes attempt to get the justice department to hand over documents explaining how the fbi's russian collusion probe started and who actually started at? he had to threaten rod rosenstein with impeachment basically to get a response. and he still hasn't seen all the documents in question. isn't that worth investigating? put trump aside and what you think about him aside. the justice department and the fbi stonewalling those with actual oversight responsibility. or have porn stars and russian collusion conspiracy theories sapped all the media's manpower and all of their energy and resources? if the press, think about this spent just a little bit of time covering some of those stories

it may be more americans might listen when they reported critically on the president. but so long as the press is just a wing of the resistance, their audience will scatter, it will dwindle and soon most of america will just tune them out. so go ahead and cover criticismm of the president but once in a while just try balancing out what some honest coverage of some of the groundbreaking successes in the real achievements. we all need the press to hold everyone accountable.d trump surely, but also the other sectors of government as well including the fbi. and that's the "angle." in the last hour you heard john solomon tell us about special counsel bob mueller's possibleec conflict of interest due to his ties to a russian oligarch. john is now here with an even newer breaking series of developments that were just posted moments ago on the hill.

nobody has heard this before, it is stunning stuff. john, what else should we know? i read through your piece about a half hour ago when it was posted. now we find out that in september of 2016, this guy made out to be this big bogeyman by the political parties, on a sanctions list. he is visited by three fbi agents who want him to do what? >> it's great. he's already been very helpful to the fbi, $25 million of his own money trying to help them rescue one of their own agents in iran. they have his trust. they give him eight or ten passports to come in and then two months before the election he's asleep in his apartment int new york and he gets a knock on the door by some of the same fbi agents that worked with him on the early operation and they said we think trump's campaign and russia are colluding on the election and he let out a big laugh.

>> laura: weight. the agents say to a russian billionaire. >> close to putin. >> laura: supposedly close to putin. all the millionaires known. there was a that's not a big deal. they say to him we have an ideaa or a theory that he is colluding through, what, paul manafort? >> paul manafort was the first dimension. here's the funny part. he had a tortured relationship with paul manafort. he hired him as a political consultant, wasn't happy. gave him some money for a investment. they had a falling out. said he stole my money and took it into the united states. the guy they go to is an enemy of paul manafort. and said could you help us -- he laughs. he breaks out in laughter saying it's preposterous. is to take this seriously and he said i don't like the guy. there's no chance they're using paul manafort to coordinate an election and that's important for two reasons.

it's two months before the election. it's before the fisa application and here is something that the fbi trusted previously to give them reliable information. spent his own money doing fbi work and now they're telling him no collusion. does the fisa court know this? i bet not. >> laura: so our viewers understand this. we have a situation with three fbi agents go to this russian billionaire's apartment, who only can come to the united states because he is supposedly a bad guy, which by all indications he was trying to help bob wethington get out of iran, a 30-year veteran of the cia who he left there. he tried to get him out two times, spent $25 million, had a jet waiting on the tarmac pulled back by the state department for some weird reason. hillary clinton involved.or barack obama involved, perhaps even the previous administration involved. they go to him and they say we have a collusion idea. he says that's ridiculous and

they then say keep an open mind i understand. >> that's exactly what they say. keep an open mind, let's stay in touch. >> laura: oh, my god.y >> yet. it's been when you have sources strong sources for this. >> i do. he's on the record himself and i his lawyer as well as several fbi agents in the story. >> laura: i also understand that he offered to testify on capitol hill. >> that's right. >> laura: two sources on this. offer to testify, did not ask for immunity. it was reported by "the new york times" falsely that he asked for immunity to testify and i think someone in congress also repeated that. correct me if i'm wrong. he did not ask for immunity. why are they smearing this guy? why are they smearing this particular person. spent $25 million to try and get him out of iran.

>> a great guy, let him in the country no problem and then with the same evidence, now all of a sudden he's the bad guy again. >> laura: the guy they want to use to push this collusion theory. if you wanted to try to get off the sanctions list maybe he could have said i'm sure paul manafort is colluding with some people, agents, rogue hatreds and russia. what can you give me? he didn't do that, correct? >> he waved them off. >> laura: this is unbelievable. it's like a novel. it retired fbi special agent tom baker is here in washington and attorney dillon in san francisco. these details are moving fast and furious. john solomon has done some of the most important reporting on this case on mueller, on the fbi for months now and now this. tom, i want to start with you. you knew bob levinson going back to the first part of this narrative. if you knew him.

he worked with him when he i think was that counterterror and you were at the fbi. now we hear more details on this russian billionaire spending $25,000,000,000.02 times he hads a good handle on getting him out of the country. twice and he was waved off o twice. now they try to use them for the collusion nonsense. this is an outrage. >> yes, it is. it is, and what was in outrage was the way the whole thing was waved off. bob levinson, across trails with him a couple of times when we were both involved in russian organized crime. i happen to be at that time the legal attach? in paris where deripaska would often stop by himself. he spent a lot of time in paris. but levinson, we would try to do everything we could to try to get every part of the governmend moving on him. i was retired when he went missing. we got very little cooperation from the cia and very little cooperation from the state department and the fbi had to reach out and do whatever

they could themselves. >> laura: why -- the fbi is actually doing the work to try and get the cia guy out reaching out and, again, i don't know if it's illegal or not. working with this guy who had business interests in iran really rich, really connected and i bet deripaska it wanted to know why the heck am i being banned from coming into the united states, show me the file i'm such a bad guy. show it to me and he starts working with them. s motivations aside, that would have been a great thing to get him out of the country. state department takes back the deal at the last moment on some seemingly serious grounds. go ahead. >> what we learn from solomon's reporting is that this was pulled off the table at the last minute because hillary clinton refused to say certain things that the iranian government wanted said in order to point at finger away from them.

so that said, this gentleman and most wealthy people in his position don't do things out of necessarily the goodness of their heart. and there would have been any interest in it for him and having good relations and an ability to come and go from the united states is literally worth over $10 billion to his businesses so naturally he wanted to help and do a good thing as long as it didn't blow back on the russian government. he was our short of that. he did what he was asked. mccabe was one of the people who recruited him. this is how he's thanks. this is how he's thanks. he's now on a sanctions list after, by the way, refusing to "keep an open mind" when fbin agents visit him. how do you keep an open mind if you are asked did a crime occur? keep an open mind about it. what does that mean?an that's incredibly shady and suspect. now we have a second instance here of clearly the department of justice and fbi not giving all the information to the fisa court because this is what we would call exculpatory evidence

in a criminal investigation where you ask somebody did manafort collude with the russians on behalf of the trump investigation? deripaska who would know said no. i hate his guts, but he didn't do that. i'm quite certain as solomon just said that that was not revealed to the fisa court because if it were, a judge would take a second look at thae and now manafort is fighting in court for evidence of whether this is covered by the rosenstein authorization and mueller has filed that information under sealed. the fact that this whole 25 million -- you haven't even talked about the fact that the $25 million violates the antideficiency act of our government where the government is not allowed to take volunteer support from citizens if it's not authorized by congress. so mueller may be trying to cover that up because it's embarrassing to him that he violated the law.ue >> laura: thank you. john, stay here with us because

we are going to continue to examine this major development tonight. breaking just moments ago in thn russia pro. one of the agents who worked on that case, more to share on this bombshell next. copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way, with anoro." ♪ go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma. it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,

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sure. mom,what's up son?alk? i can't be your it guy anymore. what? you guys have xfinity. you can do this. what's a good wifi password, mom? you still have to visit us. i will. no. make that the password: "you_stillóhave_toóvisit_us." that's a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. >> laura: welcome back. we are continuing our discussion

with john solomon on the big story he just broke. special prosecutor bob mueller may be tainted by a conflict of interest in the russia pro. let's also bring in former fbi agent robin grant in chicago. robin supervised the levinson case back in 2009. if you just tuned in, bob levinson, 30-year veteran of the cia held now for 11 years in iran. we learned more details tonight about the efforts of a russian billionaire, deripaska, now on the u.s. sanctions list to secure his release. on two different occasions spending $25 million and now we learn that deripaska was approached by the fbi in september of the election year. in september 2016 where they floated an idea of manafort might be colluding with trump and what do you think about tham and he's like, i don't even like manafort. the facts are ridiculous. the intent is ridiculous. that's absurd and the fbi basically said keep an open mind.

that's wild.th robin, i want to go to you. of course you were on this case from the beginning.o now we are learning more about how this effort was strung along, shut down, at least on one occasion out byy hillary clinton. your thoughts tonight as thesese new developments are coming out? >> when john gave me a call about what he was finding out, i was shocked. i had taken over the case about seven months after bob was arrested by the iranianve authorities. and we were turning over every stone to bring him back. in working with a whole government approach to bring him back. and now i hear after i left the case that there was actually a plane on the tarmac and because of some changes in his statement, the agreement went downhill and bob remained in iran and i think is still there today.

>> laura: we hope he still s alive. he would be 80 years old today. we think john solomon, we don't leave a man behind if at all possible. we don't leave a man behind and in this case he was left behind and we have the fbi and mccabe i guess trying to be created about deripaska. deripaska by the way had had conversations with john mccain.ri do we know with those conversations were about yearshe ago? >> it's a story i broke in "the washington post" ten years ago.s >> laura: heaven forbid we actually find out what the current u.s. government is all about. l getting back to the conflict of interest.he alan dershowitz and jonathan turley had interesting comments. let's first look at what jonathan turley said about all this. he's concerned about a potential conflict. he said if the operation with deripaska contravened federal law, this figure could be viewee as a potential embarrassment for

mueller. the question is whether he could implicate -- it could implicate mueller in impropriety. and then alan dershowitz saying this. he also had similar concerns c about a potential conflict. i think we have the full screen. he said the real question becomes whether it was proper to leave him, deripaska, out of the v9 indictment. and whether that omission was to avoid a kind of transparency that is really required by the law. >> i talked to four or five legal experts.la they all have the same assessment. f they all different viewpoints. you said we don't leave any men behind her think about how desperate the fbi had to be to go to a russian oligarch and say could you from this because the united states wouldn't fund it. the cia would not go back and get their own men to the level that the fbi thought it deserved so they go and reach out to thei sky and a half to fund an extracurricular activity to rescue one of our own men.

i think that's one of the saddest parts of the tale that gets overlooked. >> laura: told me about hillary clinton's potential involvement? >> what we know is from the family, dave mckay, the lawyer said they had a deal, deripaska came back, they were sending the plane to the tarmac, we are going to rescue him. there was a statement that the iranian government wanted it saying we were involved in hillary clinton was unable to give them that absolution. the plane left and he was never rescued. >> laura: you kind of have to say what you've got to say at that point. some stupid statement.wh who cares. to me, that's just a nothing. you wonder if there was any future concern about any irane, deal down the road. i don't know what was going into play, but then you fast-forward robin, to the fall of 2016. some of these agents whoag approached deripaska and his apartment in new york, remember he's only allowed to come into the united states on a few occasions, one by one visa.

they approach him and they say float this collusion idea. and he's like what? collusion? with manafort? is kind of laughing at them. and they are like, keep an open mind. they were actually trying to collude with a russian billionaire to push the russian collusion theory. >> it's outrageous that all this is going on. it's stuff that you see in the movies. and to see that people that were working for the release of robert levinson have now switched and are actually pushing a political agenda and you said something really interesting about hillary clinton and then the iran deal. and i actually was gone from the fbi when the iran deal was signed and i was waiting for bob's name to be read. i was waiting for him to come home and when his name wasn't

read, heartbreaking, because i want to clarify that bob was actually an fbi agent for that amount of time. it was also a dea agent. he was just like any of us, whes we leave government service, we contract with people. and yes he was contracting with one agency but he was talking to a lot of people, all the kids and everything. it's just the family. >> laura: the family has been through hell, and now they are suing iran. i think republicans on the hill it's not going to be democrats. republicans should call deripaska to washington. don't lie and say he asked for immunity, because he didn't. bring him up to the hill, hear what he has to say. sharply questioning. you don't the trust what her said. question him. q i think the american people would like to know a little bit more about keeping the bogeyman of the russian billionaires alive and keep the big fantasy

alive.th fantastic reporting. it robin, thank you for what you've done for your service to this country. all those years. john solomon, please keep us up-to-date on your reporting. fantastic reporting. any news from mueller connected mueller respond? >> no comment. >> laura: the proverbial no comment. >> laura: president trump has become a national hero in israel because of a promise that was realized in jerusalem today. >> dear friends, what a glorious day. remember this moment. this is history. >> laura: victor davis hanson and mike huckabee join us to explain why today is a day like no other and a lot more, next. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or paying any upcharges.

what can i say? control suits me. go national. go like a pro.

fthere's flonase sensimist.f up around pets. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. >> laura: perhaps no city in the world has been fought over treasured more than jerusalem.ra today the united states became the only country in the world to open a permanent israeli embassy there. if two israelis the embassy isn't just a building.

it's a long-sought recognitiont that jerusalem is indeed the capital of israel. it's been 69 years since israel declared the holy city its capital and 23 years since congress passed a law mandating that the u.s. move its embassy there. >> the embassy of the most powerful nation on earth, our greatest ally, the united states of america, today its embassy open here. what a difference. >> while presidents before him have backed down from their pledge to move the american embassy once in office, thised president delivered because one president trump makes a promise he keeps it. >> laura: here to put today's events in perspective our historian victor davis hanson of the hoover institution and former arkansas governor mike huckabee who attended today's ceremonies in jerusalem and must be exhausted d t exuberant. governor huckabee, let's start with you. lucky you, i'm so jealous that you were there.

the media of course had the split screen of the gazaad violence and that was a lot of what they were covering. the moment, as you witnessed itt tell us. >> i think it's a powerful moment and when everybody talks about president trump made thiso decision, he did, but what he did, he affirmed the decision p that king david made 3,000 years ago when he made jerusalem the capital of the jewish people. and they are the only people for whom jerusalem has ever been the capital, so all of the people who are tugging at their hair over the fact that jerusalem is now been officially recognized by the united states ought to remember that there's never been a people ever and all of human history that have named jerusalem as its capital other than the jewish people. it was the right thing to do. this president had an extraordinary amount of courage to do it and i think many of us are thinking god that we nownt have truly paid tribute and honor to the ally which we should have done 23 years ago.

>> laura: victor davis hanson check out the difference between the way the media covered the opening of cuba and this. let's watch. >> as he makes these remarks at the opening of the u.s. embassy in jerusalem, a highly controversial move by president trump. >> it was a real historic day steeped in symbolism not only to the national anthem. >> the move, this very controversial move, which clearly is a blow to palestinians. >> we leave you with sights and sounds of this historic day here in the cuban capital. >> underlining just how controversial this embassy move is. >> we will turn out to an historic moment, the raising of the american flag over the u.s. embassy in cuba. >> laura: your reaction? >> it's part of a theme, isn't it, that reality has returned and what we consider normal somebody pulled the curtains away and we see with abnormal. crime comes in with an outlier and he says jerusalem is the capital and the palestinians arh

no more refugees and 13 million germans who were ethnically cleansed in the same year in 1945, they are not refugees. and he starts looking at the world and he says what was normal is abnormal and people who say they are normal or abnormal. nato, why can't affluent france and germany .2%? the price of doing business. why are we in the paris peace accords when we already meet thd claimant so-called regulations? >> laura: trump is throwing out all the old rules. >> he is. >> laura: they didn't lead to a breakthrough. governor huckabee, this is what john brennan tweeted. you're going to love this. he said a result of utter disregard of mr. trump and the prime minister by dominic. by moving the embassy to jerusalem from play politics destroyed usp speaker role. new generation need to isolate extremists to find a path to peace.

i guess trump is the extremist along with bb here. >> in "the new york times" tried to make this whole incident with the embassy is what caused hamas to push people out into the open, trying to rush a border do something that they were warned not to do, break laws invade another country and somehow it's israel's fault that hamas is a terrorist that used human beings as shields, that encourage people to violence?ed i've read one account that said it was peaceful protest. it was not peaceful process. it was burning up tires throwing molotov cocktails. it was throwing rocks, it was trying to charge a border and overrun it and hamas was telling them that they had already breached at the border and that millions were rushing toward jerusalem and these poor people who need food, who need shelter. instead the millions of dollars of aid that go to gaza ends up in the hands of these murderous terrorists in hamas and that is

a tragedy that these innocent t people who have been exploited and duped and now many of them are dead and it is not israel's fault. it is the fault of terrorists. >> laura: it's heartbreaking. a lot of young people. "washington post" headline today.y. israelis kill more than 50 palestinians in gaza protests health officials say. from 23-year-old mohammed. we are excited to storm and get inside his head. when asked what he would do inside israel he said whatever is possible to kill. throw stones. >> two thoughts, no country in the world would allow people to storm the country and try to kill people so obviously a country has a right to protect its sovereignty but more importantly i feel like this whole thing -- the chief worry in the middle east right now is the existential threat from nuclear iran. if you talk to people in these countries off the record, now they are publicly saying it

that they are more worried notay about the palestinians who need to get a life and go on like the germans who left prussia. 1 million jews were ethnically cleansed after the war so it's time to let the arab world work with israel about an existential threat, iran. >> laura: by the way, has president trump suddenly reversed course on china? we should keep victor davis hanson for this next segment. one of his puzzling tweets. supporters on the intel community a kind of like what. marco rubio joins us to discuss this very strange turn of events today. stay there.

>> laura: why it is president trump suddenly worried about saving jobs in china? trump may ease off the u.s. ban on exports to chinese telecom maker and big giant zte tweeting too many jobs in china laws. however the heads of the fbi and cia have warned americans by buying zte phones because they are considered a national security risk. is senator marco rubio says it's crazy to help zte. i spoke with him just a short time ago. >> senator, you have been writing and speaking a lot abous the china threat over the last several months and this really took me by a complete surprise today. with this seeming reversal of what i thought was a very common sense approach to the chinesey telecom giant.

what is your reaction tonight? the white house seemed to try to back off a little bit in reaction today. china will have to make concessions on its past cheating, frankly, but what is your reaction? >> first of all, i don't feel bad for these companies because frankly they have benefitedea greatly and continue to benefit great greatly from the theft and intellectual cheating. which is what the government does on behalf of their companies. it was really concerning his telecommunications is one of the ten or 12 industries that china tends to dominate the world and so to be selling american technology to zte is going to allow them to get it and reverse engineer it and then they will t make it themselves than they won't need us anymore and they do that in every industry. this was not a trade issue. it was because they got caught helping north korea and helping iran evade sanctions and they were punished for it. but frankly we should not be ind the business -- zte should not be operating unfettered in thee united states and they shouldn't have access to american technology. >> laura: senator, there's

always this tension between the national security side of things and the economic side of things. it seems that trump is trying to triangulate on this. obviously there is concern about farmers and the soybean tariff that china has threatened to put on them. also with the upcoming talks with north korea, without a doubt china has played some role in facilitating perhaps how we've gotten to this point this far.pe do you take that into consideration as you judge this? >> no, because without national security you have no economy and in the case of china, part of our national security threat is they intend to wipe out united states industries in ten key sectors. t it's called made in china 2025. they have telegraphed it very clearly. they intend to dominate the world in these ten industries and one of the way they do it is they take american secrets, the either spy on us and steal them or they get american companies to do business with them and then they take whatever it is we invented and they learn how to make it themselves even though they are not allowed to under

the law and then they get rid of us and then they start competing with us, subsidized by their government. you do that in enough industries and it becomes a national security threat and then in the case of zte and telecommunications, these are devices that could bese theoretically used, not theoretically, they can be usedt to track people, to listen in. without any court orders or anything of that nature. if this was a farm dispute that's one thing, but this is a direct threat to our national security and our economic well-being, which are interrelated. >> marco, chuck schumer today said and i've known you for so long so i just called you marco. sorry about that. >> just don't say paulo. >> laura: senator rubio chuck schumer tweeted out kind of an agreement with you and myself. he was pretty harsh, he said make china great again. you don't believe that donald trump wants -- is interested in making china great again or would purposely harm our national security interest by doing some type of deal with

china on this do you? >> no. i don't. i just think there's a lot of people tripping over there. every day some group of ceos comes marching into the white house and tries to talk the president down from the strong stand that he has taken on china.si there's a lot of voices. perhaps even some people within the administration that want to back down a little bit on the china thing. this confrontation with china is by far the most important thing facing this country on a global scale. this is going to define the next 80 years. they intend to replace us.. >> laura: i completely agree with you. the business interest, i would say if goldman sachs is happy about something regarding china i'm usually not happy. this is one on another issue on the tax bill. this is what you were quoted in "the washington post" as saying about the g.o.p. tax bill. you said if you look at all the benefits that are flowing to corporations, it was important to be able to go back and do more for working families, again in reference to the tax bill otherwise the message is what it has been for 25 years for both

parties, that is when push comes to shove, we want your vote but we are not all that concerned y about the working class. this is what trish reagan said. >> i thought you were a guy who like to lower taxes.>> lower taxes enable people to keep more of their money. but now perhaps because it's beneficial to him politically t he's trying to divide the republican party. >> i don't know what she is referring to. i am for lower taxes. i think the whole debate began with this. we have a corporate tax rate of 35. the republican bill lowered it to 20. i said why don't we lower it to 21, which is still massive. we are talking about apple and google, these multinational -- not talk about s corporations your everyday small business midsize business. talking about big, multinational big corporations for the most part. i said instead of lowering to 20, let's lowered to 21, still a dramatic cut and actually said 20.9 and let's use that .9 to fully expand the child tax credit for working families.

in my argument was that .9 was better in the hands of these workers that have already beenal hurt by all the changes in the economy. >> laura: but it's over. i see where you're coming from but that's over and now we have the midterms. it's like republicans have to be unified on this issue and i can see the argument -- with all that to hang together here on this tax bill. it's what we have.th it's not perfect. a lot more i want to, we didn't get it. >> it is what it is and on that it's a positive. the issue is the attitude. the attitude that some people had toward that child tax credit. it's better off in the hands of these big corporations than it is in the hands of a working family. that attitude is going to be ongoing and we cannot continueor because working people in this country have been crushed overe the last 20 years by all these changes. we need to think about that. >> laura: that's for sure. we will see next year the full force of the tax bill kick in when they have to file theirax

taxes under this new regime in 2019.. senator rubio, before we let you go, big blockbuster story today in the hill. what you make of the story mueller had not disclosed this before he was named of course special counsel. >> first of all, bob levinson is a floridian, the family is from florida. i wanted to do everything possible with a lot to get him home and we met with the trump administration about his case. unfairly detained, his case was forgotten at the end of the obama administration when they're cutting deals with iran. this is a man who served potomac served our country and was unjustly kidnapped. >> laura: this is what i'med saying, a russian oligarch used $25 million according to multiple sources of his own money to get this guy out. >> so i'm on the intelligence committee so i want to be careful about confirming or denying any sort of media articles because a lot of the d work that's being done with

regard to this, i'm not confirming it. i saw the same article. suffice it to say that mr. mueller is in boston conducting this investigation. if there is a conflict of interest at some point it would jeopardize the investigation.ic we don't know all the facts.d i think we will see as this thing rolls forward and as he brings out -- this investigation has to end at some point. people will be able to look at who he went after and who he didn't and then ask these questions. but we should wait until that moment arrives. but on this particular case wear have that article. i don't even know quite frankly how any of that is classified or not at this point. so i personally cautious. i'm trying to be evasive. i don't want to get in trouble here and go beyond where i should. two fights to say for purposes of an investigation bob mueller should be able to finish his work and then -- it has to end at some point and he will be able to look at it all and say why did you do this or not do that?d >> laura: i think we are going to learn a lot more about this in the days to come but we really appreciate your voice on china and all these national security issues. thank you so much for bearing with us tonight. thanks for joining. >> thank you. thanks. >> laura: commencement of

grass, existential riddle orau political speech? we will let you decide next.

>> laura: do you remember who even spoke at your college graduation? mine was beverly sills. words ridiculing ronald reagan

that's all i'm saying. but it's that time of year when commencement speakers attempt desperately to impart words of wisdom and inspiration to graduating seniors. yes, it's that time of year. in this weekend, some of the addresses, i've got to tell you when i was watching them on youtube they were so original so unique, so groundbreaking. >> be the last people to accept things as they are and the firsr people to stand up and change them for the better. >> invest in the importance of this moment and cherish it. savor the taste of your triumphs today. don't just swallow the moment whole without digesting what is actually happened here. >> laura: it might not be all that original but. other speakers seem to be auditioning for, i don't know the leader of the anti-trump resistance. >> we are in a moment where

humanity and decency are being eroded. four basic systems of law and justice are under attack. where the very notion of empirical fact is being attacked and corroded. >> to time where our politician tries to conflate the term refugee and terrorist and make us fear one another. we need courage. >> the greatest threat to american democracy isn't communism or -- it is our own willingness to tolerate dishonesty in service of perjury and in pursuit of power. if these oracles are leading graduates into the future, i hope they all have google maps on their phone.gr you've got to come up with something original. dream the impossible dream, that was taken. you have to have something original. be all that you can become a fine courage, find your dream

follow your dream. when we come back, the final the last bite. ..

>> before we go it is time for the last bite. msnbc anchor katie couric a little nervous covering today's opening of the us embassy in

jerusalem. even if she was monitoring it all away from the safety of manhattan. >> this is all hamas's folder the gruesome propaganda attempt. was are we hearing in the background? is that matt bradley? is that schilling? >> no. you are hearing that from jerusalem. >> this could happen to anyone and she's not the only one to dive under the desk. >> we are in our corners the rest of our lives. we just heard some gunshots. can we listen to that? not gunshots? okay. >> steve schmidt shooting off his house. we have drilling going on in our studio, stuff happening, sirens. that is all the time we have.

sweet me your thoughts about tonight's show. the developments that were just posted before the show started, got to read the stories on my facebook page, shannon bream, we have a huge show lined up. shannon: we will dig into those revelations. and pastor robert jeffers, responsible critics and talks about historic opening prayer. and the controversial source, and the latest on michael flynn's guilty plea. andrew mccarthy is here tonight. the back lash to the answer to media from snl to the press, why are some calling out their comrades. welcome to fox news at night. they