greg: on that note -- thank you for todd, jimmy,ilililililililil war. jesse: welcome to. "watters' world." i'm jesse watters. the president announcing the departure of white house chief of staff john kelly in the coming days. president trump: john kelly will be leaving, i don't know if i can say retiring. he's a great guy. john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. we'll be announcing who will be take john's place. it might be on an interim basis. but john will be leaving at the end of the year. he has been with me almost two years now between the two positions. we'll probably see him for a little while. jesse: mueller's team accusing

former trump campaign chairman paul manafort of lying to prosecutors about several major issues in a heavily redacted new filing and representing subjecting standings prison time for former lawyer michael cohen for alleged payments to two women who claimed they had affairs with the president. ed henry is here to break it down. let's begin with cohen. it looks like most of of it is about cheating the irs of millions of dollars and the payment to the mysteries was d the mistresses was very small and people argue that could be personal expenses that came out of the president's personal bank account. >> the best thing the president has going phone him is the

mainstream media likes top say the walls are falling in, he's finished. largely this was financial crimes we heard about before. lying, shouldn't have happened. the new dimension with cohen was a move 2015 contact with an alleged trusted source in russia. that opened the door. is this collusion? so far there is no evidence it was collusion. it shows contact, communication, maybe some kind of a problem, but no proof of russian collusion. jesse: the allegation was some guy in the hierarchy in russia contacted michael cohen said let's have synergy, maybe i can meet trump at some point. ing in ever materialized. >> the terms of paying off the women. embarrassing, shouldn't have happened. but you can talk about it all

day. number two, think about the john edwards case where this went away. the president will make the argument these were personal funds. he directed a campaign finance violation breaking the law, and his business will be drawn, the trump organization didn't file the paperwork. but at the end of the day, it's not going to be an impeachable offense. jesse: manafort broke the deal he had with the mueller team. they accused him of lying and trying to cover up things. is the president exposed by anything regarding paul manafort? >> they come up and say in this memo that he was lying about some guy named dr. k who this cypress who may have ties to russian intel. jesse: he was doing wire transfers for number his ukrainian business.

>> in august of this year at the man for the trial in the u.k., they say six bombshells in the manafort testimony and mr. k is mentioned. manafort sent a text to an associate and said i want you to have contact with a trump administration official. does that raise questions about why is he talking to the trump administration? we frankly don't know. bottom line, it started with collusion with russia. jesse: john kelly, apparently now he'll be out the door january 1. who is next in line to fill that spot? very tough job. >> absolutely. general kelly was exhausted. wanted to move on. he and the president have not exactly been on speaking terms the last few days.

jesse: trump is going to chew him up. do you think he's tough enough to handle the president? >> he's a shrewd operator. he want to do it, but for a brief amount of time the president is pushing him to sign on for two years to get him through the election. right now it's the art of the deal. jesse: here with more, fox news national security strategist, i pastian gorka. and sara carter. if you look at the cohen situation, you hear in the mainstream media that robert mueller is closing in. he's getting closer and closer to collusion. i looked at the memo. i don't see anything in the memo that says this is a smoking gun. this is mueller sinking his

teeth into collusion. i see a lot of speculation and circumstantial evidence and the word russia thrown in there once or twice. but nothing i can say, he's got him. >> if michael cohen had gone to a russian restaurant and ate borsch they would have put that in there. there is nothing in the memorandum we see on cohen that says there was collusion. what i found interesting, when they talk about the moscow project, a project to build this trump tower in moscow. remember cone was always the kind of guy, and this has been reported in the past that would use his influence because he was so close to trump. he would try to shake people up and get business going. it wouldn't surprise me cohen himself was reaching out trying to get business going.

jesse: he was trying to kick dust around to scrum up some consulting fees. maybe he said the discussion over the trump tower went to january when it went into june. a difference of a few months. i didn't see anything that said to me that we are anywhere closer to where we were a year and a half ago. >> it's a massive nothing burger with russian salad dressing dribbled all over it. think about it. there is not one, one iota of evidence that connects the trump campaign to any russian intelligence operation to undermine the election. not one. in two years and $35 million. robert mueller is a complete and utter failure. he's grasping at trues.

the testimony we have from dr. corsi tells you everything he need to know. these are tax evasion charges. we have tax evasion, right? we have things that have nothing to do with the trump campaign. wire fraud, 1 years ago, then we have process crimes when somebody who has a faulty memory is accused of perjuring themselves. robert mueller has been successful in indicting rugs spies for being spies. jesse: i have seen those guys frog marched into washington, d.c. what happened in the 90s with the clintons started with whitewater and the land deal. years and years and years later it was about lying about sex. in the bush administration when they outed this woman for being a cia agent.

they spent years investigating that. then they sent a guy to prison and he wasn't even the guy who exposed her. it was richard armitage. now we have a thing that starts with collusion and obstruction and all we get are a campaign finance reporting violation and tax evasion on a few guys who don't have anything to do with the campaign? >> i think what we are seeing here is they weren't prepared in any of these cases. they were in search of a crime. they didn't have a crime in their hand so they went out look for it. we have seen more and more information surfacing on hillary clinton's campaign, on how the fbi and the doj handled this investigation. very agree was violations, possible malfeasance. jesse: why hasn't robert mueller gone after some of the egregious

violations on the other side. the people in the obama administration that leaked an unmasked the flynn russian ambassador phone call or the hillary clinton dossier purchase or fisa abuse. why isn't he if he's supposed to be looking into any crimes that arise from russian interference. aren't those crimes that arise from the investigation into russian interference? >> why are 13 members of robert mueller's team democrat donors? this is a man -- you have to know one thing about this person. he shouldn't be investigating donald trump because of his own conflict of interest. the day before he was made special counsel by rod rosenstein, the day before web interviewed with donald trump to get back his old job as director of the fbi. donald trump said no i need new blood, sorry, but no thanks.

how do you get to investigate the man who you crashed and burned in front of on your last job interview? how is that not a conflict of interest? >> it is. and i think there is a two-tiered system of justice. it's not necessarily about the fact they are investigating trump. though now we have the evidence that the dossier we have been reporting for years has been unverified. christopher teal was using russians to gain intelligence. it was paid for by hillary clinton and the clinton campaign. now that we have mounting evidence, the fact that they are not doing anything is stunning. the american people are frustrated and angry over $30 million spent on this investigation, and there is nothing to show for it. but taking down bad apples to lie to congress. but how many people have lied to

congress? >> i think after all this, i looked at this. i am now -- i'm going to tell the american people, i am going to withdraw any pursuit of higher office. i will never run for congress, senate quab the presidency. because once i get elected they will have a special counsel and they will catch me in a lie, any lie, because they will find a crime if they want to find a crime. that's the truth. once you have to special counsel. it's radioactive and anything he touches going down in flames. >> robert mueller is following an old principle from the soviet union. show me the man and i'll show you the crime. it's un-american. jesse: yesterday james comey testified on capitol hill behind closed doors. today we are finding out more

about what was said. white house senior producer chad pergram joins me for more. what were some of the highlights of that interview. >> one of the first things we learned from james comey is he stood behind the fisa application for carter page. i'm going to go through some of the highlights, the first blush we have seen here. he was asked a question about whether it was was improper for jeff sessions to recuse himself. he said it was own obvious case for recusal. trey gowdy asked who at the fbi has the authority to launch an investigation into a major campaign. would it require approval by you? comb any said i don't know if i ever was in a circumstance in a

campaign. who would have won those elections. he applauded the mueller probe. he said this was an all-star team of prosecutor and attorneys. he said i would bet my life bob mueller would do things the right way. this was only the first round of this. he was up there for 6 1/2 hours. he's coming back on the 17th. we expect. > -- we expect another round of. jesse: when he was asked do you know who paid for the steele memo? did you know it was financed by the democrats? he seems so wishy washy, saying i don't really know, i am not so

sure who chris steele is. he seems blase' that this was a politically motivated democrat investigation and smear job with a bunch of unverified claims he used to get a fisa warrant. when catherine herridge asked him about that did you have faith in the veracity of the dossier? he said i have faith in the process. chad, i have got to run, but good job out there. barbra streisand's biggest nightmare comes true on. "watters' world."

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melania trump's texts and decorations. accusing her of powwowing with russia over her use of red christmas trees. i spoke to jerry falwell on the war on christmas. this is like the trump derangement syndrome meets the war on christmas. the left is calling them bloody, spooky. they called the hallway the murder forest. >> the first lady was here at liberty university and she was asked about the decoration. she says it's the 21st century, everybody has different tastes. the arena was full and everybody cheered for her.

if she were mayor dwroid a democratic president, she would be on the cover of every glamour decoration. jesse: i have a not common with melan yap. we are stylish people and we take fashion risks. it's a burden we bear because people haven't caught up to us. they don't understand red is the new black for christmas. >> i have a feeling if you decorated the white house it wouldn't be as pretty as what she has done. jesse: i think you are right. i would put a bunch of punch bowls and fill them to the brim. in massachusetts there was an invitation to a christmas party. i'm dreaming of a white dorchester.

they got heat from all these left wingers at the town that said that's racist. we are dreaming of a white dorchester. >> anybody with common sense knows it's a takeoff on white christmas. the left always uses art as an excuse to put on display the most of vile and disgusting type of displays in different museums. but it's okay because it's art. why can't rudolf the red nose reindeer and white christmas the song art. another double standard from the left. i think people are getting tired of it. people see through it. just when we thought that they had run out of classes of people to name as victims, they come up with rudolf the red nose

reindeer the latest victim attack. jesse: the "huffington post" says rudolf exhibits racism and homophobia and called santa claus abusive and said it promotes bullying. from my recollection of rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, the point was that the people who were bullying rudolf were bad and he overcame the bullying to be the hero. >> it's the underdog making it to the top. jesse: i think the war on christmas is over. i think the people on that side lost. and they are just a bunch of deanders running around. this is a controversial story. i understand the controversy. there is a town in new jersey flips one house that puts up all these lights, very festive.

very in the spirit of christmas. neighbors and the mayor are complaining and they say there are too many christmas lights, it's a distraction and causing foot traffic and they want this house to pay all the security money because it's too crazy. do you understand the outrage or do people have a point? >> i don't think people should worry about what other people do on their property. i don't like zoning laws. we spent over a billion dollars on campus and we had to fight the city on so many zoning matters. i just think it's un-american. i think we have gotten to the place where we let people who don't own interest in property tell was we dock with our property, and we are the ones who pay for it. >> i'm surprised they are not complaining christmas lights promote global warming.

that's where i would have assumed they would have complained. >> it reminded me of clark griswold's house in the movie christmas vacation. i wonder if he got grief for that one. jesse: thanks very much. i appreciate. and merry christmas. up next. duck dynasty star, willy robertson is here. the shooting.

now back to. "watters' world." president trump: i'm extremely happy with the your country. the economy and the employment numbers are the best we have had had. the most of people who have ever worked in the united states by far. jesse: a recent gallup poll found 53% of americans approve of mr. trump's handling of the economy. that's 8% higher than the average for any administration since reagan. one man benefiting from the boom, reality tv star and author of the new book, american

entrepreneur, willy robertson. he joins me now. i didn't know this about you. i thought you were just handed this duck dynasty franchise and you rode it out. but you were a hard working young scrappy entrepreneur, the young man making some change on the side. >> i made more than change. i started out in worm farming and had a booming business. so i had a good worm farm. but it was just a lot of the labor intensive work. checkout was a nightmare. trying to call 250 worms. you can make a anyone apiece. it was tough work. but a guy handed my dad a box of hubbabubba bubble gum. it ended up in my hands.

i decided to sell it for 50 cents a piece. made my first little money. selling and dealing. i was making hundreds of dollars. and the principal called me in and said concession stand sales were down an had to shut me down. i should have cut him in on the deal. if i had had some real insight i would have cut him in on the deal. but we grew up with not a lot of the money. we were -- he was a commercial fisherman. we did fish and ate a lot of fish. i was always trying to make extra money. that's why i ended up the ceo of the business. remember all the candy stuff i did. he agreed, and here we are. jesse: have you noticed the business climate in your neck of

the woods? have small businesses taken off to the extents we are hearing about across the country? >> i think the country in my opinion has a great sense of the economy, there is money to be made. our business certainly has been great. and it looks like, you know, the consumer confidence is up. i think the president is online. that's one of the reasons i thought he would be a good president was because of the business background. i thought we need somebody with business background the white house. jesse: the president gives himself shy grades. listen to how he assessed himself. >> i think we are doing a great job. we have the best economy we have ever had. i hate to do it, but i will do it. i will give myself an a plus. is that enough? can i go higher than that? jesse: can he? >> i don't think so.

that's me in school but in the reverse. there is anything lower? he feels good about the job he's done. jesse: very confident. i think it helps when you have a former businessman in the white house because he's cheerleading this economy. you jawbone this and you look at the stock market and job creation. even wages are up to the highest clip they have been in a decade. that megaphone from the white house juices the raw sentiment out there. >> we go through in the book, going back to when our country first started. a lot of people may not know this. our government kept running out of money. they would go to entrepreneurs to help bail them out. jesse: maybe we could have big philanthropists build the wall? >> they went to entrepreneurs.

so as long as our economy is strong, the opportunity in this country still is awesome to run businesses, start businesses. i think people can start a business in this country and still make money. jesse: you talk about rockefeller. richest man in u.s. history. you write in today's dollars he would be worth how many hundreds of billions much dollars? >> it's astronomical how much money he was able to wrap his head around -- hands around. and he heard this motto when he was little in church. the pastor said you should make as much money as you can and try to give away as much money as you can. that changed his whole life. he said i'm going to go make as much money as i can. he did. early in his life his goal was to make $100,000 in his life and

live to be 100. then he tried to give as much as he could away. at the end of this life he tried to gift away, and he said it almost gave him a nervous breakdown trying to figure out which charities to give money. jesse: i wish i had that problem trying to figure ways to give my money away. >> maybe you will. jesse: thank you very much. appreciate it. we'll be right back.

jesse: a massachusetts church receiving massive backlash over a controversial nativiti' scene which included placing the baby

jesus in a cage. here with their thoughts, diamond and silk. i guess they are trying to make a point about donald trump separated families. he put kids in cages. what are you guys supposed to say about that? obama put baby jesus in a cage first? >> i think the church should be focusing on planned parenthood. i think they should be focused on the hate from the democrat kick part crane democrats that hate this sitting president. that's what they should be focused on instead of putting baby jesus in a cage. what president trump did was follow the law. >> it's sad i see these churches want to go make a mockery of

people's faith and traditions. jesse: you know what would be sad is if wisemen came over and sprung baby jesus out of jail. i am not encouraging that. but i can see people giving the baby jesus a jailbreak. i wouldn't encourage that, but it wouldn't surprise me fit happens. al sharpton, i should call him the reverend. i sold his lived story rights for a half million dollars to his own charity. >> he sold it to himself. he eventually wrote himself a half million dollars from his own charity. on the back end if someone buys these rights, it enriches the charity which will probably pay him some more. >> isn't that misappropriation of funds?

he's giving himself a kickback. how about he pay some of that to the irs. jesse: he does owe a lot of back taxes to the irs. maybe the check is in the mail. the people that watch these non-profit experts and the charity people. they are saying this is kind of break an irs rules, and this is going to be a lot of potential for funny business. but sharpton has always been in the funny business game. kevin hart was supposed to host the oscars. he's no longer hosting the oscars. many, many, many years ago he sent out a tweet saying this. if my son come home and try to play with my daughter's doll house, i am going to break it over his head and say in my

voice stop, that's gay. they dug up a bunch of old tweets, now he's band from hosting. >> why is the oscar trying to make kevin hart apologize. they never knead jimmy kimmel apologize for what he was doing. they have him on videotape telling women to do things to his body parts. but they want to make kevin hart apologize. when do people have time to redeem themselves. a tweet from 10 years ago? you know everybody has evolved on that issue. give me a break. leave kevin hart alone. i don't agree with kevin hart politically, but i don't believe the oscars should make him apologize. jesse: jimmy kimmel did a skit

in black face. joy reid said some things in the fast anti-gay. >> kevin never really apologized because he didn't think he needed to. he said stop looking for reasons to be negative. stop searching for reasons to be angry. i am a happy person. i have got love for everybody. you grow, you learn. you mature. let's put an end to this. >> welcome to the world of political correctness. the left do it to the right all the time. now the left is eating its own. >> and he disparages the president. he's your president, too, kevin hart. jesse: up next a pro trump couple responds to barbra

streisand which says men just tell their wives who to vote for. the real story up next.

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jesse: if you are a woman who voted for donald trump, it turns out you are too stupid to make your own decisions. that's according to barbra streisand. she says i love my country and it's difficult to see women being assaulted. a lot of women vote the way their husbands vote. they don't believe enough in their own thoughts. and hillary was too intimidating. the turners both support donald trump and voted for him. they join me now. holly and chris. did your husband tell to you vote for donald trump? >> absolutely not, jesse. i don't let me husband tell me what type of cream tore put in my coffee. is that the stupidest thing

barbara stricken and has ever said? do we know any woman who said she voted for the person who husband told her to vote for? jesse: she is stump in the 1960s, but probably even farther back than that. i don't think in this day and age we have beyonce and hillary, the me too movement, that a husband can tell any waive who to vote for. i know so many husbands that are wimps themselves. they dosing their wives -- they do everything their wives tell them to do. did your wife tell how to vote for? >> whenever i hear comments like this i always cringe. i know there will be a conversation with this one by

the. in our case, i remember back to july of 2015, right? over a year before the presidential elect and she was hard selling me on trump. not the other way around. jesse: she was selling you on trump. >> hard-core. jesse: it was the exact opposite. did your wife convince you to vote for donald trump? >> she was shaming me. i went into docile mode. it was july. i was supporting -- earning money and putting food on the table at the time and she was telling me not only was i going to be supporting donald trump, but he was going to win the primary definitively and beat hillary clinton. jesse: you called it from way, way early. barb said it exactly the

opposite in your marriage. totally and completely opposite of what her instincts told her. when you hear something like that from barbra streisand about men telling their wives who to vote for and the women not being strong or independent minded enough to make their own decisions, how does that make you feel as a woman? >> i am about facts. barbara is the one focusing on her feeling. 90% of women make the financial decisions for their household. that's why they voted for donald trump. it's estimated they are going to be the majority of primary income earners in the future. when is the last time barbra streisand went to the store and saw what a gallon of milk costs. women know what they need for their families. and they knew president trump was going to deliver for them. that's why they voted the way

they did. it's not about emotions for us. it's about taking care of our families and doing what is right for the future of our country. jesse: thanks guys have much. >> thank you, merry christmas. jesse: up next, "last call." i'm alex trebek here to tell you about the colonial penn program. if you're age 50-85

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jesse: type for "last call." paying tribute to a friend of mine who was diagnosed with als and is fighting for his life. he was honored at the miami basketball game this week for his life's work, helping 200 young men obtain college degrees and raising awareness for the

non-profit he founded. >> we talk about gratitude. it's one of our core values. this is a special night to be grateful. those stricken by this horrific disease. dr. mike and what he's done for everybody in basketball, that's our job tonight. our job tonight is to play our hearts out. play in honor of those stricken with this horrific disease and particularly dr. mike. >> a warm round of apraws. jesse: beautiful. thank you very much, mike. you are a true hero. that's all for us tonight, be sure to follow me on facebook, instagram and twitter. "justice with judge jeanine" is next. remember i'm watters and this is my world.

[♪] judge jeanine: new questions after transcripts of james comey's testimony are released to the public. we are following several major developing stories tonight. the release of the comey transcript. the latest details in the mueller investigation, and president trump's announcement his chief of staff john kelly is leaving the white house. we have a stellar guest lineup standing by to tackle all the breaking news with congressman jim jordan, congressman darrell