Transcripts For FBC Mornings With Maria Bartiromo 20180220

College business Brian Brenberg in rasmussen analyst amy holmes is here. Good morning. Good to be here. Dagen some untreated man said please dont play the Fergie National Anthem anymore. Is it that bad . Maria it was bad. Dagen it was unique. Maria will wish he trying to do . Make it, but also maria it launched. Maybe we shouldnt play it on the air, but we need to hear this. If its unique in decadence words i need to hear it. Maria yes, and then theres taxes and policies. Our top story here, more americans now supporting the overhaul. A new poll by the New York Times on survey monkey showing 51 approve of the new tax laws up from 46 or send end are reportedly divided over which agency should be overseen and writing the new tax law regulations according to the wall street journal. Several gop senators on the office of management and budget to review the legislative process which has been handled by the irs for the past three decades. Meanwhile, treasury and omb Officials Say they are now reviewing the scope and implementation of the tax writing process. Join us to weigh in on not his caucus Member National security chairman congressman ron desantis of florida. Good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us. Good morning. Maria our condolences to you it will get to the Florida Shooting in a moment. Lets kick it off on these agencies and writing the legislation. Just on the 30,000foot, maria, the fox poll has been in place for less than two months and make you think of the legislation where you stand so many positive benefits those who were three pitcher yeh shen, investment in the med states, wage increases, bonuses, jobs being created. Opinion polls are starting to reflect that your polls to be better of the present democrat not been lying about this for so long. People are starting to see whats in front of them. I have no confidence that the iris will do the right thing by taxpayers. If we can have the office of management and budget involved in the process overseen it and making sure this is being implemented in a way that it was envisioned and that protects taxpayers, im all for that. Maria its interesting you say that about the irs. Home depot numbers are out, better than in terms of revenue earnings as well. You are right. The tax implementation has been felt in your seeing corporations report betterthanexpected earnings like from home depot and other Companies Give up bonuses as a result of the tax plan. You are saying you dont trust the iris to oversee the legislation . Maria, we spent the early part of an icon in the congress, we were fighting with bureaucrats who were targeting americans for their political views. I just think that the irs when you think of the washington swamp, the permit irs bureaucracy is a big part of that. You would like to think that the political appointees in charge will get the ship going on time, but as weve seen theres a lot of it to traditional resistance to things the president wants to do within those prophecies. The extent we can liberate the process from that entrenchment input into a place like omb were direct or maldini i have no doubt will be friendly to the taxpayer, that is something i will be supportive of. Congressmen, it is Brian Brenberg or d. C. Public opinion change. That is good for republicans in the midterms. Are you concerned about the noise we are hearing about Interest Rates and the concerns thats creating in stock market. It seems there are some things in the horizon that could get in the way of good news toy if congress isnt careful how it is spending money. Very concerned about it. I think that congress has consistently prevent incapable of reining in spending. You know, we wanted to try to meet defense needs by keeping Everything Else flat in the house and not just didnt fly in the senate. We were given a budget that had good things in it, but was not disciplined at all. So it is a problem. I think we need to look at some Structural Reforms like a balanced Budget Amendment and really perform this budget process. The 74 budget life you look at how congress has approved read it since then, it is never worked in this has been on the books for decades. Rather than doing the same thing over and over again, getting these big omnibus bills are continuing resolution, why dont we reform the system and they let get this so we can protect taxpayers and the American People. Congressmen, amy holmes here. Todd rokita, republican from indiana has soft or to a piece of legislation, the crumbs that, which i really like, which would make bonuses taxfree. This is poking at nancy pelosi and democrats who the bonuses were just crumbs. Is there any chance we can see any action on this piece of legislation . We could. It would be great to call the bluff. Nancy pelosi is a very wealthy San Francisco liberal and she is scoffing at people who were seen salary increases and bonuses in some of the new jobs being created. I think it shows shes out of touch. What i would also do is you remember during the tax debate, one of the main arguments used against the republican plan was they are making the Corporate Tax reform per minute, but they are only giving you tax cuts for 10 years. The reason offended that is because of the arcane budget rules for different reasons. If i was a problem for democrats, we should say you are right. Individual rates should be made permanent. Put the bill on the floor and call your bluff and i bet you would see people like nancy pelosi who complained individual tax cuts were permanent, nevertheless vote against it if we wouldve put that on the house floor. That in addition to the crumbs act would be a good thing to do. Maria just sounds like more resist. I dont know she believes that. We will see. We want to switch gears to the deadly Florida Shooting. Marjorie stoneman haskell has plans to reopen the school in phases that begins on friday. Busloads of students make of students making their of students may generate a Florida State capital of tallahassee today to demand action on gun control. Lawmakers considering a plan that would first raise the legal age for buying an Assault Rifle 21 at a threeday waiting period for all purchases and identify and close the background screening the polls. Are you supportive of this plan . I havent seen the detail yet. I just thought come over the news. Maria would you be supported at the age of 21 . What i want to do first of all his figure out why this individual was allowed to purchase firearms in the first place, given all of the signals, cops go into his house dozens of times, people telling the fbi. He did it twice to the fbi, but most recently at a call saying hey, not only has the crazy, not only is he dangerous, but hes got a plan to shoot up his own school. For that not to be something that is put into the pipeline so that one so that Law Enforcement would have done then react, thats a major problem. You back in major shootings over the years. Virginia tech, the guy was not eligible for a firearm but they didnt put the mental adjudication into the system. Southerland springs, texas, same thing. Nobody has been held accountable for any of this. No one in the fbi has been held accountable. They put out a statement on friday infuriating same protocols were followed. That is bureaucrat speak for passing the buck. Weve got to get to the bottom of that. In terms of what the states really need to take the lead here for me, the two biggest things. One is improving School Security so these are. Soft targets anymore. You had a very big school. You did have a resource officer there. For three dozen kids you have to have better visible security and we could easily in florida particularly have a program for retired military and lawenforcement officers and must do to help provide School Security so that these are now hard targets. If they are hard targets commend these guys do not want to do what they are doing. The other thing we have to look at is if you are a danger to society, we need to look at our civil process. These guys used to be committed 50, 60 years ago to an institution if they were a danger to themselves or others. Now its gotten more liberal as to where all these warning signs unless you commit a criminal offense theres nothing we can do. I dont think that is the best way to protect the public. Looking up that could really make a difference that is different than saying we are going to do some major gun control, which will basically end up falling on the lawabiding gun owners. Dagen President Trump had backed an effort by senators john cornyn and chris murphy and connecticut, republican and democrat respectively to shore up the background system providing incentives for states. Quite frankly, they are required to upload the information like criminal conviction records into the instant criminal background check system, but it would make some tweets today said this legislation was actually introduced after the Texas Church Shooting where that individual should not have been allowed to purchase a weapon and, that they did not have court or so positions, but President Trump does seem to back this. Do you . We actually earlier this congress we actually passed a package that included other elements like reciprocity for conceal carry permit holders but we had the elements in there. Though, i hope that works. Understand the background check system is fair. Whatever is put into it, it will pain. If you put that information in the cover when someone who is prohibited tries to buy a firearm it a firearm of opinion they will be denied the purchase. Maybe those incentives will work. Ive got to tell you, the ineptitude we have seen on federal and state and local with respect to this has been responsible for allowing some dangerous people to get firearms through federal law would ordinarily not allowed to have that. True do you make a good point for the present is hosting this listening session for good reason that High School Teachers at parkland, florida tomorrow. What do you want to hear on this . It is open to making some tweets in changing then perhaps it is raising the age to 21 in terms of being allowed to get a not inadequate then. There are no automatic weapons. These are all semi automatic. They are not military weapons. When i was in iraq would have select fire. You could do automatic fire. These are semi automatic, both pistols and rifles. What i want to do, he should look at what can the federal government do to deny access to firearms to people who are dangerous, but we have to recognize this is not going to be solved by congress in washington d. C. You need local and state actions whether that is School Security, looking for dangerous people who are mentally incapable of lawfully possessing a firearm safely. Understanding we have Different Levels of government in that each different model probably has a different role because sometimes when these things happen its going to be solved in washington. Putting all the trust in the federal government is not going to do enough because we just dont have a good track record dealing with the issue. Dagen real quick, california, connecticut, washington, indiana at extreme Risk Protection order for what i call gun violence restraining orders. Would you back one in florida . I could. I would say that some of these people could be even civilly committed. I dont want dangerous people to firearms, but i dont want them to have access to any weapons and i dont want them to be a danger to society in other ways. I want to look at our civil processes to see that people are clearly a danger to themselves or society can be incapacitated. Maria thank you so much for your insight this morning. Congressman desantis. Stay with us. We will be right back. I want you to pick a new truck for your mom or dad, knowing that they could possibly pass it down to you one day. Cool. But before you decide, you should know that chevy silverados are the most dependable, longest lasting fullsize pickups on the road. Which means that ford f150s are not. laughs which truck would you pick . The chevy. The chevy. The chevy. There you go. Boom. That was obvious. Plus it looks cooler. No doubt about it. 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Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to neulasta or Neupogen Filgrastim . Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. So why go back there . If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Maria earnings season winding down now. Better than expected numbers. Sherpas on the other details and headlines. Good morning, maria. Chugging along at home depot with an adjusted profit of 1. 69 they did beat the estimate revenue also topping expectations. Taking a look at the stocks slightly higher in the premarket. We shall see it back in october we are seen as far as dow futures in general with a lower opening. We will also hear from walmart, another dow component this morning. Looking for higher earnings per share from revenue a year ago. The stock sharply higher ahead of the Earnings Report up more than 1. 5 in the premarket. Albertsons trying to stay competitive with amazon and walmart. The wall street journal reported in the Supermarket Chain plans to buy the rest of rite aid said it had been sold to walgreens. These combined companies are worth 24 billion in that does include the debt to the transaction will allow albertsons to go public after a decade of ownership by private equity giant capital. Shares are hired in the premarket by a lot. Almost 30 jump in the premarket. Lets talk about General Motors offering to convert debt of about 2. 2 billion owed by its operation in south korea and equity in exchange for Financial Support and tax benefits for the south korean government. This comes after gm said last week it would close one of its plants in the country by may decided the future of the remaining three within the next few weeks. Its not clear how much g ab will keep operating. Shares of gm up more than 10 from a year ago, maria appeared a lot of numbers, earnings and of many Major Companies this morning. Maria sure is. Thank you, cheryl. Take a break when we come back, could change becoming to chipotle . The none of that could soon make its way to europe are readable. Take a look at the heels of a long weekend. President day, markets closed yesterday. Today we look at a strong selloff almost 200point on the Dow Jones Industrial average, nasdaq is while three quarters of a percent. We look at the changes in the market. That is next. Alice is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. 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The 1 prescribed fdaapproved oral Combination Treatment for hr her2 mbc. True do welcome back. Choppy star trek trading week at indicating he down to an importance now after the doubt and last week in positive territory. Joining us now, etf trends the io tonsillitis, good having you here. Great to see you, maria. Maria do you think investors are getting into the massive starts at the end of trade . Its been healthy if you look at the fundamental standpoint. First of all, when 75 of Companies Beat expectations, that its been great. From a technical standpoint, markets came down to the 200 day moving average. More than 50 retracement when you look at the etf space, weve had record close in january and even though during that correction. We saw about 25 billion go out, most of it in the biggest etf. Again, not a lot going on. Comfortable markets, little more volatility than weve seen. Maria where are the flows right now . Most of the flows missed last year in developed markets and emerging markets. U. S. Investors have had the home country bias where weve been comfortable with the growth weve seen Police Evaluations oversees pick out. Which emerging markets should investors be rethinking . You see the 10yearold fixation, but today, one emerging market in particular are you looking at . You can go into etf, which is one of the great things and select certain countries. Most people dont know exactly what to do, so when you look at emerging markets they are pretty diversified. Most importantly, china. When we see earnings this morning, when we see walmart, home depot, their Biggest Challenges in the future are going to be online and that is where where the business is, all the growth is. When you look at 10 cents and alibaba, if you dont have those companies in your portfolio, grab emerging market etfs. Maria where is the p. E. Of 12 . In china, india, a lot of russian stocks. A couple of the etfs we look at this morning, there is a power share momentum and etf, eem l. S p dividend etfs, gave pdh file. Its amazing because we dont talk about it much. We are stuck about the u. S. Dagen what you see in terms of outflows for bond funds whether it is diversified on funds, Investment Grade Exchange Traded funds as well because again if the demand isnt there, weve got a treasury with more than a quarter trillion dollars in treasuries this week. As we run bigger deficit in the portfolio the Federal Reserve, the Balance Sheet is being unwound, youll have a lot more supply, lot less demand. What you see in terms of individual investor demand. Great point. As we see the tenure creeping up to the emotional level of 3 yield, it is amazing. Theres a lot of money coming out of treasuries because they are most at risk when you see rising Interest Rates. Historically, corporate and high yields have done quite well during rising rate environment. We are seeing more money going into those areas as opposed to treasuries and also diversified like the barclays act, related etf that are out there. They are doing pretty well. The big think investors are looking for yield outside of fixed income. As a mention emerging markets, but a lot of companies have great yields close to 3 , so people are moving money more from a fixed income space to the growth and equity space to maybe maxed out yields. Train to the market is still out remaining to higher Interest Rates at 3 , about 3 in the tenure at 3. 9 . What is your expectation for the u. S. Market as it continues to digest the expectation we are at a higher yield environment and will continue to be so. Finally, for five years we were rising rates. Finally we are at the point where it will have been. Over periods of time, we have a nice growth environment. Inflation start to kick in. We have ballots with decided how many times they are raising rates. As long as we have this goldilocks environment, we should be just fine. I wanted to ask about that. He mentioned inflation, economic writer for the washington post. This party is worried about inflation and a leading to a financial crisis and prior to designate, 2009. Dagen that is garbage by the way. The inflation risk is going to lead to 2008 financial crisis. What are your views about this . Yes prices going up at the pump in paying more for milk, little bit. Is there is a tax break balanced out for most people. Those are the things we need to consider. Nothing from inflationary standpoint not the charts. Wage growth has increased. But not to a rate where the feds have to come in and put the brakes on. Now its been kind of balance. Home depot just raised its dividends. They raised the dividend is how partly they are paying now for casting on the savings of the tax plan. You mentioned the dividend etf in terms of investing in the u. S. , are you avoiding that right now because you are talking a lot about national. Or you looking for dividend payers . The best thing i can do as an educator as they look, if youve got home country bias, most of your money allocated are correlated with the s p 500, you are really happy. If you dont have an allocation outside the u. S. , now is the time to think about it. Its important to make sure youre diversified in not continue to run with the winners. Especially since the story in the journal. Attacking the labor market, one of the things he had to do in france. Thats a really good news story. You look at a story like that, do you see opportunities in europe that had been there over the past several years because youve got such revolutionary policy. France is playing catchup. Developed nations. Maria they want to tax us now, two. Is right there going to be rolled out . A lot of talk about that as well. Here in the u. S. , we are in pretty solid shape fundamentally and from a market you have to watch emerging markets. If you dont have emerging markets in your portfolio youll regret it years from now. Maria we are looking at some of the trading notes this morning, jpmorgan is telling clients, look, this is a continuation of investors understanding a higheryield environment. Dagen the journal wrote over the weekend that market came back to rapidly, we had incredible week last week, six straight weeks of gains. That it was just too much too fast. It puts them on edge and i think youre seeing that this morning. Yeah. Well, i think we are going to Start Talking about taxes real soon and the benefits of that and thats important to average investor. Hey, we are getting into spring, before we know it, blooms will be on the trees and thatll be nice, boy, weve had a nice volatility here in the market for the first time. Its woken us up, however, im having a tough time finding weakness in markets today. Maria all right, we will leave it there. Tom, we will see you. We will take a break, when we come back, north korea putting all options on the table. Hermit kingdom says its prepared for dialogue and war as the u. S. And south korea press ahead for plans with joint military drills. Taste the rainbow, starbucks debut new cold brew that changes color, you may need a password to get your hands on one. Back in a minute. Its absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts. Or it isnt. Its inspected by mercedesbenz factorytrained technicians. Or it isnt. Its backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isnt. For those who never settle, its either mercedesbenz certified preowned, or it isnt. The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through february 28th. Only at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. And butch. Aura. And tank. And tiny. And this is lauras mobile dog grooming palace. Laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but shes not much on articles of organization. Articles of what . So, she turned to legalzoom. They helped me out. She means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff thats a part of running a business. So laura can get back to the dogs. Would you sit still . This is lauras mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. Maria welcome back, walmart hitting the tape, profit missed expectations, revenue upbeat. Walmart reporting 1. 33 a share versus 1 point b 37 a share. As a result the stock is down. The company is saying that it is expecting better sales growth for the year, but revenue and also revenue is beating expectations at 136. 2 billion versus 134. 4 billion. The stock is down on walmart. Guys, this is a disappointment. The story for walmart and has been and will continue what are they doing visavis amazon. Investors are going to look at the numbers and look at what theyre doing in terms of web presence. So you always look at amazon in the past and you say it was never really a earnings driven story, i think that it may be true. Maria its worsening, dagen. I got the comp sales. 2. 6 versus estimate of 2. 2 . That looks better than expected on same store sales. Dagen i would expect, because, again, sometimes when you see, and i need to dig in the numbers in earnings because they are spending more money, they are not cost cutting and if they have to compete with amazon, thats where you would see that show up, revenue beating expectations of this sales growth figure, also beating expectation. Maria profit outlook is not as what people expected. Dagen this is the greatest, walmart passing on bonuses to employees, they have to work 20 years to get a thousand dollars, nonetheless, you see them control costs closing a number of sams club stores. We listened to stephanie and shes concerned about the consumer that the consumer has already felt those rising Interest Rates because of what the Federal Reserve has already done hiking shortterm Interest Rates, home equity lines of credit going up, credit card debt, people are paying more for that. That is a burden, so you need to see that offset from the tax reform from the tax cut, but, again, this is our goto in terms of the health of the consumer. Maria thats absolutely right. We have a miss. Profits below expectations. We have the Profit Guidance lower than expected and even though comps and sales up 2. 6 , versus 2. 2 , brian, investors are reacting to this weaker profit story. Im a little surprised by this. Revenue beat is important and to dagens point walmart is in investment mode, they are thinking about the future. Look, its important for them to manage costs, thats what they made a living on. They are trying to play a different game in a different world and invest in way that is they havent in the past. Thats going to effect eps. Obviously we have to dig in the numbers. If youre beating on revenue, same store sales, okay, i think this might come back. Maria they raised the dividend as well along with home depot. Did you want to jump in . I was curious how, you know, how concerned rather i should say given walmart is investing in the future, i heard they are partnering with lord taylor. Brian walmart is held to a different standard. They expect them to make a profit and i think youre seeing a little bit of dynamic here. I do think Going Forward the issue on walmart is how they position themselves visavis am done. Maria if youre seeing wages go up, they did raise wages. What did stephanie say last time that she was here, the input side is concerning markets right now. When you look at larger companies, they are looking at higher expenses for labor. We will see if thats a factor here. And becoming permanent. Dagen thats why the robert article and i just started reading it, he says theyll be a 2008 financial crisis because of inflation. Inflation American Workers have not had inflation in wages during the last decade. You know what is in critical, that that actually starts going up and we have personal Balance Sheet that is were better than they were in 08. We have corporate Balance Sheets and that was a credit bubble around the globe that does not exist today. So to throw that out, 2008 financial crisis, that [laughter] dagen thats why i make this face because i think its they are trying to scare people and thats what bothers me. Maria markets are square this morning, 200point selloff right at the start of selling. Walmart to shave 20 points off of the dow as you see with that 2 decline on walmart, but the rest of the market is also trading down. Down 205 in the dow, down 53 in nasdaq, meanwhile theres this, tensions are flaring with north korea again, the kim jong un regime says that, quote, its fully ready for both dialogue and war with the United States according to staterun news agency, the hermit kingdom is claiming that america is trying to meddle with relations between the north and the south. Comments after Rex Tillerson spoke about north korea relations in an interview with 60 minutes, watch this. Im going to use all the Time Available to me, our diplomatic efforts will till that first bomb drops. My job is to never have a reason for first drop to bomb and we dont know precisely how much time is left on the clock. Maria joining me to talk more about that fox news senior strategic analyst general jack keane, your reaction to that interview . Well, i think secretary tillerson is doing exactly what we should be doing. Hes got the main effort, hes carrying the ball and that is to put a strangle hold on north korea, cut off as much trade and ref nigh as we possibly can. My government sources tell me we shut 70, 80 of revenue and the trade that north koreas involved in. We have a ways to go. I think there are some things that weve got to do that maybe we are not doing yet and one of them is offensive cyber going against banking, i was systems, energy, infrastructure, theres a pipeline coming out of china that goes into north korea, i bet anything theres oil flowing in it. We can shut that down using cyber. Also theres shipping going into north korea and weve got to interject the shipping and close the back door off so that we are finally get to go a point where cutting them off completely isolating them because time is running out. Maria what do you meantime is running out . Give us a timeline. Well, the cia director has told us on fox just a few weeks ago that he thinks north korea will have full objective capability. That is nuclearized icbms reaching the United States in a matter of months. Maria wow. And if thats a reality, then we have got to be pulling out all the stops now in preparation for that event. Maria yeah, isnt it interesting that the leader there says theyre interested in dialogue or war. You havent heard dialogue at all. Well, theyve used negotiationed in the past, maria, to advance the technology to promote some goo will for themselves and clearly to drive a wedge between ourselves and the south koreans. Yeah, theyll go into negotiations, but theyre not going to stop developing that technology. Maria right. I think this administration should talk to them if theres decent condition that is we are going to discuss denuclearization and we are going to get to something substantive, we should talking to them. Talk asking better than shooting, certainly. Maria Munich Security Conference wrapped up in germany, european officials criticizing the kremlin for efforts to undermine western democracies, whats your take away from this, take away from the forum, general . Absolutely. Listen, russias track record interfering in elections in europe and in the United States, the brexit election, the frances election, eastern europeans election, theyve aknicksed crimea, they are in eastern ukraine, president says that the president of ukraine, he describes at that conference, he describes russia as Destructive Force in the world today, they bring ruin and despair with everything they touch and we should be calling out russia for what theyre doing. They intervened in syria, they have fundamentally propped up a war criminal who has killed over 500,000 of his own people, displaced 9 Million People in alliance with iran who started the civil war in yemen and now we have close to 20 Million People that are being affected by starvation and disease in that country. This is what hes talking about. They bring ruin and despair wherever they go and we have got to push back on their policies and the lies that they tell time and time again because they deny everything i just said. Maria what was the pushback, what do we do . Is the 13 indictments that we heard from the special counsels office enough . Well, the 13 indictments, i think its appropriate to call them out for that, be very specific about it but theyre not handing 13 guys to us. The cold war showed us how to do this. We stand together in alliances. We have good military capability and we dont take anything from these guys, we dont let them push us around like obama did. Maria general, good to see you, thank you. We will be right back. Good talking to you, maria gh saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico goin up the country. Bowl without me. Frank. im going to get nachos. Snack bars closed. Gah ah, ah ah. Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Maria welcome back, the u. S. East coast could break high temperature, its going to be warm today. Cheryl no complaints from new yorkers, maria, its wild. Temperatures to soar into the 70s as far north as new england. 50degrees right now in central park in new york but the temperature there could be 70degrees tomorrow afternoon. Yes, it could be 80 in dc, but there is widespread snow expected across parts of the western portion of the country, record called forecast in parts of the northwest, seattle, oregon, portions of the south, central u. S. Can face flooding after very wet week there. Its kind of crazy weather pattern that we are following. Well, here is an idea, if you cant beat them join them, uber looking to expand in japan and they are talking to team up with taxi companies, they are going to allow tourist visiting japan to use the uberride hailing app in more areas of japan, uber has been intense battle with toyota and sony, both of those Companies Making Major Investments in own apps for Companies Like uber. Meanwhile uber also looking to expand into the air, the companys ceo says it can see commercialization of the uber airflying taxi service happening within 5 to 10 years, yeah, selfdriving cars were so yesterday. Okay, chipotle testing a new menu item, qinoa can be chosen as replacement for whiter brown rice. Usually they avoid adding new items because of the Assembly Line thing they have going on. When they had queso critic slammed them but queso led to 2 increase and the former ceo nicklaus you may see even quesadilla. Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill down. We shall see. Starbucks is out with an eyecatching beverage. The drink changes color, the butterfly tea, thats where the color happens, one catch its only available in asia. Thank you, starbucks, anyway, the stock has fallen more than 1 . They are always coming up with something crazy. Maria that looks good, i like it. I dont know why. Just the colors. [laughter] i dont want mine to change color. If it changes color i get nervous. What color is it going to be when it mixes up. Maria we will take a break, fergie is facing the music this morning, the former black eyed singer is responding to backlash of National Anthem hit all the right notes, wait till you hear it, back in a moment. Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. Does your bed do that . Right now, save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed. Ends sunday. Visit sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. This is a tomato you can track from farm, to pot, to jar, to table. And serve with confidence that its safe. This is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. This is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently tracked from port to port. This is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. Built to run on the ibm cloud. This is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. Show me the olympic winter games leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Like ive never seen before. Xfinity x1, yeah, i always know the scor. Triple corks in 4k. Lookin so sick. Stream live on every screen, every win, every trick. 2000 hours of coverage, get your mind blown. 50 olympic channels, yup, youre in the zone. And if theres something that you want to see, pick up that voice remote and just say show me. Experience nbcuniversals coverage of the olympic winter games like never before with xfinity. Proud partner of team usa. Maria welcome back, after being shut out for several dais of the Winter Olympics team usa return to medals podium yesterday. Good morning, maria, u. S. Finished nowhere but second place in each of the past Winter Olympics, these games a different story but the trajectory of team usa took a different direction on monday. Ice dancing free skate final, canadians won gold, third time, most decorated winter olympic winter skaters with five medals, mia and alex, won a bronze medal. First siblings from the United States ever to medal in ice dancing. Miracle on ice part two, hockey team needing to beat scof slovakia. James, u. S. Led 30, they won it 31 to advance to quarter finals another mustwin Elimination Game tonight 10 10 eastern time against the check republic, 3 minutes 16. 86 seconds, 16. 86, i say it twice, germany and canada , the closest sled finish in olympics history. Germany has one more medal, still eight behind norway. Team usa picked up two medals on monday not only ice dancing but sabrita won third medal. The lead singer of the blackeyed peas apologized yesterday for National Anthem. She says ive always been honored and proud to perform the National Anthem and last night i wanted to try Something Special for the nba, well, fergie continued in her apology and said im a risktaker artistically but the rendition didnt strike the intended tone. I love the country and honestly tried my best. People are giving her a hard time. You know, i didnt have the biggest problem wit and i like the apology too. Shes saying, im an artist, i tried and gave it a shot and failed. Maria you we wont run it again. [laughter] maria some people would like to hear it. Dagen there might be some restrictions on it. Maria we cant show it again. Dagen one thing, i didnt i wasnt listening to fergie and thinking that shes insulting the United States. She spit and grabbed herself like she was mocking baseball after and she screeched the National Anthem on purpose. Fergie clearly attempt today sing it well, it just sounded terrible. [laughter] maria she wanted to do something different. Jared what better place to do than the nba allstar look at me weekend. The National Anthem is notoriously difficult to sing, many people jared not easy song. Brian especially when you try to make it sexy. Maria check it out online. What can i say . Jared max sports fox news 24 7, siriusxm 115. We will be right back. Maria welcome back. Good Tuesday Morning. Thanks for joining us this morning. Im maria bartiromo. Happy tuesday. It is tuesday, february 20th. Your top stories right now, 7 0. Volatility has returned. Futures pointing to a sharp decline at the start of traying this morning. The dow and s p 500 are coming off of a six day winning streak. Were looking at higher Interest Rates as one of the reasons. Dowel industrialhome depot and s are out. Walmart earnings were mixed. Revenue was a beat. The outlook was disappointing. As a result, walmart shares are down 3 2 3 . Thats the dow component. That will mean 20 points off of the dow average. Home depot is up, better than expected. The stock is up, 33cents higher. In europe, major indices are down for the most part. Dax index slipped into negligence territory. In asia, red across the board. The shanghai composite closed for the Lunar New Year. Many asian markets were closed for the holiday. Cryptocurrency getting its swagger back. Is bitcoin now more of a buy than a bubble . It is up above 11,400 this morning, up 366. Why was nothing done . President trump slamming former president obama over his failure to prevent Russian Election meddling during his tenure. This comes after special Council Robert mueller charged 13 russians with interference. Theres no question that russia sought to interfere, perhaps with other countries in our electoral process. Theres no suggestion that there was any impact on the outcome of the election, despite what these indictments suggest. Maria the very latest as the democrats echo President Trumps sentiments this morning. Eyes on health care, how googles a. I. Can predict Heart Disease by looking into your eyes. Plus, jordan fans looking to snap up the latest sneaker, the details as nike teams up with snapchat to preview the latest shoe. All those stories coming up this Tuesday Morning. Joining me, dagen mcdowell, brian brinbburg and amy holmes is here. Good to see you. Good morning. I want those shoes. Those shoes ill never get them. I want those shoes. Maria i love Michael Jordans quote, a long time ago. Someone asked him a political question. He said im not getting involved in politics. Republicans buy sneakers too. Hes made a lot of money on those sneakers. Maria well talk about that. Dagen i bought a pair of air force ones recently. They dont fit that well but they look all right. The price of fashion. Dagen exactly. Maria our top story this hour, the prosecution of Michael Flynn. The judge recently assigned to flynns case has ordered special Council Robert mueller to provide the defense team with evidence records. This is important. Because hes already pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to the fbi and that has been encompassed by widespread reports of leaked phone conversations. I spoke with attorney general Jeff Sessions this weekend and pressed him on the leaks surrounding Michael Flynns case and plaguing the department of justice. Watch what he said. That is a violation of the law to leak classified documents and it is being investigated. I will say this, there are last two years, before i became attorney general, there were each year there were three open investigations of classified leaks. Now we have 27. Were going after this aggressively. I have directed it personally. Some of the matters involve this matter and some of it is a matter that im recused on and were pursuing aggressively. Maria by the way, the attorney general also told me that he has confirmed that the abuses to the fisa court are also being investigated. Joining me to talk about it is former assistant fbi director chris freker. Thank you for joining us. Good morning, maria. Maria your take on these developments . The idea that the attorney general just told us before him there were two or three open cases of leaked confidential classified data and now there are 27 cases that the Justice Department is looking at. Id say bravo to the attorney general. There have been far too many leaks. Its a felony. Its a very serious felony to leak information involving classified information, especially fisa. I and my former colleagues have been perplexed at the total lack of interest on the part of the Justice Department previously in investigating these leaks. I think its pretty revealing to hear there were only three leak investigations when we know that it has been systemic throughout well, not just the Justice Department, but coming from every direction, congress, the agencies. There needs to be some public examples and people hung from the yard arm for doing this. Maria for a little while, a lot of people were wo wondering where is Jeff Sessions, why isnt he more involved in so much. He recused himself on russia and anything related to russia because he was part of the trump campaign. After that interview, i was actually impressed with what i heard. He said he was committed and he he was promising that any and all of these things are being looked at and being investigated. If he has recused himself, that doesnt mean there arent the investigations ongoing. Like you said, the abuses to the fisa court are being investigated. We need visible deterrents to stop this leaking. We need to see some people go to jail. Its unprofessional. Its illegal. Its done with a personal agenda. So these investigators or congressional investigators, members of congress, no matter whmatterwho it is, they need too jail. Thats only way to create a deterrent to the leak environment. Jim comey created this environment where it was okay to leak, if you felt righteous about it. Maria there seems to have been a lot of politicization under president obama. People want to see accountability. Theres more on capitol hill that i want to get your take on, the aftermath of the indictments last week. President trump took to twitter after 13 russians were indicted and three Russian Companies accused of russian interference. The commander in chief questioned why president obama didnt work to prevent russian meddling. He wrote obama was president up to and beyond the 2016 elections so why didnt he do something about russian meddling. Adam schiff was an unlikely ally for the president , echoing his comments on cnn. Listen to this. All along, i thought the Obama Administration should have done more many when we discovered and could attribute the conduct of russia, senator feinstein and i took the first steps to make public attribution. At that time, we couldnt get the Obama Administration to acknowledge the russian interference. Maria surprising to hear him talk like that, adam schiff. Hes been one of the people who people say are a big leaker in government right now. Should the Obama Administration be held accountable . Yes, they should. First of all, this indictment was what i would call a good start. Its no secret that the russians have been up to no good, ever since Vladimir Putin came into power. Hes very transparent about it. Theyre not very good about it. Its easy to pick up the tracks of what theyre doing. So im flabbergasted, many of my colleagues are as well, that this wasnt addressed long before now, particularly before the election in a proactive fashion. This isnt where we deport your spies and they deported ou depo. We need to address it aggressively. It didnt happen. Maria it didnt happen. Do you think this indictment at this point vindicates President Trump, which is also what hes been saying . Well, in some ways. I mean, im a believer that director mueller, former director mueller is doing a good thing in trying to turn over all the rocks and uncover the truth of what happened throughout this whole process. The truth ought to be good fluff for all ogood enough for all. Hell get to it without pulling any punches. The russian interference is broader than President Trump, as you can see if you read the indictment, they were seeking to undermine our democracy, not to put trump in office. It was across the board. Maria thats a smart analysis, because the russian meddling and efforts to undermine the west has been going on for decades, by the way, not just these last couple of years. Whats your take on what has taken place at the top of the fbi, as you see the bias and the texts that weve read between fbi agents and their really disdandisdain for president tru. Its sad for someone that spent 24 years in the fbi. I love the organization. There are 38,000 great men and women who get up in the morning and try to help the country. Maria theyve been be besmirched. Theres a few that damaged the reputation of the fbi in ways that it will take a while to repair. I want to emphasize it is a few. Theyre laboring every day in the trenches, trying to get the job done and they dont deserve that. Maria i believe that. President trump took to twitter following the tragic High School Shooting in parkland, high school. 17 people were murdered. But he also criticized the fbi. He said very sad that the fbi missed all the many signals sent out by the Florida School shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the drum trump c. Therdrum trumpcampaign. There is no collusion. I think hes pligh politiciza tragedy in a way thats not classy, not professional. He knows those two are not related. Theres 100 or so investigative analysts in West Virginia that handle the tip line. They have nothing to do with the Russian Investigation. Those resources are going to be there regardless of whether theres a Russian Investigation or not. There was a breakdown in the process. Chris wray acknowledged that. They have to fix it. But the two arent relate. Maria governor rick scott says he thinks Christopher Wray should resign as a result of the missed opportunities on the part of the fbi. What do you think . No, i mean, chris wray has been drinking from a fire hose since he took office as the director of the fbi. Hes trying to get things straight. This wouldnt have popped up on his radar. This is a fairly obscure unit in West Virginia. Perhaps it shouldnt be. I guarantee its on his radar now and he has an Inspection Team addressing the process and fixing it. It might be a training issue. It might be a an issue of consolidating of everything in one facility where they should go back to having these complaints feete fielded by the individual field offices. Well have to see. Maria the attorney general was very complementary of Christopher Wray as well in my interview on sunday, saying hes a man of integrity. The fire hose analogy is a good one, chris. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you. Maria coming up, another perk, primed and ready. Amazon gives out a new discount at whole foods. Well tell you the catch on that, coming up next. Then, get them before they disappear. How nike and snapchat are teaming up to make a slash for snap pes ors ors ecommerce bu. Back in a moment. We are never, ever, ever, getting back together. Male vo when that hurricane hit, the entire Community Came together as a whole. It was such an overwhelming response to help others. No one thought that they were going to do this before it happened and everyone just did it. I think thats the way that human nature should be looked at. Ill stand by you. Ill stand by you. Wont let nobody hurt you. Ill stand by you. I can do more to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. And i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It comes in a onceweekly, truly easytouse pen. The pen where you dont have to see or handle a needle. And it works 24 7. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take trulicity if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if youre allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or symptoms like itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. To help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. Ask your doctor if onceweekly trulicity is right for you. Maria welcome back. The Supreme Court could announce today whether to hear an appeal of a Lower Court Ruling that blocked the president s decision to end the daca program. Cheryl casone has the details. Cheryl the justices are past the normal cutoff date for accepting new cases. The administration asked the Supreme Court to review the Lower Court Ruling that blocked President Trumps efforts to end daca even before a federal Appeals Court had a chance to weigh into all of this. This whole thing is expedited now. At issue, a San Francisco based judge halted the president s order to halt daca back in january. If the justices agree to hear the appeal, they likely wont rule on the case until late june. March 5th is the date the president put out in all of this. Elon musk has been given the green light to build a an underground hyper loop in washington. The district of columbia issued a preliminary permit to musks company to start digging at an abandoned lot. This could be the first step in fulfilling musks dream of a high speed tube you could take from new york to d. C. In 29 minutes. The Amazon Effect on whole foods continues today. Starting today, whole foods shoppers who pay for groceries with an amazon prime rewards visa card gets 5 on whole food stores throughout the country. Amazon, you may recall, purchased whole foods for 14 billion last year. They promised a Loyalty Program for prime members. Earlier this month they offered free two hour delivery from whole foods to prime members in four different cities. Amazons stock is up 70 over the last year, maria. And then there is more potential fallout from amazons growing power in that sector. Two Grocery Store chains would be forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Bi daslo and tops friendly mat could close stores this month. I remember going to win dixie when i was a kid in texas. Theyre struggling right now. Maria cheryl, thank you. Amazon is shaking up the grocery business. Theyve got two channels basically. You can go to one of their stores now, whole foods everywhere, or you order online and like the win dixies of the world cant compete with that. Then you see amazon moving into whole foods. Whole foods had the reputation of whole paycheck, you couldnt afford to shop there. Amazon is changing that. People are taking a second look at whole foods now that he never could afford it before. This is so revolutionary. Maria it really is changing. It really is changing. The Single Channel stores like win dixie cant compete with the double channel that amazon offers. Dagen they can compete if they keep their prices down for their customers. Maria and they have delivery. I can tell you, i use amazon fresh, amazon direct in new york city and i love it. Part of it is because you do know what youre getting. If you shopped at whole foods, you go online, you see the produce there and you know whats going to arrive at your front door. Its fabulous. Dagen with all due respect to win dixie, never a great supermarket. Ever. You know what is . While super markets will still exist, wegmans are awesome. These are experience stores, experience stores are okay but low cost stores or convenience stores, theres no way they can compete with that. Dagen whole foods is a salad bar for people who think they care about their health. Thats what whole foods is. Its nothing but prepared food anymore. I like that. Im getting Fresh Produce from whole foods delivered to my apartment door. I love it. Its fun to pretend like youre eating healthy. Dagen amazon delivers not just from whole foods. If you get amazon fresh, they buy it at other supermarkets, i think. There are whole foods instore brands that i like. Maria another roller coaster start to the week on wall street. Futures indicate a sharp selloff. This is off of lows, down 2 3 of a percent. We take a look at what investors can do to mitigate risk amid the volatility. Could your eyes hold the secret Heart Disease . The technology from google to predict your risk of a heart attack. Back in a minute. Had to have the last word last night to know what everythings about. You had to have a white hot spotlight, you had to be a big shot last night. Hello. Hi. Hows it going . Alright, how ya doing . Welcome so, this is the allnew chevy traverse. What do ya think . This looks better than 99 of the suvs out there. Its very modern. Sleek. Maybe the most impressive part of the allnew traverse. Is whats on the inside. Surprise what are you doing here . Ive missed you guys. I havent seen you guys in so long whats happening . We flew her out. Its a family car, we had to put your family in it yeah, it gets 7 thumbs up retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. Maria welcome back. Big selloff to start the week. Were expecting stocks to open sharply lower at the opening of trading. A new report says Morgan Stanley is calling the january swing the appetizer, not the main course, for a Broader Market slide. Joining me to talk about that is main stay Capital Management ceo, david kudla. David, good to see you. Good mornin good morning. Maria do you think this is the beginning of something much bigger with the Interest Rates going higher. The 10 year yield has been up the last six of seven weeks. Do you think theres more to come . The month over month number was 5 , year of year, which is what we look at, is 2. 1 . Lets also keep in mind that Central Banks around the world have been trying to create inflation for years. Were just now starting to he sehesee it. I think the fears of anything like 1970s, 7 or 1980s 5 inflation are far overblown right now. Were getting to the levels, the benchmarks that a lot of Central Banks want to see. It bears watching. Weve seen Interest Rates come up. The 10 year treasury yield came up a half a percent in two months to close to 3 . Thats a rapid rise. A further rapid rise in rates would be problematic for stocks. Its certainly problematic for bonds. I dont think we should be overly concerned with inflation yet. Maria what are you doing right now in terms of when you see a market opening down 200, how do you deal with what is going to be a very volatile year . Well, it is going to be a volatile year many its going to its going to be a more volatile year than investors became asus told taccustomed to. We had about a quarter of the volatility that we typically see last year. Now were seeing normal volatility, maybe higher than normal the last couple weeks coming into the market. This is good for investors. Its a wakeup call that volatility to the downside as well as the upside still remains and the important thing here is for investors to take a look at their portfolio, now that theyve had this gut check, if you will, the last two months, and is it really allocated in a way that theyre comfortable with after maybe last year taking on more risk because of theit felt like it was okay to do that. There was complacency in the market dis wha did what. Dagen what would you do with a bond allocation here. Supply of treasuries, about a quarter of a trillion dollars, well have record issuance on the three month and six month treasury. You had nine fed speeches plus fed minutes this week. With that 10 year coming awfully close to 3 , what would you do with your particularly your fixed income allocation in your portfolio . Great question. Youre right, with the new issuance coming this week and the continued new issuance that will be coming, we have one of the big buyers of bonds, our own central bank, which is not buying bonds, weve gone from the flip side of that to where they are now letting their bonds run up the Balance Sheet. So we have issuance come, a a lot of demand investors should look out for treasury, high grade corporate that are Interest Rate sensitive. Weve been saying this on the show for the past year. Weve seen it in the last couple of months. Look at a floating rate vehicle. B. A. Kellen is an atf that buys floating rate instruments where the yield adjust as rates go higher. Unlike bonds that suffer, the 10 year bond down 4 this year, its in positive territory. Real briefly, talk about the opportunity in emerging markets where were talking about that this morning. There seems to be something there that investors need to revisit. What are you looking at . As we look around the world and where we see growth now and compare that to valuations, valuations are high here in the u. S. Were at about 17. 5 times on our price to earnings multiple in the s p 500. Were richly valued here but we think the u. S. Market has further to go, even after this correction. But abroad, emerging markets have lower valuations, high growth rates and real opportunity, especially with some of the commodity producers. Were seeing commodities start to strengthen. Were looking for global synchronized growth this year of 3. 6 , a rising tide lifts all boats, emerging markets that export a lot will do very well in that environment. So were looking for a good year for emerging markets. Maria u. Sand u. S. Stocks in general. U. S. Stocks in general. Lets remember, with the fears of the recent correction, look at what the u. S. Market has going for it. We have 18 earnings forecast for this year. Weve had Earnings Guidance for the First Quarter setting a new record high. We have gdp thats now running at 3 or greater compared to 2 in the first seven or eight years of the expansion and we have tax reform. Tax reform, whether it comes in the form of share buybacks, dividends, payouts to workers, reinvestment here in the business in the u. S. , that is going to be a bonanza. That will be a turbocharger for u. S. Companies, the u. S. Economy and the u. S. Stock market. Maria weve been talking about that for a while. We agree there. David, good to he see you. Thanks so good to see you. Thanks so much. Coming up, americans are getting behind trickle down tax reform, thats for sure. Everything david was just saying, weve got details on the growing support for the republican tax code overhaul from america. Plus, a magical edition to the most important meal of the day. Lucky charms announcing their first new marshmallow in a denning aid. Weldecka aid. Well have de in a decade. Well have details coming up. Maria welcome back. Good Tuesday Morning. Thank you for joining us. Im maria bartiromo. It is tuesday, february 20th. U. S. Markets back open after president s day holiday yesterday. Futures are pointing to action at the beginning of trading, a sharp selloff right out of the gate, down 172 points right now on the Dow Jones Industrial average, down almost 50 points on the nasdaq and down 17 on the s p. In europe, stocks are off of their highs of today. The dax index in germany is up 9. Fractional moves off a of the highs. In asia overnight, markets mostly lower, china is closed for the Lunar New Year. But the any kay nikkei average. Theres a mixed showing on wall street. Walmarts guidance disappointed and online sales growth slowed from the Third Quarter. Home depot reported better than expected results amid higher store traffic. Walmart shares are down 5 3 4 . Crypto comeback, bitcoin prices climbing. One bigtime investor calls the craze the biggest scam in history. Google betting big on a. I. For helhealth care. How they want to use eye scanning technology to detect Heart Disease. We have details on a deal with nike coming up. Lucky charms adding more magic. Find out the new addition to the hearts, stars and rainbows this morning. President trump tax plan gaining more public support. A new poll shows that 51 of americans approve of the republican tax law, according to the New York Times, which is up from the december reading. President trump predicted the changing sentiment back when he signed the tax bill in december. Were going to start to see that because were starting today, theyre going to start to see that in february. The numbers will speak. I consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs and jobs are produced through companies and corporations and you see that happening. Maria this coming as gop lawmakers are debating which agencies will review legislations for the tax overhaul. Several republican senators argue that the office of management and budget are involved, breaking the custom where the work is managed by the Treasury Department and irs. Tone any shrigle joins us now. Whats your take on all this . Who should oversee the tax regulation . I have no problem with o. M. B. Being involved. I think weve got good leadership in o. M. B. And why not have another set of eyes to look at this, give it an Economic Analysis and, you know, weve had so many regulations over the last how many years, eight, 12 years, that have just gone amuck and so whats the harm . Maria people dont trust the irs after the scandal a couple years ago. Its so frustrating to sit here and look at o. M. B. And treasury fight with each other. The average american says i dont care how much you distrust each other. I want somebody to own this process and do it the right way. I dont want to hear infighting between the agencies. This is the sign of an unhealthy environment. Maria how do you not control your own agencies . There are people who are working against the president within the agencies. Exactly. This is frustrating to me. I dont like more layers of bureaucracy. But my guess is, brian, that this happens in government every day, for whatever reason. That doesnt make me feel any better. Im with you there. It probably happens every day. For some reason or another this has become public, perhaps because of the history of it all or people jockeying for position on all this. Looking at the rising popularity of the tax law that was just signed into law, do you think the democrats that they kind of dug themselves a hole here, the resistance, the resistance, this is just crumbs that the American People will be disadvantaged by this and so forth. Maria they will have to defend why they voted against it. I think they have dug a very deep hole and they dont yet seem to see this. They think because raises and bonuses were being given at the first part of the year nancy pelosi called them crumbs. They think by the elections, by later this year, that that will all be forgotten. I can tell you that i can remember tax changes way back, jim florio raised taxes 2. 8 billion in 1991. People dont forget this. Now people are excuse me. Dagen finish your thought. People are looking at their paychecks. Theyre seeing 20, 40 extra a week. They wont forget that dis there dagen there are some who might get on board with rolling back the restrictions in dodd frank which would be a huge win for President Trump and a huge win for the republicans. This is something that Smaller Banks in the country have been pushing for. They have been hamstrung. They have been basically paralyzed by these dodd frank rules after the financial crisis and theyre planning on doing something about it this year. Of course, senator Elizabeth Warren is about to lose her mind over this, that any democrat could get onboard with it. But that is a real possibility. Bipartisanship and rolling back more regulations. Maria it is a big deal. I cant wait for it to happen. But if you think about dodd im a director of a bank. And if i think about what the impact has been on the Financial Institution that i sit on the board on, i cant tell you the amount of people that have been added of Accounting Firms that have been hired, the expense involved in dodd frank are phenomenal. Now, at the time did they think it was needed . Yes. But in fact, the way it has been implemented is way overbearing for Financial Institutions. Maria this is coming. Im told this will be one of the president s pl priorities in tes of understanding and communicating the changing that will come to dodd frank. Thats why businesses were sitting on cash and thats why the banks were sitting on cash. Dagen i think its important for businesses and people and individuals in this country to put pressure on their representatives, whether democrats or republicans, because these democrats are going to get Major Pressure from the likes of Elizabeth Warren. Im reading a quote thats in print today where shes like some democrats are supporting the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans on a bill to roll back the financial rules we put in place. Im amazed. Im amazed that democrats would do that. Maria it is. We know that its this rule making that basically stopped business from progressing, businesses were sitting on cash, unwilling to put the money to work because they had to hire compliance officers and lawyers. Youre cracking up. Im biting my tongue here. Why stop at dodd frank . We also have sarbanesoxley. Maria there are other industries that have seen an impact from the rollback in regs. There are other industries that havent seen anything. Lets talk telecom and media. Time warner and at t are fighting the decision to block the 85 million merger. The trial is scheduled for next month for a judge to decide whether the deal would raise prices. Wheeze your take on this, with your previous experience in the wireless communication industry. I cant imagine why the Justice Department has filed suit. This is a vertical merger. The Justice Department in the last 40 years has not taken real issue with a vertical merger. In 2011 comcast acquired Nbc Universal. What are they doing . Do you argue with if contention that thi would raise prices for consumers . This is a very competitive marketplace. I dont think that this will raise prices one bit. The agreements that were put in place when comcast acquired Nbc Universal were behavioral in nature. The Justice Department can go back and say well, these arent working, we need to revisit this. They could do the same thing with at t. At ts lawyers are scapegoating President Trump and saying they were turned down because of President Trumps public statements against them. Do you think thats a fair criticism . I don i dont know. I wont even take a guess at that. Ive heard the criticism. We all heard the criticism of cnn in particular. Some of that might be just words. The question is, was there real influence applied. I dont know. Maria i wonder how much deal making well see this year. As you see the money that companies are saving as a result of the tax plan, yeah, theyre going to give money back to employees, theyll give money back in terms of lower prices or investing in their business. They might buy back stock. They may use the savings to do deals. What do you sunshine. I think some of the what do you think . I think some of the savings will be redeployed into capital spending. I think this will be a great boom for the economy. But i also think, maria, look, if stock is bought back, thats helpful too. All of that is good for the economy. Maria im just wondering if the deal flow picks up because theyll have money to do deals as well. Banking regulation would help with that, also not pursuing really foolish doj antitrust suits would help with deal making. That could be an impediment to deal making. Im guessing deal making would increase. Its a better environment. Maria denny, good to see you. Coming up, your eyes could be the key to Heart Disease. How googles new technology can predict your risk of a heart attack. Wait until you hear this. Just snap it. Nike teams up with snapchat for the latest sneaker release. What the deal could mean for the future of the social media company. Back rights here. I really want to dance the night away. I know were only halfway there but you take me all the way. You take me all the way. Maria welcome back. Google is developing a Heart Disease test that looks into your eyes. Cheryl casone has the details. Cheryl goo get igoogle is us initiaartificial intelligence to predict if someone is likely to have a stroke or heart attack through the eyes. They are using retinal images andal he gro algorithms. Google says the test is still in development but its optimistic it can be used to test for other diseases like cancer. Shares of googles parent, alphabet, are slightly lower in the premarket. A major collaboration between four companies after sunday nights allstar game. Any knike released air jordanss at the allstar after party. Members could purchase the shoes using a new ser service. The shoes sold out in 23 minutes. They were delivered the same day with yet another collaborative delivery service. Shares of snap trading lower in the premarket. That stock is down more than 5 . Theyve added new design features. A lot of people dont like them. Snap agreed to restore the original design after they got beat up on social media. Lets take a look at nike. Shares were up 21 over the past year. If youre having serial a cereat now, you might like this store. Lucky charms added a new marshmallow for the first time in a decade. It is a unicorn. It was chosen by little boys and girls. They did a contest for this. Shares of General Mills are down 5 from a year ago but you know, all things corn, the kids love them. Well see. Maria we have breaking news. We want to get this tweet out. President trump just tweeted. Were bringing it to you now. There is no serious person out there who would suggest some how that you could even americas election even rig americas elections. There is no evidence that has happened in the past or that it has happen this time. I would invite mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes. What . The president obama quote just before the election. He thought crooked hillary was going to win and he didnt want to rock the boat. When i easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the russian excuse became the narrative of the dems. The president tweeting out this morning as you can see. Ill have to unpack that one a little bit. We didnt know he was quoting obama. Maria he was quoting president obama in the tweet. It was confusing. He continues to insist, theres meddling but it didnt affect the outcome. Dont blame the outcome of the election on the russians. Dagen if the meddling started in 2014, i think its right to ask what happened under the Obama Administration. Social Media Companies have said in terms of the impressions of this campaign by russia, 56 of them were after the election, 44 before the election. Maria so much noise around this. I think the American People are on to it. Its all noise. Its important for all of us to get to the bottom of what russia was doing and what they planned to do and i think its fair to call President Trump to crack down on Vladimir Putin, call him out for what hes doing, whether its doping his athletes at the winter games, to trying to manipulate the United States, call him out. If theres anything that russia doesnt want, its President Trumps policies, especially the drill, drill, drill policy. Oil independence, they dont want that. Maria the amount of volume that will come out of the u. S. In terms of output, natural gas, its going to be incredible. Thats going to hurt oil prices and impact russia. So his policies are completely against Vladimir Putin. Dagen were the number one exporter of refined product and he Petroleum Product in the world now. We import very little oil and natural gas into this country. Tweet more about that, President Trump. Maria when we come back, bitcoin is bouncing back this morning, hitting the highest level since january. Why the cryptocurrency craze is regaining some of its shine. Back in a minute. Oh, manatees. Aka the sea cow oh theres one. Manatees in novelty ts . Surprising. Whats come at me bro . Its something you say to a friend. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Today, smart planning is helping the new new york rise higher than ever. 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Xfinity x1, yeah, i always know the scor. Triple corks in 4k. Lookin so sick. Stream live on every screen, every win, every trick. 2000 hours of coverage, get your mind blown. 50 olympic channels, yup, youre in the zone. And if theres something that you want to see, pick up that voice remote and just say show me. Experience nbcuniversals coverage of the olympic winter games like never before with xfinity. Proud partner of team usa. Maria welcome back. The crypto craze is back. Bitcoin is back up 11,000 for the first time this weekend since january. There was a start selloff last month. Joining us to talk about is gilak pelintruva. You thinke think bitcoin is heag bacback to 20,000. We saw a huge runup in december alone. Were back to where we were probably in early december. I think it hit 10,000 over thanksgiving. So im a big believer in the longterm prospects of the cryptocurrency. Maria theres a story this morning saying that bitcoin rise as south korea regulators show support for trading. Basically south korea wants to see normal trading in digital tokens, they say. Thats one of the reasons. Thats the big problem for bitcoin is the regulatory uncertainty, even in the United States youre starting to see that. What do you think about this . Does bitcoin need the regulation that the countries are talking about or is this unhelpful meddling on whats going on in the market . What we saw in 2017 was the wild west. None of the Crypto Trading was regulated. You had new cryptocurrencies being issued almost on a daily basis, where they would just open up a cryptocurrency wallet and be open for business and people would be sending millions of dollars to these crypto wallets. So i think some regulation is good. Dagen what was the danger of that, getting back to brians question. Did that need to be regulated or was free market and the technology itself enough of a policing . We saw bitcoin go from 1,000 earlier in 2017 to 20,000 at the end of the year. So people just kind of piled in, thinking all these other cryptocurrencies were going to appreciate in the same manner. What people didnt realize was that bitcoin has been around since 2009. Theres a lot of Underlying Technology development thats happened which makes it more robust, which makes it more secure than all these other cryptocurrencies out there. Dagen time and again, almost week after week, just last week cryptocurrency worth 170 million goes missing from an italian exchange. Pump and dump schemes galore because its unregulated. Thats one of the huge issues. And again, lawmakers are going to step in and do something about it, even here in the United States its being discussed. Those of us in the industry welcome that because we want the bad actors out. We believe in the Underlying Technology and the fact that this is created to make sure that we dont have too many intermediaries in the process. Intermeait leads to higher feese fraud, more error. The idea behind cryptocurrency is to start weeding some of that out of this system and we want to make sure that the average person can benefit from this great new technology, just like the internet. Maria do you use bitcoin in your personal life . I own some bitcoin. I dont use it for transfers of capital. Now, i do have several Portfolio Companies in the future perfect ventures portfolio that are in the emerging markets that actually use it on a daily basis to pay their people, to the nigeria, china corridor is a big one for transactions. Maria thank you so much for that. Well be right back. [fbi agent] youre a brave man, mr. Stevens. Your testimony will save lives. Mr. Stevens . This is your new name. This is your new house. And a perfectly inconspicuous suv. You must become invisible. [hero] ill take my chances. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. But some of us make somethinge make sommuch more. Dinner. E. Mom would be proud. With blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do. Maria welcome back. Good Tuesday Morning happy tuesday i am maria bartiromo. Thanks for joining us this morning. It is tuesday, february 20, your top stories right now 8 00 a. M. On the east coast. Einvestors are seeing red this morning futures pointing to sharp deadline right out of the gate dow s p 500 off a 6 session winning streak looks like snapped this morning at open, anyway down twothirds of a per cent on dow staying with nasdaq and s p 500 earnings in focus once again, mixed showing from some blue chip retailers walmart home depot Fourth Quarter numbers walmart guidance disappointed online sales flowed from Third Quarter walmart at lows down 6 1 3 home depot betterthanexpected results amid higher traffic that stock up in europe hovering near flatline ft 100 down 13 cac quarante up 8 dangs next up 20, fractional moves in eurozone this morning, in comraisht, right across the board, the chinese market, remaining closed for the Lunar New Year majors down across the board. Supporting tax bill a poll Shows Majority of americans are now behind President Trumps historic reform something he predicted would happen. I am going to start to see that because signing the we start to see that in february, the numbers of speak. I consider this very much a bill for the middle class a bill for jobs. Jobs are produced through companies and corporations you see that happening. The president just tweeted own reform this morning saying this, republicans are now leading the generic poll because of tax cuts dem want to take away actually they want to raise your taxes, substantiallying also they want to do nothing on daca republicans want the fix more on support coming up this morning, a big mistake leaves kfc xhefrz squawking after fastfood giant forced to close more than half stores in the uk, after they ran out, of chicken. Yes, plus volkswagen hitting gas on selfdriving cars in a big way the latest as new car drops Steering Wheel check out wheels, from item about blz to upset how olympics are turning into a disaster for nbc wait till you hear ratings on olympians all coming up this troouz morning joining me to talk about it Fox Business Network dagen mcdowell, Kings College business economics professor brian, ras missen reports political analyst amy holmes good to see you. Good morning. Watching olympics. I have not. There you go. What were doing poorly compared to years past is kind of k did he pressing. The reason not a lot of interest. There is probably a lot of other reasons. Also, i didnt like it when i was hearing athletes saying i wont meet with President Trump wont go to white house politics injected a patriotic moment not again. Dagen i havent seen a minute of coverage, not a minute. I watched a little skating, i did ice skating beautiful. One woman had a real wardrobe malfunction. Dancing, who knew . Almost sexy as singing National Anthem [laughter] coming up top story rising support for the tax overhaul americans positive there could be a battle with the gop over new regulations receipted to tax code changes, blake burman at white house blake we are working on why the agencies are vying for who is in charge of writing the tax legislation is it going to be treasury irs . Or the omb . Reporter a couple calls on this, this morning maria without getting too much into the weeds, of tax policy, regulation here in washington essentially youve got office of management and policy and budget controls regulation implementation process in d. C. Then you got Treasury Department irs overseeing implementation of this new tax code, so it is it is the folks at treasury irs saying look get this done quickly we are to ones to drive this but then youve got omb saying hey this is our lane here we are the ones that oversee regulation you kind of got a few different entities here, i guess you could say battling it out as washington tries to maneuver the complex process of the new tax code, and the regulations with it. Speaking of the tax code there is a new poll out, that shows basically what the administration thought all along as starts to get rolled out would it become more popular with americans this new poll from surveymonkey shows half country is now in favor of this tax plan 39 against it when you dig into the numbers,there are low democratic support but 11 jump among democrats, and nine in 10 republicans now support this tax plan. It is pretty much maria a Straight Line up since december, when this was rolled occupant, according to this same surveymonkey poll 37 americans sported this in december that jumped to 46 last month then crossed, the 50 threshold this month. Argument from the administration has been hey look once february happens, once people start to see more in paychecks it will become more popular this one poll, says so. Sure does people are seeing the skra money in paychecks, blake burman with the latest there joining us to weigh in on that, cohost of five Juan Williams here good to see you reaction to increased support of the tax plan. A steady line and i think it is as President Trump predicted, thank you know, when you look at it you say wait a sick me even people dpt a tax cut only half this can it is a good idea what that is about you have to then understand that if you dig into the numbers you were just hearing one there is a very sharp partisan split two when American People look at it dont think that the tax benefits should disportionly go to rich and corporation. They dont because you are taking about a Corporate Tax plan, in business plan, with the intention of creating an environment to businesses hire more workers knee clearly what President Trump was elected on draining swamp taking on wall street not coddling hedge fund guys, at expense of o working people he was supposed to be for the forgotten. All carried carried interest loophole stayed in you are right about that. Polling from december it wasnt people concerned benefits going to top end earners half people thought their taxes were going up complete misinformation. Sure. Now because actually i am getting a tax cut i think i like this nice information who was getting a cut people said i dont like bill i this i my taxes are no, they are no the. Why was that case you had the left out in force calling it crumbs calling it you know not a good plan nancy pelosi a couple weeks ago watch this. In terms of the bonus that Corporate America received he versus the crumbs that they are giving kind of put schmooze on is so pathetic it is so pathetic. Not pathetic anymore i dont think. That is smart of nancy pelosi to call a 1,000 dollar bonus crumbs a multiamerican congresswoman from San Francisco. Not crumbs to most people i will say not most people getting 1,000 dollars the percentage to be fair to her percentage that is showing up in paychecks as opposed to dividends statements right about that. Maria what not right about it come on defending crumbs comment. Im sorry. Are you really defending nancy pelosi. Yes, i think if you look at it as matter of Pure Analytics crumbs the working person gets versus what what about steady deduction about doubled. That is fine. Maria that is fine . Part of the tax plan, you cant just say selective that is fine doesnt matter but this matters all 2 same law. That dispositive portionly benefits one class 50 supporting it you keep arguing well this year lots of workers are going to see the benefits of standard deduction you are going to see actually, some pay raises but, again, a small percentage lower taxes. Dagen percentage 0 workers are 90 workers seeing higher wages of all he workers more to say juan like, your tax cuts bigger than somebody who lives in my hometown because you make more money than they do that is basically math. Right you also. Dagen that is what you are saying. Maria like i the best argument on your side i think maria made this improving economic Environment Companies want to invest companies are giving some bonuses, pyou however proportion some bonuses to me the benefit. Most people taxes went down. Let me answer this i think at this point as you excite the economy you can see wall street having blips and flips, because guess what you are seeing gains in terms of prospects inflation going to undo whatever little krucrumbs, are benefited. Is it smart of democrats to be the one hundred Percent Party of resistance calling bonuses crumbs voting against tax cuts when you see that polling data that is approval is going up, and even priority usa big Democratic Left lean pack say dplalths have to be for something not just against. I love it no, i think that is right i think what you see in immediate is that it is also Party Preference in congress now going back towards the republicans. And to the republicans and even to the pollsters i think it is gwhat is the change the taxes part of it Public Perception is hurt when you have democrats seemingly against something one says i could are i did get a little bit of a tax cut. President trump calling out former president obama for not doing enough to prevent russian interference into u. S. Elections, so the achieve took to twitter,on was present why didnt done something about russia meddling quoted former president obama this morning, in a series of tweets says there is no segers person out there who he would suggest that you could relying american elections no evidence this is happening in the past or that it i will happen this time, and so i oversight mr. Trump, to stop whining and make his case to get votes, this is what president obama said, the president obama, quote happened before election, and that is because he thought crooked hillary was going to win and he didnt want to rock the boat, when i easily won Electoral College whole game changed. Your thoughts. Unbelievable what goes on in american politics, you know, to me, the biissg issue yu see President Trump reacting so devihe defensively. American president ial candidate mitt romney during 2012 election watch this. Governor romney i am glad that you recognize that alqaida is a threat because a few months ago when you were asked biggest gee will play threat facing america you say russia not alqaida you said you russia 180s following for Foreign Policy bet the cold war has been over 20 years. Nice toughness there, but really romney was right. Romney was right. Maria radio look what russia just did undermined our elections. I agree but i do think that what you saw in that context was america concern at the time of terrorism alqaida what was to come the idea we have to figure out a way to deal with instatement formal entd in middle east. Russia was trying to undermine the west. They still are, and still are, romney was right. To my way of thinking, both in Trump Exchange that we saw with obama, and in the romneyobama debate i think what you see russia coming on, and doing things in new ways attacks have put us at war not confused with a battlefield foe that really was alqaida, and the threat of terrorism. Maria thoughts . Dagen i was going to say this is my last election after my election i have more flexibility president obama to president medvedev, finalous quote any tell you famous quote. Dagen talk about getting tough. Why didnt President Trump impose sanctions congress passed. Dagen treasurer working on him Steve Mnuchin last week i think right now you have a fence where among democrats regret that president obama fearful that he would be seen as putting his hand on the scale or helping Hillary Clinton was not more effective in communicating to us the American People, what was going on with russia as President Trump points out this started in 14 even before running. Dont forget john podesta brother tony podesta Consulting Firm big business trying to get u. S. To remove sanctions against russia, about defending russians that is Tony Podesta John Podesta tony Podesta Podesta group. Tony not john but both owned firm. They owned the firm together. I think tony had is tony is a big owner not john. Maria point is they were working forget russians. Yikes i get your point i hope you see are what i am saying too. Maria ask u Juan Williams. Well be right back florida hig school 17 people gunned down last week planning to reopen if phases beginning friday Cheryl Casone with details cheryl that is right Marjory Stoneman douglas going to open, on sunday a voluntary orientation that students and parents can attend, to kind of get everyone ready for reopening going to reassume classes next tuesday but going to be a modified schedule. Meanwhile, students across south florida are heading to the state capital today to call for gun laws President Trump a listening session about High School Students, and teachers, meantime according to new abc News Washington post poll 77 say that Better Mental Health monitoring treatment could have prevented the parkland shooting, also 77 say congress is not doing enough to try to stop such shootings, 62 say the same, of President Trump that he is not doing enough. Well, we are watching shares of walmart dow component sharply lower in the premarket, there it is down more than 6 adding about 50 points off dow when they opened just came out with earnings, they missed estimates revenue did beat expectations excuse me but walmart saying growth online sales slowed last quarter going headtohead against amazon trying to come up with new initiatives doesnt look like helping enough different story for home depot, take a look at this the Company Latest adjusted earnings beating expectations top and bottom line home depot raised dividends nearly 16 home depot also dow component ralths news in premarket up more than 2 1 4 walmart the one to watch, qualcomm is upping its bid to buy chip maker nxp raised 44 billion to win support from shareholders to fundamentaled off potential 122billiondollar take over from broadcom said it would withdraw if qualcomm raised its offer to purchase nxp, over last year broadcome up 18 qualcomm up 14 interesting, right. Maria sure is. Cheryl way to fend off hostile takeover. Maria thank you. We break this guy out right now, tweet from president this morning, here is what he says hope are those great state he pennsylvania challenge new pushed congressional map, all the way to Supreme Court if necessary your original was correct dont let dems take elections away from you to raise taxes, and waste money we take a break kfc in crisis how chicken he shortage shuddering 80 of the fast food store fronts in britain. Low tv ratings details on lackluster response later this hour right here. Call my name. Maria welcome back, get this a study claims over 60 baby boomers more concerned about running out of money during retirement, than they are of dying. This comes after Economic Policy institute report, showed that for workers new retirement age median amount of savings just 17,000 dollars joining us financial expert author of retire inspired chris hogan good to see you thanks so much for joining us wow people do not have money in savings retirement really low numbers. Really is, not actually that shocking to me case agency i travel the country speaking i am hearing from people that they dont have enough, hearing from people they believe samestore sales is Social Security will provide them enough that causes alternative ive got to keep doing what i am doing beating drum to help wake up understand the reality, you cannot allow fear to dominate you fear is real you have to plug into is a plan that will actually work i wouldnt especially since Social Security going out of business, dagen we talked about every day. Right even medicare runs off the money absolutely, but chris, again, translating that fear like you said into passion. It is really is, and taking the right actions are the most important things like regardless of where you are, there are things that you can do. I can start to understand your income how much is coming in, versus what is going out, what does it take for you to live on establishing a budget will help give inconsiderately understanding number one threat to dreams taking about debt you have to understand, that the average car payment around 600 dollars average used car payment 400 average mortgage payment 1100 dollars a reality for people. You start to factor in credit cards the average income 24 going tos Consumer Debt people need to get more intentional take more control over areas that they can, debt budging two things can control we have to wake up get started. My question what about housing cries how this might impact People Retirement planning a lot of people thought their retirement was in rising home value in 20h 2008, 2009 wiped out. I still believe owning home American Dream people overbought allowed themselves emotional bought too mutual based on bad guidance from Real Estate Agent or bank if you bought too much home you cant afford it, lets engage with the Real Estate Agent look to see, can you sell the home can you downsize . Maybe you go back to renting, but i think people need to be aware regardless of the decisions you he made in the past, you still have control over your future it is about understanding your options. Chris we are talking about baby boomers worried are millennials worried enough about retirement strikes me probably not thinking about it missing a chance to put money away now when they can actually do something about it. Brian i couldnt agree more my friend why i am traveling around to get millennial wake up understand the opportunities, plugging in utilizing a 401 k or 403b now while in early 20s will truly set them up, to be on millionaire status later in life we have to help understand it we have to help them to understand the importance of taking that control yourself putting that aside not just up to match but investing 15 of your income, and let it sit there, it is not a home down payment it is not money for a wedding this is money for your dreams for later. So if we can get them to see this and understand it i truly think we can help more people, start enjoying dreams in 50s not he 70s. Good point. Dagen i agree with you one marriage thing chris wedding dumbest waste of money if you can extract. Telling that to couple. Dagen if you can extract from relatives parents all the people might show up i am not going to make you buy me a gift just send a check you dont have to come to wedding we will elope. I know that now, but getting ready for the wedding. Dagen after first marriage i know that almost [laughter] dont waste your money just kidding chris. No but you bring up a good point you do bring up a good point we do have go into things really understand, it bes long term impact of days decision financially you are right weddings people typically overspend 25 to 30, 40,000 dollars one day, that is a wedding, i know you have many years of life to live together, so going in eyes wideopen make decisions set limits. Send the check to this couple the wedding. Thank you. Thank you. Chris hogan joining us there coming up i will speak with repeal Deputy White House press secretary coming up weigh in on numbers going to talk about special counsel muellers case against michael flinl immigration a lot more albertsons gearing up to purchase riteaid the rest how he retailers are changing in age of amazon it is completely changing the market, back in a minute. This is a tomato you can track from farm, to pot, to jar, to table. And serve with confidence that its safe. This is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. This is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently tracked from port to port. This is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. Built to run on the ibm cloud. Maria welcome back. Goodtize morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Im maria bartiromo. Tuesday, about february 20 top stories right now 8 30 a. M. On the east coast. U. S. Markets back open this morning, after the president s day holiday yesterday we are going to on with a boom on downside down 200 points out of the gate apparently futures indicating a decline of 189 points three quarters of 1 one of the problems there, walmart shaving 50 points off dow case earnings, quarter below estimates in europe this morning, stocks off the highs of the day, to look ft 100 down 20 points cac quarante and redaction next up just a fraction, well off the highs, and asia overnight markets mostly lower china closed for Lunar New Year shanghai composite closed majors down 1 appease, as you can see, about there, earnings in focus on wall street, mixed bag, from blue chip retailers walmart home depot walmart guidance disappointing, also, the Company Online sales growths from Third Quarter stoke down 7 and a third selling off selling off quickly this morning, that is going to be the main healighligt home depot betterthanexpected results amid higher store traffic that stock up 1 2 walmart down 7 you dont see that a lot albertsons mays it if i recall will inquire rest of Riteaid Walgreens does not already own riteaid up. 44 a share going to kfc without chicken in the chain facing serious he shortages in uk they had a shortage of chicken forcing them to close stores the details coming up, and not so perfect 10 for u. S. Olympics winter games a dud for nbc daily details later this hour top stories new questions in about russia probe this morning, a federal judge is now asking special counsel Robert Muellers team to provide court with evidence that it may have withheld prosecuting former National Security advisory Michael Flynn pled guilty to making falls statement to fbi issued by Emmet Sullivan could raise questions about flynns dplt plea delivered same day mueller indicted 1 russian nationals for interfering in 2016 Election White House Principal Deputy press secretary raj shah thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on interesting from judge sullivan we know Michael Flynn pled guilty to falls statement to the fbi now judge is saying wait by want to see all evidence surrounding this development, how did you know that he was talking to a Russian Ambassador on the phone . It is leading to new questions about the leaks. Right you know i havent seen judge sullivans order, we have reviewed the over actions from the special counsel from friday, the indictments, you know our main takeaway from thoindictments because this began in 2014, continues after the election, that it is primary purpose was not about swaying the election one way or the other, but really more focused on sowing discord in the election process when you support Bernie Sanders jill stein others,you know, it goes to show the primary purpose was about sowing discord we have been cooperation with special counsel you prooirz breezy going to continue to do that, as the president has said, from day one we think that the friday announcements just reinforced this there was no collusion there is going to be no finding of wrongdoing. Right but also felonies have already occurred, people would like to see accountability, i mean one of the concerns, flynn plea deal leaked phone about conversations i asked attorney general Jeff Sessions where is the accountability, and pressed him on elaboration veterinarying Michael Flynns case we know already a felony, leaked classified information how they play in department of justice here is what he had to say. That is a violation of the law to leak classified documents, and it is being investigated. I will say this. There are last two years, before i became attorney general each year three open investigations of classified leaks. Now we have 27. We are going after this aggressively, i have directed it personally some matters involved this matter, and some of it is a matter that i am not recused on we are pursuing. What is your reaction raj, 27 open cases of classified leaks. Well, there have been a surge in leaks of classified information. Since this president has come into office. I think the department of Homeland Security recently said well over 160 in the last year. We think a very troubling development, we think classified information is classified for a reason this is our nations secrets, and for officials in various agencies to leak that information to press is very large undermines National Security threatens safety livelihood of americans think attorney general taking right step investigating this we want to deter leaks prosecuting individuals who endangering National Security. Also told me there are investigations under way of abuses to the fisacourt so we want to hear the developments on that as well. Given, the developments that we have understood at fbi, and how they presented the dossiers evidence in terms of using to wildfire tap we will wait on that i want to switch gears to listening session president is doing with High School Students and teachers in parkland, florida tomorrow, the president signaled is open to improving background system a reasonabling what can we expect on issue of zbunz. Tomorrow one listening session involving students local School Officials teachers parents people who you know would be could be affected by types of tragedies, we are seeing a rise in a number of School Shootings, that is very, very troubling. And on thursday going to be meeting with local policy makers, School Officials local Law Enforcement that deal with these issues we want to learn hear president wants to listen, if you look at the situation, in the florida you had a scenario in which a troubled individual whats been wildly identified by local Law Enforcement, other students in the school had identified him flagged him own aunt had called fbi about his conduct dangers he posed yet nothing was done we want to understand about what was breakdown in our systems whether Law Enforcement issue whether it is state local federal issue at many levels, and the other thing president talked be talked with senator john cornyn on friday about improving background check system ways in which we can strengthen it senator cornyns legislation introduced last year when air force did not enter information into our National Background check system so ways in which we can prevent, we can identify troubled individuals ways in which we can prevent you know, we cans ensure the information is going across government and going across right authorities, that when folks go to buy a firearm should not be, we know in time. Maria we want to know really president priorities at this point i noi know emissioimmigra there refrigerator, changes to doddfrank in terms of regulation next six months what are president s priorities. All the issues that you he mentioned as well as School Safety, are priorities, for this president i think on some there is going to be bipartisan support, i think we can potentially get democrats to vine on to School Safety measures sign on to measures to improve our nation infrastructure 1. 5 trilliondollar plan work with state local governments on on issue of immigration going to fire democratic support, we saw senate failed to act, on the president s framework as well as other bills, that have been put together, we want to deal with issue of daca also need to secure our southern border with wall with Additional Border agents new legal authorities for department of Homeland Security. Maria right. As well as ending visa lottery system there are a lot of issues we want to confront we are optimistic about next about 6 to 8 months before election season kicks in full gear. Maria right. That we can get some of the things done. Immigration Supreme Court could announce as early as today whether it will take up a Lower Court Opinion that temporarily blocked the president effort to end deferred action for Childhood Arrivals Program daca is this white house hopefully the Supreme Court will take up this case . What should we expect on daca. If president ended daca president that president obama created a few years ago because it was unconstitutional it was Illegal Program only congress and president have the right through legislation to make Immigration Law you just cant take a whole class of individuals say you are not going to enforce the law with them the president showed leadership introduced a plan 1. 8 Million People getting a passion to legal status eventual citizenship a fix to legal and illegal immigration systems in our country, that need reform, permanent solution we want to see the Supreme Court you know follow the constitution, follow the law, in our view and in the attorney generals view, and you know enforce of our mauch 5 deadline. Maria they are not agreeing to doing away with these overseas lottery and chain migration bill right isnt that it is up fortunate we havent hit deadline congress tends to take action when we move deadlines never beforehand set this six months ago seems they sat on hands four or five months now beginning to debate the issue begin to take votes we are still about optimistic something can getdone before massive 5. They did have a deal on table the president said he was where he was didnt want to negotiate anymore lets be specific. First of all, first of all, not changing your position is is always a sound and try negotiating tactic the murder you are talking about had a terrible provision in there basically said, that Immigration Law federal Immigration Law couldnt be enforced prior to june 30 of this year. So that means for the next few months if people crossed border illegally come into United States we cannot enforce federal law could not export them if we caught them what does that do . Invites millions of people drug smuglers ms1 a lot of folks that we dont want with notion they are not going to be deported if they make it across prior to june 30 a nonstarter. We cant send anybody back now right . Yeah look, i mean. Maria Homeland Security on show told us somebody comes to the border we cant send them back narrow. We have a broken system right now, basically policy called catch and release in which if individuals caught crossing border basically get a Court Date Set free if they dont show up so be it that is us not the a solution to the problem, it you. Maria raj. And one and the president not going to sign bill doesnt fix you know that that with a host of other things, weve got to fix the problem just signing something for the sake of signing something, then walking up to problem, or having the same problem few years from now is not a solution. Maria quick let me get tweet out president tweeted while we were talk he i have been much you toufrp on russia than obama just look at facts the total fake nice where does president stand on complementing sanctions on russia. Tweet deadon entirely correct has been much tougher on about russia than president obama was from arduous unify crain with weapons supporting campaign in sir last week called kau out russia for the largest thank you weve got to go, about sorry about that raj. I want you to pick a new truck for your mom or dad, knowing that they could possibly pass it down to you one day. Cool. But before you decide, you should know that chevy silverados are the most dependable, longest lasting fullsize pickups on the road. Which means that ford f150s are not. laughs which truck would you pick . The chevy. The chevy. The chevy. There you go. Boom. That was obvious. Plus it looks cooler. No doubt about it. Now they know what to get me. laughs its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. And snoring . Does your bed do that . Dont miss the final days of the ultimate sleep number event save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed with adjustable comfort on both sides. Ends sunday. Visit sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. To acquire rest of riteaid gerry willis looking at that, and sharply lower opener. This is looking brutal this morning largely because of concerns overseas from asia, and, of course, earnings from walmart but here is whating going own with albertsons buying rest of riteaid a portion walgreens left on table we dont have a price tag on this right now the combined value of the company according to the wall street journal 24 billion dollars, now executives are saying this is response to heightened competition from amazon, bought whole foods last summer remember walmart trying harder harder, to have a presence, all three pharmacies now doing deals this is riteaid in this, about walgreens wlooig riteaid a drug directorate amere so as you bergen new company 49 stores 4300 pharmacies dig in Competitive Industry maria back to you maria thank you so much we check later the number of mens fit to serve in military, is actually dwindling Cheryl Casone with details. Cheryl right pentagon could be facing a recruitment nightmare over this new study bn Heritage Foundation found that two third of americans, 70 to 24 dont neither standards for enlistment more than 70 obese have criminal records or lack the necessary education that they need on top of that Unemployment Rate harder to fill ranks could complicate the pentagon plans to recruit new soldiers next five years starbucks with eye cask beverage changes colors before your eyes butterfly plemonade cold brew from tea on bob mueller layer from butterfly flaur flower available in asia shares fallen more than 1 past year check out, the concept car volkswagen a selfdriving electric car id viseon unveiled next month, the a better powered car part 6 company plan to add electric motors by 2030 trying to put emissions he scandal behind them rallied more than 35 the past year, and, finally, this, a series backlash a New York Times peace about yoga pants, editor says women only wearing he pants because sexy not because comfortable, women over 30 should stick to classic sweatpants twitter hates this one user my favorite anybody one no one is requiring anyone to wear yoga pants, two, a lot of women bike wearing yoga pants three yes, they allow for flexibility to see if posed correctly four do better New York Times oh, my god, headlines. [laughter], what aned idion. Give me a break. All right. Want my to weigh in on this . No, we are getting on ratings all right, be right back. Sw lovpz team usa won 12 metals ratings to sink from games Lauren Simonetti with details. You know the olympics have not been that he entertaining not a lot of interest they wrap up this weekend, team usa could faithful the lowest metal count, trailing norway, trailing germany, canada as well as the netherlands, we have less than haef metals as in sochi in 2014 could be worst since 1992 the most ever athletes 244 athletes to south korea what is the problem . A lot of performances disappointing including a 22yearold skier chasing five gold already pulled out of two races not going to compete in downhill wants to rest up focus on thursdays prime combined moved because of the weather the weather has been another issue in the games this year. And take a look at figure skater a disastrous Short Program 17th place recovered in free skate you saw his record six quad jumps see him in beijing next olympics what is playing out on screen unfortunate. Do you think nbc should be worried. Absolutely a disaster for them weekend ratings down double digits from sochi, they paid a record 4. 4 billion dollars to broadcast the games, through 2020, then extended that for almost 8 billion dollars, through 2032. So you have ratings down, then spending all this money and just competing news events they need to cover School Shooting in florida. That is unfshl n uncomfortable. They are so far ahead in time you find out results of events often the restrictions, that they put on showing video, maybe you want to promote olympics letting other news organizations show video more, because showing photos of him following photos. I want to see four spins in a performance, the politics that infecting media hyping kim jonguns sister the yeah political. Lindsey vonn made comments not going to white house i think overall a bigger issue of not much. Not the a lot of interest bottom line. Thank you. Sure. We will be right back. No, please, please, oh shrieks in terror heavy breathing and snorting no, no. The running of the bulldogs . Surprising. Maria have a great day, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. All right. Maria brian broken brendberg and amy holmes. Ashley do not adjust tv set, i am ashley webster. Stu is not here today. Hopefully stu will be back tomorrow. Not making money, here is the big story, the market back from threeday weekend and we are looking at lower open, tripledigit losses, down 175 on the futures for the dow, but to put all of this in perspective, the market coming off the best weeks of the years and the losses we are looking at less than 1 . Walmart will be definitely dragging the dow down about 50 points. The stock as you can see off 7 in the premarket. They are seeing stiffer