This isnt that there were discussions. There was nothing wrong or or inappropriate about those discussions. It purely came down to a matter of trust, thats it. Thank you, guys, see you tomorrow. Ashley there you have it, a contentious but certainly not combative sean spicer, the White House Press secretary basically saying again and again and again, 28 times over, that in his opinion and in the president s opinion our former National Security adviser, Michael Flynn, did nothing wrong when he spoke to the Russian Ambassador even about sanctions. The rob for the white house was the problem for the white house was he was not truthful when he was questioned about it. In other words, he didnt tell the truth, and it was that erosion of trust that was ultimately the downfall of Michael Flynn, and thats why President Trump asked for his resignation late last night. He lied, he said, to Vice President mike pence, and for that he just, there was just no going back. He did not trust Michael Flynn going forward. Not so sure that other lawmakers, certainly democrats, will say, wait a minute, he shouldnt have been making that kind of call in the first place, but regardless, hes gone. The white house says its because he lied, and we move forward. Hi, everybody, im Ashley Webster in for trish regan and welcome to the intelligence report. Another fun day, isnt it . General flynns resignation marks another setback be for the administration, also raises new questions about the state of u. S. National security. The white house, as we said, says flynns actions were not illegal, but President Trump did ask is him to resign over an erosion of trust. The first matter was whether there was a legal issue. We had to review whether there was a legal issue, which the white House Counsel concluded there was not. As i stated in my comments, this was an act of trust. Whether or not he actually misled the Vice President , was the issue. And be that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation of general flynn. Thats it. Ashley thats it, says sean spicer. Joining me now, Mercedes Schlapp along with Communications Director neil shah rocha. Mercedes, to you first. It all came down to a matter of trust. Michael flynn blew it. He wasnt truthful about what he said about the nature of his call with the Russian Ambassador. Is that going to satisfy democrats who say, wait a minute, we need to know what went on here and who knew what and when. Well, absolutely. You already saw senator mccaskill from missouri come out and basically say this is why we need further investigation into the russian meddling in our elections, and it gives the democrats ammunition to further voice their opinions on this. As we know, the Top Republicans have said that they are not going to investigate this in the committees. What we do know is that its perfectly legal for during this transition period for the, these individuals, these transition officers to speak to the foreign governments. They spoke to over 30 foreign governments during that time. But what did happen here is the fact that President Trump values trust, he values loyalty from his staff, and the fact is that general flynn someone who had been a very strong advocate for the president back during the campaign truly misled the Vice President. And that, thats just uncalled for and, quite frankly,s it is a huge setback for the administration. Ashley well, as we mentioned, democrats wasting no time to pounce on the Trump Administration following general flynns resignation. Heres maryland democrat Elijiah Cummings speaking to reporters in the last hour. Who at the white house decided to do nothing for three weeks as flynn sat in on meeting after meeting after meeting . Did the president decide to wait . Did counsel decide to wait . Something is wrong here. Ashley lets bring in neil if we can. Neil, Elijiah Cummings saying something is wrong here. Do you think we need a hearing on this to just get it out of the system, so to seek, and then move forward . Absolutely. We need to know the full, unmitigated, unvarnished truth here. We know for a fact at this point that the president knew for three weeks that Michael Flynn had lied to the Vice President. The big question that i have is why was he continuing to be involved in security briefings when we knew that he could be a potential National Security risk . It seems like this is an example of President Trump putting his own political selfinterests ahead of National Security, and thatseally dangerous. Ashley mercedes, bob corker, Senate Foreign realizes Committee Relations committee, has said in the last half hour i might be open to some hearings just to address this so we can move forward. Would that be bad news for the Trump Administration . Sure. I think if youre going i could see some of these senators, including senator corker, decide to say, look, we need to know more information, exactly how this happened. And so you could possibly see meetings between the senators and possibly the white House Counsel on what happened. And being able to expose the transparency in this process. Look, i think general flynn, obviously, it took a while for there to be this clarification as to what happened, exactly happened during this time. As we know right now especially in these first several weeks, things moved very quickly inside the white house. I can tell you being in the Bush White House during the first administration, and i think that it really took the Justice Department reaching over to the white House Counsel. As we know, bureaucrats take a long time for things to happen sometimes and basically saying, look, hes putting us in jeopardy because the russians can use this to blackmail us. And i think that that was the red flag at that point, and the fact that it took a longer process to come to this finale which is the fact that general flynn was asked for his resignation. It probably should have happened probably a couple weeks ago. But as we know, things are moving very quickly in the white house. At the same time, it should have been happening weeks ago, he was getting Intelligence Briefings which he very well could have been leaking to the russians. We need a few i tell you who east leaking whos leaking to the russians . Its probably some of these federal bureaucrats. We know leaking has been a problem in the white house ashley right. Youre just assuming flynn is the one thats leaking i think thats an unfair assessment. The public deserves a full investigation. Right a full, public investigation. And lets investigate [inaudible conversations] ashley neil, let mercedes finish her point. To jump and say flynn is the one whos leaking, lets have the transparency. Is it coming from the state department, the situation room. This is a serious issue. Back we know the reality of this. For National Security when theres phone calls made with foreign leaders, with the president and a foreign leader, that in the past was never leaked. But guess what . Under President Trump there is. They need to figure out whos the one leaking, i think thats valid. But youre just jumping to the conclusion that it was general flynn, and i dont think thats fair. Ashley also, how do we though he could be blackmailed . Youre making that speculation, right, neil . No. Thats the assessment of investigators from the Justice Department. Thats right. There are. Now, lets be clear here, this needs to go beyond just Michael Flynn. Theres a whole host of connections between Donald Trumps administration and the russian government that need to be fully investigated. Did Michael Flynn, over the course of his time this Donald Trumps campaign, speak with and connect with, you know, russian eights . There is a real agents . There is a real concern over how deep donald trump and his administrations connections go with the russians and Vladimir Putin that deserves to be fully and publicly investigated. Ashley well, that may, that may indeed happen if it were a democrat, that would have happened. Ashley i dont know about that. Mercedes, neil, stick around if you can. Blake burman was inside with sean spicer at that very interesting time, i thought sean spicer not as angry as he can be [laughter] bottom line was the message from the white house, blake, was look, he lied. Thats why he was fired, he lied. Its not what he did or talked about, we simply lost trust. Reporter a couple things here, and youre right, ashley. On the one hand, the argument that the administration was putting out today was over time the president had lost trust in Michael Flynn, and that was the reason for asking for his resignation. Not because there was anything that was done illegally, but that there was a trust issue, and thats what led to the occurrences yesterdayment the other part of the point that sean spicer was trying to get across was the whole timing of everything, and he laid it out saying january 13th the Justice Department was made aware that there could potentially be some sort of an issue here. Spicer said fast forward 13 days to january 26th, thats when the white House Counsel was head aware of this situation, and at that point the administration as spicer puts it made a Decisive Action to act on this going from there. The review took place, and it led to the events yesterday of the president asking for the resignation. On that end, keep in mind we were told yesterday that general flynn had resigned on his own end. Now the story today is that it was the president who had asked for his resignation. Either way, the overarching theme here from inside the white house is that healey mr. Flynn legally mr. Flynn did nothing wrong. Listen to sean spicer from earlier today. As has been noted by many people, thats what the National Security adviser and, frankly, other positions do. They begin the process of raring their incoming job by talking to counterparts, people who have previously held the job, etc. If he had not done that, there would be questions as to whether he was properly prepared on day one. Reporter bottom line here, ashley, when you talk about potential investigations, what might happen on capitol hill, that could be a whole other capitol hill issue. But here at the white house it do notppear, at least at this point, that anything on that end might be coming from the administration. Ashley never a dull day, thats for sure. Blake bushman, great stuff burman, great stuff as always. In the wake of Michael Flynns resignation, theres a growing belief that someone is leaking information to the media, and the prospect of the leak really upsetting the president , as you can imagine. He tweeted this this morning the real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of washington . Will these leaks be happening as i deal on north korea, etc. Joining me now, a fellow at the Hoover Institute and a former member of the trump transition team. Kyron, before i get your reaction, i want to play you a clip of former congressman Dennis Kucinich on our air earlier today. Listen to this. At the core of this is an effort by some in the Intelligence Community to upend any positive relationship between the u. S. And russia. And i tell you theres a marching band out there, theres gold in them thar hills, theres people trying to separate the u. S. And russia so that this military industrial intel axis can cash in. Ashley thats an interesting theory. Do you agree with whats being said there . Theres so much there, its hard ashley yeah. [laughter] to unpack what kucinich is trying to say but, no, not without a lot of evidence. The claim that the Intelligence Community is doing what he says its doing, its really, its a very heavy lift in terms of evidence. The evidence must be very strong there. But i would say and remind everyone that if the i. C. Is doing anything like it, not only should it stop right away, but it doesnt make policy. And when it begins to move in that direction, it really violates the trust that the Political Community and the policymakers have with the intelligence analysis and gathering that it should be doing and focusing on. So i would hope that its not the case. Ashley would you suggest there is something fishy going on . Because it was first raised, i think, after this call between President Trump and the australian prime minister. Word of that call perhaps being ended rather sharply got out to the media. I think it went to the Washington Post be, and there was questions then, there must be a leak in there. How did they get this story . It is troubling, would you not agree . I would, but i wouldnt blame it on the i. C. , the Intelligence Community, necessarily. We know theres been a lot of leaking coming out of the new Trump Administration and perhaps out of the white house at a rate that we havent seen early in a new presidency. And i think that President Trump is trying to really bring his Team Together to better understand how to secure and control their message, and i believe that thats something that theyre focusing on right now. But let me speak to a larger issue that you have raised. There are a couple things in washington that happen to be true in almost any context. Trust is the coin of the realm, and people often forget that as theyre climbing their way to the top of the policy heap in washington. And se, policy is people. Or people are oil to. Are policy. And the people you have in place, you must trust them, and they must also have the philosophy of the president , the commander in chief. And when one of those is not there, there really you dont have thinking. That person cannot work for the president and his administration. And i think in the case of general flynn, a devoted public servant, someone who has served the military of the nation for all of his adult life, there was a breakdown in what i just described, trust being the coin of the realm and policy is people. And its unfortunate to see, and i hope that there has been a Lesson Learned from this early in the administration. I think theres a positive story that the administration dealt with it very quickly, that they did the Due Diligence of giving, investigatorring what mr. Flynn had or had not done and then made a decision when it really came down to trust because you these the people to deploy the policy. Ashley you certainly do. I know democrats would disagree that President Trump sat on this for way too long, but your point kiron, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it. Thank you. Ashley well, the left outraged, by the way, over this immigration raids that have rounded up nearly 700 illegal immigrants. But according to the feds, threequarters of those caught have been convicted of serious crimes including murder and rape. You havent heard that from the mainstream media, have you . Were on it next. Some things are simply impossible to ignore. The strikingly designed lexus nx turbo and hybrid. The suv that dares to go beyond utility. Experience amazing. Of silver last year at their 2 mexican mines. Their recent mine acquisition in peru, once fully operational, stands to increase their production up to 75 percent. Great panther silver your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance were actually taking people that are criminals, very, very hardened criminals in some cases with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems, and were getting em out. And thats what i said i would do. Ashley well, he certainly did. Thats President Trump praising officials more cracking down on illegal immigration. So far immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have arrested about 680 illegal immigrants, and guess what in the feds say that 75 be of those arrested had prior criminal records, offenses such as homicide, weapons charges, Sexual Assault of a minor, Sexual Assault, sexual abuse. Despite those Violent Crimes, critics of the crackdown are still crying foul. Gets me mad. Former nypd commissioner Bernard Carrick joins he now. Bernard, thank you so much. I dont understand the pushback. These officers are just doing what the law calls for. And as i just listed, excuse me, threequarters of these people, their criminal records are outrageous. How can anyone push back against that . Well, ashley, i think the real story here is that i. C. E. Is now permitt to do their job. And theyre doing what they were supposed to be doing for years, but the Prior Administration had not allowed them. The people theyre picking up, many of them, threequarters of which according to secretary kelly are convicted, prior convictions of major crimes, violet, Violent Crimes. Who wants these people in the streets, this their communities . Nobody i know. And they shouldnt be here in the first place. Thats the bigger issue. Ashley thats the first crime. Thats the first crime. And if we were any other country, they would be taken seriously, they would be in prison, they would be deported. Here, you know, you have governors and mayors that just allow this stuff to happen. Ashley well, heres what the critics are saying, theyre upset with the scale and the nature of the raids, the swooping down. They say its unclear what kind of crimes actually lead to deportation. Well, listen, theyre here illegally. Okay, that leads to deportation, number one. Number two, theyve been convicted of other crimes. I dont want em here. And i dont want to pay especially if its not violent, really Violent Crimes where i want them to be in prison, i dont want to pay for them to sit in the prison at 100, 150 a day. Get em out of here. Ashley you know what . Judge napolitano, speaking on an earlier show, put this in perspective. He said these people have the right to a defense in court. [laughter] and the taxpayer pays for not only the prosecution and the defense that it can cost while it goes through the entire system 250,000 per illegal immigrant. Well, that headaches me insane as it is makes me insane as it is. Theyre not american citizens, they should have no rights. Its just like the refugee issue. Its a privilege to come into the country. Ashley can we turn the dialogue on this issue . Youre saying were talking about this because theyre actually enforcing the law. As we go forward, can President Trump actually enforce this law which hasnt been in force for years . Well, hes doing it now, and its going to continue to get done, you know . I. C. E. Is on a mission, the mission is directed by the president. This is what the president said he would do during his campaign. Hes just carrying out u. S. Law, thats what this is. Its u. S. Law. Ashley and Law Enforcement are behind it . Absolutely, 110 . Ashley all right, Bernard Carrick, appreciate it. Gets me mad. The first lady firing back and, guess what . Thank a supermodel for calling out a New York Times reporter who used a false and disgusting slur against the first lady. The reporter are or, by the way, just gets a slap on the wrist, but what if that had been done to Michelle Obama . Got a feeling it would have been more than a slap on the wrist. Weve got that next. There what a valentines day story, huh . Kudos to emily for going public with this, not just letting the private conversation pass. This is at the grammy awards, sitting next to a New York Times reporter, and second, i can identify the reporter he identified himself. Jacob bernstein, feature writer who posted a profuse apology, he has not lived up to New York Times standards and should not have repeated the unfounded rumors and should well apologize for going there, even in a private conversation because these things can often become public. Ashley lets do the what if question, what isomeone had done this about Michelle Obama. What would be the fallout from that, do you think . Not today because of the resignation of Michael Flynn, it would be all over the cable newscast, a big story everywhere. A huge well of media outrage. I understand because you dont want to repeat the slander, Melania Trump is actually suing a newspaper for the unfounded claim she once worked as an escort. I hate to repeat it on television but because the New York Times reporter put it in play and emily called it out, we have to deal with it. Yes, the reaction is rather muted compared if it had been a different first lady. Ashley do you think theres a sense, though it wasnt actually reported, it was someone making a comment, but it really is, all bets are off when it comes to donald and Melania Trump. I felt that way for a long time. Some of the stuff said about Melania Trump who had chosen to take a much less public first lady role. Whether you cant stand on policies or policies i see the adjectives used about him in straight news accounts, questions about is he mentally ill, is he a fascist . All of that, the normal standards for covering a president , im not saying we shouldnt cover him aggressively and challenge him when he says something thats not true, but the normal standards obliterated because of i believe a lot of animosity. Hollywood, media, you name it toward the president. Ashley what about respect for the office . Forget the person. What about the office . Exactly right. Again, if donald trump doesnt have an adequate explanation why he didnt act soon or mike flynn, thats normal, aggressive reporting. What were seeing is the president is being portrayed widespread in the media and hollywood awards ceremonies as some kind of disreputable and dishonorable character, and i think its a bit over the top. Ashley i think you are exactly right. Howard, thank you so much for take the time to join us, appreciate it. By the way, you can watch howie on mediabuzz on the Fox News Channel 11 00 a. M. Eastern every sunday. Fun show. Democrats losing their minds over President Trump protesting pretty much everything he does. Some say this is the beginning of the tea party of the left . So the question is are the dems uniting or alienating moderates with a constant outrage . So many questions. Weve got it next. This is my retirement. Retiring retired tires. And i never get tired of it. Are you entirely prepared to retire . Plan your never tiring retiring retiretires retirent with e trade. Im in vests and as a vested investor in vests i invest with e trade, where investors can investigate and invest in vests. Or not in vests. Sign up at etrade. Com and get up to six hundred dollars. Ashley welcome back. The market unaffected by the fun and games going on in washington, d. C. The dow up 65 points at 20,478. New heights. The financial stocks doing very well today, but breaking right now, President Trump signing a bill to lift doddfrank regulations to energy companies. Sj resolution 41 disapproving the securities and Exchange Commissions ruling on disclosure of payments by resource extraction. Its a big deal. And i want to thank Speaker Paul Ryan for being here. Hes been tremendous. Jeff hensarling, very, very important and really worked hard. Representative bill hisinger. This is one bill weve signed and many more left. Were bringing jobs back big league, to plantevel, bringing them back at mine level. The energy jobs are coming back and you see whats going on with the stock market. They know what we know what were doing. Its going up at record clips. So i think what im going to do, if i might, can i ask you to say a few words . My pleasure, mr. President. This is bill hisinger. This is the first cra to be signed by the president and very pleased to be part of house joint resolution 641. Very little in output and oversight, time that changed, im thankful to the president , the speaker, our chairman hensarling for making this happen. We think this is a good first step. Very pleased. Thank you, mr. President. With that, ill sign it. We may have to give him the pen. [laughter] someone is going to have to fight me. [laughter] congratulations. Great job. Thank you. Youve done a fantastic job. All right, lot of people going back to work now. Here, here. [applause]. Ashley all right, there you have it President Trump signing a joint House Resolution which basically does away with some of the regulations relating to energy companies. Part of his legislative program, and with that in mind, democrats apparently are not following the old adage choose your battles. They have ways to fullout assault on the administration from record breaking marches to jamming the phone lines on capitol hill to flooding town halls across the country. The democrats are itching for a fight. Fox news Doug Mckelway joins me with more. This is perhaps the tea party of the left. Thats right, ashley, with a new congressional recess approaching. We can see more of the protests that erupted at gop town halls like the one that Jason Chaffetz confronted last thursday. Chaffetz said it had all the makings of astroturf democratic money interests of the george soros variety. Representative John Mcclintock had had to be escorted out of a town hall by police thinks its organic. There are elements of it that are very well organized and coordinated and wouldnt do that without a large grassroots base, that are very, very upset that donald trump was elected president. Its not just at town halls the democrats are protesting. Theyre throwing up obstacles to trumps agenda from the halls of congress to the courts to Media Coverage to street protests and campus rioting. Full on assault for the administration. Can the left translate anger at the ballot box two years from w as the tea party did during the obama adnistration so much of the energy is organic. There have been 8090 organizations that started since the election. The majority of the people starting the organizations never organized before, never been in politics before. Theyre moving on what theyre feeling from their peers that people want to be organized and want to come together. Ashley republicans capturing control of both houses of congress. Reporter and gubernatorial offices was not just the work of tea Party Activism and anger at the obama agenda but years of grassroots organizing. It takes a while. Thats almost a decade of grassroots organizing, getting candidates to run and changing the status quo in terms of trying to run candidates against incumbents which is a difficult thing to do and win. One thing the democrats are counting on, the time tested reality in midterm elections, the president s party almost always loses seats and given the gops slim seat majority in the senate, only four seats, the 2018 midterms are already looming large indeed. Back to you. Ashley they are indeed. Doug, thank you very much. Very interesting indeed. The question is are the protests spontaneous or orchestrated or lead to victory in 2018 much like the tea party did for republicans . Or are the democrats at risk of creating outrage fatigue, further alienating the moderate members of the party. Thats the question. Mercedes schlapp and neil sroka are back with me. Neil, to you on this one, okay to say no to everything, but does that win you any more seats and any more support when we look forward to 2018 . I dont know, ask the republicans. Thats what we saw in 2009 and 2010. We saw protests primarily by the way funded by Freedom Works and americans for prosperity to Koch Brothers networks, have protests ashley you dont think there are people funding these protests on the left . No, the vast majority arent. I work with democracy for america and we had nothing to do with the protests of the these are mass uprisings of people who are truly scared about democracy and actually want to be represented in this country and feel like a president who didnt earn the support of the majority of the people neil. Ashley hang on, mercedes, democracy got us to where we are, correct . Look, neil, i know you are still probably one of the angry ones that cannot accept the election results. If you take the lead of senator joe manchin and moderate democrats willing to sit down with President Donald Trump to Work Together on common ground, for example oinfrastructure spending, dealing with how we handle trade in the future, on helping to help the working class. I think of being the obstructionist party, why not find the conversation, the dialogue . And i think that we have seen President Trump reach out to the moderate democrats. I think what youre finding with the Democratic Party is the fact they have the vacuum of leadership, have you schumer and pelosi spending more time protesting and boycotting and feeding the liberal base as opposed to finding a solution. Ashley neil, mercedes brings up a good point. You have old fatigue, it feels tired, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. Where is the Young Democratic leaders coming out of the woodwork with fresh energy and an actual plan . I think that is the problem ive heard from other democrats. Likwhere was that in 2008. A bunch of old white guys running the republican party. Come on. There are millions of people out in the streets and going totown Hall Meetings and trying to hold Public Officials accountable. Thats what democracy looks like. Exactly. Ashley and shouting them down, neil, thats the problem i have with campuses and everything else. Do you remember . Were you there in the summer of 2009. Do you remember what the crowds of people shoeding down democrats looked like . This is nothing compared to that. Ashley why more than a thousand seats at the local and federal level lost to the republicans why. Is that . Why . Because we didnt do enough to invest in the downballot races. Im inspired by whats happening. Go ahead, mercedes. Its the messaging, neil. The democrats have decided its going to be identity politics. About separating us by ethnicity, gender. Its like trying to ensure and push forward the moral agenda to the left that Everyday Americans dont necessarily agree with. So i think for the republicans it was look, trump got it right when it got to the Economic Growth mess rage, able to turn the independent voters who voted for obama 2008, 2012, the working class in trumps favor. Thats where the democrats have failed. You are seeing this play out in the dnc race. Thats not true. Okay, then tell me who the leader is in the dnc right now . The reason the democrats lost in 2016 is millions didnt come out to vote, they werent inspired to come out and vote. You have a failed candidate. We didnt have a great candidate, and you had a candidate that ran on bigotry, hate and division. Ashley thats not true, thats not true. You cannot call donald trump a racist or a bigot, that is an outright lie. Thats what he did on the campaign trail and latino justice. You know what, neil, the democrats ended up calling us deplorables. They called us racist. Im calling the president deplorable. No, im sorry, they called his supporters deplorables. The president enacted a bigoted campaign, a bigoted office. Ashley and therefore anyone who voted for him must be the same way, right, neil . Nope, not at all. They ran a campaign of obfuscation and lies. Ashley how about the democrats forgetting about middle america, no, anyway. Stop right there. We could go further. But i have breaking news for you right now. First, it was Michael Flynn. Now Kellyanne Conway under fire. Fox news is reporting that the office of government ethic has now informed the white House Counsels office, quote, there is strong reason to believe ms. Conway has violated the standards of conduct and the disciplinary action is warranted. This is all in response to interview that conway had on fox friends last week when she gave a free commercial for ivanka trumps clothing line. However, the oge has no authority to conduct full investigations yet alone, and let alone a disciplinary action. The white house itself must decide on that. Breaking news, Kellyanne Conway gets interesting, doesnt it . Well be right back. Ashley Congressional Republicans today vowing to make good on President Trumps Campaign Promise to repeal and replace obamacare. Representative mark sanford getting ready to introduce a replacement bill as Speaker Paul Ryan says theyll take that process step by step. Joining me with the latest is our very own gerri willis. Gerri, we had announcement today. Do we have a plan in place . [laughter] no. Heres what happened. Everybody came out and said were on our way. Its happening, rest assured, repeal and replacement is going to happen. And powerful people like greg waldman, head of that committee. Ways and means committee. Theyre in charge, but i have to tell you behind closed doors, totally different kettle of fish. According to chad pergram, our producer extraordinaire, lots of worry, lots of anxiety about whats going to happen next. Ashley what about replacement plans do, they have common themes . Okay, theres at least six and more coming. You mentioned the sanford bill, out tomorrow, the good news is theres a lot of overlap. Everybody wants to empower Health Savings accounts, make them bibb bigger, put in a tax credit that people would access if they wanted to pay for this. Lots of changes, opening it up to competition, common theme throughout the republican plans. Let the companies compete. When it comes to medicaid, its more than about party alignment. If you bloc grant medicaid, big states get penalized. Small states get advantages. Its anybodys guess how this is going to come out. Everyone i talk to in the process seem dedicated to getting something, something none. Ashley Bernie Sanders say, look, while the republicans Wander Around not knowing what theyre doing, people are going to die. Of course, thats alarmist but the republicans have to do it step by step but they got to get it right. Got to get it right, and theyre committed to the idea theyre not going to leave people high and dry. Heres the reality of obamacare today. They are already leaving people high and dry. Ashley very good point, gerri. Thank you very much. Well be right back. Ty trades, you realize the smartest investing idea isnt just what you invest in, but who you invest with. Isnt just what you invest in, but who you invest with. If only the signs were as obvious when you trade. Fidelitys active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. Fidelity where smarter investors will always be. Why pause a spontaneous moment . Cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you ke nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. 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Republican senators lisa murkowski, Susan Collins of maine, tim scott of South Carolina and Johnny Isakson have questions for mr. Puzder and will not say if they back him. If they do not, he will not get the votes necessary for confirmation. Its hanging out there. Joining me former massachusetts senator scott brown. Thank you for joining us, before i get to that, ask but the Michael Flynn situation, hearing today that he was fired, and it was all about a lack of trust. How do you think its been handled . Initially, i dont think it was handled well. He gave representations to the Vice President , the Vice President relied on those representations, went out on the air and made representationses to the american public, which in turn, turned out to be wrong. I think he did the right thing, whether he resigned or fired, bottom line is hes out the of the picture. This has happened with people throughout other administrations. The important thing is to move forward. The thing im more concerned about is was referenced in the press conference is amazing amount of leaks coming out of the Intelligence Community that ardirectly affecting ts administration. There seems to be a clear agenda, still, that th havent gotten over the election, they want to take down not only as many people as they can but go directly after the president as well. Ashley if its not the Intelligence Community, its someone in the white house whos not a fan of the president. That could be a possibility too, right . Sure could. Thats why its important not only to get the cabinet secretaries, but the ambassadorships and everyone else filled. I have to be honest with you, is that the new standard, how to basically delay and prohibit an american president from doing his job, delay, delay, delay, delay . What goes around comes around. Thank harry reid for reducing the amount of votes needed to approve these people. If its a democratic president , were going to be in the same situation . Unfortunately, i think yes, the democrats are setting a new standard and not a good standard for our country. Ashley well, talking about delay, delay, delay, we have four republicans expressing a little doubt about andy puzder as labor secretary. Whats that about . Fear of backlash from unions . Because the antiminimum wage of 15 bucks, whats at work here . That could be certainly play a role. There are unions are powerful in washington, dn, d. C. , the lobbyists are incredibly persuasive especially in maine and alaska and georgia, not sure what the other state was. But bottom line is you have strong unions down there. What i heard him say and understanding what you said is they need more information. That tells me if i was in charge or representing those handlers who are going on it, immediately get on the phone and take as long as i could in the offices and sit down and provide any and all information because you referenced it probably, if, in fact, we dont get those republican supporters, its unlikely that a selfmade, hard charging businessman who understands private business for once is going to not get the job. And thats sad. Ashley all right, well, lets hope that does not happen, senator brown, thank you so much. Well be right back with more after this. Just like the people who own them, every business is different. But every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. Whether it be help starting your business, vendor contracts or employment agreements. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you every step of the way so you can focus on what you do. Well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. The full value of your totaled new car. The guy says, you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong insurance company. With new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. Liberty mutual insurance. Ashley breaking news in health care sector, cigna terminating merger deal with anthem. Cigna saying that also wants, well, 13 billion in damages as well. Big breaking story. Meanwhile, the market chugs on. The dow up 60 points. Liz claman over to you a remarkably resilient market, and were on that cigna news. Ashley, weve also gotten this breaking news, getting word that at least one high ranking republican wants an investigation into the flynn russia situation. Ll get that you in a second. Wall street in a lovefest with President Trumps policies and fed chair janet yellen sent out this valentine today while donald trump signed first bill trimming off some of the doddfrank regulations he says are unnecessary. The dow, the s p, the nasdaq taking it as a green light rushing to new record highs