Redacted whereupon they would blame the white house for lack of transparency, told them to redo and send back in proper form. Lets bring in wall street journal columnist and Deputy EditorDan Henninger and columnist kim strassel, dan, what do you make of the president s decision to say, send it back and not declassify and renegotiate . Well, we have not seen the democrats memo, we dont know what was redacted, we have to assume that since they talked to fbi director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein about the content of the memo theres something substantive at the center of it. Mr. Wray and rosenstein had their own letter that they sent simultaneously to the democrats raising the questions and i have to say, paul, god knows what the American People are making of this right now. I mean, they must feel like they they were sucked in novel. You have one set of memos dueling with another set of memos. Go back to the beginning of this, this is ultimately about whether trump was colluding with the russians, from day one thats always been a shaky story and i always wondered how are they actually going to nail down and verify that collusion was taking place and the difficulty of that is being played right now in the memos. Paul kim, on the democratic memo ten pages and the democratic memo only four, just on its face and length the chances increase that you could get some compromising of sensitive material, but i have to say, my view is trump ought to not play this game of this memo, that memo, just get the original fisa application out in total. Let the American People see it and all four of them frankly, we know up three times, let them see it all. Look, and theyve had so much time to do this now and instead they just spent another five days letting democrats play this game. Theyve been in possession of this memo for that long and it was pretty clear from the start, my sources say that this was sent up to him in a way that did contain information that was going to put the white house all along in a position where they had to Say Something about redactions and then democrats could turn around and say, you got a double standard, youre hiding something, just get it out there, get the fisa application out there, finish unredacting the grassley referral letter that went out this week that has to do with Christopher Steele and some of the 302 forms, interviews that the fbi did with their sowrlses, let the American Public see what really happened. Paul all right, lets turn to that grassleyga ham letter, on the Christopher Steele dossier because there was pretty interesting information. As dan said all of this hinges on whether or not donald trump theres any evidence he colluded with russians. Paul right. The problem now increasingly is that entire case is falling apart in terms of the original evidence that was put forward which is, of course, this dossier paid for by the Clinton Campaign and the dnc through an Research Firm and ultimately Christopher Steele and the grassley referral that was important this week it dismantled Christopher Steeles credibility, he was out talking to the press even though the fbi told him not to and undermining the fbi probe and potentially lied to the fbi about having done so. Paul all right, another thing thats interesting that we learned here and thats a couple of names from the clinton era have appeared, sidney blumenthal, longtime friends of Hillary Clinton and turns out, kim, that they may have played a role in getting some information to steele, tell us about that. Yeah, they didnt may have, it did happen. We now know that not only was the Clinton Campaign funding this dossier effort but it was providing information that went into the dossier, they came up with some reports, they funneled them to a middleman at the obama state department, a guy who worked for john kerry and he got them onto mr. Steele who incorporated them into his dossier, so this is another reason to wonder, look, if youre a super spy like Christopher Steele has been presented, do you does it not fail your sniff test to go out and start putting information from noted political operators into your resnearnlg. And yet james comey, former fbi director under whom all of this happened, well, we trusted steele because we knew him. With all of this complicated partisan and political ties and potential motivation makes the case even more to get it all out to see what they were looking at so that the American Public doesnt have to say, well, i trust this republican because im a republican, i trust republicans or vice versa, lets see who really is telling the truth. Yeah, ultimately, paul, there has to be an effort i hope Christopher Wray is doing to restore credibility while jim comey was the director of the fbi. Clearly there were significant errors of judgment made during comeyera and now we have to get past that and now the only way to do it is let it all hang out. Paul when we come back lawyers from President Trump reportedly advising him against sitting down with special Counsel Robert Mueller despite the potential legal and political fallout, so what should the president do . We will ask former white its easy to think that all Money Managers are pretty much the same. But while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other Money Managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. Sucthey read more. Have one thing in common. How do they find the time . With audible. Audible has the Worlds Largest selection of audiobooks. For just 14. 95 a month. You get a credit good for any audiobook. And you can roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. Audible members get free no hassle exchanges. And use the mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Listening, is the new reading. Text audio22 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. Paul should he or shouldnt he, the white house stating whether President Trump will speak with special Counsel Robert Mueller, the president s lawyers have reportedly advised him against sitting down for a wideranging interview with mueller and are instead looking to have trump answer as many questions as possible in writing. The president told reporters in january that he was looking forward to testifying under oath, so what should he do . Lets ask gray, served as white House Counsel to president george w. Bush, what would you recommend that the president do drawing on your experience of advising president s . Well, i dont think you can duck everything to do with mueller and i dont think he should, but he should try to get a very constrained, well limited interview, better interrogatories but if it has to be in person he will are lawyers. The central problem really is theres no scope limit to what muellers investigating and therefore no limit to what he could ask and the lawyers have to get some sort of constrain on that otherwise you couldnt prepare the president , he couldnt prepare for it because you wouldnt know what you are being asked. Paul well, what about the idea that he should say, no, i dont have to, if he gets the narrow writ on the questions that you suggested . Well, then he you know, mueller could go to a grand jury and get a subpoena and then the grand jury without a lawyer at all and thats thats not good either. Thats worst. Paul right. Theres leverage that mueller has and lets hope he doesnt abuse it because there has to be some limit to what this destruction will cover. Paul but does that limit really ultimately stand on the good will or the forebearance on mueller because as you say he has leverage here, subpoena to grand jury which would make the president look bad politically if he didnt cooperate voluntarily, but ultimately its up to mueller and can the president s lawyer really insist on a set of written questions . I think they could and i think they could justifiably test muellers willingness to go to grand jury for broader unlimited inquiry and the public would react adversely to that. But theres willingness to cooperate and i think trump would lose that if he refused outright to even consider. Paul okay, when you say narrow the questions, mueller is as you know special counsel orders from Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney general, youre suggesting that the lawyers say, look, mr. Mueller, you ask us about the firing of jim comey, are you going to ask us about carter page, are you going to ask us about this or that and narrow to two, three or four things and maybe fewer and say, all right, we will answer those but we dont want this to be openended hour, twohour long session. Thats correct, thats what they should ask for and i think thats what they could get if they were precise and clear to the independent counsel staff that this will not look good in the public if they turn this, wanted this inquisition into everything in his life. Paul okay, let me ask you about Something Else base and the experience and you have seen the story with rob porter, white house aide alleged to have abused a couple of former wives, he resigned this week. He denies the facts as been presented by accusers. I want to talk to you about the process in by which the white house vets somebody like that on the staff. You get fbi reports in the white House Counsels office correct . Thats correct. Paul would probably include such information, what do you do then if youre the white House Counsel . Well, their judgment calls always and i think that theres no reason to expect the white House Counsel and the others in the white house to have rejected his being hired into this very important job which apparently has done extremely well. Just on the basis of a couple of allegations, the trouble is for any employee potential employee, staff member is the security clearance. Thats when going gets stuff. In this case looks like the going was tough and at some point the staff, the white house chief of staff has cut and say, im sorry, you cant they are not going to give you security clearance and you cant stay in this job. The president has the right to reverse a recommendation of security clearance but i dont think thats ever happened. It didnt happen when i was there. So the fbi actually makes recommendation and the white House Counsel neither chief of staff can overrule that only the president can . I think only the president can overrule that. Thats the practice. I dont think thats in a statute. Thats just the practice. Paul okay. But if you would get this kind of information, you would go first to the person who is accused and talk to him about it, right . Yeah. And then would you take it to chief of staff . Of course, the question of security clearance is going to bother everybody because he is dealing with, you know, classified material and that cannot, you know, go on indefinitely. Paul okay, all right. Boyden gray, thank you so much for being here. My pleasure. Paul when we come back another brief Government Shutdown ended as the president signs bipartisan bill but the democrats exact too high a price for the republican boost in military spending . This budget deal will be the best thing weve done for our economy, our military, our middle class, for a long time. Smile dad. I take medication for high Blood Pressure and cholesterol. But they might not be enough to protect my heart. Adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. Because my Second Chance matters. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. whispering with the capital one venture card, youll earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. Not just airline purchases. yelling holy moly, thats a lot of miles shhhhh whats in your wallet . Man shhhh shhhhh ythen you turn 40 ande everything goes. Tell me about it. You know, its made me think, im closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. Hm. Im thinking. Will i have enough . Should i change something . Well, youre asking the right questions. I just want to know, am i gonna be okay . I know people who specialize in am i going to be okay. I like that. You may need glasses though. Yeah. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today with td ameritrade. Paul brief Government Shutdown complements of kentucky senator rand paul ended friday morning when President Trump sign ad bipartisan budget agreement. The twoyear deal would lift defense spending by 80 billion in 2018 and another 85 billion in 2019 making good on a central Republican Campaign promise, but busting those spending caps for the military came at high price with democrats reaching 131 billion in domestic programs over the next two years. We are back with wall street journal columnist and Deputy EditorDan Henninger, Editorial Board member allysia finally u kate odell for her sins, lets go to good, bad and the ugly. Whats good in this. I think that the defense cap had to be broken because the damage to military due to su suquester caps, we have seen maintenance failures and personnel dont get training they need and overtime they are not ready for promotion, et cetera. Paul big victory for republicans in. I think so. It gave confidence to see jim mattis that the pentagon will earn the Publics Trust on how they spend because the Defense Department has been famous for spending defense money. Republicans did get discreet victory and represents everything the public doesnt like about obamacare. Paul this was the board that was set up to basically impose price controls within medicare and it was designed in a way by the obama central planners so that Congress Virtually had no say in stopping those cuts. Right, it was very insulated from political accountability and unelected bureaucrats and thats why people hated it. Paul Federal Reserve for budget cuts, Health Care Cuts in essence. Thats basically the end of the good. [laughter] there is a lot of bad, democrats got 20 billion for infrastructure, who know where is that would go, broadband, water projects, they got Community Health centers, additional four years of Childrens Health insurance, they got 6 billion for opioids which obviously this should be gop priority but its not clear exactly what the money will accomplish or how it will be spent and just a laundry list. Paul allysia, expand on that, what is this big burst of domestic spending mean . Well, the new baseline budget essentially and heaven forbid we enter another recession in another couple of years and the debt is going to explode even more. Right now we are heading to 1 trilliondollar deficit, thats about do you meaned but this will add another probably trillion dollars in debt, eventually theyll have to be reckoning. We have to look at entitlements which is twothirds of the budget. Paul the budget deal doesnt do anything like that. This focuses on essentially changing the terms of the 2001 budget deal that obama did with john boehner and so the domestic spending that kate talked about, these are all called transportation, health care and a whole variety of things, medicare, medicaid and Social Security off the table. Thats right. Thats mandatory expenditure too. Thats off the table. Paul all right. So dan, i mean, trillion dollar deficit last year the budget deficit was 660 billion, last fiscal year, we are heading to a trillion bucks. Right, conservatives in the house were threatening to shut down the government, senator rand paul did so temporarily for a while in the middle of the night, but what is the bottom theres a couple of bottom lines here literally, paul, you only have 51 seats in the senate, they lost that one in alabama and so they are not going to be able to pass a fiscalically austere bucket on their own and they will not get it through the house and republicans are looking at the fact that they have to reset in november when they run for election again, hold the house, hopefully if not lose the house and at least hold the 51 seats in the senate and thats based on whether congress cant perform. They passed the tax bill, they had the momentum, the democrats got blamed for the first shutdown and the question here was whether republicans will show they can execute. They were in a tough spot. Paul why did they have to accept that, kate, democrats had leverage because republicans dont have 60 senate seats. Thats true, you have to consider this and worthy alternative and t