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VS China; Trump's 140 Characters; Pelosi's Democratic Victory; Dems Plot
Delay Tactics; A Cabinet of Generals?; Fake News Going Too Far?; Snowden
Calls Out Petraeus; The Adulting School. Aired 8-9p ET - Part 1>
Carney, Bryan Suits; Katie Brunelle>
Government; Military, Espionage; Youth; Education >
LISA "KENNEDY" MONTGOMERY, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: Tonight, President- elect Trump warning again that he's going to slap a huge tax on U.S. companies that relocate overseas. Will it help prevent job loss or hurt consumers?
Plus, did Arch Democrat Nancy Pelosi just say her party does not need to go in a new direction? Did she miss what happened in the election?
And are millennials so coddled, they can't even tie their own shoes. We will to the founder of an Adulting School that teaches our precious snowflake how to survive. Grab a pencil, it's time to grow up.
Jill Stein is like Chewbacca mom doing the mannequin challenge; she just will not go away. This weekend the lonely lady from recountville took her whole riding sob story to Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" and he wasn't having any of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX HOST: -- but he got 62 and a half million votes, how many did you get?
JILL STEIN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean nonpartisan --
WALLACE: My question is, why then did you choose three states that Mr. Trump won narrowly but not a state that Secretary Clinton won much more narrowly? Do you know the largest switch of votes in a recount in American political history? There's never been a 70,000 vote switch, the most that's ever been is 1,247.
The fact that you have a 140,000 donors is purely a coincidental Dr. Stein?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: I just like to see Chris get really mad at her the whole time, it's not (inaudible).
All right. Well, Jill is doing one of two things here. Now, in places like Michigan where Trump's margin of victory was a scant 0.2 percent, Jill got one percent of the vote. So if hadn't run in the wolverine state and eviscerated Hillary with her adamantine claws, the results obviously would've been very different.
Now, she clearly has run her remorse and wants to be light by the plastic so she can go sit with the cool girls but she's the one who shops at goodwell (ph) and smells like mothballs. The other possibility is Dr. Stein knows she's not going to affect or change the outcome. She's just being a coy, an unstable anti-authoritarian who's making it seem like she's there to derail the Trump train. But in reality, she hates Hillary so much she's all too eager to see her lose again. All while pretending to be a fair champion of the silence and forgotten man.
Now, whatever the case, she popped up again like a cold sore in front of Trump tower today for her rain-soaked press conference that did little to clarify her reasoning on demanding recounts in states where Hillary lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEIN: That right to vote is embodied in this recount effort to insure that we have a fair and accurate election that we can trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: That's fine. Then do it in Nevada, in New Hampshire, in Minnesota. And while you're at it, go ahead and grab that chafed utter and squeeze, Dr. Stein. Milk it for all its worth or better yet, move to Cuba with your dead boyfriend Fidel and spin a phony yard about free elections and fair voting on that island prison.
A once interesting woman who brought comfort and hope to an insane election has now been trivialized and soiled past the point of salvation and she will be remembered how she landed in the race, a loser. How's that? I'm Kennedy.
KENNEDY: Oh, hi, good to see you. Donald Trump threatening to slap a 35 percent tax on any American company that moves jobs or operations overseas. While economist applaud him for his call to lower corporate tax rates, some say they're worried about the economic consequences of a hefty exit tax.
Here with more, it's the man I've trust with my money and yours, it's Charles Payne, host of "Making Money with Charles Payne" right here on the Fox Business Network, week nights at 6:00 pm Eastern, 3:00 in the west on only FBN.
All right. Charles, welcome.
CHARLES PAYNE, FOX HOST: Thank you very much.
KENNEDY: We talked a little bit about this on "Cavuto on Business" on Sunday. And you've got an interesting take because -- you know, what if a corporation can't afford to make all of its products here in the United States and they go to a factory overseas for maybe part of their manufacturing to make prices more affordable for Americans back home?
PAYNE: Yes. This is a tough dilemma. Obviously, it has to be or we wouldn't gotten to this point where it's a multi-trillion dollar question mark.
Here's the thing. Last week, Donald Trump used a carrot and I think he wanted to remind corporate America that he still had sticks in his quiver. That thing said, I love to see him move forward with all the things that he promised and all the things that really have rigged not at excitement with corporate America, we're talking about lower taxes, lower regulations, infrastructure, you know, ObamaCare things.
There are so many elements that he can do. Let the states fight it out, states rights, lower taxes. I like them doing it. Also, the real intangible, get the economy going. Get the economy going and all of those things mitigate the need to have move to another country because I'm just - - listen, I always tell people, Kennedy. We could win a trade war with China but it will be one heck of a victory. In other words, a lot of jobs will be lost. Initially, the average consumer will pay a lot more money for a lot more things and it wouldn't be pretty.
KENNEDY: No. But the economic outlook long term, you know, the fact that there are so much volatility in such a trade war, does it really seem worth it?
You know, again, maybe we've got some trade and balances with China, maybe we need more free trade. I would like to see him really start with lowering that corporate tax rate 20 percent if Steve Mnuchin is to be taken at his word and rolling back some of those regulations.
I know the markets are responding favorably -- very favorably still to Donald Trump and his policies but, you know, let's talk about regulations a little bit. What would you roll back first that would have the quickest impact on businesses?
PAYNE: Golly, there's so many of them. Honestly, I think there are at least 50 regulations worth $50 billion that could be erased on day one with reverse executive orders. I mean, just minor things, puddles on driveways that form water, dust particles. I mean just some of the more crazy things.
The onerous pressure that we put on coal-fired utility plants, unfortunately, a lot of those jobs are going but it just, we made it so difficult in the last eight years for businesses just to do business. And so just the low-hanging fruit there is just unlimited with respect to what Donald Trump can go for and I'm pretty sure they have a line. That part I think is going to be easy.
Giving corporate America a time to adjust all of these things is going to be a little bit harder. By the way, Ford has said, even though on Friday, they said was still moving jobs to Mexico, they also throw it out there. But you can lower this cafe standards if you can help us with respect to electric cars and charging stations.
In other words, corporate America wants to play ball if you will --
KENNEDY: Yes. But they're looking for subsidies. They're looking for handouts and I would hate to see a fixture of American manufacturing turn into the next Solyndra.
PAYNE: Well, you know, from a pure conservative economic point of view, you've got a great point there. Now, I will say that the Carrier deal was necessary in the sense that there's an intangible part of this economy doing well and that's us buying into it, particularly middle America. That's the animal spirit that's been missing from this economy.
So this fact that it's been sparked, I love -- by the way, you know what came out, that no one really talk about today is that truck orders for the first time in a long time were higher than a year ago. Almost 20,000 trucks order for the first half of next year. We haven't seen that in a long time.
So businesses are starting to anticipate it, consumers, the average person out there. There's an animal spirit that's bubbling up. And that's why I think that Carrier deal was phenomenal but this is not the template. In other words, 35 percent tariff or it's a tough one. And again, either we're going to pay more for these products, companies are going to make less or they're going to stop making it all together.
KENNEDY: Yes. And when will people start complaining about those higher prices, especially if we see inflation start to creep in because obviously the fed is going to make a move.
PAYNE: Right. And it's not just cheap plastic stuff at Walmart. People had realized how many parts that we import particularly from China that go into machines and things like that. We're talking up to 40 percent, it's much more complicated, obviously.
We'd love the fact that Donald Trump has passed this big stick and then he swinging it around. Ultimately though, I think there's a more elegant solution to it all.
KENNEDY: All right. And we're going to talk to you for those solution, Charles, thank you so much.
PAYNE: OK. Thanks a lot.
KENNEDY: Always great to see you.
PAYNE: See you. You too.
KENNEDY: Four eyes, big heart. All right. Let's go talk to the party panel, shall we?
All right, Let's meet them. Tonight, it's a first timer. He's a comedian and host of the "Lost in America" podcast, it's Turner Sparks who also was in China doing business for 12 years. W don't know what kind of business. I hope (inaudible).
Meghan McCain also here, co-host of "Outnumbered" on the Fox News Channel. And "Washington Free Beacon" writer Lachlan Markay. Rounding everything out. Welcome everyone.
MEGHAN MCCAIN, FOX CO-HOST: Hi.
LACHLAN MARKAY, WRITER, WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: Thank you.
TUNER SPARKS, COMEDIAN AND HOST, LOST IN AMERICA: How you doing?
KENNEDY: So much talk about -- very well, thank you so much, Turner. Welcome aboard.
SPARK: Thank you.
KENNEDY: So let's talk something a little bit different. Donald Trump broke decades of precedence Friday by speaking directly with the president of Taiwan, a country China regards as a rogue province. Chinese leaders are apparently very upset about this.
Trump later tweeted a barraged of accusations that China saying, "Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency, making it hard for our companies to compete, heavily tax our products going into their country, the U.S. doesn't tax them, or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so."
So is the new president-elect going to shake up American-Chinese relations? Lachlan, I will start with you. You know, particularly about this call with the -- as someone say, democratically elected leader of Taiwan, who cares if we break a little protocol?
MARKAY: You know what, it actually just came out today. I believe it was Fox News that reported it that less than a week before that happened, China had been flying nuclear-capable bombers over Taiwan.
KENNEDY: That's right.
MARKAY: So I do wonder whether Trump was briefed on that ahead of time and, you know, it's always a question with him whether he's just sort of shooting from the hip or if he really is more --
KENNEDY: Let's say he wasn't briefed. Do you think --
MARKAY: He was not.
KENNEDY: Yes. Do you think that he was unprepared going into that call and didn't realize or didn't care about the ramifications?
MARKAY: Well, he obviously -- there's no love lost between him and China. They've been a punching bag for him throughout the campaign. He obviously does not like them, know they're one of our biggest trading partners, they're a political and economic force in the world so you do have to deal with them on some sort of amiable level in order to just conduct foreign affairs in general.
But he's obviously going to take a tougher line against China. I think nudging them in the direction of maybe not recognizing Taiwan,that would be a bridge too far but I think we do need to be counteracting China's sort of influence in Asia, in that region over the more than we have been.
KENNEDY: How much of this was an overreaction, Meghan?
MCCAIN: By the media?
KENNEDY: Yes.
MCCAIN: Well I text with you about this on "Outnumbered" that the first thing I write on Twitter was this could start a war. And I was like, what happened? Because it was obviously the weekend, I wasn't paying as much attention as I normally do. And then when I backed off from the hysteria, I realized that this isn't only something that I like but I actually really support.
I don't see a problem with our president taking a phone call from someone who was elected in a free and fair election by anybody standard. And China has been jerking us and their international community around for a very long time doing things that again, Hong Kong is something that's particular interest to me, what they've been doing to the legislators who were elected that want freedom, that don't want China's rule. They wouldn't let them gain power.
I mean, there's a lot going on that we can take a second look at. And then the point that you made earlier, just because it's been going on since the 70s doesn't necessarily mean it should go, going forward.
KENNEDY: Yes. Sometimes traditions are actually just superstition. But what do you think? I mean how provocative is this and is it dangerous?
SPARKS: First of all, Twitter is blocked in China. So I'm not sure how they even find out about that in the first place. It seems like that should be the first question I would ask. It's like wait, how are you even seeing this since Twitter is not around?
KENNEDY: Yes. What's the Chinese protocol?
SPARKS: Weibo. So what they need to do is do that on Weibo. And maybe in Chinese.
KENNEDY: Can you get an account? Can I get one of those accounts here?
SPARKS: Sure. Anyone can get it. But that's an attack move. If he really wants to attack --
KENNEDY: Yes, that's bold. You know what I think, I don't know if he wants to attack but I think he wants to be bold like a good couple (ph) of soldiers.
Now, speaking of which, does Donald Trump's Twitter account makes the media obsolete? According to former Vice President Dick Cheney over the weekend, Cheney spoke at the Reagan National Defense Forum and said that thanks to Twitter, "We don't need you guys anymore."
No one would probably agree more than the president-elect himself who today tweeted, if the press would cover me accurately and honorably, I would have far less reason to tweet. Sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen. So are we in the media no longer necessary? Just superfluous dependency (ph) huh? Is that what you've been reduced (ph) to Lachlan?
MARKAY: You know, blame Obama. He really got this trend rolling and he looked for ways from the beginning of his presidency to circumvent the media and rather ingeniously, I think, putting out videos from the White House web site.
KENNEDY: That's right. No longer a videographer from the press pool following the president. They said we will give you the information that we want you to have. You're not going to paint this president in an unflattering light.
MARKAY: Yes. But I do think that Trump's style and, you know, as I was just saying, you know, it's hard to tell how much of this is sort of carefully planned out, whether it's an actual strategy on Trump's part or if he's just, you know, a thought crosses mind and he goes and tweeted out.
KENNEDY: Maybe he does.
MARKAY: You know, there is a line between CNN and just saying all the crazy stuff that pops in your head on Twitter. He could effectively use new media to circumvent traditional threats without --
KENNEDY: But I think this campaign is truly bipartisan that all presidents learn to hate the press. You know, even though --
MCCAIN: I don't know if Obama hated the press.
KENNEDY: He absolutely resented the press.
MCCAIN: Maybe he's growing too now.
KENNEDY: And he would wag his finger at them and he would admonish and lecture them every --
MCCAIN: He got the biggest free pass in our history and, you know, you have Chris Matthews talking about it, he gets tingled up his leg. I mean, give me a break.
KENNEDY: Yes, lack of vetting because of --
MCCAIN: Yes. Total lack of vetting. And again, I've been on both sides so I've been around press pools, I've been around reporters when they're drinking in hotel rooms. I know exactly how liberal, 90 percent, of them are.
So I actually take a lot of pleasure out of the pain that Donald Trump is inflicting on people like "The New York Times" because this really is the chickens coming home to roost for years and years and years of bias reporting and I think Obama culminated in this giant like liberal love feast that helps create Trump and I love that he's using Twitter to bypass them.
KENNEDY: You sound mediated which means there's no media in it.
SPARKS: Yes. Well, I mean, Cheney saying that Trump doesn't need the press. I think it's missing the point. The press is not meant to work for the president, it meant to work for the people. So it doesn't matter if Trump needs the press or not, the people need the press.
KENNEDY: Yes, but presidents end up hating the press.
SPARKS: Yes, but that's just -- who cares? If the president hates the press --
KENNEDY: Oh, I don't care if the president hates -- no, I just think it's a universal phenomenon, it's not just Obama, it wasn't just Hillary who claim that the press was dead set against her. And her spokes people are still saying that if it weren't for the press' hack job in here e-mail, she would be president.
MCCAIN: I'm sorry. Chelsea Clinton was on the cover of I believe ELLE magazine, Michelle Obama was in the cover of Vogue now. I mean, the passive and the publicity that they are given not just my news press but by entertainment and fashion press as well.
I read an article recently saying that Tom Ford refuses to dress Melania Trump because it's not with his brand. It goes all across the board. We're not just talking about politics.
KENNEDY: He was so snobby when he made that remark.
MCCAIN: So rude.
KENNEDY: It's like dude, she's a wife of a billionaire. don't tell her that what she's wearing is too expensive.
MCCAIN: I mean she's also our new first lady. I mean, I actually find it unpatriotic that he won't dress our first lady.
KENNEDY: Yes. Oh, god there's a party, (inaudible) --
SPARKS: And Trump uses the press more than anybody. So he actually needs the press. Because 90 percent of his Twitter account is reacting to things that are said in the press.
KENNEDY: I agree with that.
SPARKS: So he wouldn't have material if he didn't have the press.
KENNEDY: Yes, he needs the press and the press needs him because they can just react to the tweets and not have to do any real work. They're very lazy.
All right. The party panel returns a little bit later. Did the fake news story from the election lead to shoots fired in the D.C. pizzeria. We will tell you what reportedly set off a gunman in our nation's capital. But first up, Democrats to discuss their budget (inaudible) in the last election but Nancy Pelosi says their new plan is more of the same greatness. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KENNEDY: Hey now. Despite imploding in the 2016 election, Nancy Pelosi says Democrats aren't looking for a new direction and hinted that progressives could take back congress if an anti-Trump backlash rises in 2018. But the mass just isn't on her side, 33 senate seats are up in the next election, 25 vulnerable democrats having them playing defense.
So let me ask Washington Examiner senior political columnist, Tim Carney, welcome back, Tim.
TIM CARNEY, SENIOR POLITICAL COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Thank you for having me.
KENNEDY: I look at some of the leader, Pelosi's comments and I think to myself, what is wrong with her? What do you think?
CARNEY: Well, she had a very telling comment, sort of badmouthing her opponent for minority leader Tim Ryan in the press. Before the vote she said, he didn't even carry his district for Hillary Clinton.
In other words, she's saying that the Democrats should only be led by people who work from safe blue country like San Francisco. So to me, this is not her trying to build any majority. That's why she doesn't want to change anything. I think and we wrote this in an examiner editorial, I think she's trying to build the safe space for nice West Coast San Francisco, East Coast elite liberals there on Capitol Hill.
KENNEDY: That's absolutely right. And, you know, I'm wondering is this wishful thinking on her part or how do both Democrats feel about this? Were they hoping for a change in leadership and hopefully a change in direction for the party that they hope can once again become victorious?
CARNEY: Well, you would think so but two-thirds of the democratic caucus voted for Pelosi for minority leader.
KENNEDY: And the (inaudible) here.
CARNEY: And Hillary Clinton pretty convincingly won that democratic primary over Bernie Sanders. But what you could point to is that that minority, the one-third that voted against Pelosi and the 45 percent that voted for Bernie Sanders, that's actually a pretty impressive rebuke to the party elite. But the fact is, a party elites carried the day in both the Pelosi race and in the presidential nomination so it's definitely a divided party.
The stories we thought we were going to be telling about the Republican civil war, well, they're happening on the Democratic side now, it's kind of fun to watch.
KENNEDY: Yes. And I think that's something that they didn't anticipate. That it was going to although, you know, they were definitely going to not gain ownership of the house. They were hoping it would do better in the senate.
They assumed that they were going to win the White House and when that didn't happen, yet all these people for the first time saying, you know, what have we done here? Now senate Democrats are vulnerable in 2018 as I mentioned and they're looking for payback since Republicans sat on that Merrick Garland nomination and, you know, didn't give him his day in a confirmation hearing. Are they going to seek revenge in some of these confirmations for the cabinet?
CARNEY: Well, so they certainly will -- they're in a different position, they're the minority party in the senate so they would have to filibuster. Merrick Garland came up under a Republican led senate and so all they had to do is just deny a hearing, deny moving to the floor.
So it would be a little more visible obstruction by Democrats to block Trump nominees. But the conviction on the left now is obstruction carried no political costs for Republicans, for Mitch McConnell when they were in the minority or when the Democrats had the White House so we're going to it back.
But as you said, the Democrats are defending a lot more turf in those senate races and many of those two dozen senate seats they have to defend are in states that Donald Trump won and so he may actually have some political clout to force votes from a handful of Democrats on his nomination.
KENNEDY: Well, we will see how the economy does between now and 2018 because that is certainly going to be the overriding factor. Tim Carney, thanks so much for joining me, appreciate it.
CARNEY: Thank you for having me.
KENNEDY: All right. Coming up, Donald Trump is eyeballing a lot of generals for cabinet positions. But would a military heavy government finally silence politicians or bring in a whole new set of problems? We will get right into it in moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KENNEDY: See, we didn't even include the bad words. Welcome back. President-elect Trump has yet to name a number of nominees for his cabinet, another top positions. But one thing is clear, he seems to be hiring and interviewing a lot of generals. The question now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Trump has already tap Marine General James Mattis for secretary of defense and retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. At least five or six other generals who are admirals are reportedly also in the running for some of the remaining spots.
But if you recall during the campaign, Trump famously said that he knew more than the generals about ISIS. And some policy analyst have warned that Trump could end up relying too heavily on the military for his foreign policy. Here with more, it's Bryan Suits, KFI AM 640 radio host in Los Angeles. He's also a combat veteran of Iraq and Bosnia.
Hey, Suits, I'm just wiping the hair out of my eyes, looking at that beard of yours. It was quite magnetic. Welcome back, you barbarian.
BRYAN SUITS, RADIO HOST, KFI AM 640: Thanks for having me and thanks for the skin tag remover.
KENNEDY: I don't know what that means. OK. So let's discuss this a little bit. I believe there is a natural tension here between Donald Trump and the billionaires and business people he knows and is comfortable with and the generals and admirals that he's most unfamiliar with because he's got an unrequited love of the military. Is this dangerous?
SUITS: No, it's not. And the guy is obviously -- well, he knows his audience. He knows that the American military has the highest public opinion, you know, response above pinched nerves in congress and all that. And Mattis is universally loved except for some small exceptions. Petraeus, same as him, except he has a conviction. So he have to deal with that. Flynn, the same thing.
So the guy is playing to his audience. And also though, I think you're on to something. I think this is a guy who as famously was once said men think meanly of themselves who have not been in the army. I think Trump has had an easy life, he knows it and he likes surrounding himself with people who tell him that he's a good guy, who have, you know, seen the elephant as they say.
KENNEDY: Yes. No, I saw the elephant. I hang out with Navy Seals a lot for the same reason.
So we have a tradition in this country of not naming retired military vets and personnel to secretary of defense. Why is that? And do you think that we should throw that baby out with the bath water with Mattis?
SUITS: Yes. For a real American reason, and it is to have a very actual chronological gap between uniform and suit and tie because we take an oath, I took an oath of enlistment and later I took an oath of commissioning. And our oath is to support and defend the constitution and to obey all lawful orders.
Here, we're taught as officers and NCOs to disobey illegal orders so it's the natural civilian military gap is something that the military more proactively than the civilians enforce. And so when George Marshall became secretary of state, that was a one-time exception. That was the reason for it.