reporter: the president stop to go sip from a bottle of water, something he mocked senator marco rubio for during the campaign. it s rubio, help me, i need water. help. reporter: on another light wrote, the president got something he all but asked for on wednesday when mechanics of the ucla basketball team thanked him for help secure their release from the custody of chinese authorities on shoplifting charges. the president had tweeted do you think the three ucla basketball players will say thank you to president trump? they were headed for 10 years apparently locked up there in china. the president apparently got what he wanted and the message was received by the players. chris and alisyn, back to you. thank you very much. let s bring in john avlon. let s start with the tax plan. ron johnson, not a fan.
is in grave condition. convicted mass murderer and notorious cult leader charles mason is reportedly back in the hospital. tmz says he is in deteriorating condition. and the three ucla basketball players who were arrested in china on shoplifting charges have been suspended from the team indefinitely. the president who intervened in their release, chimed in this morning, say, you re welcome, give a thank you to president xi jinping, adding, have a great life. and da vinci s painting sold for more than $450 million at an auction just across the street here in new york city last night. that is the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction and the buyer has not yet been identified. but i d like to know who it is. now back to our top story. we just found out we will be hearing from roy moore himself later this afternoon when he attends a rally of pastors and pro family leaders who are
consensus so long as, i quote, you are not doing violence to your judgment. i will say you picked up on something before i find interesting. jersey people are resolute. they make decisions. i m a jersey guy. if i make a decision i stick to it. i m surprised they went back in after saying they were deadlocked and for two days we haven t heard anything to them. they are really trying to come to a unanimous verdict here. julie: thank you very much. jon: three ucla basketball players back on u.s. soil released from chinese custody after authorities dropped shoplifting charges. what the president is saying about their return. plus the punishment they could face here at home. president trump: what they did was unfortunate. you are talking about very long prison sentences. it was not something that should have happened.
outnumbered . two different tax plans in the house and senate. the president heads to the hill tomorrow to talk taxes with members. going to give them encouragement. how much influence does he have? will they get the cuts done? maybe nudge them over the finish line. sessions says he will not be influenced by the president investigating the uranium sale to russia. hillary clinton s exoneration but a special counsel is under consideration. what sessions s testimony yesterday. you saw it on this program, tells us about the future. our #one lucky guy. outnumbered at the top of the hour. jon: those three ucla basketball players detained in china for a week are back on u.s. soil. chinese authorities dropped shoplifting charges against the three and they may have
we ll bring one in, but we don t have evidence that there is at the moment. some people interpreted the letter sent to the judiciary committee last night as signalling that it was preparing to open a special counsel session on this. i didn t read the letter that way. i thought it was more trying to straddle the line and it seemed to me the attorney general was very much trying to say to the committee today, we ll look at this, but we have a very high standard for appointing a special counsel. there has to be evidence of a crime. then he noted, we ve only done this twice before, once after waco with danforth and now with mueller, trying to say it s an extraordinary thing to open a special counsel investigation. i thought his subtext was, don t get your hopes up. that s what it sounded like to me, too, but pete, you re the expert in this, so thank you. garrett hague and pete williams. president trump just arrived in hawaii and he spoke on air force one to the usc basketball players