i will ask robert mcdowel.he me too movement inspires whether tv shows are tarnished as rotten apples? >> i will ask legendary editor tina brown who says we are living in the arab spring for women. and new jersey is maybe on deck, has the tide finally turn for legal pot or mike jeff sessions' opposition be a big bummer? >> the president drew laughters and applaud yesterday after going after what he regards as fake news. what makes it no worthy where he said it and how well it was received. >> these are individuals graduating from a ten week program famous around the world which is an accredited semester of study of uva. the episode remined ded me of t appearance he made in langley. he said then visiting the cia was his first official stop and he thanked the men and women for h their service, that was appropriate. as the president stood in front of the wall, the more he spoke, the more politically he sounded. speaking like a solemn rally and he bragged of the number of times he's been on the "time" magazine cove

. >> host: well, robert mcdowell, former republican commissioner on the fcc, you've herald a little built of this discussion. what's your view? >> guest: first of all, thanks for having me back, peter. it's great to be on, and happy holidays to everyone. hopefully, at the end of the segment we can say the same thing. [laughter] i think it's important to talk about history, and, you know, there's a lot being written about this debate, and so thank you for having opportunity for us to kind of go into what are the facts and what is the history, and what does it actually mean for consumers and entrepreneurs. there are a lot of articles that are purely click bait. so commissioner carr has a good point, that was a good clip to play . we are going to define net neutrality's maximum internet freedom for consumers and entrepreneurs and everybody in this space, really the debate is over which federal statute that already exists is the best to do that to protect consumers. if you look at how the internet started when it was privatized in the mid '90s up until february 2015, you saw about $1.4 trilli

. >> host: former republican commissioner robert mcdowell you have heard this discussion. >> thanks for having me back. it's great to be back on and happy holidays. i think it is important to talk about history there is a lot being written about this debate so thank you for having this opportunity and what this means for consumers and entrepreneurs. and that was a good clip to play. if we a sign that neutrality as maximum internet freedom for consumers and everybody in this space we are looking at a weak federal statute that does that and then with a prize then with that title ii order so there are three acts were three federal statutes and the sherman act and the clayton act and there also state protections with that mitscher fcc to regulate those economics of broadband said windows internet service providers those that can bring class-action lawsuits so those three powerful federal statutes have provided since the beginning of the internet so in the way that harms consumers but on top of that to have a more robust broadband markets it has been going mobile for many years over 90 perce

joining me is robert mcdowell. he served as commissioner of the fcc from 2006-2013. by both presidents bush and obama. robert, i want to briefly talk the three cs. content, cost and competition. i need you to dumb it down for me. i've got this stove pipe. it comes into my house, it delivers my internet. if my internet service provider also controls content, won't they seek advantage over other content providers and impact my bandwidth? >> excellent question. first of all, thank you for having me on. this is my first time on cnn. thank you for this inaugural moment. >> sure. >> that's at the heart of the debate. the question is really what laws best apply here, whether it's the 20 years of the clinton gore administration policy of using three federal statutes versus a fourth statute that the obama administration tried in its last two years. and so when you have more competition in the broadband space and the fastest growing segment of the broadband market is mobile broadband, we're seeing people cut the cord or shave the cord or never corders going straight to mobile b

bring in robert mcdowell, fcc commissioner from 2006 to 2013 serving both presidenting george w. bush and barack obama. also the chief public policy adviser for mobile future, association in technology and communications companies testified to congress about net neutrality last month. good to have you on the show. >> thank you for having me. >> the best argument i've heard in favor of net neutrality is that the internet as we know it today, the things most people consume. whether facebook, netflix, amazon, those kinds of companies, came about because small start jud-ups had access this fantastic internet. if we were to impose the ability to slow down some parts of the internet or speed it up for money, we may earned up freend the internet in time, they exist at big companies and never a competitor to facebook or google or amazon? >> right. there's a lot of hype and it's very confusing. get legal very quickly. what the fcc did in february 2015, put a 1934 law the communications law of 1934 on to broadband internet networksbefore that, when all the companies you cited started in do

. >> robert mcdowell, former republican commissioner on the f.c.c., you've heard a little bit of this discussion. what's your true? >> first of all, thanks for having me back. always great to be on. always great to be on with my old friend. happy holidays to everybody. so, hopefully the end of the semmingt we can say the same thing. but i think the important to talk about history and there's a lot being written about this debate and so thank you for having this opportunity for to us kind of go into what are the facts and what is the history and what does it mean for consumers and entrepreneurs. there are a lot of articles out there that are being writ than are clearly clickbate. the commissioner has a good point much that was a good clip to play. if we are going to define net neutrality as maximum internet freedom for consumers and entrepreneurs and everybody in this space, really the debate is over which federal statute that already exists is the best to do that. to protect consumers. if you look at how the internet started from when it was privatized in the mid 1990's, up until the

i'll ask former commissioner of the fcc robert mcdowell. >>> the me too movement.na brown, who says we're living in the arab spring for women. >>> and with california legalizing recreational marijuana and new jersey maybe on deck, h

neil: robert mcdowell, former fcc commissioner.r view, markets still ahead here on indications that marco rubio will indeed be a yes, for senators flake and corker still undecided. it's getting really tight. more after this. . . neil: so much we don't know but ashley webster knowing everything about it. he is in for trish. ashley: thank you, neil. finalized version of republican tax bill a few hours from now. lawmakers making last minute changes, specifically the child tax credit, following senator marco rubio's to vote no on the bill if the credit is not expanded. it is unclear if this is enough to secure a yes vote from rubio. we'll talk about that. uncertainty over tax reform having little impact among the markets. we have a nice rally. dow up 156 points, 24,664. remarkable. good afternoon, everybody. i'm

let's get more on the anti-trust concerns bring in former fcc commissioner robert mcdowell and formerorney general paul mcnulty. paul, when you look at the combination of assets here, anything that would concern you from an anti-trust standpoint? >> well, i think that it's probably going to be an easier deal to try to sell to the department of justice because it's largely horizontal. it's largely bringing together two big content providers and yes, it will make for one very large content provider but there are other players and there are emerging players with this sort of over the top silicon valley companies involved in content development and providing consumers with more choices so i think largely speaking this is about bringing together horizontally some really strong content. >> yeah. robert, been talking a bit more about the anti-trust side via the doj's point of view. on the fcc, given your experience there, if there was an area of concern, what would it be? >> the fcc may not have much of a role here because the broadcast assets owned and operated stations will stay in murdoch

morning we have been talking about fusion gps, and this incredibly tainted investigation of robert mueller dagen mcdowelled with doj. dagen: another huge conflict of interest congressman not just peter strzok fbi agent working on robert mueller's team, also worked on hillary clinton investigation this is bruce ohr until recently deputy assistant attorney general, the we know now through a court filing, from the cofounder of fusion gps firm paid by democrats to put together this now disputed trump dossier if you will, fusion gps fired bruce ohr's wife and paid her to work on this dossier because she had a background in russia, and then, simpson cofounder of fusion gps met with bruce ohr, some weeks after the election. so there is this -- deep conflict at justice department seems by the day only beginning to just scratch the surface on the conflicts of interest and a half are aous goings goings-on in tour justice department. >> so you know those -- obviously committee fighting for months to get documents we had to go to court, fusion gps -- again, it was really -- investigators intelligence committee and o

mcdowell, asioner gigi said, without the government and strict rules, we have isps the siding who can be online -- deciding who can be online. robert: there are strict rules, as i said at the outset. there are three strong federal statutes. there are three strong federal agencies, 50 states with attorneys general, plaintiff attorneys all over the place. there are so many legal arrows. gigi: i think you need to read the proposal. robert: i did read the proposal. if they are acting in a deceptive way -- gigi: deceptive. robert: there are a ton of arrows to protect consumers. speaking of revisionist history. re are plenty of rules out there before what happened. washis internet dystopia going to happen, why did not happen before the title to order ii orderg -- title came along? -- how to greatest get there before we asked the government for permission to innovate? let me read you. back in 1998, bill clinton's second term fcc chairman, in a report to congress said, we note that classifying internet access services as telecommunications services could have significant consequences for the global development of the internet. we recognize

. >> we will talk about this with dagan mcdowell when she comes back, there's a journal op-ed, mueller's credibility problem, do you think robertgiven the conflict talked about? >> i am just an economist. i'm not involved in that. i come to work every day to work on welfare reform and infrastructure and taxes and not involved in a conversation. >> you are an economic geek. >> i do that. great to be here. >> we will be watching the developments. coming up discovery requires a majority stake in oprah winfrey's cable network, how that could boost discovery's plans to launch its own streaming service straightahead. discovery shares up on the news, 30,000 square feet of coffee, the biggest starbucks opened in china, a sneak peak of what it looks like inside, back in a moment. ♪ maria: thousands evacuated fast-moving wildfire in southern california. cheryl casone he has the details. cheryl: the fire has resulted in one death in 1000 homes evacuated. police are going door-to-door trying to get thousands more out of the fire's path. this fire is growing by the minute, high winds standing flames 15 mi. causing a deadly car crash invento