up 33 point. need 20 points of gains to close at a brand new record. there it is. thank you so much fortuning in. our three days here at ces are done. tune in tomorrow for the big interview with blackrock ceo larry fink about the brand new spot bitcoin etfs that are now trading including i-shares, i bit. the dow within a few points of closing at record. maybe too close to call. on behalf of my new york based and l.a. based, team here in las vegas, thanks for joining us. this is our crew, brilliant crew. thank you so much. [closing bell rings] whoo-hoo. thanks for joining us and sticking up with us. we so appreciate it. ♪. larry: hello, folks, and welcome

to "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. ply view donald trump won big last night. he was at the top of his game. he was on message, presidential, and bret baier one of the foxtown hall moderators, special report anchor of course will be here to. meanwhile hunter biden will be held in contempt of congress. still no deal on the catastrophe at the southern border. senator ron john will weigh in on all of this at the moment. monica crowley will talk politics and consumer price index came in hotter than wall street expected today and kevin hassett will tell the fed why the fed should not be juicing the economy. first up we go to fox news white house correspondent peter doocy with all the latest down there. peter what can you tell us? >> reporter: larry i can tell you democrats up here at the biden white house are generally under the same impression that democrats who work for chuck schumer at capitol hill are. there is a spending bill with

the republican house speaker mike johnson son but as conservatives start to threaten to bail on johnson which would tank that deal in the house, officials here are growing leery about the possibility of a government shutdown. >> republicans need to keep their word and stop playing or any games here. we cannot have a shutdown. the american people do not deserve a shutdown. that is their basic duty to keep the government open. >> reporter: president biden, speaker johnson had a phone call yesterday but president biden has not been seen doing anything since monday night when i got back from stops in south carolina and dallas. we asked karine jean-pierre about the unusually long absence? who decided that the american people are best served by seeing less of the president? >> i would disagree. i would not say they saw less of the president. he was out there again, a couple states in three days. i think that is important to note as well.

>> reporter: president biden is scheduled to hit the road again tomorrow. he is going to pennsylvania to talk about "bidenomics." larry? larry: i love that, "bidenomics." peter can i ask you a quick question on this budget thing? i don't want to get dragged into details, i'm sure you don't either. is there a new republican proposal or is there just you know, some criticism coming from our friends on the conservative side? >> reporter: it is criticism so far. they apparently are coming up with a number behind the scenes with mike johnson that would cut more out of the johnson-schumer deal, top line number but they have not told us yet exactly what the new number would be. and schumer is moving forward like the deal that he has with johnson is going to be the thing. they're going to file cloture on this tomorrow and they will try to get the ball rolling because they have only got until the 19th to do this to avoid a

shutdown. larry: got it, peter doocy, thank you ever so much as always. all right, folks, donald trump had a big night last night at the foxtown hall. he looked and sounded presidential, stayed on message with key policies. while nikki haley and ron desantis spent two hours frying each other's brains out with no purpose whatsoever. very few people watched that debate. those who did probably walked away in a foul mood. it is my guess, just my guess, donald trump gained a lot of votes in iowa and new hampshire while those two lost a lot of votes in iowa and new hampshire. now, in what i thought was the turning point in the trump town hall last night, and maybe one of the key turning points in his entire campaign was this moment. please take a listen. >> i'm not going to have time for retribution. we'll make this country so successful again i will not have time for retribution.

[applause] remember this our ultimate retribution is success. larry: wow, our ultimate retribution will be our success f he stays with that line it will be absolutely fantastic. completely turns the tables on all these phony joe biden arguments about democracy, insurrection and dictatorships and retribution. what former president trump was saying, is that his successful performance will be our calling card and overand over again in the town hall he managed to stay with that theme and avoid grievances and avoid negativity. his first actions on day one, he said, open the fossil fuel spigots to produce more liquid gold, quote, unquote, not only to conquer inflation at home but to defund our enemies like russia and iran overseas. and then secondly on day one he is going to close the border, restore his policies of remain in mexico or title 42 or

building the wall, start deporting illegals, go back to the successes of his first term. he argued that he will cut taxes, he will wipe out biden's regulatory assault on small businesses. he will restore prosperity and national security. he did it once. he would like another chance to do it a second time, even better. in other words, it was a positive, optimistic message throughout the one-hour town hall. he teased everybody by saying well, yeah, you he already knows who his vice president will be but he ain't talking just yet about specifics. and yes, he said he is willing to mend fences and said maybe tongue-in-cheek already, he is willing to prays chris christie for mers civilly dropping out of the race. what about the charge of chaos, one participant asked in the town hall. president trump calmly reminded

the crowd. bidens creating chaos. chaos at the border. chaos with appeasement and declining foreign policy. chaos with israel in the middle east where there was peace in the trump years. mr. trump said time and time again, no new wars were started under his first term. chaos in afghanistan. chaos in the schools at home. chaos in lawless streets and chaos with a two-tiered justice system and all kinds of election year interference. is there a dictator? trump is not the one trying to keep biden off the state ballots. it is the other way around, isn't it? retribution. mr. trump never went after hillary clinton to he could have in his first term. nor did he go after comey, remember him? or peter strzok or lisa page or adam schiff or any of the crazy, phony lying russian hoax people but he did not go after of them, remember, some folks might want to remember all of that and how

different trump was from joe biden's performance. i dare say anybody watching mr. trump's town hall last night who could just step back from all details and specifics, what you saw was a president, a leader, a man of experience, who knows how to handle tough issues, can handle crowds, interviewers, foreign leaders, economic problems. he is a strong leader. trump tough. he has done this before. he will be even better the next time. that's my riff for this evening. joining me now, to talk about all of this and more, we welcome back to the show wisconsin senator ron johnson. happy new year senator johnson. you're awful good on radio this weekend and we appreciated it and here you are on tv and i want to ask you did you watch the trump town hall last night, sir and what did you think? >> well, larry i wasn't able to. i wish i could have based on yournal sills of it.

i think you laid out the case pretty well. the chaos is coming from the democrat side of the aisle. from radical leftists that the biden administration is and are. the chaos on the border. just across the board you laid out the case and so i wish i would have seen president trump. i appreciate his measured responses in these areas and i agree with you. the retribution will be in the success in tamping down the chaos, in returning prosperity and hopefully unity to this country. you know president biden eight times in his inaugural address said his number one goal was to unify and heal this country. he has done the exact open sit. the radical left is dividing this country. identity politics, critical race theory, the open border. by the way you will not put that genie back in the bottle. you have six million people here let into this country. we don't know who they are, where they are. 40-year high inflation. the dollars that you held at the start of biden administration is worth 85 cents now.

that damage has been done. we need to repair that damage with a new administration. larry: well, senator johnson you had yesterday the republican senate conference met to talk about the illegal immigration situation and the negotiations or lack thereof with your democratic counterparts and the biden white house if there is much. i know senator lankford gave a report. tell us where the conference is and tell us, please, where senator ron johnson wants it to be. >> well first, of all i'm glad we're able to slow the process down. leader schumer and mcconnell wanted to russia thing through, vote before christmas. it wasn't ready. i think james lankford is doing as good a job as he possibly can. sew very knowledgeable about this. sounds like he is holding the line. it is very complex. but the main problem, maybe the fatal flaw here he is negotiating with a conference with a president, who want an

open border, who caused the problem. i mean they are the root cause, you know, my guess is democrats want these talks to fail so they can just blame somebody. they don't want to close the border. they want political cover. so it is a very big challenge for james lankford but i will have to say, you know is making progress and there is some real positive parts to what he is trying to negotiate. the problem is, this would be a problem quite honestly with hr.2, a lot of this stuff would work if we were back at trump levels. what trump basically left for biden was a more normal encounter rate at the border. that was about 30,000 a month. right now we're encountering 300,000 a month. it is an order of magnitude worse. there is not legislation that will fix that. they will have to do something extraordinary. that is the hard question that james has to answer. you say okay if you hit a certain level you will shut the border down. how will you do it?

how will you have the personnel? give us the specifics? will democrats agree to that? there is a lot of detail here. i would like to be able to have a real positive result, put in some really strong border security measures even if this president doesn't fully utilize them a president trump would. again it's complex but i have to give james lankford credit, he is making some progress but the acid test will be if the democrats stop abusing the parole authority which they are abusing. if they're not willing to do much -- larry: that is one of the key things. that is where i want to go. the reports coming out of your meeting, the conference issue, the parole issue, capping it. you talked about numerical targets. i think we should have numerical targets frankly across the board. but with respect to the paroles which has been a gigantic biden loopholes for open borders, can the gop get numerical, targeted

caps on these paroles to stop people from just coming into the states and staying forever? >> well it is pretty much a unified position, a red line, that democrats are not willing to stop abusing the parole system. they're just not serious. we'll not be able to agree to things but remember parole is supposed to be on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons. maybe you have cancer. you want to come in temporary for cancer treatment and go home or come in for a funeral. it is only meant for temporary case in this country. it is not meant for classes of individuals, hundreds of thousands of people which is how the biden admin is using it. larry: take it a step further. as you know lots of talk about impeaching dhs secretary mayorkas. at least, if not a formal impeachment, investigations, what has gone wrong. why has he allowed laws to expire. sovereignty to end, so forth, so

on. what is your take on that impeachment issue? is any of it going to spread to the senate? >> well, i'm all for the impeachment inquiries and the hearings because it exposes this. it shows the american public what is actually happening. let's face it the mainstream media by and large has not covered this. this is why it has gotten so out of control. if you had honest media trulying holding this administration accountable t would not have gotten so far out of hand. the only reason the democrats are negotiating with us because they want ukraine funding and they know it is peril for this open border. they're looking for political cover. we probably had a lot more controls on this had the mainstream media been honest and reported on this. larry: one of the things in the middle of this whole debate about mayorkas' poor performance, about the catastrophe at the border and 300,000 in december and so forth and so on, in new york city as you probably read a couple of

thousand schoolkids, young schoolkid, basically from lower income families but they were going to school. they had to leave the classroom and be replaced by illegal immigrant and then they would have to go online or maybe zoom and nobody wants that, including even mayor eric adams. now that's the kind of thing that puts a human face on this tragedy. i would say we need more discussions of that in order to drive real policy reforms through in the next few weeks? >> the only reason the mainstream media is starting to cover it because they can't hide it anymore. mayor adams saying 100,000, that is less than 2% of the total will destroy new york city. when schoolchildren being displaced, the press can't hide this anymore. they can't cover up for biden. that is creating the political pressure that might give us an opportunity at least to pass laws that a good president, somebody who actually wants to secure the border could use but

hopefully we can force this president to do a whole lot better job than he is doing right now. larry: senator ron johnson, happy new year. we appreciate it very much. >> same to you. larry: coming up here on "kudlow," i think we saw a presidential performance from donald trump last night, presidential performance. we'll ask one of the moderators, our great friend bret baier, see what he thought about the whole story when "kudlow" returns. by the way you can catch "kudlow" monday through friday 4:00 p.m. every day and for some reason you can't be there, text your favorite nine-year-old and she will show you how to dvr the show and you will never miss a single thing. i am kudlow. we'll be right back. ♪.

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larry: if you ask me, hunter biden actlike a spoiled brat in yesterday's contempt of congress hearing. today he is in federal court in california pleading not guilty to federal tax charges just a few moments ago. all the wisdom and the reporting is with our own kelly o'grady live in los angeles with the details. thank you, kelly. what can you tell us? >> reporter: great to see you, larry. as you mentioned he has pled not guilty to all nine charges. a couple of other things to mention for you, he is going to

be released on bail. it is going to be the same conditions as he was released in the delaware charges. so that would include no alcohol, no possession of firearms, he must have employment. he can be drug tested. that is an interesting one. has to communicate all travel and if he is found to violate his conditions his bail can be revoked. now earlier today the president's son arrived in court. it was about an hour or so before his appearance and it was very in contrast to yesterday's chaos, his arrival was not theatrical. he was driven in underground. i just want to touch on the charges he is facing. nine on tax evision. these of those are felonies. according to the indictment he failed to pay 1.4 million in federal tax floss 2016 to 2019. he spent millions allegedly on a lavish lifestyle. larry i loved the line from the indictment where he said he spent on everything but his taxes. now the spending detailed in the indictment was a really shocks

part. included allegedly 900,000 on various women and adult entertainment. we are going to get a potential trial schedule. the thing to watch though is color regarding the judge's reaction. for some context he is the judge providing, presiding over this case. he is trump appointed. i took a look at his record, larry. he has taken a harder line towards tax evasion, fraud charges like this one. last february, for example, he was an individual who failed to pay 1.6 million in taxes, very close to the number of hunter to go years behind bars. before i leave you real quick, yesterday hunter biden crashed his own contempt hearing two. committees voted to hold him in contempt. we learned the house rules committee scheduled a mark-up of the contempt resolution for tuesday. that is going to set up a full house floor vote to hold him in contempt as early as wednesday. larry, just to wrap what i said, he has pled not guilty. everyone behind me is waiting to

see if he will come out and speak to us. fingers crossed, back to you. larry: kelly o'grady, thank you ever so much. sounds like you got some company out there. please be safe. let's talk a little more about trump's town hall last night. joining me is one of yesterday's great moderators, the great bret baier, the author of "special report," the author of rescue the constitution, george washington and the fragile american experiment, back on the best-seller list. i didn't know it had dropped off. bret baier, you did a great job last night. i enjoyed watching the whole thing. i thought you were great and i thought martha was great and i frankly as i said in my opening riff i thought trump had a good night. bret, i thought, you asked this question, if i'm not mistaken the retribution question. he said look i will not have time for retribution. remember our ultimate retribution is success. bret, that was a great line and could be one of those little turning points that happen from time to time in these political

campaigns. what do you think about all of that? >> yeah, definitely, larry. he was on his game. we pressed him on a couple of things he has said recently and he said it differently. on the campaign emails it's it's about retribution. i am your retribution. he talked about as you talked about as being success. he kind of went further down the road of the charge he will be a dictator and what that really means, when he said that to hannity. he was very specific. he was on his game and i think he you know, liked format of interacting with people asking questions. there was a couple of desantis, a couple of undecided but there were a lot of trump fans in that crowd and there is a lot of trump fans in iowa as you head towards monday. the polls are still very strong. it is about logistics and how you get people out, larry but it looks good for the former president right now. larry: now, bret, you know politics more than i know

politics. you cover this stuff every night. i just want to say it just occurs to me trump was good last night. meanwhile haley and desantis were basically frying each other's brains out. the reports are coming in from that debate were not good. i just want to speculate, you know, polls are not votes, votes are votes but i think trump gave himself a leg up in iowa yes, but also my hunch is he gave himself a leg up in new hampshire. i will take the counter wisdom on that. >> it's possible. you know, listen he had a good night. in that format. we did three of them in a row. we did nikki haley first and then governor desantis and former president trump and it is a format that lets candidate talk more, engage voters and voters in those two places are very smart. they have a lot of interesting questions that deal with the top issues that americans care about. so i think that format worked

actually for all of them. do i think that the former president should be on a debate stage? yeah, i do, larry. i'm just a guy that kind of likes that interaction but this was the way he agreed to do this is to do it opposite the other debate and, for him, that worked out. larry: bret, what else sticks out in your mind? i don't mean to front-run you. i really like, not retribution success line. you may have other lines. tell us where you thought were key moments last night? >> first of all that really was a sound bite line because everybody was talking about retribution and what that looks like and how he phrased that, you could stick it in an ad. that is how he did it was well-done. i think that the abortion answer was very nuanced and it was very well-done as far as dealing with that woman's question. she was between governor desantis and president trump and how he answered it in kind of

hearing her concerns about pro-life worries, whether he is pro-life enough, i think is going to benefit him in some place like new hampshire, that maybe isn't the same mind set as someplace like iowa on the issue of abortion. larry: i agree. it was a very nuanced, very sophisticated answer and it had a heartfelt quality to it. i think he was relating to that woman pretty well. bret, i praise you so much i don't want to leave my friend martha maccallum out. a long, long, time ago we used to co-host with each other on another network i will never mention but i want to play some sound from a question that martha asked donald trump, about certain running mates. here it comes. >> let me just ask you a follow-up on that who would be in your cabinet and your administration, if you are the nominee, which i know you expect to be, who would be in the running for vice president? >> well i can't tell you that

really. i mean i know who it's going to be. >> give us a hint. >> we'll do another show sometime. larry: i just love that give us a hint. that is kudlow intervention. that is the kind of thing i do. bret, were you surprised first of all that he kind of stuck that in there? >> i was, actually. i thought, as i'm sitting in my mind going wait, who is it? how does he already know? this process isn't worked out. obviously he has to win the nomination but he is in the pole position to do that. i find it interesting and there was all kind of speculation online, larry, who could it be if he already chosen in his mine and i think there is a good betting pool some place with some bets going in. larry: who is -- i was so busy preparing for this show, the good interview with the great bret baier, where was the speculation for vice president? who won the speculation race? >> there was a lot of kristi

noems. there were a few tulsi gabbards. there was even a joni ernst in there from iowa. larry: wow! >> we'll see. it is interesting when throws that stuff out there that he already knows. larry: yeah, well, no one will ever know if he already knows, that's the beauty of it all [laughter]. think about that. it was very clever response. anyway, bret baier as always we appreciate you coming on the show. and folks, please don't forget you can catch bret baier on "special report" every night weekdays at 6:00 p.m. eastern on fox news. thank you, bret, we appreciate it. coming up here on "kudlow" donald trump had a great night as i said. haley and desantis, not. fani willis trising and tweeting down in hotlanta. and hunter biden is a spoiled brat. we'll talk some politics with "breitbart"'s alex marlow and monica crowley. all that and more when "kudlow"

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♪. larry: closing argument held today in this phony new york civil fraud against against president trump. our own lydia hue outside the new york state supreme court with all the gore rye details. lydia, what have you got? -- gory details. >> reporter: larry we just got word that the attorney general's office is delivering closing remarks before judge engeron. the against for president trump provided their closing arguments earlier today, when we started today we had no expectation that the former president would speak directly to the court during the closing arguments because the trump legal team would not agree to certain limiting conditions as provided by judge engeron but there was a surprising twist late in the morning when the

former president was able to speak for a few minutes and he was able to tell the judge, the judge this, that this trial is quote, a political witch-hunt and that they quote, never had a problem until i ran for office. now larry, as you know, james, letitia james, the attorney general is accusing trump, his company and his top executives of misleading banks and insurers to obtain favorable terms on loans. james issued a statement earlier today saying this in part, throughout this trial we revealed the full-scale and scope of that fraud. i'm proud of the case we presented and i'm confident that the facts and the rule of law are on our side. there is no jury in this trial. judge engeron is deciding all seven claims and already decided trump is liable for fraud. now james, wants trump and his businesses to pay $370 million in fines and wants the court to

cancel trump's licenses for business in the state. the former president, donald trump addressed reporters earlier today. watch here. >> we've proven this case so conclusively. we asked for directed verdict many times. they don't have any facts. they don't have any evidence against us. millions and millions of pages, years of litigation and all politically-motivated. >> reporter: this trial is one of half a dozen legal matters that trump is spacing. so that means he is splitting his time now between courtrooms and the campaign trail. just today, larry, he plans to appear in new york in court on a defamation claim brought by e. jean carroll. that comes amid the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary. back to you. larry: lydia hu, thank you very much. we appreciate it. folks, i want to talk about this case for a moment and the tryst and twists in hotlanta.

we have alex marlow, editor-in-chief of "breitbart news," monica crowley former assistant treasury secretary and host of the monica crowley podcast. monica, you have the dubious distinction shared with me and a few of our friends live in this city for quite some time on and off. this letitia james, 370 million-dollar fine and take away all of the trump businesses. they have no proof. there were no victims. the bankers loved the guy, wanted him to make more loans. this is a victimless crime run politically. i betcha the white house was desking traffic. what do you make, what does this say to any business thinking about coming to new york, let's start with that, non-political idea? >> the answer to that question don't even think about bringing brings to new york or starting a business or european conducting your existing business. you might want to go to florida or texas or another state that

is more business-friendly but the bigger point here they don't care about that. they do not care. they are on an anti-trump jihad and this new york case like every other anti-trump case whether it's georgia or jack smith's case they're all bogus. it doesn't matter to them that there are no cases here. they have made all of this up out of whole cloth to wage wholesale lawfare against donald trump because he poses a existential threat to the entire corrupt globalist, ruling class. certainly to the left and the democrats in the united states. he must be destroyed. so for the last eight years since he came down the escalator at trump tower in new york city, by the way, they have been trying to eliminate him from the political scene and nothing has worked this is not going to work either. larry: by the way, the latest one is, the trump hotel which is now not the trump hotel anymore. i don't know whatever, another name in washington, they're yelling at him, oh, my god, the

chinese bought a room there or malaysians bought a room and he benefited. by the way it was a legitimate business. i'm still trying to figure out. let me go to alex marlow, writerren about this, had these great interviews with trump. alex, so great, the democratic members of the oversight committee, they cooked up, they fed it to the front page of "the wall street journal," "the wall street journal" which is supposed to be a reputable financial newspaper writes this thing. what exactly was joe biden's reputable business? donald trump had a real business. he had hotels. he had golf courses. he had this and that and he i am self put everything in trust. what was joe biden anticipates business again, alex marlow? i can't remember. >> yeah, joe biden's business is joe biden and being in the united states government for the last 50 years and this is how his family members who have know, have no talent or no qualifications to speak of, bad

cash, building golf courses, health care sector, building homes in iraq, doing energy deals in ukraine, doing private equity in china. all this stuff doesn't bother any of these people in washington and new york because he is one of them. he is the guy in charge who makes their own grifts possible. larry: i want to discontinue this, i know you're out there in california. monica is here in new york with me, i want to talk about this fani willis tryst twist to use the "new york post" headline, tryst twist. mark simone said on the show as night that fani willis, the prosecutor, had to pay her boyfriend $700,000 to go out with her. that might be a little cruel but it may not be so cruel because it turns out that part of this guy's earnings, now i know this is, none of this is on the level but he was consulting with the biden white house and you and i and others have suggested all along, or we have suspected all along that it was the biden

white house that is directing this legal assault against donald trump nationwide, whether it's the ballot in connecticut or maine or washington, d.c. he met with white house lawyers on more than one occasion, alex marlowe. what does that tell you about this story? >> we all new it was political from the jump. it was designed to take up our time so we're not talking about the issues facing our country. this is a member of the heritage foundation oversight project that fani willis spent five hours with kamala harris before indicting trump. this barely fog as mir i don't remember. you have to listen to alternative or center-right media to get this kind of context. these people are trying to make sure he can't get elected in a

democratic fashion while they're complaining democracy is under attack. larry: monica, the reason i'm looking at this fani willis thing, she broke up a marriage among other things but, but, this to me blows open all the phony denials from the biden white house. this is excruciatingly consistent, hard-nosed, election interference and what alex just said, i didn't know this, that fani willis sat with -- >> kamala harris. larry: kamala harris for how many hours, i didn't even know that. is there any doubt that this legal war against trump and his allies has been orchestrated from the white house from day one? >> i think it's clear and now we have the receipts. we have the actual evidence of these meetings. larry: right, right. >> letitia james, kamala harris, jack smith, merrick garland, lisa monaco at the d-ej they're all in coordination. in this particular case with regard to georgia, it is not

just fani willis but it's the boyfriend she hired as a top prosecutor in this case who has never tried a felony case before. larry: never, never. >> completely unqualified to take on one of the most historic cases in the history of this country. larry: not even a ham sandwich. >> pays him $700,000 and guess what, he also went to the biden white house and met with the crew in that white house and then had the nerve to bill those hours, larry. he actually billed those hours to go and coordinate illegally with the biden white house. the corruption runs so deep but the good news i think most of the american people see this for what it is and see what a charade it is, all designed to try to stop donald trump which in the end has only strengthened him. larry: alex marlow, i will give you the last, last word, did you watch the town hall last night with president trump and if you did, what did you think? quickly. >> yeah i watched. it he was come lightly on point.

he made some interesting comments with bret, he showed empathy. i thought the abortion answer was exemplary. he pointed out he is the one that made the biggest debt on this issue, seminal issue of our time the last 50 years off any conservative he was sim think tick to people that did not share his viewpoint. he delivered that excellency. he had clarification on the retribution comment. he said he wouldn't touch medicare and social security which is not smart politically. he talked about ending wars which is smart politically and i think a lot of this stuff he is doing to messaging to the undecided voters. i noticed this when i got to spend a couple hours with him in mar-a-lago, he was completely on point to the sensitivities that could prevent him electorally from winning this guy is very capable right now. i'm looking forward to whatever he does next. larry: key word here, commander-in-chief. alex marlow, "breitbart," monica crowley, monica crowley podcast, thank you very much. coming up the consumer price

index, the cpi, interesting came in much hotter than today than well statute expected. we have the great kevin hassett to tell us why should the fed juice the biden economy if inflation is still a problem? wow, i'm kudlow. we'll be right back progressive makes it easy to save with a quick commercial auto quote online. so you can get back to your monster to-do list. -really? -get a quote at progresivecommercial.com. with a majority of my patience with sensitivity, i see irritated gums and weak enamel. sensodyne sensitivity gum & enamel relieves sensitivity,

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♪. larry: all right, cpi inflation came in a little hotter than expected. it wasn't a catastrophe but wall street was not expecting 3.4% for the headline, cpi core, 3.9%. remember folks, the fed's target is two. so the question is why should jay powell and the fed be juicing the economy? nobody better to talk about that, my pal kevin has sit former chair of council of economic advisors of trump administration. author of "the drift," stopping america's slide to socialism. the most important book of the 21st century. kevin, they brought inflation down but they have not gotten it down to their target and unemployment is low. we had numbers today, unemployment claims are still relatively low, why should the fed -- you said this a week or two back, and you were right, there is no reason other than politics for the fed to be juicing the economy this year? >> excuse me, larry, did you you

just say i was right? frame that. hold that, yeah. no -- >> never happens. never happens. larry: you were the first guy, you were the first guy on tv to talk about that, anyway, what do you make of this? >> sorry to joke but yeah the bottom line is there is regularity in the economic date that that wage inflation if it stays high makes price inflation high because firms have to pass the higher wages on to consumers. if you look at the atlanta fed's best measure of wage increases, it is 5.2%. so that means getting price inflation below or so is next toe impossible unless you want profits to go in the tank at which point equities are going to collapse. i think we're kind of stuck at four. that is what i have been saying. we had a couple good numbers when i was on your show i was saying no, they're temporary and we're back to where it all makes sense. the thing that bothers me, this

goes back to your other point, the futures marketing they don't expect the fed at this meeting, but the next meeting to start cutting rates all the way through the election. they have the rate at the end of this year as 3.75. so the bottom line is, what story is there out there with inflation still way above target, with gdp growing 2 1/2% in the fourth quarter? you got growth, you got low unemployment, you've got low initial claims, you have got high inflation and the markets are calling for the fed to cut? the only explanation for me is that the markets are pricing in partisanship. they understand all those democrats appointed to the fed want to juice the economy for joe biden. larry: judy shelton was on the show last night with steve forbes. we were talking about dei, all wokeness at the fed, judy sent me a thing this morning, somebody did a study, 90% of the fed economists are, wait for it,

90%. that's not quite as bad as harvard. i think harvard's faculty was 97%. but you know it doesn't seem like there's no discrimination, how about if i put quite that way? >> yeah. the one thing i got to say though is you and i both know jay powell and i don't think he is going to, he will at least fight doing political moves at the fed. he respects the institution and he is a good man and the problem though is that the staff are going to be presenting him forecasts that are jimmied to make it look like we need to cut rates. i'm sure the staff saying the economy will be disaster in order to get interest rate policy to be lax going into the election. that is the kind of thing that jay needs to see through. that's why i'm not mr. let es attack the fed in public but i think it is really important to talk frankly about these political risks because it is really the future of the fed is at stake and if they cave to all the liberals like austan goolsbee that are over there now

and they cut rates beginning in march all the way through the end of the year, frankly i don't think the fed is an independent agency anymore. b larry: kevinus hassett. accelerate growth, predict trends, you need to begin with trust. introducing watsonx governance. helping you govern any ai, as data, models, and policies change, so you can scale it responsibly. let's create ai that begins with trust, with watsonx governance. ibm. let's create.

larry: you know, this open astrophe down south is so important. i mean, i hope the republican senators really hold tight. there should be numerical caps on paroles, but i think there should be numerical caps on illegals, okay? we can worry about detaining