questions about the deal s possible anticompetitive effects. if it survives the scrutiny of regulators, it could end up being one of the biggest tech acquisitions in history. that deal is all but certain to draw a lot of attention here in washington, and all eyes will be on the recently appointed head of the federal trade commission, lena khan. for more, let s bring in columnist for the new york times and co-anchor of cnbc s squawk box, rrowed him for a f moments. he ll be speaking with chair lina khan in an interview. it ll stream live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on cnbc.com. that s a big get, joe. that is a huge get. but not as big of a get as having the real morning andrew with us. so exciting to have you here, andrew.
big deal, they ve stumbled. they ve had a harder time with messaging. they had a rebellion in their own party with build back better and voting rights. we ve seen the president s poll numbers really slip here. we have now seen omicron come back with questions as to whether they were ready with testing, even though vaccines, of course, are out there. they look at this moment, news conference today, one-year mark tomorrow, as a chance for a little reset. white house chief of staff ron klain told me for the piece that they understand that the public would not give the president a passing grade yet. there s a lot of work to be done on things like inflation and on the pandemic. the pieces of his agenda are still outstanding. he said, look, it s a four-year term, not a one-year term. they think the challenges were great when biden took office, that it s not a question of aiming too big. he says more work is to be done. sam stein, this morning, there is new polling out on biden s first year
you were right, the test about whether somebody is a monopoly or whether there is an antitrust issue has only, and almost exclusively, been about whether the consumer is being harmed, and typically in the context of prices. for example, when it comes to an amazon, we all look around and go, well, it looks good to us because prices are cheaper. therefore, this is not a problem. facebook, it doesn t cost us anything, or doesn t look like it costs us anything. in fact, is it really costing us something in the context of it costs more to advertise. the businesses trying to get on the platforms. it becomes an exclusive club for suppliers. that s what this is all about. in the context of microsoft and this activision deal, the question is whether people will look at it in a different way this time around. can t wait to see this interview. andrew ross sorkin, always great to see you. so good to see you. i miss you. yeah. we miss you, too, over there on squawk box. over here. yes.
couldn t they buy it, but do they go to washington, the big other tech companies, and say, no, no, no, we can t have this right now? that s going to be an interesting thing to see. and if you see lina khan go after the deal, what it means for antitrust writ large. interestingly, the gaming industry, which i have not realized, i m not a gamer myself, i don t know if you re gamers. i m not. it s actually a fractured business, meaning, it s not microsoft and activision together, it s not like it creates a behemoth that owns 80% of the gaming business, but the question is whether there is a redefinition of how we think about markets. that s what lina khan is looking at right now. she is no longer just looking at, is it going to be cheaper or better for consumers in the short term and long term. she has a new matrix for thinking about what happens to labor, what happens to cost. i mean, she s looking at a much bigger landscape. sam?
so it s a baaning act. what do you want? there are concerns the signals could interfere with critical cockpit technology the pilots need to fly the big birds in the sky. 5g service is still going to go live for the rest of the country today. we re getting the latest from nbc news correspondent tom costello. reporter: with the clock ticking down to the nationwide 5g rollout, a last-minute deal to avoid an airline crisis. at&t and verizon both say they will temporarily limit or delay turning on 5g cell towers that are close to certain airports. the announcement comes after ten airline ceos urged the white house to intervene, warning of catastrophic disruptions affecting hundreds of thousands of airline passengers. if a 2 mile buffer zone isn t created around airport 5g sites. president biden applauded the agreement, coming after years of political infighting involving the fcc, faa, the airlines,