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lies. it is ashame because his actions during the transition were lawful. there was nothing to hide. ger -- garrett tenney in the white house, how is he responding? >> a bit of the change in how the white house is portraying michael flynn. everyone that has followed president trump will remember for more than a year he praised former security adviser, a good man who he wish he didn't have to fire. yesterday the tone from the white house shifted a bit. as they try to diminished flynn 's official and former obama official who served for 25 days before getting fired. the attorney ty down played flynn pleading guilty while adding nothing about the guilty plea or charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. in this morning before leaving the white house, the president said he is not concerned about it either. >> no, i'm not. and what has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. there's been absolutely, there's been absolutely no collusion so we are very happy, we will see what happens, thank you all very much. >> behind the scenes, though, there's a lot of concern because donald rumfeld said you don't know what you don't know. flynn was involved heavily in the campaign and in the first month of the administration so there are all sorts of things they can talk about and the special counsel has very broad powers to investigate anything that comes in the course of his work. kelly: which could be a point of concern as you mentioned. do we have any idea what michael flynn might say? >> well, not really, kelly. there are all sorts of things that he could talk about because of how involved he was. if you look at the deal, though, that he got from special counsel robert mueller is a pretty sweet one. he was charged with a single charge of lying to the fbi, we also know he was facing charges for business dealings and meetings he had with russia and with turkey, none of those charges were included in yesterday's documents and that leads legal experts to believe that flynn does have something worth saying and mueller was willing to make the deal with him even if he doesn't have anything to say, directly related to collusion. >> people are worried and in particular if i were kushner's lawyer or other lawyers, you are somebody high up that was in conversation that you were already likely asked about and so if flynn gave a different description of any of those conversations, then, they did that's a false statement risk not a substantive crime. >> now, fact the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee has already said he wants to have kushner come back to that committee for additional questions after seeing the charging documents, the white house, though, still maintains it believes this investigation will find nothing to substantiate any form of collusion between the campaign and russia, kelly. kelly: still the story lingers out there. >> republicans are celebrating passage of the bill, overhauling u.s. tax code for the first time in decades. caroline is live in washington with more. caroline. >> hi, there molly, the next step is reconciliation with the house version to have bill. they are pretty far apart. they seem very motivated to cut a deal because it would be a huge bill and nation's tax laws in decades. mainly benefits businesses and the wealthy, here some debate last night. >> do i have your word now that you as a senator, i know you can't speak for everybody that you as a senator after this bill is passed and i suspect it will be, you will not support any cuts to social security and medicare and medicaid, do i have that word from you? >> i am not going to support any cuts to people who are on the program and -- >> there it is. >> but i want this program -- >> reclaiming my time. >> i want to acknowledge. we need this program for the next generation. >> he just let the cat out of the box. >> the gop held permanent reduction of corporate tax rate from 25 to 35%. they pointed to modest ten-year cut for individuals and official estimate the bill would add more than a trillion dollars to deficit but republican leaders say that doesn't take into account the massive growth the bill would unleash, democrats took to twitter showing the last-minute changes that were being handwritten on the bill complaining there was no way anyone had anything to read the entire piece of legislation much less study it and figure out how it would affect the economy. >> take a look at this folks, this is your government at work. here is the bill as written, here is the modifications that are written. i can read one word, it's called add this language. can you tell me what that word is? >> the house is coming back a day early on monday to start the process of blaming the two bills together. >> let's see if the gop can find fusion as things move forward. caroline, thank you very much. kelly: let's stay with this topic, more with bob, editor in chief at the hill, bob, thanks for joining us this afternoon, hope you're doing well. early this morning around 2:00 a.m. senate republicans overcame all hurdles and impediments that we have seen to trillion tax bill and passed it and much relief and confidence senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said this is a great day for the country. we have an opportunity to make america more competitive and provide relief to the middle class. will they now be able to reconcile the differences with the house members and congress pass it and sign it into law before christmas? >> yes, and i think it's a good bet they will get it done within the couple of weeks. the bills aren't that different. there are some key differences but talks have already been underway to merge the bills and they've got a formally announced who is going to be on the conference committee that will decide it but this bill has momentum and i see it passing in the next couple of weeks. i don't think it's going to be that difficult. it would have been difficult had the senate changed bill and lowered tax cut that is were going to be in the bill and that's what bob corker wanted. the only republican that didn't vote. they will get this done. kelly: president trump is jubilent about it. it will create more jobs to americans and put more money back into the pockets but democrats as you know say the republican bill amounts to as one congressman said to, legislative malpractice and will hurt many americans, do democrats have a point on this and if so, are republicans calling their complaint, is that wrong or should they try to get some common ground? >> well, they can't get common ground on taxes or certainly on health care, i mean, it's going to be interesting how this bill plays out. it is going to give tax cuts to a lot of people because, i mean, that's why the deficit is going to grow with this. republicans say that the dynamic scoring is going to help the economy and will pay for itself, we will see if that plays out. it's going to be interesting whether democrats talk more about health care and the failed attempt at replacing obamacare or this bill which i think will become law in the midterm elections but one thing that republicans had to do with they had to pass this bill after they lost the virginia governor's election by almost 10 points, they did unify unlike health care and that's why they get the big win. kelly: it's important for them, kevin brady spoke to neil cavuto and he said our focus has been on the middle-class family, on the new entrepreneur, the young person coming out of school trying to get the first job so that's where he believes those tax cuts will land, very important for the republicans to be able to do that so this is a bill for all people. would they achieve that? is this the bill for it? >> well, look, there's no doubt about it that this bill, special interest that are very happy about this bill going through but as republicans say, that if you're in the middle class make roughly 75,000, as household that you will get a couple of thousand dollars in tax relief and that could be significant. i think this is going to be a pr war going forward of who is helped. and i also think, the big question is reducing corporate tax rate to 35 to 20, what kind of impact will that have on jobs and the economy? kelly: that's the big question, we will wait and see what the answers will be because corporate america has the responsibility to do the right thing and that is get those tax cuts and pass it on to the american people in form of jobs and higher wages. let's shift just a moment now, discuss guilty plea of lieutenant colonel mike flynn. the retired general with guilty plea on reaching to russians on president trump's behalf and some members were involved and at times directing his contacts with russia. the president brushing that off saying earlier today he's not concerned at all because, quote, there was absolutely no collusion, so we are very happy. is the president being mature in happiness or should there be cause for concern as this case proceeds because it's still lingering out in the public. >> unlike ty cobb the president's main lawyer recently the probe is going to end up -- ending soon. it's not ending soon. the question is what does flynn know and is he telling everything to mueller, the question s wait a minute, flynn lied to the vice president about his russia contacts, he also lied to the fbi, how credible a witness is flynn if you don't have anything else? so that's going to be a question i imagine that -- that trump allies are going to be raising. kelly: absolutely. even alan has said this is really -- he's not saying it's a slam dunk, michael flynn is damaged goods even to the special counsel robert mueller because of the fact that he lied to the vice president of the united states and the fbi so how can they move forward counting upon him to be a credible witness? >> i think the only way is if they have documentation, if they have emails, recorded calls, anything like that, just his word, i don't think -- unless it's corroborated with others, it's going to be very suspect in a legal standing. kelly: you said a keyword, if it's corroborated and that's what people will be waiting to see. meanwhile the white house is down playing the role that michael flynn played in the transition and the president, of course, moving forward and focusing on tax reform. bob thank you so much. >> thank you. >> kelly: good day to you. >> all right, we are awaiting remarks from national security adviser hr mcmaster, annual event taking place at the ronald reagan presidential library in semi valley california, jennifer griffin is there live, a beautiful place but a serious topic, jennifer. >> it is very beautiful and we are about to hear from the national security adviser. we have just spoken to senior u.s. defense official that tells us that the north korean ballistic test this week, that missile broke up on reentry, that is a key point that the north koreans have not been able to get over this hurdle having survive reentry. right now we understand that allies are searching for parts of that, reminiscence of that missile in the ocean. this is a key development. it's clear that the north koreans still have some work to do on ballistic missile program. my next guest air force secretary heather wilson knows a lot about missiles and about airplanes and let me ask you, you have said in the past that you are short of missile interceptors, you also have a situation where you are 2,000 pilots short in the air force, the b-1 bombers, half of the fleet can't fly, what is going on in. >> we are low on readiness. i mean, the air force has been stretched to the very limit, continuous combat operations for 27 years and we are much smaller than we ever were. we need to restore the readiness of war so that we can win any fight. >> will this -- these budget increases, will -- how quickly can you turn it around in. >> for us readiness is a lot about people and so when we lose a pilot who has had 10 years of experience, takes ten years to restore the reinforce but we are increasing pilot training and working on pilot retention, the most important thing we can do, though, is to lift the sequester in current form, there's nothing that our adversaries have done to damage the air force. >> that's the budget control act, congress would have to lift in order for you to get any of the money required to rebuild, tell me about these airmen who are having to scrounge the bone yard for parts for their planes so that they can deploy, why are they having to do? >> we have shortage parts but not just parts but about people as well and imin addition -- ammunition and making sure that we are ready. it's not that we wouldn't go. if there was a crisis around the world, they will go. a few of them will come back. >> more death. >> the more dying in combat. >> is there a link between budget cuts and accidents in the air. >> we have not found a link there, the united states air force does everything it can to be safe and make sure pilots are trained. our biggest problem is too few of them, 2,000 short, 1300 fighter pilots short. that means we are burning out our people. >> how small is the air force now? can you put it in perspective for us? >> we are the smallest and the oldest we have been in our history. now this budget that the congress is -- i hope, about to pass get beyond continuing resolution would help us turn the corner and start to increase strength to get more people back in the service. >> but if you compare to 1991 and gulf war, how small are you? >> we had 134 fighters, today i have 55. >> wow. >> if we had to go war on the pacific, it is all active guard and reserve. everyone would have to be in because the air force is the stopping force, we have to be there and ready to go. >> given the shortages, if you had to fight an air war against china or russia, would you win? >> there would be a lot -- none of us want to be in a fight, high-end fight, the readier we are, the more likely it is we will never have to fight against russia or china. >> thank you very much, secretary wilson. >> thank you. >> and now we will be hearing from hr mcmaster national security adviser, our own bret baier will be interviewing him shortly. >> jennifer, thank you, she's talking about military readiness and we are likely to hear more about that today. kelly. kelly: a lot of concern about military readiness and we will have more from the reagan national defense forum, bret baier, our colleague will speak with national security adviser hr mcmaster as you heard jennifer talk about in less than an hour, when that happens we will bring it to you live when it all begins and unfold so you can be the first to see it. meantime san francisco defense as sanctuary city after the stunning verdict in the kate steinle murder trial this as the suspect now face it is prospect of new legal action. we will have details on that next. kelly: we are back with more on america niece news hq, deadly incident in oakland after a rented truck slams into a toll booth killing toll collector to the best of your recollection driver and passenger sustained major injuries, several lanes are closed for at least the rest of today, the cause is under investigation. ♪ >> officials in san francisco defending their sanctuary city policy after and illegal immigrant from méxico is acquitted of murder in the shooting death of kate steinle. the mexican national had previously been deported five times. now there could be new legal action. will carl live, will. >> hey there, molly, there's a twist and that the doj issued arrest before he fatally shot kate steinle back in 2015. this week a jury in san francisco acquitted zarate of the most serious charges that he faced. he was convicted for processing a firearm and he currently remains behind bars, attorneys argue that it was a freak accident. president trump who was frequently used shooting as tougher immigration policies immediately criticized the verdict tweeting the kate steinle killer came back and back after weak protected obama border and being violent and the info was not used in court. the exoneration is a complete travesty of justice, build the wall. take a listen to attorney general jeff sessions. >> it's time for this country to get its head on straight, these cities should not be protecting criminal aliens. >> you may remember that zarate was released from san francisco's jail shortly before the shooting despite federal request to hold the 7-time felon for deportation but after the verdict mayor maintains the city is and always will be a sanctuary city, listen to state senator scott. >> have every right to criticize the jury verdict, to express those views but what the president is doing is using this family's, the community's horrible tragedy for hatred against immigrants. >> many conservatives aren't as understanding this weekend on twitter, holy, #boycott san francisco's and kate's wall. >> we thank you for the update, we appreciate it. kelly: coming up a look at reagan national defense form -- forum in semi valley, california. hr mcmaster with our own bret baier, we will bring that to you live. michael flynn pleads guilty to lying to the fbi. what's the impact of the white house, our political panel will weigh in next your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. >> michael flynn's deal may bring implications to the white house. president trump reiterating there was no collusion between trump and russia. michael is the democratic strategists and former aide to senator chuck schumer. thank you both for being here. >> how are you? >> i'm doing wonderful. glad to be here. so to kick things off, michael flynn essentially said he will be cooperating and he's someone who was very close to the administration and to president trump before, during campaign and following, do you think poll incomes the white house are replaying conversations they may have had with mr. flynn and when they had them, that sort of thing, michael? >> oh, absolutely, you know the old saying, three people can keep a secret only if two of them are dead, it's nice to be a stressful time for anybody who had interactions with him but for all the bluster, all the spin and rhetoric and press strategic around this, because lawyers are involved and it's a special prosecutor it becomes very binary, very black and white, very technical and very legal, is the threshold met for a certain crime? and no amount of tweeting and no amount of yelling and huffing and puffing is going to change that analysis. >> you know, the president has repeatedly said no collusion, no collusion, no collusion, his own lawyer coming out and saying the false statements involved mirror the false statements to officials which result in resignation in february of this year, brad, bringing you in, they are essentially saying he's a liar, he lied, he'll admitted to lying, so your thoughts on where the white house stand? >> well, i think the white house should be concerned because there are a number of white house officials who have been under oath speaking to investigators and if they told the truth i don't see criminal liability and here is why, the ultimate author who had more contact, now post election, this is while the transition was going on was mike flynn and he wasn't charged with any underlying crime of conspiracy, there is no such thing of collusion in federal law. there would have had to be act of collusion, essential mike flynn only pleaded to not telling the truth to the fbi, so if he is ultimately responsible for any kind of conspiracy, how can anybody else at the white house be tagged with that kind of behavior? mick flynn was the expert. he headed intel agency, if he was told something that he knew he was wrong, he should have been the one to stop it. he didn't, thinking you're doing something wrong when it's not wrong is not right but lying to the fbi is a crime. >> you raise somebody interesting, also president trump's lawyer saying nothing about the guilty plea implicates anyone other than mr. flynn, for someone who is a confessed liar who is cooperating, what type of witness does that make? >> well, certainly it implicates his credibility and implicates how he could be trusted in moving forward and i absolutely agree with my colleague, perhaps it begins and ends with flynn, but having confessed to lying to the fbi, which really wasn't unforced error, he simply didn't have to do that, it certainly changes the tenure of conversations moving forward. >> he lied specifically to fbi agents regarding conversations with russian ambassador sergey kislyak and also votes regarding israeli settlements, also that he should have spoken to jared kushner, during the transition, lying about it with mr. flynn is charged with, why would you lie about a noncrime, bret? >> the political persons is aquiles heels, it's lying to the fbi, lying under oath to another official or to during the trial. why they do it, who knows. if they had come clean, flynn with the fbi, nothing wrong with what he did, by the way, the russians are sophisticated, i bet they read our constitution and understand that the president elect has no power until noon on january 20th and certainly they also know that donald trump has no influence over a lame-duck president. this has much to do about nothing and certainly the logan act which is something that people have been talking about has never been prosecuted and probably the worst statutes that was ever written in 1700's. >> michael, a lot of hype of russian collusion, really big in the news, tremendous amount of reporting on it but why lie about this a noncrime? >> well, i again agree with my colleagues on all points except the fact that the logan need not be taken so seriously in pursuit of this matter and goes to your question which is they didn't have to do anything, they had to wait until january 20th and then you're not the president elect, but i guess it speaks to the temperament and inexperience of the incoming administration that they simply couldn't help themselves and once you do that and you realize you did something wrong, again to my colleague's point, human nature, perhaps you compound by it by lying, why they did it, they didn't have to do any of this. >> a lot of talk about how this is a soft charge, he could have been facing far greater charges and this this could be a domino effect that they have his cooperation and could lead to further arrests and further charges and knowing the circle that he traveled with, how concerned should people at the white house be and anyone in the administration, bret? >> i don't think there's much concern because to me michael flynn is the biggest fish, he's the one who had all of the contacts with the russians and other governments in -- in preparation for taking power. the fact that he may have been directed to do so, there is no crime in doing that. as a matter of fact, it's customary for president elect's staff, that's why it's called transition to reach out and establish relationships before you take office, so there was nothing to lie about, that's the problem here. >> michael, what do you think, brad just said flynn is the big fish? >> i think not. there are people who the white house who are going to be anxious for the next several days if not weeks and i think that within the president's inner circle and i'm not saying with inside knowledge but both as attorney and political person that they're trying to figure out who takes the fall and who is designated to be the end point in this conversation. but i don't think we are through with this analysis or investigation or conversation at all. >> and then finally, i want to talk a little bit about where we stand, the president's lawyer has said that this clear it is way for a prompted reasonable conclusion, do you think we are on the verge of wrapping things up as far as the mueller's investigation? >> yes, i do. a plea was taken and only one count of lying to the fbi. i think it's a very positive sign to where this investigation is going. certainly if he was the star witness or other indictments were to follow in close order, they would have never put flynn out there. we would have never heard about flynn until others were indicted, that's my opinion. >> i would say while i don't expect this is through, i really hope that -- i hope it's done. i think whether you're on the left or right, democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, everybody wants this over and to be past us so everybody can focus on governing. >> i agree. >> thank you very much, both of you agree. we appreciate it. thanks for both coming on. we appreciate it. >> thank you. kelly: getting back to govern, imagine that, that would be a good thing. another sexual harassment and nancy pelosi calling for resignation of governor after former aide accused him of unwanted sexual advances, meantime michigan congressman john conyers remains defiant and refusing to step down amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment, ellison barber has more from washington. >> minority leader nancy pelosi called on representative rubin to step down after a former staffer accused the nevada democrat of sexual harassment during 2016 campaign. the statement pelosi said, quote, the young woman's documented amount is convincing, the woman only identified as samantha told buzzfeed he repeatedly asked her for dates and sex even though she repeatedly said no. he even told buzzfeed he's sorry for anything he did that, quote, made her feel uncomfortable. the most recent lawmaker accused of sexual harassment but he is not the only one. according to report in politico, 84,000 taxpayer dollars were used to settle a 2014 sexual harassment claim against texas republican representative blake farenthold, since 1997 reportedly paid more than $17 million in settlements for various violations of employment rules including sexual harassment. three former staffers accused long time-congressman john conyers of sexual harassment, conyers admit today using $27,000 from his office's budget to settle a harassment claim made by a staffer now identified as marian brown. >> who pointed two areas of -- genital areas of his body and asked me to, you know, touch it. >> after that interview minority leader nancy pelosi called on conyers to resign. five women have accused minnesota senator al franken of groping them, a number of house democrats have called on him to step down but over in the senate, top democrats are saying, just let the ethics investigation play out. in washington, i'm ellison barber, fox news. >> thank you for that, a big day at the ronald reagan presidential library as military leaders gather for the fifth annual reagan national defense forum, national security adviser hr mcmaster set to speak shortly as we get new details on the latest north korean missile launch. what we are learning about the weapon's 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[vo] quickbooks introduces he teaches lessons to stanley... and that's kind of it right now. but rodney knew just what to do...he got quickbooks. it organizes all his accounts, so he knows where he stands in an instant. ahhh...that's a profit. which gave him the idea to spend a little cash on some brilliant marketing! ha, clever. wow, look at all these new students! way to grow, rodney! know where you stand instantly. visit quickbooks.com. kelly: welcome back, we are awaiting remarks from national security adviser h.r. mcmaster and speaking to our very own bret baier at the national defense forum. meanwhile we are closely listen to any latest on the rising threat of north korea, fox news learning now that the intercontinental ballistic missile launched by the rogue regime last week broke upon reentry into earth's atmosphere. this new test could potentially reach the u.s. mainland, but the war head would be destroyed before hitting us. for more let's bring in retired lieutenant colonel daniel l. davis, senior fellow and military expert at defense priorities. sir, good of you to joining us today and thanks for weighing on the all-important issue. i keep hearing comments, it's going to break on reindustry therefore it might not hit us, the likelihood of it hitting us, just the mere chance of that is enough to cause concern, right? >> yes, absolutely. you certainly can't bank on those things malfunctioning in the air. you have to assume if they are fired, that there's ever chance to hit the united states which is one of the reasons why, you know, i think that the most important thing that we can do is to really reinforce deterrence to prevent them from ever launching one of those. kelly: i'm glad -- i'm sorry to cut you off, i'm glad that you talked about deterrent, there's a time for anything under the sun. there's a now time for -- is it a time, rather, for end of diplomacy and sanctions in north korea? should we think about the military option? >> no, i believe there's never an end to diplomacy. you should always be pursuing that because the failure of diplomacy very often means war and that means catastrophic losses for everyone and it could mean a nuclear weapon dropped on the united states, we definitely don't want to get rid of diplomacy but even during diplomacy, it's critically important that we communicate a very strong and powerful deterrence at all time, you know, this is -- the conference going on in california with the ronald reagan, you know, his whole peace through strength, that's the way to go but it's a peace and strength, so we want to use our strength to prevent them from using their weapons while pursuing any kind of chance at all that we can have to prevent them from using any of the weapons so that no one has to die. kelly: okay, again you raise a very important point, peace through strength which is, of course, the former president ronald reagan had talked about even going thank teddy roosevelt carrying a big stick as well. where is our big stick and peace restraint when our military forces have been hurt so badly because of sequestration, we are talking $10 billion in cuts and that's affecting our training, we are having accidents, we are having cannibalized parts to put on our current war planes, the training is down, how do we maintain that strength in the face of what's happening? >> let me clear i will say that while these -- level of training is not where we want it to be, level of readiness can certainly be improved, let there be no doubt in anybody's mind that our military is completely capable of handling anything that happens in north korea. i assure you it is. kelly: well said, north korea but then we are on the front in afghanistan, 16 years there. we have some forces but forces still ready. the u.s. intelligence community estimates that north korea may have as many as 60 nuclear weapons and now that they have proven they can launch missiles that might be capable of reaching the united states, there are also reports that north korea, they are developing weapons to destroy the u.s. power grid, north korea's huge missile arsenal includes icbm, range missiles and cruise missiles and developing submarine launched missiles, what do we have to do, again, to show that strength to deter them when we know that somewhere along the lines someone is funneling money to north korea to keep these things developed? >> well, we certainly need to find actively search on that and shut off any evidence -- any access that we can to either technology or to money, but just consider also that during the entirety of the cold war when you had the murderist china and joseph stalin and even though north korea has these things they can be detiered -- deterred for survival. they know that we have 30, 40, 50 times as many weapons as they do. we can use that to our advantage. that's why deterrence is essential by promising that they will destroy them if they do. kelly: there's always the concern with all to have bluster and all of the threatening actions and provocative actions, there's always the concern of that one mistake, that one accident that could result in hurting our allies like japan or some of our other allies like south korea or even hurting the united states. if that happens, then we have a problem on our hands that is amount to war. >> that's part of the nature of deterrence, is to make sure that they don't make any calculation that would go against that because they should know that if anything even an accident happens, then we will respond, we have to be critically aware if they have the ability to launch nuclear weapon, whether icbm or medium-range or anything else. we actually tried military operation to take them out but we don't succeed in them all, we could prompt them to fire that weapon -- we just can't risk that. kelly: colonel, it's very delicate, so how do you deal with the funding sources or the funding streams that they're possibly receiving and, of course, some of the suspects would be china, great suspicion in the role that they might be providing for north korea and other countries like russia, iran, along with china, so how do we get those countries to get on board with all sincerity and all delivered speed to put an end to the nuclear appetite that north korea is displaying? >> well, i think it's important first to recognize that north korea doesn't per se have nuclear appetite, what they have is appetite for self-preservation and they perceive that the nuclear weapon is the only way that they can get it. china has been very outfront -- recently as yesterday in the global times they said in response to the last nuclear missile launch that they are absolutely adamantly oppose to north korea having the nuclear weapons and they recognize and understand washington is upset but they said until we recognize that they have a self-preserving need it's going to be hard to come to any kind of agreement. kelly: i have to interrupt you and keep it there. certainly more conversation will be had on this all-important topic, colonel, we thank you for joining u lieutenant colonel daniel davis, senior fellow for washington think tank and we thank you for joining us, sir. >> thank you very much. >> president trump's national security adviser h.r. mcmaster is set to speak at any moment at the reagan national defense forum in simi valley, california, we are looking at the podium awaiting remarks, of course national security adviser to president trump. he's -- he has a long history of serving in the military and army and remains on active duty now. we see at the podium john, the director there at the presidential library, the busiest presidential library across the nation, sitting in beautiful location there in simi valley, california, he will be introducing h.r. mcmaster and then following the remarks from mr. mcmaster, we will also be hearing from our own anchor bret baier, the host of special report in a long and engaging discussion that he'll be having with the -- with h.r. mcmaster following the remarks -- following those remarks, we are expecting that conversation will last about 20 minutes and could be very far ranging, this is a forum that draws people together from across the defense industry, members of -- of our lawmakers as well as our national leaders are pentagon correspondent has been talking about some of the issues on the ground as she reports live throughout the course of this gathering, some of the issues they'll be discussing, military readiness regarding how ready we are to respond to threats, of course, north korea at the top of mind and the recent missile test there and what that could mean for our nation and -- kelly: one of the biggest problems that we have been facing as we were discussing with lieutenant davis moments ago and we heard in reports by jennifer griffin, talking to air force secretary, there is concern about sequestration which is five years ago, $100 billion, that has definitely in so many terms taken a lot of strength away from our training, away from our equipment, and so all of that has to be looked at and obviously when you have a forum like this and talking about our national defense it's important to talk about how do we get the budget back that we are taking care of all the train's we -- trainees we have, we do have a sense of readiness, we are prepared for any battle but keep in mind how beliggerred our forces are in 16 years of war with afghanistan, other threats around the world, there's africa, there's the threat from terrorism, isis, we have been putting them on the run. we still have to be ready. the president of the united states saying that north korea should conduct something toward our ally or as well as domestic homeland that we will move in, nikki haley, the ambassador of the un, with le utterly destroy north korea but, again, keep in mind, when talking about -- when talk like that rises, you want to be sure that we are not only ready but we are also well trained. >> questions about if we are on the verge yet of another cold war rising, throughout the reporting fox news journalist has been talked about military readiness, jets that aren't ready to fly, bombers aren't ready to fly and harvesting bone yard for parts to be ready. shortage of fighter pilots. let's go ahead and take a listen to what john is saying and as we await h.r. mcmaster and his speech. >> thank you, john, for that kind introduction and thanks to the regan defense forum for bringing together such a talented and dedicated group of people for these discussions. it is such a privilege to be amongst so many old friends, teachers and mentors and colleagues, fellow officers. today what i would like to talk with you about is about reclaiming america's strategic confidence. it is hard to imagine a more appropriate place to hold this discussion than this hall. , a place that honors a leader who secured our nation and helped bring down the berlin wall and ensured that freedom and liberty triumphed over communist totalitarianism, for those of us old enough and looks mike most of us are old enough -- [laughter] >> this majestic building and its beautiful visas evoke memories of when we learned the hard breaking news of ronald reagan's death. at the time the news media which was not always friendly to the president struggled to handle the monumental event in american history. the american people showed us the way, more than 100,000 people came here to this library to pay the respects. it was reported that traffic was so congested approaching the library that mourners anticipated hour and a half drive remained in their cars for six hours, a long time each for people subjected to los angeles traffic. a young man reagan wilson told the new york times that he had been very emotional in the wake of the president's death, the story of reagan, he said, is the story of america, one of manifest's destiny. our founders believe that the greatest wisdom of our nation rests in the hearts and in the minds of the american people. president trump shared his leaf and we saw it's undeniable truth in the days that followed his passing. when president trump -- reagan took office many believed that washington was not serving the american people well, our confidence at home and our influence abroad had weighed significantly over the past decade, the soviet union appeared to be on the rise and america had seemed was in decline. president reagan ushered in a dramatic rethinking of america's role in the world and dramatic renewal of american confidence. america would not only triumph in the cold war and beyond but reach a new height of influence and prosperity. he described, quote, a future of growth, opportunity and security anchored by the values of people who are confident, compassionate and whose heart is good. reagan assertively declared that it was communism that would lie on the ash heap of history not democracy and not the united states of america. this unshakable confidence in our principles and in our vision for the world made us stronger and made us more secure. in 1987 armed with confidence, president reagan signed the first ever national security strategy. today as we approach the unveiling of the trump administration's national security strategy, we are at a similar cross roads. revision is powers, russia and china are subverting the post world war ii political, economic and security orders to advance their own interest at our expense and the expense of our allies, the rogue regimes of north korea are violating sovereignty of neighbors, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and exporting terror to other nations, jihadist terrorists organizations such as isis threatened all civilized people in every corner of the world. these national security challenges also require a dramatic rethinking of american foreign policy from previous decades. president trump will soon unveil the details of his new strategy but i can tell you now that it will focus on protecting our homeland, advancing american prosperity, preserving piece -- peace which would not be lost from this audience and finally, enhancing american influence. today i would like to tell you how we are reclaiming the strategic confidence necessary for implementing the strategy through understanding, understanding in four areas. first, the values that define our nation, second, the full instruments of our power, third, the threats facing our nation and fourth, the dynamic and competitive nature of our security environment. first, understanding the values that define our nation and who we are. president reagan described america as a shining city upon a hill and spoke truth about the sufferings of people living under fear and oppression. today we are reclaiming this confidence in american values and warsaw the president proudly proclaimed we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom. in riyadh, saudi arabia the president that those would not confront would be judged by god. the president spoke truth about human rights violations of the north korean regime which he noted imprisons its people, barn of tyranny, fascism and oppression. he has matched the clear commitment to american values and principles with action in responding to use of assad's use of weapons on earth. the president further demonstrated his commitment to american values with changes in our policies towards cuba, iran and venezuela. second, understanding the full instruments of our power. president reagan understood diplomacy and military force were both important and equally vital tools for national powers, president trump is focused on aligning our diplomatic, economic, military, informational intelligence and law enforcement efforts since the first days of his administration, great example of this has been the president's new strategic in south asia which he outlined for the american people on address in august of this year. after review of strategic options in the region, the president decided on a new strategy rounded in the intrigue ration of all instruments of national power. we would no longer confuse activity with progress. our military efforts and operations in the region combined with the efforts of our partners would focus on what brought us to afghanistan in 2001 to deny terrorist safe havens that they can use to threaten america and threaten our allies. third, understanding the threats and security challenges we face. president reagan had a clear-eyed view of the national security threats facing america during his tenure. president trump and his national security team have clearly described the threats that emanate from revisionist powers, rogue regimes and jihadist terrorist organizations. i would like to acknowledge the great work of our intelligence professionals under director coats and director mike pompeo, mike pompeo here with us today. the administration's approach of principled realism also adapts a realistic view of security environments, for this reason, we do not face national security decisions on rigid ideology but instead of core national interest and clearly defined objectives derived from those interests. some threats are more obvious than others, on the recent asia trip the president spoke out forcibly against unfair trade and economic policies which have disadvantaged american workers and companies. for too long washington turned a blind eye to cheating and exploiting practices abroad. we in large measure vacated the competitive economic space and the american people paid the price. we have also been cleared eyed about the more obvious threat from north korea's nuclear weapons and missile developments. the president is committed to the total denuclearization of the korean peninsula. he has no collusions about the north korean dictators' intentions and we will not repeat failed efforts of the past. four, understanding the dynamic and competitive nature of our security environment. we must acknowledge that the international system is above all, characterized by competition, interaction and change. president reagan fully understood this reality in 1983 he signed national security decision directive 75 which argued that containing and reversing soviet influenced required competing effectively on a sustained basis in all international arenas. the united states wants all nations to be strong, proud and independent and we want all people to have the opportunity to rise, we will compete but competition must be fair. our economic relationships will respect our partner's sovereignty over economic destinies while ensuring that american workers and american companies are not unfairly disadvantaged. with competition comes change as president's near conclusion, he was asked about the use of the term evil empire to describe the soviet union, he responded, they had been talking about another time, another era. we must be willing to adjust strategy to changes in the security environment while remaining focused on our core national security interests. for example, the president's new vision for a free and open indo pacific with a community of nations that are independent and thriving and the future of many dreams for the people of the region, so to summarize, confronting the security challenges of today will require us to reclaim our strategic confidence. i would be grateful for your ideas on how we might better understand and apply all of our instruments of national power, understand the threats and opportunities we face and understand and adapt to the dynamic and competitive nature of today's security environment. the legacy of a president of national security strategy help make the world as safer and more humane place. as a historian, i know the stacks of these walls that record president reagan's team remarkable achievements and security, our national security team recognizes that today's problems are not wholly unprecedented. we are committed to learning from the past to acquire the deep understanding essential to protect the homeland, advance american prosperity, preserve peace through strength and enhance american influence. thank you very much and i'm very much looking forward to the discussion with bret, thank you. [applause] >> as the general said, i would like to invite fox news chief political anchor bret baier to the stage to interview the general. bret. [applause] bret: thanks, john. general. thank you, sir. it's great to be here, after the introduction and laying out the principles of the strategy that you said the president is going to unveil, let's start broadly. in your mind, what is the greatest threat to national security? >> well, i would say that as we look at time horizon associated with threats, the greatest immediate threat to the united states and to the world is the threat caused by the rogue regime in north korea and continued efforts to develop a long-range nuclear capability and so it's immensely important that we work together with all of our allies, partners everyone internationally to convince kim jong un that the continued pursuit of these capabilities is a dead end for him and his regime. so let me get a little specific on north korea, we are being told that the icbm, the most recent launch broke up on reentry. is north korea having trouble on that reentry step and thereby right now the u.s. overall is not at threat from their ballistic missiles? >> well, it'll take some time to assess each of the missile launches but what is clear is that every time, every time he conducts a missile launch and nuclear test, he gets better and -- and whether it's a success or failure isn't as important as understanding that over the years he's been learning from failures, improving and thereby increasing his threat to all of us. bret: so the potential of war with north korea increased since the latest launch? >> i think it's increasing every day which means that we are in a race, really, we are in a race to be able to solve this problem, not just us, right, but the united states, all allies and partners as we know china has tremendous coercive economic power over north korea. i mean, you can't shoot a missile without fuel, right, and so there are -- there are ways to address this problem short of our conflict but it is a race because he's getting closer and closer and there's not much time left. bret: so is china serious about overting the process? >> the president very early in presidency met with president xi in mar a logo and significant results from that significant discussion about north korea. that, i think, represented dramatic changes potentially not only in china's attitude but actions that they could take. the first of these is that china agreed that this is a threat to everyone. this is a global threat. a threat to china, if you want, this is a problem between the united states and north korea. the second, the second big change is that china is wholly committed and president xi affirmed this again during president trump's visit to beijing, china is committed to the complete denuclearization of north korea. remember in the past and still sometimes even today you see a lapse back into -- into the language of freeze for freeze or suspension for suspension, that's not the objective. negotiations for negotiations sake not the objective. the objective is denuclearization. that's a big shift as well. and the third big shift is china recognizes that it does have tremendous economic power over north korea. so we are asking china not to do us or anybody a favor, we are asking china to act -- in china's interest as they should and we believe increasingly that it's in china's urging interest to do more, to do more beyond un security council resolutions. as we know, we cannot rely on an international body because there are those within that body who obstruct that important work, for example, russia just vetoed the joint investigative mechanism for use of chemical weapons in syria, to provide more cover for the assad regime to potentially commit further mass murder, we know that getting the sanctions that we need, 100% cutoff would be appropriate at this point. the president believes that of oil and fuel to north korea, maybe impossible from a un security resolution but that doesn't constraint china or other nation from taking bilateral beyond that. bret: china sent envoy to north korea, does that mean that it failed? >> kim jong un isn't particularly cordial to anyone, even his own people. it didn't come as surprise that the envoy was rejected and was not -- didn't even have a meeting with kim jong un. and so the prospects now for any dramatic change in his behavior without -- without some significant new actions in the form of much more severe sanctions, complete enforcement of the sanctions that are in place now, i think it's extremely unlikely for us to -- he's not going to have a grinch moment, i don't think, with his heart two sizes larger and we see him change his behavior. bret: i didn't think we were going to get a grinch reference. that's pretty good close to christmas. [laughter] bret: a couple of things on north korea and we will move around the world, understanding that diplomacy is the preference here, obviously, understanding that there are many military plans and options, there always are for north korea, is there any military option that does not include the death of tens of thousands of south koreans? >> well, we know for sure that this is what kim jong un has done since 1950, right, held that population of south korea hostage. every provocation, every hostile act originated from the north. he has in the past been able to do that obviously with large conventional capability, all the artillery pieces and rockets and so forth that's not too far north of seoul. bret: hundreds of them. >> thousands of ammunitions and so forth and so there's no military course of action that comes without -- without risk and that's why our alliance with south korea, with japan, those alliances are stronger than ever. what kim jong un is doing is driving us closer and closer together and coalescing the international community against kim jong un. if you think about what's happening just in recent months and this ought to be something we ought to provide a roll up of, but countries across globe have taken action beyond un security council resolutions. first of all, south korea and japan are improving their defense capabilities at break-neck speed and doing that in cooperation with us. joint bilateral xers -- commerces and also with improved capabilities. what's striking is how many nations have keyed all economic relations with north korea. this is from philippines, thailand, brazil to méxico. so many countries that are acting beyond the un security resolutions and supporting all of our efforts to convince kim jong un that this is a dead end, diplomatic and economically. bret: should americans feel safe about going into the winter olympics in seoul in february? >> americans should feel safe because we have -- we have an extraordinarily ready and capable military and -- and that military is getting stronger every day based on the president's priority to address what had been deferred military modernization, strengthening all of our services and their capabilities and i think that's pretty apparent. bret: sure, did you sign off on the u.s. team being a part of that olympics or white house? >> i don't know if there's a process for doing that. i'm certain that we would. assured president moon last week that they'll be strong presidential delegation. you know, one of the great things about going to south korea is what you get to see is the start contrast between two systems. look at south korea in 1953, ravaged by decades of war, no natural resources a population that under illiterate and corrupt government and hostile neighbor. it looked pretty bleak. look at south korea now. then just go a few miles north across the 30th parallel and look at the hell that is north korea and you see today a dramatic contrast even probably more dramatic than that which existed across the walls and fences and -- that divided eastern and western during cold war. bret: complicated time, we will bounce around. has russia cooperating in syria cemented bashar al-assad in power? >> no, i don't think so, befacto bashar al-assad to the great disappointment of us and the syrian people, you know, is in power and what's needed is a political transition that allows all syrians to have a say in the future nature of that government so they can get out of this horrible humanitarian crisis. how can assad be part of that? it's really hard to imagine, right? somebody who has committed mass murder of his own people, how does that work? we are going to ask the syrian population to accept him, millions of refugees and displaced people, murdered people, imprisoned and tortured people, families who all of whom -- almost every family is lost -- has lost someone and interaction with the other brutal enemies that we are fighting on that territory isis and other groups, so what's needed in syria is a consolidation of gains over isis and consolidation in such a way that it can bridge into a political process and deliver enduring security, what syria has become is a destructive cycle of violence that who takes advantage of that, these -- the islamist terrorist organizations like daesh or isis and al-qaeda-related groups like nusra and iranians, and what the iranians have done across the middle east, cycles of violence so they can take advantage of environments and take advantage of weak states to make them dependent on them for support. bret: how can the use roll back iran's gains in the middle east, then? >> by comprehensive strategy. i think it's fair to say that in recent years, maybe what we can say certainly in retrospect unrealistically hopeful strategy that given the nuclear deal, what the president has called the worst deal ever, that that deal would -- would result in an iran that would integrate more effectively in the region that would change his behavior but you know what's happened, the exact opposite has happened and the focus on trying to accommodate iran has empowered iran across the whole region so when the president -- the president says he's inherited a mess, that mess, i think, the in north korea but also in the greater middle east where we have to address what -- growing iranian capability and an ability to use proxies, malicious terrorist organizations and what they're in the middle of doing now is using a sophisticated campaign of submersion in iraq and a continued support for assad, about 80% of assad's fighters are iranian proxies in syria to establish this kind of land bridge over -- over into the mediterranean and so what we face is the prospect of iran having proxy army on the borders of israel. what we see is the weaponization to yemen, southern lebanon, they are trying to do it in syria with long-range missiles and they're increasing the threat that iran poses to the whole region through islamic revolutionary guards corp and proxies, what we have in place now is a comprehensive strategy for iran and denying iran all pass to a nuclear weapon is one part of that strategy, countering behavior is another critical part of the strategy. i think you've seen significant changes in ohio we are working with partners in the region to affect that. bret: given the tension with north korea and iran that we just talked about, why do you think there's no bipartisan urgency to ig -- significantly increase defense spending? >> i think there should be and the president is working urgently now. there's dramatic example of why we need an end to defense sequester, why we need a higher degree of predictability in defense budget. as i mentioned, there's a huge wave of deferred modification and services aren't big enough. look at what the president said in the campaign, it's clear on what we have to do in era of modernization and making sure that armed forces had capabilities to deal with these crises, to protect our security and our interests. bret: general, you know the criticism on capitol hill is that they were -- the hawks were a little bit disappointed with the number that they get with the president and you all from the budget? >> this is the beginning, this is the beginning of recovery in military capabilities and in military capacity, depth in those forces. what secretary mattis has prioritized initially is the first thing you have to do, the forces you have are ready and so a lot of resources have gone into that now but what's really needed is our new capabilities to deal with our adversaries who watched this closely and while we cut back on modernization, they developed kind of a narrow range of capabilities but capabilities that threaten what used to be our ability to overmatch our enemies. now, we are still extraordinarily capable, if we go to fight, it's not going to be a fair fight for enemy that takes on us, we have to invest to make sure we ensure the overmatch. bret: congressman approved sanctions in russia in july, it's been a slow process to see those implemented, why? >> i always think that you can get the instant sanction, you go to treasury and say sanctions and it happens, i'm learning, i've learned the process now, it takes time to make sure we are doing right, to make sure we sanction the right entities so the state department has released guidance, treasury, some of the most overworked people in our government are in awesome treasury department who do hard analytical work but there's no holding back on it, but if you think about it, sanctions are relevant to countering russia's destabilizing behavior and we are moving out on that as fast as we can but also to increase the economic isolation and pressure on the north korean regime, it's also to sanction iran's behavior associated with their missile development in violation of un council resolutions and to sanction behavior based on support for terrorist organizations and their proxies. if you look at venezuela and the victimization of the venezuelan people and doing everything we can in support with our allies and partners to communicate to maduro that he has to restore his citizens' constitutional rights that has to do with sanctions. nobody taking any days off these days in the treasury department. bret: in the campaign arming ukrainians was part of pitch, is that still polls of the administration? >> yes, what we continue to do is strengthen ukrainian defense capabilities and that's based on nonlethal assistance but ukrainians are very capable and i saw who had a big role in this, ukrainians are embarked on a significant governmental reform effort but also a military reform effort and i think it would be extremely difficult for russian proxies, russia not to be able to make significant gains if they were to extend the territory that they're controlling after their invasion of ukraine. bret: it's a dangerous world and you look around the world and there are a ton of hot spots. the next question is politically sensitive but you said everything was open when we started this thing. does an event like the indictment of your predecessor carry some form of policy or security impact? do foreign allies get rattled by it, do adversaries get embolden by it, does it constrain the trump administration foreign policy? >> i see no evidence of the investigation in any way impeding the important work that we are doing, so what we are endeavoring to do is to regain our strategic focus and so what the president asked us to do in the national security council is involve responsibilities back to departments who have to execute policies and we have done that and with all the time that we have saved, tactical details, we have established a very strong foundation, foundation of strategy clearly articulated objectives for the national security challenges we are facing. one of those challenges is russia and what we are endeavoring to do with russia is three things. we need to counter russia's destabilizing behavior that we saw really grow significantly in the last several years, right, you can go back to now service attacks gastonia, 2007, invasion of georgia, 2008, invasion of ukraine, the intervention on the side of the assad regime in syria and go on and on, disturbing pattern and then, of course, you have the subversion of democracies broadly in the west, europe has suffered in particular from this. you saw russian hands in the catalonia referendum, you're starting to see russia active in méxico well in advance of the mexican election, so what we have been focused on is the three things we have to do with russia, hybrid warfare, new generation warfare where they attempt to use sophisticated strategy of subversion, but really disinformation and propaganda to polarize communities and effect our confidence. i gave this talk about strategic confidence, it's really an element of that. part of reclaiming our strategic confidence is having confidence in what unifies us as americans and so it would be great if every time we talk about what divides us, we also at least give equal time to what -- to what units us as americans, so we want to confront russia's destabilizing behavior. it wouldn't be anybody's interest to have a large-scale conflict with russia and the third thing what we need to do is find areas of cooperation with russia, so russia policies are focused. bret: you don't think that counterparts around the world were rattled from yesterday? >> i don't think so, we are in close contact. the national security adviser support group that we have. [laughter] >> we get together periodically in conferences and we are always on the phone with each other and there's tremendous confidence, i think there's more confidence in the united states frankly. i think there's a sense that we engaging in areas that we had disengaged. you might remember an article three to four years ago, it sort of celebrated the most american middle east as this was triumph, well, how is that working out, right? what we have endeavored to do is to engage in a meaningful way with allies and partners to break this horrible cycle of violence, to have the enduring defeat of isis. we have now with allies and partners defeated isis in 95% of the so-called caliphate in syria and iraq. there's a lot to celebrate in what's going on, the situation is in the middle east right now it's very tenuous, yemen horrible humanitarian crisis there, we are working very hard to address that to convince other that is they have to address as matter of urgency, in general, u.s. reengagement in that region in that area and other areas has been welcomed and encouraging. >> general mcmaster, thank you for your candid remarks, thank you for the service to the country, sir. >> thank you, bret, what a privilege to be with you and everyone. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the rest of the forum. kelly: we have enjoyed our own bret baier who is our chief political anchor and correspondent, of course, and the anchor of special report and he was just having a very candid conversation about our defense posture and our way moving forward with national security adviser h.r. mcmaster, one of the key things that bret brought out, this is a dangerous world in which we live and he went to the core that many people would probably want to know and that is did the legal troubles of former nsa adviser which would be lieutenant general michael flynn, did his guilty plea have any bearing on our allies to which mr. mcmaster went onto say, absolutely not, we are becoming more -- we are having more strength but talked about a range of topics from korea to the middle east, to the situation in syria, yemen and even ukraine and venezuela and méxico. and for more on this, we will go now to molly. >> you hear a list like that, you know how great the challenges are that we face in america particularly when it comes to military to military readiness and pressures around the world. joining me now to address all of the questions and topics, john bolton, former u.s. ambassador to un, senior fellow at the american enterprise institute and fox news con transcribe -- contributor. >> glad to be with you. >> we have been keeping an eye and members of the administration to talk about military readiness and we have opportunity to listen to national security adviser h.r. mcmaster speak as well as interview with own anchor bret baier with follow up. he asked mcmaster what the greatest threat was and not shocking answer, he said, north korea. i would like to get your assessment on that. >> i think north korea is part of it but i think the threat as a whole, strategic threat is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction more broadly including chemical and biological weapons. that's why i think president trump's strike against the assad regime in syria for the use of chemical weapons was a very, very important aspect of this and i frankly don't think you can divorce north korea from iran, cooperation between iran and north korea historically on ballistic missiles and almost certainly on the nuclear side puts them together and it's part of a bigger strategic picture and that is if north korea or iran or both get a deliverable nuclear weapon's capability, i'm afraid that decades of counterproliferation efforts led by the united states will fail. i think this will be a massive failure of american national security policy and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. this is determining whether the 21st century, i think, would be a world where many more countries, dozen more countries get nuclear and chemical biological weapons here and whether we can draw the line. >> as you're bringing that up we had reporting from own national security correspondent jennifer griffin who happens to be on the ground in california speaking of latest ballistic launch and broke up on reentry, a hurdle they haven't been able to get past, one that apparently protects us at least for now from a war head actually striking the continental united states. i mean, is there any relief in that or do you think north korea is actually getting very, very close as we have seen them advance so rapidly recently? >> no, i think general mcmaster made the correct point that every launch brings them closer to the objective whether everybody aspect of it succeeds or not, in 1950's when van guard and jupiter were blowing up on launch pads in the united states, our rocket scientists and they were rocket scientists would describe cats trophies as 90% successes and the reason was that they had to know where the weak spots were in their science and engineering. you know, it's not at all clear what was under the nose cone of the rocket on this most recent launch and therefore we can't really tell what -- what that implies once they put a thermal nuclear war head under it. but our intelligence is imperfect and that's why there's precious little time to make a decision, whether there's any prospect of north korea denuclearized on its own or chinese pressure or whether we need to use military force. we can't blink at this any longer. this is a choice that we will come up very rapidly. >> you touched on a moment ago when you talked about proliferations around the world, mcmaster talked about how all of the challenges have essentially brought allies together, now we are work to go a greater degree with south korea and with japan, is that something that we are seeing on fronts all around the globe with rogue regimes not just north korea but as you mentioned iran? >> i think the record here is divided. south korea, for example, very split internally on how to handle the north korean threat. just a few days before president trump's recent trip moon jae-in agreed with china of no further deployments of the thaad air defense system, no tri lateral cooperation with u.s. and japan on missile defense and no tri lateral defense alliance with japan and the united states. that's been his position for a long time. that's very dangerous. >> all right, ambassador, i hate to cut you off but i am getting a wrap. thank you very much for your insights. >> glad to be with you. kelly: we are looking at the president, air force one landing at joint andrews base, joint base andrews and, of course, the president is returning from new york city after a series of fundraisers that he conducted here today but he took the time today to weigh in on the guilty plea entered by his former national security adviser michael flynn tweeting this, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. he has pled guilty to those lies. it is a shame because actions during the transition were lawful. there was nothing to hide. garrett tenney has been following the details of this, joins us live at the white house as the president is landing across town over there at joint andrews, joint base andrews, garrett, what can you tell us? >> the tweet from the president is in line with what we have been hearing from the white house in the past 24 hours which is michael flynn cooperating with special counsel robert mueller seems no big deal and no reason for the administration to be concerned and this morning as the president was leaving the white house, he said as much to reporters before taking off from marine one. >> no, i'm not and what has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. there's been absolutely no collusion so we are very happy. we will see what happens. we -- thank you very much. >> why the white house says they are still confident no collusion between trump campaign and russia, there are concerns that flynn's cooperation could cause special counsel robert mueller to expand investigation and create other issues for the administration and that's why the white house is also now trying to distance itself from flynn and really diminish his role in the campaign, transition and early days of the administration and the president's attorney ty cobb went as far as to label as former obama official and made it a point that flynn was only national security adviser for 25 days before he was fired. now, mostly experts believe that considering the deal that flynn was given special counsel robert mueller likely believes flynn has information hopeful to investigation, as to what that information is, we don't know. that's why the white house is anxious on the days ahead. kelly: you say anxious, we saw general h.r. mcmaster was talking to bret baier moments ago in simi valley at the regan presidential library and bret had asked him, it's a dangerous world out there, do foreign allies get rattled by this news about general flynn and do our adversaries get more emboldened and general mcmaster said, no, they are moving forward. let's shift to the other topic at hand, the president is also talking about tax reform today. garrett, what is he saying? >> well, kelly, you mentioned tax reform and a lot of the president's agenda, the concern here is that all this is going to get lost in the information and that the administration can't push issues tbampletd the president today he was able to talk about tax reform at a number of fundraisers in new york city this morning and the senate passing tax reform bill last night really was a big for the president to be able to go and give the deliverable to fundraiser attendees there and touting the success. this morning he described it as fantastic and he believes he will have a final version on his bill by christmas, kelly. kelly: yeah, a lot of members of the republican guard say that is definitely going to happen, the republicans are very jubilent along with the president. we will continue to follow the developments, again, we are looking at air force one, not far from garrett tenney. we will continue to follow developments. the president landing safely back to dc. >> president trump slamming senate democrats after all 48 of them voted against the republican tax bill. what happens next? we will discuss that coming up . it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. and i don't share it with mom! right, mom? righttt. safe driving bonus checks. only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it. kelly: welcome back, house and senate republicans are gearing up for the next step in their quest to rewrite the tax code. work together now and reconcile two versions, the latest hurdle cleared after the senate passed tax bill in the wee hours of the night and joining us now republican congressman david of tennessee who sits on the house financial services committee, sir, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you very much. kelly: thank you. as they move forward, the house and the senate, are there any sticking points or impediments to getting this conference passed so that it can get to the president's desk in time for him to approve it before christmas? >> right, well that is the important issue is to get it done before christmas or certainly before the end of the year, so monday night we are going to vote in the house of representatives to send this to a conference committee so that the conference committee can hash out the differences between the senate and the house version. i think they'll be able to do that and be able to produce a good bill that -- that both the house and the senate can vote on, can pass and get to the president before christmas or again -- kelly: let me interrupt you for one moment there, as you're talking, we are looking at the president of the united states descending air force one there, of course, giving his salute to the officers receiving him as he's there at joint base andrews, having landed and he'll be obviously departing on -- obviously marine one heading back to the white house, we understand, but the president walking there, probably having a very good day, was here in new york for fundraisers and he talked about tax reform and the fact that he was very jubilant about it. how do they move forward so the president can sign this? >> yeah, and there are some differences, in the house version, for example, there are four tax brackets, in the senate version there are seven. the senate doesn't get rid of the alternative minimum tax completely. the house version does, there are those differences and important differences. kelly: they are, indeed. >> they are, but if we roll back a year, go back to last year this is what the president campaigned on that he wanted to deliver tax reform to the american people. it's what every member of congress ran on in the last year is to give tax reform, substantial tax relief to the american people so i think we all get it that we have to get something done. we haven't done this in 31 years. kelly: before i let you go, you say you have to get it done but what will it mean for the american taxpayer particularly the middle class? will they get the benefit because democrats say that they will not. >> and i understand that. take my district in west tennessee, the family of four making $60,000 will get about 16 to $1,700 back if we pass the house plan that passed a couple of weeks ago. i think we will, it'll be relief up and down the board at all income levels and that's important because we have to -- reowe it to the american people to grow the american economy and the american economy we know that the stock market has been excited about tax reform, we have seen the economic engine begin to heat up because of the anticipation that we are going pass tax reform. kelly: we thank you for joining us, have a great day in your home state of tennessee. >> thank you so much for having me. kelly: all right. >> san francisco on defense as a sanctuary city after these stunning verdict in kate steinle murder trial this as the suspect faces the prospect of new legal actions. details next. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong. ancestrydna can pinpoint where your ancestors are from... and the paths they took to a new home. could their journey inspire yours? order your kit at ancestrydna.com >> the illegal immigrant acquitted in murder of kate steinle is facing new legal trouble. a federal judge in texas unsealing an arrest warrant for josé zarate, warrant issued just days after the deadly 2015 shooting. will carl live from los angeles with more detail, will. >> in that twist, kelly, came after the jury acquitted zarate of murder and manslaughter, a decision that spaurked a political fire storm. zarate had been deported five times before he fatally shot kate steinle in the back in 2015. this week a jury in san francisco acquitted zarate the most serious charges he faced. he was convicted for processing a firearm and remains behind bars. his attorneys argued during the trial that shooting was a freak accident and president trump criticizing the verdict. the kate steinle killer came back and back always committed crimes and being violent and this info not used in court, exoneration is a complete travesty of justice, build the wall. listen to attorney general jeff sessions. >> it's time to get head on straight, these cities should not be protecting criminal aliens. >> zarate was released before the shooting despite federal request to hold the seven-time flown for deportation and leaders maintain that san francisco will remain a sanctuary city. >> every right to criticize the jury verdict, to express those views but what the president is doing is using that family's and community's horrible tragedy to plant hatred. >> other conservative parts of the country aren't as happy, boycott san francisco and kate's wall. >> that does it for us, the news continues at the top of the hour with eric sean and arthel neville. kelly: and watch her at 7:00 o'clock. ♪ ♪ >> new developments in the russian investigation. the president making his first public comments today. since his former national security advisor, michael flynn, pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to the fbi. he is the first current or former white house official charged with special counsel robert mueller scope of possible collusion between the trump associates and russia. hello everyone i am arthel neville. welcome to a brand-new hour inside of "americas news headquarters". >> hello. i am eric shawn.general flynn is also cooperating as you know with special counsel, robert mueller's investigation. during the conversation this morning with reporters, the president downplayed michael flynn plea saying that

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