Steve Moore on Larry Kudlow calling for the Federal Reserve to 'immediately' cut interest rates

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Steve Moore on Larry Kudlow calling for the Federal Reserve to 'immediately' cut interest rates

Federal Reserve board member nominee Steve Moore says you cannot make up for bad fiscal and regulatory policy with good monetary policy.

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," March 29, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, you want it, you have got it.

The attorney general of the United States, William Barr, is now saying a redacted version of that Mueller report is going to be handed over to Congress maybe in a couple of weeks.

Welcome. Very good to have you. I'm Neil Cavuto.

Well, a lot of people were surprised by the timing of this, the markets enjoyed with their reaction to this.

Let's go to Mike Emanuel on Capitol Hill, what exactly ignited this response.

All right, where do we stand on this, Mike?

MIKE EMANUEL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good in a afternoon.

This letter from Attorney General William Barr is dated today and was sent to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham and House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler.

In it, Attorney General Barr writes that the Mueller report will be released to Congress in mid-April, if not sooner. And the attorney general notes it will be redacted and -- quote -- "We are well along in the process."

This comes as six House Democratic committee chairs were pressing the attorney general to turn over the report by this coming Tuesday. Fox has been reporting it would be a matter of weeks and not months, and this letter backs it up.

In terms of material that will be redacted, some of it is subject to criminal procedure, which cannot be made public. There's also potential material which the intelligence community could say is compromising sources and methods.

And there's material that could affect other ongoing matters, including some the special counsel has passed along to other Justice Department offices.

Barr also notes that, although the president would have the right to assert executive privilege over certain parts of the report, the president has said publicly he intends to defer to the attorney general. So the attorney general says there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review.

But there's been a whole lot of heat on Capitol Hill to release the report, including this from the House speaker:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Show us the report, and we can draw our own conclusions. We don't need you interpreting for us. That was condescending. It was arrogant. And it wasn't the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Attorney General Barr notes, the special counsel's report is nearly 400 pages' long. And he believes it is appropriate for him to testify on May 1 at the Senate Judiciary Committee and May 2 at the House Judiciary Committee -- Neil.

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

EMANUEL: You bet.

CAVUTO: Now to John Roberts at the White House what we could be hearing from the president, who's traveling in Florida right now -- John

JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the president's going to have a media availability in just a couple of minutes.

The administrator of the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, is going to be stepping down. The president has already invited the cameras over to Mar-a-Lago. We expect that he will be addressing the cameras very soon. We expect also that he's going to get at least a couple of questions on this.

It is rather surprising to some people that the White House Counsel's Office will not be involved in any of the process of vetting this. The president, according to the attorney general, has turned all of the authority for determining what is releasable and what is not over to the attorney general.

And that includes matters of executive privilege. We had been led to believe all along, Neil, that when it came to issues of executive privilege, it would be the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone and Emmet Flood, that would be consulting, along with the attorney general and Robert Mueller, as to what could and could not be released.

But now it looks as though the president has put his full faith and trust in the attorney general to determine what is a releasable and what is not releasable, which really is a very, very big deal.

Now, the president, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, really taking a victory lap here on the summary conclusions of the Mueller report, not the finer details of the report itself, really going after the people who were perpetuating this for more than two years.

Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: And after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The collusion delusion is over. I could have told you that two- and-a-half years ago very easily.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Total exoneration, complete vindication.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Now, of course, on that point, he does get an argument from Democrats, who say, well, hold on here on this issue of obstruction of justice. Robert Mueller said specifically that this report does not exonerate the president.

But the fact that there was no underlying finding of collusion is enough to give the president reason to believe that it is full vindication.

I spoke with Rudy Giuliani just a short time ago. He said the president's outside legal team is fully comfortable with all the responsibility for what is and is not released into the public domain line with the attorney general.

He believes also that there is nothing that would come out in this report that they could not rebut. It's also believed that it would be better for this to come out now in its entirety. In fact, Giuliani told me, he said they'd be fine with the whole thing going out there, whatever Barr can release, and more.

And there's this idea too, Neil, that if there is something bad in this report, better to get it out now, when they can effectively rebut it, than to let it simmer for a year, or maybe more, and then have it leak out, and you have to try to go back and recover all of the data and all the memories and all of that and then rebut it then.

Better to get it all out now than for it to come out and dribs and drabs at some future time period -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, John Roberts at the White House, thank you very much.

And, as John pointed out, we could be hearing something from the president very soon. He is traveling in Florida. So, when that happens, we will bring you right to it.

In the meantime, the host of "The Daily Briefing," the co-host of "The Five," FOX News' Dana Perino, is joining us.

You know it's a big deal when Dana is joining me right now.

(LAUGHTER)

DANA PERINO, HOST, "THE DAILY BRIEFING": I was honored to be asked.

CAVUTO: It's very good to have you.

We're already getting some Democratic response from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, presidential candidate: "Make the report public, every page."

PERINO: Well, that's easy -- that's easy for a candidate to say. She doesn't have the responsibilities that the attorney general has.

And I think what he has laid out in this letter and what he laid out last Sunday has been perfectly appropriate. And it shows that he is the consummate professional that has just recently been confirmed by the United States Senate.

He says something in this letter too, which is that he takes it -- some people have been concerned that he summarized a 400-page report in 48 hours. He makes clear in this letter, what I gave you is the bottom line, and the bottom line is no collusion.

And then he does address the issue of no obstruction of justice.

CAVUTO: Yes, neither exoneration or no exoneration.

And, by the way, I would assume...

PERINO: But not taking it any step further.

CAVUTO: Absolutely.

PERINO: Saying that there's no evidence that would suggest that.

CAVUTO: Absolutely.

And obviously, if he had said or characterized anything that the Mueller people didn't, like they would have pointed it out.

PERINO: I absolutely believe that, if they felt that Bill Barr was misrepresenting the report in any way, that you would have known that right away, perhaps not directly from Mueller himself, but there would have been a way for them to do that.

CAVUTO: All right.

We're getting a report from the chairman of the committee that has been probably the most aggressive against the characterizations of Attorney General Barr, Jerry Nadler, saying today that: "As I informed the attorney general earlier this week, Congress requires the full and complete Mueller report, without restrictions, as well as access to underlying evidence by April 2. That deadline still stands."

So the mid-April one wasn't good enough.

PERINO: So, that would be Tuesday.

And what -- I think what Bill Barr is saying is that, when we -- when the media said yesterday weeks, not months, that could be eight weeks.

CAVUTO: Right.

PERINO: But what Bill Barr is saying is that, I'm working very hard. I'm going to try to get this to you by mid-April. I have said that I think it's absolutely appropriate that I should come and be a witness at a hearing that you would have, and I'm already scheduled in early May, but I guess he's saying, if I could -- if you need me earlier, I can do that.

CAVUTO: Well, that seems to be the new call, just to make it clear, April 15, or whatever, isn't good enough.

How is that going to...

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Well, here's the thing.

I don't think that Bill Barr is going to be pushed into doing this sooner. He has to do it appropriately. These redactions are so important to protect people, for all the reasons that Bill Barr lays out in this letter.

I liken it to playing the game of Operation, where you have to reach in and you got to get the femur bone and pull it directly out. That's exactly what you want to do, because nobody should be needlessly harmed from a reputational standpoint, if they were an innocent third party who got caught up in this somehow.

Or, as the report also says, there's classified information in here. The intelligence community might also still need to use it. We are going to be the responsible party, the executive branch, and we will provide you what we can and I will come up there and talk to you about it. There might be some accommodation that could be made with the chairman if he wants to see behind closed doors. Perhaps they could do that.

CAVUTO: Well, clearly, whatever accommodations are being made, even the sped-up delivery to getting us by the middle of April, is not good enough.

But when you're talking about the executive branch, you have the executive branch waiving executive privilege in this case to get a rundown of what is going to come out and how soon with Mr. Barr's office. That alone is putting enormous trust in Bill Barr, right?

PERINO: Well, OK, but this is how the special counsel law is written.

CAVUTO: Right.

PERINO: And if Congress doesn't like that, they could endeavor to try to change it, but he's trying to follow the letter of the law and do something very responsible.

We have waited two years for the report. We already know the bottom line.

CAVUTO: And this was the expectation as well, right? When it was going to come to Rod Rosenstein and the attorney general, we did know that the attorney general would put out something to characterize this report.

PERINO: Yes. And it's not like Bill Barr is saying, I'm going to sweep this whole thing under the rug and you guys can forget about it. I'm never even going to show up and I'm not going to testify. And you're not going to -- he says here, I believe that the public has a right to see this, but it would be inappropriate to do so in a piecemeal fashion.

And I think that there's not more you can ask.

CAVUTO: What do you think, Dana, of the president saying, I trust you enough to get that out, I feel very confident that you will, and I'm not looking at any special privileges?

PERINO: Yes.

So having at both DOJ and then the White House, I think that the way they're handling this is absolutely appropriate. I believe in that independent line for the Justice Department.

And Bill Barr says, we're not going to go to the White House and run this by them before we release it to you. That should give any skeptics an enormous amount of comfort that this is going to be handled appropriately.

Of course, the other thing is, Nadler and others, I know what they -- I know what they're seeking, but they also are trying to make a political point. They have very disappointed constituents. Their base is unhappy. This is not the outcome that they expected.

And pivoting away from it, they -- maybe they will eventually, but they won't do that in the next two weeks.

CAVUTO: Which is what they're arguing about, two weeks.

PERINO: Right.

CAVUTO: That's what we're talking about.

PERINO: We waited two years. I think two weeks, America will be fine.

CAVUTO: Very, very good point.

Dana, thank you so much, Dana Perino.

Doug Burns joins us right now, former prosecutor.

Doug, you know, it's obviously showing a great deal of calm -- that is, the president -- in his attorney general and the report itself for him to say, go ahead, bring it out there, give it to people, whatever you can, I'm fine with it. What do you think?

DOUG BURNS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, there's been so many political pivots having nothing to do with law.

And as you guys have explained perfectly, the political pivots are, we can trust how the attorney general summarized this. Well, that's, if you break it down for a second, a very silly argument, because we're going to find out when we see the report whether or not he accurately summarized it.

And, again, it sounds political on my part, but, legally, it's incredibly unlikely that Bill Barr would not accurately do it, number one. And I think I heard you say -- and you're so right -- that the special counsel would have stepped up and corrected him.

You know, the other pivots have to do with, we want to see everything. And you have heard pundit after pundit, legal expert after legal expert explain, grand jury material is secret, per 6(e), rule 6(e) of the federal rules of criminal procedure.

It's a crime, by the way, to disclose it without a court order. And it just goes on and on. The other big misstatement of law that's so interesting was the immediate political argument about, how could you pivot back and punt back the decision on obstruction to the political people in the department?

If you just take a deep breath, the point is, Neil, everybody has to understand that the independent counsel statute lapsed, the special counsel arrangement is different. And the special counsel works with the A.G., reports to him, shares information with him.

It is, in fairness, a little puzzling legally why after, making the concrete final decision on collusion, he would have said, I'm going to ask the A.G. and the deputy A.G. to make the final decision.

But I think a lot of those answers will in fact to come out when we see a little bit more of the report itself. But I find it interesting, as a lawyer, just real quick, to see these political wild spins, more than Wimbledon, when you look, Neil, at the legal part of it, which is pretty straightforward.

CAVUTO: Thank you, my friend, Doug Burns.

Again, Wall Street seemed to like this news, seeing that a competent president, competent administration, competently hoping to get this out, as much as the 400-page report he could possibly get out, finishing the quarter on a very strong up note.

With today's gains, the Dow added about 11-plus percent for the quarter. Nasdaq ended up close to 17 percent, and the S&P 500, its best performance in about a decade, about 13 percent, buoyed, of course, by a big initial public offering for Lyft, the ride hailing service, which hailed a lot of buyers today and advanced that stock appreciably, setting the stage for what investors hope will be more good things to come.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, we could hear from the president shortly in Florida, West Palm Beach, Florida, right now.

He's going to be at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. When he approaches the microphone or if he has anything to say, of course, we will be there.

Ahead of that, we also want to let you know, as we teased in the last segment, that the markets ended a strong quarter, in fact, one of the strongest we have seen in better than a decade, especially went it came to the S&P 500.

These latest developments didn't hurt matters any, in that, if the administration was so confident that handing this over -- that is, to Bill Barr -- to release any animal details on the Mueller report, they must be confident that its findings are sound and that the president will be beyond reproach.

Whatever the case, the fact that the attorney general is promising to release this to pretty much everybody in a couple of weeks was a promising development to investors.

That and the Lyft offering today, the ride-hailing service soaring, that set the stage for, of course, the strong up market itself that values the company at north of $23 billion. And for a lot of investors, it could be good news to come for a lot of other companies that are also coming public.

Let's go to market watchers Bob Iaccino at the CME, Michelle Girard, and Stephen Guilfoyle, AKA, the Sarge, outside of the NYSE.

So, Sarge, you saw the all these developments and crosscurrents, a whole lot of buying, a whole lot of confidence things are looking good. What do you think?

STEPHEN GUILFOYLE, FOUNDER, SARGE986: Well, I will tell you what, Neil.

I sat down. I said, what are five things that I would tell Neil Cavuto and the American people about today, why it was so strong on the last day of the quarter, all right?

The number one was the China trade deal talk. We had a lot of confidence coming in overnight from Beijing through Europe. Number two, new home sales, very strong, kind of gave a boost to the Atlanta Fed's look on first-quarter GDP, kind of outweighed poor numbers that we had for spending and for income.

The yield curve, the read -- the un-inversion of the yield curve. The three -- three-month finally went back almost to where it should be. The 10-year, they sold that one a little bit. We have a little bit of space here. We need a lot more space. So the Fed does need to listen to Larry Kudlow. And he's our number four reason, by the way, talking short-term rates down half-a-point.

Whether it gets done or not, algorithms love that. And algorithms respond to keywords. And, number five, the S&P 500 gave us a golden cross today. The 50-day simple moving average moved above the 200, which also provides an algorithmic response.

CAVUTO: Bob, I'm wondering the other effect of this, and that is late in the day, this news that Bill Barr was going to release this report, as much of it as he could, all 400-plus pages, within a couple of weeks.

Now, some Democrats were saying it should be sooner. But, be that as it may, the confidence expressed to do that eased a lot of nerves, didn't it?

BOB IACCINO, PATH TRADING PARTNERS: It did.

I think the fact that the president is in no immediate legal jeopardy is the thing that the market is going to hold on to as sort of solidifying the geopolitical chaos look, domestically, as well as internationally.

If the president's going to be in place, that's one less thing, as Forrest Gump would say. So from the perspective of the U.S.-China trade deal, which I still think is the biggest thing, I love Larry Kudlow. He can call for whatever he wants, but I don't think Jay Powell is going to listen to him.

So I don't think the market is really going to react to something like that. To me, this trade deal, once we get to see it, it's more important than the Mueller report for the markets. We can find out how quickly the trade tariffs will go away, how quickly we can get back to zero, where we were when we made the new highs in the markets in the first place.

CAVUTO: What a good point.

By the way, I'm going to be raising this back and forth and the recommendations for low interest rates with Steve Moore, who the president wants to appoint to the Federal Reserve. He's coming up a little later in the show.

Michelle, this notion that to take away the black swan developments, the fear factor stuff like the Mueller report and everything else, I don't think it's a leap to say Wall Street really is not red or blue on these subjects. It just likes to get past uncertainties. This is one more uncertainty that's been pushed aside, I guess, right?

MICHELLE GIRARD, NATWEST: A hundred percent.

As you said, the political uncertainty is diminishing, as well as the economic uncertainty. As you -- we talked about, the new home sales numbers were stronger today. We had some better data in terms of consumer sentiment holding. And there's been so which pessimism about the economic outlook.

And you get reports like we have had today that suggests maybe some of the recession worries are a little bit overdone. And whether it's Larry Kudlow, whether it's another very low reading on inflation, the markets are beginning to understand that it is very possible that the Fed could actually provide more accommodation or over -- have the room to provide more accommodation later in the year, if the U.S. economy were to falter.

And you see that in this steepening back out of the yield curve, the un- inversion of the yield curve. The market is beginning to gain confidence that recession fears are easing because the Fed will be there if the economy falters.

And I think that that's been a big factor over the last week about -- behind some of the improvement and the continued value in equity prices.

CAVUTO: All right, we're going to see shortly what the president thinks all of this.

But, Steve, one thing that you can say, I think, unreservedly is that the markets are getting back to fundamentals they would prefer to focus on and the kind of the ground they like to be on, not so much political uncertainties and whether a president is going to survive a report, right?

Sarge?

GUILFOYLE: I will tell you what. I will tell you what could help, if you're speaking to me, because I had a kid going by on a Big Wheel. Kind of blocked you out a little bit.

CAVUTO: Happens to me all the time.

GUILFOYLE: The U.S. Treasury Department has to pitch in a little bit. OK?

The U.S. Treasury Department has it within their power -- now, we need to borrow a lot of money, right? Now we have all these foreign accounts that need to buy safety and they need to buy yield. All right?

Let's issue epic-sized 10-year, epic-sized 30-year paper. Let's get it out the door. Let's jack up that 10-year yield a little bit.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: All right, Sarge.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Now I'm rudely interrupting you, my friend.

The president of the United States speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

TRUMP: ... head of the Small Business Administration. She has been a superstar.

The fact is that I have known her for a long time. I knew she was good. But I didn't know she was that good. She has been one of our all-time favorites. It was just so smooth.

She's helped so many people in the world of small business. And she will be leaving. She's going to go and help us with a very, very important year-and-a-half that we have coming up, and -- the reelection, as they call it.

And we look forward to that. And we're going to be working very strongly. She's going to be doing a fantastic job.

So she's going to be leaving. We'll be making the new nomination and appointment in the very short distance. And that will be in consultation with Linda.

But I just have to say that this is an outstanding woman who's done an outstanding job.

And, Linda, I want to thank you very much.

LINDA MCMAHON, ADMINISTRATOR, SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION: Thank you very much, sir. I really appreciate that.

TRUMP: I'd like to know what has been your highlight and what are some of the great things you've done, just so they all know so that we can put it right on the record.

MCMAHON: Well, the highlight has certainly been the fact that you asked me to take on this position. It has been an honor to serve the country in your Cabinet, and serve the administration, and the people of the United States and small businesses.

You have 30 million small businesses. Ninety-nine percent of the businesses in this country are small businesses. So, we've been able to help them at SBA. We've reimagined the SBA with the great team I have there.

CAVUTO: We're going to continue monitoring this, especially if the president takes questions.

But his small business administrator, the key Cabinet position, there from the very beginning, Linda McMahon, is leaving.

Let's get the read on this.

In case you just joined us, the attorney general oft United States, Bill Barr, has announced that he's going to get that Mueller report out there, all, I guess, we're told, 400 pages of it or most of them within next couple of weeks.

Jerry Nadler and others are saying, not soon enough. They would prefer next week around April 2, next Tuesday.

Martha MacCallum joins us right now, the host of "The Story" tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Martha, very good to have you.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, ANCHOR: Great to see you, Neil.

CAVUTO: What did you think, fast-moving developments?

MACCALLUM: Indeed, they are.

And Nadler has come back again after this most recent letter by Bill Barr, the attorney general, saying: "As I informed the attorney general earlier this week, Congress requires the full and complete Mueller report without redactions, as well as access to underlying evidence, by April 2. And that deadline still stands," he says.

So they have got a little bit of a face-off going on here at this point. And you go back to Bill Barr's most recent letter that came out just about an hour ago now, and he lays out the reasons why certain things would need to be redacted.

CAVUTO: And he know -- and they know that, right?

MACCALLUM: By law. By law, exactly.

CAVUTO: They know that this is common, right?

MACCALLUM: I mean, you have to wonder.

Jerome Nadler -- Jerrold Nadler, I should say, basically staked his claim in the ground and say April 2. I don't know whether or not he will wish that he hadn't laid down that April 2 marker, because now he is digging in the sand on this. And it's going to be a little bit of a push and -- push and pull.

But what strikes me about the Barr letter that came out this afternoon is that it really shows the independence of this attorney general. And he's saying, I am doing this like a grownup, with Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and Rod Rosenstein, his deputy. We're going through everything. We're figuring out what's in here and what needs to be redacted.

And we're happy to come before you in a couple of weeks, May 2, May 1. Even to that, the chairman, Nadler, says, we will let you know. We will take it under advisement if that date is going to work for us.

CAVUTO: But you know what is incredible here? The trust the president is placing in his newest appointee in his Cabinet, enough that he's willing to say, all right, I have confidence in you. I have confidence in this report. I have confidence in myself to know enough that there's not going to be anything embarrassing there, and go for it.

I'm not even thinking executive privilege.

MACCALLUM: Striking. It is striking, especially when you look at all the pushback that the White House attorneys and the outside Trump attorneys have had during this entire special counsel investigation.

They called it a witch-hunt. They said that everybody who worked on the Mueller team were basically Democrats who were against him, who had given money to Democrats in the past. So now you have got a really big change of tune here in terms of the confidence in Bill Barr.

But, at the same time, it allows Bill Barr to say, I am not going through the White House on this.

CAVUTO: Well, let's listen.

The president is reacting to that.

MACCALLUM: All right, let's see it.

TRUMP: Well, I have great confidence in the attorney general. And if that's what he'd like to do, I have nothing to hide.

This was a hoax. This was a witch-hunt. I have absolutely nothing to hide. And I think a lot of things are coming out with respect to the other side. But I have a lot of confidence in the attorney general.

QUESTION: Mr. President, are you going to be talking to President Putin about Venezuela?

TRUMP: We will probably be talking at some point. We're looking at Venezuela. Venezuela right now is a big fat mess.

The electricity is gone. Power is gone. Fuel is gone. Gasoline for cars is gone. They have a lot of electric cars. That's all gone because they have no electricity. They have nothing. And what a -- what a job. When we talk about socialism, take a look at Venezuela.

So I will be talking about a lot of -- to a lot of people, perhaps President Putin, perhaps President Xi of China. My people right now are in China. We're negotiating the trade deal. We'll see what happens. But we're doing very well.

QUESTION: How did those round -- that round of talks go?

TRUMP: I think it's going very well.

I mean, the trade deal is going very well. We'll see what happens. But it's going very well. They're in China right now, the highest level of our people, meeting with their people. Then they'll be coming back here for another round.

It's a very comprehensive -- to use a word that some people like, some people don't like. I think it's OK. But it is a very comprehensive, very detailed listing of problems that we've had with China over the years. And it's going to have to be a great deal. If it's not a great deal, we can't do it. We can't do it.

QUESTION: Do you plan to name a new defense secretary soon?

TRUMP: I'm very happy with Pat Shanahan. I think he's done a really great job. We knocked out the caliphate. We have now -- if you look at Syria, what happened in a very, very short period of time, far shorter than people said it was even possible.

We're working together very well on the wall and on the border. I'm very upset with Mexico. I think Mexico is doing a lot of talking. They have the strongest immigration laws anywhere, anywhere in the world. They probably have the strongest. And we have the worst.

We have the weakest, the most pathetic, the most laughed-at immigration laws anywhere in the world. They're the Democrats' laws, and I got stuck with them. And I hope Congress is going to change them rapidly. They have a lot of opposition from Democrats, not because the Democrats don't think they'd be right in changing them, just because they don't want to make anybody look good.

They want no victories. They don't care if the country suffers. They don't want any victories. We have two brand new caravans coming up, if you can believe it, two big ones. And they're coming up. And Mexico could stop them very easily.

Mexico has a trade surplus with the United States, for many years, of $100 billion a year at least. And this is for many years. Mexico has taken a big portion of our car business. Mexico is doing very well because of the United States. And, frankly, they have to stop the illegal immigration.

We've run out of room. We have this ridiculous catch-and-release program, where you catch them, and then you're supposed to release them. And you release them into our country. And we've been very, very tough.

And the Border Patrol has been incredible, I have to tell you. The people in the Border Patrol, the job they do is unbelievable, ICE the same thing, and law enforcement.

But Mexico is going to have to do something. Otherwise, I'm closing the border. I will just close the border. And with a deficit like we have with Mexico and have had for many years, closing the border will be a profit-making operation. When you close the border, also, you will stop a lot of the drugs from coming in, because we take in tremendous drugs from Mexico, as you know as well as I do.

So, you close up the border and you watch the drugs go way down too. But I will close the border if Mexico doesn't get with it, if Mexico doesn't stop it. They come in from Guatemala. They come in from El Salvador. They come in from Honduras. They come in from all over. And they come in from Mexico.

And we're working very hard to stop it. We're building the wall. But until the wall is completed -- and it's really moving along well.

In fact, we're going to have a news conference very shortly, over the next couple of weeks, at the wall, as it's being completed and going up, at sections of the wall. It's moving along rapidly, but, still, we have a current crisis.

We have a crisis. I know that you can go back 30 years, and you go back 40 years, but I can't imagine it being any worse than it is right now.

QUESTION: Sir, on that note, two children died around December in U.S. custody, migrant children.

Do you believe, given the rising numbers of migrant families and children at the border, your administration is equipped to handle that in a way that it tries to ensure that children are not dying and...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I think that it's been very well-stated that we've done a fantastic job.

One of the children, the father gave the child no water for a long period of time. He actually admitted blame. The other one was being brought to the hospital in an emergency, on an emergency basis. It is a very tough situation. And that trek up is a long, hard trek. And you see what's happening to women.

You see what's happening to children. It's a horrible situation. And Mexico could stop it right at their southern border. They have a southern border. And they could -- and they have a border that could be very well- structured. It's very easy for them to stop people from coming up. And they don't choose to do it.

Well, we're not going to give them hundreds of billions of dollars.

CAVUTO: We're continuing to monitor the president here.

He did address what happened in this big, stunning development, where the attorney general of the United States is going to release as much as he can of that now 400-page report, the so-called Mueller report, by April 15.

Some Democrats have cited they would prefer that it be sooner than that. The president indicating that he has nothing to hide. He's very confident in the legal system and his attorney general.

By the way, we have got a statement from Lindsey Graham, that he appreciates the update from Attorney General Barr on the status of the Mueller report. The attorney general has indicated -- this, again, coming from Senator Graham -- that he would be available to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Graham is the chair, by May 1, 2019.

Martha MacCallum back with us.

Fast-moving developments, but for the president these are pretty constructive developments.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely.

And I think, as you pointed out, the president said he has nothing to hide. And I think this further allows him to make that point. Rather than hovering over this report and saying, we're not going to release it until go through it word by word and make sure that we have executive privilege over certain things...

CAVUTO: And you know he's got to be curious what's in it.

MACCALLUM: He's got to be curious what's in it, absolutely.

CAVUTO: But he's just letting the chips fly, right?

MACCALLUM: And you have to believe that he looks at this principals conclusions letter that Bill Barr wrote.

And Bill Barr, that's the other thing he made very clear in the letter to Nadler today. He said, this wasn't a summary, because he's being blasted for summarizing the report. Nancy Pelosi said that it was condescending, the way that he summarized the report for them.

She said, show it to us. We need to look at it ourselves and we will process the whole thing.

CAVUTO: And, again, I keep stressing this. If Bob Mueller, anyone on his legal team would have found it condescending or, worse, wrong, I think they would have gotten that out there.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

It doesn't strike me that this attorney general is the type of person who would put that summarizing -- excuse me -- principal conclusions letter out there if he didn't feel that it accurately represented the underlying finding of the documents.

CAVUTO: Yes. And you got to wonder, too, with the 400-plus pages or whatever this ultimately is, that some things are going to be redacted.

And the next issue will become, when it is released, what was redacted and why? And then everything becomes sort of like an Oliver Stone movie, right?

MACCALLUM: There's no way it's going away, right?

CAVUTO: Yes.

MACCALLUM: I mean, there will be enough flesh left on the bones to continue to pick over for people who want to say, what about this sentence? And why is this redacted? And look at the part where this begins.

Now, all of those questions are fair to look at, obviously. Everybody wants to look at this report and see what was in it and see how these conclusions were reached.

One of the things I think is really interesting with regard to obstruction is the issue that was brought up in a Washington Post story today about Robert Mueller and how much he did press for an interview with the president, which he never got.

CAVUTO: Right.

MACCALLUM: And that may be the reason that he said, I can't make a determination on obstruction definitively, because you never let me sit down with the president and talk to him personally.

So he left that door open and allowed Barr and Rosenstein together -- another good point in that piece that has been made to me as well is that Rod Rosenstein has been very integral in this process. He has been watching the whole thing throughout the entire process.

And he's had his ins and outs with the president. There is no doubt about it. But he's working very closely with Mueller and with Barr on all of this.

CAVUTO: You also have to wonder to, whatever conclusions they draw when the report itself is out there, people will see things through the prism of their politics, I guess.

But if there nothing to stick here, there are no new indictments to be advanced here, obviously, the upshot of the report is kind of game over here, and hence Democrats turning to the president's business dealings going back decades, with what could be happening in the second court, the third court in New York and what have you and other district courts

I'm just wondering, where and how far and how long does this drag on?

MACCALLUM: How does forever sound?

CAVUTO: Yes. I think you're right.

MACCALLUM: I mean, I really don't see this -- the contentious relationship going away anytime soon.

I think they will pick over this report very closely, because of the nature of our politics today. It's just the way it is. There isn't anybody out there who says OK, you know what?

And it'll be interesting to see if any of these candidates take that viewpoint, if Biden gets in and he says, you know what, we're going to move on as a country, almost like...

CAVUTO: But they didn't want to leave you wondering.

Like, when James Comey comes out and says in interviews, I thought, when I got fired, that was kind of maybe a good issue to raise about obstruction of justice. So they throw that out there as a grenade and a tease and make you wonder.

MACCALLUM: And this department of -- the Southern District of New York investigation, the fact that Congress now wants 10 years of Trump financial records, there's going to be a team that will dig and dig and dig and dig and dig.

And that's the political choice that they have made.

CAVUTO: I have a feeling what your show is going to look like tonight.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I think so. There might be something else between now and then.

CAVUTO: Yes, you have a lot to cover. You have a lot to cover.

Martha, thank you very much, Martha MacCallum.

MACCALLUM: Thanks for having me, Neil.

CAVUTO: "The Story With Martha MacCallum" 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, about two-and-a-half-hours from now. She's already got a busy day.

So too the president of the United States, just wrapped up in Florida, essentially saying there is no there, there when it comes to some of these helicopters sort of reports that the president is hiding something.

He expressed enough judgment and enough confidence in his attorney general, keep in mind, his newest hire, if you will, to say, go, go with it, release it out, no executive privilege, no need for me to read whatever you're putting out there. I have full confidence in you, as Martha pointed out, to get it out there.

In the meantime, we have the market soaring. We have a great end of the quarter. And we have the man who the Fed -- that the president wants to put on the Federal Reserve to keep all of that going, Steve Moore, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, we ended the quarter on a very bullish note, for the S&P 500, the best quarter we have wrapped up in a decade.

And Larry Kudlow, a key point man for the president, indicating that the Federal Reserve should keep it going by cutting interest rates now, and not a little bit, try a half-a-percentage point, because he says, right now, the economy will need that. So forget about standing pat. How about cutting interest rates right now?

A fellow who would have a lot to do in that regard, if he is approved for the job the president wants him to fill, is Steve Moore, the president's picked to join the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Steve, good to have you back.

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Hi, Neil.

CAVUTO: What do you think of what your former colleague Larry Kudlow had to say, cut rates a half-a-percentage point now?

MOORE: Well, what I think is, great minds think alike.

By the way, I'm not necessarily in favor of a 50 percent -- a 50 basis- point rate cut. But I do think -- I think I said this on your show last week, and I will repeat it ,because it's important. I think what happened in December, you remember, Neil, that was a week before Christmas, when the Fed raised rates.

That's when I was a really outspoken critic of the Fed and said, this is a big mistake. And it turned out to be a big mistake.

Look, Larry is saying 50 basis points. I would -- at the very least, I think, if I were on the Federal Reserve Board -- and I would have to look at the information that they have. But I would certainly think very seriously about reversing that rate hike that happened in December, and, by the way, not because I believe in easy money.

You have known me for a long time, Neil. I'm for a strong and stable dollar. My concern -- and I think it's Larry's -- I haven't talked to him in a week or so -- is that if you look at prices now, they're way below the Fed targets. Commodity prices have been falling.

That suggests we might be headed into a slight deflation, which is bad for the economy, just as inflation is.

CAVUTO: You know, a lot of people, when they heard that you were being pointed out as the president's guy for this job, immediately jumped on it, saying that you were the equivalent of a bull in a china shop, and that you were wrong when you predicted higher inflation with the Fed's quantitative easing.

Now, by the way, being wrong on the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve did miss a lot of things, including the subprime fiasco, but leaving that aside, that you have been targeted at someone who should not sit on the Fed because they think you're crazy.

MOORE: Well, look, going back to the financial crisis, and the aftermath and the Obama years, my point was, look, you don't create growth by printing money, right?

I mean, this -- the left believes that you can print money, and somehow that's going to create jobs. That's not true. And my point in the in the Obama era was, it doesn't matter how many dollars the Fed prints or how much it lowers interest rates. If you have got bad fiscal policy, regulatory policy, labor market policy, you're not going to have a strong economy.

And that was my major point is, you can't make up for really bad fiscal and regulatory policy with monetary policy. Now, where we are today, I would say, over the last six months, when I became kind of critical of the Fed, I think most people looking at the situation honestly would say I was pretty right about this, that the Fed probably has been off-base in those rate increases.

By the way, think about this, Neil. Going back to last summer of 2018, we had 4 percent economic growth, right? We had high employment, one of the lowest unemployment rates in 50 years, and no inflation, no inflation you could find anywhere.

Now, Neil, you're -- you have been in this business a long time. Somebody explain -- maybe you have an explanation -- why would you want to raise interest rates at a time when the economy is clicking on all cylinders?

CAVUTO: Well, the president raised that and was very critical of Jerome Powell.

MOORE: Yes.

CAVUTO: Now, you said you would not be a sycophant for Donald Trump, should you get this job.

But you and he are on the same page on a lot of stuff, including tax cuts, including that the Federal Reserve overstepped things. So could you be an independent voice there?

MOORE: First of all, I think this president has done a phenomenal job on the economy.

I mean, I'm so proud of him. I'm proud to have worked with him on the campaign and helped on the tax bill. I mean, it's working better, frankly, than I thought it would. So he's done an amazing job on the economy.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But he says it would have worked better had the Fed not been tightening. And that just what you say.

MOORE: Well, maybe. Well, maybe.

CAVUTO: Yes.

MOORE: But my point is, there are -- there are areas where I disagree with Donald Trump.

He calls me a lot when I disagree with him to complain about that. But I disagree with him on the steel tariffs. I think those were a mistake. I disagree with him sometimes on the fiscal policy. I don't think we need to do all that spending. And I am concerned about the deficit.

But, on balance, I -- look, I love what he's doing. I will be an independent voice.

CAVUTO: All right.

MOORE: What I'm for -- I will just tell you I'm for. I'm for a strong economy, a strong dollar, stable prices and high wages.

And if we stay on the course that Trump set in the last two years, with a good Fed policy, I believe we can have 3 to 4 percent growth for the next five years.

Remember, I used to say that when Trump was under consideration for the presidency. And he's gotten us pretty close to that path already.

CAVUTO: All right, because you're up for a very big job, they hunt for everything, including this notion that you owe the IRS $75,000 in back taxes. What's going on there?

MOORE: So, look, we underpaid our taxes by $6,000, I think it was in 2014, because of a mistaken deduction we took.

We overpaid our taxes, we estimate, by our accountant, by about $40,000 to $50,000 in 2015. And somehow that comes out to we owing the IRS $75,000.

Now, one thing I would say, people can -- when these numbers come out, people will see this, but the other problem I have with the IRS, Neil, you know how long we have been waiting to resolve this with the IRS? For over two years, we have heard nothing from the IRS.

The taxpayer advocacy group over there has not responded. We can't get the auditor to respond. It is extraordinarily frustrating.

And I bet a lot of people watching the show who've been audited by the IRS have the same frustration. You just can't get a resolution from them.

CAVUTO: But you're challenging it. You're challenging them. You're in a dispute with them over this. And you don't believe you owe this money.

MOORE: Yes, but we want a resolution.

CAVUTO: OK.

MOORE: Yes.

I mean, look, they just have to tell -- we want to present our evidence. We think we're crystal clear, and that we're on the right on this.

CAVUTO: OK.

MOORE: But we just can't get a resolution. And that's frustrating now, because I'm up for this nomination.

CAVUTO: All right, that prompted...

MOORE: But I'm going to stick with my concern.

They owe us money. We don't owe them.

CAVUTO: But you're up this job. And it worries some.

Karl Smith in Bloomberg writes: "If confirmed to the board of the Federal Reserve, Steve Moore would jeopardize the Fed's hard-won reputation for fairness and independence, and at the same time, his confirmation, or even debate over it, may be a sign of the inevitable return a monetary policy to the center of American politics."

What he's intimating there is that you would be too much in the hip pocket of the president.

MOORE: And, as I said, just look at my record.

I urge people to read the book that Art Laffer and I just wrote, "Trumponomics," where we point out where we agree with the president, where we don't.

I have been pretty consistent that I want a strong and stable dollar. I don't want to use the Fed as a way to micromanage the economy. You get low taxes -- I mean, Arthur Laffer taught me this.

What are the four pillars of prosperity? It's free trade, it's less government spending, it's low tax rates, and it's sound money. And I'm going to fight for sound money over at the Fed.

CAVUTO: How will you get along with Jerome Powell?

MOORE: You know, I have never met the man. I can't wait. No, truly, I can't wait to meet him.

And I want to lay out my case to him. He's the chairman. He makes the decisions. But I'm really looking forward to -- look, I will just tell him, look, you get this right, if we get the monetary policy right on top of the tax cuts and the deregulation, this economy is going to soar.

And I'm going to say, Chairman Powell, you're going to be a hero if you get this right.

CAVUTO: All right, Steve Moore, we will watch closely. Very good seeing you again. Be well.

MOORE: Thank you, Neil. Take care.

CAVUTO: All right, we're getting a lot more on exactly what was behind the Attorney General Barr's findings before Congress and getting them out to Congress so much sooner than people thought -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I have great confidence in the attorney general. And if that's what he would like to do, I have nothing to hide. This was a hoax. This was a witch-hunt. I have absolutely nothing to hide.

And I think a lot of things are coming out with respect to the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, so the president eager to get all this out there, and a lot of it will be out there by the middle of April, not soon enough for a lot of Democrats.

Let's get the read from The National Review online contributing editor Deroy Murdock. We have got Democratic strategist Scott Levenson.

So, Scott, end it with you.

Jerry Nadler saying it's got to be April 2, April 15 isn't good enough. Are we just parsing straws here, or what?

SCOTT LEVENSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The truth of the matter, there's a lot of stories to be told in regard to the Mueller report.

I think, as representative Schiff pointed out, nothing to be proud of with all the indictments around the Trump campaign. There's a suggestion that might have been obstruction. I think there's stuff to look at.

But I also think the Democratic Party is a pretty wide tent, as we all know, these days. And Democratic leadership, Representative Pelosi, Representative Jeffries, have been pretty consistent that they're not running 2020 on an impeachment. They're running it around infrastructure investment and keeping health care costs down.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But they're also saying that a report like this being delayed is not a good idea, even if it's a lot sooner than thought, on the 15th, right?

LEVENSON: As we all know, fuller transparency is good for everybody.

CAVUTO: OK, what do you think? Where's this going, Deroy?

DEROY MURDOCK, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look, I think they need to go through this thing and take care of a few matters.

One is make sure that there's no national security information revealed, sources and methods, people who may have passed information along. If they are revealed, they could get whacked. We don't want that now, do we?

Grand jury information is supposed to stay secret until trial. And there's not going to be a trial.

CAVUTO: But you know that is redacted.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Immediately, it's going to breed suspicions.

(CROSSTALK)

MURDOCK: Hang on. It may take a while.

But they need to do this. Otherwise, what will happen, they will complain and say, oh, why did you expose all this grand jury information? They will yell about that if they had the opportunity.

LEVENSON: But, at the same time, it took a matter of hours to produce a three-page summary of a 300-page report.

So we're talking about weeks and weeks and weeks to redact. And I'm all for what's appropriate.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, that summary came about 36 hours after...

(CROSSTALK)

LEVENSON: Not really clear how comprehensive the summary can be.

CAVUTO: Three hundred, 400 pages, you could read that in an hour.

LEVENSON: And write three pages coherently, that's the problem.

MURDOCK: Again, the complaint early on was, oh, my God, two-year Mueller report, and it took two days to do that summary. Why do it so quickly?

Now they're saying, why is he taking so long?

So no matter what they do, they're going to complain.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVENSON: Well, vice versa, the president saying, let's put it behind us, at the same time he's keeping...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: I mean, I really think, knowing Bob Mueller and his staff -- remember that Daily Beast story that got out. They didn't like it. They immediately put out an update, that's not us. That's wrong.

So if there was anything that the attorney general got wrong, it certainly would have gotten a correction.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVENSON: Well, I think that's why you heard the early clarifications around the obstruction charge.

It's clear that the Mueller report didn't clear the president of obstruction. It's clear it was...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But Barr never said he did.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: It wasn't enough one way or the other.

MURDOCK: It was ambiguous. He made no determination.

LEVENSON: That is the one reason why it's an interesting thing to look at how the Democrats interpret the same stack of evidence.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: All right, if they are now are arguing over the 1st vs. the 15th, I mean, now it's getting kind of silly, isn't it?

MURDOCK: Yes. I mean, it's not like, OK, we need until December.

No, it's a matter of two -- what is it, the 2nd vs. the 15th. That's 13 days.

CAVUTO: And, by the way, that doesn't stop all these other investigations going on, the second court, I mean, on and on.

LEVENSON: And I think the big unprecedented don't know in this is the president's firing of the FBI director.

CAVUTO: Well, that's what Comey left out there. It's something that, to him, it looked like obstruction, but, apparently, apparently, I stress, to Mueller's team, was not.

MURDOCK: Yes.

Well, look, first of all, president of the United States, as the leader of the executive branch, can fire the FBI chief because he doesn't like his tie, he doesn't like his glasses, he doesn't like his hairdo.

LEVENSON: That doesn't necessarily mean it's something to be proud of.

(CROSSTALK)

MURDOCK: Number two, he responded to a recommendation from Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions saying, we think you should fire Comey.

And so he followed Rod Rosenstein's advice.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVENSON: The Mueller report is going to give fodder to the Democrats for years to come.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: All right, got it. Talk over each. We save a lot of time that way.

The judge will be here to help us with this, Napolitano, that is, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, welcome back, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.

Not soon enough, according to Democrats, who say, despite the fact the attorney general wants to get as much as of the Mueller report as he can by the middle of April, they would prefer it be the 2nd of April, next Tuesday, and not a couple of weeks later.

Judge Andrew Napolitano with us now on the phone.

What do you think of this, Judge?

ANDREW NAPOLITANO, JUDICIAL ANALYST: Well, I think the dispute over time is, as you indicated in your question right before the break, a little silly.

I mean, the attorney general and his staff have to go through 400-plus pages and decide what may be revealed and what cannot. But this is not the end of it, Neil. There's a there's a very innocuous-sounding phrase in the middle of the letter saying federal rule of civil procedure 6(e) material.

That is material which is negative about any person who wasn't indicted. Stated differently, that's whatever Bob Mueller found, which is evidence of a conspiracy, but not enough evidence to prove one, or evidence of obstruction of justice, but not enough evidence to prove obstruction of justice.

The attorney general cannot, under that federal rule, release it. That means that, when this report comes out, there's going to be many, many pages that are blacked out. The Democrats will howl because they want to see what's in the blacked-out area. They will go to a court, and a federal judge will decide.

If she releases the entire report, which she can do, but Attorney General Mueller cannot, then everybody's going to be in a position to second-guess Bob Mueller and to second-guess Bill Barr. And we're going to start this all over again.

CAVUTO: So, real quickly, is it your sense then that, once this is released, it's only the beginning, it's not the end?

NAPOLITANO: Yes, it is, Neil. I'm sorry to say that this could be going on for a couple of years.

CAVUTO: Amazing.

All right, Judge, thank you very, very much, Judge Napolitano.

NAPOLITANO: You're welcome.

CAVUTO: We will be breaking down the impact of this and trying to get this report out there sooner, rather than later, with House Intelligence Committee member Eric Swalwell, who's been saying, despite the Mueller report, he still thinks there's collusion there.

2020 Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney will be joining us, as well as South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy.

Again, on weekends, all this stuff seems to hit the fan, right? That's why we are live tomorrow, as we are every Saturday, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

There will be a lot more water under that proverbial news bridge by then. We're on top of it all. We have got you covered, including this little development at the corner of Wall and Broad, a record quarter, a strong quarter, and for the S&P 500, something we haven't seen in 10 years.

A strong start to the year that investors will tell you usually -- usually -- portends good news for the rest of the year. We will see about that tomorrow.

"The Five" now.

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