Hanging over the presidency. And lets not forget the dismissive, mocking eye roll from Cnns Anderson Cooper during his interview with kellyanne conway. Eye roll, really . You get the point. The heavily leftleaning, antitrump media is pushing the view that the president s days in office are numbered. They really believe this is watergate. Well, you make up your own mind. Investors clearly disagree. The dow closed at 20,943 as the news of comeys firing was washing through the markets. Investigators do not believe the event will interfere with the president s growth agenda. Not at this point. You see whats going on here . The media is whipping up a political firestorm. They want you to believe that the presidency was stolen. I guess thats politics. Wall street, the world of money, not listening. Stocks across the board remain at alltime highs. Its great to be back. Varney company is about to begin. Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back. Warm and fuzzy. Stuart thats welcome back kotter. Yes, it is. Stuart i go back that far. The gang is with me as well. Ashleys back from his assignment in paris. He calls that an assignment. [laughter] im back from what i was going to call a vacation. It was my daughters wedding. A lot of you have been asking where have i been. Well, my daughters wedding. Youll hear a lot more about that in our next hour. Lets get serious. First, lets get to your money. A slightly lower open for stocks this morning. Youve got to say it though. Despite all the political turmoil, the dow is only, what, a couple of hundred points away from its alltime high. How about snap . Yeah, that is the parent of snapchat. Its going to fall out of bed on the market this morning, down 23 . Liz, what happened . They disappointed on daily active user growth. And revenues, even though they came in solid, that disappointed as well. The revenue is 150 million, and they wiped out virtually all of their earnings for stock compensation pay. They posted a 2. 2 billion loss. The Stock Plunged 25 wiping out six billion in market value. The cofounders lost a billion each, actually. And now snap, by the way, is on track according to fortune to lose more than tesla and twitter combined, to lose more than amazon ever did in any single year, to lose about as much as sears is losing on the bottom line. Sears is basically headed for bankruptcy. Stuart lefthand side of your screen, thats yesterday close. Hockey stick action right now. Stuart thats since the ipo. Theyre trending down toward their ipo price. Stuart okay, got it. Now heres thats premarket. Theyre down to 17. And 17 per share was the ipo price. Right. Stuart basically, theyre back to where they started from. All right, this is kind of shocking news. This is retail ice age bigtime. Macys tock down almost 10 kohls down 12 . Stuart thank you very much, indeed. Kohls down, what, about 3 . Yes, itll be on the next screen. First of all, what happened with macys . They missed on they are revenue, on earnings, samestore sales down 5. 2 . All of that pretty miserable. Its going to be a 2775 wheres it at right now . This is a six and a half, sevenyear low for macys. Even more disturbingly, the president says the results are consistent with expectations. So they say theyre on to their guidance this year, but theyre blaming store closures. Stuart how about kohls . They are. Kohls actually beat on earnings, but their sales were down. Same willstore sales down five straight quarters. The retail ice age, any way you look at it, is very real. Stuart i think youre right. Look at that. Thanks very much, ash. Get back to the big political come in, please, senator mike lee, republican from utah, member of the Senate Judiciary committee. Will the fuss over comey delay the president s growth agenda, sir . I to who will replace jim comey. And i think where we go from here is whats most important. Stuart our audience is largely investors r. They okay, are they right to dismiss this political turmoil that has no real impact yes, absolutely. Look, this isnt going to affect the day to day lives of most americans. Were talking about one entity within the federal government thats changing management. Thats not unheard of in any administration, in any department, in any bureau. This is not something investors ought to be worrying about, something that most investors ought to be looking at closely with great concern. Especially because i predict in the coming days were going to get a great nominee for this position. Stuart okay. I want to move on to health care. The news this morning is that aetna, a giant insurer, is leaving all of the obamacare marketplaces where it currently sells plans. Obamacare is dead. The senate decides whats next. But, senator, i want to ask you a big picture question. If senator mike lee was inpay f . Well, in the first place we have to remember that every time we transfer a big responsibility over to the federal government, something that the federal governments not uniquely positioned or authorized to do as the exclusive provider of a particular service, bad things tend to happen. So i tend to shy away from anything that would transfer that responsibility to the federal government. With obamacare weve seen things get worse, not better. Weve seen Health Care Get more expensive, not less. And this failure that youre describing is just the most recent in a long string of failures over the last few years since this law was passed in 2010. Stuart at the end of the day, can you avoid the taxpayer and the government having a role in health care providing . At this point the taxpayer and the government does have a role. My point is to as, first and foremost, which government . Why is it when weve got as much diversity geographically, politically, philosophically in every other way, and as much diversity in the way health care is provided and how much it costs around the country, why is it that we would want to centralize all these decisions in washington, d. C. . It doesnt make sense. Theyre stuart youre okay with transferring sthe constitution says only the federal government can do and leave the rest to the states and to the people. Stuart senator mike lee, republican, utah, we always appreciate you being on the show, sir. Thanks for coming in today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Stuart education secretary betsy devos booed loudly and frequently during her commencement speech at a historically black university. Roll tape. Dr. Jackson, board of trustees, thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. I am honor ored to become a wildcat. Stuart okay. Lisa booth is with us, Fox News Contributor and Washington Examiner columnist. Hi, stuart. Stuart i saw that about an hour ago, first time id seen it. What do you make of it . I think its sad. We continue to see the shutting down of ideas, shutting down of people on College Campuses across the country, and i find that deeply troubling. I think its sort of reflective of this point in history and this point where we are as a country and the divisiveness of the country. But even more so, stuart, is the fact that the president of the university and kudos to him for standing strong, because he took a lot of heat for bringing her in. There were calls, there were petitions for him to not allow the secretary to speak, but he let her speak. And now there are calls for his resignation both from the naacp as well as the National Teachers union calling on his firing. And i find that deeply troubling as well because all he did was allow for diversity of opinion on the college campus, and that is exactly what students should be getting across the country. Stuart now that im thinking about it, i think this is incredible. Betsy devos stands for school choice. Now, everybody remembers the pictures of those young black kids who wanted to go to a charter school. There was a lottery. Some of them couldnt get in. Theyre bursting into tears. These are young minority children who want school choice, now theyre being spoken to by the education secretary who wants school choice, and shes just about booed out of town. , i mean, i find that incredible. Well, yeah, absolutely, stuart. All she wants, you know, is to better students lives and create Better Options for students across the country. But, you know, its just the shutting down of ideas that i really have a problem with, stuart. And i also think, you know, look, the orchestration of the National Teachers union to now call on this president to be fired, i think, is really something that people should be paying attention to because theres been a lot of attention drawn and shown to the booing, obviously, because its just downright disrespectful of the secretary. But i also think that its deeply troubling that there are now calls from a leftwing organization, the National Teachers union, to essentially try to get this president fired for allowing diversity of opinion on the college campus. So that is really troubling. And i think its something that people need to pay more attention to. Stuart well, thanks very much for bringing it to our attention, lisa, we appreciate it. See you again soon. Thank you. Stuart do we have a special guest for you or what . That gentleman right there, he is fabio. Wow. Stuart in case you didnt know. Hes got a message for americans dont ever give up your guns. [laughter] wasnt expecting that. Or your flags. Stuart or your flags. [laughter] politics. Congresswoman maxine waters, democrat california, asked about the firing of james comey. She could not give a straight answer. Youll hear it all next. But first, the video of a College Lacrosse team making the rounds online, the players ran onto the field with a speech from President Trump play anything the background. Thats one way to get fired up before a game. Watch this. We will make America Great again god bless you i love you [cheers and applause] contributor and washington stuart verizon will buy Straight Path communicationsings. They will pay about 3 billion. Straight path holds licenses to use High Frequency radiowaves that some think could form the background of next generation networks. Theyre not paying as much as we thought, thats why the stocks down 20 . The left piling on President Trump over the comey file firing. Maxine waters response may just about take the cake. Roll tape. You think an fbi director without credibility would have been the bottom hine is i think if the president had fired him when he first came in, he would not have to be in a position now where hes trying to make up a story understood. If Hillary Clinton had won the white house, would you have recommended that she fire fbi director james comey . I believe that given what he did to her and what he tried to do, she should have fired him, yes. Stuart im not quite sure what that answer was really about, but well move on. Look at this, a letter to Rod Rosenstein from the New York Times Editorial Board americans can have little faith that an fbi run by mr. Trumps handpicked replacement will get to the bottom of how or whether russia helped steal the presidency for for mr. Trump. Pat buchanan author of nixons white house wars, that is a new book. Welcome to the show. Where you been . Its been years. Ive been down in d. C. I dont get up to the big city very often. [laughter] stuart your response, please, to the fighter of comey. I think the president did what he felt and decided to do. I think hes got every right to do it x i dont think the optics were all that good but, look, it is not the saturday night massacre, its not the firing of Douglas Macarthur by harry truman. Its james comey, and i think if he gets a good replacement, hes all set. Stuart youve just written the book. They are comparing this to what mr. Nixon did. Ive got a chapter on the saturday night massacre, i was right in the oval office when nixon decided to fire elliott richardson. That was a major event in the middle of a deep political crisis in the country. This is nothing comparable to it. People like the New York Times are using the word nixonian because theyve got the old sense, the bit in their teeth that they can take down another president. Stuart you dont think its going to come to that . They are hinting that maybe this is another theres no chance of this . Look, the establishment, the media, the deep state and the, and the whole d. C. Octopus be, if you will, has targeted trump the way it targeted nixon and succeeded. Targeted reagan, didnt bring him down with iran contra. What they want to do is cancel the returns from last november. And, basically, overturn the election by a man who they could not defeat at the polls. Thats my judgment. Stuart why are they so contemptuous of trump . I can understand, trump has not been a lovable person as far as theyre concerned. He calls the media an enemy of the people. But i think hes an outsider. Hes not from the Political Class at all. His views and ideas, populist as they are, kind of campaign he ranker everything about him they hes not one of them. Hes not one of us. And the white house correspondents dinner, barack obama walks in there, and hes home. This is my base, he said. [laughter] and trump took a pass for the First Time Since the gipper was shot and said he couldnt make it. [laughter] stuart are you a trump guy . Listen, the trump issues on trade im not a free trader, im an economic nationalist. Im also a believer in, you know, in controlling the borders and staying out of foreign wars. My slogan back in 92 was america first. And so when i saw trump come in with these, i was elated because i think these issues put together with the reaganite conservatives, that combination is the only majority in the country which would advance ideas i believe in. I think trump was let me say in a order word, very courageous. The guy was just pounded worse than nixon, worse than reagan, worse than anyone, and he kept coming back day after day after day. Whatever you say about him, hes got grit. Stuart whats the name of the book again . Your book . Nixons white house wars the battles that made and broke a president and divided america forever. Stuart, youll see the issues were talking about, judges, media wars, they began back in those years. Stuart youre a very popular guy on this program. I suspect we might just move you up a couple of notches on the amazon list. [laughter] thats what we need to do. Stuart there you go. Pat buchanan, its a real pleasure, sir. Welcome back. All right, this is going to make you mad, okay . Government employees getting paid out for unused sick days when they retire. Some of them are raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Im going to give you a couple of the most egregious examples, and thats coming up next. Times up, insufficient were on prenatal care. Es. And administrative paperwork. Your days of drowning people are numbered. Same goes for you, budget overruns. And rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. Were coming for you, too. For those who wont rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. Optum. How well gets done. Welcome to holiday inn thank you wait, i have something for you making every stay a special stay. Holiday inn, smiles ahead. Whether for big meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn. Com stuart if you work for the government, maybe youre in for a big payday when you retire. Maybe. Some Public Sector employees get paid six figures for unused sick days. Fox Business Reporter tracy is here. You have got a couple of really egregious examples. Go. All right, stuart. Now, the president of a Massachusetts Community college, he was hired back in march. He got more than 266,000 for 1250 unused sick day over his 46year career. Can you believe that . Now, in pennsylvania a state police major who retired back in october got more than 142,000 for 242 unused sick days. Stuart thats a lump sum payment onetime payment, yes. Stuart now, youve got a couple of egregious examples there, but i take it this happens quite frequently, in fact. You know, it does. Lawmakers, they want to put a cap on that amount because its draining these state budgets that are already stressed for cash. Stuart how much have they paid out in new jersey . Nearly 2 billion stuart billion . Yes. Stuart over what time frame . Yearly. A year . Yes. In chicago theyre talking 15 million a year for the Chicago School district alone for teachers. In massachusetts theyre talking about a quarter billion a year that they pay out. Now heres the issue. The governments dont budget for it, and all of a sudden they have to come up with money for it. So your taxes go up to pay for it. And tracys right, theres also not a cap on the amount they can take. Stuart you see what you did, tracy . You owned up a hornets desk. Welcome to Varney Company. Thank you so much. Stuart lets see how the markets going to hope. We will be down but not much. All this political turmoil . So what, say investors. Back in a moment. Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. 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How are they going to make money in that demographic . Because that demographic does not spend money. Its reliant on their parents i think this is a fools errand. It reminds me of Ponce De Leon chasing the fountain of youth. A lot of the content on snapchat doesnt strike me as absolutely critical and has the shelf life of a banana. I think the runup is going to occur before the Retail Investor can get in, and im not going to invest in any company that has to compete directly with facebook. Stuart our experts are all pouring cold water on snap the day it went public, and by the looks of things, they we in three seconds this market opens up again on a thursday morning. Where are we going to open . Probably ever so slightly lower, yeah, we are. Down 17 points, 20 points early going. That means were still at 20,900. Lots of red on the lefthand side of the screen, but this is not a huge selloff by any means despite the political turmoil. Let me get to snap, please. Down big. 22 lower, weak revenue growth, and theyre feeling the heat from facebook. A lot more on this coming up; but that is a 22 drop for snap. Got it. Weak, and i mean very weak, sales at macys and also weak sales at kohls, although that stock is up. Ive got more on macys in just a moment. Theyre off 9 in the first couple minutes worth of business. Whole booze up 1. 64 foods up 1. 64, they say theyre going to turn around their soft sales. We shall see, but the market likes what its hearing so far. Whos with me . Back after a weeks not exactly a vacation. [laughter] ashley webster, liz macdonald. Back from france. [laughter] stuart and scott martin. James comey all over the media. It doesnt seem as if the markets care that much, scott. I dont think investors believe comey is going to interfere with the trump growth agenda. What say you . Not at all, sir. Comeys been a dead man walking for months now. This was just a matter that it happened, and i think the markets believe what trumps doing. Actually making these moves is better late than say never and, therefore, the markets are taking it in stride. Stuart hold on a second. Liz is with us, and you say there is maybe an Important Development which gives real legs this story. Yeah. Even though the trump viewer is going to have Heart Failure over this, bank records trying to prove that russian people, russians involved in the government invested in the trump empire. So theyre digging deep. These are powerful players on Senate Intelligence including marco rubio. Stuart we dont know those bank records exist. The house Intelligence Committee, or the Senate Intelligence committee is simply asking for them. Theyre looking for collusion. People call this investigation in search of a scandal, but if theres problems out there, theyre on the hunt for it. That means there could be delays in the growth agenda. This has really become the lefts benghazi. It will go on and on. Stuart yeah, i think youre right there. Do you think it will interrupt the growth agenda from prawmp . No, not really. Comey was not a popular person. He proved to be emotional, indevisive indecisive. But the left will use this as their core issue on trump. Reality check. Wheres obamacare reform now, stuck in the senate . No order word on when thats going to come out, and wheres tax reform now. Stuart fair point. I want to get back to snap. The parent of snapchat, of course. A huge loser today. Last time we checked it was down 20 odd percent. Whats the problem with nap . So the disappointing daily active user growth. Sales came in at 150 million, less than expected. Fortunes already saying theyre going to lose more than tesla and twitter combined this year. Theyve posted 2. 2 billion in loss for stock compensation. Wall street saying theyre going to lose 3. 2 billion this year. Thats more than sears lost and amazon ever lost in any year since it went public. Stuart would you buy it at 17 . Scott martin . No, i wouldnt, stuart. And you know whats funny is yesterday maybe before the Earnings Report that might have been an attractive level. But like e. Mac pointed occupant, the earnings out, the Earnings Report was a disaster. The users are declining which remember we saw last year, they pay a lot of money for those users that they acquire. So the fact that daily active user growth is already slowing, the demographic we dont like at the beginning of the segment here. So, to me, snap is still overvalued. And the joke is, is it facebook or twitter . Its worse than both companies, id stay away. Liz would you buy it at 18 . No, this stock is overvalued at 10. I mean, first of all, theres this Little Company called facebook that is going to annihilate them. So, and its just a matter of time. They are going to annihilate them in the space that theyre trying to make money in that facebook is already Instagram Stories alone, 200 million daily active users versus snaps 161 million. Stuart i want to get to macys because thats a very important story. And kohls, by the way. Macys is down now 9 . Theyve got 5 down samestore sales. Thats a traumatic figure, by the way. 5 lower samestore sales. Would you buy either macys or kohls at those prices in. No. Because amazon is not done annihilating them. I would not touch them. Stuart wait a second. Youre the guy who said buy jcpenney when it was about 6 a share. Yes. Stuart and jcpenney is now 5 and change. Jcpenney has made the necessary cuts. Theyve done what they need to do. There might be a little more pain in this stock, but there is going to be a need. I like what theyre doing with cosmetics with sephora. I think theyre going to stabilize here, and well start to see a little bit of improvement. Stuart jeff im sorry, scott, would you buy macys at 26 a share . Yeah, you know, stuart, id stay away from all retail, even jcpenney at five. I just dont like the outlook for the space. Things are going to get so bad in retail that theyre going to be good. I just feel like prices are still too high for those two names. Stuart wow. How about that . Talk about retail ice age, that is our story. Thats our banner right there. It is, indeed, a retail ice age. Speaking of which, look at this. Whole foods, that stocks moving higher despite sagging sales. Their going to try theyre going to try to turn things around, new board members. Are you buying into that, scott martin . No, im not. Whats funny about whole foods is, you know, a couple years ago it felt like this company was going to springboard, and it didnt. They had Management Issues and competitive issues with other Grocery Stores coming online with this natural brand. To me, whole foods is going to miss the boat. With respect to some activism going on within the company, thats taking up speculation, but to me, this is still an avoid because its moved so much off the high 20s. Stuart apart from which im going to walk down the street to trader joes and get stuff 10, 20, 30 less. Thats true. And the standard retail grocers are going into organic. But heres where amazon is going to not be able to make any significant progress, and its in groceries. And i think and i believe whole foods has a nice niche. I think theyre pioneers in organic, but theyre going to face a lot of competition because you can walk into any food store right now and get organic yeah, targets avoiding stuart are you buying at 37 . Good point. Stuart yes or no . Not yet. Stuart its not far enough down. No. It has to move down a little. Because you know what . Theyre going to do a lot of right things with this management, they put some outsiders on the board who know how to tap into that millennial market. I think theyre going to be okay. Stuart all right. Seven and a half minutes into the trading session, where are we . Yes, ill tell you, were down 25 points. Thats hardly a big selloff. Look at the level, 20,912. Aint no selloff there. Vista outdoor profit, vista outdoors, profit and sales down. Slumping demand for guns and ammunition. How about that . Down 4. 5 . Disneys stock took a hit yesterday. Weakness espn down a fraction more now, 109 on disney. Im not sure i believe this, but its asson inning. Yum astonishing. Yum brands, taco bell is one of their chains, theyre going to add more than 50,000 workers by the end of the summer 50,000 . Stuart 50,000. How about that . I guess theyre not going to be paid 15anhour minimum wage. [laughter] verizon is going to buy Straight Path commune occasions. Theyre paying 3 billion. Straight path holds licenses to use High Frequency radio waves that some think could be the backbone of next generation networks. Verizons not paying as much as they expected, thats why Straight Path is down 45. Adidas has agreed to sell its golf brands, taylormade and ashworth. Theyre saying 425 million. Nike got to out of the golf Club Business last year. Whats going on . Well, theyre just going to concentrate, as they say, on soccer and street fashion. They have a lot of apparel, and theyre not selling their golf shoes unit yet. But golf itself has been trending lower, although theres a sign that perhaps its turned a bit of a corner. But a adidas has been trying to get rid of the golf Club Business for over a year now, so this makes sense, i think. Yeah. To ashleys point, the National Golf foundation says 1834yearolds playing golf down 30 , so thats an issue for the stuart when your market drops by 30 , youve got an issue for many years to come. How about tesla . They are selling solar roof tiles. So what, he says. Would you buy i just have to say that tesla owners, this gives them another reason to be annoying at parties, to brag that they have these solar roof [laughter] i mean, tesla owners, dont send me any emails, but the bottom line is solar panels on roofs have been around for a while. So tesla, this is breaking news, did not invent the solar roof panel. Stuart 324 a share. Before i went away last week, i mean, the tesla was challenging 300. Then it got to 3, and now its at 324 despite your negative review. Its just people who want to brag that they own tesla, and now they own solar panels on the roofs of their i dont get it. Stuart youre not going to be invited to many cocking tail parties. [laughter] cocktail parties. Jeff, youre done. [laughter] thanks for joining us. Scott martin, youre all right. Thanks for joining us. Check the big board, were down 35 points, thats it. 20,908. Now this acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe testifies today before the senate. We discuss his ties to major clinton ally Virginia Governor Terry Mcauliffe. Judge napolitano on that next. Stuart all right. Where are we . 13 minutes into the trading session, down 39 points, holding at 20,900. Now this, teen retailer Abercrombie Fitch in merger talks with at least two interested buyers. Nicole, you tell me whats going on. So this is preliminary talks with express, these are rivals of theirs, express and American Eagle outfitters. We know one thing for sure, and that is that Abercrombie Fitch which used to be a behemoth back in 2007, it was worth over 7 billion they were booming, the teens loved it. They were willing to pay up going into the year 2000, they were willing to pay up for the merchandise. Now theres a whole generational shift. Everybodys running to amazon and some of the cheaper, fastmoving stores like h m. Theyve tried to revamp the store purpose a couple of years now, holster is their only bright spot. Well see if anything comes of it. They gained 12 yesterday and holding onto those gains, so well see if the deals made. Stuart thank you, nicole, on the floor of the exchange. How about this . Auto loan fraud surging. Is this a bubble . Yeah. According to one analysis, it looks like the fraud in the mortgage housing bubble in 2009 is equating to those levels even though the auto loan debt is less than the mortgage bubble debt, theyre talking about a doubling to 6 billion this year. Theyre saying car dealers are the worst in not catching fraud on stuart whats doubling . The dollar amount of the fraud. Stuart okay, 6 billion worth of auto loan fraud, doubled last year. Correct. Stuart thats a lot. Thats a lot. Stuart acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe is going to testify on worldwide threats. Judge novel hoe is here. Now judge napolitano is here. Now, this gentleman has tie toss a clinton ally, Terry Mcauliffe from virginia what do you make of this there. Well, not only is he heres the ties. Director mccabes wife, a physician, dr. Mccabe, ran for the state senate in virginia and in the course of that campaign received 750,000 from a pac controlled by governor mcauliffe. So far not a problem. Governor mcauliffe is the target of an fbi criminal investigation headed by Andrew Mccabe. So if he doesnt perceive the ethical problem with that, how can he be the interim director of the fbi . Fast forward to whats going on today. Attorney general sessions, Deputy Attorney general rosenstein are interviewing candidates to be interim director whom they can hire without the president s involvement and without confirmation by the senate. Why do we need an interim director . Because mccabe probably is ethically challenged and because the democrats probably will delay, delay, delay on the president s choice to become the permanent director, and you cant be leaderless in an era like this. Stuart so what were looking for is the interim director who does not need to be approved by the senate. We probably will have such a human being by midweek next week n. The interim, mr. Mccabe who is an experienced, lifelong fbi person and did rise through the ranks from agent to number two, now number one will testify today along with cia director pompeo, nsa director rogers, dni, director of national intelligence, coats. And they will be asked about what can you tell us about the investigation of russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. You know what theyll say . Nothing. Right, because it is an ongoing intelligence and criminal investigation, and we are not permitted to give you a snapshot picture of where the investigation is as of this morning. Stuart what do you make of it that a senior senator on the Intelligence Committee is demanding the bank records trying to show any connection, financial connection between russian people in the russian government and the Trump Campaign and mr. Trumps personal this is what happens when you have an intelligence investigation, a criminal investigation and a congressional investigation at the same time. I would like to think the intelligence investigation is aimed at keeping us safe. The criminal investigation is aimed at finding someone who committed a crime, if a crime was committed. Whats the congressional investigation aimed at . Getting reelected. [laughter] so you dont know where its going to go. You dont know e. Mac and i talked about this last night on her show what the documents are, whether its a fishing expedition. Are they looking for bribes or for legitimate investments in trump assets . Viewrt. Stuart look, ive been away for a week you were at a family wedding, were you not . On a monday, the least expensive day of the week, was it not . [laughter] stuart you bring this up . The bride is watching. Are you accusing me of looking for a discount on her the beautiful bride whose photo you just shared . Stuart i did. You look like the happy father. Stuart i am. [laughter] i was about to say before we got off on this tangent. Stuart the fbis reputation is not good at this point. Im sorry to say that i agree with you. This morning i am reading about two camps, the fbi agents who staunchly admire him, comey, and wish he was still there, the fbi agents who believe he demeaned them, dragged them into the Political Campaign and are happy hes gone. Stuart, theres no middle ground. Stuart what a mess. Judge, thank you very much. Congratulations on the wedding. Stuart thank you very much. All right, oh, look at this. Now weve dropped a little bit more for the dow industrials. 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Duck quack call to request your free decision guide now. Because the time to think about tomorrow is today. Stuart whats the big loser of the day . Snap is the big loser of the day. Facebooks taking them to the cleaners, and that stock is down 20 . By the way, snap went public at 17 a share. Almost back where it started from. Now, the wall street firm that paid president obama 400,000 for a speech now wants a trump speaker as well. Charlie gasparino, fbns own guy, he broke this story. What else have we got . He broke that story and the story that obamas getting paid 400,000 by cantor fitzgerald. Charlies saying they could be eyeing a Trump Administration official to offset what president obama says, defending his obamacare reform bill. So would a Trump Administration like tom price and not get paid to offset what obama says at this september 25th conference coming up. Stuart yeah. A trump speaker could not be paid. Right. Stuart hes a member of the administration, he cant get paid yeah, but they are getting political goodwill because the administration would oversee their operations in some form of fashion. Stuart yes. And they would answer president obama who presumably does not like whats going on with obamacare. And charlies story let off a firestorm because Elizabeth Warren and senator sanders criticized obamas speaking fee. Stuart next case, uber is raising prices in some states to pay for drivers injury insurance. Explain. Look, uber drivers are independent contractors. They dont get what we would consider from normal fulltime employers, disability insurance, workers compensation. They dont have any of this. Uber said, all right, lets come up with a test, and theyre using it in eight states as a test, and consumers will pay an extra five cents per mile to offset the cost of personal injury insurance for the drivers. Drivers themselves will pay close to four cents a mile as well. They can opt out and have no coverage at all and put more must be in their pocket money in their pocket. Thats their choice. Stuart got it. Look at the market. Were down about 100 points. Maybe the market heard us talking about this new line of inquiry in the President Trump and russian connection. What is it, lizzie . Weve got the Senate Intelligence yeah. Stuart wants the bank records. The Intelligence Committee is looking to the financial crimes enforcement network, a unit of the treasury department, for bank records. This is according to reports. Basically, the bottom line is did anybody in the russian government invest in the trump empire. And the more we get bogged down in this, the more the market says what about health care reform, tax cuts . That agenda is starting to get pushed back a little bit more. Stuart could be, because were now down 109 points, and weve been falling steadily for about the last 20odd minutes. Now were down 110 and falling, were at the 20,800 level. Okay. Thats important. Were on top of it, guaranteed. I spent the last week up there on cape cod, massachusetts. Now, i could have now i could have flown up there. Instead, i drove. You will find out why in my take, top of the hour. Is thing. I just had to push one button to join. Its like im in the office with you, even though im here. Its almost like the Virtual Reality of business communications. No, its reality. Intuitive one touch Video Conferencing is a reality. And now its included at no additional cost with vonage business. Call now and see why 3,000 companies a month are switching to vonage. Business grade. People friendly. Stuart i have been on cape cod for the last week. To get there i had a choice. I could fly relatively short trip from new york to boston to hyannis. Or, i could drive. Now that driving is more difficult, especially this time of year with all the tourist traffic. I drove. Why take the seemingly more difficult route . Because flying is no fun. It is getting worse. While i was away there was a brawl on a southwest flight. The whole world saw it and it looked flatout awful. There was a near riot at Spirit Airlines after its pilots staged work stoppages that led to a lot of can selled flights, very angry people. We learn american carriers on flights here from europe are about to stop you bringing a laptop into the passenger cabin. Terrorists may be able to put a bomb in an Electronic Device and take down an international flight. The airlines are not to blamed for this, but travelers are understandably happy with Airline Travel. I have no magic solution for all of this. Flights are jammed full. Tickets are not cheap. Even when youre booked the plane may still be overbooked. And delays can make Airline Travel a flatout nightmare. One more facet of modern life that i think is fraying around the edges. May i suggest something that would make a difference . Growth. Yes, economic growth. Where there are more jobs, better pay, society as a whole is less stressed. When there is feeling of rising prosperity, the mood shifts. There will be a contest for overhead luggage space. Airlines will still overbook. The Terror Threat will not go away, but when the money is flowing our social interaction get as little easier. Yes, i am an optimist, yes, i am again plugging tax cuts. The second hour of Varney Company is about to begin. Stuart breaking news for you, acting director of the fbi Andrew Mccabe is about to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence committee. He is testifying in former director comeys place. There could be news from him on russia. Maybe, probably not. Well certainly bring you headlines if and when they occur. I have to get to your money, look at this. The big board is down sharply. Were down 125 points. I have the latest on mortgage rates, numbers please. Liz do you have numbers . Stuart not yet. Were waiting for them. We got it. 4. 05 . Liz just trending where it was last three weeks. Stuart a tad above 4 . Liz sorry about that. Stuart back to the big board. Were down 12points, very close to the low for the session. Were trying to figure out what might have caused this selloff in the last 20 odd minutes. Im speculating it is because the Senate Intelligence committee is going after any bank records that would connect russian people with President Trumps operation. That would be hard evidence of collusion. Maybe that is why the market is down 130 points as we speak. Were at 20,800. But look at snap. One huge loser, down 20 . We have more on that for you in just a moment. Look please at whole foods. Theyre trying to turn things around with new board members. The market likes that. It is up 3. 3. 7 . Of the macys going down, 52week low. Off 12 a huge loss for a company like that. It is down 25 a share. Kohls 4 1 2 down. More red arrows there. Lots of trouble in retail. More details coming up. The firing of james comey, we await an Opening Statement from the interim director, james call strom, former fbi assistant director in new york. What do you have to say about james comey being fired . Your reaction please . I think it was a good choice that the president made as to timing and the fact that he actually did it. As weve talked a lot, stuart, in the last year or so, jim comey, a bright guy but he made some very critical common sense decisions that were just not reality of what the fbi does. Stuart now james comey was heavily involved in the investigation of President Trump and any connection with the russians before and during the election. Will his firing get in the way of that investigation . No, not the least bit. Absolutely not. I mean whatever investigations are going on they will continue. They will come to a logical conclusion. That will be that. Stuart democrats are suggesting that he was fired at this time because he had asked for more resources to investigate President Trump and the russians. What do you say about that . The democrats are wrong. It is pathetic what im seeing you know by the Chuck Schumers of the world. Stuart how would you describe fbi morale at this point . I guess it is going to be a lot better because they really were starved for leadership. As i said comey was a good guy but i mean, you cant conduct a Major Investigation be told you cant call it criminal, be told you cant have a grand jury, and then decide to you know, sort of dance with the devil for the next number of months, then have this public display of laying out numerous charges that they could find even without a grand jury. And then say that theyre not going to recommend any kind of an indictment. Those things the fbi director does not make those types of decisions. Nor do we ever lay out criminality if were not going to indict somebody. Stuart this will not be left. This is going on for a long, long time, because the next fbi director appointed by the president , or nominated by the president is going to get a very, very hard time from the senate because i believe the senate has to ratify the next fbi director. I think im right in that. You are correct. Stuart so it is not going to go away . This will go on for a long, long time. Yeah, absolutely. Who should that person be . It should be someone with great integrity, a good basis of knowledge about investigations and federal law and someone with great leadership skills that can have high morale. That is what the bureau is starved for. That is what the American People deserve. They deserve the rule of law, mes,someone that is going to you things, there being asked to be part of the political system, they stand up for what the fbi is all about, and thats, you know, straightforward integrity and rule of law. Stuart now on the lefthand side of the screen, i dont think you can see it, james, our viewers are looking at the hearing room, where the acting director, mr. Mccabe is about to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee. I guarranty he is asked about the russian investigation. You dont think he will say anything at all, do you . You know i dont know what he is going to say. Newspaper report, stuart, im sure you read the same things i did months ago, three or four months ago, whatever it was, it was reported that he told the chief of staff at the white house that there was nothing to any of this russian stuff. Now i have never seen a retraction. I never seen that was beaten down by anybody. You know, probably that, it probably did happen. So, you know, who knows. They have been all over the lot on this thing. Of course it is only thing the democrats really have to hang on to for putting up such a hugelyflawed candidate. Stuart well leave it at that one, hugelyflawed candidate. Thank you very much indeed. James kallstrom well see you soon. My pleasure. Stuart aetna, one of the Largest Health insurers, completely pulling out of Obamacare Exchange incomes year. Mercedes schlapp with us now. I say obamacare is no longer a death spiral, this thing is dead. What do you say . I absolutely agree with you, varney. For the most part it is important to understand with aetna, as well as united health, all these other types of Insurance Companies theyre pulling out in these different states. In the case of iowa where theyre basically, there is one insurer left for these individual markets, and what youre seeing if they pull out, what do iowans have . They dont have an option. Stuart yeah. I find what is happening is, with these health Insurance Companies, yes definitely partly obamacare. The other part of the equation is the uncertainty and instability right now that these Insurance Companies are experiencing. The problem is, is that the Insurance Companies themselves are not necessarily agreeing with the gop health plan. They have not basically supported this plan. Theyre staying on the sidelines and we need more tax credits. We need more costsharing. The risk pool amount is not enough. I got to tell you, if we cant, if republicans cant get Health Insurance on board it will be more difficult moving forward on the bill. Stuart as we go forward, i dont see there is any way we the taxpayer can get out of the business of subsidizing health care for poor people. There is no way around it, is there . I think that americans have grown accustomed to the fact that the government will cradle you and take care of you from entitlement perspective. They will not get out of the business of medicaid or medicare. Stuart it is creeping socialized medicine, whether we like it or not . Oh, absolutely. I think that there is a, there is a, basically expectation from americans that they want this government somehow involved. But its a tricky business because youre right, that is when it creeps. When you start moving to a singlepayer system. We need to focus on free market solutions. Let Insurance Companies compete for your business. That is what we should push for so consumers have more choices. Insurance companies, they dont like idea youre taking out mandates of individuals required to have Health Insurance. They see them also something costly. Stuart if you ask the question who pays for poor people who have cancer, there is only one real answer isnt is that is the government the taxpayer. It is the government. Stuart there is no way around that at all. I think that is where the focus is, because when you look at Community Centers or in any way where you would have funding opportunities or more nonprofit hospitals, there, they need, these individuals, lowincome individuals need assistance. But the question is, the problem you have doctors that dont even accept medicaid, stuart. That problems problematic. Where are these individuals going for help . One of the areas was on Community Health Service Centers i think is one of the areas theyre looking at. Stuart i have a feeling that at some point well have to say, socialized medicine or absolutely not. I hope not. Ashley feels like it. Where will the money come from . Stuart we are. There is logical progression. I love how Jonathan Gruber blames donald trump for failure of obamacare, insurers started leaving exchanges in 2014. Insurance Companies Need to step up to the plate to work with congress to work with the solution they need. They need to be patientcentered. That is what republicans focus on. Stuart Mercedes Schlapp thank you. I might stay here. Stuart show me airlines stocks, please. Despite everything i said at the top. Hour theyre close theyre down today, not because of what i said but they are down today. You know theyre still very, very close to alltime highs. Including united. Ashley because theyre still very efficient. Oil prices remain very low. Theyre not paying a lot for oil and gas. We had dragging incident. We had the brawl in florida when there was work action on Spirit Airlines, all of these very negative stories, but people dont have any choice. They have a monopoly. You know what is interesting . I flew from Charles De Gaulle paris on tuesday to jfk. It was supposed to leave at 11 00 a. M. They asked me to get there 8 00 a. M. For security, which i did. Didnt take off until 1 30 in the afternoon. I got on board, never once said were running late. Never acknowledged that. Did you punch one of person until people . Ashley no, i did not. Stuart he is back with us. Here is what is coming up. Leftleaning comedians going after President Trump for firing comey. Blunt force truth host, Chuck Woolery, he says were all victims of the democrat party. He will join us next. Disneys espn continue to be plagued by cord cutters who do not want to hear leftist politics watching sports . Can disany turn the ship around . Were asking the question. It is, you are watching the second hour of Varney Company. Predictable. The comfort in knowing where things are headed. Because as we live longer. And markets continue to rise and fall. Predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what youve earned and ensure it lasts. Introducing brighthouse financial. A new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities life insurance. Talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. Times up, insufficient were on prenatal care. Es. And administrative paperwork. Your days of drowning people are numbered. Same goes for you, budget overruns. And rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. Were coming for you, too. For those who wont rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. Optum. How well gets done. This is outrageous. When something outrage just happens, i dont just sit on my hands, i do something about it. I will sell these, comey is my homey tshirts. Trump fired the fbi director. You cant just fire the fbi director. [laughter]. I mean if he is gone, who will investigate russias ties to oh. [laughter] fbi director james comey has just been fired by donald trump. [applause] huge, huge, donald trump fans here tonight. Stuart comedians, late night guys, part of the Mainstream Media apoplectic over firing of fbi director, mr. Comey. Who is with us now, Chuck Woolery, Blunt Force Truth podcast. Youre one of my favorites on the air. I just love you. Stuart how much time do you want . As much as you like . What do you make of all this . Im astonished at latenight guys, vehement they are in real contempt for donald trump. Where are you coming from on this . I love the last audience response. The host went, waita minute, theyre against comey. They werent all donald trump supporters. He wasnt ready to hear that applause when he said he fired comey. You know what . It is just, i dont mind political humor. It is funny. It can be very funny. Whats happened i think, within the last six, seven month, it is become nasty and hurtful and hateful, and fearful as well. So, it has an edge to it, it has never really had that much before. And, it is, i think it is rather dangerous, i really do. You know, chuck, it is not going to go away with it . I think we have four years of this. No, no, it will continue to go, this whole thing with the russians as youve been talking about with health care, progressivism, socialism, most people dont realize progressive system german idea. It came from hagel from germany in the late 1800s. Political correctness is german idea from the frankfurt school. The left is operating on all german ideas, instead of american ideas. They are totally counter to the constitution, to the declaration of independence, to the bill of rights, everything we hold sacred, they do not hold sacred. When they talk about a constitutional crisis, they talk about something they know nothing about because they hate the constitution. Stuart chuck, what are you up to . I know you as hollywood kind of guy. You are coming on as fairly free market, conservative type fellow. Can you work in hollywood anymore . No. No, you can not. And while i was there, i did not allow my political leanings to be known because i couldnt. If i did, i wouldnt work. That is the truth. It is just, they would shut you down. And, we do it in very subtle way. They would i say things in boardroom, were considering Chuck Woolery for something, someone would say i dont think that is good idea. That is literally all they have to say, everybody knows, nods, gotcha. Tough to work there. Stuart happy to have you on the show. Im intrigued at your podcast. Tell me, give me 20 seconds on your podcast. Yeah, were just trying to take the news and break it down so that people understand it. We have kind of history things where we teach like, i was talking about the political correctness, where it comes from. Political correctness moved in the 30s out of germany because of hitler, it was communist, they were afraid they were going to kill him or kill them, they moved their campus to Columbia University in new york. This is where all this stuff comes from. Stuart well i find this very interesting to know the history and how you build a movement on it. And the Democratic Party has literally since Woodrow Wilson built that movement on progressivism. It is socialism. You know that, as a brit. Stuart i do. You dealt with it. Stuart chuck, were out of time, Chuck Woolery, who knew what that guy was all about. Chuck woolery, everybody. Get that podcast, i promise. Chuck, thanks very much indeed. Im running. I have something going on in wall street. Well be back to you really soon. Promise. Check out the big board, were off session lows. Only just. Were down 120 points. 20,800. Individual stocks makes news here. Look at macys. This is the retail ice age, hitting all look at that, look at big percentage losses on biggest names in retail. Liz getting hammered. Stuart getting hammered. That may have something to do with the overall drop in the market because theyre not just selling stuff like they used to. Down they go. What do we have on this, anything more . Macys for example, that is the big loser here. Ashley sevenyear low. Samestore Sales Numbers down 5 . This is ongoing problem. Kohls showing sales declines five quarters in a row. Theyre desperately, macys for all intents and purposes has a pretty good online presence, but knocked aside by the tidal wave called amazon. Very difficult for the Retail Stores to compete. Liz bringing others down in tandem, in sympathy. Stuart on capitol hill at the moment we have senator warner asking questions of acting, im sorry, he is giving his Opening Statement before he starts to ask questions to acting fbi director mccabe. He has so far said it is hard to believe that the firing of director comey was not related to the russians. So he is getting the two together there. That is his Opening Statement. Now, at some point later this morning, we will have a response from mr. Mccabe, the acting fbi director. I dont believe he is able to say anything about any probe or investigation that may be on going. Anything to say, Mercedes Schlapp with us . Well i think, they are going to ask those questions about the russian probe. Stuart to make a link in the publics mind, to make a link in the publics mind. The story which is why we need a special prosecutor. The democrats had unison message on the issue. Whole focus will be any information on the russian probe. On letter that President Trump said directly, to comey, basically saying i am not under investigation. That was something that was brought up. For some of the democrats saying that is inaccurate. You will see a question possibly of Michael Flynn and subpoena on the senate side. There is all these lingering questions. Dont be surprised also if they ask the question like they did to sally yates on leaks to classified information. That is something liz he will be probably asked is the probe ongoing . Well watch for the answer of that. Jim kallstrom says because you fired jim comey, the fbi probe doesnt stop. James comey wanted more resources. There are three fbi probes right now. There are another seven probes into trumprussia collusion. A total of 10 ongoing probes. Those seven are in Congressional Senate level. There are 10 probes we counted yesterday. Stuart 10 . Liz 10 of them growing on including three fbi probes. Ashley separate probes. Stuart theyre all attempting to show a relationship, collusion, the right word, members of the russian government, russian agencies, theyre often called and president , candidate donald trump. Liz the Obama Administration made decision to disseminate information to 1intelligence agencies. If there was russian collusion would you think that information would be out there already. Now theyre going to fin sent to see if there is collusion between russian officials and the trump empire. Stuart good point. He said he hasnt seen any evidence of collusion. Liz based on cia, fbi. What i think, what i think testimony will be important for mccabe to basically say you can have confidence in me, we will not have a disruption in these investigations. I think that is going to be one of the messa coming out. Stuart lefthand side of the screen. Dan coats, the director of national intelligence. He is making his Opening Statement. Shortly well hear the Opening Statement from mr. Mccabe, who is the acting fbi director. All the focus is on him at this point. We will bring you that testimony, i guess you can call the testimony, his Opening Statement, at least, when it happens. Liz opportunity for leaks are manifold. There are a dozen staffers, nearly a dozen, working on just the Senate Intelligence probe he alone. Again, where is the collusion . Is this investigation in search of a scandal. I think that is besides the point. We dont want russian meddling in the election. We dont want any corruption with the russian government involved with the trump empire. Stuart connection between what is going on capitol hill and 10 investigations youre talking about . Any relationship to that and the dow . Ashley yes, i do believe, more you get bogged down in the russia question, more push back economic agenda of President Trump, health care, tax cuts, economic reform. All that is pushed aside focusing on russia. The democrats pushed forward on obstructionist format. They will not allow for health caremarkup because theyre so focused on the special prosecution. They want to put pressure on majority leader mcconnell to say we want a special prosecutor. We want to move forward in this direction. I think what youre v. Ing now, that the senators, Democratic Senators are not even willing to extend a hand to republicans. Stuart fascinating. The opportunity for obstruction is extraordinary at this point because of what youre seeing on the lefthand side of your screen. Low of the day for the market. Were down 138 points we speak. Barely holding 20,800. Well be back with the acting chief and his testimony in a moment. Hose financial regulatios being talked about . They could affect your accounts, so lets getogether and tal and make sure everythings clear. Yeah, that would be great. Being proactive. Its how edward jones makes sense of investing. At angies list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like what goes down doesnt always come back up. [ toilet flushes ] so when you need a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. Discover all the ways we can help at angies list. Thats why a cutting edgeworld. University counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. And why a Pro Football Team chose us to deliver fiberenabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. And why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their Dealer Network streamlined and nimble. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. Choicehotels. Com. Badda book. Thats it . He means book direct at choicehotels. Com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. Plus earn free nights and instant rewards at checkin. Yeah. Like i said. Book now at choicehotels. Com stuart hearing on capitol hill, dan coats, that is the director of national intelligence. Shortly get a statement from acting director from fbi. He is mr. Mccabe is taking over from james comey. Chart r charles hurt, Washington Times and Fox News Contributor. Charles, zooms these ongoing protection seems these on going probes from President Trump and russians and hearings gives opportunity for democrats to obstruct President Trumps growth agenda, whether obama care reform or tax reform. A lot of opportunity here for obstruction and stopping and blocking everything. You agree with that . Absolutely. There is no doubt that is what their strategy is here. I think it is a stupid one by the way. But you know, to watch the reactions of democrats over the firing of jim comey after they had spent the better part of the past year lambasting comey, saying that comey should be fired, talking about how they had lost confidence in comey. Soon as donald trump does something bit, they turn around and use that as the opportunity to turn it into a cudgel to beat trump and republicans. No doubt they will use it to stall the agenda. My advice to republicans, donald trump, keep going, dont stop. Keep pushing your agenda through. This is a lot of republicans would disagree with me on this including donald trump but you know, if democrats want to stop this republican repeal and replace of obamacare, if they want to sit on their hands and refuse to do anything to fix the mess they made, then when they face voters again in 2018, the entire obamacare mess will be on their hands and that will help republicans. Stuart as i look at the Mainstream Medias coverage of the firing of james comey, it seems to me that some, like the New York Times, really believe that President Trumps days in office are numbered. That he will end his term before his first four years. I think they really believe that. Oh, i think they do i dont know if they do or not. You would think after having been proven so delusional for so long at some point they would wake up, say, man, weve been really getting this wrong. That doesnt seem to be happening. Stuart, my question is, who has the amount of energy that these people have to be outraged every three minutes . Theyre constantly outraged. Their heads are constantly exploding. I would be exhausted and needing to lie down to take a nap. Stuart it is working, charles, to some degree it is working, president s approval level down 35 , disapproval, 51 . No matter which poll you look at way down there in terms of approval and disapproval is way up there. Honestly think those sort of approval numbers are kind of little spotchecks. All they really do register is basically whether people think that he is up or down, whether they have, what their impulsive feeling at that moment is. Honestly if you did a poll about jim comey, i dont think most people care that jim comey got fired, or if they do care, yeah, he probably should have been fired. It is one bipartisan thing everyone in washington has been in agreement on for the past several month. And that is that jim comey must go. So jim comey shown the door and these people freak out. Stuart i said this almost every time you and have been together on the air, i have never seen anything like this. Sir, month since President Trump was elected november 8th, six or seven months, i have never seen an interim period like that ever. Nothing like it. No. And before that, too, during the campaign, we kept looking at each other saying, this, we have never seen anything like this before. It was insane so it is sort of, sort of fitting continues on. Stuart because it is such a huge upheaval, is it really a genuine, realignment of american politics . I think it is. You know, i realize this is sort of a superficial way of looking at it, but i do think the whole drain the swamp thing, there are a lot of swamp creatures dont want the swamp to be drained. I think that is what you see in Hillary Clintons reaction to the election, what she says now blaming all she is clearly bitter about it. The same with the jim comey thing, someone like donald trump walks in very little regard for pomp and circumstance the way things are done forever and forever, fiddling with things in big ways it really upsets people. He has members of his own administration who are working against him. There is no way of even, for him to even realize the ways in which theyre undermining him, in terms of looks and things like that, efforts to, plant stories, to anything to upend any sort of progress by the president. We have never seen anything like it before. Stuart we said it again, again and again and again. Charles, thank you much indeed for being with us yet another momentous day. We appreciate it. Thanks, stuart. Stuart as we told you several times. Were waiting for testimony from mr. Mccabe who is the acting director of the fbi. As we await for him, i will switch gears for a moment. Fox sports 1 host and former espn Jason Whitlock appeared on our program yesterday. He said espn has become handcuffed by politics listen to this. Cord cutting was not some surprise. This technology did not come out of anywhere. Leadership is supposed to be ahead of technology and adjusting, when youre so distracted by politics, take an eye off business, that is how mistakes get made. Stuart what is referred to as the 12 Million People that disconnected from espn. That is real problem for espn and its parents disney, joining us, tuna mobley, a research analyst. Subscriber losses has been somewhat sobering for espn across the industry. No question were seeing migration from traditional platforms, to dedge tall platforms. Viewers look for cheaper alternatives online, et cetera. That exposed espn Business Model in some respects. That is why you see all the concerns have been expressed especially given how important it is for disney as a whole. They have taken a number of steps to try to mitigate that. Stuart what do you think about idea some of this cord cutting, moving away from espn has to do with political influence of some anchors on air . Is politics getting in the way at espn . What is your opinion on that . You know i was listening to the that opinion just before we came on, that is interesting thesis to try to make some type of political connection but having covered the company for almost 20 years now myself you know i think i would tend to think what were seeing more has to do with the shifts in the landscape, structural changes that are going on with Media Consumption and audience fragmentation as as opposed to any midcall influences there. Political influences there. Leadership in the company, bob iger, has been fairly stable and clear in terms of the overall strategy, which by the way has been consistent 20 years i followed the company. It has always been about digital innovation, International Expansion and content creation and that really hasnt changed. That is the core of the Business Model. That is what investors look when they invest in disney. The idea politics is somewhat intertwined, i tend to find it a little bit farfetched to be honest. Stuart okay, last one, im sure you heard speculation that bob iger, current chair at disney, is thinking about, or moving towards a run for the presidency. Have you heard it, and what do you make of it . You know, you can never really rule out such speculations based on experience but that question has been explicitly asked of him several times and each time he has dismissed it. I wouldnt rule out frankly what bob iger may or may not do when his term is in up in 2019. Succession is such a heated issue at disney, i wouldnt necessarily conclude that he het he is going to retire when the current term is up. Stepping into the shoes and filling is really big challenge. There is no obvious candidates now. I would take it on a year by year basis. Stuart you would dismiss it. Tuna, thank you, we dont have many analysts on this program youre a good one. So we have you on. Tuna, thanks for joining us. Much obliged to you. Thank you. Stuart let me show you the big board because the Market Selling off down 124 points. A lot of peoplerying this, maybe all these hearings and investigations and firing of james comey may be all of that will interfere with the president s future growth agenda. Maybe it will. Thats maybe one of the reasons why weve got the Market Selling off now. Here is another one. Retailers taking a huge hit. Give me more, liz. Liz macys taking a hit as ashley was reporting and so is kohls. What is happening right now as charlie brady, our Senior Editor pointed out, look reaction other retailers moving down in sympathy, in tandem. Jcpenney, sears, have a boatload of debt on the balance sheet. 8600 stores according to Credit Suisse will close this year. The question will the pace pick up . Is it happening sooner than expected . Looks like yes with the price action, question for wall street is, should we get out of these names more rapidly than we thought. Stuart those percentage declines are just huge, absolutely huge. Liz big doubledigit drops. Stuart dollar general, dollar tree, one after another. Liz some of the Dollar Stores are expanding. Theyre building out stores and opening stores. Theyre coming down. Stuart dow down 120. Moments from now well take you to capitol hill. That gentleman is dan coats, director of national intelligence. Later well hear from the fbis acting director. That is what were going to take. You will be hearing from that. Well be back in a moment. Stuart okay, now were about to go to the hearing. I want to bring everybody into this. Fbi acting director is coming up shortly. Lets listen please. Im sorry. Sir, i cant comment on any conversations the director may have had with the president. Okay. General stewart . You heard director coats state on everybodys behalf that there is a expected deterioration of conditions in afghanistan. Can you give us dias assessment of afghanistan and what would change stuart acting fbi director, who you saw on your screen momentarily, just a few moments ago. He was asked about any connections between the President Trump. He said i cant answer. That was the answer expected and answer given. Many other people are being asked the same he question, i believe. Theyre having pretty much the same answer. You can not answer questions about an Ongoing Investigation in a public forum of this kind. That is what it is high political theater essentially is what youre looking at. Ashley dont get much out of it. He cant comment. Stuart i would suggest the left gets a lot out of it, keeps the story going, keep is it in the public eye, keeps firing of james comey very much in the headlines. Keeps, puts to the forward position any russian connection. Ashley right. Stuart there is, as lizzie pointed out earlier, there are ten separate Ongoing Investigations trying to establish a link between agents of russia and the Trump Campaign or the trump empire itself. Liz this is Senate Intelligence. Now there is is news breaking. Senator Chuck Grassley, who is chair of the Judiciary Committee in the senate, he is demanding to the fbi, he is saying, fbi, you must say publicly whether or not you are investigating the president. There has been all these accusations whether or not this is going on. Chuck grassley is saying put it to rest, are you investigating President Trump. Asking that simple question. Stuart he hasnt asked that question yet. Liz this is Judiciary Committee. That is Chuck Grassley over there. This is Senate Intelligence. Chuck grassley said this moments ago. Stuart time to bring in governor rick scott, republican of the great state of florida who has been waiting very patiently to get on our air. Governor, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thanks for joining us, sir. Good morning, stuart. We need to see each other in florida. Stuart i will be back there very soon. I promise you that. What do you make of going on capitol hill . Our interpretation, forgive me for putting this out there, our interpretation that the left wants to keep comey firing, any connection with russians and all the investigations, keep that on the front burner, as way of delaying the president s growth agenda. That is how i see it. How but governor . First off, i think, president needed a fresh start. Director comey became a lightning rod for the right and the left. We need a fbi director that is nonpartisan. And so im sure the president will find the right person. Now with regard to these hearings, we still havent heard any evidence but i have not followed everything but i havent seen any evidence of any collusion. You know, i look, i hope it doesnt slow down. We have to repeal and replace obamacare. We need to reduce taxes. We have to learn to complete globally. Repealing and replacing obamacare is important to me and reducing our taxes. Stuart what are you hearing from the inside on those issues . Because to investors its a great source of concern, can we get this done, repeal and replace obamacare, tax cuts, Infrastructure Spending . We really want to get all of that lot done this year. From what you know, do you think it is possible . It is absolutely possible. I dont know why it cant be done. You should be able to do more than one thing at a time. So i think congress has to put their focus on fixing i mean obamacare is a disaster. Its a death spiral. President trump inherited a mess. President obama left at right time. We have to come up with a program for health care that reduces our costs. It is, costs are skyrocketing right now. You cant afford it. Employer cant afford it. Government cant afford it. We have something that fixes it focus on it now, not six months. Same with tax cuts. Were at competitive disadvantage when our taxes are higher than other countries. In our state we cut taxes 55 times. We deregulated our state. Added 1. 3 million jobs. You have to do that same thing nationally. Stuart what about withdrawing from the paris climate accord. I know you wanted to speak about that. Should we withdraw or stay in . What says Governor Scott . Sure. I was with administrator pruitt yesterday. Really what we focused on rather than the paris accord, really focused on in our state, i have to get the dike fixed at lake okeechobee that we dont have the green guacamole algae in part of the state when we have too much water. That was my focus yesterday. On top of that today im announcing a superpac to try to make the Republican Party focused on deregulation party, party for younger people, party for hispanics. I had a good meeting with administrator pruitt yesterday and secretary kelly from Homeland Security today. Stuart are you with secretary pruitt, administrator pruitt i should say . He has a pretty tough outline of getting rid of some of the green era regulations. Are you with him all the way . Well, im impressed. I have known the administrator for a while. Were not from the same state but i think he was, i think he is very optimistic what he can do. I think he as going to focus on how we make decisions. It is no different than what we did in my state. I told people, make a decision, yes is an answer, no is an answer. Dont take forever to make a decision. Dont take forever to solve a problem. That is what weve done in our state. I think he will do the same thing at epa which will be positive for our country. Stuart one proposal under tax reform is that when you pay state income tax it is no longer deductible from your federal income tax. If that goes you through, thats a huge plus for florida because you dont have a state income tax, do you . Absolutely. We dont have a state income tax. We have almost the lowest taxes in the country. We have on annual basis 350,000 people are moving to florida. There are a lot are coming there because of our weather but a lot are coming because, you know we dont tax them to death. A lot of these state with these ridiculously high state income tax are forces people to move to states like florida. I want them all to come to my state. Theyre going to all lowertaxed states. States with no income tax. Why would you pay taxes when you dont have to . Take new york, they have a million less people than we do. Their state government, Revenue Source is double our. That means their taxes per person are so much higher than ours, for what benefit . Why a lot of people are moving to florida. This will accelerate that. Stuart last one, only 10 seconds, you dont have an estate tax in florida, do you . We have no income tax. We have no estate tax. We have the Second Lowest per capita taxes in the country. And we have cut taxes 55 times in the last six years. We just finished my legislative session. Im going through that budget now. Well keep cutting taxes in our state. We run two billion dollars a year surpluses. Stuart Governor Scott. Thanks for joining us. I promise i will get back to florida real fast. Have a good day. Stuart well take a short break. Well be back in a moment. I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Breo is specifically designed to open up airways to improve breathing for a full 24 hours. Breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. Breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Do not take breo more than prescribed. See your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. Ask your doctor if 24hour breo could be a missing piece for you. Learn more about better breathing at mybreo. Com. Stuart im back after ive been off a few days. Many are wondering where is the guy . This is from patricia. Where is varney . He has been off the show for a week. We miss him. That is flattery. I like it. Jim says this, we would like to know if youre on vacation. Tell you in a moment. Hold on. Last one from cheryl, varney, where are you . The show isnt the same without you. That is right. This is where i was. There you have it. That is the wedding photo. That is my daughter emma with her husband, justin. The ceremony on cape cod. The weather was just about perfect. We were indeed blessed. It was a weeklong gathering of the varney clan, my six children, nine grandchildren, came in from australia new zealand, florida, new york, new jersey. Emma is my fourth child to mary. Two more to go. Ashley keep saving, stu. Liz no wonder you did it on monday that is the cheapest day to do it. Stuart she is utterly stunningly george just. Ashley you must have been very proud. Stuart i had a tear in my eye as i walked down the aisle with her. You suddenly realize, this is it. This is the moment. Ashley yes. All the talk something over. Stuart talking, preparation is all over. Liz did you give a speech. Stuart i did. Liz and . Stuart what do you mean and . Liz did you you get applause or con core . Stuart there was applause but on an encore is not appropriate. Ashley did you talk about free trade and capitalism . Stuart [laughter]. You may use the speech if you need it. Ashley for a fee im sure. Stuart are we done . Im happy to be back. Thats it . Liz sure. Stuart im back and happy. There will be more of this after this. Stuart lets get real. Obamacare is dead. Stick a fork in this thing. Its finished. Aetna has announced it is withdrawing from all the exchanges. Anthem, cigna, they are considering doing exactly the same thing. And in several states premiums are going up between 30 and 50 for 2018. If you think the obamacare system can survive these withdrawals and gigantic premium hikes, you are not facing reality. You might think the creators of the system would acknowledge their mistake and help fix it. Dream on. The democrats and members of the obama team are creaming from the rooftops screaming from the rooftops that proposed changes are immoral. Was it not immoral to make promises about keeping your there and your plan and flagrantly breaking those promises . Thats immoral. Nancy pelosi says the House Republican plan would gut rex protections for those with preexisting conditions. By the way, she was wrong then and shes wrong now. The house plan specifically says insurers may not limit access for those with preexisting conditions. An entire Health Care System is collapsing. Those who created it accept no responsibility and stand in the way of a fix. Politics has become increasingly ugly. We have now hit a new low. Did you ever hear director comey tell the president he was not the summit of an investigation . Sir, i cant comment on any conversations the director may have had with the president. Stuart okay. This is an ongoing hearing on capitol hill. Acting fbi director, mr. Mccabe, answering some questions from the panelists. He cannot answer questions, anything related to an Ongoing Investigation, and thats what weve been hearing all morning. Same question, very similar answer. The weekly standards executive editor, fred barnes, is with us now. I didnt expect to get any answers to those questions. What i expect is an attempt by the left to spin this thing out as long as possible and plant seeds in the audiences mind that, yeah, theres something there between President Trump and the russians. Well, theres no evidence. Theres no known evidence, thats the problem, you know . And the democrats and the left are calling for a special prosecutor. Well, you have to have evidence for that, you know . You dont just theyd be happy with a fishing expedition, but thats not what prosecutors and investigators are supposed to act on. I remember watergate, i was around then. Watergate really was a very advanced information, much more investigation, much more advanced than this one. You had the Senate Watergate hearings and so on, quite different. This one is just not there. Stuart okay. Stay with us, please, fred. Ive got to segway to the markets here because there is some reaction going on there. Ill get back to you in a second. Look at this, now were down just 92 points. We had been down close to 140. Joining us now, john layfield, ceo of john, i get the feeling that maybe wall street is getting a little worried that this kind of, these hearings, the firing of comey and these ongoing hearings may interrupt the trump growth agenda. Is that what youre reading into this 90point drop as well . Yes. Freds a very smart guy, and i think hes very i think hes spot on with this. Theres a lot of politicians right now, and im not sure theyre interested in the truth. They want to make political points out of this, and all that does is put a block to growth agendas that the president has in mind, tax cuts, regulation reform and obamacare. And, yes, it is a huge worry. After le pen got defeated this past weekend, the market had a run x i think youre seeing pullback because that stuff is being put on the back burner. Stuart okay. Now, i want to the talk about snap. Facebook appears to be killing them. It went public at 17 per share. On this program you were kind of bearish at the time when it went public at 17. I think youve been vindicated. [laughter] yeah. Look, i hate9 for that for the company of snap, but, look, i dont want to compete with facebook, and im not going to buy a stock that does, just like im not going to buy a retailer that competes with amazon. Its just too big of a company. Remember a few years ago when they thought facebook couldnt handle mobile advertising . They figured it out. I dont want to invest in any company that competes with them. Stuart you wouldnt touch snap at 17 or 18 . No, absolutely not. No. Stuart all right. Tell me about disney. That stock took a hit because of espn which has lost 12 million sub vibers subscribers in six years. What do you think about disney, would you buy it . No, i wouldnt, and its because of the espn problems. Disney with the incredible movie franchises that they own, espn is having a lot of problems. Cop tent is still king content is still king. They overpaid for a lot of these sports licenses, to be able to broadcast these. You also have fox sports thats coming along. Theyre having a huge problem with this cord cutting and how to monetize that context. When you talk about a guy like stuart scott, people love those guys, and they want to see sports used in a positive way, but they dont want to see them talk about politics. No matter what, half the countrys going to disagree with you in what you say, and thats not what sports is all about. Stuart thats very true. You dont want to turn anybody off, thats for sure. I know theres one stock that you like, and that is walgreens. Tell me whats so good about walgreens. Look, no matter what happens with this health care, walgreens is going to benefit. Theyre now pressuring the government to make a ruling on the riteaid acquisition. Whether it goes through or not, it clears up a lot of their future which is what the stock market wants. Stuart well said. Get back to that beach in bermuda, young man. Appreciate it, sir, thank you. Fred barnes still with us right there. Fred, i want to take you back to my editorial at the top of the hour. Yeah. Stuart obamacare is not only in its death spiral, and i think its just about finished, i think its done. Aetna pulling out of all of exchanges completely. Heres what speaker ryan said about the repeal and replacement bill for obamacare. Roll tape. Absolutely. I really do believe we can get this by the end of the summer. I hope the senate can move this bill fairly quickly, hopefully in a month or two they said theyre starting from scratch, some of them. At the same time, just so you say, were going to be working on tack reform. Its not as if we wait for one to be finished and then go work on something else. Weve been working on tax reform all along. Stuart freld, the stock market is very worried about the trump growth agenda. Can you get it all done when youve got hearings like this and the firing of comey and all the rest of it . Thats whats really upset the market. Do you think they can get obamacare done, deal, signed, delivered and tax reform all this year . Boy, thats going to be awfully difficult, particularly with democrats in total resistance and not wanting to go along with anything. Itll be hard but it is possible. And, look, obviously, this comey thing was a didnt help the momentum, for sure, of trump and republicans. But, look, itll i think itll go away absent evidence. Theres still no evidence that warrants a special prosecutor which is what democrats would really like because the whole issue would go on for years. And they could point to it, and it would be a real drag on trump. But, you know, look, we know a lot about tax reform. They know a lot about it. They pass bills, at least in house committees. And so i think they have a head start there. Look, if they dont know enough about health care now, republicans never will. I think they had the good start in the bill that was sent to the senate. I think we need to ask the senate how quickly theyre going to act on it. Stuart well, they better act quickly because obamacare is dead in the i mean, its finished. Well, it is. And, you know, democrats would just as soon have it collapse and go to a singlepayer system. You know, many people think and im one of them, and you probably are as well that it was set up in a way that it would fail, and it would lead to a singlepayer system which, you remember, president obama said thats what he always wanted anyway. And so republicans are going to have to really i think they need to do a better job of marketing. They have to market their bill. They have to continue to talk about obamacare and how its failing and whats wrong with it. Im afraid that paul ryans about the only one whos talking about this. President trump needs to. Stuart got it. Fred barnes, as always, thanks very much for joining us. See you later. Youre welcome. Stuart got a couple of stocks for you which are moving, vista that outdoor. Their profit and sales way down because of slumping demand for guns and ammunition. How about that . Yum brands, taco bell is one of their people, one of their organizations, one of their chains. Theyre going to add more than 50,000 workers by the end of the summer. Yum brands, dead in the water. Down just eight cents. And now this would you let a credit score decide who you date . A large percentage of people, apparently, do. Details on that in this hour. And our next guest has two headlines for us. First, his messaging to americans message to americans, dont give up your guns. Second, california is a mess, and its because of governor jerry brown. Next up, the man behind the headlines, and he is fabio that man right there. Hes our guest. Back in a moment. Stuart we have a very special guest with us this morning, and hes got a special message for all americans, and it is dont ever give up your guns. He says europe is proof when you have to give up the right to bear arms, you give more power to politicians. He doesnt like that. Who is he . Fabio joins us now. Sir, welcome to the program. Its good to have you with us. Thank you, stuart. Thank you for having me. Thank you. You know, we are from europe. Stuart yeah, exactly. Were not used to europeans coming here and saying that guns are great. Were not used to this. Well, you know, its like thats why, you know, america, its called the american dream, and you have the european nightmare, you know . [laughter] everybody comes here because of the american dream. And, you know, look what happened in nazi germany, you know . They took all all away the gunsm people, and now you see what happened. So europe is a mess, you know . Politicians, they are the most corrupted politicians in the world. And nothing works. Now they got invaded, you know . All they do is pretty much watch soccer and [laughter] and, you know, youve got the italian eating pasta, youve got the, you know, french eating cheese [laughter] and, actually, the only smart one are the english. They got out of the e. U. [laughter] its like an abusive, a bad, abusive relationship. Stuart we got that, very good, very good. Youre very vocal, a vocal opponent of governor jerry brown, especially his support of proposition 57 which would put some nonviolent felons back on the streets to save money. Really opposed to Governor Brown . Well, yeah. You know, right now prop 57 is a problem because, you know, is releasing, you know, tens of thousands of criminals back in the street. And also he lower the crime into misdemeanor. And so, you know, also he turn his back to the Law Enforcement. I mean, the cops are very demoralized, and you see what happened to europe. The politicians in europe, they neuter the Law Enforcement. And now they have to be shot before they can even return the fire. And when you see this movie, you know, its you dont want this movie tom coming to a theater near you. [laughter] in america, you know, its, the last thing we want to do is take the side of the criminal. Its a known political issue, its very simple. You have the criminal on one side, and you have the people in the Law Enforcement in the other. What side do you stand . Of course, with the police and Law Enforcement. This is just common sense. Stuart youve been here for years. Are you a citizen yet . Oh, yeah. Yeah, im a citizen, yes. And thats why i love this country. You know, our founding fathers, they were the smartest guys on the planet. They wrote the most beautiful document, you know, the constitution. And, you know, its, its lets go back, you know, to the lets stick with the constitution. Stuart yes. The constitution works. And every single european in every single place around the world, they envious, america. Theyre envy yowtion of the American People. Stuart true. Because of the constitution they dont have. And also, you know, like talking about guns. Bad guys always going to have guns. Look in europe right now. Police have handguns, the bad think your Large Cap Equity Fund has exposure to Energy Infrastructure mlps . 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A year ago the Washington Post put out an essay saying, you know what . The rock, hes a motivational speaker, hes got a following, he could be a viable candidate, and it looks like now the rock is thinking it over. And, in fact, he did speak at the rnc in 2000 when george w. Was nominated. Is, you know, hes about inclusion, cooperation, you know . Hes saying hes against the president s temporary travel halt. Both the president and hillary asked him for an endorsement, he wouldnt give it. So who knows . The rock for president. Who would have thank you that . Stuart do you really think hes going to run . No. We didnt think governor schwarzenegger was going to run, but he did and he won. Stuart next case [laughter] weve got a new study. It says if you have a bad credit score, you could be having a big dating problem. All right, ashley, wait a minute. What is considered a bad credit score . Okay. 601660 is fair. 500601 is bad and everything under 500 is terrible. The reason this comes out, bankrate. Com put out a survey. 42 of adults say credit score would impact whether they would date someone or not. However, it is least important among the young millennials. Ironically, they have the worst Credit Scores [laughter] so theres a reason for that. E but, yeah, some experts say when you get older knowing someones credit score is a pretty good thing to know because often combining your finances, trying to get a mortgage, all the rest of it, it can have a big impact so how does it work . You say, can i have your phone number and your credit score when you want to date somebody . Yes. She may have been a 10, but her Credit Rating was 500, so she was no good. Stuart i dont know how you go about it. I dont either stuart something much more important, macys. Yes, sir, really a drag on all the bricks and mortar retailers. Macys samestore sales down 5 . That is a a huge drop. If youre talking retail and youve got a 5 drop in samestore sales, really very bad. All the other major retailers including nordstrom, jcpenney, the whole lot, down big. 13, 12, 7, 8, 9, extraordinary drops for the retail ice age companies. All right. President trump is going to spend two days in israel during his first foreign trip. Hes also going to saudi arabia. Weve got more on that story. What is the president up to in the middle east . And weve got the market, of course. Were down 86 points now, 20,856. We will be back. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. It can provide what we call an unlock a realization that often reveals a better path forward. At wells fargo, its our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and Wealth Management firms in the country. Discover how we can help find your unlock. Buttrust angies list to help. , [ barks ] visit angieslist. Com today. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. How are they going to make money in that demographic . Because that demographic does not spend money. Its reliant on their parents. I think this is a fools errand here. It reminds me of pons deleon chasing the town take of youth. A lot of the content doesnt strike me as absolutely critical and has a shelf life of a banana. I think the runup is going to occur before the Retail Investor can get in, and im not going to invest in any company that has to compete directly with facebook. Stuart oh, yes, you heard it first right here. Not one of the experts we had on the program on the very day that snap went public for the first time, none of them liked the stock, and they were right. It went public at 17 a share. Ran up to the mid 20s and is now all the way back down to 18. It is off 18 . Well tell you why momentarily. And now this later this month President Trump will make his first foreign trip since taking office. He goes to israel and saudi arabia. Joining us now, former mayor of shiloh from israel, david rubin. David, welcome back. Thank you, stuart. Stuart whats going on here . The president goes to saudi arabia and israel . Is this a new Peace Process . Well, its an instant kind of Peace Process or cooperation between the two countries, interestingly. Theres been a convergence of interests. Israel and saudi arabia both are very concerned about the terrorist threat the Nuclear Threat from iran. And at the same time, are concerned about the extreme islamic terrorism. So there has been a convergence, both saudi arabia and israel were very, very upset with president obama because obama was adamant about getting that iran deal at any cost. And he, he did get that, and as a result, the security of israel, saudi arabia, the persian gulf and the middle east as a whole is, its bedlam. Stuart so theres a common interest between saudi arabia, home of the wahhabis, militantly antiisrael, and israel itself. Its interesting because the Saudi Arabians cant say that. They would never say it publicly. Its absolutely taboo in the islamic world to say anything positive about israel. But i believe that if israel needed to attack iran to attack their Nuclear Facilities at some point in the future stuart so thats a possibility, theyd cooperate . They would have the air space, i believe, over saudi arabia. Stuart the saudis would allow them to do that . I believe so. They would never say so, of course. Stuart yes. But that is wildly different from anything weve seen in the past. Yes. But, again, its a quiet thing, its quiet cooperation. If israel were to do such a thing, Saudi Arabians would be out there pushing u. N. Resolutions against israel trying, crying fire against israel. But thats the situation, yes. Stuart is there something going on under the surface here . Because the leader of the Palestine Liberation Authority you mean mahmoud jihad abbas. [laughter] thats what he believes in, holy war against muslims. Stuart now the president goes to saudi arabia and israel. We have to believe that theres something going on under the surface which weve not seen before. Theres nothing going on with Mahmoud Abbas, i assure you. Whats going on is two parallel tracks. You have the cooperation, the tacit cooperation between israel and the persian gulf nations, and then on the other hand you have President Trump talking Peace Process. And meeting with Mahmoud Abbas in ramallah. And, but theres really nothing to be gained there because what is going to happen is that hell go to ramallah, theyll talk peace, theyll talk negotiations. Maybe theyll even make a date for a peace conference of some kind. And meanwhile, abbas is still paying thousands of dollars to every terrorist who comes to attack israelis. Stuart that was the issue that came up in the discussions. The palestinians do pay the families of terrorists a monthly sty pend, keep them going, and President Trump, i believe, said knock it off. Dont do that. That gets in the way of things. Its been said before, im not sure theyre going to hold by it. But another interesting thing, stuart, is that President Trump is coming to israel on may 22nd. May 23rd is jerusalem day. Jerusalem day is a National Holiday in israel when we commemorate the reunification of jerusalem in 1967 in the sixday war under israels sovereignty. So the convergence of dates, its quite interesting because i find it hard to believe that President Trump is planning to come on may 22nd, the day before jerusalem day, after having promised during the campaign that hes going to move the American Embassy to jerusalem from tel aviv and finally recognize jerusalem as israels capital if hes not intending to do something of that sort. I predict were going to hear if not an actual, concrete step to move the embassy, i believe that President Trump will recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Stuart its good stuff. Theres something going on, david rubin. Yes, there is. Stuart thanks for joining us. Youre welcome. Stuart we are, of course, monitoring the hearing featuring acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe and other intelligence officials. We just had some fireworks when mccabe couldnt or wouldnt answer a question from senator ron wyden. Watch this. Sir, im not going to comment on any conversations that the director may have i didnt ask that. Would it have been wrong for the director the inform him he was not under investigation . Thats not about conversations, thats a yes or no answer. As you know, senator, we typically do not answer that question. I will not comment on whether or not the director and the president of the United States had that conversation. Will you refrain from these kinds of alleged updates to the president or anyone else in the white house on the status of the investigation . I will. Stuart now, other people being questioned, mike pompeo, cia, mike rogers, nsa. Mr. Mccabe, who you saw, dan coats, director of national intelligence. Theyve all been asked the same question, and theyve all responded in the same way cant say anything about an Ongoing Investigation. Our next guest calls all of this a side show. Dan henninger joins us now, wall street journal deputy editorial page editor. You call in the james comey show. Explain. Well, look, what i tried to explain in my column this morning, stuart, about the origins of what this story about trump and the russians came from, it originated described in two New York Times articles back in january and march from two things that president barack obama did. One, he through a rule issued by thenattorney general loretta lynch, they said the nsa could distribute raw Intelligence Data to 16 other intelligence agencies. Then we learned that what they were distributing was information they had about possible collusion between trump and the russians. That then precipitated a hurricane of leaks out of the intelligence agencies, perhaps, or perhaps former Obama Administration officials about this potential collusion. And i call it a side show because there have been no leaks since. This story has not advanced very much other than things about Michael Flynn and possibly carter page. But beyond that it really hasnt why havent there been more leaks giving us more understanding of what this possible collusion could be . They just havent occurred. Stuart why not . Possible because the leakers unloaded everything they have. For the life of me, you know, these hearings that theyre having with the Intelligence Agency directors, they say they cant talk about an Ongoing Investigation, i find that very unsatisfying. If there was a set of things that the nsa had back in january, are we not at the point where that should be released to the American Public to see what they have . Rather than going on with this openended investigation that seems to be a hypothesis inf fa. Stuart if they did that, wouldnt they be breaking some code of silence around intelligence issues or breaking code of silence about any investigation . Wouldnt they be doing that . I suppose. But on the other hand, its sort of a local police force that has a case theyre trying to break, and you just send the cops out, and they walk from door to door interrogating people. Were talking about an issue involving the president of the United States. And what i would prefer to see is someone like Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein to sit down with the facts, with the data, what they have and make a determination there is something here worth pursuing or there is not. Either shut down this avenue in the investigation because its too openended or pursue what should be stuart and if that were to occur, this would come to an en. If you show me what you got, would it come actually, it wouldnt, would it . The democrats would pursue it. The medias very heavily invested in this story, and i dont think theyre going to drop it. But the point is i wish that some of them would try to advance the story merely than simply repeating the same things over and over again. Which leads me to suggest there isnt anything to advance it. Legitimately come to that conclusion. That was senator Chuck Grassleys frustration this morning. Remember in the letter that the administration sent to james comey, the president said to james comey, you said, you admitted three times youre not investigating me. And then there were leaks saying, well, thats farcical. James comey never said that. Those were leaks coming out after the fact. So Chuck Grassleys saying, hey, wait a second. Enough. All this speculation, all these leaks, youre doing exactly what the russians want. Youre undermining faith in the democracy. Tell us now, fbi, are you investigating the president . Clear it up, clarify it. Stuart im with dan on this. Put it out there. The America Public deservings it. All these calls for an independent counsel, and weve been through this experience before going back to the reagan presidency. They will simply chase the target for two years endlessly and destroying reputations along the way. Stuart thank you very much, indeed, dan henninger. I think youre absolutely right. Now this, remember when president obama told americans this . Watch this. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. [applause] if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. [applause] if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you wont have to do a thing. You keep your plan. You keep your doctor. Stuart it never gets stale, does it . [laughter] nor this, when nancy pelosi said this we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in there. Affordable, affordable. Theretheres a reason. Affordable. Affordable. Affordable, affordable, affordable. Stuart we find it hard to resist. Oh. Stuart the latest on the obamacare death spiral. Et in drops out of aetna drops out of all to the exchanges, well be right back. Im Nicole Petallides with your fox business brief. Stocks under pressure as commodities are on the rise. Taking a look at the dow, the nasdaq and the s p, all with down arrows, the dow down 85 points at 20,857. All three of the major averages down for the week. Whats dragging on the dow . Take a look at some of the biggest laggards including intel and home depot as well as microsoft under pressure. All tech sectors have down arrows, telecom and consumer, also industrials, financials. Speaking of financials, take a look at wells fargo. Its been under pressure to continue to cut costs, Financial Performance has been under scrutiny, down 1. 5 , announcing they will cut an additional 2 billion in costs. And then taking a look at verizon, at trumps at t for a deal. All things wireless, down arrows there. Start at 5 a. M. , fbm a. M. , ill see you there. Stuart couple of stocks in the news, verizon is going to buy Straight Path communications. Theyre going to pay about 3 billion, less than they expected. By the way, Straight Path holds licenses to use High Frequency radio waves. Some people think they could form the backbone of next generation networks. Valuable company but only worth 3 billion. Now to whole foods. The Company Announced a huge board overhaul, trying to get back on track. Theyve had a problem recently. Theyre up 60 cents. Thats it. How about uber . Raising rates in some states to pay for drivers injury insurance. This is a big issue for what they call the gig economy, stu. These uber drivers are not an employee of uber. Therefore, they have no benefits. One of the criticisms is, well, what if i get hurt on the job . Now theyre trying a Pilot Program where the cost for insurance, the personal injury insurance, will be five cents a mile for the customer to pay extra, and the driver himself will pay four cents extra a mile in order to have that coverage. They dont have to have that. They can pocket all the money, but if they want it, theres this Pilot Program. Its already being done in the u. K. And elsewhere stuart i think thats a good idea. Yeah. Stuart its the drivers choice, its your call. Yeah. Stuart lets get back to obamacare. Used the expression h spiral many times. Aetna has announced its completely pulling out of Obamacare Exchanges next year. Its gone from that system. Former hhs deputy secretary alex azar joins us now. Alex, i said at the top of the hour, stick a fork in this thing, it is done. It is kaput, goodbye, sayonara. Anything to add . Well, its certainly circling the drain. I mean, this is obamacare plans are following the laws of economics, okay . First, if youre running an insurance company, youve got to be able to make money. To make money running an insurance company, you have to be able to predict risk. The obamacare system has made it impossible to predict risk. You dont know whos in your plan until 69 months into running it during the year. The government has these unpredictable reinsurance programs behind it. And now theres all kinds of uncertainty about whether the government even will live up to commitments around these what are called costsharing subsidies for the subsidized individual that is the Insurance Companies are on the hook for to the tune of about 10 billion a year. Stuart well, that being the case, i mean, its finished, its done. What about those people who rely on these exchangeses and obamacare to get some kind of Health Insurance . What happens to them . Its going to be a really tough spot as we work right now from the status quo until whatever the Congress Comes up with by way of a repeal and replace here eventually. So right now youve got onethird of americans have a choice of only one plan. Youre going to have increasing numbers of markets where there may not even be a plan. The aetna pullback doesnt cause that, but its still quite significant. Theres actually fairly few levers that the government can do at this point to try to stabilize this fundamentally broken system. I mean, one thing you could do would be, basically, provide reinsurance money to Insurance Companies to incent them to stay in, but i dont think theres going to be a lot of appetite for doing that either in the Trump Administration or up in congress. Stuart i dont see any way round poor people being paid for paid let me rephrase this. Idont see anywhere round the government paying for the treatment of poorer people who get sick. I dont see any way around that, do you . Well, we do do that through medicaid, through our state childrens Health Insurance program, even through the republican plan that passed the house. I mean, this is still a large wealth transfer to individuals to help people be able to afford insurance. I mean, you know, this medicaid reform in the house bill may be the largest single entitlement reform in history, but lets remember all it does is slow the rate of predicted growth of medicaid, you know . Only in washington is a cut slowing growth. Stuart youre right. I mean, i see a creep towards socialized medicine on a much larger scale. And its going to be awfully difficult to roll that back. Alex, im sorry to cut it short. I know what a complex situation this is, but we appreciate you coming on board and siphoning it down for us. Thank you, sir, appreciate it. Now this, four democrat attorneys general suing the Trump Administration for lifting a ban on coal miners leasing federal land. Three of them are from state that is do not even produce any coal. Up next, napolitano on that. Here he comes. You know who likes to be in control . This guy. Check it out selfappendectomy oh, thats really attached. Thats why i rent from national. Where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. Which makes me one smooth operator. Ah still a little tender. vo go national. Go like a pro. Wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong insurance company. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, you wont have to worry about replacing your car because youll get the full value back including depreciation. Switch and you could save 509 on auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Stuart moments ago, the acting fbi director was asked about the russia probe again. Roll tape. Is it your impression at this point that the fbi is unable to complete the investigation in a fair and expeditious way because of the removal of jim comey . It is my opinion and belief that the fbi will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely. Do you need somebody to take this away from you and somebody else to do it . No, sir. Stuart thats interesting, he doesnt need anybody else, judge napolitano. You know, the fbi director is so far removed from the actual work of agents in the field, i wouldnt have expected any other answer. The agents go on with their work. They may be emotionally impacted by his summary departure, but i cant imagine that it interferes with their professional work. So thats a standard and most likely truthful answer. Stuart he couldnt say, oh, yes, im gong from here. Im gone from here. Right. Nor could he say the fbi is paralyzed because jim comey left on tuesday. Hes not going to say that. [laughter] stuart well said, young man. Okay. Ive got to bring this to your attention. There are four democrat attorneys general suing the transfer administration. Theyre saying, hey the Trump Administration. Theyre saying, hey, dont lift the ban on mining coal. Three of them are from states that dont have any coal in them. I think theyre going to lose the case not because they dont have the right to sue, but theyre going to lose the case because of whats called chevron deference, a fancy phrase meaning the courts are supposed to defer to decisions made by administrative agencies, of which the epa is. So as long as the epa wasnt utterly irrational by saying two plus two equals twentytwo, the courts are not going to interfere. This case is a nonstarter, but its political. L who run for reelection, and it helps gin up their base. Its not going to change the law. Stuart and theyre from states with a very, very strong green contingent. Yes,s it is odd that the attorney general of the state of new york would be suing the epa in montana which is where this event that theyre complaining about is to take place. But, you know what litigations like today, stuart. Stuart youre asking me . [laughter] do i know what litigation is like today . One to have countrys e foremost critics of excessive litigation. And rightly so. If loser pays here, guess who the loser is . Taxpayers. It might change your mind if you are on the hook. Stuart i sue you because your dog chewed up my lawnmower or something. I know what you mean by that, but its interesting. I dont know if loser pays applies in england to the government. Stuart no, i dont think it does. Separate rules for me and for thee. Stuart come on. What do you think im over here for . [laughter] how do you think i became queen, philip [laughter] stuart give me the english rule. Thats what you need. We done . Were done. You have to tell me if were done. Stuart it says on the prompter were not done yet. [laughter] more varney after this. [laughter]. Stuart weve come back a bit. We were down 10040. Were down 87 140 favorite story of the day. Ashley favorite but retire being Public Employees getting credit for unused sick days. A College Professor in massachusetts, onetime payment 260,000 for 1250 unused six days. Stuart Public Employees . Ashley yeah. Stuart dont use the sick day, you get paid for it when you retire. Liz nearly 2 billion in the state jersey alone. Stuart im out raged. On that note, here is neil cavuto. Neil i have never taken a sick day in my life, give or take a few months. Good to see you back. Thank you very much. As youve been saying, pounding these last three years, this distraction, whatever you want to call it over the comey matter is having an effect on stocks here. Only good news not as bad after an effect. Interest rates have been backing up. We got surprisingly jobless claims report, lowest level in close to three decades. The fact that wholesale
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