Updated

This is a rush transcript from Thursday, June 13, 2018. This copy may not be in it's final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: We were down today. Why were we down today? Because we're doing too well today. The economy is almost hyperventilating today. And the Federal Reserve chairman said, not only am I hiking interest rates today, mind you, but I might hike interest rates a lot more. That is good news that was deemed bad news. We will get into that. Now I want to get into this, a case of a good cop vs. a bad cop on that North Korean initial talk. The president playing the role of good cop, of course. Today, his secretary of state in North Korea, and on North Korea, saying in Seoul, just south, wait a minute. Nothing has changed. We want to see action. We want to see detailed responses and we want to see denuclearization. So a case of just the White House reminding who is boss and whose message is right? Well, they're both right, or are they? Kevin Corke at the White House with the very latest. Hey, Kevin.

KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, my friend.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Washington wants to see major disarmament of North Korea's nuclear arsenal during President Trump's first term in office. A little optimism right there.He made those comments during a visit to Seoul. There, he was trying to reassure our allies, Neil, that once again, listen, this is a circumstance where the president is trying to advance the agenda of the American people and, for that matter, the world's agenda. Mr. Pompeo making those comments, as well as the president trying to again reassure our allies that, listen, if -- if the talks stall, for example, those joint military exercises that we have heard so much about with South Korea, well, they would resume if the talks break down.Let me take you to Twitter and show you what President Trump had to say. He said: "The world has taken a big step back from a potential nuclear catastrophe. No more rocket launches, nuclear testing or research. The hostages are back home with their families. Thank you to Chairman Kim. Our day together was historic." Neil, it's important to point this out. We have about 32,000 soldiers in South Korea and the president has said he'd like to get them home as soon as possible, though that is not on the table right now. Their presence and the cessation of joint exercises, at least for now, is, as you can well imagine, garnering a great deal of attention over on Capitol Hill, with members on both sides of the aisle expressing a bit of skepticism that the meeting in Singapore produced as much as the president says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN, R—WISCONSIN: We should be under no delusion this is going to be fast. This is going to take time. And we have to make sure that we have irreversible, comprehensive denuclearization of North Korea.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUME, D—NEW YORK: President Trump seems to have given away two or three of the major things that Kim Jong-un wanted, a meeting, the flags next to each other, now no -- delay of exercises with South Korea, without getting anything in return.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORKE: There's that skepticism we were talking about their, Neil. By the way, before let you go, I want to pass along this to our viewers. We have learned from the White House that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, is back home. He is out of the hospital. You may recall last week he suffered a heart attack. And obviously I'm sure I speak for a great many Americans when we say we wish him a full and speedy recovery -- Neil.

CAVUTO: We absolutely do. No matter where you come from politically, I think, everyone agrees he is a very decent human being, and we wish him well. Thank you very, very much, my friend. All right, the bottom line is that the North Korea situation is bound to boost the president's poll numbers. It wasn't too long ago that a lot of people even within the president's party were kind of avoiding him like the plague. Now, to avoid him, for them, could be the plague. The numbers that are stacking up in the president's favor, if, if, if you, well, say you like him and support him and then, better yet, he supports you. Chad Pergram, our Capitol Hill producer, from Washington. Chad, that's a very unmistakable connection, huh?

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS SENIOR CAPITOL HILL PRODUCER: Absolutely.And that's why, in this primary in South Carolina last night, you had the second sitting House Republican member to lose, Mark Sanford, against Katie Arrington. And President Trump is pretty popular in South Carolina.
That's a big Trump state.But, so far, there have been nine candidates who he supported in other states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and that's kind of what caught Mark Sanford off-guard. Katie Arrington was out there very early associating herself -- herself with President Trump.And Sanford was kind of behind the eight ball there. He was running ads that were kind of defensive. And that suggested that he didn't really read this. He had certainly had his differences with President Trump, but again to assert this is Trump country in South Carolina.Now, the real test is going to be in a swing state like Nevada. Danny Tarkanian, the son of the famous UNLV basketball coach, he won the nomination for a House seat there. He's been close with President Trump.But that's a swing state, a battleground state that Hillary Clinton one in 2016, won it by about two-and-a-half points.

Both candidates were held under 50 percent. And Danny Tarkanian has run a number of times for federal office, but hasn't been successful. So if he's able to parlay that in Nevada, a swing state, that tells you a lot about the power President Trump in the midterm elections. Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from Western New York, he indicated that the president is very popular in Republican districts, and so you should get behind him. There's a counterargument to this from Bob Corker, the Republican senator from Tennessee. He's very concerned about tariffs. He had an amendment to this defense bill to try to make sure that presidents go through Congress if they cite national security concerns when it comes to tariffs. He was blocked. And in a rather remarkable speech yesterday, Neil, Some Corker basically upbraided his colleagues, said, we're afraid to poke the bear, just because we're afraid to make the president upset. He said that many senators have spoken personally with the president about how these tariffs may affect their states adversely economically, but when it comes to doing something about it, they're afraid to take on the president. And so this power of the president and where he plays and where he doesn't is going to be key. I would look to those states where he did very well and those states that he didn't do so well as to where he has his true power as we head into the midterm elections.

CAVUTO: All right, Chad, thank you very, very much, Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill.

So should Democrats be worried about this? Of course, the president has gotten at least nine candidates who he deigned worth supporting elected or nominated.Let's go to conservative commentator Ashley Pratte, Democratic strategist Richard Goodstein, and to CRTV host Allie Beth Stuckey. Allie, what do you think?

ALLIE STUCKEY, CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER: Well, I think this is a very interesting case, especially the one that we're seeing in South Carolina. We have someone who had voted with Trump the majority of the time. I think it was around 76 percent. But like the monologue that we just heard said, he was also very defensive of his criticism of Donald Trump and maybe not voting with Trump as much as he had originally thought. And I think Arrington capitalized on that, as well as his past scandals, to say, look, this guy didn't just cheat on his wife. He also cheated on the Republican Party. And whether or not you like what he's done personally, look at what he's done politically. And it's just not enough, according to Trump supporter standards.

CAVUTO: All right, I don't want to break into this with news here, but I do want to break into this with news. And we will follow up on this a little bit later. But, as expected, in light of the AT&T/Time Warner announced merger, Comcast has gone ahead and offered $65 billion for the same assets that Disney wants from 21st Century Fox. That is upping that bid to $65 billion. That is going to put Disney on the defensive here to try to come up with an offer that would equal that. That is significantly above their $52 billion offer. We are going to have Charlie Gasparino on this in a moment. Again, just to update you, we were talking and predicting that this would happen after this announcement yesterday, but Comcast joining the fray for Fox. That stock was already up appreciably today. Comcast looks like it is kicking this off with virtually all cash. But we will get the detail of that very, very soon. That all-cash offer is meant to sort of put the pressure on Disney to do something more than just sort of like a largely stock deal. We're on that. But I would be remiss if I waited a minute more delaying that to you. Richard, let's go back to the backdrop for these deals here, this economy and things picking up speed and this notion that this is a great environment, not being missed in polls, not being missed in numbers for the president, not being missed maybe by average Americans who might just take from Democrats that so-called blue wave. What do you think?

RICHARD GOODSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, Neil, I hope you get your fair share of that $65 billion or whatever the number ends up being.

(LAUGHTER)

GOODSTEIN: Look, the Republicans are in a bind, because yes, you have got to toe the Trump line or else you run the risk of going the way of Mark Sanford. On the other hand, ask Rick Saccone, who lost to Conor Lamb, ask Roy Moore, who lost to Doug Jones, how much the imprimatur of Donald Trump does for you in a general election, when there's actually Democrats and independents who are voting, not just people who are absolutely smitten with Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You're right to bring them up. They're more the exception than the rule, though, because you can go in the Senate with Corey Stewart and Jim Renacci in Ohio and Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania and Deb Fischer.

GOODSTEIN: Yes, but here's the problem.

CAVUTO: I'm just saying, this is across many races, many states, many positions, from governor, to Senate, to House. It's unmistakable that it looks like the president carries some weight and influence in these elections.

GOODSTEIN: In a primary, yes. But ask Barbara Comstock, who represents a district in Northern Virginia. She won a primary only by 60-40 percent against a fringe right-wing candidate who said she wasn't conservative enough in a district that Hillary won by 10 percent in 2016.

(CROSSTALK)

GOODSTEIN: And Corey Stewart is going to drag her down.

CAVUTO: No, no, no, I'm not here to argue politics with you. I don't care. I'm just saying that I look at numbers and trends of late that have picked up steam. And I'm seeing this. So, I'm saying, no matter what you think of the president, it is better if you're running for office to have his blessing and he have yours than not, right?

(CROSSTALK)

GOODSTEIN: Only in a primary.

Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

ASHLEY PRATTE, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's because it's the power of Twitter. And everyone knows that. So, Katie Arrington yesterday getting the support I think it was around 4:00 p.m. was definitely I think a huge boost for her, especially in a state such as South Carolina, where he was widely popular during the primary he won there back in 2016. So I think, again, it depends on the state. Moving forward, though, I don't think Democrats are going to spend time in states like South Carolina. They're going to be going for states that can swing, that are purple. And I think there Trump's support may not be that helpful. But, at the end of the day, if you're on the Republican ticket and you want his support, I think it would be more helpful than getting tweeted against you, which we have seen that work against people in the past running on the Republican ticket. But at the end of the day, I think in very close races where Democrats are willing to spend money, those Republicans may be in jeopardy that are supported by the president, because this will be, again, a very anti-Trump Democratic platform going into the midterm.

CAVUTO: Well, the one thing I always think -- and I think Richard would agree with this -- and I will ask you -- but, Allie, to you first on this notion that it's the economy. And invariably it's the economy. I'm not saying that other ancillary events -- and they're not so ancillary when it comes to issues of controversial character and all that -- that they weigh on people. But with the economy picking up, markets picking up, deals and all that picking up, not that every one participates in these big mega-mergers, media or otherwise, but that this frenetic activity that has clearly picked up is to Republicans' benefit for the time being. What do you make of that?

STUCKEY: Exactly, because it benefits them immediately.

There's some instant gratification. They can actually feel that money in their pocket or they can see that money in their bank account. It affects their everyday lives, whereas, North Korea, great. Getting tough on immigration, that's great.

But it might not affect someone's everyday life. It doesn't affect someone's paycheck in the way that economic issues do. And I think they see the economy booming and hopefully tariffs don't completely reverse that. But, for now, we see the economy is doing well and I think it's really hard for people to vote against their pocketbook.

And I think that's what we're seeing with these candidates.

PRATTE: But, Neil, I think we also need to remember that while it may be about the economy and that's what will turn out the vote in November, the important thing to remember here is that it is a midterm election with a Republican majority.

CAVUTO: Right.

PRATTE: So that does mean that this tide will potentially go against Republicans.

CAVUTO: Well, I don't doubt that it will.

(CROSSTALK)

PRATTE: That could be helpful or may not be.

CAVUTO: Right.

And my predictive powers could be very wrong. I have no doubt that Republicans will lose seats in the House. I do argue they're going to gain seats in the Senate. But I don't think they're going to lose 23. I don't think they're going to lose enough to tip the House the other way.

Richard, what do you think?

GOODSTEIN: Right.

So the fact that the economy is doing as well as it is and the generic ballot in FOX News' own poll has Democrats up by nine, has the president in the low 40s, that's shocking.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So, you don't think the basic dynamics have changed much?

(CROSSTALK)

GOODSTEIN: I'm just saying, we're seeing no evidence of it in the polls.
People can quibble whether the polls count for anything anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: The polls, you're right, they bounce around.

But my only thought on that is you need for House or Senate to change or to be something that is a shift of that dimension, you need a lot of anger, not just a little bit of anger out there.

GOODSTEIN: Well, I think, again, if the generic holds -- and it's like high single digits, nine or thereabouts, where the FOX News poll is now -- yes, that's wave stuff.

You're seeing, like in that Arizona special election in April, Trump wins the general by 21. The Republican wins the House race by five. Every Republican who won by less than 15, they're in trouble.

CAVUTO: All right, guys. Understood. I don't mean to jump on you with this breaking news. We're keeping track of that.

I want to thank you all very, very much.

But, again, as I mentioned earlier, ever since that AT&T deal to finally land, it had been almost a two-year hunt, Time Warner, we knew it was just a matter of time. In fact, you could just look at a stopwatch before others would jump in the pool and see what deals were out there to be had.

Now, Disney had already had a $52 billion deal to buy a good many of 21 Century Fox's assets.

And that, of course, is the parent company here. It would not include any of our cable news or business channels, but it would include a lot of other big pieces, from movies and a lot of big offerings abroad. And that was an allure certainly to Disney prior to all of this.

And now Comcast has joined the fray with an offer that is significantly higher than that, $65 billion. Here's the difference too with that. It's all cash.

Charlie Gasparino on that.

What do you make of this, Charlie?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have a good, big old-fashioned bidding war here, Neil.

As we first to report on FOX Business about 3:45, we got the word that Comcast was going to make its offer or likely to make its offer for the Fox entertainment assets. That's essentially everything but us and a few other stations, movie studios, other channels.

Make that bid after the bell, literally three minutes after the bell. We reported it at 3:45. But three minutes after the bell, that official bid came in. It's above $60 billion. It's all cash.

At least on paper, and it's above what Disney -- what is on the table with Disney, which is a $52.5 billion stock offering. Now, the question is, do the Murdochs, the controlling Murdoch family, have to take this seriously?
Do they want the deal with Disney so badly that they ignore this?

I will tell you this. What we have been reporting in the past is that they have to take this deal seriously, they will take it seriously. They will act in the best interests of shareholders.

The one fly in the ointment of Comcast's past attempts to try to buy out assets was the Justice Department and the fact that the Justice Department hates these companies like Comcast that mix big distribution of cable TV content with said content.

That's why they went after AT&T. But guess what happened? On the AT&T deal, Judge Leon has allowed it to go without conditions. So he gave his blessing to this.

Now, one fly in that ointment -- so you would think that Comcast would approve -- would -- has a green light here and that we almost have to accept it, meaning 21st Century Fox. We work for that company. That's why I said we.

Not so fast. As I have been reporting all day, DOJ may indeed appeal the latest ruling, and that could throw all of this into another -- this is a huge chess game where, there's some degree of uncertainty, but it is...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, Charlie, I'm jumping on you here.

Fox's shares are up after-hours trading after running up about 7 percent today, up an additional 1.25 percent here. Comcast was dipping a little bit after hours here, but not as much as you would think.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Obviously, the view seems to be that they're going to continue this back and forth because there's such a differential between an all- stock offer of $52 billion and an all-cash offer at $65 billion, that it almost begs for a return salvo here.

GASPARINO: Right.

CAVUTO: Could any other players enter the fray?

GASPARINO: It's a great question.

And we have been reporting that bankers are saying there's other players that are interested.

We have heard Silicon Valley players. One name that you can probably take off the list was Apple. We have gotten direction from Apple, from the company that it's not interested in our assets.

But that leaves Netflix, that leaves Amazon, that leaves a lot of other players that may want to jump in and buy our assets. There's not a lot of media content that is really good out there. We have really good stuff.
Time Warner obviously has good stuff. It's trying to merge with AT&T. CBS is considered good stuff.

But there's not a ton of it. And so there's a scarcity value for these things and there's need for content to expand, particularly as traditional cable looks to compete against the new entrants, the technology companies.

They believe that, by merging with content, they're better able to compete.
We will see.

CAVUTO: All right.

GASPARINO: There's some regulatory concern on this, even with this deal going through.

I will say this, though. If you watch FOX Business and you traded after my report at 3:45, you made a few bucks.

CAVUTO: Not that people would be so selfishly...

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: They should be. That's what I'm here for, as long as I don't trade.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Thank you, buddy. And you serve America well.

GASPARINO: As long as I don't trade on it, there's no problem.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Yes, sure. OK. Love is money.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right, thank you very, very much.

And just to follow up what Charlie was saying here, some of the other affected stocks -- I apologize for us not showing you these -- we don't have them readily available.

But Disney finished up about 2 percent today. After hours, it's down 0.5 percent. Comcast, which wasn't moving much, despite all of this, is down
0.5 percent as we speak. But, of course, all the -- the lady at the dance is getting all the attention right now.

And that is 21st Century Fox is up even more after hours here, as this run- up at attention continues. And across the media spectrum, as other players come to the fore, presumably with fat wallets and opportunities, either on the buying or the buyee side of things.

We will keep you posted on this, big development for how you get and what you watch on TV and elsewhere, streamlining or otherwise, in the future.

On all of that, of course, the read now from House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer.

Steny, it's always good to have you here.

This is a good kind of a backdrop, if you will indulge me, on the economy and the environment and whether big deals are back, buoyed by lower taxes and all of that.

What do you make of this and what could be maybe a lot of frenetic activity here?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MINORITY WHIP: Well, I'm not sure exactly that I'm the expert to say, what does this frenetic activity mean?

I do know that there's continuing concern about the continuing merger of very large enterprises and what that means to competition, what it means to consumers' right to have choices or not -- whether right to choices -- having choices, so I think that clearly we need to look at these things very carefully as to whether or not they in fact serve competition, which is at the bottom of the free market system.

CAVUTO: And, again, without getting in the weeds -- and nor should I just sort of ram this on you unexpectedly here -- but there's been talk that Washington sometimes in dillydallying on this, as a judge was in the case of AT&T and Time Warner for the better part of 20 months, missed the fact that technology was going on as we waited this out.

HOYER: Yes.

CAVUTO: Netflix was getting bigger. All these other streaming players were getting bigger. So, while Washington was debating this, technology and free markets were running way ahead of this, so maybe it's best Washington stay out, or what do you think?

HOYER: Well, I think you have to do both.

I think you have to watch. And the free market is, after all, what we think has made this economy so great. But, on the other hand, we know that the free market left to its own devices may well destroy itself by continuing mergers and eliminating competition.

That's not good, we think, for the consumers or for the free market, so that I think you have to watch, but I also think you also have to have significant antitrust and oversight to make sure that we have the kind of competition and the open access to information that we need.

CAVUTO: Are you wondering whether a lot of this activity, a lot of the market run-up, a lot of the better-than-expected economic numbers we have seen, from jobs data, retail sales, that sort of thing, not so consistently, but enough, that the environment has changed so much so that a number of Republicans are telling me, well, wait a minute, this blue wave that Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi talk about, it's not going to happen?

Or even if it does, it is not going to mean the House changes party rule, that they got ahead of themselves, they got too cocky? What do you say?

HOYER: A, we're not cocky. It's going to be a tough election.

But, Larry, every week that these primaries occur -- and, in Wisconsin, we won another seat that Republicans have held, the state Senate seat, for 40 years straight through.

There's something happening out there. We had one congressional district where there are 10,000 more people held by a Republican, 10,000 more Democrats voted than Republicans voted.

CAVUTO: So, you see nothing that gets in the way of that, the way things stand now?

HOYER: Well, I don't -- that would be too strong to say I see nothing in the way.

CAVUTO: Right.

HOYER: But I certainly see nothing that has not been consistent over the last 12 months in terms of Conor Lamb's victory, a victory in Arizona, that we lost the election, but picked up 17 points, Wisconsin last night, Wisconsin about four months ago, where we won a Senate seat that Trump won by 20 points.

So, I don't see anything that has stopped that trend. I think that trend continues. I think the American people are very concerned.

History, of course, is with us. History shows us that most second year of an incumbent president, particularly an incumbent president who is at the levels that Trump is in terms of popularity and favorability, the opposition party, us, picks up seats.

Now, you would say, well, yes, they're going to pick up seats, but not 23.
But I think we are going to pick up more than 23. Yes, I think we're going to take it back.

CAVUTO: OK. All right. Well, that would be good enough to get the control.

Hey, I do want to go onto some other stuff, Congressman. And one has to do
-- I know politics is politics. I know Republicans were railing against Barack Obama when he made overtures and normalized relations with Raul Castro and Cuba.

But, at the time, I remember Democrats extolling that and bragging about that and praising that. Now the same Republicans who condemned that move and an overture to a mean guy are extolling the virtues of the reach-out to the North Korean leader with President Trump.

But your party has been largely silent on it. And I'm just thinking, wow, there's hypocrisy everywhere.

HOYER: No, Larry, let me tell you something. I don't know about the hypocrisy of what others might say.

I was very concerned about what happened this past 10 days. We had a president of the United States who essentially dissed our closest allies and leaders of free democracies on this continent, Canada and in Europe, and invited Putin, who clearly has become a almost totally authoritarian figure in his country, to come back into the G7, and then embraces Kim Jong-un, one of the most heinous dictators on the face of the earth today.

CAVUTO: No doubt.

But, Congressman, Congressman, Raul Castro wasn't exactly the pope.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: Amen, brother. I agree with that 100 percent.

Having said that, our policy of 50-years-plus wasn't making much progress.
And we reached out.

CAVUTO: Nor was our policy of doing things normal diplomatic channels and ways with this leader in North Korea, his father and his father before that. That wasn't working, right?

HOYER: Larry, let's now get to your point.

CAVUTO: Larry -- I'm Neil, by the way. I'm Neil. But it's OK.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: Excuse me. Neil.

Not by the way. You're Neil, and I know that.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: It's OK. Look, I have done far worse, believe me. Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

HOYER: In any event, we didn't get anything out of Kim Jong-un. Nothing.

CAVUTO: We just started. Right? We just started.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: Well, that's -- but -- yes, this guy deals from the seat of his pants. And maybe it works. And maybe it doesn't.

CAVUTO: Have we gotten anything since with Raul Castro? I'm just -- and the changes since the new leader?

HOYER: Raul Castro is gone.

CAVUTO: Right.

HOYER: But, having said that..

CAVUTO: I don't see great advancements with the new leader, just like I didn't see them afterwards with Raul Castro, just like I didn't see them earlier with Fidel. I don't know what is changing.

HOYER: Neil, realistic, what did anybody really tell you we were going to get from Cuba in any event? It wasn't a question of what we were going to get.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You could say the same about North Korea.

HOYER: No, no, no, no, you could not. They're not a nuclear power.

When, frankly, they were going to become a missile power, Kennedy steered down Khrushchev and stopped them.

CAVUTO: All the more reason, all the more reason to talk to North Koreans.
Right?

I'm not trying to take sides here, Steny.

HOYER: Whoa.

CAVUTO: I'm just trying to say like if you look at this from just a consistency perspective, you would think your party, which welcome talks, which has been very open to talking to the other side, that communication is best, to sit down with the other side is worth an effort, a party that extolled the virtues of talking to the Palestinians before anyone thought it was a good idea -- and it was a good idea at the time.

And I'm just saying that it just seems odd now that all of a sudden to a man or woman almost you guys are saying no, no, no. Not this guy.

HOYER: No, no, no, we're not. I'm not saying that.

I think sitting down, I think getting some -- making progress with North Korea is important for the safety of the global community. He's a dangerous dictator, who has -- he and his father and grandfather...

CAVUTO: Well, are you saying, Steny, that the president risks getting snookered? Was he snookered?

HOYER: We don't know yet.

But the answer is, do I think he is at risk? Yes. Who won out of this meeting? Kim Jong-un.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: Whoa, whoa, whoa, Neil. You -- Neil, you talked a lot.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: When Pompeo was in South Korea today, do you think that the conditions that he demanded again that they should be forthcoming with the North Koreans, jibe with what you want to see?

HOYER: I'm not sure, when you said South Koreans...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: He was with South Korea in South Korea today demanding terrorist the North Koreans start taking practical actions and measures that will be towards the goal of denuclearization, exactly what you outlined and that you want to see.

HOYER: What he ought to be demanding is the North Koreans. The South Koreans have not...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: No, he was in South Korea, Steny. He was talking about the North Koreans_

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: ... to the North Koreans. Well, of course.

And if that occurs, that will be progress. And it will be a positive effect. If that occurs is the operative language.

Kim Jong-un said nothing more and there was nothing more in the communique than the North Koreans said in 1992. They have been doing -- every president has met them. What happened in this event?

Kim Jong-un became a major national player on the world stage because he got to meet with the president of the United States, and gave nothing in return. Nothing in return.

So, we made him a big deal. Whether that pans out or not, we will see.
But I don't think that we got anything from the deal. And the only thing we did, unfortunately...

CAVUTO: Well, we don't know. We really don't know. Right?

HOYER: ... and tragically, is, we backed away from the South Koreans without even talking to them, in terms of -- and using the Chinese language that training exercises were somehow hostile actions, which was never the case.

And these have been consistently so that we were ready and let the North Koreans know we're ready if you take any action that puts at risk our South Korean allies.

CAVUTO: All right. We can belabor that.

I do want to talk about domestic issues right now and economic ones. You started out with that, Steny. I do want your thoughts on health care right now.

HOYER: Neil, hold on.

CAVUTO: A number of states are -- a number of states, New Jersey among them, they want to reinstate -- can you hear us, Steny?

HOYER: Yes. We have a vote. And they're talking to me about it. I have to get to a vote pretty soon, unfortunately.

CAVUTO: Oh, I'm sorry.

On the health care thing, a number of states are reimposing that health care tax on their own, but your thoughts on the health care battle right now, where it stands, what Democrats want to get done.

HOYER: Well, the health care battle, we want to fix the Affordable Care Act and make it work as it was hoped to work.

It worked very well. It hasn't worked perfectly. We want to fix it.

What is happening is, the administration has been stealthily, because they couldn't get done legislatively, undermined the ACA, which is driving up premiums, which is putting protection of preexisting conditions at risk, putting an age tax at risk, putting women's health costs at greater than male health costs.

All sorts of things are adversely happening, not through legislation, but through administrative action. And the Justice Department most recent action about not defending the ACA is another effort to undermine indirectly what they can't undermine directly.

Why? Because the American people have gone from 42 percent support to 56 percent support, because they saw what they were going to lose, and they want to keep it.

CAVUTO: All right, I know you have to get to that vote.

HOYER: Yes.

CAVUTO: A real pleasure. Sorry for some of the confusion here.

Steve Hoyer -- I mean Steny Hoyer, Steny Hoyer.

HOYER: No.

CAVUTO: I think I got you.

HOYER: Always good to see you, Neil.

CAVUTO: I got you. Look at me. Look at me.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Very good having you. Steny Hoyer, thank you very, very much, all right, the House minority whip.

We will have a lot more after this -- the Dow down 119 points, deals in play. All of a sudden, the back and forth on North Korea in play. It was supposed to land quietly and softly today. What happened to that?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: It's a very liberal city, had a liberal idea that folks there liberals supported. Have rich companies pay to fight the homeless problem.
Amazon, run by a very liberal guy, said, are you out of your mind?

The tax is dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: You're famous for saying, if you want your privacy, you better get over that. I'm just paraphrasing here.

But you said much the same about how customers of Facebook and other concerns sort of wrestle with that, the convenience and the ease with which they can communicate with their loved ones, and the risk that some data can get out there.

Explain your position on this.

SCOTT MCNEALY, CHAIRMAN & CEO, SUN MICROSYSTEMS: Well, we use the word Facebook and Twitter customers. I'm a Twitter customer. Well, I don't pay Twitter anything. So, I'm really not a customer. I'm actually the product.

And I have no belief system that I have any privacy. I just -- I tell my boys, anything you put on the Internet is a digital tattoo.

And the fact that they're out selling advertising and matching buyers with sellers using personal data that you have input shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: It's an interesting read. I'm not a customer, I'm the product. I get the stuff for free, so I ought to expect this.

Well, Facebook is out with a new policy, a new privacy policy requiring advertisers to users that their personal data was supplied by a broker.
It's among many efforts companies like Facebook are taking to make sure that you don't feel your data is being compromised, even though Scott McNealy is saying, in this day and age, it's going to be compromised. Your life will be an open book.

RealClearMarkets editor John Tamny on these developments.

John, what do you think of that?

JOHN TAMNY, EDITOR, REALCLEARMARKETS: I think it's ridiculous that Facebook would cave so easily like this.

Scott McNealy is absolutely right. The free and always improving Facebook is a function of the fact that they share our data with businesses who want to figure out a way to serve our needs.

This isn't something sinister. Facebook is paying for its improvements.
It sells its data to businesses that want to meet our needs. It's all natural.

Why would anyone complain? Why would Facebook pretend like they're doing something wrong here?

CAVUTO: Well, if you're selling a lot of stuff unbeknownst to those customers, whether it's nefarious or not, just that your customers don't know it, should the customers know it? In other words, should they get a heads-up?

Or maybe it's in already that two-point Ariel fine print type, that it is already on record there. But that doesn't bug you?

TAMNY: No, it doesn't at all.

If the customers don't know that the reason they get this amazing service for free, that somehow their data is reaching other businesses, trying to meet their needs, I can't help them. But the reality is, unless their heads are in the sand, they know that their data is being sold.

And, again, that's a positive thing. And if they want to pay for a social network, they should feel free to do it. It may not be Facebook that offers it. And that's just something they are going to have to accept.

CAVUTO: So when companies like Apple point their fingers and say, oh, this is wrong, we won't do this, and then we come to find out that device manufacturers were among those device makers who got their hands on this stuff, what do you make of that?

TAMNY: I think Apple, like anyone, is always going to play politics with other companies like this and to try to stick their fingers.

But the reality is that any successful company is constantly looking for ways to understand as much as possible about customers. We know this at the grocery store. We get lower prices precisely because we swipe our card. They want to know what we're buying, how we buy it.

Facebook, Apple, they are no different. This improves the customer outcome. It doesn't hurt it. The notion that politicians are trying to turn this into something sinister is so odd, and it's just a reminder how little they understand about how the commercial world works.

CAVUTO: So, we're too fixated on privacy?

TAMNY: Oh, without question.

As Scott McNealy said, if you're going online, you kind of know that that is a digital tattoo. Everyone has known for years that e-mails can stay with you forever. Pictures posted online can stay with you forever. We understand this.

And if you don't know it, there's nothing -- there's no law that is going to save you from your own foolishness.

CAVUTO: That's well put.

John, thank you very, very much. Good seeing you again.

TAMNY: Thanks for having me.

CAVUTO: All right, so far, we have got no indication right now out of Disney whether it's going to up its bid after hearing that Comcast has just upped its bid for the key assets of 21st Century Fox, the parent of this company.

It wouldn't include, by the way, FOX News or FOX Business. Some of you were worried that I might be forced inside a mouse costume or something kill that. For the time being, no.

But it's going to make it hard for Disney to ignore that higher offer from rival Comcast that now has a $13 billion better offer on the table and it's is all cash. And the Mouse House is largely all stock. And there's Rupert Murdoch et al in the middle kind of happy.

More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: You know the economy is doing just stuff. That's the good news.
Here's the bad news.

Because it's doing so great, they raise interest rates to keep up with the potential inflationary impact here. And that's what the Federal Reserve did today, raising interest rates.

But what really rattled investors and why we were down 119 points was the notion that maybe they're going to hike more than we earlier thought.

FOX Business Network's Susan Li with more on that.

Susan, what happened?

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Neil, interest rates are going up for the seventh time in three years, and a second time this year.

Wall Street -- and this is the reason why we saw stocks really selling off into the close -- were predicting four more interest rate hikes or four in total for 2018. That's more than what they expected heading into this year.

And that's a good sign, that the Federal Reserve believes that the economy is improving with right best jobs market that we have seen in 50 years.
But the question is, how does it impact you?

Well, let's start with the good news. If you have a bank account, money in the bank, you get a higher savings rate. But that also means you're paying more for mortgages, for credit card debts and auto loans. Not a whole lot more.

I will give you an example. For auto loans, if you have a $20,000 car, you're paying maybe $30 more each and every month. But it's a bit concerning, given that we're looking at the highest amount of household debt in America at $13 trillion.

That's even more than 2008. And that number continues to grow. But one thing that has really caught Wall Street's attention, it's a concerning sign that might actually indicate an economic slowdown is coming. And you see this chart here. This is what we call the spread between the shorter bond, that's a two-year treasury bond, and the longer 10-year treasury bond and the rates on both.

You see it's narrowing. And you see that red line at zero. You don't want to go below that zero line, that red line, because that is a very, very bad indication, which usually has preceded the last seven recessions.

So, that's something that is being closely watched by the markets right now
-- back to you, Neil.

CAVUTO: Did you get any sense, Susan, that the Federal Reserve chairman is worried about the trade tariffs, is worried that, if they come to fruition, that kind of messes up his game plan?

LI: Well, at this point, he's deflecting. He's been asked several times in that press conference. And he continues to point to the strength in the U.S. economy.

But, of course, as Federal Reserve-speak goes, they always talk about outliers and some variables and factors that they can't control, especially government factors. So, that is something that the Federal Reserve says that they will review when the times comes.

CAVUTO: Susan, great reporting, as always, my friend, Susan Li of Fox Business Network fame.

When we come back, Charles Payne on the ramifications of all this, especially at a time when so many companies flush with a lot of cash and a lot lower taxes and having a lot more money to spend are apparently planning to do that.

And it started with a little old judge in Washington, D.C., who approved a big old merger between AT&T and Time Warner. And all of a sudden everyone is in play. Look at me. I'm in play. And I have no idea what that means
-- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Are we back to big deals because corporations are back to paying taxes they never thought possible or at tax rates they never thought even dreamable?

Let's go to Charles Payne, the host of FOX Business Network's "Charles Payne," "The Money Report." It makes money for you. Making money, that's the whole idea is about.

Charlie Gasparino will be joining us shortly.

But I want to get, first of all, Charles Payne's view on this.

I think, stepping back from the media deals and now the battle post the AT&T/Time Warner thing, between Comcast and Disney for 21st Century Fox's assets, that it's the economic environment as well. It's lower taxes, companies having a lot more money to spend and a lot more strategies to make because they can.

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right.

CAVUTO: What do you make of it all?

PAYNE: I agree, Neil.

I think we're going to see a major wave, a big bubbling up of a whole lot of deal, and not just in the media area, across all sectors, by the way, cross-country deals too. You are going to see a lot of deals that involve American companies buying European companies and Asian companies buying American companies.

It's sort of like a Wild Wild West. Today, we had the Federal Reserve and rates are going up, so this so-called cheap money is starting to fade. If you notice, the Comcast deal, it's an all-cash deal.

Usually, when I see all-cash deals, I like that. It tells me often -- more often than not, that a company believes its stock is more valuable than cash. In other words, if I have got to give you something for your assets, I would rather give you cash because I think my stock is going to appreciate in volume.

So, that's a good bullish sign for most of these deals, even over the last couple years. Been some big-time all-cash deals.

CAVUTO: And, by the way, we're showing after-hours trading here, for example, 21st Century Fox was up in excess of 7.5 percent today.

Comcast really hadn't been budging much during the course of the day. So, this is since the close of trading here.

So, what is interesting about that 7.7 percent, by the way, on 21st Century Fox, that's an all-time high, by the way. Comcast earlier today was down fractionally.

So, what is interesting about that is the market sort of sniffed at $65 billion cash, whoop-de-doo. Disney was up today before this, down a little bit after this. But it's as if the markets have confidence these guys have the wherewithal, whatever, to do what they got to do, whatever it is.

PAYNE: Yes.

Well, Comcast wrote the Murdochs a letter, saying, hey, we're highly confident that we will get the financing for this. We're highly confident we will get the regulatory approval for this.

Wall Street sees it coming. And, again, everyone sort of bracing for some form of a bidding war. So it ultimately seen -- it remains to be seen what happens here.

But you think about this today, for instance. Electronic Arts was up big time.

CAVUTO: Right.

PAYNE: Netflix was up big time, in part because now they're saying, hey, this content thing has to also include gaming.

Gaming is the hottest area in our country. The average gamer is like the 35-year-old male with a good-paying job. So now we're saying this whole content play on the media side, even bring in gaming as well.

So it's like the Wild Wild West. These old folks, old businesses that controlled the pipes, their business model is completely shattered. We're on the cusp of creative destruction. They're trying to find a way to survive.

In the meantime, if you have got the content, you are king right now.

CAVUTO: Would we see any of this activity or as much activity or as much frenetic discussions back and forth if tax rates weren't slashed to the degree they were certainly for corporations, a lot?

PAYNE: Absolutely not.

A lot of money was hidden offshore to avoid paying taxes. We have already seen that the announced money coming back into this country absolutely mind-boggling. And that money's going to go to work. And it's got to go to work.

You are going to see big-time deals. For instance, I'm shocked IBM just hasn't gone out and spent a lot of money. They have got to get into this cloud game a lot quicker than they have. So you are going to see technology deals. You are going to see deals with drug companies and biotech companies.

And a lot of it's going to involve that cash that was just sitting idly offshore for a long time.

CAVUTO: I'm beginning -- I think Charlie Gasparino is good with us.

Are you, Charlie? Can you hear us?

Is he there?

GASPARINO: I'm here. I'm here.

CAVUTO: Oh, OK, buddy. I'm sorry.

I thought they were having problems with you. Of course, we always have problems with you, but I mean technically.

GASPARINO: I'm a problematic person.

CAVUTO: You are, indeed.

I'm wondering whether we're reading too much into the green light that this Judge Richard Leon gave to the AT&T-Time Warner deal, as if it's a green light for all big deals that wouldn't pass regulatory scrutiny or would not pass some type of legal scrutiny.

Play this out going forward.

GASPARINO: Good question. It's a good question.

I disagree with you and Charles on the impact of the Trump tax cuts and deregulation on this -- on the media sector. Maybe take -- maybe everything else. You are going to see lots of deals everywhere else.

But, remember, there was pent-up demand for media deals going back during the Obama years. The Obama Justice Department after they allowed the Comcast/NBCU deal to go through four years ago, or five years ago, with tremendous conditions that are about to end in a couple months, they killed a lot of other deals, AT&T trying to buy Sprint and a lot more.

I can't even remember half of them. But there were a lot of them that were killed. So, there was pent-up demand for these deals. When Trump came into office, it was thought that deregulation would translate into an easier antitrust climate on media deals.

That didn't happen until yesterday, where you got this judge's ruling.

CAVUTO: Well, that didn't happen because the president -- I think this all started off because part of this Time Warner deal with AT&T was CNN.

And I could be wrong, but I don't think he likes CNN.

GASPARINO: Well, yes, he doesn't.  But if you spoke with Makan Delrahim, who is the head of the Antitrust Division, he makes kind of an interesting case about the vertical mergers of distribution and content and how that could squeeze the consumer.  They were going to translate that to Comcast preventing Comcast from getting bigger. Now you have this ruling.  Now, here's the one fly in the ointment. The ruling seems to be a green light to a lot of things, by the way. The one fly in the ointment, obviously, does DOJ appeal and make it much -- and put a line in the sand and say, OK, we may lose this, we're going to appeal and we're doing to go after Comcast because we don't like these deals and try to stop them from buying Fox?

CAVUTO: Do you think that happens? And does it have success?

GASPARINO: I can only tell you this. OK? This morning, I spoke to a senior official in DOJ who is saying they were active -- there were people in there actively pushing for an appeal imminently.

CAVUTO: Right.

GASPARINO: Now, whether they -- maybe cooler heads prevail, maybe they say no, but there was clearly that discussion, because they hate these types of deals.  And, listen, they predicated their attacks on AT&T-Time Warner on what they feel were the inequities created by the Comcast deal with NBCU that they didn't abide by the conditions. They screwed over consumers.

CAVUTO: Right.

I'm sorry to jump on you, Charlie. I just want to get your quick take then.

Do you think deals speed up now, regardless of the reason or rationale, that we're going to see a lot more deals, or people will feel that this is an environment for a lot more deals?

GASPARINO: Here's what I'm going to say.

If this ruling is allowed to stand, yes.

CAVUTO: OK.

GASPARINO: If DOJ opposes AT&T, it's going to scare a lot of people, because do you really want to go to court every time you do a deal?

CAVUTO: Even though that might be a uphill legal battle to make.

But, all right, so what do you think, Charles Payne?

PAYNE: I think, in combination with the judge's ruling, and also what we saw today with the Fed, as interest rates go up, that puts a lot pressure on these guys.

You had cheap money sloshing around for a long time. So the answer is an emphatic yes for me.

CAVUTO: So, wouldn't that also propel more stocks deals, less cash deals, fewer cash deals?

PAYNE: Well, I think...

CAVUTO: And rate rising?

PAYNE: Maybe. I just hadn't seen a lot of them recently.  But, again, the interest rates have been at zero. So we'll see how the dynamics of them change. But, also, you know, a stronger consumer, a lot of these companies want to bulk up for that and a lot of companies want to bulk up for changing dynamics and businesses.  So, there are a lot of things that are propelling these deals. But the ability to do them, that window could be closing with respect to the Fed raising rates.

CAVUTO: Charlie Gasparino, have we heard from the White House, its thoughts, that this merger, the AT&T one went through, including CNN?

GASPARINO: Well, we put a call in.  My producer, Lydia Moynihan, did dutifully put the call in, and -- because we asked them about the appeal and whether it's coming.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You know how that call goes. This is Charlie Gasparino.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Press the pound key.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: We will get back to you when we damn well feel like it.

GASPARINO: Well, she -- that's why I put Lydia on the phone.

CAVUTO: There you go. Good move. Good move.

GASPARINO: They did get back to Lydia. And they said no comment.

CAVUTO: All right, that's fine.

GASPARINO: But we have six -- we have five days to appeal, and we have no further comment.

CAVUTO: Thank you very, very much.

GASPARINO: And so there we are.

CAVUTO: Here we are. And hear we be, constantly. I want to thank the two Charleses, Gasparino and Payne. No, they're not related.  But I just want to let you know, we're going to keep following this story. "The Five" is now.

END

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