♪ drink beer everyone ♪ let's go beer drinking beer drinking all night beer drinking ♪ ♪ we will have lots of fun drinking beer with everyone ♪ he said, he said, but why the heck are we only hearing about what just one person said? a flood of calls from the left right now to investigate what president trump may have said in private phone calls with the ukrainian leader, but not one that i can think of to investigate what the guy who wants to be president very publicly said and did when he was vice president concerning the ukrainian government. so today we thought we would do something. compare the calls and then allow you to make the call. for a fair and balanced look into both allegations, both controversies. happy saturday.

i'm neil cavuto. this is cavuto live. let's begin with mark meredith in washington with a tale of two stories not exactly getting equal coverage. >> president trump is denying any wrongdoing after reports surfaced yesterday that the president pressured ukraine's leader to investigate joe biden and his son who once served on a board of directors in a natural gas company in the region. the president was asked about his recent conversations with ukraine. he didn't confirm or deny that he spoke about biden his potential 2020 rival. >> i've had conversations with many leaders, always appropriate. i think scott can tell you that. always appropriate. at the highest level, always appropriate. it's just another political hack job. that's all it is. >> the president this morning says the focus should be on biden, not him. the president had a lengthy tweet this morning in which he said quote the fake news media and their partner the democrat party want to stay as far away

as possible from the joe biden demand that the ukrainian government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son or won't get a large amount of u.s. money so they fabricated a story about me and perfectly fine and routine conversation i had with the new president of ukraine. biden spoke about his past run-ins with ukraine who denied any wrongdoing even though the president himself has highlighted clips of biden's past remarks on the issue. >> not one single credible outlet has given any credibility to his assertion, not one single one. i'm telling you you are not getting a billion. i'm going to be leaving here. i think it was what six hours. i said i'm leaving in six hours. the prosecutor is not fired. you are not getting the money. -- got fired. >> democrats are demanding the president tried to get more dirt on biden from ukraine. lawmakers say they also want to know more about a national security whistle-blower who raised concerns about

presidential conversations. democrats have been demanding to see the person's complaint, neil. but so far that has not happened. neil? neil: thank you very very much. mark meredith on all of that. there's a lot of questions being raised on both fronts here. but we're not exactly hearing reporting on much of both incidents what to make of that with new york city councilman, democratic strategist and a host of sincerely kat on fox nation. the concern that a lot of republicans have had is that what's good for the goose doesn't necessarily apply well to the gander. whatever that means. but there is a valid point here about it's questionable the president of the united states to urge a leader of another country to look into a guy who wants to be a leader of this country and i get that, and the concern to get to the bottom of that but no concern about when a guy wants to be a leader of this country was doing when he was the second highest elected official in this country in ukraine. >> that's why i don't understand the media's coverage of this.

joe biden was actually the vice president. if you listen to his own words, which you just had on the screen, he admits essentially to a quid pro quo involving u.s. taxpayer dollars, a billion dollars of it in response to the ukrainian's firing a prosecutor -- fire a prosecutor that was investigating a company which his son had a financial interest. neil: just to be clear, this prosecutor at the time was looking a lot at things and there was concern about government corruption. this made it seem -- or the trump folks are trying to say this made it seem like a quid pro quo deal to ease the pressure on his son, who was a board member of one of these gas companies being -- >> sure. again you heard the vice president's words. i think the democrats are really risking one of those coyote moments where they think they have the president and more information about biden may come out and more information about the scandal they reported back in 2017 about the ukrainians potentially helping clinton during the 16 election. there is a lot of land mines for

the democrats to fall on. neil: i'm trying hard not to play the politics game with this, jessica. there are a fair number of questions being raised on both cases and both should be examined. what i do notice in the coverage is that it is not >> that's because the joe biden story has actually already been covered. so the story was a "new york times" piece and ken vogel is riding on his piece which has been thoroughly debunked. hunter biden was the board of natural gas company, ukrainian natural gas company. neil: why was he on the board? any energy experience? >> no, i believe and it was john kerry's son had a consulting company or a hedge fund. neil: no background in energy and his father is the vice president. >> that's not what i'm here to debate. neil: go ahead. >> i'm to put out the time line of this. the prosecutor, the corrupt one, if you talk to any anti-corruption activist in the country, they will say that he

was a tremendous and that's what biden was talking about when he said he needed to be fired. neil: he was investigating among other things all energy countries with the contract. >> the investigation into the company that biden was on the board of closed in 2015. joe biden arrived in ukraine to put that threat in there in 2016. neil: i believe he was looking at 11 company contracts. present or past at the time. >> that is not the reporting -- neil: i'm not here to exonerate or blame anyone, jessica. i'm just saying you are doing a time line to vindicate the vice president at the time and no connection or curiosity between one of them and another. >> but the f the investigation -- -- but if the investigation -- neil: people are taking the leap with president trump that he is. >> the president is alleging which he absolutely is and rudy giuliani whatever kind of language he was using with cuomo the other evening that president

biden was doing this to bail out his son. it does matter that the prosecutor was not looking into the company that hunter biden was on the board of. this is alleging that joe biden did this to bail out his son. >> i just think that in general the way this is all being reported on is wrong and it's not the way that i look at things. i'm concerned about all of this, no matter what side you're on. i think that people should be better at looking at instances as americans, rather than as members of a political party. neil: i have taken the time to look into both controversies and the time line. i'm more up on these energy contracts than you might think. and i think there's fair fodder there to look into the timing, you can say the investigation of the prosecutor was done, but the follow up investigation involved almost a dozen other ukrainian energy concerns one of which had, you know, joe biden's son on the board. now i'm not saying there's a quid pro quo or that he would do

anything nefarious, just as i'm not going to leap to conclusions on these allegations about the president. what i will ask you, kat, this issue involving the president raises serious concerns that he was using once again a foreign power to potentially influence another election. and i'm looking at only that for the time being to say right now in this environment that doesn't look good for the president. >> absolutely not. i completely agree with that. i want to know more about this situation, but the reason i want to know more about it is because i want to know more about all the situations. i don't trust anyone in the government, regardless of political party. neil: i trust joe. >> i was going to say except for bill de blasio. a real shame to see him out, i thought he was going to take it all the way.

neil: more time to take care of new york. >> or to mess things up. the more transparency we have, regardless of party, the better decisions we can make as voters. it is not a good look. do i think it is going to take him down? no. i also think that the democrats' motivations for wanting to know more about this are not the same as mine. i think their motivations are they want to take trump out. neil: this is where the politics coming in and trying hard not to do that and i credit jessica with trying to be very careful about one thing or the other. joe, the one thing i will raise, if you are the white house, and you just survived this mueller report or hope you have, and they are doing this kind of stuff, maybe perfectly valid reasons like hey, the media is covering up this story involving joe biden, and you are upset, i get it; right? but you don't do this. i know in giuliani this interview on cnn argued it is perfectly fine and legal. >> it was a shamed to see rudy

giuliani to be trashed and by quoting biden's own words. neil: he said it was perfectly fine for the president to do this and he didn't believe the president did it, i don't know the law part of it but the smell test -- >> we often have to translate some of the president's tweets. neil: i was having trouble enough translating giuliani on this. >> he said that the government should investigate corruption of joe biden's son. this does involve the high level -- the highest really the vice president level of u.s. government involvement with ukraine, a quid pro quo, and if you take just that on its face, why wouldn't the president be concerned about a corruption? neil: a guy that could be the opponent. what was going on in the ukraine at the time, other western governments were looking into ukraine and how corrupt it was.

along came the election with this guy, who is now running ukraine, the same guy this president called to argue for this. >> i'm saying there might be a perfectly good reason for investigating corruption. neil: if he made the call, would that bother you? i mean that call -- >> no, if the motive was to find out why joe biden in his own words was using taxpayer dollars to leverage a prosecutor's firing in ukraine, i think that is a valid claim to ask the new president of ukraine who vowed to eliminate this type of corruption. >> there are a couple of issues that are important here. there are hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to a democratic ally in the region that was held up because of this. according to "wall street journal" reporting, president trump not just asked once, allegedly eight times and it was so serious when it was going on the potential crimes being extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy to violate federal election law, a whistle-blower someone who is now risking their career when

you listen to graham who said we know who it is we are going after them. he thought it was so serious that he had to blow the whistle on this, something that people don't want to do that. they know their careers end after this. >> only an allegation at this point. neil: you are looking at the dollar amount here. the 250 million dollars at the time with biden -- >> no, i'm talking about the aid that got held up. neil: i know what you are saying. we were threatening a billion dollars on that case. i'm not comparing a billion, 250 million, i'm just saying pursue both. look into both. >> but the biden claim has been looked into, and that's what biden was saying on the trail yesterday. neil: i love you dearly. you are wrong. it's not been thoroughly looked or vetted. and the investigation never got finished because obviously the guy left. so all of that stopped. a new government came in. a new guy with no experience at all, a great actor i'm told, really good, a man of the people, and i just want to be very very clear, that was never resolved because the guy who was

maybe a nefarious character, he's gone now and everything that followed ended. >> so the issue not just the prosecutor, for you, that's not what i'm hearing from president trump -- neil: corruption is corruption. if people are trying -- >> it is alleged that joe biden let his son off. neil: if we want to investigate the president and what he meant and implied and was arm-twisting over the course of several phone calls, with the leader of ukraine, aren't we at least as obligated to investigate the incident that has got him all fired up? >> i think democrats should want to do that because if you only investigate the one, then trump's obviously going to spin it as more bullying. this is another witch hunt, etc., etc. and that really fires up people on, you know, on trump's base and also people are going to start to tune it out, if it's all just trump focus this, trump focus that. neil: but do republicans risk being kind of hypocritical on

this inspector general front, yes, let's hear the guy, who has something to say about how the mueller investigation started and maybe the false pretenses on which it started but not something that could be damaging to this president, about trying to arm twist influence in ukraine. >> yes. i think both sides are doing it which is why it's so frustrating. neil: i want both issues to be covered. i want both issued to be covered. the president by the way has been commenting on this entire issue. do we still have that? now that the democrats and the fake news media have gone bust on every other of their witch hunt schemes they are trying to start one just as ridiculous as the others. call it the ukraine witch hunt while at the same time trying to protect sleepy joe biden will fail again. mr. president, there's a lot here that has to be answered for and a lot here that has to be clarified and a lot of information you have to allow the inspector general in this case to get out and this fellow who has sort of drawn attention

to it to speak. that's on you, and it will vindicate you if it's everything you say it is. fair and balanced. both sides. after this. our 18-year-old was in an accident. when i called usaa, it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family and we plan to be with usaa for life. see how much you can save with usaa insurance. thand find inspiration who win new places.ct... see how much you can save leading them to discover: we're woven together by the moments we share. everything you need, all in one place. expedia.

neil: lots of news to raise with my next guest, including and we will get to it, our commitment to send more troops to the middle east and get ready for some response to iran and the attack last week on saudi oil facilities, including a crackdown and freezing of funds in and out of iran through a crackdown on its central bank. but i do want to get into these issues that have been raised about what the president knew and what he was arm-twisting or reportedly arm twisting the ukrainian lead tore do and exactly -- leader to do and exactly when and with the charges the president had about joe biden and what he was doing trying to influence again the view from the right, the ukrainian government to sort of ease up on an investigation into natural gas concerns including a

company that had his son on its board. so a lot to get into. democrat senate foreign relations committee member, ben cardin. good to have you here. i want to address this first issue. the president has been tweeting about it that it is a witch hunt again and that the media really -- and by a greater extent the democrats are not really looking into the other side of this, the joe biden side. what do you think? >> well, neil, good morning, it is good to be with you. i was listening to the prior segment, and i can tell you that we just need to have the information. right now it appears that the president tried to influence the president of ukraine by threatening to cut off u.s. support. that's very serious allegation. so we have to find out the facts concerning that. we don't want to prejudge it, but we have to have transparency. the whistle-blower information needs to be made available to congress, needs to be made available so we can judge the

credibility of these allegations, and certainly we would love to hear from the president. giuliani sort of underscores this by saying it is true. so we have information here that needs to be followed. i was listening to your debate in regards to the issues going back to 2015. ukraine at that time had serious corruption problems. there's no question about that. the prosecutor had serious corruption problems. so the credibility at that time is very much in question. but i agree, transparency is important. neil: do you worry, though, that we we are not getting that side? you're right there might be nothing to it just as the trump folks said there's nothing to this, nothing untorrid or salacious but we were holding up a billion dollars for ukraine at the time in the obama biden administration. now, to be fair, many western powers were thinking about shelving any more financial support for ukraine until and unless they crack down on the corruption that was rampant in the country, including the run

away corruption within their energy companies and their clois ties to the government -- their close ties to the government. it was convenient at the time when the guy we were fingering to leave did because among his other duties was that relationship with the companies one of which had joe biden's son on its board. isn't it fair to get the light out on both? >> you are absolutely right that congress was conditioning some of the aid to ukraine based upon progress being made fighting corruption. corruption's been a serious problem within ukraine and has very little to do with the russian interference. it is a problem of governance within its own country and was probably the leading reason for the change in government during the last election. so yes, i think we need to have transparency. i'm not opposed to transparency as to what happened under the previous government. neil: all right. real quickly, committing more troops to the region, in light of the whole saudi arabia iran dust-up, what do you think? >> well, neil, next week is

going to be a critical week with the opening of the united nations general assembly, all the world leaders being in new york, opportunity for america to get more support for our position in regards to iran. neil: okay. >> the key here is to isolate iran, not isolate america. we need to support of our traditional allies in regards to iran's support of terrorism. they are clearly engaged in this battle against saudi arabia. we need to deal with that. neil: thanks for juggling everything, senator. i apologize for jumping on you there. senator cardin, we will have a lot more on this. what we now hope to force iran to do, after this. you've had quite the career.

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neil: all right. the u.s. military is preparing air and missile defense teams to head to the middle east. we don't know the numbers. we know this follows on the heels of the administration going after iran's central bank to cut the flow of funds in and out of the country. retired delta force commander general jerry boykin with us right now. general, good to have you. we don't know a number yet on how many, you know, men and women we're sending there. do you? >> no, i have no idea how many it's going to be. i'm sure that as has been reported they will be primarily focused on missile defense and being able to stop a future attack of a low-flying drone or missile. neil: now, they are going to be there to stop such attacks, what happened in this one a week ago

that either we weren't prepared, the saudis clearly weren't prepared but it raised a lot of security questions certainly for the kingdom, didn't it? >> it did. you know, 65 billion dollars they spent in 2018 on their own defense, and -- well i think what happened though technologically i think these things came in so low that they were not picked up on the radar. the radars were set certainly for, you know, a higher flying aircraft or missile and these came in below the radar, so to speak, and were very successful. in fact, probably all but one actually hit their targets. neil: you know what's interesting, general, i know you and i have gotten into it, it's changed people's views of the rest of the region right? we're thinking about soldiers storming the kingdom or causing all hell along the israeli border when in fact it could be a manless drone and do a significant amount of damage. has it changed the equation? >> well, sure, and this is --

you mentioned the israelis. this is certainly something the israelis ought to be very concerned about. they have probably gone further than anybody with this iron dome capability which will pick these kinds of threats up, but the rest of the world, quite frankly, is not where the israelis are, so we see right now that we just cut off 5% of the world's total oil production in hitting these targets there in saudi arabia. think about that. what if you did that in a series of places? and i think that honestly could be one of the motivations for the iranians to do this is to reduce production and increase cost in an effort to put our allies in a position to really pressure president trump to give some relief on these sanctions. neil: you know, general, you mentioned the oil and what happened, skyrockets in response to this, just doing iran's

bidding in treating it that way, so i'm wondering in a proportionate response when it comes to iran for this, the president is obviously cognizant if oil is affected on the world markets, oil prices go up, ourselves included even though we have a great deal of energy independence now, in peril, maybe the oil wouldn't be the proportionate response, but what would be? >> we're seeing in a proportionate response in that he's ratcheted up the pressure of the sanctions, now, the question is, what do you do next? i mean what's proportionate next? i think at the very top end sanctions, i don't think there's much more we can do to them in terms of sanctions. we don't know what the president knows. we don't know what his intelligence community may be telling him. they may be telling him that the iranian people have turned

against their government and a military strike in fact would unite them around the mullahs of the supreme council, that's not what we want, so i think the president is handling this well. i'm an old soldier. i would like to see us, you know, make a parking lot out of some of their facilities there. but that said, i know that's not the right answer. i think the president is probably getting a different kind of counsel from his intelligence community, and right now, at this point, i think what he's doing is about right. neil: all right, general, always a pleasure. always learn a good deal, sir. thank you very much. >> good to be with you. neil: all right. i do want to take your attention to something going on in hong kong right now. stop if you have heard this before, but there are more protests on this, just coming into our newsroom right now, where protesters were told to sort of break up, disappear, and they are not. their new target seems to be subway stations, postal offices or the equivalent of in hong kong and store fronts. they've been told to break it up. they're not breaking up. we're following it.

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neil: you might have heard a thing or two this week about the new iphone. it is apparently out so are a lot of the apple faithful getting their hands on this one. if you think about it, you are spending a thousand bucks, so it must say something about this economy. we're going to get into that. first to fox business network susan lee at apple store, now

the world's largest officially on what's happening. susan? >> crossing a trillion dollars in market cap yesterday, apple back across that level after a launch of its new iphone 11 devices, but here in new york, we also had a different type of excitement as well, the iconic glass cube reopening on 5th avenue to a lot of excitement. there were line ups across the entire plaza yesterday. yes, we the eager fans. -- with the eager fans that were looking to get their hands on the iphone 11 but also to get a sneak peek inside. it's been closed since january of 2017. apple tells us they needed that time to make the space twice as large, having to sink the floor by 7 feet and they say more people visit this store than the statue of liberty every year. that's 57 million visitors since 2007. so for this special occasion, we had ceo tim cook in attendance, along with the head of apple retail. she's a big deal, deirdre

o'brien opening the doors yesterday and also high fiving a lot of the fans that were the first ones to get their hands on the new devices. it is not just here in new york that you had fans lining up across, across asia and across europe as well, those who wanted to upgrade to the new phone. yes, they were lining up outside. also some excitement in china. china is a wildcard of course to apple's business since we have seen a slowdown in iphone sales there where they are losing to competition of cheaper local smart phone makers. neil? neil: susan, stay right there. i want to include you in the mix here. we have the noted cpa market analyst, best-selling author, also retail watcher extraordinaire, what's happening right now, momentarily we just showed the central bank chiefs with the president of the united states, we are going to get into that because they are cutting rates presumably because of a slowing economy. i'm looking at this. looks like we're doing okay, people forking that kind of money for a phone. >> especially for apple, when it

comes to their consumer, they know that the consumer does not care if they hike the price on any sort of apple products, specifically with the iphone. and i get these alerts all the time. i mean, we're not just talking from apple, and i have to caveat this by saying i do own apple shares, however, but i covered the stock, and, you know, we're talking about news outlets reviewing the phone saying the apple 11 is one of the best phones out there. that's only going to make it more appealing to that customer. no wonder they are out there around the corner trying to get their hands on it, and also the new store is being unveiled. neil: there is a lot of great stuff out there. i mean, you could look at it too and just get a sense dan that lots of people love lots of things but they don't buy the things if they are worried about how things are looking for them; right? so i'd like to ask what is it saying about our economy when people have no problem forking out that kind of money? >> i think it is very clear, neil, that our economy is extremely strong right now, in

spite of what we hear here and there about a recession is coming. you know what? a recession is coming, but i don't think it is any time soon. look, consumer confidence is very high right now. that's number one. and number two, unemployment is really low. so people are working. they have money, and they're spending it. and apple has a very loyal following. clearly, i wasn't in line yesterday. i don't know if you were, but i -- neil: i just asked, and she said i know people. >> during the recession of 2008 and 2011, the iphone sales were still skyrocketing. neil: you are not making a greater read, in addition to a reflection of the economy. >> no, i'm not, this is one thing consumers will still spend. i do think the economy is strong. when i do an apples to apples comparison -- neil: i see what you are doing there. [laughter] neil: when you were talking

about the crowd there and the company officials and all, their view is that if you build something appealing, they will buy it. and they built a bigger store to accommodate it, obviously. but the technology will weather whatever is coming the consumer's way because people of all types will still like the gadgets and still like the stuff that's cool. they might compromise on other things but not those. what do you think? >> yeah, that's right. field of dreams, you build it, they will come. that's what apple is hoping for, since they put a lot of money into this flagship store. also the new iphone 11 is a big upgrade in technology. we heard that from the executives yesterday because it is considered the best camera system on the market on any smart phone. also longer battery life, and yes, there's a lot of competition. but don't forget, apple is also getting you addicted to the ecosystem as well, not just the phone. we're talking about the music, the tunes and also the streaming service that they are launching as well. there is a lot of pent up demand since we know there are 200 million of these iphone 6s and older. so look if you have lower interest rates, if you feel secure in your job, i think

people are willing to go out and spend. neil: i think there's something to that. let's get a sense of the economy, guys, and we were talking -- we're going to get into this more a little later in the show. the federal reserve just cut rates this past week, which seems odd, in the face of a good economy; right? and the president was not satisfied with that cut. if the economy is so good, did we need a cut at all? >> my position on this, neil, and it has been my position, and the three of us have discussed this before, in a heated way. neil: i never got heated. i think you did. >> well, they were attacking me. you came to my rescue. [laughter] >> look, i think there is no reason for us to be cutting rates right now. i agree with eric rosengren of the boston fed who was one of the two that dissented based on the fact that he felt rates should be held. neil: one other disagreed as well, but he wanted more. >> he wanted more of a cut.

look, i think this is a situation where the president has browbeaten the fed to the point where they will cut under pressure. not everybody will agree with that, but i believe that's true because with an economy that's so strong, i just don't believe there's a need for a cut. we're taking antibiotics here before we're even sick. it's a waste of our ammunition. neil: i agree with that. what do you think >> i like the parallel. it really does feel like -- it is like a broken window theory here. neil: you're just jealous because you used the apple to apple thing. he used the antibiotic. >> i like the antibiotic thing. i my think my apple to apple is better. it is not just powell trying to make a decision in cutting rates, but i think it is a back and forth between president trump and powell. there's an election that's about to happen. if the economy goes into a recession, president trump there's not going to be -- there's going to be major waves

when it comes to his campaign. neil: now he has someone to blame right away. that's what he's doing; right? >> that's what's happening. he's blaming powell. neil: he says in case everything goes south, don't blame him. blame that knucklehead. what did he call them, the bone heads? >> i will need to review the tweets. >> it is monetary warfare, guys. it is not just the u.s. it is a globalized world. you heard that from chairman powell saying we're reacting to slower global growth. you need to get ahead of the problem. you don't react when the economy slows down then you are way behind at that point. it is about a weaker dollar policy that we're looking at right now not lower interest rates. neil: we're following losers; right? we want to imitate losers. neil, can we ask dietary advice? no, not a good move. they are losers, so we want to go down to their low rate. then this could be the good

policy to follow, but i look at their economies and many are on the brink of recession, not going to go there. >> talk to u.s. companies who over and over again on their earnings call saying we are being hurt because of the strong dollar. you even heard that from apple. we missed because of a strong dollar. if you're in the white house and you're hearing this from -- neil: strength or lack thereof of the currency, maybe there's something wrong with your business model. >> the other thing we have to look at here is corporate debt is at an all-time high; right? when you're lowering those interest rates, you are encouraging individuals and corporations to take out more debt. neil: that's right. >> down the road when a recession hits -- neil: you're encouraging the behavior you're trying to control. >> yes, exactly, thank you for saying it so eloquently for me. neil: apples to apples. >> we will pick the brain of our guest in the second hour. just a day after new york city mayor drops out of the 2020 race. another candidate saying i'm

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neil: all right, making all of that iowa 2020 candidates are descending on the hawkeye state for the traditional state event, delicious. but the field may be getting a little smaller very soon. we are hearing booker's campaign saying the senator maybe on his way out if he doesn't rain a lot of money and a lot fast. fox's peter doocy is joining me live from des moines with the latest. peter? >> it already smells like steak here in des moines at the water works park, and you can tell this event is really important because all 19 candidates are coming. you've got the biden campaign representing on this side, cars streaming in, kamala harris who says she's all in on iowa on that side of the street. cory booker is expected to be here a little while from now. and right this minute his campaign is leading a conference call with reporters, explaining

the dire straits they are apparently in. they are saying they may not be able to stick around much longer. booker himself tweeted explaining a few minutes ago, he said we are at a cross roads in this campaign. we need to raise 1.7 million dollars by september 30th to be in a position to build the organization we need to compete for the nomination, and we can do it, but if we don't, we don't see a legitimate long-term path forward. so booker will be here. the place where we're camped out right now is biden fest, and off here in the distance you can see the grill is already smoking. the thing that is going to be of greater importance, though, once biden gets here is not how he does frying the steak, it is going to be asking him questions about exactly what he thinks of the president ordering -- or seeming to suggest that his son and he should be under investigation. biden didn't have a whole lot to say on camera yesterday. he did put out a statement saying he wants to see transcripts of the president's call with leaders from ukraine. but we're hoping to get some

more reaction from him a little later. neil? neil: real quickly, peter, we know kamala harris is literally going to park herself in iowa for a while. she wouldn't be the first to do that. it did work for obama when he tried it in 08. it worked for john kerry when he did it. didn't work for cruz or santorum. but it's hail mary time, isn't it? >> yes, that's reflected on what booker is going through right now. his campaign in a memo said once they makes it harder for the debates, once the winter approaches, there are only four campaigns that can raise the money and get the polling. they think the field is about to narrow a lot. campaigns like his who have a lot of staff on the ground are trying to make sure that they are among the top four, if that's how many there are, and obviously kamala harris who said she is going to hire 60

full-time staff organizers in iowa, very soon, might be going through the same thing soon. neil? neil: all right. we will watch it closely. peter, thank you very much. get yourself some steak. it is never too early, my friend. we have a lot more coming up including big tech big-time under the microscope. a key senator telling me this week that the crackdown on facebook is just a preview to coming attractions. we trust usaa more than any other company out there. they give us excellent customer service, every time. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. get your auto insurance quote today.

neil: all right. earlier this week i had democratic senator mark warner talking about the visit on capitol hill, mark zuckerberg, was trying to do the meet and greet with everyone including the very senators who are trying to crack down on his company saying it's got essentially too big for its bridges and there are privacy concerns and all of that. they are gunning for him. where does this all go?

fox news legal analyst on all that. where do you think it goes? >> oh, gosh, well certainly they are saying to these big companies how long do we have to wait and give you so many chances to self-regulate? we have already -- neil: [inaudible]. >> you have cambridge analytics where 87 million americans there about allegedly their data was taken and used for the 2016 presidential election. you have that. you have also the ftc who stepped in and fined facebook 5 billion dollars because of the privacy concerns where the data for all the users. i mean there's 2 billion facebook users. the data has to be protected somehow. so the legislators -- neil: they are trying to get ahead of it, right? facebook just announced that tens of thousands of apps over data privacy abuses. so they are trying to look like they are handling this themselves, but we have gotten beyond that. >> i think we have gotten beyond that. and the expectation from the users and those of the

constituents of the politicians are stepping forward and saying facebook, we've given you so many chances. you have come before us and you always come with the same type of testimony. we will do better. we know we need to do better. frankly, where does that get you? neil: some of them want to go so far as break the company up, breaking google up, even breaking apple up, going after amazon. you have heard the drill of all these guys. they have simply gotten way too big and way too influential, but i have seen this before, mercedes. be careful what you wish for because sometimes competitive forces will take care of that. >> that's very true, but who is competing against facebook? let's be real. neil: well, i'm old enough to remember who was competing against prodigy, microsoft, net scape? >> i think honestly of course we're probably on the same page. let companies, large companies i'm a defense attorney, let large companies self-regulate. that's great. that's wonderful. but how many chances are they

going to be given before legislation has to step in and say you are not doing the right job? neil: again, i'm not -- as much as if you don't get it right, someone else will and you will be toast anyway? >> with 2 billion users i think it would be really hard to bring down facebook. neil: i remember when aol controlled the on-line search world; right? it was everything. >> i'm a google girl. i can't remember -- neil: okay, google girl. you're a google lawyer. you think that something will happen and it will have the desired effect. >> well, especially because with the 2020 presidential election around the corner, everyone's sort of saying wait a inminute, brace yourself -- wait a minute, brace yourself. look at the end of the day, it is going to be the consumers are going to look. the shareholders who have tons of advertising dollars that goes to these megatech companies so money will ultimately rule. neil: we shall see.

as you do rule. mercedes colwin, legal extraordinaire. >> we are staying on top of the back and forth between joe biden and the president of the united states. that's what we do. we stay on top of things. you are welcome, america. yeah! that's right. can you help with these? oh... um, we're more of the plan, ... . helping you to and through retirement.

>> all right. another weekend and guess what? we've got another series of protests going on in hong kong right now. they are 12 hours about on the east coast. so this is 11 p.m. hong kong time right now. the authorities, as they have almost every weekend, we've seen these disruptions, have told them, all right, we get your point. you can all spread out now and go home and they're not spreading out and going home. this, of course, is way beyond the initial reason for these protests months ago that started with an extradition order, if you were picked up for any problems in hong kong they hauled your butts to china and that was it. that did not go down well, not only among the individual

population, but even businesses said, are you nuts? you talk about how this is going to hurt us. it's going to hurt everybody. it's going to hurt hong kong. the government ultimately caving on that. and then you haven't treated us well, and some disappeared and we want you to account for that. and they spread their message to airports, spread it to subway stations and the government at that point said, all right, this is getting a little crazy here and there you are. still no closer to resolving this, but, of course, all of this when you think about it a little more than a week before china celebrates 70 years as a communist nation. and they wanted this under control by then. it's not under control. we're on top of it. meanwhile, a week after the attacks on those saudi ail fields, oil fields is looking to send troops, and a layout to essentially shut down iran's central bank like our federal

reserve so that money that gets into and out of the nation can't do that anymore. mark meredith with the nation. >> they will put more troops to the middle east to curb what they say is aggressive behavior by iran. they say it's necessary to support the global economy. the deployment follows last week's drone attack against an oil facility in saudi arabia. secretary of state mike pompeo said he had no doubt that iran was responsible for the attack and iran has denied responsibility. on friday, the president announced u.s. is imposing tougher sanctions against iran, these specifically targeting the central bank and its national development fund. the president addressed the sanctions while addressing the australian prime minister in the oval office on friday. >> these are the highest sanctions ever imposed on a country. we've never done it to this level and it's too bad what's happening with iran, it's going to hell, doing poorly.

they're practically broke. they are broke. and they could stop the problem very easily. all they have to do is stop with the terror. >> the president could address the rising tensions with iran next week when he meets face-to-face with many world leaders. neil, he's going to be headed up to new york on sunday for the united nations general assembly. iran said it had no plans of meeting with iran. he had said it was possible. >> are you getting any indication that, i know what you said the two sides officially don't talk about meeting with one another and the supreme leader said we'll never talk to this president when he talks like this. the president holds out hope that iran will come to his senses. does he believe that? do the people around him think this might work.

that's one of the questions he got, if these sanctions are imposed what's next? is military action the only option on the table? the president didn't want to get into what his potential retaliations options were going to be. only that he would stick for the sanctions. he's stuck on the sanctions track now for several months. we'll be interested to see whether that changes next meeting. neil: i know i'm hitting you with a lot, but the cash flow, essentially shutting down their federal reserve, their central bank, but we know from iran that it has a black market and a lot of people support that market and on the side, take care of iran, russia chief among them. how did shutting down the central bank stop that? >> well, what we've seen is really an all sides approach to crippling iran's economy. there was a story on fox business a couple of weeks ago, talking about things how the teacher's retirement accounts have been dwindled because of

these types of sanctions, when you start cutting off the different options for iran, you can imagine the kind of pressure that you make and we have to figure out exactly what happens from the investigation between saudi arabia and the u.s., as many world leaders are going to be interested to see what actually comes out of development in saudi arabia. neil: all right. thank you, mark, very very much. mark meredith keeping track of the fast-moving developments. joining us from the washington examiner, we'll get her takes-- i don't believe she's quite ready here, but just we're getting updates about this central bank freezing of assets, if you will, or money going in and out of the country. that would be like essentially shutting down our federal reserve. the money folks, the people back up our capital, and as is necessary. if you freeze that, stop that, halt that, make it difficult to get that, the argument is that onerous restrictions, already in place and sanctions considering that it's already in place and

this will sort of be the straw that broke the financial camel's back. the iranians are certainly complaining a lot more. and some have been saying that the attacks, sort of a wounded and mal response that we predicted we'd get from the iranians and they're at the end of their wits and that will produce a result. we'll see. now of course, this issue for the washington examiner, this has gotten to be a big one. i do want to get into other things with you. if you first off on this iranian crackdown and folks you talk to, that this could just push the iranians to the brink. this was the one thing left out of prior crackdowns on iran and now we're taking it away. what do you think? >> so obviously it does not necessarily help trump as he goes into 2020 if we enter another boots off the ground domestic conflict. that being said, this is an issue that's been -- it's been a

slow burn and the issue is right now we aren't dealing with a europe that wants to comply with our international agenda in terms of strengthening our regional allies around iran. things are coming to a head, but i don't think it's in anyone's interest for us to wind up with boots on the ground and bolton out of the trump administration, how much, the lengths that we would go to avoid the conflict. neil: and the president says he doesn't want that either. he's talking about a proportion na the response to what they did with the attack on the iranian oil field. if you do that, i'm sure they told him then you'll lift up the aisle around the world. and we have a certain energy independence, but our allies may not. what would a response be for that. >> for a proportionate response, everyone's instinct is to say

continue to sanction. quite frankly, the moment that we do recede to violence it doesn't, in a way make the united states look a little bit weak, especially because we aren't backed by european allies and this doesn't mean that our european allies are in the right to sort of be okay with an empowered iranian regime, but rather we need to show we're a united front in our continued sanking of iran. neil: and switching gears tee and -- tiana, and the whistleblower, urging reportedly an investigation into joe biden when he was vice-president working presumably on behalf of his son who was a board member on a big gas concern there. the vice-president says there's no "there" there, but a lot of people are saying after the mueller probe, the russia thing, what are you thinking? wh is what is the latest? >> and there are two different

issues, two issues that could make president trump, and joe biden the 2020 front runner look bad out of this. the question is whether or not hunter biden was engaging in corrupt activity that could have compromised biden during the obama administration. question number two, if trump did indeed in a quid pro quo with the ukrainian government to dig up dirt on someone who is the most-- who is obviously his most formidable challenger. and we're going to see partisans on both sides to focus only on one of the questions, but the fact is both could be innocent, both could be guilty or one or the other could be, you know, in trouble here. neil: what is wrong with just letting the whistleblower talk then if you said you did nothing wrong and the president argued and he cast vociferous about it, he said wait a minute, i didn't do anything untoward, everything was aboveboard. let the whistleblower state his

case, see what happens, but when the inspector general isn't allowing that and the justice department isn't allowing that, it does raise concerns, what are you hiding? >> so for the american people, obviously, we think that in some ways it's the best disinfectant we're seeing the politicalization of the mueller probe. i don't think that anyone in the trump side would allow adam schiff to be. and the narrative, did trump engage with a quid pro quo with a foreign government to influence a up coming election or remember, is this the deep state that is working against the president? it's one that will resonate with his base. neil: even in private-closed door sections, the inspector general michael adkinson were

able to chair what he has or at least outline what he has and i understand these are national security issues and some people's identities might be sacrificed, but there must be a way of communicating to those who are wondering if it's a russian issue all over again, just put that to rest. >> i mean, that's the thing. the american people, polling showed overwhelmingly and at the time benefitted trump, it was shown that we were tired of the mueller rodeo and it's not necessarily the fault of the special counsel himself, but how long it dragged on. all of those breaking news reports, everything was supposed to be, this will take down the trump administration. in this case, if this actually will take down the trump administration, better just to have it come out now rather than a slow burn and if it will exonerate now better have it come out now than be a slow burn. otherwise are we looking at the past two and a half years on repeat this time with a

different government. neil: rudy guiliani confused me on cnn in a rambling exchange. even if he did do it, he doesn't do it, there's nothing wrong about the president saying to the leader of another country, hey, look into this. but i would think there is if you're tying it to a, that country might or might not get if you don't. >> absolutely. when you look the at language of the special counsel's report from the russia probe, what mueller directly wrote is, you substitute ukraine in this case, you know, promising something in the future, a quid pro quo in exchange for another country digging up dirt on trump's personal political adversaries, yes, that absolutely by definition a conspiracy and that is a crime and quite frankly, if trump did do it, that's an impeachable offense. neil: and that's the debate, but

just as much as in role that the president might have played in holding up a billion dollars in aid many people might have been tainted, but going after natural gas concerns of the country, one of which had a board member who was the vice-president's son. have at it. it's daylight goings on and we're not doing that. >> yes, i mean, obviously the hunter biden question is still important. if biden himself was compromised during the obama administration, that makes him quite frankly an unelected candidate regardless of your political affiliation. there will be a question coming up in coming weeks because they both matter. neil: i'm glad you said that. they both matter. i'm glad you said that. if you did nothing, my dad used to say, you have nothing to worry about. >> exactly. neil: dad was right. more after this.

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>> all right. i want to show you what's going on right now in the daytona beach, florida. i believe we have video of this. we did a short time ago. i apologize if not. police now are at the ocean breeze hotel. it's on north atlantic avenue there in daytona beach. they're responding to a barricaded subject, reported to a hand grenade. they have not confirmed at this point what he was doing with that and what his demands were. the hotel has been evacuated in abundance of caution at the moment. no injuries, no reports beyond the fact they're saying there's a guy barricaded in this building with a hand grenade. but he is not cooperating with negotiators. if we get more developments on that of course, we'll pass them along. hope everything works out. in the meantime, the federal reserve this week cut interest rates a quarter point. you already heard about that and you heard how disappointed the

president was that the federal reserve let him down again and he's referred to the central bank as a bunch of bone heads and the guy he chose as the biggest mistake he has made or among them in his presidency, jerome powell. but jerome powell got in a few digs of his own back at the president. fake a look. >> business experts have weakened amid falling manufacturing output the rain reasons appear to be slower growth abroad and trade policy developments. as i mentioned weakness in global greowth and trade policy has risks. we've seen a resurgence of trade policy tensions including imposition of additional tariffs. neil: different styles, maybe, but a lot of people interpreted that as jerome powell's saying the white house, they're a bunch of boneheads. probably not what he said, but back to the united states.

and neil is here reserve bank president. good to see you. >> good to see you. neil: and people who try to be zing proof, zing back. is that powell saying i wouldn't be in the position you put me in if not for the trade war and policy. >> i think that jerome powell is doing a-- >> the president-- >> i understand, we're commit today making the best decisions we can based on the goals that congress have give us. neil: when he says federal reserve are are boneheads, i don't think he's talking about you. >> elected officials are entitled that their positions. our jobs are to push those out and do our job. neil: you might be that way, but can you? >> i really think we can. and i give jay powell, we call

him jay, terrific credit for leading us in a way that focuses on data. puts the politics aside and do the right thing for the economy. in 2018 we were raising interest rates. i didn't think we should, but we were. as the data changed and the economy changed we're now pivoting and cutting interest rates and i certainly support that and i think that's an example of jay and all of us looking at the data and changing our behavior, changing our judgment based on how the economy evolved. neil: and there three as you know in this federal reserve move. two were against it because they thought we didn't need the stimulus. one the st. louis fed who said we should have gone a half point. be there as it may. consensus is a hard thing to come by with the feds this time. what do you think happens next go round? >> well, you know, we'll see. i think we're all committed to keep watching how the data unfolds. i'm hearing the same thing that chairman powell talked about. i hear from my business contacts that they're nervous, a lot of

nervous about the trade tensions going on globally and with china and we see business investment falling. that's some of the bad news. the good news the u.s. consumer continues to be strong and job market continues to create jobs. right now the signals are mixed and we're trying to read which direction the economy will go. i was in the camp with my colleague from st. louis, we should cut by 50 basis points or 1/2 a percent, but i want to see how the data evolves before i decide where to go from here. neil: thank you. good to see you, neil from the federal reserve. except the way he spells neil, not n-e-i-l, the n-e-e-l. neil: and then something scary, but actually good after this.

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♪ >> are you scared yet? october just a few days away. more than a few, but this is one of the scariest months for the market, october. who can forget 1987. who can forget the middle of the financial meltdown a little over a decade ago. the story of the depression. it gets a bad rap a lot of times. october is not the worst month of the year, but, but there's always concern as the problems escalate that something bad is going to happen. what if something good happens? in other words, what if we get a trade deal, wall street likes it and some of the uncertainties are removed and nothing comes of the investigations that are starting right now. a lot of charging back and

forth, but all is good. so no unexpected developments that royal the markets. it happens, but more often than not history suggests in october, well, it doesn't, but it could. so you see where i'm going there? joe, jessica, dan. dan, what do you make of the argument this particular october, which generally gets the rap for the big fellows and maybe not this go-round? >> i think the way the market has been reacting, particularly sensitive to what's going on with china, that may well dictate what's happening in act. historically the worst month is october. you're right october gets a bad rap. but you see the market has moved on tweets, any piece of information-- >> trade dominates the theme. >> which relates to china, the market just moves and there's a lot of other news going on, but it just doesn't seem to have the

same impact. so based on the president taking the position now of an all or nothing related to china, either we get a deal and it's all the way, there's no interim deal going on. neil: he said no partial deal, unequivocal about that. >> based on what we're seeing, i think we could have a rocky october. neil: so we don't get a deal, and the president went so far as to say that, and it doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother me, we don't get one to election time. i would think that it would bother him. >> i would think so. and the election or reelection often hinges on the state of the economy. people having confidence in it. you've have, i don't want to a national revolt you've had the national farmers union what is going on here? this isn't what we signed up for. it's not the argument short-term pain for long-term gain. the trade war by tweet to china

and a strong core base of the president. neil: certainly the market impact. >> it's come up. there were a couple of weeks there where it was rocky-- >> and sort of gets whip-sawed, and that's the market the better it looks for trade, and maybe not, what do you think? >> i think it's better the market looks, the better things look for president trump overall, but we don't see the president's poll numbers, the rcp average fluctuating as often as it does with the dow when it comes to trades or tweets. when you look at 2017 the poll numbers were at its worst and the stock market was through the roof. >>. neil: what if we don't get a deal? >> we may get the usmca deal, hopefully we do and with modi-- >> in your view china will support him-- >> he's the first president to talk about the intellectual property.

neil: if it comes to body blows and-- >> and what the president is addressing considering some of his predecessors that haven't. neil: what do you think? >> i think, i was under the impression for a long time, neil, i thought we would get a deal by this point in time because both sides really need the deal and it's in everyone's best interest. however, because of the way china reacts or doesn't react, i should say, they're extremely patient, they may very well hold out and see how this is going to shape up with the 2020 election. they're going to get a better deal if donald trump is not in the white house. i think they realize that. >> well, and many smart analysts have been making for months now, that xi jinping who is not term limited forever. i'll see how it works out. if i get a democrat i'll make it deal there, if not then president trump-- >> how would it look if joe biden, elizabeth warren, would they start by scratch or

whatever you're doing, keep doing it. >> we talked about this before amy klobuchar on fox news sunday with chris wallace and this is bad, it's bad. and chris pushed back, what are you going to do, are tariffs a no-go for that field? and i think that articulating a china policy and polls shift, democrats are favored on trade. and the president on the economy, but trade shifting. and joe biden, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, there has to be a china plan if this is a central plank for the trump campaign for 2020. >> this is why i think there may not be an electoral price to pay for some of this. we've seen the democrats in three debates over several nights and the focus has not been what can the democrats do differently on trade or economy, there were foo you if any in the debate asked.

when they were asked what they'd do different on the economy they struggled to find an iota of information or fact that could actually throw some shade on what's happening overall. neil: well, would not help the recovery and-- >> well, i think it would be hard to argue that the economy is in better shape than it was, you know, when the president got into office. so he's going to keep pushing the stronger markets certainly. the record low unemployment rates, one group after another, a lot of democrat constituents, that's what he's going to pound, right? >> i think, neil, if he take the politics out of it and meaning that we have an election on the way and we really look at what the president's doing and forget how he's handling it in terms of tweets. if you look at the environment, this is the time for a president to take on china. he's got the wind at his back, related to the economy. we're in a very strong-- >> but he's facing a few more headwinds. >> he's always going to face some headwinds. but, neil, this is the absolute

best environment we've seen for a president to challenge china on. >> he's not benefitting. >> i think it says more about donald trump the person more than anything else. neil: and you are still going to get tweeted. [laughter] >> we have more coming up. a top house democrat call for an investigation into the whistleblower complaint after this.

>> all right. the wall street journal the latest to report that the

president urged the ukraine president eight times now maybe not just once to investigate joe biden's son hunter. and these are democrats trying to access the whistleblower report involving the communication not easterly as understanding a quid pro quo that might have been the course of this, whether joe biden, he vice-president under president obama, to get a quid pro quo to get the pressure off his son. it's mind-numbingly detailed. i didn't know he was going to be here in person, we were going to trash him via remote and can't do that now. and the house chief deputy whip dan kildee. good to have you. >> good. neil: and what brings you here. >> i have a couple of meetings and my son kenneth is in brooklyn and anytime i have a

chance to connect with him. neil: let me get the lay of the land. a lot of democrats are seizing on these alleged phone calls that the president was trying to, you know, strong arm, they say, the leader of ukraine, and connected to investigate this joe biden thing. now, this risk that he said-he said thing. the they think i want to ask you is it rudy guiliani has said, it's not true, but even if it were, there's nothing wrong with it. now, i'm not a lawyer. is there something wrong with that? >> i'm not a lawyer either, but there's definitely something wrong with it. i don't think the american people would want to have a president reaching out to a foreign head of state to engage him to go after somebody who happens to be a political opponent. i think that's a dangerous thing for us to do and i do think there very likely is a violation of law if it's true. but there are two distinct issues, one is the content of that conversation. i think it's important, even with this president, with whom i

have a lot of differences, that we not make too many hasty judgments until we have an opportunity to evaluate the information. neil: and many in your party have called it a constitutional crisis and pales in comparison, russia and hillary clinton tweeting. and with a foreign power helping him win an election. didn't wait to find out if it could be true. >> it was a trump appointee, that there was credible evidence that it may be true. neil: and he's not been allowed to talk. >> more important, the law is clear the inspector general has a duty to report to the director of national intelligence and forwarded to the intelligence committees within seven days, so the question, that's clearly troubling is the fact that that law is simply being ignored and it seems to be being ignored because it's more convenient for

this administration to ignore it. neil: well, that's your opinion, to be fair, that they are saying as well that it could sacrifice key identities, relationships, you're not buying that? >> well, i read the letter very carefully, their assertion is that the law that we're referring to doesn't apply in this situation. -- >> during the adam schiff, chairman, deeply disturbing that the white house appears to know more about this whistleblower's complaint than its intended recipient, congress. >> for sure and even the inspector general, a trump appointee sent a follow-up letter that he disagrees with the dni's information, that the information does not fall under this law. so, that's what to me is more troubling. neil: there's a lot in your eyes. but here is where i'm confused, congressman, a lot of times on the par of many of your party to explore this, not nearly so much a report that could be official that gets to the beginnings of

the investigation, the mueller investigation itself and maybe under nefarious circumstances. that crickets from your side. >> yeah. well, i mean, obviously we have a concern about the activity and the behavior of this president and we have to provide oversight on the presidents of the united states. neil: if you're looking at the genesis of a crisis or a controversy or an investigation, don't you owe it to everybody to look into what might have prompted this one? >> you mean in terms of-- >> the mueller report. >> the mueller report. i think the mueller report kind of speaks for itself actually, the facts that they presented are more-- >> let's say that the inspector general said there were a lot of specious elements that got the ball rolling. i don't know what conclusion he'll come to. >> i guess we'll have to wait and see. neil: many in your party aren't waiting and seeing on this. >> what's good for the goose should be good for the gander. neil: and i said at the beginning of the show, had both. but i note there's more zeal to

go after the president on a lot of things we don't know here, not so much to look what another inspector general could do or say on what started an investigation of his ties and mueller is saying in another case. >> yeah, although i will only disagree in this sense, i think it's actually looked at more than this. this question is before us know you and there's an absolute denial, no information is being transmitted. neil: so you have no issue when the vice-president, as a vice-president, working with barack obama, was putting the heat and pressure on the ukraine at the time, it was very corrupt government, ultimately fell apart a new guy comes in. but it was very, very corrupt. he was going even after the prosecutor, and corruption governments, a lot of western powers were, but not talking much how that firing would affect a separate investigation going on in the natural gas industry there one of whose key

players was the vice-president's son at the time. >> yeah. if, i believe that's been scrutinized actually more than many people want to say it has been, but i don't think we can ignore the facts that are in front of us regarding-- >> it wasn't scrutinized like crazy. a lot of people wondered by the timing and all. i'm saying, wondering about the timing of these calls, should we look at the timing of those and they're a little different, you're quite right, but there's no comparison to the zest. >> i guess if they want to investigate it, if the president controls the department of justice, an american agency, if they want to investigate it, they are completely free to do that. neil: well, you have suspicion of the president in this case. you don't have any suspicions about what joe biden might have been doing in that case. >> well, i think to me, to be honest with you, i do think that's been scrutinized more than a lot of people are giving note. neil: nothing wrong. >> i'm not suggesting there's nothing wrong. all i'm saying-- >> but your opinion is that and

you feel it has been adequately scrutinized. >> i do. neil: your opinion is the latest thing with the inspector general hasn't been scrutinized. >> not at all. neil: that's how you differentiate? >> the fact that the president of the united states, if he wants to conduct a legitimate investigation of the activities of any american under the justice department. that's fine. to go to a foreign nation and ask them to do the same is a different question. neil: quickly, the gm strike, your neck of the woods. how long do you think it goes on? >> it's hard to say. this is a pretty fundamental difference. so the workers, and the federal government stepped up for the company when they were really in trouble, almost out of business. they were bankrupt. and now i think what we see is the workers saying this is a highly profitable company. some of those concessions that we gave to help you get through that trouble, we think we ought to have some consideration, we ought to have some job security because we were the ones who stepped up. not mexican workers, not the mexican government. it was the american workers and

uaw. neil: and the taxpayers. >> and the taxpayers and there's a debt owed that i don't think the company totally understands. neil: thank you, dan kildee, deputy whip. and the strike is a week old and to his other point, that it doesn't look like it's ending soon. some fresh details that might alarm you. ♪ like a drifter i was-- ♪ born to walk alone! ...barb! you left me hangin' on the high harmony there. if you ride, you get it. geico motorcycle. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more.

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everything you need, all in one place. expedia. >> you know, area 51 has always been an age-old draw to a lot of people and you know, now of course we always want to know are aliens hidden there and visit, are they examined and scrutinized? we figured, all right, who do we get to do an updated story on this as popular appeal and jonathan hunt immediately snapped into mind here. jonathan hunt in nevada, yes, at area 51. sir. >> hey, neil, good morning to you. we're at area 51 base camp and

i'm afraid i have sad news to report from here. it's a numbers game which i know you like, neil. two million people said they would show up for the alien punt hunting weekend and they said there'd be 5,000 here at area 51 base camp. well, last night the height of what was supposed to be the festivities, they were about 4,800 authority of that 5,000 number. take a look at some of the video. the nighttime video, the party here, well-known deejay, a big draw, about 150 people standing in front of the stage. the sad news from area 51 base camp, they're shutting it down today. on the other hand. further up the exterrestrial highway that runs in front of us is the small town of rachel, nevada. they've got 1500 or so people up there right now. they're going to carry on today. they're going to have more music

and everybody is going to keep having a good time. some of them are still planning on approaching the gates of area 51, just to get close to it. we met a few of those yesterday, and i have to say, neil, we certainly met some very quirky characters. listen here. >> i'm kind of disappointed there isn't three million people out here, but it's still fun to come out and see the guards and actually interact with them and see the place for the first time. >> we're doing it for the meme, man, all for the meme. >> yeah, just to mess around. >> and just doing it for the memes, man. >> they're all here for the memes. i'm 53 years old, neil, i don't know what that means, but they're having a good time. [laughter] >> you know, buddy, you're the best. there could not be a more perfect reporter to cover this. >> thanks. neil: thank you very much.

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>> all right. congressman kildee was addressing this so of course, he's from michigan. this is the epicenter of this gm strike affecting now close to 50,000 gm workers, but they have just laid off 2000 hourly workers and furloughed 1200 workers separately at a truck assembly plant and those layoffs go into effect on monday. 700 more in the week, again the reverberation of this strike that could go on for a while. and back with us, kat and susan

lee. he says it's looking like it will drag on. >> it will. the impact are not only the, obviously the workers at the factories, but the vendors involved as well. i mean, these are the people that supply the parts to the cars. neil: that's right. >> that are also having this halo effect because of this strike that's happening. and what's more, that's going to become increasingly difficult for people that do own gm cars to get their cars fixed. so-- >> or to find gm cars. >> well, we have about-- there's actually about, i talked to several people at car dealerships that deal gm cars and they say even though, sir, not in the immediate future will it have an impact of the they have about 70 days of inventory and after that-- >> all bets are off. >> absolutely. and there already is that impact on some of the parts suppliers. next year in ann arbor-- i'm from michigan, they're warning people that they might be laid off and it goes down the chain from, you know, suppliers

and you know the second tier and the third tier and so on and so forth. and the lost production costs are estimated to be 100 million a day. that's a lot of money. neil: what do the workers want? >> well, they want higher pay, they want secure jobs, they want the fact that part-time workers should be made full-time. yadda, yadda, yadda, they're already being paid $60 if you include benefits as well. neil: when they say we helped you out and opposed to-- >> share some of that with us. >> record profits, and share some with us, when we rescued you in 2008. neil: and the company says they are sharing the loot. >> they are and i think the argument is that they haven't seen a raise since 2007. so they wanted to get a portion, they obviously wanted to make more money, however, they wanted, you know, more of a profit share, but the thing is, you know, to susan's point, they're making a lot of money.

i'm not necessarily on the side of the unions negotiating for higher wages. i mean, this is. >> i think also the consumer probably will be impacted because if you think about this, this goes past the 70 days in inventory that gm has, at some point you have to start raising prices especially with the tariffs that kicked with with aluminum. neil: buyers can go elsewhere. >> we're a ford family, actually. no, and then also, the auto industry: some of these people have been working there forever i know my family and friends, they have the same jobs and the same consider company forever and it's, you know, it's not what it used to be so the contracts always can't be-- >> ladies, have you very very much. before we go, i want today pass an on an item. the ukraine minister is denying the president of the united states donald trump put pressure on the prime minister during this call, the one call that's

in question here, whether the president had a quid pro quo kind of a threat to the ukrainian leader, investigating these joe biden allegations got the aid. the investigation never happened a and thank you.

>> well, the biden campaign now on offense amid reports that president trump repeatedly asked the ukrainian president to investigate the former vice-president's son. we're going to take you through the accusations and counter accusations. welcome to america's news headquarters from washington. >> and joe biden called on president trump to release the transcript of that phone conversation immediately. ellison barber is at the white house with