thank you so much. >> thank you so much to our fox news specialist today, both erin mcpike and jessica tarlov. thank you for watching. make sure you follow us on social media on both twitter and facebook, remember, 5:00 will never be the same. "special report" up next. >> more palace intrigue over the special counsel investigation, and president trump undoes one of president obama's initiatives on cuba. this is "special report" ." good evening. i'm chris wallace and for bret baier. there are tweets and clarifications, reports and denials tonight in the investigation into president trump's alleged links with russia and possible obstruction of justice. all of this while mr. trump announced a major policy change, reversing the course sent by his predecessor. cheap white house correspondent john roberts starts us off the night. >> the president return home to

the white house a short time ago after a brief trip to miami, a friendly audience, to make good on a campaign pledge to get a better deal from cuba. >> effective immediately, i am canceling the last administration's complete plea a one-sided deal with cuba. >> before a jubilant crowd with the strugglers executive pen, president trump moved to tighten the screws on the castro regime, rolling back obama era easements on cuba policy. >> we challenge cuba to come to the table with a new agreement that is in the best interests of both their people and our people and also of cuban-americans. >> the new policy reinstates the tourism ban on cuba, maintains the embargo, and prohibits americans from doing business with cuban military and government owned businesses. while the president says he's canceling to obama and deal, he stopped short of full repeal,

announcing new provisions on exports, immigration, and diplomacy will stay in place. >> our embassy remains open in the hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better path. >> in his public appearances and statements, president trump has stayed on message with his agenda, that he is still using the twitter-verse as a political weapon for his detractors. the president wrote... the president's legal team insist he was not acknowledging that he is under investigation, merely referring to the reporting that is out there. but a source tells fox news the tweet was squarely aimed at rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed special counsel robert mueller. rosenstein also wrote that the three page letter laying out the reasons that james comey should be removed as fbi director.

the tweet raised questions whether or not rosenstein's job should be on the line, originally came out and an appropriations subcommittee hearing earlier this week. >> could you be terminated without cause? >> who would appoint your replacement as your position, deputy general? >> the president. >> that's a possibility? >> anything is possible, senator. >> rosenstein may be a target of the mueller investigation for his part on comey's firing and he may have to recuse himself. in a statement, ian pryor told fox news, "as the deputy attorney general has said numerous times, if there comes a point where he needs to recuse, he will. however, nothing has changed." as leaks about the mueller investigation grew last night, including one that jared kushner's business dealings are now under scrutiny, rosenstein issued a strange, out of the blue statements about leaks, saying "americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials." " americans should be

skeptical about anonymous allegations. sources close to jared kushner shut down the idea that his business dealings with russia were under investigation saying, "we do not know what this report refers to. they also reiterated that they have been contacted neither by the fbi nor the office of special counsel." praise? >> chris: john roberts reporting from the white house. donald trump's new cuba policy is drawing praise and criticism tonight. even from cuban-americans. correspondent steve harrigan has not part of the story from miam miami. [protesting in spanish] >> any discussion cuba brings out a motion -- emotion. [hands -- >> older cuban-americans who fought fidel castro or fled cuba overwhelmingly voted for

president trump and a hard line against the dictatorship that in many cases cost them their families or their homes. >> i think from that point of view of solidarity, i think it's a positive step up to now. but we still need to see what happens from now on. >> the vocal support of these hardliners including some veterans of the failed 1961 bay of pigs invasion, helped trump win the key swing state of florida. for proponents of closer ties with cuba, a proposed rollback is not as severe as some feared. there is a lot here that people from both parties can support, americans can still travel to cuba, and cuban-americans can still support their families. both of those things are great for cuba at oscars private sector. >> both sides claim the ultimate goal is to help the cuban people, -- the other by encouraging more tourism to help create cuban entrepreneurs, some who fear the new rules. >> [speaking spanish] >> 80% of our clients are

american because of their power, they are the kings of the world, as the saying goes. if trump produce how many come in for tourism, they will create chaos because we live off it, and especially from the americans. >> more than 600,000 americans traveled to cuba last year under relaxed restrictions. that number could declined dramatically in the next year, when u.s. tourism to cuba could face audits from the treasury department. >> thank you. let's drill down on the president's change. republican mario diaz represents and joins us for miami. congressman, you originally wanted a much tougher policy change by president trump that would give cuba 90 days to set up fair and free elections for the u.s. would put them back on the state sponsor of terrorism list. why did you backed down, sir? >> i haven't backed down, chris.

the important thing is to stand with the cuban people and the national security interest of the united states and to adhere to the law. that is what president trump is, in fact, doing. president obama gave concessions to the castro regime, asking for nothing in return, and he got nothing in return other than increasing the repression, an increase of participation of russia spy ships, for example, going to the island. this president understands that our partners are the cuban region, our partners need to be the cuban people. it's good for cuban people. it's also good for the national security interest of the united states. if you believe in the rule of law, this actually enforces the law. this is good. this is a win-win all the way around. >> this is a halfway measure, it's definitely weaker than what you were originally calling for, and the result is the u.s. embassy will stay open, the u.s. cruise ships and airliners will continue to serve the island. so how tough a message are you really sending to the castro regime.

>> again, you just have to look at the response from the castro regime. they are actually quite concerned. chris, there are a lot of options that were put on the table. the important is what i just told you. what we always taught, what we've always said, it makes no sense that if you believe that helping -- that you are helping the cuban people like president obama did by helping to fund the repressive machinery and the intelligence services that are repressing the cuban people? well, obviously, that's what president obama's policy did. this refers to that. this will have stricter control as the law requires on travel. this will not allow folks to help in which the cuban military and the cuban intelligence services. president obama is demanding the return of fugitives from u.s. law? frankly, terrorists who are harbored by the cuban regime. if the regime were doing all those things, all the sanctions go away. the law is very clear. all they have to do it in cuba for all the sanctions to go away is to release the political

prisoners, offer basic freedoms like freedom of the press, political parties. labor unions. all the sanctions then go away. the question is is that too much to ask for? today, president trump made it very clear that he stands with the cuban people, and not with the oppressors that have been, again, repressing that country who are now close to 60 years. >> what about the argument, congressmen, from the other side that 50-60 years of no relations at all didn't accomplish very much. we've had this policy of engagement now for, what, about three years? less than that, actually. two and a half years. why not give it more chance? >> a couple of things, chris. we should get rid of the sanctions with north korea. we should get rid of the sanctions with iran -- well present obama did a lot to try to do that. here's the question. what is in the national security interest of the united states? to stand up to a regime that continues to be as anti-american, do as much to

pert u.s. national security interests, who harbor u.s. terrace, fugitives from u.s. law who every step of the way in every moment of their existence they are trying to hurt and undermine u.s. national security interests? what is in our national interest? to stand up to do that and do what president obama did which is get rid of all the sanctions possible while asking nothing in return? what works? is pressuring the regime diplomatically and financially and helping the opposition, that's the only thing that has worked, by the way, do bring freedom to closed societies. president trump, once again, is adhering to the rule of law, standing by the cabin people, we do not have to fear anymore watching on the television an american president during the wave with the cuban dictatorship who has blood on his hands not only of cubans but also of american citizens. >> chris: congressman

diaz-balart, thank you for your time tonight. >> always a privilege. >> chris: president trump is dropping another obama policy that protected many immigrant parents from deportation. he has not yet decided the fate of the so-called "dreamerrers." >> hundreds of on the committed immigrants who came into the u.s. as children will be allowed to stay, at least for now. according to this stat sheet posted on the department of homeland security's website last night. the memorandum that created deferred action, or dapa, will remain in effect. the question is how long? the white house as president trump still has not decided what to do about these so-called dreamers. on the campaign trail, he promised to deport them. >> we will immediately terminate president obama's rhetorical illegal executive amnesties! >> the trumka ministrations officially terminated the one last night, the deferred action for americans and lawful

permanent residence which would've protected the parents of dreamers to be deported. it never took effect because it was blocked in federal court. now the fate of its sister program, dapa, is still in question. the president's opinion of it is currently evolving. >> dapa is a very, very difficult subject for me. to me, it's one of the most difficult subjects i have. >> the homeland security secretary pleaded with congress to pass make a deal granting them clarity. >> elsewhere, the trump administration is cracking down. over the weekend, over 100 iraqi immigrants in detroit were arrested, including dozens of christians. u.s. immigration and custom informants say most of them had committed crimes. but their families fear they will face religious persecution and possibly death if deported back to iraq. >> how can you take my brother, these families, back to iraq! none of them speak the language! they will kill the christians! they will kill our people! >> this crackdown comes after

iraq agreed to a deal. in exchange being removed from president trump's proposed travel ban, according to homeland security officials, it agreed to accept some u.s. deportees. many of those iraqis just arrested can now be heading back to their home country. chris? >> chris: kristin fisher, from the white house, thanks. house republican whip steve scalise is said to be improving tonight. from wounds suffered from wednesday's attack on the public and members of congress. but he will have to stay in the hospital for some time. correspondent doug mckelway has the latest from medstar washington hospital. >> a trans pelvic wound is the clinical phrase the director of trauma used to describe representative steve scalise is injury. the bullet shattered his left hip, toward the arteries and organs of the pelvis, and split it into hundreds of fragments. >> i would encourage you to talk to your military medical colleagues about what it means to be shot with a high velocity

arrival in the hip region. in his case, the initial risk to life is because of the hemorrhage that results when that bullet travels through blood vessels. >> close to death is how scalise came to the hospital. after trico surgeries and other procedures, the imminent risk i. >> is a risk of desk right now is substantially lower than when he came in. whatever you think of the word "critical" he was as critical as you could be when he came in. >> met micah was upgraded to serious and scheduled for a more serious stomach surgery today. for he and scalise, the new risk is in infection. he was optimistic that scalise will walk again. >> my understanding is he'll be able to walk and hopefully run. >> also speaking at today's press conference, scalise's chief of staff will read a statement from the family. >> we are grateful for the

heroes who saved the lives of everybody at the baseball field, including steve's. crystal and david have been family to us for years, we ask you continue to pay for their full recovery. >> matt appears well underway. crystal grantor was operated on for a bullet wound in the ankle and is expected to make a full recovery. the world and a record crowd of over 25,000 saw officer david bailey throw out last pitch at last night's charity congressional baseball game. members hold in prayer before game time. their leaders made a bipartisan call for unity. >> what are we trying to do is to tone down the rhetoric, lead by example, and show people that we can disagree with one another. >> tonight, we are all team scalise. >> in a videotape message, the president did the same. >> let's play ball! >> meanwhile, the fbi deals its investigation any political motivation of the shooter james hodgkinson who was known to be an avid bernie sanders supporter involuntary or in a donald trump hater. from his van, they recovered a

laptop, cell phone, and a camera, from his body they recovered a 9-millimeter 9mm ha 7.62 millimeters hunting rifle, a weapon so powerful it could easily bring down an elephant. chris? >> chris: doug, thank you. online giant amazon is buying whole foods in a deal valued at almost $14 billion. the grocery chain known for its organic choices faces increased competition. amazon's move continues its expansion into goods, services, and online shopping for food. stocks were mixed, the dow gained 24, the s&p 500 was up two-thirds. nasdaq lost 14. for the week, the dow was up a half percentage point. the s&p 500 was barely up. nasdaq lost about a point. up next, is the u.s. are about to spend thousands more to afghanistan? first, here's what some of our fox affiliates are covering tonight.

fox 25 in boston with a guilty verdict in the trial of a woman who encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide. michelle carter faces up to 20 years in prison. the judge called her behavior wanting and reckless. fox 9 in the twin series as the police officer is acquitted on charges related to the shooting death of motorist linda philando castile last week. they will likely fire the officer, despite the not guilty verdict. this is alive look at picturesque long beach, california, from fox 11. one of the stories they are tonight, officials like of los angeles city hall with a bat single and a tribute to the late adam west. the actor who played batman in the '60s tv show passed away from leukemia at the age of 88. that's today's live look outside the beltway for "special report." we will be right back.

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>> chris: several thousands more u.s. troops may soon be on their way to afghanistan from a national security correspondent jennifer griffin is at the pentagon tonight with what would be a significant re-escalation in america's longest war. good evening, jennifer. >> good evening, chris. originally, the pentagon said no final decision has been made on troops to afghanistan in the announcement is scheduled for this time. for months, the pentagon has been weighing sending between 3000-5,000 more american troops to afghanistan. right now, there are 84,000 troops on the ground, a far cry from the 100,000 100,000 at itk under president obama. this week, president trump gave secular defense mattis the

authority to decide how many troops handing over. he blamed the last of administration for pulling u.s. troops out too soon. >> when we reduced our forces there, probably what was in the high hindsight of misguided -- using our air force with some idea we would wean them off the need of it. >> >> in december, president oba ordered 1500 u.s. troops home. the expected troop increase will reverse back don't make that print secretary mattis told lawmakers to expect a new afghanistan strategy by mid-july, but some are losing patience for how the pentagon can ask for more resources in troops without a strategy. >> do you agree we aren't winning in afghanistan? >> i understand the urgency, i understand it's my responsibility. we aren't winning in afghanistan right now and we will correct this as soon as possible.

>> the u.s. has unleashed more airpower in recent months, dropping more bombs in april than any month since 2012. secretary mattis is allowing troops closer to the front lines to call in air strikes as part of a strategy he will deliver in mid-july, which will look similar to the isis sight in iraq and syria. in february, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan said he needed, chris, a few thousand more troops later this month. there is a nato defense minister meeting in brussels where the u.s. will be asking other allies to share the burden. chris? >> chris: jennifer, thank you. the pentagon's as as a u.s. nay vessel has collided with a merchant ship in the waters near japan. the guided missile destroyer uss fitzgerald reportedly hit the other ship around 2:30 a.m. local time. it has requested assistance from the japanese coast guard. a defense officials has three compartments of the fitzgerald are flooded. but, this shift is not in danger

of sinking. the fitzgerald is part of the uss ronald reagan aircraft carrier strike group. senate republicans and the president possum's top diplomatic are at odds tonight over russia. senators want to impose new sanctions and make sure president trump doesn't lift existing ones. correspondent rich edson has more from the state department. >> the nays are two, the bill is amended as past. >> two senators -- refuses to join them. >> i think what we would like is deflects ability to turn that heat up when we sensed that our efforts in russia, whether it be in syria, we have engagements that they have asked for us to engage with them on ukraine. >> these new measures would solidify and strengthen sanctions against russia and require a congressional review if the trump of administration to relax or suspend sanctions against russia, so the demonstration would need congress to sign off if it

signed a deal with russia involving sanctions relief. the secretary argues that could disrupt the talks with russia. >> we have some channels open where we are starting to talk, i think what we wouldn't want to do is closing channels off. >> i understand. >> as senior congressional aide involved in these sanction negotiations say that senators designed this to provide guardrails for the trump administration, ensuring a robust posture toward the putin regime. >> we moved to make new congress, not the president, the final arbiter of sanctions relief when necessary. any idea of the president that he can lift sanctions on his own for whatever reason are dashed by this legislature. big republicans also widely support these sanctions. senator rob portman pushed to include funding to counter russian propaganda. he says they, "send a clear signal that russian roads for stabilizing actions must have consequences, and the united states will stand up for its allies like ukraine while holding russia accountable for its bad behavior."

this bill now heads to the house, where republicans have generally been supported of increased sanctions against russia. passage there would send it to the white house where president trump would have to consider signing a bill that would curb his own authority to ease sanctions. chris? >> chris: rich edson, thank you. there is still no verdict tonight in the bill cosby sexual assault trial. this is alive look from inside the courthouse in norristown, pennsylvania. jurors again told the judge they are unable to reach a consensus on the charges, and again the judge told them to keep trying. media personality alex jones is taking on megyn kelly of nbc and what is serving as our preview of their controversial interview this weekend. it turns out before kelly recorded that interview, jones recorded kelly. fox news media analyst and host of fox's media buzz howard kearns has the story. >> escalating battle over

megyn kelly's nbc interview with radio host alex jones has taken a bazaar turn, with jones releasing phone calls of kelly's attempts to book him. >> if there is one thing about me, i do what i say i'm going to do, i don't doublecross. it's not going to be a gotcha hit piece. >> i knew it was a fraud, i knew it was a lot. "i want to get steaks with you." >> nbc will still air the interview, despite alex jones' effort to distract and prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure. the confrontation had already turned radio active because jones, who interviewed president trump during the campaign, has pushed several conspiracy theories, calling 9/11 and inside job and saying washington pizzeria ran a child sex ring, for which he apologized. he called sandy hoax hook a >> s

with double -- they said none of it is true. >> when you say parents affect their children's death, people get very angry. >> it's the victims and grades that are angry with kelly. the family of victoria soto, the incessant need for ratings is disgusting and disappointing. some parents threatening to sue nbc. kelly says she is revolted by jones' outrageous conspiracy theories, but wanted to find out why the president and an audience of millions respect him. and here's what she told jones. >> i would say i'm a combination of mike wallace, oprah winfrey, and larry the cable guy. >> we will see on sunday. generalists have an history of interviewing dictators, merchant was, and other scoundrels. but this segment is a full-blown spectacle, which may leave some

viewers upset with kelly. >> chris: two prison inmates accused of murdering a pair of prison guards during an escape earlier this week are back in custody tonight. correspondent jonathan fairey has an update from atlanta. >> the national manhunt for her two escaped inmates are over, thanks to a combination of police work and a couple of armed residents who spotted them in central tennessee. >> the home owners stepped out and held the people there by gunpoint until another neighbor came to assist him. at that point in time, the sheriff county department was allowed in, and the two suspects. >> it was a peaceful end to a manhunt that began in putnam county. early tuesday morning, inmates ricky debose and donnie rowe escape from a locked cage in their prison transfer bus and overpower the two state corrections officers in front, taking their pistols. the convicts allegedly shot and killed sergeant christopher

monica and sergeant curtis blue. investors say that they try to evade capture by stealing a series of vehicles, including one during a thursday home invasion on an elderly couple in bedford county, tennessee. >> i told them exactly who they were and i told them pretty much everything. >> wow. >> they told me, we don't care. we will be updated in 24 hours. >> -- embarked on a ten mile high speed chase. deputies say the inmates fired on them several times before crashing and fleeing on foot through some keys to my trees to a nearby home. >> they thought it would be an inopportune moment to steal a vehicle from the residence. little did they know, that it was not. we are very thankful that cooperation from the home owners led to this today. >> at a friday court hearing, both waived their rights to extradition and are being returned to georgia to face new charges related to the deaths of sergeants monica and ballou. >> northern governor -- they

will not forget their service and sacrifice of these two fallen officers. and while mourning the loss, law enforcement officials say they are believed to have these two inmates back behind bars after leading them on a manhunt that extended nearly 300 miles. chris? >> chris: jonathan serrie, reporting from atlanta. jonathan, thank you. this is a fox news alert. we are now getting new information about the shooter at the congressional baseball practice attack. chief correspondent catherine herridge has the latest. >> thank you, chris. federal law enforcement officials confirmed to fox news that the 66-year-old james hodgkinson did have a list on his person when he was searched by fbi agents at the scene of the shooting. we are told the piece of paper has a list of names on it and on that list are three republican members of the house and we are reaching out to their offices to

get independent confirmation that they have been briefed by the police and the fbi before broadcasting those names. we've also been urged not to draw conclusions about the list at this time, but we can confirm that a list was found on the suspect at the shooting and three names on that list where republican lawmakers, chris. >> chris: catherine, do we know if any of the names on the list were actually republican members who were at the baseball practice? >> i want to be cautious about how far we go in terms of identifying them at this time, because i don't think it's fair to give out that information until we have a response from their offices. we would not want them to be blindsided by this information. >> chris: catherine, thank you so much. president trump reverses of president obama's opening to cuba. we will get reaction from a panel when we come right back. liberty did what? liberty mutual paid to replace all of our property that was damaged. and we didn't have to touch our savings.

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>> effective immediately, i am canceling the last administration's completely one sided deal with cuba. our policy will seek a much better deal for the cuban people and for the united states of america. we do not want u.s. dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of cuba. >> chris: president trump announcing his new policy towards cuba, rolling back major parts of president obama's opening to that country in 2014. time now to bring in our panel. jason riley, "wall street journal," missed an author of the new book "faults black power." amy walter from the political report, and firemen byron york. did you hear that he is rolling back the bad deal that president obama made with the castro regime so we can get a better deal for the given people?

does that make sense? >> it does make sense. he wants to curb some of these business transactions that help prop up the regime but don't do much for everyday cubans. it was a campaign promise. and i think there is a lot of sympathy for doing that. you know, a lot of people who don't support the embargo nevertheless didn't like how obama went about cutting this deal. congress had him play the framework. it's been there for 20 something years rick is not informally as -- passed back in the 90s and signed by bill clinton. cuba is supposed to meet certain conditions before we normalize relations. an independent, freedom of the press, all kinds -- free and fair elections, there was no real evidence that they had made the progress toward meeting those conditions before obama signed off on this deal. i think trump is right to revisit some of this. i also add the same people that are so worried about trump's

affiliation with putin or affinity with putin, i should say, should be equally concerned why obama had such an affinity for this castro regime and why he was so eager to cut this deal in the first place. >> what's interesting though, amy, the fact that this is not a complete rollback. >> that's right. >> you heard me and asked congressman diaz-balart about that. the u.s. embassy stays open, u.s. planes, cruise ships can continue to serve the island. what about that? >> drive but policy of the administration, of the obama administration stays in place as well. really, i think that jason's point, this was really about donald trump being able to follow through on a promise he made as candidate trump, president trump following through on a promise to do this. one of the biggest winners in all of this is marco rubio, the senator from florida who has made this a centerpiece, the opposition to obama's policy on cuba. the stories thus far about this

entire process have been really focused on marco rubio, the backroom dealings he was able to do to get the president to sign on. it reads something like a nerdy spy novel, how they did this secretly how nothing can leak about this, how they were able to sit down, convinced the president on the story. for marco rubio, i think this does a whole lot. on the policy itself, to your point, it's not going to make much difference. and then finally, i think for voters, for those outside of the cuban exile community, i don't think this is going to make a huge difference in terms of how they view either this issue or how they view the president. >> chris: it was december of 2014 when the president announced his opening to cuba. and last year, when he visited havana and met with raul castro, the president of cuba, he defended his new policy. >> if you keep on doing something over and over again

for 50 years and it doesn't work, it might make sense to try something new. >> chris: byron, did engagement, which is what i think you can call the obama policy, did it work at all? didn't make any difference? >> it does not seem as they have done much, cuba has done much to keep up its end of the bargain in terms of liberalizing itself and giving more freedom to the residence in the country. i think you have to look at ats trump thing in terms of domestic politics. it is part -- part of it is the classic support of cuban-american voters in south florida who voted 54% for donald trump in the general election while other latinos in florida voted 71% for hillary clinton. so this is clearly a promise that he has made it to them. on the other hand, polls ever since obama did this have shown majorities of americans favor better relations with cuba. i don't think trump is riding some national wave of a push to do this. and also, this rally today.

if you watched it, it had a little bit of going back in time feel to it? they were celebrating the brigade that led the attack on the bay of pigs in 1961, and it was kind of a rally of yesteryear one trump did this. >> chris: i want to pick up on that with you, amy, because steve harrigan's report was interesting in that regard. the cuban-american community is not united on the issue with cuba. the older cuban-americans, people who remember fidel castro having fled, they are very much for the trump policy getting tougher with the castro regime. younger cuban-americans not so much. >> and i think we have been seeing that for years. this isn't new to donald trump. this has been going on for some time. the other thing you pick up in the reporting on this story of how this deal came together is that the president, when he was a candidate, met with these bay of pigs survivors and veterans, families of those veterans.

and it was very taken with them and very taken with their story, actually wanted to hold the rally today at their museum. it wasn't big enough, so they ended up at this place, but it was this commitment that he had made to this group that he felt an affinity to while he was on the campaign trail. and i also think it goes back to candidate trump talking about how he can make good deals, how if you can make better deals. if you listen to him both as president and candidate, the cuba deal? bad deal. i ran? bad deal. ttp? bad deal. nafta? bad deal. this is right in his wheelhouse. >> let's talk about that, jason. where do u.s.-cuban relations go from there? any reason to think -- we've seen the cut off because we've had it for 60 years and it really didn't accomplish much. any reason to think that trump's rollback of the obama engagement, which may have not worked, that this new policy is going to work? >> no. i think very little is going to happen so as long raul castro is

still around. i think that will be the test. when he's gone, what the cuban people decide on going forward. there is an argument for going this route. putting economic freedom ahead of political freedom. we've seen it in other parts of the world, southeast asia -- south asia -- east asia i should say -- >> welcome to china. >> in china, we still have human rights problems. i'm talking about places like south korea and japan where we sent economic freedom will lead to political freedom. it's worked. it hasn't worked in cuba partly because we are on our own with his embargo. cuba is still trading with the rest of the world. they are just not trading with the u.s. that's part of the reasons why the policy is not been effective. >> chris: really quickly? >> he based this on something really quite clever, which is so much of the economy is owned by the cuban military, the intelligent, the security forces. basically, he forbade financial transactions with those particular entities, which

congress done my covers 80% of the whole tourist business. it was specifically aimed at the military and security arms. >> you can do business with the cuban people, not the government. up next, the friday lightning round. it's ok that everybody ignores me when i drive. it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. because i don't use my cellphone when i'm driving. even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. here's something else...

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>> he made a recommendation. he is highly respected. very good guy, very smart guy. the democrats like them, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> chris: president trump in an interview last night acknowledging he made up his mind to fire at fire fbi director james comey before he met with the attorney general and his deputy. we are back with our panel for

the friday lightning round. these special counsel investigation took an interesting turn with this tweet from president trump. in that one tweet, jason, the president confirms, seemed to confirm that he is now the subject of an investigation, which his legal team denied that he confirmed. and also appeared to switch his story and now blame deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for the comey firing when, in fact, you heard him telling nbc he had decided to do it beforehand. where are we on this story? >> we are left with a president who cannot seem to help himself. there is no way he really believes this is helping his situation. >> chris: then why is he doing it? >> he can't possibly print i don't think you can help himself. he also cannot have it both ways. he cannot complain that the media is uncovering his agenda

while he's treating about the investigation. what the president tweets is news. if he wants people to focus on his agenda whether it's infrastructure or what have you, health care or tax reform, that's what you should be tweeting more about. not this investigation. >> i absently, 100% agree with everything you just said. it doesn't make sense, but that is not the point here. i think the president is so committed to pushing back on any negative story that comes out about this investigation or any potential that he is under personally under some collusion, threat, that his instinct is to constantly push back and that's what's making things 100 times worse. >> let me quickly suggest is there is tragedy here, which is by coming up rosenstein he's going to force rosenstein to recuse himself and that way he gets a new deputy attorney general? >> not that strategy. that's a very inside washington kind of a tragedy.

i think this is a continuation of these expressions of frustration that we've gotten from him because he doesn't feel like he's being treated fairly because he feels like he's exonerated in the russia collusion thing and now is under investigation for obstructing something that didn't happen. but the real point is he's speaking outside the beltway to nonlawyers saying, "i'm getting a raw deal here." >> chris: i like mice tragedy better. then we have the senate voting 98-2 to impose new sanctions on russia and to codify basically ensure that the old sections have to stay in place and president trump cannot even laterally lift them. the secretary of state rex tillerson didn't like that one bit. >> i think what we would like is the flexibility to turn that heat up, so we have some channels that are open where we are starting to talk. i think what i wouldn't want to do is close the channels off. >> chris: amy, is the senate tying the hands of the president and the secretary of state? >> i don't know the answer to

that, but what i do know is it's really hard for members of the united states senate to not put sanctions down. it would be a lot easier if the president would say, and admit, that russia did have -- they played a role in the campaign, that all the agencies believe that they played a role in this, republican members of congress believe they played a role in this. russia interfered in this election. the fact that the president will not say they interfered makes it very hard, even for members of his own party, to give tillerson flex ability to deal with russia. >> it would be very bad for him to toe this. congress certainly overrides that veto. >> chris: it passed the senate 98-2. >> it would only reinforce this belief that trump has a soft spot for max spot for mack putin. >> chris: i'm going to move on to our last topic, that's the controversy over megyn kelly's

interview with controversial radio host alex jones. he has now leaked the phone call in which she tried to talk him into doing the interview. here it is. >> it's not going to be some got a hit piece. i promise you that. all i can do is give you my word if there's one thing, i don't doublecross. >> chris: bierman, nobody is coming out of this one looking good. >> this is blowing up in megyn kelly's face and face and then bcs face. she was approaching this like an old time media person, trying to coax this person into an interview, convince them it will be really great, and he's approaching it like a renegade, internet age guerrilla which he's going to secretly record her and put it on his own website before she has a chance to get on the air. the crazy thing about it is it's actually put nbc on the wrong side of the sandy hook families, which is just insane.

because they are seemingly giving fair treatment to this guy who was a 9/11 truth e.r., sandy hook truther. >> this is what happens when you engage with people who traffic in conspiracy theories and assume that it's going to work out well for you. this, in some ways, is not surprising at all. that he took this and turned it into his own, sort of commercial rain or what ever you want to call this, spin on this, especially when he was being attacked by outside groups or the interview happening in the first place. >> chris: i'm going to have to interrupt the lightning round for some news. we have a quick update on the u.s. navy ship that collided with a merchant vessel with japan. you can see the first images of the uss fitzgerald. you can see the damage they are. they ship suffered damage to the starboard side above and below the waterline when it crashed into a merchant ship. the pentagon is not reporting a

unspecified number of injuries among the crew. one sailor is being readied for medevac by a helicopter, the ship remains under its own power, but propulsion is limited. it's going to have to be towed back to port. when we come back, the panel's winners and losers of the week. for their own frequent heartburn. and all day, all night protection. when it comes to heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. so, your new prescription does have oh, like what?ects. ♪ you're gonna have dizziness, nausea, and sweaty eyelids. ♪ ♪ and in certain cases chronic flatulence. ♪

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♪ >> chris: time now for the winners and losers of the week, start us off. >> most of mine are basketball personality, my loser is he is called an awesome guy and a great leader, meanwhile, north korea released a hostage who suffered a brain damage in captivity. particularly poor timing there on dennis rodman. >> chris: he's more than a basketball thing, he's a cultural figure. >> who showed a very poor judgment. my winner is lebron james who

released a video of himself this week with a newly shaved head. ending years of airline speculation among sports fans, he has shaved his head and embraced his baldness. i was just going to say, welcome to the club, you'll be okay. >> chris: is that why it's done? [laughter] >> i saw the resemblance between you and lebron for years. it's the hairline. >> my winner is ralph northam, who won the bridge in your virr primary, he built the mike beat his opponent, and the most important reason i picked him was democrats had a great turnout. republicans also had a good turn out to put the turnout was mostly democratic part of the losers we talked about, trumps legal team. if every time he sends out a

twitter, it makes their job that much harder. >> my winner is jeff baize was the founder of amazon which today we learned is going to buy whole foods which he can do out of his personal checking account if he wanted to. basically now he controls everything we buy on the internet, he's moving to control what we buy in brick-and-mortar stores, he controls what we read in the newspaper, he's our new master. the loser is barack obama who saw yet another one of his policies overturned by his successor today. >> chris: you live by the executive action, you die by the executive action. that's special report for tonight, i'm chris wallace in washington. join me this weekend for fox news sunday, i'll speak with republican congressman rodney davis, one of the survivors of this week's shooting as well as democratic senator a mickle bashar of minnesota, will also talk with jay second a member s

legal team. the story with martha maccallum is up next, have a good weekend. >> martha: good evening everybody we have breaking news just coming into fox news this evening, disturbing new details about the gunman in wednesday's shooting of house majority whip steve scalise, fox confirms that he had a list of republican lawmakers written down on a piece of notebook paper folded up in his pocket at the time of his attack. first up is fox news editor chris stirewalt, welcome to both of you. obviously this week has been stunning in terms of the political violee