>> we begin with fox news alert, president trump with fierce pushback on twitter denying reported claims of former attorney michael cohe, in that the president was aware of june 2016 trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer as the showdown over the mueller probe appears to reach a new level, hello, everyone, i'm arthel neville, welcome to brand-new hour america's news headquarters. rob: good to see you, i'm rob schmitt, once again denying any collusion, the president remaining defiant amid a fire storm of legal developments this week after cohen copped a plea

deal with prosecutors looking into payments made in 2016 campaign as supporters of the president step up claim that this is a witch hunt. watch this. >> sthair not investigating a crime here, they are investigating a man here, the president, trying to find any crime in order to bring them down. michael cohen at this point would plea guilty about anything no matter what they said even made-up crimes just to get reduction in prison sentence. >> meanwhile the president keeping up attacks on attorney general jeff sessions over his recusal in the russia probe, garrett tenney live in the white house, garrett, what is the president saying about mr. sessions today? >> well, arthel, with all of the investigations into the trump campaign and to the president's allies, president trump feels like there's a bit of a double standard and he wants to see the justice department investigate a long list of alleged misdoing and wrongdoings and corruptions

by critics by critics and those on the left, this morning he tweeted, jeff sessions wouldn't allow politics to influence him only because he doesn't understand what is happening under nice his command position, highly conflicted bob mueller are having field day as real corruption goes untouched. no collusion. the latest back and forth started wednesday when president trump told "fox & friends" that jeff sessions never took control of the justice department when he became ag that led to sessions releasing statement saying, i took control of the department of justice the day i was sworn in, while i am attorney general the actions of the department of justice will not be influenced by considerations. several top republicans suggested that president trump may replace sessions after the midterm elections and the president added to speculation by tweeting quote from senator lindsey graham, every president

deserves to have attorney general they have confidence in arthel. >> i wanted to ask you this because the president is defending himself against report that is he knew about the trump tower meeting ahead of time, what are you hearing about that? >> yeah, a lot of questions last month about this one, several media outlets that michael cohen was willing to testify to special counsel that president trump did in fact, know about that meeting ahead of time, now, those reports were based on anonymous sources. this week cohen's attorney came out and said that he was one of the source who is confirmed the reports but he didn't actually know if they were true at the time, he now tells the new york post i regret that i wasn't clear enough to the post, i should have been more clear. i could not independently confirm the information in the cnn story, i'm sorry that i left that impression, i wasn't at the meeting, the only person who could confirm that information is my client. well, this morning the president tweeted, michael cohen's attorney clarified the record

saying his client didn't know about trump tower meeting out of which came nothing, the answer is i did not know about the meeting, just another phoney story by the fake news media. now, despite all of this tweeting so far over the last few days, the president has still not addressed the latest revelations that two of his very close former business partners and close confidants struck plea deals and that would be a lingering question throughout the weekend and throughout the week ahay. arthel: garrett, thank you. rob. rob: senator mccain's wife cindy is sending out, alicia acuña live in phoenix with more this afternoon.

alicia. >> senator john mcian is spending time with wife cindy and family, receiving visitors in arizona as you mentioned, this morning she was on twitter thanking people hearing what she had to say, the entire mccain family overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from around the world. thank you, senator mccain was diagnosed with brain cancer last july, his last vote was december 7th, upon news he's ending cancer treatment, arizona governor doug docey said in statement, the spirit of service and civility is model to all americans regardless of political affiliation. general or the jeff flake offered this on mccain's family. >> what a sweet family he has. he has had great caregivers as

cindy mentioned but cindy mccain has been a rock, focus on the nation on him for so long, she's handled herself so well as has the whole family. >> mccain has represented arizona in washington since 1982, first as two-term congressman and then 6-time senator and he's so much more. >> it's a big word, he earned. politicians are generally people that are inauthentic and posing for the moment and john mccain, we know in arizona has never done that. >> the eve into the point of angering and frustrating some of his fellow republicans, a couple of republicans and rob as you know, he has the long established history of clashing

with the president, a fighter till the very end. rob: essentially devoted his life to this country. thank you very much. arthel: zinger east wishes and prayers for senator mccain and entire family. well, nuclear disarmaments talks with north korea at apparent standstill after president trump called secretary of state pompeo's plan trip next week, saying he doesn't feel the north is making enough progress toward ending nuclear program, the president tweeted out the decision just days after saying this on "fox & friends". >> if i do something while i often joke, i will do great thing like meeting with kim jong un, that was a great success, hey, they have been working on this for so many years, they have nothing, i just got -- i just left what 3 months ago or less, i left singapore, you've had no missiles shot, rocket shot, you have no nuclear testing and we got back hostages and i have a good relationship

with them, you know, we have a good chemistry together. arthel: gillian live in washington with more, hi, gillian. >> a week of declarations followed by sharp reversals for the north korea policies, the secretary of state was supposed to depart this morning for fourth trip to pyongyang where he was to meet with dictator kim and continue negotiations to denuclearize the korean peninsula and president trump canceled trip yesterday just a day after secretary pompeo said this. >> using diplomacy to resolve the north korean security threat once and for all remains one of president trump's greatest priorities. >> the president announced reversal via twitter shortly after meeting in the white house saying the north hasn't made sufficient progress toward ending nuclear program since singapore summit in june, but isn't closing the door entirely. secretary pompeo looks forward

going to north korea in near future most likely after trading relationship with china is revolved n. the meantime i would like to send my warmest regards and respect to kim, i look forward to seeing him soon. this decision comes several days after the iaea released report expressing grave concern that north korea is continuing to develop nuclear program, barring inspectors from key nuclear sites and satellite imagery that show new construction, the report concludes, quote, clear violations, relevant un council resolutions are deeply regrettable. the president has told news that waiting on china. >> otherwise i would have done it sooner, china has been a big help on north korea. >> yesterday he lashed out on china saying on twitter, i believe they are not helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were, so the policy reversals

are par for the course of this point, arthel, the president canceled first summit with kim in may only then reinstated a few days, arthel. art or gillian turner, thank you. >> you've got it. rob: all right, honolulu dodged hurricane but terrain causing mud slides along the hawaiian islands. a lot of water. authorities warning strong winds sparking fires as well. >> the good news is lane got weak and fell apart, it dodged a bullet, we will have rain and local flooding and we need to be vigilant and we don't want to led our guard down. rob: adam housely with the latest saturday, adam, it's dry right now. >> yeah, rob, it's dry right now, we got word from the national weather center that

warnings and watches have been dropped, amazing news for people on the islands who were watching and waiting and hoping that hurricane lane which is now tropical storm lane and soon to be tropical depression lane fell apart and then heavy rain on side of maui, over 30 miles or so, terrain in east side, if you look at the island of hawaii, split down the middle by volcanos, pardon me, the hurricane winds and rain hit that south -- that east and south side of the island which trumped heavy rain more than 45-inches has come down there since lane come this to the this area obviously causing rivers to swell and all sorts of other issues in that region. on the other side of the island, only inch and a half. rob, the good news, if fire is under control, they out and the

entire system of lane has now been move today south and all warnings have been canceled by the national weather service, fantastic news here. the sun is starting to come out and hawaiian vacation season for everybody here is back on track. rob: still trying to process the wild fire be a hurricane at the same time and all that rain. it's such a strange story, adam, thank you so much. >> crazy. all right. arthel: developing story in texas where two people are dead, several others injured, wow, after a passenger train crashes into a truck, we will have the details. plus the white house facing fallout over the michael cohen plea deal and the manafort guilty verdict, what will be the impact on the midterms, we will analyze this. >> this is another effort to create a crime in order to target somebody who is unpopular. that's the problem, when you get an effort to target somebody instead of just looking for the facts and let them unfold.

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critically, it's unclear what led up to that crash. >> all right, new questions about the impact of a very eventful week to say the least for the white house from president trump's former attorney michael cohen pleading guilty to campaign violations to paul manafort's conviction on tax evasion and bank fraud charges among other developments as well, but the president's attorney rudy giuliani says the president will not face any blowback on any of this, watch. >> president trump is completely cleared. you have the cohen guy, he doesn't know anything about russian collusion, doesn't know anything about obstruction, he's a massive liar. if anything it's turned to the president's favor. rob: let's bring report, al, michael cohen, it's been a nasty week with the white house, do you agree with giuliani that this is not going to touch the president?

>> i'm not sure about that, legally speaking i'm not sure about that, i all depends what happens moving forward but politically it's not been a great week for the white house no matter how you slice it. we are about 80 days from midterm election and right now things are looking problematic for republicans, you look at the house, things -- real problems right now but as far as cohen is concerned and manafort, seems to be subbing up all the oxygen from what republicans want to be talking about including the economy, they want to talk about unemployment rate hoovering around 4% and doing well and talk about tax cuts that they enacted last december although it's been split favorability on the tax cuts, they are split, they want to be pushing the narrative that we are putting money in people's pockets, right now that's the big problem for the white house they are facing right now. rob: yaw say it's taking up all of the oxygen, the stories aren't getting good stories come through for the white house, in all fairness even when times were slower, it's not like tax

reform and the economy were getting all that much attention from the mainstream media, right? >> no, you're not wrong about that necessarily but tramples any attempt for republicans to even try to make that message. paul ryan, especially when the house is in session, that's one thing he's always talking about, mitch mcconnell every tuesday touting the economy right now, touting the successes and repeat successes republicans are facing and trying to make that narrative ahead of november, right now it's made even more difficult by the situations involving cohen and manafort, it's problem as far as not just for president trump but for republicans at large. rob: called the president and a lot of coverage doesn't affect him and has a way to appeal to go people no matter what the media is saying about him and i don't think the president supporters really care all that much about the facer and paying off the women but this thing, if cfo of trump organization has some things that are dirty on

the president, talking about, you know, maybe dirty business or something like that, could that change public opinion or at least his supports' opinion? >> i'm not sure about public opinion. i think for republicans that's kind of baked in the cake at this point. no matter where the president is, he's going to have 35% of the country with him no matter what. what matters for him is independence, that's what democrats really sense an opportunity heading to november, mainly on the house map but also in senate to a degree as you have a couple of republican held seats that they are challenging out there. so right now it's big thing more than cohen because he's the money man in the trump administration along with don, jr. and eric trump, he helped control for trump organization, he knows a lot. he has been with him for almost four decades, he's the main figure to watch right now. much more than cohen i believe. rob: going back to cohen, we

don't know what he can offer in this case, the disparity between what lany davis, cohen's lawyer said versus giuliani, it's almost like they are talk about two completely different cases when you hear both of them talk and you have one of our guys, alan dershowitz who we have all of the time seems to side with rudy and the president, how can there be such a disparity between cohen's lawyer and president's lawyer on the issue. >> it's like looking between asia and america right now. i'm not sure at this point. i think it's bored out over time obviously, the president has made his point clear over time as rudy giuliani has that there was no collusion and he's made that point for 2 plus years now, 3 years almost. that's going to be the line they will stick to. but lenny davis is new in this episode of the trump administration, we will see what he brings to the table at this

point, michael cohen is a big player but as i said earlier, person to watch, especially if he does have damming information about the president that he's willing to reveal. that's pretty big as far as, you know, the whole situation is concerned. rob: if they are cutting deals with him makes you wonder what exactly he knows, we appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. arthel: u.s. intelligence sources in moscow going mister youly silent as we get close the other midterms, what does it mean for the security of our elections this november and what the kremlin could be doing to interfere, the pope ireland trip starts off on controversial note as he comments on sex abuse scandals rocking the catholic. >> this is the moment that he could have acknowledged and he completely refused to acknowledge the role of vatican and its responsibility.

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rob: welcome back, pope francis in ireland this weekend, first papal visit there in nearly 4 decades and irish minister who is openly gay spoke bluntly about sex abuse and the pope reacting to that shortly after. kitty logan has more. >> hi, first papal visit to ireland in almost 40 years and there are some mixed feelings among irish people because of the abuse scandal but the pope has largely been given a warm welcome. he was first invited to the dignitaries in dublin castle and then strong words from irish prime minister. >> people kept in dark corners, behind closed doors u cries for help unheard, and these wounds are still open, and there's much to be done to bring it about justice and truth and healing

for the victims and survivors. >> while ago knowledging abuses, pope francis stopped short of apology. >> consider the reality, i cannot fail to acknowledge the great scandal caused in ireland by the abuse of young people by members to have charge charged with responsibility of protection and education. >> the pope also offered prayer to victims, some were disappointed the pontiff did not offer more reassurance, 8 survivors were invite today private meeting with him to air grievances, in the evening the pope attended concert in his honor, ireland is traditionally a catholic company but in recent years many younger people have turned away from church guidance voting for gay marriage and abortion law. so far fewer people have welcomed the pope than on previous papal visits and there have been some asthma protests but around 500,000 people are due to attend the special papal mass in dublin on sunday, second

and final day of the pope's visit to ireland, rob. rob: kitty, thank you so much. >> i made it clear that we wouldn't tolerate meddling in 2018 and that we were prepared to take necessary steps to prevent it from happening, we talked about it in a variety of ways in the area of cyber and information technology exchange which we had stopped between the united states and russia earlier this year. arthel: national security advise e john bolton on his warning to russia about election interference as "the new york times" reports that u.s. intelligence sources in moscow have gone mysteriously silent ahead of the november midterms leaving the cia and other intel agencies largely in the dark about moscow's plans to interfere. james carafano, vice president for national security at heritage foundation, james, are

we unaware exactly of what russia is up to, several questions for you, how are they going to interfere in midterm elections or are we ill prepare today combat it and then tell us how vulnerable are the u.s. election systems and how much damage could russia do. >> right, well, the first thing is we know absence of evidence is not evidence because we read something in "the new york times" we don't know necessarily know if it portrays the full scope of knowledge that the u.s. is undertaken because theoretically is classified. even if there's lack of reporting out of moscow, that doesn't necessarily tell you much either, there could be a whole spectrum of reasons for that. arthel: the perspective from the heritage foundation, what's your perspective? >> here is what we do know. this isn't first trip to the rodeo, we have seen a lot of russian activity over the last years and people have gone to school on it, the american intelligence communities have gone to school on it, private sectors have gone to school on it, we at heritage get hit every

day, we are aware of this, there's a lot of knowledge about what the russians and can and have done in the past and a lot of people looking out for that and so it's not 2016, this isn't a replay of what happened last time. >> so you're not saying that much damage as compare today 2016? >> we don't know what we don't know. we know a lot of what the russians have done in the past and a lot of what they do and there's a lot of people looking at that and have response to that. the other thing is we don't know spectrum of intelligence activities and i think part of the problem that i have with people they often focus with these things like their electrons versus our electrons. arthel: so you don't seem to be very concerned? >> there's a lot of things that we can do to the russians nonelectronically which can get attention -- arthel: if you're talking about sanctions, not hurting their economy short-term maybe long-term effects could be provide some damage to the russian economy but right now

they're continuing to move on. >> well, for example, if you're an individual, though, and you are related to somebody else and they have control of this and you have an apartment in london and all of a sudden can disappear that has impact on you, so -- you have to look at competition, not just how many hits have we had by the russians. arthel: let's move on, you heard national security adviser john bolton being tough on russia and to the point with messaging to moscow, how important is the president's voice and position on this? you know he won't say that russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, could be russian, could be anyone? >> well, look, the russians have gotten the message, we've had reporting on earlier that the russians are upping naval activity, why are they doing that? >> you're not answering my question. >> they're not happy was because we have been tough on the russians and they know that. they unlike a lot of people pay more attention to what the president tweets an says, they look at totality on american policy, they try to push back on

ways they can and they know if they do try to do something that's new and different and dangerous in the elections that they'll pay a big price for that. arthel: without jeopardizing strategy, what are the options? we've discontinued the information exchanges, is that enough? >> well, there's a of -- a lot of activities that they conduct, people hear the word sanctions and i think they get bit blosay about that, but targeting sanctions against specific individuals, that can be effective. arthel: especially when the russian economy is not strong even though putin pretends it is. >> making sure that people have a cacoon of wealth and power and that puts pressure on him personally, look, the russians know there's not a free lunch for things they do against the united states. they've gotten the message consistently since the president

went to office. arthel: i want to go back to new york times article because they did do reporting and some american officials familiar with the intelligence referenced in that article that it was published today in addition to aggressive and sometimes deadly counterintelligence by moscow, both current and former officials also said the expulsion of american intelligence officers from moscow has hurt collection efforts and then officials also raised a possibility that the outing of an fbi informant under scrutiny by the house intelligence committee and examination encouraged by president trump has had a chilling effect on intelligence collection, so i ask you is this accurate and fair analysis by those intelligent officials? >> historically we have seen u.s. intelligence operations inside the soviet union, for example, have ups and downs and when there's a crack in the system it ripples throughout the entire system. this is a back and forth that always occurs. there are ups and downs there

and -- and russia is a hard target. they are actually very good at counterintelligence operations, it's not an easy site to penetrate. look, if all you're relying on intelligence to know what to do, in the end, look, intelligence is going to let you know, it always does. arthel: what does that mean? >> well, that means you have to have protective and offensive measures that are based on more than knowing exactly what you think the other guy is going to do. that's just business as usual. arthel: okay, so in the outing of fbi informant under scrutiny by house intelligence committee doesn't matter? >> well, it's not that it doesn't matter, look, you have intelligence failures, that's normal. arthel: that's not a failure. >> people get uncovered. arthel: that was the demand from the administration, that's different from someone being discovered. >> these things happen, you have intelligence ups and downs, that's normal. anybody who runs intelligence operation and expects everything to go smoothly and never lose assets and never have problems

they are in the wrong business. arthel: i'm sure families at home don't feel comfortable about families being outed. i'm not sure, listen, i hear you, we will move on. last question for you, russia's persistence to interfere in u.s. elections electronically, through social media, qualify as cyber, a cyber-attack, at we at cyber war with russia? >> well, there's constant cyber sniping between us and them and part of it is, again, what are we doing in response to that and how we are addressing the behavior. part of it, look, the soviets have always done measures and sometimes that's all they know how to do and what they do, you know, as much as we pay attention to it, sometimes we have to look at the i have -- efficacy and you know what it's doing and you know capability

and you know it's not terribly effective, you don't want the other side to know how much you know, there's a lot of cat and mouse. arthel: yes or no? are we in a cyber war with russia? >> we are -- russians, the chinese, iranians, are constantly attacking american systems, military and civilian every day. arthel: copy that. vice president for national security and foreign policy at heritage foundation, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. rob: all right, the trump administration cutting more than $200 million in aid for the palestinians, the state department saying it'll use those funds for high-priority projects elsewhere and that means funds will no longer go to programs in gaza which is controlled by the terror group hamas. arthel: major change by national democratic committee that could impact 2020 election, before we get to 2020 we have to get through midterms, they are just

73 days ahead, what polls are now saying about a potential, quote, blue wave. ♪ [ coughs ] ♪ ♪ [ screams ] ♪ [ laughs ] ♪ whoa, whoa, whoa. your one item would be the name your price tool?

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arthel: dnc announcing sweeping changes that could impact the 2020 election. members voting to strip super delegates of their presidential nominating voting powers. the dnc wants to let democrats know that their votes in the primaries and caucuses won't be overruled by party leaders, dnc chairman tom pérez writing, quote, today historic day for party, we passed major reform that would not only put next presidential nominee in strongest position possible but will help us elect democrats up and down the ballot across the country. these reforms will help grow our party, unit democrats and restore voters trust by making 2020 process most transparent in

history. >> so i don't think there's going to be a blue wave. i hope there's a red wave. they keep saying that whoever is president they don't win midterms, i don't get it, but no president has ever had this economy. rob: so the president talking about the midterms which are just 73 days away at this point, many polls predicting a blue wave will give democrats control of the house, a fox news poll suggesting, same, 49% of people saying they'll vote for democratic candidate in november, 38% say they are going to vote for republican, terry madonna, directly of poll and founder of keystone poll joins me now to talk about this, terry, thanks so much for talking today. >> thanks, rob. rob: i shouldn't say all of it, but tremendous amount of energy is with democrats right now probably mostly because they can't stand the president of the united states, he's very much hated on one side, you know, for about half of this country.

is that going to be the difference-maker in november? are they going to try anything to get power back? >> well, there isn't any doubt that enthusiasm gap and that's really what you're talking about is very substantial, 11, 12, 13, 15 points to the democrats' advantage and we have seen in the congressional, the special congressional elections that have been held this year and in the polls when pollsters asked voters questions like how interested are you in voting, how closely are you following the election, the democrats certainly have sizable edges which is exactly why as you accurately pointed out there's enthusiasm gap, now there are other factors that will play out, districts there are, how many -- talking about the house on the senate how many competitive senate seats are there, there are many other factors including something else

which is the president's job performance, but right now to go back to thrust of your major question, a blue wave, how about this, a light blue wave as we sit here right now, more like 2014 which benefited the republicans where they picked up 13 seats in the house. rob: okay, so you're calling -- you think a light-blue wave, let's take a look at the poll here talking about the most important issue that people will be voting on come november, at the top there, economy and also health care, right, along with it 18% control the house at 14%, the president is one of the important issues that people will vote on on 13% and pretty good numbers there too. immigration at 10%. a lot of people say economy is typically probably the most important thing when it comes to an election because people vote with their wallets, they come to livelihood and have to pay the bills, the economy is very strong right now, you think that's enough to save the

republicans from a big powerful blue wave? >> well, i don't think they'll be a big powerful blue wave but make no mistake about it -- rob: you said light blue wave. >> yeah, light-blue wave but when you get down to the economy if you compare president trump's approval with foreign policy, immigration, a whole host of other factors, his best score comes, guess what, on the economy, about 50% of the voters rate the president positive. here is a fundamental question, with all the diversions and all of the issues that have side-tracked the administration you would think there would be a much bigger emphasis, constant emphasis on the health of the economy and the president has certainly talked about the economy far more than he did earlier on this year. rob: okay, as far as the type of

candidate that can take some of these seats, right now it appears that the more moderate candidates from the democratic side have a better shot at taking back some of these seats. i think they are trying to socialism in the midwest, i highly doubt it would take very well, you saw what happened with connor lamb, what that young man was able to do, if they take the house back, let's take a look at the senate here, you have florida and you have bill nelson race, up for reelection and you've got rick scott who is pretty popular there as governor, bill nelson is a pretty good brand as well, does rick scott have a good chance to take the seat? >> oh, i think so. one of the seats that we will pay very, very close attention to. but the other -- the other way to think about this and i think this is -- this is important, we've got the enthusiasm gap which we talked about, we have the issues that matter, but here is the critical issue when it

comes -- or question when it comes to the senate, the democrats have to defend 26 of 35 seats, 26. 10 of those seats the president of the united states now carried those 10 of the 25, 26 rather and guess what, 5 of them by double digits. that's why most of the conversation is about what's going on in west virginia, indiana, missouri, north dakota, seats held by democrats you could actually have, the house slipping into the democratic column while the republicans pick up a couple of seats in the senate. rob: that's exactly what i was going to say. is there an opportunity for that to happen, that you could pick up nelson seat and menendez seat in new jersey earlier this week, i talked to bob hugin who has a shot at that republican elect today senate in new jersey first time since i was born that that

could happen and possible because menendez has bad reputation with corruption charge. >> no, you're exactly right and the opposite is the case in the house obviously 435 seats are up, 48 to 50 we call competitive seats, the lions chair of the competitive seats are held by republicans and that's what creates among many other factors the likelihood that the democrats can pick up the 23 seats to take over the house. so that would be pretty interesting given the fact that the president's job performance on average, 43.5%, real clear politics average, this is what we have not seen before, 45% approval -- approved the president's job performance. it hasn't budged outside of sort of margin of error for months. rob: light-blue wave in november. i think you're probably in the

minority of opinions there, i think a lot of people probably disagree with you but we will see what happens, we appreciate your time. >> thank you. arthel: what elon musk is saying now, you must hear this when we come back. and the bandits, well, they got rocks. we protected your money then and we're dedicated to helping protect it today. like alerting you to certain card activity we find suspicious. if it's not your purchase, we'll help you resolve it. it's a new day at wells fargo. but it's a lot like our first day.

arthel: new developments at electric car maker tesla, more than two weeks after founder elon musk stunned wall street when he announced he had secured funding to take his ground-breaking company private. robert gray is live in los angeles with the latest, hi, robert. >> hi, art they will, yeah, another shocking development here, the electric car maker ceo saying tesla will remain in public stock exchange reversing the controversial tweet from a few weeks ago that he was going to take the company private. elon musk last night writing that he changed his mind after getting feedback from investors including some large institutions that said they have rules limiting the amount of money they can invest in a private company, musk releasing a statement reading in part, quote, given the feedback i've received it's apparent that most of tesla's existing shareholders believe we are better off as public company. musk also says he consulted investment firms, goldman sachs, morgan stanley and silver lake,

the ceo's august 7th tweets said tesla would pay 420 bucks a share to buyout shareholders and take the company private, that was 23% premium over the prior days closing price and what value the company at $72 billion. that tweet said musk secured funding for the deal which would relieve tesla from short-term pressure of reporting quarterly results. now, later musk said he only expected one-third of share hold toaster take that deal, the result tesla stock roared up 11% the day of the tweet although it has since given back all of those gains and is below the price when musk first tweeted. the securities and exchange commission is looking whether musk was trying to manipulate stock price to hurt short sellers, and arthel, two lawsuits have been filed against the company relating to tweet. the board said it has dissolved

committee researching oh transaction and fully supports elon musk as ceo. arthel: okay, robert gray there in los angeles, thank you. rob: all right, president trump in defensive mode after his former attorney michael cohen implicated him in conspiracy to use campaign funds possibly illegally. what the president is saying on twitter coming up nexts. i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix. i tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. they didn't work for me. i didn't think anything was going to work for me until i tried chantix. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. i needed that to quit. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix.

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>> fox news alert. not backing down, president trump taking aim at attorney general jeff sessions yet again on twitter amid renewed scrutiny over the justice department's handsel -- handling of investigations surrounding the 2016 campaign. welcome to a brand new hour inside america's news headquarters. i'm rob schmidt in for eric shawn. arthel: i'm arthel neville. president trump venting his frustration after his former attorney michael cohen struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors in a separate case involving campaign finance violations. as the president is stepping up his feud with sessions over his refusal in the russia probe and handling of the justice department. the president tweeting quote jeff sessions said he wouldn't allow politics to influence him only because he doesn't understand what is happening underneath his command position. highly conflicted bob mueller and his gang of 17 angry dems

are are having a field day as real corruption goes untouched. no collusion. >> garrett tenney is live at the white house with the latest this afternoon. hey, garrett. >> hey, rob, president trump is clearly once again stoking speculation that he may decide to replace attorney general jeff sessions. today he tweeted a quote from senator lindsay graham saying every president deserves an attorney general they have confidence in. i believe every president has a right to their cabinet. these are not lifetime appointments. you serve at the pleasure of the president. over the last year, the president has repeatedly suggested sessions' days could be numbers, but each time republican leaders have responded that that would be a mistake. this time around, though, a number of top g.o.p. senators say they would be open to it, after the midterm elections. there's a lot that can happen between now and then, though, including with the various investigations into the president and his allies. on that front, president trump is defending himself over

allegations that he lied when he said he didn't have advanced knowledge of the infamous trump tower meeting. that's what a number of media outlets reported last month, citing anonymous sources who said mr. trump's former personal attorney michael cohen was willing to testify to that. well, this week, cohen's attorney davis admitted he was one of those anonymous sources, in that he had confirmed those reports even though he didn't actually know if they were true. now he tells the new york post i regret i wasn't clear enough to the post. i should have been more clear. i couldn't independently the information in the cnn story. i'm sorry i left that impression. i wasn't at the meeting. the only person who can confirm that information is my client. the president pointed to that confession this morning tweeting michael cohen's attorney clarified the record saying his client does not know if president trump knew about the trump tower meeting out of which came nothing. the answer is that i did not know about the meeting, just another phony story by the fake news media. now, that clarification is also

important for michael cohen because there was some concern by lawmakers that cohen was changing his story from what he had previously testified before the senate intelligence committee, and that would have opened him up to charges of perjury by congress. rob? >> busy week, garrett, thank you very much. >> you got it. arthel: nuclear talks with north korea apparently hitting a road block after president trump called off secretary of state pompeo's planned trip there next week, saying he doesn't feel the north is making enough progress toward ending its nuclear program. the president tweeting, quote, i have asked secretary of state mike pompeo not to go to north korea at this time because i feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. so gillian turner, let's just get through denuclearization and then i can say korean peninsula. throw them all in together. [laughter] >> the secretary of state was

supposed to depart this morning for what was to be his fourth trip to pyongyang, where he was slated to meet with dictator kim jong-un and continue negotiations towards denuclearizing the korean peninsula, but president trump cancelled the trip yesterday, just 24 hours after secretary pompeo had this to say. >> using diplomacy to resolve the north korean threat once and for all remains president trump's greatest priorities. >> the president announced his reversal on twitter after a meeting with his foreign policy team at the white house saying the north hasn't made sufficient progress towards ending its nuclear program since the singapore summit took place in june. but he isn't closing the door entirely, adding via tweet, secretary pompeo looks forward to going to north korea in the near future. most likely after our trading relationship with china is resolved. in the meantime, i would like to send my warmest regards and respect to chairman kim. i look forward to seeing him

soon. now, this decision comes several days after the iaea released a report expressing alarm that north korea is continuing to develop its nuclear program, barring inspectors from accessing key nuclear sites, including a research facility and citing satellite imagery that shows new construction. the report concludes, quote, clear violations of relevant u.n. security council resolutions are deeply regrettable. the president is not just reversing his north korea foreign policy this week, though, on thursday he told fox news that china's been quote a big help on north korea, only to claim the opposite yesterday. when he tweeted that china's not helping on north korea as much as they once were. a lot of reversals this week. arthel? arthel: all right, jillian turner, i got that right. >> nicely done. arthel: thanks, my friend. >> some words just get you. fox news alert, tropical storm lane continues to weaken, no longer a hurricane.

we have learned that all tropical storm watches and warnings have been cancelled for hawaii but a flash flood watch does remain in effect as the storm starts to turn away from the island at a very sluggish pace, it's a slow mover. steve harrigan is in honolulu this afternoon with more on that. steve, i see people -- it looks like they are at the beach? >> it's been a beach yesterday and beach today despite some dire warnings and a major hurricane that looked like for a while it was going to make a direct hit on honolulu. instead we heard from the mayor a short time ago in a celebratory press conference saying we have dodged a bullet. you had a storm going from category 5 hurricane with winds over 155 miles-an-hour down to right now not even a tropical storm. however, it has been a rain event, a slow-moving storm at just about 5 miles-per-hour. it's dumped a ton of rain, especially on the big island in hawaii, more than 45 inches in some places, catastrophic flooding caused. rivers over top, home rescues

carried out. and fema administrators have come out and said this state is not out of the woods yet. >> it's been downgraded to a tropical storm, but that's no reason for citizens in hawaii to let their guard down. they are still projects more than two days worth of rainfall to continue to inundate the state and quite honestly, we could see some record-breaking rainfall that surpassed what we saw last year with hurricane harvey. >> and something you would not expect during a hurricane, and that is wildfires on the island of maui. at least 3,000 acres burning, hundreds of people evacuated from their homes. those fires caused by downed power lines from the storm, a really treacherous situation for firefighters who had to battle the flames in hurricane conditions. but they have those mostly under control now. back to you. >> steve, i imagine the rain has helped i think you insinuated that the rain help kind of control those fires. did they start in places where

it just wasn't raining at the time, and it was just only wind because i mean, it's so strange to hear about 45 inches of rain and then a wildfire at the same time? >> that's right, on maui that's exactly where they did start by downed power lines, an interesting situation there, you had people in shelters from the hurricane, but because of the wildfire, they had to be moved from one shelter to another. so you can imagine these poor 50 or so people fighting dual natural disasters at the same time, going from shelter to shelter. >> weirdest part of that story. all right, steve, thank you very much. enjoy the beach day. >> thank you. all right. arthel: a strong showing of support for arizona senator john mccain after his family announces the war hero and long-serving republican will stop treatment for brain cancer. his wife posting a message of appreciation on twitter this morning. alicia acuna is live from phoenix with more. >> hi, arthel.

when the senator's office made that announcement yesterday, we also heard from his daughter megan mccain who offered her gratitude to the supporters who have supported their family throughout this entire year, and as you mentioned, cindy mccain, his wife has been by his side all of this time. she offered her gratitude on twitter as well. she saying the entire mccain family is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from around the world. thank you. of course yesterday we got word from the family of this american hero he has decided to stop the medical treatment of the aggressive form of brain cancer that he was diagnosed with in july. -- last july. and long-time analyst in the state explains senator mccain's presence this way. >> he's our senator, but he's really a national -- even an international senator. he's almost the united states representative to the rest of the world because he transcends

presidents because of his senate tenure and his foreign policy knowledge and his willingness to engage in those tough issues. >> barnes also made an interesting point that there's no one alive in arizona politics today that knows what it likes to be in politics -- what it's like to be in politics without john mccain. something a fellow senator knows all too well. >> everybody other than john mccain is just called the other senator of arizona. i have grown accustomed to that title. but it is tough to imagine washington without him. and in the senate from my very first day there, i saw that was the conscience of the body. >> and we are hearing from two of the three amigos as they were informally called on the hill, among mccain's closest friend, former senator lieberman and senator graham, lieberman writing in a statement becoming

john mccain's friend has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. today i'm praying for him and his family. graham in a statement writing above all else i know john mccain wants his family, friends and staff to understand how much he appreciates their love, care, and kindness. and arthel, the family has been receiving visitors at their ranch in northern arizona today and yesterday. arthel? arthel: the conscience of the body transcends presidents. well deserved accolade. we send our thoughts and prayers. a train collides with a truck killing at least two people. several others rushed to the hospital. we will have the latest oen that coming up. plus the showdown between president trump and attorney general sessions. will this become an issue as we head into the midterms? also president trump looking to push back the tide on democrats' hopes for a blue wave in november. but should recent polling raise some concern for republicans?

a live report on that coming up. >> so i don't think there's going to be a blue wave. i hope there's a red wave. they keep saying that whoever is president, they don't win the midterms. i just don't get it, but no president has ever had this economy. you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. so i think we're going with a family van.oods] a family van? was that her choice? naaah man, that was my choice. this thing's got reclining seats, dvd player, it's got a built-in vacuum cleaner.

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rob: a deadly collision in fort worth texas, two people in a dump truck killed, several others on a passenger train injured, two of them critically. this happened today as that truck was crossing the rails. you can see the extensive damage. the truck exploding upon impact by that train. it's not clear exactly what led up to the crash, who was at fault here. -- an attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. and it's sort of an incredible thing. arthel: president trump's criticism of attorney general jeff sessions during that exclusive fox news interview now ballooning into a war of words with mr. sessions that is playing out in the media, amid questions about the potential impact mr. sessions firing back at the president saying in part, quote, while i am attorney general, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by

political considerations. i demand the highest standards and where they are not met, i take action. let's bring in a senior writer for the weekly standard. eric, thanks for being here. >> how are you doing? arthel: i'm good. according to your contacts and your reporting, eric, what's the president's calculus beyond the initial move of firing ag jeff sessions, should that happen because if he does that, deputy ag rod rosenstein becomes the acting attorney general, and then what? >> that's right. right. you know, i think the difficulty always with the president is figuring out what his goal is, what the strategy is when he's tweeting. i see there are four possibilities, one, that he's -- that he's just blowing off steam, two he's trying to pressure sessions to act in the way he wants to be, three, he's

encouraging him to resign or four he's laying the groundwork for actually firing jeff sessions. if he fires him or he resigns, he will be left with rosenstein. rod rosenstein is the deputy attorney general who put in place robert mueller and the mueller investigation, so it doesn't seem to me that that's an advantage to the president if he gets rid of sessions and he finds himself with rod rosenstein effectively as attorney general for the long haul because i don't think that it's going to be easy for president trump to get another attorney general. arthel: let's play some sound from senator lindsay graham on this very topic. >> i hope the relationship gets better. if it doesn't, i would imagine the president is going to look for a new attorney general because what's going on is unsustainable. i'm not blaming anybody. i love jeff sessions, but from my point of view, the country is

not being well served with this much friction. arthel: there's senator lindsay graham. here's a tweet from representative adam schiff saying another crack in our system of checks and balances as prominent g.o.p. senators signal their willingness to replace an attorney general as punishment for refusing to shut down an investigation of the trump campaign and initiate unfounded prosecutions of trump's political rivals. back to you, eric, now that president trump is on record also saying in that interview that the reason he tapped mr. sessions for the job was out of loyalty, so sessions would be loyal to him, the president, not necessarily to the law. so with that in the public sphere, do those who support the potential firing of attorney general sessions face political backlash? >> well, i think one thing you have to remember is that an attorney general has to be confirmed by the senate. the republicans have very narrow

lead in the senate, edge in the senate, and you would not see support for a new attorney general from nominated by the president from say jeff flake if you were looking to get it done in this congress. i think the other issue is we have seen the special counsel's office pursuing the theory, and there's been a lot of debate over this theory and whether it holds any kind of water, whatsoever, that in trying to -- in firing james comey, that president trump was somehow committing obstruction of justice. i think that that theory would be trotted out and then some if the attorney general is fired after he doesn't take instructions that the president very publicly makes to him. arthel: that's what some of the president's advisors are saying, watch out for that, that could

create some dots to connect. the president has the right to fire the attorney general, but the question is should he? as you are saying, special counsel mueller is keeping an eye on this. you have attorney general jeff sessions himself punching back again saying in quote hey listen while i'm the attorney general, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by political consideration. where does this go next week? where does this go in two weeks? >> it all depends on what the president does. i think one of the things that's interesting in what you have just quoted attorney general jeff sessions that you see how it makes it harder for jeff sessions to do a lot of the work that does need to be done at the justice department. we've had a lot of corruption going on at the fbi and the department of justice, but by the mere fact that the president makes these demands of jeff sessions, it makes jeff sessions if he tries to do something about the problems that persist

at the department of justice and the fbi, it makes those appear to be the political bidding of the president, and so the president by making the demands actually makes it harder for him to get what he wants. arthel: so he inadvertently creates a conundrum. >> yes, he creates conundrums for himself all too often, i'm afraid. arthel: i have to leave it there. thanks for joining us this evening. >> thank you very much for having me. rob: the president speaking at the ohio g.o.p. state dinner in columbus, summing up the state of play in the midterms and predicting that the strong economy will help prevent a blue wave in november, h e says. but polls show republicans facing an uphill climb to maintain control of the house. doug luzader has more on that from washington. >> what are the prospects for a red wave in congress come november? that is certainly president trump's hope for the midterm elections. here is his bold prediction from the ohio republican state party

dinner last night. >> we have the strongest economy in the history of our nation, and i hear about a blue wave. i say why is there a blue wave? we are doing better now with jobs. today there are more people working than any time in the history of our country. i don't think there's going to be a blue wave. i hope there's a red wave. >> conventional wisdom says that the party who controls the white house loses seats in midterm elections. democrats would have to flip 23 seats, but they are within striking distance of that and there may be an enthusiasm gap, our recent poll shows that voters who backed hilary clinton are more likely than trump voters to be extremely interested in the 2018 races. >> we're calling the democrats soft favorites, which means that if you have a blue wave, we don't think at the current time it is going to be one of these tsunamis that wins you 40, 50, 60 seats. it looks to us with democrats needing 23, more like they are just over that number right now. maybe it will grow before

november. or maybe it will pop back. but right now they are soft favorites to take over the house by some modest margin. >> the senate is another matter. even though the margin of g.o.p. control is much narrower there, democrats have more seats to defend this year, some in states that president trump carried. it seems more likely that the republicans would retain the majority. rob? rob: doug luzader, thank you. arthel: president trump facing more legal scrutiny as prosecutors grant immunity to a top figure in the trump organization in connection with the criminal case surrounding his former attorney michael cohen. how this could play out in the courts. plus china hitting back after president trump partially blamed the country for a lack of progress on north korea's denuclearization. >> i can tell you and i got along very well with kim jong-un and really good chemistry, but i can tell you, there's been no

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>> i hope they continue to be because eventually i have to say look i have to get going now on trade, but last year china made 507 -- we had a deficit with china, 517 billion dollars, not going to happen anymore. rob: the president earlier this week suggesting that china is helping with the process of north korea's denuclearization and days later the president calling off secretary of state pompeo's trip to north korea suggesting kim jong-un is not making good on his promise to denuclearize and then partially blaming china for the failed efforts. well, now china's firing back calling president trump's criticism, quote, irresponsible. retired lieutenant colonel scott mann served with the u.s. army special forces and is now president of rooftop leadership.

thank you very much for coming on today. >> thanks for having me. rob: of course. i want to start with as far as long shots go, in the president's agenda, this seemed to be maybe the longest shot. this was a very aggressive idea. i think a lot of people had doubts about changing the ways of this regime in north korea. do you think this is even possible? >> it is going to be hard. i agree with you it is a long shot, but i think it is a shot worth taking. i mean, i think most folks on both sides of the political aisle would agree that denuclearization of the korean peninsula is a worthwhile objective and something we should push for regardless of who is in power. i'm not clear right now rob that we have established the long-term goal as eric said in the last subject. i think we need to be a little bit more clear on what the stra teenic goal is -- strategic goal is here. we seem to be working at cross purposes in relation to the china piece. rob: the president was critical of china saying they aren't

helping as much as they should be. why would china have an interest in a denuclearized peninsula in general? it seems like they kind of like north korea there, and they are a friend, why try to weaken them? >> i don't know if it's as much weakening north korea from china's perspective, but i do believe that if you want to denuclearize the korean peninsula, china is an absolute necessity as a third party to provide the leverage that we need. and you know, the way that president trump and the administration had approached this, with, you know, different trade incentives and things like that with china to entice them, to play that role, i think we bailed on that too fast, and then embarked on a trade war, and again, those are conflicting goals because if you marginalize china, this thing certainly has a long shot. rob: that's exactly the point. you can't sit here and punish china for its trade and stealing secrets from this country and all the other things that they do and then at the same time ask them for a favor.

what should the president, the white house do at this point? do they have to pick one or the other? pick either north korea or dealing with china and trade and do it singularly? >> i think there does need to be an alignment of priorities; right, especially when it comes to something like this, from my perspective denuclearizing the peninsula is a higher priority. i think putting that first. are the other objectives with china in relation to trade and things like that worthwhile? absolutely. but in negotiations, you have to be clear on your goal. you want to make sure that your third parties are properly empowered. if we go into a trade war with china, that's not a possible thing to do. rob: north korea, this has been a status quo for this country for a long time, they like to keep themselves a bit isolated, don't like a lot of outside influence, and i think it is mostly because they want to stay in power. i don't understand what kim jong-un would legitimately want to denuclearize for other than to try and, you know, fake us out and say hey we're going to do this and try to get the

assistance they have gotten in the past and not follow through. is there any real reason for kim jong-un wanting to give up those nukes other than the threat of another country? >> we will never know unless we fully step into that process, rob. i do believe there are regional pressures that could be put on him. i do believe that there are incentives that could be in front of him that might, you know, might entice him to go that way. it would be an incremental process. it really is one step forward, three steps back. that's why i'm a litting disappointed too -- that's why i'm a little disappointed too that we're disengaging. it will take time to incentivize the president of the north korea to do that, and he may not, but it is certainly worth the effort at a diplomatic level, because the other options are pretty severe. rob: we look at iran and north korea. in iran we're squeezing hoping

they will bend and eventually break and in north korea we are trying to entice them with a beautiful deal. which way do you think is best? >> i prefer regional parter ins who apply pressure -- partners who apply pressure especially with bad state actors which both of these gentlemen are. i do believe if we have china involved as a responsible third party here, that yeah, you could apply some pressure that would make this a possibility, not a slam-dunk, but certainly a possibility, and i think a possibility worth pursuing. rob: in your perfect world, the white house backs off the sanctions, ends the trade war with china, and says all right, now we've got to team up, if we're going to back off of this, you have got to help us get this peninsula denuclearized, that's what you think? >> i'm saying -- yeah, decide on what your goal is. if the goal is denuclearize of the peninsula, then let's work with china to get that done and let's put the trade war on the shelf for a while to see if a third party can be leveraged. rob: thank you very much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. have a good weekend.

rob: you too. arthel: some of president trump's current and former allies being caught up on federal cases this week. should the president be concerned about this, or is this a distraction in an investigation that has yet to find any russian collusion? our legal panel weighs in. plus pope francis says he shares the outrage over the church sex abuse scandal as the vatican confirms that the pontiff also sat down with some of the victims. those details ahead. >> the pope met with victims and survivors late this afternoon. it was a meeting of an hour and a half, went longer than expected because he had a meeting afterwards. there were three women in the group, and there were also two priests. ♪ (vo) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven?

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rob: nearly half a million expected to attend the pope's mass tomorrow in dublin, ireland. it is happening on the final day of his weekend trip. today pope francis expressing

outrage over the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the catholic church as he met with survivors, but some saying it is not enough. >> this was a moment when he could acknowledge that cover up and the vatican takes responsibility for it. yet he again he completely refused to acknowledge the role of the vatican and its responsibility. a source telling fox news that trump organization cfo was granted immunity to testify in the criminal case surrounding president trump's former attorney michael cohen. now new york times is reporting that the manhattan district attorney's office is considering pursuing state criminal charges against the trump organization in connection with cohen's payment to stormy daniels during the 2016 campaign. his ties to the president go

back decades and legal scholars like alan dershowitz is now saying the focus on the trump organization should concern the white house. >> the real issues could be investigated and are being investigated by the southern district of new york. they are the office that is giving immunity to the executives of the corporations and other people, and so i think any vulnerabilities that the trump organization or the campaign has will be in the southern district of new york and not in mueller's investigation. arthel: let's bring in now our legal panel, defense attorney and former prosecutor and also another defense attorney and former prosecutor. robert, why would federal investigators grant immunity and what info might they be after? >> arthel, federal prosecutors don't just hand out immunity to anybody. they hand out immunity to people who they think have some culpability criminally potentially or have such good

information that they want them to come in and entice them to testify saying no matter what you say in this grand jury, even if you implicate yourself, you won't be prosecuting you. they want to get to the bottom of these payments from mr. trump's -- president trump's attorney mr. cohen with regard to stormy daniels. mr. weisselberg has worked for the trump organization for 40 years. sources have said he is the gatekeeper of every dollar. did bank fraud get committed by him, the trump organization, and who knew about it? that's going to be the question. arthel: what charges might the manhattan district attorney's office bring up? >> well, the manhattan district attorney's office could bring up state charges with regards to the falsified financial records because you have to remember, cohen pled guilty to eight felonies; right, including campaign finance violations in connection to the payments to the two women who he also said was in coordination and at the direction of trump for the

purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential election. now, how does that relate to -- why is that important? how does that relate? weisenberg was in charge of the reimbursements to cohen, and that was in disguising the reimbursements as invoices, and if that is the case, they may have falsified the documents. the state attorney's office could charge them with state charges. it could be felonies for that very purpose and so you also look at what the ag could be trying to charge the trump foundation, separate and apart from the trump organization that their charity was used to bolster or to help the campaign when that's a direct violation of state laws that actually say that foundations can't participate in political activities. so there's a number of charges that weisenberg can actually help with with regards to his testimony down the line for

prosecutors. arthel: bob, how much legal protection does president trump have from the new york attorney general, and how much protection does citizen donald trump have? >> i mean, it's been debated over the last week, whether or not a sitting president can be indicted. obviously the department of justice currently believes that a sitting president cannot. however the statute of limitations could continue past the president's first four years. therefore, if president trump were to lose election and therefore not be the sitting president anymore, could he be indicted upon him leaving office, at the state level or at the federal level should charges be there? with that said, you have to also take into consideration the protection that president trump cannot give mr. weisenberg, if they are charged at the state level, he doesn't have the ability to pardon any of these people and they could be prosecuted at the state level

without any protection. arthel: i was going to go to that. the president tends to distance himself from former confidants. i wanted to talk to you about his strategy there. is it effective? could he do the same thing with family members, bob? >> yeah, i mean, you can try to distance yourself all you want, but at the end of the day, his sons are running the trust. his son-in-law and his daughter were heavily involved in the campaign and his son was involved with certain meetings. so the question becomes he cannot provide them any protection at the state level, so he can distance himself all he wants from them, but at the end of the day, we live in a technological age, and whether it be mueller's investigation, whether it be the southern district's investigation, whether it be the manhattan district attorney's office, or the attorney general, we have text messages, e-mails, things of the like that will -- you can distance yourself all you want, but there's going to be that electronic footprint that ties you back to all of these people. >> what's your analysis? >> trump has a pattern of distancing himself and down playing the roles of former

employees. you know, when the heat gets turned up, and he can't possibly do that, or at least it will be difficult in doing that with his cfo who has worked for him like bob said for 40 years, and who has basically checked every dollar that's come in and come out of the trump organization, to distance himself from a person like that would be difficult like he tried to do with cohen, saying he did very little legal work for him and only saw him a few times here and there in the ten years of knowing him. that's how donald trump operates when the heat is turned up. he can't do that necessarily with this individual, the cfo, but we will see how his cooperation with prosecutors going down the line because i mean he does have immunity so the southern district of new york has a more expansive investigative authority than the mueller probe who is narrowly supposed to look at the russian interference of our 2016 election. arthel: that said in short -- i'm sorry -- are you suggesting the president should be

concerned? yes or no? >> absolutely. absolutely. he should be concerned now especially with the cfo who basically knows where all the financial bodies are like everybody has been saying. he should be concerned. arthel: bob? >> i would agree he should be concerned for someone who has worked for him for 40 years given immunity to speak freely. thanks to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. rob: it looks like tesla is staying a public company after all. what founder elon musk is saying to shareholders, coming up. when my hot water heater failed, she was pregnant, in-laws were coming, a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. we're the baker's and we're usaa members for life. usaa.

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arthel: facial recognition tech knowledge making its debut at a u.s. airport in california, but not everybody's on board as the system raises privacy concerns. claudia cowan explains. >> whether it's going through customs or boarding some international flights, your face is your boarding pass and id. in a pilot program at lax, cameras used biometric facial recognition to match passenger's unique features to government pictures already on file from passports or visas. >> the algorithms are so sophisticated, they are able to determine matches over 99% of the time in our testing. >> most passengers were

impressed. >> it's quick. i just was afraid maybe it wouldn't recognize me, but it did. i'm going to london. >> as far as getting through, i like it. >> so far it seems these e-gates make it easier for people to board and get to their seats and settle in for their long international flight, but some critics argue people may be sacrificing privacy for convenience. >> my concern about this technology will be used beyond its current scope. i worry that facial recognition will migrate from airports all across federal law enforcement, putting the privacy of law-abiding americans at risk. >> but customs and border protection maintains the software is secure and along with facial scans of those who enter the u.s. at customs will generate a biometric record of exit, a border security measure mandated by congress in 2004. arthel: that was claudia cowan reporting. just this week by the way the u.s. customs and border protection agency saying the technology helped them intercept

a man posing as a french citizen in a washington, d.c. airport. rob: tesla not going private after all. the car company's ceo elon musk telling shareholders tesla is better off as a public company. robert gray is following that story from los angeles. >> hey, rob, the electric carmaker ceo keeping analysts and investors on their toes. musk now saying tesla will remain on the public stock exchanges. that reverses his controversial tweet a few weeks ago that he was going to take the company private. just last night, musk writing that he changed his mind after getting feedback from investors, including some large institutions that they said they have rules limiting the amount of money they can invest into a private company. musk releasing a statement reading in part, quote, given the feedback i've received, it's apparent that most of tesla's existing shareholders believe we are better off as a public

company. musk also says he consulted investment firms goldman sachs, morgan stanley and silver lake. the ceo's august 7th tweet said tesla would pay 420 bucks a share to buy out shareholders and take the company private. now that was a 23% premium over the prior day's closing price and would have valued the company at 72 billion dollars. that tweet said musk had secured funding for the deal which would relieve tesla from the short-term pressures of reporting quarterly results. and later, musk said he only expected one third of shareholders to take that deal. the result, tesla's stock roared up 11% the day of the tweet but has since given back all of the gains and below the price when musk first tweeted. the sec is looking into whether musk was trying to manipulate the stock price with the tweet to hurt short sellers. those investors are betting that the stock will fall in order to make their own big gains. and at least two lawsuits have

been filed against the company related to the tweets. meanwhile, the tesla board in a statement saying it has dissolved the committee researching a go private transaction and that it still fully supports elon musk as ceo. rob? rob: robert gray, thank you very much. arthel: president trump lashing out at attorney general jeff sessions as the mueller investigation appears to be stepping up. the latest details ahead on the fox report with jon scott. i just want to find a used car without getting ripped off. start at the new carfax.com show me used trucks with one owner. pretty cool. [laughs] ah... ahem... show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com.

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arthel: well a zoo debuts its new baby jaguars. check it out if you are in front of the television. cuteness. here they are. they were born last month weighing only 2 pounds each. can you imagine? so by the way, if this is not enough cuteness for you, these are not the only new babies at the zoo. they also got two babies that is a relative of the mongoose. there are only 2,000 of those babies in existence. i love it when the baby mama -- the mama cats pick up the babies by the back of their necks like that. rob: do you like cats?

arthel: i love cats. i have two dogs now, but i love cats. that skin is gorgeous, so pretty to look at. rob: awesome animals. arthel: it's been nice to work with you. rob: good to see you. arthel: see you around. rob: that does it for us. jon: president trump fighting back on twitter amid mounting legal pressure in the cohen case and the russia investigation. i'm jon scott. this is the fox report. the president firmly on offense after his former attorney michael cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in federal court amid reports that cohen is willing to testify against the president and tell the special counsel that his long-time boss knew in advance about the infamous trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer. president trump and his allies argue that cohen is anything but a reliable witness. >> this special prosecutor has far more powers than any other prosecutor in the department of