Video content distribution have a competitive concern make at t less inclined to pursue joint ventures or future any kind of future ventures with content companies on mobile . I would suggest to you that this lawsuit has the whole world questioning what they will, can, and cannot do. This throws a huge degree of uncertainty to anybody contemplating joint eternities, anybody contemplating. And thats one of the key concerns about this is to take suddenly without any notice and just upturn 50 years of precedent on a transaction like this could have nothing but a freezing effect on commerce in general. So i think that is the significance of this lawsuit thats been draught brought by the department of jut of. So with that, again, we appreciate everybody participating and joining us and thank you, again. Good evening im charles payne. Breaking tonight, at t fighting back. This after the department of justice announced that it will sue to stop the at t merger with time warner from going through valued at 85 billion when it was announced on october of 2016. The doj saying the merger would harm competition, result in higher bills and millions of customers. At t just wrapping up a press Conference Following the announcement of that lawsuit. Lets watch. This devise logic, and it is ununprecedented. Ive done a lot of deals in my career quarterback but ive never done one where we have disagreed with the department of justice so much on even the most basic of facts. But despite our disagreements, we have offered concrete and substantial solutions. And as we head to court, we will continue to offer solutions that will allow this transaction to close. Here with me now, charlie gasparino, ford oconnell, and Washington Examiner contributor randy, former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney and, charlie, let me start with you. Youve been on top of this more than anyone else. You saw it coming. But its still a bombshell. Yeah. It is. And, you know, its what i reported earlier, what i was listen, i didnt know that the doj today was going to come out with this. I knew it was eminent and before i was interrupted with Sarah Huckabee sanders, i was going to report the following, everybody, in particular 21st century fox is looking at a way the doj comes out on this deal to navigate what to do in the future, our boss is out there fielding offers, talking to people about selling certain assets. If the doj says that a deal like this, which is, you know, in the traditional sense not anticompetitive because its a vertical deal as opposed to a horizontal. Its not mixing and matching directly competing products. If Something Like this, you know, is basically anticompetitive for the reason was youre mixing distribution with content and its way too much concentration of assets in their view, well, so then other deals like this by logic probably cant go through. That doesnt mean they wont go through. Just by logic. So what you have is two stories here. You have wall street bankers right now on their phones going nuts trying to figure this out; right . Because were in the news, a lot of people are in the news lately about selling assets, making strategic combinations, doing mergers and acquisitions, and the other thing is sort of the political aspect. You know, donald trump, you know, his verbal attacks on cnn during the campaign set the stage for this. And as we were first to report earlier in the year, that clearly his advisers were looking for ways to sculling this deal and to force a cnn were openly talking about. Forcing a cnn spinoff to make this deal go through as retribution to what donald trump believes is the lousy cnn. Theres no doubt in my mind. I have this triple confirmed that his advisers were talking about this. Now, he didnt say lets screw them because they did lousy coverage. They were saying too much concentration in assets. They were telling that to trump. President trump that said on the campaign trail, that they had too much power. But, really, does anybody think they have too much power . Let me ask ford. On that note, ford, at t pleading saying, hey, listen, you have netflix, which has 100 million customers, amazon with 60 million, google, facebook, you have players in this space that didnt exist years ago. Netflix used to sell plastic disks in the mail and now they threatened the oldest, Biggest Company in media. So this is actually a merger to survive. But maybe it has go through. Well, heres the key question if we do get before a District Court judge, and that is does owning a bunch of channels throw in the marketplace. This is breaking news that ahead of the Doj Antitrust Division is the comcast Nbc Universal deal went through, believe it or not, they actually did have to come to an agreement on some sort of fair play. I think the Trump Administration here who were to look at this specifically from a legal aspect and if the district judge came back in their favor, they would like to see structural remedies whereby they have to sell off parts of cnn or all of Turner Network in terms of the channels. So even though this is a vertical merger and usually the doj doesnt step in, you have to understand that even though these are not two light things, when you put them together, it does come about control of media and where is the law in this place . But we also know theres a major amount of mergers going on in this space, and its like the wild, wild west. Remember, a couple of weeks ago, or a week ago when Randall Stevens came out blasting saying, hey, were not going to sell cnn. He brought it up again today. Lets take a listen. In agreement the results of us forfeiting control with cnn either directly or indirectly is a nonstarter. We believe quite strongly that any at t assets or time warner assets is not required by the law, and we no intention of backing down from the governments lawsuit. Charles Randall Stevenson, randy saying, hey, were not going to back down. Were keeping this thing through. And, by the way, we want to go to court immediately. You know, someone might want to tell mr. Stevenson that if i didnt pay my at t bill, it would take longer than 60 days to take me to trial. So any notion that theyll be ready for trial in 60 days is really laughable, and its a sound byte, and not for nothing. If this is really all about trying to find out if the white house is controlling the department of justice, and this is some kind of ego play, its going to take a hell of a lot longer than 60 days to get the discovery of all of the emails and all of the communications between the white house and doj. Let me throw a wild card in here. Charles one at a time. Theyre not going to say okay. Lets find the email between trump. This is where they have strong grounds if theyre going to pursue it. And i agree with you this is going to take longer than 60 days. This is going to be a trial. Theyre going to say by any stretch of logic, this is not anticompetitive. People are can you get the cord. We as a Cable Provider as directv, you know, you dont have to take directv. A lot of people are can you get the cord and are going for are consuming their news differently than it makes this almost in order for us to survive, we have to make this play. We have to gather content. People have lot of choices, not too few choices that, and having those choices is why its not anticompetitive, and hes right on that sense. Now, that doesnt mean hes not going to go through with this. Because let me tell you something. The government on this deal, thats a heavy lift. Charles weve seen a lot of Companies Like ibm, for instance, lose sight of their primary business and fall apart. But he made threats through that press conference that he would actually go to the government and find out if theres some sort of personal vendetta here. To charlie gasparinos point, he made that twice. I heard it. Well, theres a reason why that is, charles. Because were talking about going to court in the lawsuit, understand something else. At t is paying time warner 107 a share and right now their stock is at 81. If this thing drops to 50 or 60, it may not even be worth the deal, and they have to restructure it, sculling it, and do it later. So theyre awesome on a time crunch themselves, and thats why theyre threatening the white house. And, by the way, i know we dont want to shift tears for wall street but wall street is going to get crushed on this thing. Exactly. This was one of the biggest arbitrage plays, viewers bet on the deals thats happening. And look whats happening. I wont be surprised if theres a hedge fund that goes out of business, i think there would have to be at least one hemorrhage fund going out of business over this thing. Charles well, really quickly, the likelihood at least one deal gets done. But would cnn have to be the concession. Its going to have to be a concession. We saw it happen with nbc u and comcast and here its different. Enough with the sound bytes because the consumers will get harmed if this thing goes to litigation one way or another. You care about the consumer, settle the damn thing. Charles all right. Everyone, thank you very, very much. Well be right back zar one of our investors was in his late 50s right in the heart of the financial crisis, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. It really scared him out of the markets. His advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldnt be able to retire until he was 68. The client realized, i need to get back into the markets i need to get back on track with my plan. The Financial Advisor was able to work with this client. Hes now on track to retire when hes 65. Having someone coach you through it is really the value of a Financial Advisor. With the democrats giving us no votes for tax cuts for purely political reasons, obstructionists, it will be up to the republicans to come through for america. I think they will. I hope they will. Its up to the senate. And if they approve it, the house and the senate would get together, ill be there right in the middle of it, and we will come up with a bill that will be spectacular for growth and spectacular for the people of this country. Charles President Trump pressuring republican senators to unite behind tax reform earlier today as the Senate Tax Bill teeters on the well, its on a tightrope, lets put it this way. I mean, after all, you have seven key swing votes right now. The republicans are in the spot spot light. Youre looking at them all with various concerns about the tax biological. All or possibly over possible changes, including keeping obamacare, the individual mandate part of it. To jillian, herb london, president of london research, and senior fellow at independent womens forum. Let me start with you. Mcmulvaney suggesting over the weekend that maybe they dont need to keep the individual mandate aspect of it. I thought it was a stroke of genius when the senate came up with it. It avoided 300 billion, that could definitely crush the middle class, and it feels a little bit less wishy washy. I remain somewhat confident. The republicans have to make this happen. If they do not, you start looking at 2018, it will be a crushing defeat. I know but listen to what youre saying. Youre confident because they have to make it happen. Thats right. Charles not because you like the plan, not because theyve shown cohesiveness with the progress. Some people are going to be dissatisfied no matter what you do. There is no question you cannot satisfy everyone. Youre going to have seven republicans that are going to be very much opposed. The democrats are going to be opposed across the board. There is no doubt its going to be very difficult to get this through. But it seems to me when i say it has to happen, the republicans have to no choice. Charles all right. So jillian, they get rid of individual mandate, one vote and 338 billion. I dont think shes worth that vote, but well see. Murkowski too. Charles murkowski. And to your point, im not sure this will happen because it has. Obamacare was going to die. I do agree with the individual mandate, and thats one thing that republicans have been on the defense little, and we should be absolutely going on the aggressive about this. Because were saving money, essentially funding a tax cut by not forcing people to buy insurance that they dont want and cant afford. These are undesirable things that are being on the American People coercively, and i am really skeptical of murkowski pushing this. Charles and, of course, you have everybody out there. You have Small Business units out there. You have folks saying, hey, by 2027, the middle class, everyone making less than 70,000 will actually have a tax hike. Thats certainly not what was advertised. No. And right now, congress has a rare opportunity to pass historic tax reform of our burdensome tax code and everyone who cares about the burden on the American Family and put more of those hard ahead of you earned dollars back into the pockets of American Families should be supporting this first step. Its not perfect. Its not going to please everybody. But its the only way that were going to move towards the ability to create more jobs, to promote Economic Growth, and essentially to limit the federal government. If republicans dont stand for a limited government, then they stand for nothing. And the way that the tax code has become so complicated and so burdensome, goes against those principles. Charles real quick, guys. They have to make it happen. But what do you think the ultimate version looks like . Well, the ultimate version i think will provide some tax relief for the middle class. Small businesses, obviously, johnson is going to make a pitch for that, and i think that will happen. The key, of course, is to reduce that Corporate Tax to to because thats where the real Economic Growth will come from. Charles jillian, you think so . Yeah. This is great on the Economic Growth. I would like to see it more simplified. I would like to see all americans get tax cut rather than some americans getting a tax cut for incentivized behaviors. But overall, this is better than what we have before. Charles all right. Well, its going to happen because it has got to happen. Fingers crossed. Guys, thanks a lot. Coming up, President Trump gets no gratitude. So why isnt the father of one of those ucla basketball players arrested in china thanking the president for releasing his son . In fact, why is he dissing the president . Well be right back think your Large Cap Equity Fund has exposure to Energy Infrastructure mlps . Think again. Its time to shake up your lineup. The alerian mlp etf can diversify your equity portfolio and add potential income. Bring amlp into the game. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Read the prospectus carefully at alpsfunds. Com amlp charles President Trump shooting with the father of one of the three ucla basketball players fathers that he helped release from china after shoplifting from china. Saying shoplifting is a very big deal in china, as it should be. Five to ten years. But not to father. Shouldnt have gotten his son out. China told him why they were released. Very ungrateful. This just a few days after the players did, in fact, thank the president for helping secure the release. Here to discuss now, Fox News Contributor and back with us, ford oconnell. Heres what i dont get. What happened to gratitude . I just dont. I dont care where you are on the political stance. If your child is arrested in a foreign country like california Highway Patrol of all players, you just say thank you. Yeah. Has absolutely no idea how long his son could have been in prison in china. He is definitely displaying to the world, really, how arrogant he is and unappreciative he is for what President Trump did. But in this regard, its like President Trump cant win. If he didnt do anything, he would have been criticized. He did something and the kids father is even criticizing him. Its outrageous. Heres from other problem i have with this. Blatant racism. Sean king also put out a tweet saying ungrateful is the new n word. Pay attention. Well, look, trumps detractor in the media are never going to give him an inch. Heres what i do want to say about him who has his own critics. Im not shocked that he downplayed trumps role. What blows my mind is his response where he says, look, im from los angeles. Ive seen a lot worse. The problem is beijing is not los angeles. This wathis was on a foreign territory where you could actually face up to ten years on jail or better yet, you may never get a trial. This is whats magnify here is that we dont seem to understand that this is beijing and putting American Values and putting it over there. Charles but i think thats a cop out, ford. He knows that beijing isnt l. A. And everyone has heard the horror stories. And it could have been. But the thing is that he goes on this rant about this being racism. Donald trump over the weekend did a tweet against jeff flake, called him flaky; right . He has had battles with people. Its not the criteria for getting a nasty tweet from donald trump. Its crossing him or in this case being ungrateful. Yeah. Well, what is Joe Scarborough talking about . President trump is not a racist individual. He is looking out for all americans. He went out of his way to make sure this young man and his teammates were able to come back to the United States. And what a shame that they blew such an amazing opportunity to go all the way over there to play for the ucla and just, you know, made a really big mess of the whole moving and we dont want to lose the sight of the fact that they were arrested for shoplifting, and i thi