melissa: fred barnes, i love you. you're the best. see you, my friend.rry reid was democratic senator and leader, of his party in the senate and he got stuff done. you don't like what he did but he got it done. >>> we are expecting any moment this tape coming from bedminster, the new jersey white house. we'll play it as soon as it begins. privatizing the afghan war, have you heard about this? why the trump administration is weighing a unpresent didded plan to privatize the war in afghanistan. we'll talk about blackwater's erik prince, the man behind the proposal. melissa: detail threats from the rogue regime targeting u.s. territory in guam. we're going to talk to guam governor eddie galvo. coming up next. >> the fact when good men do nothing evil triumphs. it is not people of he korea that are the problem. it is the regime. that is an evil, evil regime. ♪ us disease that can be really serious... especially for my precious new grandchild. it's whooping cough. every family member, including those around new babies, should talk to their doctor or pharmacis

fred barns. good to see you, fred. >> thank you. liz: what do you think of steve bannon's exit? good or bad? >> well, i think trump's going to miss him, but he had to make a decision. listen, this was a gamble by steve bannon, and he gambled that on the record where he said he -- bannon said he was going to clean out the state department, and he would -- and acted like he was going to drive gary cohn, the chief economic adviser of the white house, and all of these things. the president had to choose. it wasn't a -- he had to chaos between bannon and gary cohn, actually. and it was a long shot on bannon's behalf, but he lost the gamble. liz: this is the sixth senior white house official to depart the president's administration. so can the pro growth agenda get back on track? because to your point, according to that article, it sounded like steve bannon was about economic at wa warfare with china when it's about economic tax reform; right? >> yes. they are. and, look, i don't think bannon had much influence on the whole economic agenda, certainly not the tax reform plan. and i thi

i've got fred barnes with us, i think joining us from washington. fred -- >> yes.ically by going down there tomorrow and not being part of the mess, just standing apart from it? >> well, i think he can. certainly, he's avoided the worst thing, and chris mentioned it, and that is obama not going. you have to go. and this is, you know, the biggest natural disaster in texas that i've ever heard of in my lifetime, and so he needs to go. and he needs to go there and go in, in thecity, go into places that are flooded, not just stand back and having something to say. look, i mean, he has this infrastructure agenda. there are obviously a lot of things that could have been done infrastructure wise in houston that would have mitigated a little bit at least the effect of this horrible hurricane. you know, look, it's a great natural disaster. you can't stop the weather, but there are things you can do, and he better have them at his fingertips. stuart: fred, it is also a political test of the authorities in texas which is a very republican state. how do you think they're doing

fred barnes is the executive editor of the weekly standard and fox news political commenter and capri leader. fred, we used the words debt and ceiling, we found this one, it relates back to the health care fumble back in may, i believe, and in essence he says, maybe what we need is a good shutdown. then you've got steven mnuchin, treasury secretary who just yesterday said pass a clean plan to just raise the debt ceiling with nothing more and just make sure that it is simply clean, get it done, and he was finding a caution flag there, waving it dramatically. they're not on the same page? >> i don't know if they're on the same page or not. remember, steven mnuchin is new to washington. i've lived my whole life here. been in journalism 40 of the years, and guess what? we go through the debt ceiling thing year after year and year, and people say, the economy is going to collapse and the government will have to shut down and so on, never happens on the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling. liz: not never. >> didn't it happen in 2011 or 2013? liz: capri, fred is partly right. this is a delicate d

david: here now to react to the deadly barcelona attack, fred barnes, "weekly standard" executive editor, scott martin, kingsview asset management, both fox news contributors, dan bongino, former secret service agent and former nypd officer. dan, spain has a history of dealing with terrorism. they know how to track these things. they dealt with the basque terrorists in the '70s. they haven't dealt with it recently. isis in particular targeted other nations. they targeted the united states, great britain, belgium, france, germany, this is i believe the first time they have bonn after spain. why now? >> well, because the eurozone makes it very easy to travel. that is one obvious reason. you just want to attack any country where you can get publicity for your deranged cause. the eurozone travel, makes it very easy to do so, and also, david, these are really easy logistics attacks to plan. all they require the ability to operate a vehicle. this obviously a 9/11-style attack that required half a million dollars in money and extensive flight training. wherever they get attention to the derange