Than ever before. Shepard plus, drama over the republican tax bill. The final version is reportedly locked and, with some very important changes, including deductions for state and local taxes, on the student loan interest. We have just gotten information on what the tax brackets will be. We will explain what is and, what is out, how it will affect you, and why we still dont know if republicans can get the final goahead from congress. There is a little bit going on, so lets get it to it. Now, Shepard Smith reporting live up from the fox news desk. Shepard President Trump today gave a wideranging impromptu news conference. He unloaded on the fbi, saying it is time to rebuild it. He left open the door to pardoning Michael Flynn, he said there was no collusion, and that he has nothing to do with russia. Then he said thats the russian president Vladimir Putin praised him in a great phone call just yesterday. And all of this happened while the president was leaving the white house to give a speech at the fbi academy. He railed against those investigating his connection to russia. They are spending millions and millions of dollars. There is absolutely no collusion. I did not make a phone call to russia, i have nothing to do with russia. Everybody knows it. That was a democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election. Shepard but the president did speak with the russian president , Vladimir Putin, on the phone this week. He said very nice things about what i have done for this country in terms of the economy. He said also some negative things in terms of what is going on elsewhere. But the primary point was to talk about north korea. Because we would love to have his help with north korea. Shepard he also refused to rule out pardoning his former National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to fbi investigators. I dont want to talk about pardoning Michael Flynn it yet. Lets see what happens. I can say this. When you look at what has happened with the fbi and the justice department, people are very, very angry. Stay on the president s lawyer then issued a statement to fox news, saying that there is no consideration at the white house for a pardon of Michael Flynn. And just an hour after he blasted the fbi to reporters, the president changed his tone entirely, with a speech to a graduating class of Law Enforcement officers at the fbi academy. And as we as a country must do a better job showing our pole officers the respect and gratitude that you have earned, and we will do that. So when he return home to your local precinct, i want you to deliver a message to your fello. The president of the United States has your back 100 100 . Shepard and he has a complicated relationship with the fbi. Law enforcement officers. He fired its former director, james was 37, calling him a liar and a leaker. And he continues to question the assessment of the fbi and intelligence agencies. At the president also today called the fbis Hillary Clinton investigation rigged. He said it is disgraceful that a top agent made edits to comeys statements. The special counsel, robert miller, also reassigned the agent from the russian investigation, over antitrump text messages. Lets bring in chris wallace. Hello, chris. This matter of the two different statements on Michael Flynn first thing lets see what happens and then his letter coming out, there is a lot of leeway in their potentially. Well coming out. Obviously, if you think thats Michael Flynn, as he did in his statement that he has pleaded guilty and lying to the fbi, that hes not going to cooperate with the special counsel, in the investigation, and obviously there is a potential there. We dont know that there is a reality, but they potential to say things that were hurtful to President Trump, for him to at least leave it open the possibility that he would pardon him a period of maybe he prevents him from saying those things, but that is all supposition on our part. And has been made clear in the past, the president certainly did not say that he was going to pardon flynn. He just didnt say that he wasnt going to, and then the lawyer said there is no consideration. See one of these other matters, what else stuck out to you, chris . He certainly is unhappy with the fbi. I dont think it is necessarily contradictory for him to be unhappy with the top level of the fbi with some of the politics of the fbi. We can talk about that in a second. And then to go to the Graduation Ceremony for the latest class of fbi agents and to praise them and their mission, these young people who had nothing to do with these politics. There are things to be troubled by, that the lead agent investigating the Hillary Clinton case and the President Trump case was texting these things to his girlfriend that were clearly political, biased, in favor of clinton against a trumpet. That is troubling. And it is also troubling that there were all these edits being made, that then fbi director james comey made, and all of these things, to lessen the rhetoric of a Hillary Clinton, which he did with her private emails. This does not go to robert millers separate counsel, because when he learned about this, he fired him up. He kicked him off last july, but it is not crazy for President Trump to be concerned by the bias that is being shown by some members of the fbi at the top levels, not at the graduating class level. Shepard is there any indication that the personal feelings of those involved to you just mentioned in any way affected the mueller investigation. Well, we dont know, but ive got to say, if i was being investigated and i found out that people who were investigating me or sending tweets back and forth, saying what a terrible person i was and how you have to keep me from my job, and then even the more alarming to eat exchanged in august of 2016, where lisa, the lawyer, and then the Deputy Director of the fbi, and peter struck it, the agent, talking about some kind of plan to keep donald trump up from present. There is the old saying that even hypochondriacs get sick. And there may well be that there was something there. The fact that he kicked him off the probe in july, i would think that would be reassuring, but what was peter strzok doing there in the first place . Why did they not find out about that earlier . Shepard the president mentioned his phone call yesterday with Vladimir Putin. Will we learn more about that phone call . He mentioned that putin appraised him on some matters and was less than positive on others. Only if the white house wants to put it out. That is obviously a private conversation. At the kremlin could put out more about it, or the white house can, and they have not so far. But maybe Sarah Huckabee sanders well. Shepard all right, we look forward to seeing you this sunday. He speaks with steve. Also, alabamas new senator elect, the democrat, doug jones, he will be on with chris, as well. That is this sunday on your local fox nation. Check your local listings. Taxes now, and we have new developments on that the tax plan. One of the things it still hasnt come together. We will not know until later this afternoon, but we have new information on what the brackets are going to be, and our White House Correspondent has gotten that for us. Like it, what do your sources a question mark this is according to sources, that will be unveiled at 5 30 later this afternoon. Im not going to run through all of the numbers here, but you can see it thats there are seven brackets, so this is a win for the senate because this is mirrored exactly. You can see those that at ten, 12, 24, 32, 35, and 37 . The exact same as the initial senate bill. If the changes that were negotiated in factory and on those who are married or filing jointly, and again, the numbers are on the left. They are the same on the lefthand side of your screen. The big change here is that that top number, the initial senate bill, have a tough number of 1 million, so this has been brought down significantly. The changes that you get to nr when you start looking at that 22, 24, 32 level in the top numbers. Bottom line here, shepard, is that that is going to be what youre going to see coming out here later this afternoon. You can see the income levels there. The administration have been calling for simplification. The current long is a seven brackets, so some may say what is so simplified about this . So one of the arguments is that we are headed toward seven brackets. There are not necessarily the big eclipse, if you wanted to bring it down to three or four. It may be simpler for some people, but either way, we have the numbers. And it will be seven brackets, we are told. Shepard blake, you are the man. There is a lot to take in there, but we are working to get you those up on the web site. And now some other details that we have now learned that are expected to come out, starting with state and local taxes. Remember, right now, if you pay income taxes to your state, city, county, borough, or all of those, as some do, any kind of income taxes that are not federal, you cannot deduct that amount before you pay your federal taxes. Same for property taxes, sales tax, all of that. That is changing in a big way. In the new plan, there is expected to be a 10,000 limit. Right now, for instance, if you pay 50 grand into taxes, only 10 is deductible. Then, there is a basic child tax credit. This has been the Sticking Point for marco rubio. You may have heard about this. The current credit right now is 1,000 per child. So you get a credit of 1,000 for every child you have. Three kids, 3,000 credit. You do not pay federal income taxes on that. The new planet doubles at 22,000, so three children, 6,000 in income, and you dont pay any taxes on that and the federal federal government. But the key to how much of that amount is available to low income families. Senator rubio tweeted this morning that it wasnt good enough for him, it would not get a yes vote for him, and a couple of Top Republicans that it is now 1400, but as a result of this change, senator rubio will be a yes vote, so senator rubio is in on this, but there are still some undecided republicans, and they are important. G. O. P. Leaders can lose just to you to pass the plane without democrats. We will get to the politics and just a moment. First, more on the bill. Among the biggest winners, the biggest winner is big business. The Corporate Tax rate which is now a 35 , it has been for some time, is expected to go down to 21 . Remember, when he campaigned, he said it would be 15 , now 21 . Part of this plan also affects millions of americans with student loans. The student loan part of this is very important. We are going to have that in just a few minutes. At the bottom line, lawmakers are vastly changing a huge portion of our economy and redoing how everybody gives money to uncle sam. Doing all of that in a matter of days. And we will learn about it this afternoon at 5 30, they tell us. And they will vote on it next week. And a possible Government Shutdown is looking right behind it, so what could possibly go wrong . Peter doocy has the news. He is life for us on capitol hill. What is the latest . It is still a big issue for two senators, jeff flake, and bob corker, who are just not satisfied that these massive changes can be paid for without blowing up the deficit. They want to see the final bill at 5 30, before committing one way or another. So do senator Susan Collins. Her concerns all along have been about potential cuts to medicare benefits. But she has been speaking very favorably about this bill, especially mike lee is on the fence as well. He wants more child tax credits, but republicans do you think that have the votes. Zero democrats are expected to vote yes on this, and they are trying to rally the public. We heard of Chuck Schumer doing that earlier today, but there have been questions about whether or not mccain anna cochran will be here. Their offices are signaling that they will be here. Shepard we are expecting some good news for students, and people paying off their college loans. What are the details on that . Well, that is next. Hi. 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So, the current plan will now preserve it Tax Deductions for student loan interest, so if you pay interest on student loans, you can still deduct that from your taxes before you pay them. And also this, graduates students, tuition waivers, for instance, if you get a 30,000 tuition waiver, say your parents work at the school or something, and one of the perks is that you get to graduate school, say it is 30,000, under the plan that they had talked about, you have to pay taxes on the 30,000, which would have been a huge increase. That is not going to happen. Although this happens after thousands of grad students protested this, saying it would drive up the taxes, which are definitely would have, and that there was a response, telling them not to tax tuition waivers. It seems they listen. Gerri willis is here. So a lot of changes, just from what we knew just a couple of days ago. I know College Students are going to be very happy about it the deductibility of interest on their student loans, because you know as we know, we have Something Like 1. 4 trillion of student loan debt, which is meaningful to you if you are a College Student or a parent of a College Student. It is funny that you talk about the waiver situation, right . My brother actually falls into this category with his son, and they were worried to death because it was part of the equation going in that they would not have to pay tax on this, so it looks like it is also reverting to what it was before. In actuality, it is the same old, same old. It is what it was before, and that is what makes it so interesting. You and i were talking about this on the breaker, right . Originally, the top tax bracket of 39. 6 was for people i believe earning 1 million or more. Shepard for all of the money earned over 1 million. So that resets now at 600,000, so that can be a big tax increase going on there now. It now, i have not made the comparison between current tax rates and now, and you are getting them for me, but there is some stuff going on that is going to be surprising to people who thought that they may be able to predict what republicans are doing. And as you and i have talked about a million times, it really started with tax cuts for corporations, right . See one that is mainly what this thing does. It gives huge breaks to corporations. Yes, 35 down to 21 . It nobody gets us. This is 14 percentage points. Big, big difference out there for these companies, and then when you look at small big business Tax Deductions, that is significant as well. It is not just the tax rate. They will be able to repatriate earnings from overseas at a lower percentage, and my prediction about this as there is going to be such a boom and ordering like you have never seen. Shepard ordering . Equipment. Shepard you cannot deduct it all. You can deduct paintings that you put up in your entryway. It is going to go on and on. See on wow. A lot to get through. We have a lot of hours left in the day. In our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Shepard lawmakers expected to release a final version of the republican tax plan at 5 30 eastern standard time, so about two hours and 6 minutes from no now. Congressional reporter for the wall street journal. Good to see you. Thanks so much for having me on. Shepard we just learned a lot about these brackets. It does anything stick out for you in ways that they will affect people watching . I think thats lowering the rate is a big change that we learned about this weekend, and then of course, they change to the child of tax cut, that brought senator marco rubio back on board. That is the biggest change on the tax front. Shepard we have just gotten a statement from a corker, of tennessee, who has been one of those who was wavering. And bob corker of tennessee has just come out and support. I mean, that is big because senator corker voted aga