for a different skill. breaking news changes everything here on fox news. the dow was up 400 or so points an hour ago. i have no idea what happened. maybe the neil cavuto team will. >> i suspect enoughs about what is going on halfway around the globe and what we could get involved in could have something to do with the knee jerk reaction on wall street. we're off our highs. i want to go to nikki haley here. our ambassador is outlining our position on the use of chemical weapons which seems all but undeniable at this point. >> the day we prayed would never come has come again. check call weapons have been used on syrian men, women and children. once again, the security council is meeting in response. this time i'm not going to hold up pictures of victims.

i could. there are many. they are gruesome. worse are the videos in our mind that nobody should ever have to see. i could hold up pictures of babies lying dead next to their mothers. brothers and sisters. ed ed to -- toddlers and infants together. their skin is blue that is tragically familiar from chemical weapons scenes. their eyes are open and lifeless. white foam bubbles from their mouths and noses. pictures of dead syrians that are not soldiers, people that are not armed. people who are the very definition of innocent and nonthreatening. women and children, hiding in basements from a renewed assault by bashar al-assad.

families that were hiding underground to escape his conventional bombs and artillery. but the basements that syrian families thought would shelter them from conventional bombs were the worst place to be when chemical weapons fell from the sky. and saturday evening the basements of douhma became their tombs. dozens are dead that we know of and hundreds are wounded. i could hold up pictures of survivors. children with burning eyes. choking for breath. i could hold up pictures of first responders. washing the chemicals off of the victims. putting separate -- respirators on the children.

families lying motionless with babies still in the arms of their mothers and fathers. i could show you pictures of a hospital attacked by the chemical weapons. i could show you pictures of hospitals struck by barrel bombs following the chemical attacks. ambulances and rescue vehicles have been repeatedly attacked maximizing the number of dead civilians. civil defense centers have been attacked in order to imperilize the response. who does this? only a monster does this. only a monster targets civilians and ensures that there's no ambulances to transfer the wounded. no hospitals to save their lives. no doctors or medicine to ease their pain. i can hold up pictures of all of this killing and suffering for the council to see. but what would be the point?

the monster that was responsible for these attacks has no conscious. not even to be shocked by pictures of dead children. the russian regime whose hands are all covered in the blood of syrian children cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. we've tried that before. we must not overlook russian and iran's roles in the murderous destruction. russia and iran have military advisers at assad's air field and operations centers. russian officials are on the ground helping direct the regimes starve and surrender campaign. and iranian allied forces do much of the dirty work. when the syrian military pommels civilians, they rely on the military hardware given by russia. russia could stop this senseless

slaughter if it wanted but ney stand with the assad regime and supports without any hesitation. what is the point of trying to shame such people? after all, no civilized government would have anything to do with assad's murderous regime. pictures of dead children mean little to governments like russia who expend their own resources to prop up assad. this council, which saw these pictures last year, has failed to act. because russia has stood in its way every single time. for a year we've allowed russia to hold the lives of innocent syrians, hostage to its alliance with the assad regime. this allowed russia to also weaken the credibility of the united nations. we're quick to condemn chemical weapons and the security council. but then russia prevents any action vetoing five resolutions on this issue alone.

11 vetoes altogether to save assad. and our lives go on as usual. the council created the joint investigative mechanism. it found the syrian regime responsible for the attack a year ago. because russia supported assad and his actions, russia killed the mechanism. we condemned it. and our lives went on as usual. we pushed for a cease fire. the council unanimously agreed. but it was immediately ignored by russia and assad. we condemned it. our lives went on as usual. now here we are. confronted with the consequences of giving russia a pass in the name of unity. a unity that russia has shown many times before they don't want. here we are in a world where

chemical weapon use is becoming normalized, from and indonesian airport to a english village, to the homes and hospitals of syria. since the assad regime used chemical weapons a year ago, they have been reportedly used dozens of times. and this council does nothing. what we're dealing with today is not about a spat between the united states and russia. this is about the inhumane use of chemical agents on innocent civilians. each and every one of the nations in this council are on record opposing the use of chemical weapons. that can be no rationalizations for our failure to act. we have already introduced and circulated to the council a resolution demanding unrestricted humanitarian access to the people of douhma. assad is doing all he can't to

assure destruction. we also call on this council to immediately re-establish a truly professional and impartial mechanism for chemical weapons attacks in syria, including attacks this weekend. we hope our colleagues on this council will join us as they have before. this is the very minimum that we can do in response to the attack we just witnessed. russian's obstructionism will not continue to hold us hostage when we're confronted with an attack like this one. the united states is continuing to see the monster that dropped chemical weapons on the syrian people, held to account. you have heard what the president of the united states has said about this. meetings are ongoing and important decisions are being weighed even as we speak. we're on the edge of a dangerous precipice.

the great evil of chemical weapons use that once unified if world in opposition is on the verge of becoming the new normal. the international community must not let this happen. we're beyond showing pictures of dead babies. we're beyond appeals to conscious. we've reached the moment when the world must see justice done. history will record this as the moment when the security council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of syria. either way, the united states will respond. thank you. >> neil: you've been listening to nikki haley outlining the united states discuss the apparent chemical weapons attack in syria. the fourth in as many years that we've seen in that area. the last time we responded to such an attack was a year ago.

today the upset about this. we're on top of it. this is neil cavuto. we're getting some news that is a little startling here. the fbi earlier today raided the office of the president's long-time personal lawyer, michael cohen. seized records "the new york times" reported related to several topics including payments made to stormy daniels. we don't know much more than that. this developed moments ago that we got wind of it and "the new york times" reporting. these twin developments we're keeping on top of. kevin corke knows more first of all on this fbi news. kevin? >> yeah, neil. just to give people the backdrop for why this might happen. do keep this in mind. if this was a referral from the special counsel's office as has been alleged, what that could

mean is, they are continuing to look at where the resources came from to pay stormy daniels, the adult film performer. the idea behind it meaning this. was that campaign money? if it was, it would have violated federal campaign election law. so they're going to take a look at that. they're going to look at tax records. we'll keep an eye on that as we make some calls this afternoon. no words obviously to describe the nature of that vicious attack on the syrian people. dozens were victimized over there. just breaks your heart to even take a look at the pictures. we'll share it with you. a chlorine gas attack perpetrated by the assad regime in damascus. >> i'd like to begin by condemning the heinous attack on innocent syrians with banned

chemical weapons. it was an atrocious attack. it was horrible. you don't see things like that as bad as the news is around the world, you don't see those im e imag images. we're studying that situation closely. >> the president, neil, as you can imagine, has been on twitter talking about this. i want to share a contrast. first of all, what he said most recently about what happened. blaming the obama administration as we take you to social media. the president saying if president obama had crossed his stated red line in the sand, the syrian disaster would have ended long ago. animal assad would have been history. very interesting though. when you compare this from 2018 to what i can tell you about 2013. i got this from a colleague, john roberts, earlier today. a different tone for the president. he said back then the only reason president obama wants to attack syria is to save face.

don't attack syria. fix u.s.a. interesting indeed. i should tell you this. a great deal of criticism from some corners including john mccain saying it's because the president announced that he might be pulling out of syria that emboldened the regime. the white house pushing back as you can imagine. i'll keep on this story about this cohen raid. i'll make some more calls and give you more if i get it. >> neil: one last foot note on the cohen raid if it's panning out to the timing. the markets surrendered a couple hundred points and sort of evaporated in the final minutes of trading. a lot of this pegged to the discovery of this "new york times" report that cohen's office had been raided and documents were taken. that took a lot of the wind out of the sails of buyers. we'll continue to follow that. also following the prospect of what the administration does now in light of this chemical weapons attack.

we have luster munson here and former green beret, ben collins. lester, to you first. the administration promises that it will decide on what to do by the end of the day. the president will be meeting with military advisers. what are his options right now? >> he's most likely looking at something similar to what he did a year ago, a missile strike on syrian military assets. there's probably some other things that he will be looking at. we should all reflect before this decision is made, particularly those in the administration and make sure that we're doing fits into a strategy in syria, that we're not just reacting to events on the ground. this policy points to an end state that would be more sustainable than what we are right now. it would be a shame to have this and not impact the situation. >> we got confirmation that tis

raillies gave the united states a heads-up yesterday about their attack in response to some of these developments. that does make the situation different than a year ago. does it not? >> it does. we looked today at how much traction that iran has gotten in syria in terms of the number of bases and malitia. so from a year ago today, i ran presents a threat to itself, especially if you look at the events that occurred just about two months ago in terms of the drone and the fighter jet. what i think is important and i think that ambassador nikki haley nailed it on the head is we have to be careful not to conflaggerate the two events. number 1, you have a leader using chemical weapons on his own people. doesn't matter what it is.

according to the prohibition of chemical weapons, any use of a chemical used to attack is against the law. there's 192 countries that signed on to that. so we should separate that yes, we have troops in syria and i agree with lester. we need to have a clear an concise policy. but this event of utilizing chemical weapons on your own people and innocent civilians, that needs to be an international outcry and we tonight stand for that regardless of the situation that we have. >> looking an n't -- at this gog forward, the revelations that the president's personal lawyer had his offices raided by the fbi, searching for some portion, payments, documents, whatever, it does out the president at a time wondering what he will do as commander and chief and this other issue drags and gnaws at him, that too is a different from a year ago when the

president responded to the first chemical attack. does it change the complexion? >> i'm reflecting on what nikki haley said at the security council, which is clear ride and truth toeing and inspiring. she's our nation's top diplomat. we don't have fully authorized secretary of state. she's the top diplomat. she set the bar high here. the president has a chance to rise to the occasion. the american people will recognize that leadership. they're willing to ignore these other kind of nagging problems that he has when he steps up and addresses a real crisis and syria is a real crisis. he has an opportunity to demonstrate real leadership here. >> ben, you have a real foreign policy potential crises here. you know, an act of inhumanity

to talk mildly. and real political problems at the same time. does it make a difference to you? >> you mean the political side to how he makes this decision? >> neil: more how he responds to ongoing investigations to his lawyer's offices getting raided and the russia thing keeps coming back again and again. >> this president has shown in these matters of crisis that he turns to his advisers. let's remember that ambassador john bolton is in his first day as security adviser. he has an understanding of what the u.s. can to what the u.n. is capable of doing in response. at the end of the day, it was the u.n. resolution 2118 five years ago that established they were going to remove all the chemical weapons out of syria. we can put this at the door step

of russia. they're the ones that were supposed to take this -- take these weapons out. again, it really comes down, neil, to the investigation to determine whether or not sarin gas or chlorine gas or a combination of both. it doesn't matter in the end. if it was sarin gas and that's a tremendous lever or a tremendous piece that this president can use to respond. i do agree in what military action we take, we have to be prepared for the effects and how close we can push before putin responds himself. >> neil: we're following a couple developments at the same time here. one of them concerns something that's been going on for a while. this will up the ante in the investigation of potential ties to the administration and russia and all of that. it veered into an area where the fbi is reporting from "the new york times" now raided the office of the president's long-time personal lawyer, michael cohen. in the process seizing records

related to several topics. "the new york times" says including payments to a former porn film actress, stormy daniels. prosecutors in manhattan said this is again coming from "the new york times," obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel's office of robert mueller. they called to search a completely inappropriate unnecessa unnecessary. this is coming from mr. cohen i've own lawyer. so this was not necessary and a breach. they said the search did not appear to be directly related to mr. mueller's investigation even though he was apparently briefed on it but likely resulted from information that he uncovered and gave to prosecutors in new york. again, quoted from stephen ryan, his liar. the u.s. attorney's office from the certain district of new york execute add series of search warrants and seized privileged communications between michael cohen and his clients.

i've been advised by federal prosecutors that the new york action is in part a referral by the office of the special counsel, robert mueller. now, this might seem like a stretch when you're talking about how wall street trading was going, people were wondering how do we give up a better than 400 point rally, what had been in the final minutes about a 200-point rally. some people are citing this. charlie gasparino has been looking into that. we hope to have him shortly. meantime, i want to go to charles payne who has been investigating this. all you need is more uncertainty about where this investigation is going, even though this might not have anything to do with that. here bob mueller, his name invoked and you don't have to take a leap to see wall street's concern. >> absolutely. you want to talk about cell signals. mueller, fbi raid. those are three words right there that will get anyone heading for the doors, neil. we did have a report by the cbo that showed the deficit will

come in higher than then thought. i really believe this probably more than likely had to do with this report, a lot of question marks, a lot of traders saying let me sell now and ask questions later. so we saw almost 400 points erased from what was a magnificent rally that held up throughout most of the situation. >> shepard: and i want to go back -- one of the things that is interesting about the lawyer, cohen, he played an important role in this. he paid, we're told, stormy daniels $130,000. now, the understanding was and this is the president to associate himself from that hand didn't know anything about it when he came back on the plane from west virginia, that seemed to me that the fbi wanted to get more information, particularly on this. if that is true, charles, this takes the whole saga apart from what they were looking at on collusion and what have you. still involves mueller to areas that have gone far afield.

>> yeah, the tentacles coming from this have gone anywhere they can go. a lot of people believe that mueller just has gone so far without anything concrete that they're just searching for anything that can make the headlines. who knows. maybe ultimately try to wrap it up with a bang even if it's not the original investigation, which would not be unusual. to your point, delving into areas like this that seem to be a million miles away for what the marching orders were. that's with respect to some form of collusion with russia. >> charles, thank you. a lot of these breaking news developments, the significance of them with tom dupree. tom what do you make of this? very unusual for the fbi to raid anyone's offices let alone the president's long-time personal lawyer. what is going on here? >> well, that is for sure, neil, this is highly unusual to say the least. mueller and his team and the

course of their russia information that sparked concern that what led to them getting and executing a search warrant on cohen. this significantly raises the ante. it's a step closer to the president. i suspect that many of the communications of mr. cohen's that were seized today reflect his communications with his client, the president. >> neil: this would also -- if they're pursuing this and payments made to her, it's run afield, far afield from what was the original intent. hasn't it? >> i would agree with that. i would also say that that is consistent with the way that these independent counsels have operated throughout our history. when you get people a mandate to conduct pretty broad-ranging investigations and part of that mandate is to investigate anything that they come across in the course of what they're supposed to be investigating. it's a one-way ratchet that leads to the expansion of these

investigations. it's unusual. >> neil: so what are they trying to ascertain? if there was a connection beyond the later our campaign officials or trump operatives? what do you think? >> it could be a number of things. could be a connection going back to the campaign. they could have seen evidence of something that might have violated election laws or something totally different that they ran across. whatever it was, it was sufficiently serious for mueller to tell prosecutors in new york they need a search warrant. the justice department is sensitive to raiding the offices of lawyers. i can't imagine they would do this for just a blanket fishing expedition. i expect mueller found something and he wants to pursue it.

>> would this come at mueller's behest? >> i would think so. i cannot imagine that something like this could have originated out of mueller's investigation without him not knowing about it or him not authorizing it. it's a safe conclusion to draw based on what we now at this time. >> neil: thanks, tom. word that the fbi raided the personal law offices of the president's personal lawyer. looks like a tip from robert mueller. we can't confirm that. john roberts at the white house with reaction there. john? >> we've been trying to get in touch with michael cohen and he's not picking up his phone or answering texts. his attorney is in a meeting right now and is not available. what we have to go on is the reporting from "the new york times" that seem so suggest that

this is not related to the mueller russia investigation but information that was developed in the course of the investigation, which was referred to the prosecutor's office in new york and resulted to the fbi going to michael cohen's office to seize documents and other materials. it's impossible at this point to know what this might be related to. however, according to "the new york times," they did take records that were related to the payment of $130,000 to stephanie clifford, a.k.a. stormy daniels in order to seal her approval of that confidentiality agreement that she has been trying to get out of. we are not hearing from anybody directly with the exception of her attorney who provided fox news with a statement saying "as i predicted last week, mr. cohen has been placed in the cross hairs by mr. trump, he's been set up to take the fall.

a lot of misplaced faith has been placed on his shoulder and i don't believe he has the metal to withstand it. this could end very badly for mr. trump and others." and daniels attorney has a tiger by the tail here trying to get stormy daniels out of this confidentiality agreement so she can more broadly talk about her side of the story regarding their 2006 engagement. he's run up against a stone wall in the courts for the most part in trying to get her out of that agreement. so again, we understand according to "the new york times" reporting that some of the records related to the payment of $130,000 to stormy daniels were among the materials that the fbi took. we don't know beyond that what they might have been looking for. cohen was involved early on in the trump campaign, ran into some difficulty with president trump after he gave an interview

that was seem to be controversial and really didn't have that much to do with the actual campaign beyond that. so i don't know if he is caught up in this idea investigating russia collusion or if this is something incidental that arose out of the documents that special prosecutor mueller was looking at and then was referred to the prosecutor in new york. but we do know that michael cohen has turned over plenty of documents to the special counsel's office. >> neil: you might have mentioned -- when the president was on the plane coming back from west virginia last week, he was asked about these payments to his lawyer on behalf of stormy daniels. he answered no if he knew anything about them. what is his official position on these payments or what he knew? did he know anything? >> that he was asked for the very first time point black in person did you know about this $130,000 payment to stormy

daniels. he said no. he was then asked to follow up question, why would michael cohen pay her $130,000? the president's response is you'll have to ask that question of michael cohen. i've talked to cohen about this. he said he paid her $130,000 to seal this confidentiality agreement. president trump did not need to know what he was doing. this is the point that stormy daniels attorney has been making that president trump didn't know about the agreement according to the way the way it's signed. but it says at the top that this agreement is between this company that michael cohen set up and/or david dennison, the pseudonym being used for president trump. it's valid by force of law because it's the either or or the and/or in that contract that says that she could have made

the deal directly with david dennison or could have done it with this company that michael cohen put together to facilitate the payment. >> neil: thanks, john. all we know again following up with john roberts, there was enough interest in this payment and other related records around it that the fbi raided michael cohen's offices, seizing records related to this and other payments. we're told other payments according to "the new york times." we'll explore that with the judge, andrew napolitano, in a second. first, senator john ken debt, louisiana center. what he makes of this. senator, thanks for your patience. what do you think? >> it's all speculation. we look at the facts. "the new york times" reported that the fbi raided mr. cohen's office. presumably, it's about the $130,000 payment to mrs. daniels. since we're just speculating and nobody knows, one point of view has said that someone alleged

the payment by mr. cohen to mrs. daniels was somehow a violation of the election laws. but if we're going to be fair, it's plausible that somebody might have alleged that perhaps somebody was trying to extort the president through his lawyer. i mean, both of those are eek qualifiedly plusable. >> neil: why would the fbi seize records to that degree to ferret out a distortion? >> i don't know. we don't have the facts. i will say this. i will be glad when mr. mueller completes his investigation. i want him to be thorough and i want him to take his time. but i do hope he completes it soon and reports to the american people. i trust the american people to figure this out. all we know right now is there's been a raid. it could be about the $130,000 payment. it may be that the payer

violated the law but it may be someone, i'm not alleging this, someone was trying to extort somebody. >> neil: that we didn't know to your point. i'm wondering, senator, if this hints of an investigation that goes far afield from its original intent? it wouldn't be the first investigation to do that. i think the ken starr investigation started out with white watered and ended with an internal in a blue dress. but do you have a feeling this is spreading wider, further than you thought? >> it looks like it's spreading wider. having said that, if the special counsel discovers something that he believes is improper, he has a legal and moral obligation to pursue it. having said that though, we're well over a year into this and i think the american people are

anxious to have it wrapped up. i know i am. have the facts reported. let the chips fall where they may. if somebody did something wrong, they should be held accountable. i don't think it's helpful for the country for this to go on forever. >> neil: and we were told last week at this time, close to this time, the president was, you know, the subject in this investigation but not necessarily a criminal one. do you think that is pre all of this and now things have changed and gotten more heated as originally thought to be the case? >> we just don't know. one of the frustrating things about this exercise is the fact that everybody is leaking including apparently -- well on both sides they're leaking. we're supposed to draw conclusions based on the leaks. the truth of the matter is that nobody except mr. mueller and those close to him know.

everything else is pure speculation. makes for, i guess, interesting water cooler talk. i try not to get lubed up one way or the other because we don't know. >> neil: we do not. i appreciate your patience with this breaking news. if i can get you back on the zuckerberg team. >> you bet. >> neil: good seeing you. we did get more details from "the new york times" what was seized, taken and other interests of the authorities when they seize the records. they include among other items communications between the president and mr. cohen. again, the lawyer whose offices were raided, which would require a specialty of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances, which is a good point to bring in my friend and one of the smartest lawyers i know, just andrew andrew napolitano.

>> and what stuart varney said, isn't there a attorney client protection? my quick response was, not if there's a serious allegation of unlawful activity by the lawyer with the client. remember, this was a -- >> neil: the lawyer, cohen and his client. >> the president of the united states. a little background. mr. cohen's office is on the 26th floor of trump tower in the midst of the trump organization, this is not a traditional discrete lawyer's office. he works for donald trump the person and the trump organization and its various entities. that as far as i understand from sources is all he works for. but we know of the stormy daniels allegations which is where could this money have come from? would it be lawful if it did come from donald trump? if it came from donald trump, why did the president not acknowledge it?

we know -- >> neil: or deny that he knew nothing about it. >> correct. there must be some evidence presented to a federal judge here in new york city sufficient to persuade that judge to sign a search warrant to permit the fbi in broad daylight to raid an attorney's office, particularly when that attorney has one client and happens to be the president of the united states. that evidence would have to be such as to persuade a judge that more likely than not is evidence of crimes by mr. cohen or mr. cohen and the president. >> neil: i'm going to ask a stupid question. >> they're never stupid. >> so when manafort's home was raided, don't you think there's a heightened awareness, my office, my home could be raided? so would that a smart lawyer like cohen could have

raided-proof his offices? >> he could have. we don't know what the fbi obtained. when a search warrant is given the fbi, the fbi is supposed to file a return. the return lists everything they seized. the return is secret. it goes to the judge that signed the search warrant. it will only be made public if ever, if there is a prosecution as a result of any information obtained from the search warrant. they're required to give mr. cohen a return so that he knows what they took from him. do they give him time to copy what they took? absolutely not. do they take the time to read what they're looking to make sure -- >> would he have been there when the raid took place? >> probably. >> do they take time to read what they're looking at to make sure it's just about stormy daniels? we don't know. i have to add this. our colleague, charlie gasparino has recorded from his sources

some of whom are people that have testified before the grand jury that they've been asked about michael cohen and his relationship to the russians. so there may very well be other information that the government is looking for that -- >> apart from the payments to stormy daniels. >> correct. >> neil: the other part concerns did 130,000 to stormy daniels. now would it be unusual for a lawyer to make a payment to close a deal or whatever the deal was and the client in this case, donald trump, not knowing anything about it because then where would the lawyer get that money from? >> it would not be unusual, it would be unethical and unenforceable. the lawyer is not permitted to pay out of his own pockets the debts of his clients. >> neil: then why would he do it? >> you'd have to ask him. more likely than out in that this was a route by which the president was paying for the silence.

he wasn't the president at the time. this occurred during the campaign. if stormy daniels had made her allegations in october right about the time the billy bush tape came out -- >> it was about a month before the election. let's step back. is where is this investigation going? we talked about it. such investigations can go far afield? where is this go something. >> seems to be no limit. one of the questions that justice scalia dissented about the special counsel. there's no limit. they're alien understand the constitution and they go where they want to go. who would have imagined that rod rosenstein talked about election manipulations that this would go to raiding a lawyer's office over stormy daniels? you're talking about the most confidential and protected relationship there is, lawyer

and client. the federal government is just invaded that with the express authority and approval of a federal judge who they only permit that invasion when she or he, the federal judge, has been satisfied it's more likely than not that in those materials are evidence of crimes. >> neil: so what changed since last week? the was the subject of an investigation but not a criminal one. >> i don't know the answer to that. i don't know that you can go from subject to target like that. >> neil: would this have changed that math? >> i don't know the answer to that i can suggest to you that would be a crime if the campaign accepted a gift of $130,000. it would be a crime in the campaign -- >> neil: if the funds came from the campaign, all bets are off. >> now would president trump have none about it?

i don't know. would he have signed the forms to the federal election committee? probably not. would michael cohen have signed those forms? the fbi probably has the answer. >> neil: thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> neil: we mentioned how the market pooped out on this. we got connected, the dots, hundreds of points melted away in response to this and how this changed the complexion of this investigation of the president, the russian ties and all. charlie gasparino has been working the phone and getting a sense of what they're hearing. charlie? >> markets trade off of headlines and this is not a good headline for the markets and particularly with mueller stuff. negative mueller stuff negative to the. the markets trade off. the market losing gains on the deficit number. the number that came out. and then this popped and it went straight down. almost ended at a loss.

i'll say this, neil, this is where you have to be really careful. we don't know -- michael cohen says he's innocent of doing anything wrong. that's his long-time -- that's been his statement long time. we only know what the fbi and mueller's team have been asking witnesses. i've interviewed some of them. as it relates to michael cohen. they're asking about the payments to various women to get them not talk about their alleged affair with the president. that is something that the fbi is looking at. why would mueller and the fbi care about that? to me, i wouldn't care about it if i was an investigator. somehow that has become part of the investigation. there's an issue of whether it's proper that someone associated with a campaign paid someone off and whether that is a in-kind contribution. the other thing that muler is looking at, this creation of a trump hotel in 2015 right before the election. right before he announced.

there was some talk about this. michael cohen was leading that effort. dealing with a guy named felix sader, a private businessman, born in russia. he was dealing with this guy to set up this trump hotel in moscow. the hotel never happened. the fbi has been asking about it, about those connections, who do witnesses now and who michael cohen dealt with possibly in moscow. what russians he dealt with. those are the type of questions that they're looking at i you know, listen, there's surmise here. do they really care about stormy daniels or are they using that as a way to squeeze michael cohen to give him more on direct ties with russia? we should point out, it may turn out to be nothing. the one thing i find interesting about the fbi raiding the office, it's a headline but they've been asking about michael cohen for a long time. i know michael cohen well. he's a decent guy as far as i

know. but you know, this is not new in the sense. >> neil: thank you, this would be the second prominent trump official whose offices were raided. paul manafort first. now this. more after this. n be exciting. empowering. downright exhilarating. see for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand, the last four years overall. switch into a new chevy now. current competitive owners can get five thousand dollars below msrp on this 2018 equinox when you finance with gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications.

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>> neil: all right. who knew that stormy daniels could be the middle of what could be, if this just keeps veering out of control, a constitutional crisis? reports first in "the new york times" and elsewhere that the fbi seized records related to stormy daniels and payments made to her at the offices of trump attorney michael cohen. of course, his personal attorney. cohen's lawyers are on the line right now saying this was most unjustified and most unnecessary and a series of search warrants where they said -- this is coming from cohen's lawyer -- that they were inappropriate and unnecessary involving nonprivileged documents and

depositions under east. and frank luntz is chewing on this. what do you make hoff it? >> i don't think it's a constitutional crisis. probably 90% of trump voters don't believe there's anything here. they're waiting for this investigations to result in something and they haven't. 90% of hillary clinton voters believe that trump is guilty and they think this is more against him. this country is so polarized and so angry at each other that right now trump voters will believe nothing in the attacks against the president and clinton voters will believe in everything that -- >> neil: and you and i know, people make a huge production -- i'm not smart enough to know what is the case or not the case. i know this much. if this is the case where they're trying to raid a lawyer's office to search out payments that were made back in the fall of 2016 to a porn star, it has veered off course.

it would appear. >> yes. but i remind you, in the end, all the investigations of whitewater, that's all they gave us is monica lewinsky. it happens. the public is still more concerned about the economy, job creation and the threat from china. they're not following this. you'll get very high cable news ratings because of this fbi action. but in terms of public priority, the investigations have not cut through the clutter. in the end, people's minds have already been made up and they're more concerned about the stock market, about trade, about jobs and employment. >> neil: i'm glad you mentioned the stock market. any time that doesn't look good for the president -- this is a crowd that follows green, not red or blue, they get nervous. we got wind of this report. the markets did as well. surrendered a couple hundred points. we were up.

barely changed by day's end. so this still weighs on traders concerned about this. what do you think of that? >> neil, the market is going up 500 points, going down -- >> neil: i know that. but the markets are focused on -- they like this president. the markets like this president. they like what they have got from this president. when something like this happens, they get nervous. >> if it means a paralyzed government, then i agree with you. the public will not rerespond well and neither will investors. but the story of the day -- neil, think about it. how many times on your broadcast have you had breaking news that is similar to this? more than any other time in modern history. at some pint people because immune to it. it's the latest story and things will correct itself tomorrow. >> neil: all right. thank you. we shall see. hard to tell. let's go to jonah goldberg and sara westwood. what do you think? this severing into crazy town here but what do you think of

it? >> this is extremely inconvenient timing for the white house. on the one hand, not only was the stormy daniels story finally starting to fade into the background for trump, he addressed it head on, the "60 minutes" interview took the intrigue out but the white house was finally starting to get a handle on the russia collusion narrative. trump was starting to overcome that perception that he's too soft on putin through a lot of these tougher measures that the administration has taken against he russia. so finally that subject had less venom for the white how. now you'll see more discussion about stormy daniels and the discussion will be front and center again. >> neil: we have a statement from stephen ryan, michael cohen's lawyer. aghast at the raid saying the decision by the attorney's office in new york to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

these government tactics are also wrong because mr. cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities including providing thousands of documents to congress and sitting for depositions under oath. this is creating a rule fury here. >> this is a big deal. if michael cohen's lawyer is correct in his characterization of this, this is a big problem for mueller and also the new york d.a.'s office which had to make this decision on their own as well and had to convince a judge to do this. going and searching a lawyer's office is a big deal. the fbi has guidelines against it and only should do this in extreme circumstances. so if what they found for that -- convinced the judge for probable cause ends up being a big fizzle, this will be a big political hit on mueller and the fib and will be a big deal. on the other hand if what they

found is a big enough deal that they convinced the prosecutors in new york who had to sign off on this idea, too, these are career prosecutors, this is not part of the mueller investigation, it was referred by the mueller investigation, then this could be a really big deal. i don't know if it has to do with russia. part of the problem is, you know, michael cohen is essentially like the tom hagan character from the god father. he's a lawyer with a special clientele. he has a special practice. he has one client and he himself calls himself president trump's fixer, which could have taken him into all sorts of interesting terrain that set off warning bells for mueller, this raises the stakes for whichever size you're on in all of this. i'm on the sidelines waiting. raises the stakes remen dousely. >> neil: i'm no lawyer but i watched a lot of shows to think i qualify as one. when i hear investigators raiding offices or raided the home of paul manafort, they do

have a number of storm arm tactics to get what they want when they want it. that alone when people hear that and read about it the next day say oh, they must have something. what do you think? >> right. that's one of many reasons why this will be problematic for the white house. another is that of all the people that have been implicated in the mueller investigation have not been all that close to trump. the white house has been able to play off paul manafort with a part of the campaign for a few months and didn't have a pre-existing relationship with president trump.rick gates was over lower ranking. michael cohen has been close to president trump for years and been intimately involved in his dealings a long time. they can't -- >> neil: but did they pay attention to the time? this happened today. maybe they're trying to be separate from this. we got the word of chemical weapons in syria. maybe they don't pay attention to the outside developments. it's a heck of the time with the president looking at the

possibility of the response to that or this. doesn't matter? >> it matters. we know when we play the video back the last year or so, often when there were developments in the mueller investigation, donald trump took to twitter or did something else that was a big deal that people couldn't figure out why is he doing this. i think it's fair to say this could be a big distraction for the president, could be a big distraction for the white house. whether it's good or whatever, it comes at a fraught time given what is going on in syria and elsewhere. >> neil: this investigation is going on awhile, sarah. >> right. it's gone on for a really long time, this is really not great timing for the white house. like you mentioned, syria is front and center for them. they're considering whether to retaliate and a big trip coming up as well to south america. >> neil: not good no matter how you look at it. like the president or not. so many things going on. the president weighs tonight

we're told when he meets with military leads about what to do with syria. his lawyers wondering about what to do with my relations with you and my correspondence with you. in two wards, a mess. "the five" is now. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. which is so smart on your guy's part. like fact that they'll just... forgive you... four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it.

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♪ >> kennedy: i am dana perino with kimberly guilfoyle kimberly guilfoyle, juan williams, jesse watters and greg gutfeld. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." president trump has a big decision to make. will the u.s. retaliate against syria. bashar al-assad, accused of using poison gas again on his own people. >> it was an atrocious attack. it was horrible. you don't see things like that as bad as the news is. you don't see those images. we are studying that situation extr