Dangerous and she was going to be keeping him in jail as he awaits trial, anderson. Have there been any updates from the fbi . One of the things theyre most concerned about talking to sources is for lawmakers, as they start to leave d. C. , as they start going home, weekends, things like that, theres a lot of concern over their safety. So theyre trying to work with them to see how Law Enforcement can step up security for some of these lawmakers. Shimon prokupecz, thank you. News continues lets hand it over to chris for primetime. Chris . I am chris cuomo, welcome to prime time. Now youre going to see something here that you wont see anywhere else, now youve heard about what happened with reddit and gamestop . Okay. We have people on both sides of this story. Okay. We have the man who created the reddit forum that led to the Gamestop Saga and the skree of the app Robinhood Which created a new firestorm today. How . Ill tell you. It is going to be something that united aoc and senator ted cruz against that organization and him. Amazing, they finally agree on something, what can it be . Well take you inside why. Heres our main story. The enemy is within. Nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, saying democrats are threatened by a cult of chaos rising within the ranks of the gop, listen. We will probably need a supplemental for more security for members. When the enemy is within the house of representatives. It is a party at war with itself. And the leaders now seem to have no control. The proof, you have the main republican in the house, kevin mccarthy. He told his caucus to get along. The next day, upstart Congressman Matt Gates went to the home state of liz cheney, number three in the caucus, and attacked her personally. If you want to prove that you have the power, defeat liz cheney in this upcoming election, and wyoming will bring washington to its knees. Maybe we ought to fight the neocons at home so we dont have to fight them in washington, d. C. But thats the problem, isnt it . Because the neocons are at home in washington, d. C. I had a chance to communicate with President Trump yesterday. [ cheers and applause ] he sends his love, he loves you all so much, and President Trump is going to keep fighting for this country with every breath that he has. Now i wanted you to hear that last part. Two reasons there. One, hes going after his own. Two, you heard why. Hold that thought. Remember, its not just gaetz. This qanon kook elected to the house in georgia, from georgia. Members were quick to call her an aberration. Mccarthy said he would have a private meeting with her to talk about these extreme qanon views, that shed change. He just put her on a key committee. Remember who this person is. Marjorie taylor greene. This is her chasing down a Parkland School shooting survivor. She believes parkland was a false flag event, fyi, meaning it wasnt what we thought it was. Newtown also, where all those kids were killed. She goes after this kid telling him she has a gun with her. Then when a reporter tries to ask her a question, hes threatened with arrest. Shes now scrubbing her social media. But cnn found a post where she once supported shooting nancy pelosi. So you have your answer. The war in the gop is over. And we know what won. Worse won. Because gaetz as you heard, he doesnt take orders from the leadership, he takes orders from the same man who said that qanon congresswoman was a future leader in the gop. You know who that is . This guy. And heres more proof that its over. Kevin mccarthy flew down to Kiss The Ring of the man he criticized for stoking the insurrection on january 6th. Why do you think . Because they are doubling down on the division. Its over. Thats what its going to be about. And you have to prepare yourself for that, and the democrats have to figure out what to do with it, biden too. Because its the same thing in the senate. Mcconnell pulled that bait and switch, right . He proved his undying loyalty to the king, right . He voted to dismiss the trial after begging for time to give the trial its due. After saying trump provoke the mob and fed them lies. Why would he make that reversal . Now you know why. Its over. Theyre not about character. Theyre not about law and order. They are about following the law of what trump orders. They wont even call out any of the extreme right groups by name. Some members like miss greene and others want to bring guns on the floor of congress, dont want to submit themselves to metal detectors, and threaten violence on other members of congress, according to pelosi. Heres what we know for sure. The acting Capitol Police chief has just called for permanent fencing around the capitol postinsurrection. Can you believe this . Are the people safe inside . Are they safe from one another . What does that mean for us . We finally have a President Taking Aim at the pandemic and related problems, but what can get done on the pandemic in the midst of pandemonium . Lets bring if the better minds. David gregory and Governor John Kasich join me to you. Gov . Not an easy assessment to hear of your party, but what do i have wrong . I mean, all of the dots seem to connect into this kind of deal of disruption. Id say the only thing you may have wrong, theres a remnant of normal people in the Republican Party who arent buying into this. Chris, the situation is that the Republican Leadership has really gone along in in fostering these lies, these conspiracies. You know, the election was stolen, you know even that in and of itself is enough to say. So what has to happen in order to wake people up is the republicans in a clear voice have to say, we lost the election. You know, plain and simple. And then there are people in the party right now and frankly, trump was a false prophet, chris, he was a false prophet. When he told people, the people who go paycheck to paycheck, whose kids are not doing well, whose jobs are at risk, hes telling them, ill fix all this. And those folks, youre not going to youve got to give them ideas and give them some hope. Because much of this is about desperation, conspiracies. But ive got to hold the leadership and the Party Accountable for this, because they continued to foster untruths. Not untruths, they foster lies and misinformation. And people out here, some of whom are desperate, are willing to latch on to anything. And thats how trump became the false prophet. Well, he still seems to be in control of the flock. David, lets flip the analysis for a second. What are biden and the democrats to do . Because, look, ive been very open. I thought cutting a deal with mcconnell for any kind of power sharing, even having a discussion, was a mistake. And yet biden says he wants things done in bipartisan fashion. Kasich says there are good faith republicans there. You hear that from Democratic Senators as well. So do they try to get a deal on the pandemic . Or do they go full trump themselves and just force it down through reconciliation, not even try and work with them . Look, its going to be both. I think biden wants to try. I think he wants to go for big deals, big Pandemic Package in response, and only as a last resort will he go to reconciliation. I think he will. I think he wants to move very, very quickly he wont get a big deal even with a handful of republicans. He could get a piecemeal deal. Thats all the reporting that we have, from my sources as well. You can get key components done. Vaccine financing, money for unemployed extension, money for people hard up. Youre not going to get the 1. 9. Thats going to put him in a tough spot, because the need for money, for vaccine distribution, or to help schools get reopened, that is so vital. It may not be in the countrys interest for him to hold out to try to get something bigger. I want to make a point about the republicans, too. We dont know what the Heart And Soul of the Republican Party is right now. What we know is that trump still has a lot of influence, and we know that leaders in the house, like mccarthy, who want to be speaker, are going to go Kiss The Ring, literally, for power immediately. They want power in 2022, maybe looking into 2024. I think the future of the Republican Party may be different. Maybe the governors right, that it comes back to your rank and file republicans and other conservatives who try to figure out how they get back to some semblance of what they were. What we dont know is how big that trump base is now. There are a lot of republicans, i agree with the governor, who have left him. He couldnt get reelected, hes a oneterm president. He has power, we just dont know how big it is. We know theres plenty of enablers still. I actually think a little differently about mcconnell than you do, chris. I think mcconnell fired a flare and was hopeful people would run toward it, other republicans, and he was wrong. They didnt. And he decided to hang back. Yeah, thats called not leadership. Right . Because leaders lead. Right. You vote the right way because thats the message you want to send, thats a flare. What he threw up was a match in the wind. I hear you, i hear the analysis. I would defer to you because you may not be the older brother but youre the smarter one. Gov, you have mccarthy going down to see trump. Thats not something thats ridiculous. You do anyway, even when the president loses and hes a good guy, you dont do that because its a new administration. What do you say to kevin mac car mccarthy. Atrocious, its embarrassing, its shameful. You dont see mcconnell going down there, i agree with david, youre seeing Something Different out of mcconnell than you see out of kevin. Going down there to florida, All In The Name Of power, power politics. All In The Name Of reinforcing a false prophet, who misled people, many people, who were desperate. And not only just poor people, but people who think the system has worked against them. And trump was out there telling them, ive got all the answers. Thats to some degree why they wont let go. And also because the notion that this was stolen, that the democrats are about to destroy america as we know it. That is still alive. One thing about biden, chris, that i will say to you, he needs to try to get a package that is critical in terms of the things some of the things that david has talked about. You know, the unemployment. The pandemic relief. The things that are really critical. And if i were him or advising him, i would tell him to meet with some of these republicans. There were five of them the other day who voted the right way. Try to make some of it bipartisan. And be reasonable. Now, because youve got to give a little bit to get something. If they will not cooperate, then youll have no choice. Then he should use the bully pulpit to say, the republicans dont want to do anything. But you have to make that effort. Remember, chris, critical aid for the pandemic relief is vital for america. Right. But hes got a lot of other things hes talking about. And remember, he said he was fighting to fix the soul of america. So that sort of is bigger, bigger than a lot of these issues that we can talk about on climate climates critical, i agree, but hes going to restore the soul of am america. Republicans have to help him by telling the truth. Not going to happen. Theres one bad fact i want the audience to remember. It is my understanding that theres A Billion Dollars that has been spoken for by congress, but has not been apportioned yet, it hasnt been spent. Thats going to be a problem again. It was a problem last time, a problem this time. Theres still A Billion Dollars they voted to spend that they havent. And thats going to be something that the biden administrations going to have to figure out. You know what . You know, the governors kind of right, but ordinarily, whats going on in the opposing party isnt your problem, but it is bidens problem. Because all of this is a distraction from what he wants to be focusing on. Right. And, you know, the real problem in republican circles right now is that trumpism is has become this lie. Its become an attack on our elections. Its become this big lie that the election was stolen. You know, matt gaetz talking about taking on neoconservatives. Theres an argument over jobs, over training, over china, over americas production of power in the world. But trump forfeited that conversation of consequence when he decided to act like an authoritarian president and to launch an attack on another branch of government. So mccarthy and gaetz and others who are engaged in all of that are having an untruthful conversation. But biden has to deal with that Republican Party that is still showing majority saying trump should rerun, should run again in 2024. So he doesnt know who to deal with because other republicans are happy to take him on, on spending or take him on on the woke left or the cancel culture. Hes got the two schisms, the two parts of the Republican Party coming at him at a time when hes got limited time to do something big. He has to ask himself what youre asking, whats the incentive of the other side to really join hands with me to achieve big things here, rather than just wait for this next election cycle, which began yesterday . Davids key word, gov, the last word to you, but the key word with david is big. Biden has to deliver big things to make his party and his constituency happy. How does he do that with this climate . Lets fix the country, lets focus. You make a little compromise here with the republicans and try to get something that we can all agree is critical. And i want to also tell you, chris, if the republicans dont start to talk about these ideas and their solutions, a number of the ones that david just mentioned, in my opinion, the Republican Party will cease to exist. One final point. In politics, you need to take the heat. Its not about reelection. Its about what you stand for. We put up a flare . No, dont just put up a flare, seize the high moral ground. Thats what politics is about. Thats what leaders are about. They are the ones that say, let it come, bring it on, and im going to withstand it, and in the end the truth shall win. We need more of that out of, frankly, out of everybody in politics today. Well, i would define everybody as everybody in your party right now, because ive never seen the gop in the situation that its in right now. Yeah. David gregory, thank you. I agree. Thank you. Ill give you the last word, gov. I cant catch you midbreath like that. There are people on the hard left of the Democratic Party who are just vicious attackers but they didnt start an insurrection on the u. S. Capitol and refuse to name the its not a both sides situation here, gov. Im not trying to compare them exactly, but im saying when you sit around the table at home and the argument starts with brother and mom and sister and everybody else, you cant have one side continuing to do things that light a flare on the other side. No, i hear you. You know how i end it at my table right now . You tell me why your party isnt saying that these groups are terrorists and they dont want any part of them, and why theyre not saying they should be held accountable. When i silence comes i say, shut up and eat. Theyre dead wrong and they should be calling him out and they shouldnt be visiting him in florida. Its wrong. Its dead wrong. And the lies are wrong. And theyve got to get on the right road or they continue to damage our country. Theyre picking up speed but not in the right direction. David gregory, thank you. Governor kasich, thank you times three. All right. Thank you. You saw the one thing that brought aoc and ted cruz together, okay . They do not like each other. Aoc says she wont even work with him on this, by the way. It is outrage at the robinhood apps stock block, as they call it, in the middle of this gamestop controversy. Why does this matter so much . Because its about the big guy against the little guy. And it looks like the system was rigged in a place thats Called Robinhood thats supposed to be for the little guy to help the big guy. Is that so . The ceo of robinhood joins me live along with the creator of wall street bets. Is it confusing . Yes. But it certainly can be made understandable. I will lay it out for you. Then we are going to take it up with both sides. First, the Terror Threat that is hovering over washington is not a theory, its not hypothetical. Weve had two arrests near the capitol in the last 36 hours. Andrew mccabe on the race to stop another deadly assault next. As a retired weatherman, i like things i can predict. Thats why i chose an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan from unitedhealthcare. Its the kind of plan with predictable outofpocket costs. Plus the plan i chose has a low to zero percent chance of copays. Its a sunny day for me. Honey youre doing it again. Ill stop. The only Medicare Supplement plans with the aarp name. Medicare supplement plans have no networks and no referrals so you can take charge. Have no networks and no referrals Danafarber Cancer Institute discovered the pdl1 pathway. Pdl1. They changed how the world fights cancer. Blocking the pdl1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. Pdl1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. Pdl1 saved my life. Saved my life. Saved my life. What we do here at danafaber, changes lives everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Next. You have to get your mind around the reality that nothing is over. Once they open this pandoras box of allowing hateful people to start recruiting within the traditional political ranks of unrest, we were going to have problems for a long time to come. New arrests more than three weeks after the attempted coup at the capitol. The most recent ones today in missouri and new york. But those all stem from january 6th. There are still problems, fresh ones. Tonight the feds are more worried about what could be coming. As we reported from that new dhs domestic terror bulletin. And they may have just gotten a taste of that. Police say a West Virginia man was arrested near the capitol wednesday. He had a handgun, 20 rounds of ammo, a list of lawmakers, and stop the steal paperwork. Okay . Whether or not he had what it took to carry out the threat or not in miss mind, in his mentality, well see. But the message is clear. He told detectives he was concerned about the honesty and integrity of the election. There was another man arrested today. He tried to get around a Security Checkpoint and fought with the officers. Lets bring in andrew mccabe. Where do you draw the line between, okay, these are oneoff guys who are not in full control of themselves, versus, no, this is extremism that is going to be planned and acted on, lone wolf, or in combination . Chris, youve always had your oneoff people who approach the Security Checkpoint, feel like they want to get inside for whatever reason, and cause a ruckus. Sometimes those things even end violently. Thats normal business in securing the capitol or the white house or what have you. This is different. What makes it different is each one of these individuals is carrying with them some evidence, some indication, that they are responding to the big lie. So your 71yearold gentleman from West Virginia is carrying documents that are reiterating the stop the steal thing. You have the guy who was arrested in california a day or two ago with five pipe bombs in his house. Hes also got all kinds of rhetoric on social media feeds and other places about his kind of Rabid Support for former President Trump and his frustration about the election having been stolen. So what youre seeing is this ideology perpetuated by President Trump is uniting extremists of all stripes under the flag of trump. And thats what makes this threat from domestic extremists particularly dangerous. One more thing. How big a deal is it that the extremists can look and see a qanon member in congress, even if its just one, if they can point to the fact that, hey, they dont even say our names, they dont even accuse us of anything within the republican ranks, they wont even try trump for this, they dont believe any of this . Does that just play as politics . Or does it have Signaling Value . Because weve never had that before, andrew. Weve never had something that you guys were worried about on the doj side being ignored by our politicians. Thats right. These folks have been marginalized for decades, and all of a sudden out of nowhere, theyre being authenticated. Theyre being held up. Theyre being validated by the president of the United States. By United States representatives to congress. You cant overstate the significance of that sort of acknowledgement. This is a group of people, particularly the qanon folks, who they look for codes written on the side of a milk jug. They are really focused on interpreting things in the direction that they prefer. So when they see someone like a Marjorie Taylor greene espousing these theorys, then getting rewarded with a prime spot on a congressional committee, thats a very significant signal to them that theyre doing the right thing, theyre on the side of the right, and it causes them to keep going forward. What does it mean for them to see Mccarthy With Trump and to hear people saying that they wont even try trump for what happened . You know, if im them, what im hearing from looking at that picture today of trump and mccarthy at maralago, the message they get is, its not over, continue, move forward, you still have the support, the president is still out there, hes pulling for you, mccarthy, the republican side of the congress that he represents is still on your side. And that is enough to breathe new life into their movement, to put some wind behind their sails, to keep these insane plans moving forward. How worried are the brothers and sisters who are still on the job about whats to come . Yeah, very. Very. You know, you can put people in jail when you build a case, you have evidence. In this case, many, many people, right, from the capitol attack, you can identify them, do the hard work of finding them, building the cases. But you cannot stop an ideology, and thats what this has become. Its become a political, violent ideology, and were going to be dealing with the outcome from this for many, many years. Youre not going to be able to put pandora back in the box. The only thing that has really slowed these guys down is one of the leaders of the proud boys being identified as a confidential informant. Thats the only check on their enthusiasm theyve had, not a good sign. Andrew mccabe, thank you for giving us the Straight Talk on this. We have this pandemonium, this poison in our culture, all on top of a pandemic. One of the most contagious variants of Covid Overseas is now in the United States. That means its going to spread, okay . How will it impact the fight . And what is the deal with two masks . I know its out there. I think its about politics but im going to give you the straight information from dr. Sanjay gupta. Hes got answers for you next. I think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. Ooh, have you looked on the bright side . Discover never holds you responsible for unauthorized purchases on your card. giggling thats my turtle. Fraud protection. Discover. Something brighter. Hi, im a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. Well im an existing customer and id like your best new smartphone deal. Oh do ya . Actually its for both new and existing customers. I feel silly. But i do want the fastest 5g network. Oh i want the fastest 5g network. Are we actually doing this again . Its not complicated. Only at t gives everyone the same great deal. Like the Samsung Galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. In a year of changes. Dont take chances on your taxes. Be 100 certain with jackson hewitt. Well get your taxes done right, guaranteed. Your Grooming Business is booming. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com groomer its beyond sad that after all this death, we still dont get it with masks. Were still being begged to wear a mask. Theres still more people on the right who want to chase people around like me and say, look, he didnt have it on the whole time. Encourage you to wear it. Its become political and its literally made us sick. Worse than so many places in the world we should be in front of and above. Now a newman confess case, are two masks better than one . Here to answer that for us, chief doctor sanjay gupta. Doctor, always a pleasure, appreciate you being with us. Great to be here. Lets talk masks. Whats all this drama about . What do we know about one mask, two masks . Whats the guidance . Cdc says, wear a mask. What are we supposed to think about multiple masks . Well, you know, i think its a very worthy discussion, chris. It feels like the discussion we had spring of last year where it was masks or no masks. Now its a question of whats the best mask . Not all masks are created equal. And this is against the backdrop of these variants, these new variants that are more transmissible. Ill tell you what im hearing. Talking to a lot of people about this, gottlieb, the former fda commissioners written about this. An increasing drumbeat of people saying, if youre going to be in situations where you could potentially be exposed, you could have the best protection possible. What is the best protection possible . Probably Something Like this, an n95 mask. Why is it so good . Thats a beauty. Its not the best color but it fits really well. The double band, top notch. It gets you the fit. These have Electrostatic Finers in here. The reason thats important, its like your blanket in the dryer, catches all the socks. These help catch the viral particles. 95 protective. The fit clip on the top of it, which is nice when you have a delicate nose like yours. Exactly. And it does give you that fit. You breathe in, you feel it sort of actually give you the fit. Some people say theyre too uncomfortable. Were not saying wear it all the time. But if you go to a place where youre going to be around a lot of people, people say the n95 mask is the best bet. Abraar karan at harvard said if the country did this for six weeks we could end the pandemic. People saying you cant get the n95 masks, thats true, theyre hard to get. K95 masks out of china have Emergency Use Authorization in this country. Similar electrostatic fiber, similar protection. Thats what the discussion is. If youre going to wear a mask, shouldnt you be wearing the best mask possible . Especially in highrisk situations. It reeks of politics and political football to me. They were so anxious to crush fauci about this. I know and you know and anybody who wants to check the record can know, tony fauci never said, wear two masks. Right. He said, wear a mask, and somebody asked him about wearing two masks, he said, if you want to wear two masks, wear two masks. It reeks of this being a political football. Fauci never said, wear two masks. The guidance is wear one. Compliance is maybe 50 if we need it at 90 . Is this just politics playing a role here again . I think unfortunately it probably is. Its tough to disentangle anything completely from politics right now. I think what also happens is that sometimes you have a certain situation, then you justify the situation. We dont have enough n95 masks, therefore, lets thought recommend them. We could have been in a very different position. This was a big topic for rick bright as a whistleblower saying, we need to make tons of n95 masks, Everyone Needs to have them. The country didnt do that so we still dont have enough masks. I get this from a hospital, i can only get a new one if it gets ruined or soiled, thats when i can get a new one. Theres simply not enough anymore. But i do think the kn95 masks from china can play an Important Role and we need to make more. As opposed to saying, we dont have enough so lets not recommend them. The answer is, we should make more. The numbers are starting to come down in cases. Now we start getting the variants. And it raises a question that people dont want to ask let alone answer, which is, are these variants going to force should we expect lockdowns . Because if they spread so much more quickly, we know we dont have the Mask Compliance we need, is it going to change the case rate and require some type of more extreme measure . You know, youre right, no one wants to hear this, chris. And i feel like i look at the data and understand what is happening in other countries. We talked to Clarissa Ward in the uk yesterday. Its a dire situation as the transmissibility of the uk variant has really wreaked a lot of transmissibility over there. Let me show you the important numbers here if we have them. Basically, if something is more lethal versus more contagious, play that out. Play it out for a month. A month is six generations, a generation is five days, the average incubation period. After a month, after six generations, you get far more deaths from something being more contagious versus being more lethal. Let that sink in. Basically, its more contagious, therefore its likely to spread to vulnerable populations, therefore encounters where you werent likely to get infected before become higherrisk encounters. Grocery stores, whatever it may be. And thats how you get a much higher case fatality rate. What causes shutdowns . People will see those numbers, but i can tell you what ultimately drives it is whats happening in hospitals. You start to get hospitals that are simply overwhelmed. They have no more space. They call the leaders and they say, look, weve got no escape hatch here, youve got to stop transmission. The most effective way to do that is just basically stop people actually coming together in any way for a period of time. Who knows . I dont think the countrys ready for it. Like you said, they dont even wear masks. But that would be an effective strategy, at least for a period of time. Quickly, do you think that we should expect a travel ban from south africa, given the variants coming from there . Look, i i dont know. I dont know whats going to happen, but im not sure its a good idea if it does, and heres why. Two cases in South Carolina already. No known travel history. No known connection. They were tested a few weeks ago. The likelihood is there are far more cases here already. Its too late . Yeah. Uk variant, one month tomorrow, it will be one month since the first case was diagnosed of the uk variant, its now in 30 states around the country. It spreads really quickly. Also, with the travel ban, you and i were sitting on the set together when they announced the travel ban in europe. Whats the first thing people did . They all started coming back. You get the significant influx which could at least acutely even worsen the problem. Its amazing how america has made her own problems in this situation. Sanjay, thank you very much, brother, appreciate you. All right, any time. All right, our appreciation to sanjay gupta as always. So by popular demand, all of you guys were asking me questions about the gamestop situation and the reddit and did you see it and robinhood and whats going on, power to the people, the little guy found a way to beat the big guy, then ohoh, the game got twisted. So why is everybody talking about the stock of this struggling Video Game Store . Gamestop, if youve got kids, youve heard of it. But if you dont or if youre young and you dont game, maybe you didnt. The question becomes, how did this army of Redditers Shake up the market by betting against it . Why are members of congress, who agree on almost nothing, uniting on this . We did the research, we have the story, and we have the two key figures in the drama. You will not want to miss this next. Okay. We had an extraordinary shift unfolding in front of our eyes. Individuals started banding together, taking on establishment politics and exposing a broken system. The result was a seismic fluctuation more volatile than the stock prices of gamestop, amc theaters, or bed, bath beyond. Stocks that by traditional measures should be in trouble, especially amid the pandemic. Malls, movie theaters, not exactly busy places these days, right . Thats why big money movers like hedge funds started shorting those stocks, shorting just means betting on them to fail. A community on the website reddit called wall street bets, they reacted by starting to buy up the stock. They did it so much that gamestop started the day up 25 up 2,500 up from a year ago, okay . That leads to stories like a line cook watching his 4,000 investment become 67,000. A pastor who made 1,700 in a week. Meanwhile, the move was a major blow to major hedge funds. Some needing multibilliondollar infusions to stay afloat. We dont know how this ends, but we know, for too long the hedge funds are the ones that get the big bailouts, right . The big banks get the big help, the little guy doesnt. Thats what this story feels like. So if you want to understand the power of the moment, you have to look at the Political Forces aligned on this one. Aoc, ted cruz, elizabeth warren, and donald trump jr. I dont know why we include him theyre all on the same side. Honestly, i dont know why i included him, the guys not a politician, he just says inflammatory things to help his father and his own brand. Anyway. That power is fueled by anger. Something both sides of our political divide want to harness these days, it seems. In this case, the anger is targeted at a system too long off limits to those without means. The little guy loses and the big guy gets richer. Reality as obvious as our huge and growing wealth gap, right . You all know the story of this country right now. Were waiting for somebody to somehow figure out a way to make it more equitable, more fair. We stand witness to a storm of people taking their shot, targeting the hedge funds they see as having the advantage. The rise of nofee trading due to the popularity of Online Brokers like robinhood provided access. In a way it helped democratize investing because it let people bypass traditional fees. The outcry when Companies Like robinhood and ameritrade imposed restrictions today just shows the fury that exists behind what for far too many is still the foreign world of wall street. In the face of that fury, as well as a classaction suit, robinhood will now resume some limited buying of stocks like gamestop and amc. The question is, why did they stop the trading . Lets dig into the decision with robinhoods ceo, vlad tenev, thank you for joining us. Chris, thank you for having me. This is surreal for me. Ive been watching your show live, especially through this past year. I appreciate it. Look, you know my audience. This is not an investment show. And i dont think it needs to be. I dont really care about your capital commitments, your liquidity, and what was going on in the regulatory side. And ill talk to you a little about that. But i want you to address the obvious. This looks like a move by an outfit Called Robinhood, which is supposed to be taking from the rich and giving to the poor, and doing exactly the opposite. That when the big guys, including one of your Main Investors in your company, started to lose, you shut down the game to starve the little guy. Fair criticism . Thats not what it is at all. And i know you started this segment it really resonated with me because you described the story of robinhood. Robinhood started five years ago by pioneering commissionfree, no account minimum, mobile investing. Weve been the spokesperson of the individual investor, and our whole goal as an institution is to enable those customers, empower them, and give them access to the markets. Because for the longest time, markets have been only accessible to the wealthy. And so the entire industry adopted our Business Model in 2019. And in 2020, we added millions of new customers. The entire industry added millions of new customers who took advantage of the market rally and became investors for the very first time. So, you know, we had to make a very difficult decision to protect our customers and our firm why . We in no way why . Explain why you had to do it, if it wasnt to protect the guys who had shorted the stocks, which are the big hedge funds. How are you helping the little guy investors . Well, i know that theres rumors around that, you know, we were directed by Market Makers or other Market Participants to do this. And i want to be 100 clear. This decision was not made on the direction of any market maker or other Market Participants. Are. So whyd you do it . Robinhood as a brokerage has lots of financial requirements, sec requirements, we have to put up money at clearinghouses. The amount of money that we have to put up depends on market the amount of money that we have to put up depends on market volatility. And were in historic were in an historic situation, where there is a lot of activity, and a lot of buying con centrated i a relative ly small number of symbols that are going viral on social media. So we havent really seen anything like this, before. And to prudently manage the the risk and the requirements, we had to restrict buying in these 13 stocks. But customers that held them, could sell throughout. Thousands of other securities and stocks on our platform were available to freely trade. And our numberone priority, as you mentioned, is to make sure our platform is reliable, stable for our customers. We are serving our customers and giving them the tools. Thats exactly what is the question now. But thats the thing. Is that the trust is in question because, it seems like, the only people who were getting hurt were the big shots. And if they were benefitting from this, your small investors now believe that you wouldnt have shut down the game. And just one thing, without getting in the weeds here. You listing venue for game stop. Now, i used to work in finance, so i know this stuff but the audience doesnt need to. The New York Stock Exchange does. So if anybody was going to control the listing and shut it down, it should have been them. But it wasnt. It was you. And the reason they do it is very limited. They do it because they think there is evidence of fraud. Or they think there needs to be a Material Disclosure by the company, that hasnt been made. And thats done to protect the investor. You check none of those boxes, here. Because you dont control the venue. You didnt know about any information that game stop or any of these other stocks needed to put out. You dont have any reason to believe theres fraud that you have articulated. And youre certainly not protecting these people, who have been living the dream of making money. Especially, at the expense of the big guy. So why should people believe you did this for the right reasons . Well, we we have no choice. We have to comply with all financial requirements. The s. E. C. Hasnt said you need to do this. Well, lots of brokers have to comply with these financial requirements. And issued restrictions on some of these names. And this is a industrywide thing. You, yourself, mentioned that other brokers, this week, have imposed restrictions. And not speaking for other firms, but for robin hood, in particular, this isnt because there is, you know, deals happening with Market Makers we route to or Market Participants. Then, why did you allow people to keep selling but not buying . The reason that is so troubling to people is that they were making money buying the stock because they were against the short side. And so, by enabling them to sell but not buy, it sounds like you were allowing the hedge funds and again, one of them owns a piece of you. And they had a bigshort position and that looks like a stinky conflict that you didnt come out straight on, from the start. Address that. Well, none of that had anything to do with our decision to do this. Again, this was just looking at regulatory requirements, financial requirements. And we, 100 , will always protect our customers. Where the entire business is operating to empower individual investors, and has been since its founding and thats what robin hood is committed to continue to do. So we dont want to restrict buying in these 13 stocks. We are doing the best we can to reenable it, as long as its operationally, and and prudent from a deposit standpoint. So, for you, its about how much money is in the mix. And what you can cover yourself . Well, its its about us complying with the financial and clearinghouse deposits and regulations. Then, you know what you need . I will give you some free advice. You need somebody who sets those requirements to come out and say that this is why this happened. Because otherwise, it smells bad. Especially, for a place called robin hood, to have citadel securities, your largest customer, investing 2. 75 billion to bail out one of the biggest losers in the gamestop short. You know, they both deny, you and citadel, say this wasnt concerted action or anything. But it looks terrible. So, you need somebody to justify your decision. Do you think you can do that . There is a lot of misinformation out there. And im not going to speak for what regulators or Industry Professionals will say. But you can talk to any of the brokers that have made similar restrictions, and i think theyll all tell you the same thing. And this is a highlyregulated industry. Its nonnegotiable for us to cooperate with the regulators, follow their guidance, and were in constant communication with them. So, its we have to be extremely buttoned up here. I heard you. I saw you i saw you on another channel. They were saying so robin hood didnt have the money to control the flow . And you said, no, no, no, its not the issue. We dont have a liquidity issue. But you say you are stopping the trading because you couldnt meet certain, Capital Requirements, how does that reconcile with itself . Well, we feel pretty good about the situation. You know, we did this preemptively. Right . We had to we were looking at the deposit requirements. We were looking at the operational requirements. So, we did this proactively, and we feel good about being able to reenable these things. And we definitely want to make sure our customers understand when we impose restrictions, when we lift them. Ultimately, brokers have impose these types of restrictions because the Capital Requirements can change. And were in unprecedented times. And the Financial System operates in very technical ways, with regard to settlement and money movement. And theres no way around that. Its just the reality. I hear you. I hear what your rationale is. But again, now, were going to be watching this story. Because you have Political Forces ive never seen aligned, before. Who want to make sure that the big guys finding a way to get over on the little guy, because the country, i think, has just about had it with that. So, you are caught in the middle and well be watching and i hope you are acting in good faith. And that the trading resumes, and the market can settle itself. But thank you for coming in and making the case for robin hood. Thank you, very much. And absolutely, we want nothing more than to enable investing, and access to as many individuals as possible. Thats our mission, and its In The Name Of the company. Just got to make sure that something named robin hood isnt rigging it for the sheriff of nottingham. You know what i am saying . Like, if you are going to set it up where the little guy can win, they should be able to play fairly and see that happen. Ill stay on it, and you have this as a venue to discuss it as we move along. Good luck. The other side of the story is the individual investors who came together in places like reddit, which is an amazing story, in itself. The man who founded wall street bets is here. His name is jamie. A nice, irish name. He did step away from it last year but he is here now and i saw you and i know you are heated up about this. So, first, jamie, what was your response to what you heard from the head of robin hood . Well, thanks for having me. I just want to start by saying i hope you take a little easier on me. I dont as much experience as him. You know, i am glad that i got to hear his answer. I was i was i have been asked that question, all day long. And i have been left but to speculate. To me, it sounds like the same conclusion you were kind of getting to, which is they having a liquidity issue. I dont know enough about their profile internally. You know, my suspicions were that they were under pressure from regulators. Thats the the the most logical step, based on the fact that robin hood caters to this very demographic that has made them so successful. Doesnt make sense for them to turn their back on their customer. So im glad that i got a logical explanation out of him. Why is it logical . Because the investor side says, look, this is exactly what happens. You know, we find a way to finally compete by basically Cr Crowdsourcing our own Investment Strategy to complete with people of more money to put in the market. And by the way, we are betting on us by trying to hold these stocks up. And yeah, were making money. But were going against these big guys who are just trying to take it and now, they stop the game so that they can figure out a way to not lose so badly. How are those people supposed to feel . You know, thats what i am saying. I i think they didnt really have a choice and i buy into that. Thats a logical thing but these people have a right to be mad. I mean, these people are participants and they deserve the same rights as all the big players. I think, part of the reason why the story has a feelgood component to it is, because, yeah, the little guys are getting together and actually being able to to unite and be an opposing force to these institutions that have historically dominated this inviteonly market. And so, they have a reason to be upset. The fact that now, they have finally been able to get a voice and get the spotlight, they get the rug pulled from under them so i understand the anger on their behalf. The other thing, i know you are not with it, anymore. But do you have any concerns that you are inherently getting people into a game, that is not that much unlike gambling. Not really, because of block trades and the speed with which they can trade. And the idea of democratizing investing, is that a little misleading . Because of the nature of the game. You know, there is a new round of game. You are talking about the speed and theres more technical components. The execution of these trades. Robin hood is is not known as being the best one but these particular the the people that are coming into this type of trade. They dont care about those little things. They dont care if the other the people that are front running them, they dont care. I hear you but what they care about is it being fair. They did something that was really interesting about power of the people, even against the power of the powerful. And i appreciate