and the question is, is horwitz actually going to be able to be independent when he is investigating? he's got such a history with the clintons, but lynch does, too. how are these folks independent and how are they going to reach an independent conclusion that they can actually investigate a case independently and make a conclusion and make a recommendation for some type of punishment? >> gregg: you know, "the wall street journal" is calling for comey to be fired or to just resign into a solid favor, according to "the wall street journal." in part because,," "he invented a previously unknown legal distinction between gross negligence and extreme negligence to equip clinton, and insisted no reasonable prosecutor would press charges against her." is "the wall street journal" right about that? >> i'm not so sure about that, i think from all people i know -- >> gregg: there were hundreds of prosecutors that would have brought that case. for comey to say no reasonable prosecutor would do it? >> i think that's wrong, i know we have had public reports at six trial-level attorneys did want t

we are joined by john sharp, a reporter for the alabama media group; and sari horwitz, she covers theartment of justice for "the washington post." jon, i want to start with you. jefferson boregard sessions iii has never lost an election. so over the course of his career as a prosecutor, as alabama's attorney general, and as a senator, what contributes to his popularity back at home in alabama? >> well, he stayed true to his roots over the years. he's an ultraconservative politician, and he's never really waivered from that. and alabama is one of the reddest of the red states. it is supported a g.o.p. presidential candidate since 1980. it's only getting redder. donald trump's returns on november 8 were the most that a presidential candidate's had in alabama since richard nixon in 1972. so senator sessions has, you know-- he's been a darling for the conservative movement in alabama. and he has a spotless election record. his conservative viewpoints on anything from gun control to immigration reform to religious liberty has really sold well with the conservative voters here in this state

joshua horwitz is the director and director of coalition to stop on violence.hank you for coming on. if you look at the numbers, and i have, there doesn't seem to be any direct correlation between gun ownership and acts of violence. so, more americans own guns than they did 20 years ago. a lot more. there are far more guns per person and america than there were 20 years ago. the homicide rate has dropped dramatically. if gun control is the answer, how can that be right? >> we have to talk about some of the assumptions that you made. first of all, gun ownership across the board is not up. gun ownership concentrated, it is, as you mention, owning more and more guns. here is what is interesting. in the last couple years, you have seen some of the results of our guns everywhere policy, and a number of different states. we are seeing the murder rate, gun homicide rate go up. 14 to 15 and 15 to 16, the final numbers. we can imagine that gun violence is going up. i think we have to look at that and say, what is going on in the united states, have we loosened gun laws

but can i just make one other point to your point, jeffrey, that horwitz is a political appointees and he can be fired but i think that's probably why he announced this now to make it more difficult for trump to do that. >> presidents also have to be careful in investigations. if you're old enough you remember nixon's plumbers. you don't want to go down that road. >> appreciate it. everybody on the panel, thank you. coming up, was that pile of file folders at trump's press conference filled with blank sheets of paper? and more importantly, does his plan to avoid conflicts of interest go far enough? the federal government's top ethics official says no way. we'll look into that next. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in. like all standardized me

something that i actually take a little bit of -- not pride but happiness is the fact that when david horwitz went to state legislatures to pass laws to say we have to head ideology balance but we don't whatnot the state legislatures mandating. that. the didn't get anywhere which is a good thing. >> one of we have a bunch of questions. i'm sorry cannot get the ones that came jacques-online. but their in several consecutives the number of conservative faculty members or students worried about coming out on the campus? so they're looking for advice, what do, what not to do, and several questions are nab flabber garsed that faculties ands a mondayor are allowing studentses to act as consumers. >> let me deal with the first um in my experience, and i've lit gated an awful lot of places and be interested to hear greg's perspective on this. you're safer out of the closet. you're absolutely safer. i have dealt with faculty members concerned about -- so concern about tenure and people knowing that they're conservative that they would call me and whisper on the phone. and here's the fact. if you are c

liz macdonald, tom horwitz and it seems like this might be flat up to the inauguration, do you agreeith that mike murphy? >> after the november 8th election, the market is churning at these levels. let's look, when you see banks announce earnings later this week, that could be the catalyst to get this market moving to new highs in front of the inauguration. stuart: if you hear shouting in the background, that's protesters at the jeff sessions confirmation hearing, some have been removed. you'll hear fireworks and interruptions will be frequent. what do you say, todd horowitz. the market will stay flat until we find out about taxes? >> i think that's a great observation. on the other side of mike's argument, if the banks are bad, that could be the catalyst that doesn't let us get to 20,000 at this particular time and actually push the markets lower. stuart: look at the nasdaq because it's gone up for six straight sessions and we've had three record highs, it's at another record high level as of right now. 5536. what's going on with this? it's not the big name technology stocks that's