Im telling you, it is not happening. I would love to be wrong on this, but the stars are not aligning. He cant hear me, can he . Stuart yes he can. Neil forget i just said. I agree with everything peter said. He is a genius. A look at all of this. This is not sorting out for the dow. As stuart told you, global tensions, tillerson, our secretary of state in russia being ignored. I think the biggest factor weighing on stocks, helping bond prices as the yield comes down, the price goes up, they envisioning less stimulus coming their way and perfect variety for bonds. Now all of a sudden we see a scenario where it is possible, possible, tax cuts dont materialize anytime soon if at all this year. This one i would love to be wrong. Im telling rarely am, america. Im just telling you. Well watch it closely, tax cuts get delayed, cant agree on valueadded tax or border tax or all the other measures pay for tax cut if youre in the camp that says you ve to do that. Not adding up for stocks for now. I just say for now. But slipping away. We shall see. As i told you the secretary of state in moscow. Adam shapiro with the latest on that little powwow coming close. What are you hearing, sir . Reporter neil, secretary Rex Tillerson is meeting with u. S. Embassy personnel. He will meet with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign minister tomorrow. The Russian Foreign minister will is have a threeway discussion with his counterparts in iran and syria at the end of the week. Tillerson will not meet with Vladmir Putin and there is no meeting scheduled to do that. The russian leader issued several statements that the recent u. S. Strike on syrian airbase reminds him of claims of weapons of mass destruction in iraq. They are asking conducting a investigation on gas attack on syrians. He said the u. S. Strike was a u. S. Response use of chemical weapons by the syrian regime. Putin aligned. Syrian regime. Would it serve the russias interest to align with the United States than with assad. It is clear to us the rein reign assad family is coming to an end. We see no further role for the assad regime longer term given they have effectively given up their legitimacy with these types of attacks. Porter neil, seetary tillerson says russia can maintain its alliance with syria or align with forces that wish to relief the suffering of the Syrian People and create a future that is stable and secure. Back to you. Neil adam, thank you, very, very much. Lets say the assad regime goes. Neil it is over, thats it. Be careful what you praise and be careful how you celebrate that. There have been incidents, particularly in libya of late, where a dictator goes, what follows isnt exactly our liking. Former u. N. Spokesman ric grenell on that. Rick what do you think on that . Obviously the administration seems to be coalescing behind the idea, get rid of this guy, he does more harm than good. But we know in recent history sometimes the can devil you dont know is worse than the one you do. What do you think . Lets remember though, shortly after the United States had a credible threat of military action because it came true in afghanistan and iraq, we saw the libyan leader give up his chemical weapons. He decided on his own, voluntarily to call the United States and say, hey, i better give these up, because i watched what happened. My point is, is that there is a difference between a threat of military action and a credible threat of military action. These strikes were designed to change the calculus of not only assad but change the calculus of russia and iran and so i think that theyre looking now at donald tmp and theyre saying, this is a credible threat of military action. We got to come back to the table to figure out what is our policy. Make no mistake, russia absolutely does not want to be in syria forever. They have been looking for ways to kind of dial this back. Of course no moral argument works with them. We will not be able to say you have to do the right thing and follow the international community. Were going to have to be much more muscular in our diplomacy and bring in some economic incentives and other incentives in order to get russia to being back away from assad. The moment russia backs away from assad, that means Donald Trumps strikes worked, the calculus has been changed, and we will probably see somebody like assad step down voluntary and begin to move out that assumes the russians will force his hand to do something and they dont want to be embarrassed on the global stage so how do they avoid that . They already promised to do Something Like we did last week with the tomahawk missiles they would respond. Were not sure what the response would be. The Syrian Government has done everything but use chemical weapons since last week. Certainly horrific attacks that seemed to indicate theyre willing to do just everything but, then what . Well, look i think this is where muscular diplomacy has to take hold. We should be so active in the middle east, not only with the saudis and the turks, but really the egyptians and the jordanians. If we could have a united front which i saw in italy, the turks participated, they came to pump up if you will, Rex Tillerson right before he went to russia. I think there is a united front that russia has to dial this back. If we all can begin, not moral arguments with the russians because those moral arguments do not work but if we can pressure them with other kinds of incentives so they can save face, think youre exactly right. They are looking to make sure this is not a pr disaster for them. So if we can help them find that way to, to dial back and, they have already started, remember, that they said their support for assad is not unconditional. So i think that we have an opening with diplomacy here, to begin to pressure russia to back off. This meeting on friday in moscow between the syrians and the iranians and the russians is incredibly important and hopefully what will happen is that Rex Tillerson can meet with Sergey Lavrov tomorrow russian time, right before the meeting with putin and the iranians and the syrians and really dial them back. Maybe well see some progress from that meeting. That is what were hoping. Neil what if putin keeps true to his word and doesnt bother seeing tillerson while he is in moscow, what do we read into that . It is not great but i dont think it is the end of the world. Lavrov is quite important there. Neil rick, thank you very, very much. Ric grenell, the former u. N. Spokesperson. There is north korea, the other part of this equation here. Obviously cognizant what is going on here. Maybe wondering there i but by the grace of god go we, go us, go i . Whatever. President trump already treat, tweeting the following, i explained to the president of china a trade deal with the u. S. Will be far better for them if they solve the north korean problem. Former cia Operations Officer bryan wright. Obviously that is the carrot he held out. Will that be enough, what do you think . I think so. I think everything trump is doing right now and his National Security team is doing is very, very important. What they are basically doing, they are creating almost an element of crisis, right . Theyre putting the vinson off the coast. You hear reports about assassinations. Youre hearing certainly the strike in syria delivered at the exact time president xi was meeting with President Trump at maralago, all these things were designed not just get chinas attention but tell them the crisis is brewing. From the chinese perspective they have one goal, one goal only is stability. They need stability on their borders. They need stability internally. The more this becomes a crisis, the more this boils, the more the chinese will finally start taking the kind of action they have not taken for now what 20 years . That is what we need to do. That is exactly what the president and his team are doing right now. Neil what if they cant, bryan . What if the chinese have a pesky child here they cant control . I think there is a heck of a lot more leverage than what the chinese will tell you. North korea gets 90 of what it needs to push forward with its Ballistic MissileNuclear Program every year from china. So they sell the chinese coal and in turn they get a bunch of money to afford all these things, the terrible weapons they purchase, buy, or scientific ingenuity they need. So china absolutely, with that degree of influence, 90 , china has got the leverage. All right, so the question is how hard do they want to push . If they push too hard the kim family might collapse. We might see a degree of regime change. What the United States needs to do tell president xi and chinese, were willing to negotiate. Lets do horse trading. Well take out troops from south korea. We wont push forward not only with vinson or Nuclear Weapons or japan and south career, well let the peninsula stand on its own. We wont be at your backdoor. But we need this threat of ballistic weapons and Nuclear Missiles gone. If you deliver that message to the chinese, you will see a very different attitude out of beijing. Neil do you think that would happen, take troops out or leave south korea on its own if china committed, essentially with north korea. What are the options . Do we let north korea develop more Nuclear Missiles with longer range Ballistic Missiles. Neil im thinking about a business nerd, the real pressure is on the trade front, the economy front. That is where we extract or try to get concessions . I dont think there is one Silver Bullet to this. I think it is all arrows in the quiver, you throw everything youve got at it. That is precisely what the president is doing, weve needed to do that for the past eight years and we didnt, unquestionably before that with president bush. This is democratic and republican crisis gone from bad to worse to existential issue. President trump understands that, mcmaster and other folks, they get this. This is now just a problem they can kick the can down the road. They have to deal with it and deal with it now. Neil all right. Bryan wright, former cia Operations Officer. Good to see you again. Pleasure. Neil stocks are getting rocked maybe combination of these developments, what is going on in china what is going on with north korea, what is going on with russia, all of sudden, a lot of global tensions out of nowhere, right . We have this tax cut looks more and more put off, if not chopped down. The president is still talking very optimistically about it, but are others . After this. Yes . 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That is weighing on the stock right now, down about 2 1 2 . Meanwhile the president is having his 18th confab with big ceos. A lot are returnee hes to the white house. We heard the president talk a lot more about tax cuts and not talking about details or timeline for them. That is weighing on stocks, taking place at white house february 3rd. Much of the same players back on this it day. The president wants to do this fairly often. 16 major ceos past and present. We believe this is number here at this gathering alongside them. A chance to bounce ideas of some of the Major Players within the administration. There were five different cabinet level secretaries here. Among them the office of the management and budget, mick mulvaney, elaine chao, head of transportation. I point those two out, Administration Officials were telling us to the lead of up of this, taxes and infrastructure would be two items on the agenda. When you look at mulvaney and chao, they would be in the middle of all of that conversation. As the president was wrapping things up with the ceos he made brief statements on camera, as you just said, a little bit on taxes, although really didnt outline much. Saying that his administration is focused on jobs and he pointed the needle toward doddfrank. Listen to what the president said with doddfrank and what hopes to do with that legislation. For doddfrank, for the bankers in the room well be really happening, were doing a major streamlining and perhaps elimination and he replacing it with Something Else but that will be the minimum. But were doing a major elimination of the horrendous doddfrankegulations. Reporter neil, the present also spoke about nafta, saying that there would be some surprises coming as it relates to nafta. Ceos spoke as i was micking up to talk to your show, dr. Toby cosgrove of Cleveland Clinic described this afternoon, productive, unscripted and focused on jobs. Neil. Neil unupdate on timelines for tax cuts . Is it safe to say the august sort of earlier deadline mentioned by the likes of steve mnuchin, thats out . Well it was interesting because earlier this morning, Maria Bartiromo on her show interviewed kellyanne conway, a top strategist here at the for the president and maria asked her if tax reform could come this year . Conway seemed confident, saying yes. That doesnt quite mesh with what we heard inside of the Briefing Room yesterday with sean spicer if i asked him americans could expect a tax cut, 2017. He said, quote, i hope. Youre getting these mixed signals, could it be august. Maybe not be august, i hope, yes. Kind of gives you the impression neil, that everything is up in the air at this point. Neil yeah. Its a little weird the vibes here. Reporter this think, i wouldnt i dont think there is a timeline at this point. They had been talking about august. Is there a timeline . Is it august . That is still what were trying to figure out. Neil we shall. Maybe maria will get it out of the president himself later on today. Indeed. Neil thank you very, very much, blake. My next guest is watching all the developments very, very closely,eplican congressman from texas john radcliffe. Congressman, is it your sense, is it an understanding among republicans in both the house and senate that tax reform is indeed coming this year, that it will happen this year . I dont think we have that understanding, neil. Im more focused on the if as opposed to the when. I want to make sure, make certain we get tax reform done. I think we have an Incredible Opportunity for the first time in several decades to get major tax reform that will help 320 million americans help their lives get better. I want to make sure it happens. Im less concerned about the timetable. Were off the legislative calendar, the Health Care Issue has taken us off the timetable we hoped to deal with by august. Neil do you regret the timetable is altered or something far Greater Division within the party than it appears tax cuts are . Yeah. I mean, neil, i was ready to repeal obamacare two weeks ago, im ready today and when we get back from the august recess if we get a chance. I think it is unfortunate we got off the timetable at this point. All you can do is work hard to get it back on track. Were doing that behind the scenes. Im optimistic well get a vote on a replacement plan for the Affordable Care act sometime late they are spring. Neil all right. And then its onward to tax cuts, right . Bestcase scenario . Abs absolutely. Neil you mentioned if at the outset, i dont want to put words in your mouth, if you dont get it this year, frustrations built for next year certainly in a Midterm Election year what do you think . I think political momentum is important. That is one of the reasons that i was concerned dee dee lay on the health care would have an impact on tax reform as well. I do think these things are interrelated. I am optimistic we can get tax reform done, in part, neil, unlike the gorsuch nomination, unlike health care, when were talking about tax reform, we can expect bipartisanship. Democrats agree the Corporate Tax rate in this country is ridiculously high, and coming up on midterms in the senate, they have to defend 25 of 34 senate seats, so they have just as much incentive as republicans do to reform our tax code. Neil some of them though have been looking at the president s polling numbers and a lot of them are convinced it is republicans who will be up against the wall, not them. What do you say . Well, i clearly think, you know, on a lot of these issues you cant ignore the fact that the American People have put republicans in charge of the house, the senate and the white house. So ultimately on these issues, it does come down to us. I am optimistic, that on the issue of tax reform well see some democrats who have their personal interests at stake in terms of getting reelected play ball with us on an issue important to the