have a budget, i will tell you that. and, yes, we canning ed be looking at a shutdown. -- we could be looking at a shutdown can. maria: great conversation, everybody,ing we so appreciate your time. join me next week, we will be broadcasting live from davos, switzerland, at the world economic forum. we're going to get a lot of answers to some of these questions on the macro story globally when i speak with the ceos of these leading companies to get their state of the economic backdrop. we will talk with marc benioff from salesforce, brian moynihan, brian lutnick, mike worth, ceo of chevron. hope you'll join us for a busy week at the world economic forum. that'll do it for us for today. have a great weekend. i will see you tonight on "wall street" and on sunday on "sunday morning futures." dow trillions -- industrials down 100 points. "varney & company" picks it up. stuart: good morning, everybody. the war expands.

the u.s. and britain, with help from some allies, launched a series of strikes into yemen. it's a major attack on the you thinks who are backed by ranch -- on the houthis. their leader threatens retaliation. president biden says he's prepared to take further action. that would be escalation. the president has not appeared in person to speak about this. defense secretary lloyd austin reportedly oversaw the strike from his hospital bed. more on this in a moment. market reaction. the price of oil going up, real concern that the houthis will retaliate against saudi arabia's energy assets in the red sea. $74 a barrel on oil right now. stocks down, a widening war upsets investors. hey, you don't know where this thing's going to end. and producer prices and inflation, that came in soft. prices paid by business down .1% in december, up just 1.8% over the last year. the market was sharply lower, and with the news of the war broke, it's come back a little bit with news of soft iser

inflation. dow off 100, the s&p down 1, nasdaq down 7. interest rates, let's start with that. the 10-year treasury now yielding3.96. -- 3.96%. interest rates actually going down. the 2-year treasury around 4.25. the yield down 4.20%. bitcoin, after a strong showing on those efts yesterday coming in around $45,000, 45,7, as of this morning. all right, politics. the latest poll shows donald trump with a commanding lead for the iowa caucuses which happen monday. just as important, a surge for nikki haley putting her firmly in second place. now, there may be a blizzard on caucus day in iowa. we don't know what that the will do for turnout and who will be affected if some voters stay home. confidence in the administration in the time of war. we haven't seen the president in days, mayorkas can't face border reality, and kamala harris just

a heartbeat away from the oval office. where's the confidence? we're going to dive into the bill belichick story. i need help with this one, so we'll bring in dave portnoy. friday, january the 12th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ stuart: i did make a mistake, it's etfs, right? [laughter] thank you very much, indeed. efts are something entirely different. >> entirely different. stuart: what you're looking at is producer price inflation. we got the report this morning. lauren's here, take us through it. lauren: it's encouraging, surprise decline. prices that businesses pay to stock their shelves fell .1% in december as you can see. and at the core level, essentially flat. annually, core prices up 1.8. that's lower than expected. two things, there's no shell e orer component in ppi as it is

rent with so much half 06 the cpi increase, but there's also no disinflation as a lot of people are going to tell you. case in point, look at the inflationary aspect of what is going on in the red sea. stuart: yes. but if it's 1.8% over the past year -- lauren: encouraging. stuart: i would say that's encouraging because the fed looks at that. interest rates are down this morning. don't worry, ken, you'll get to say something in just a moment, and that's a promise. [laughter] we had four big banks report this morning. can you start with jpmorgan? lauren: had a weaker quarter by but a record year. annual profit just shy of $50 billion, and the bank says its net interest income will hit $90 billion for 2024. i would say that is encouraging. that that's the profitability metric for their, for their loan making. however, jamie dimon, the ceo, sounded a note of caution on inflation. he says because of going green, because of supply chains, defense spending, all of that could cause and likely will

cause inflation to be stickier, rates to be higher. higher rates for it customers, right? stuart: but he made $50 billion in profit, you know? he's not weeping, is he? how about citi? lauren: a to lolls of $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter, yet the stock is up 1.8%. the ceo, jane frazier, reorganizing the bank. a lot of this was told in advance. stuart: bank of america? lauren: profits shrank on almost $4 billion in charges. stock is down 3%. all of the banks have to spend money to pay back the fdic, the funds that was used to cover uninsured depositors from the if silicon valley bank, signature bank, all of those failures back in march. that was one of the reasons why bofa's stock is down. they also said going back to net interest income, it fell for them by 5% in the quarter. i think that's part of the reason this stock is down. finally, whales fargo also lowe. net income interest for this year could be up to 9% lore than

a year ago. stuart: okay, kenny -- [laughter] the floor is yours. taken all together, this sounds like kind of a mixed picture. >> it's definitely a mixed picture. if ppi was actually a positive, but to your point, it doesn't include housing. so we'll see what happens next month. but, you know, the bank reports i'm not necessary lu surprised at all, right? in terms of what they're reporting. they're down year-over-year, but they're beating the estimates. the bar be's been lowered. i think overall it's okay. what i'm curious about, we should talk about, is what they've allocated for the -- [inaudible] has that gone up. if it does, that suggests what they're expecting in the future in terms of defaults. stuart: why don't you explain to me why the market is kind of not exactly down sharply at this moment when we're in a time of war. >> and it was early, right, on the back of that news that came out overnight. but you know what? the geopolitical stuff creates very short-term chaos. it never really prices stocks on the long term. and so we saw that when it

happened with israel el and hamas. we saw that when it happened with are russia and ukraine, how the market reacts initially. so now this conflict in the red sea's been going on. yes, last night it was a little bit elevated, but we saw what happened overnight. futures were lower, now this morning it's focusing on the ppi and the economics in this country as well as the earning. stuart: should i buy some defense stocks? >> i absolutely think you should buy defense stocks. what's happening just in the world, not just the red sea, but around the world. aerospace and defense whether you buy the etf or you buy individual names like raytheon and lock heed martin and general dynamics, i think they're all poised to do better if this elevated level of risk continues. stuart: okay. you're with me for the hour. >> i am. stuart: stay right there. [laughter] let's get to the latest out of the middle east. the and u.k. carried out more than a dozen airstrikes against houthi targets in yemen late yesterday. what's the latest on this? lauren: so the u.s. f f 18 fighter gents from the carrier

eisenhower along with british war planes took aim at houthi targets in yemen that included adar systems, airfields used in support for their repeated attacks on commercial ships in the red sea since the war in gaza. houthi rebels say the strikes killed five, and they are promising retaliation. defense secretary lloyd austin ordered the strikes from the hospital. he says the coalition action sends a clear message to houthis that they will bear further costs if they do not end this. so this was a limited strike. the pentagon is not ruling out further action. they didn't attack iran. i think that's why the market's not down big today. there have been, look here, 130 attacks on u.s. forces by iranian proxies in iraq and syria since october 17th. this region is a powder keg. yet to your point, the stock market is not selling off. stiewfer stuart it's not. it really isn't. interest rates have come town a bit on the 10 and the 2-year, and that's helping the market this morning despite the war.

>> i think, you know, we're coming into a lot weekend. a lot can happen over the weekend not only in terms of the conflict, but also in terms of iowa and taiwan. we didn't even talk about that the yet because those elections are happening this weekend. a lot could happen. i wouldn't be surprised if we saw the market -- stuart: it is a 3-day weekend because if it's martin luther king day on monday, and the market is closed. >> that's right. stuart: douglas murray with me now on the ground in israel. what's the reaction there to these strikes, douglas? >> reporter: well, i think not very much surprise. i think that there are several theaters of conflict now going on involving israel. one is, of course, the war in gaza, the war against hamas. but there have been these two other less noticed conflict zones. the first, the one in the north where hezbollah and israel are exchanging fire on a pretty regular basis, actually, across the lebanon-israel border. but the other is this thing of missiles from yemen being fired at the southernmost tip of

israel. and this is, of course, one of the things which the overnight action is presumed intended to deter. but it does mean that israel has the potential to have a war on three fronts, that that's what's going on to some extent at the moment. questions is whether actions like that last night can dampen everything down or whether at some point an action action like that ends up enflaming the situation. nobody knows about that. stuart: the fear is that the houthis retaliate, they'll hit saudi energy assets in the red sea. that is the risk for the oil market at this moment. a very clear risk there. >> reporter: yeah, that is. and, of course, the houthis are -- have done that before. of course, the saudis have to look after their own security on that. it is very striking, the houthi rebels are not very advanced in their own actual tactics or capabilities. they certainly aren't a match for the israeli army or the american army or anything like it. but they do have pretty advanced, in fact, very expensive weaponry from iran

which is sort of weaponry that they are firing at southern israel, have been firing. and that is a real cause for concern heemple the way in which iran has been arming proxies like those in yemen and, of course, like hezbollah in the southern part of lebanon. and, you know, the iranians really have a very sophisticated technology now in rockets, and i think this is what inevitably will cause much more concern. that has -- hamas is much more of a corps teen that of a terroristist group compared to hezbollah which is a serious lamborghini, and, of course, it's whether iran doesn't mind its ford being smashed up. it seems to be looking after its prized possession, hezbollah. stuart: i wonder how many of our viewers know what a ford cortina is. you and i from britain --

douglas, thank you very much, indeed. coming up, here's what we have for you, big show for you. first lady jill biden came to her husband's defense over age concerns. roll tape. >> he's wise. he has wisdom, he has experience. he over in knows every leader on the world stage. he's lived history. he is the right man, the right person for the job. at this moment in history. stuart: that is the first lady, but the president has been out of sight for most of the week. then to the biggest news of the day, the u.s. and u.k. struck more than a dozen houthi targets in gemmen. the -- yemen. the houthis promise retaliation. where are they going to hit? that's the big story coming up. and we'll be back. ♪ ♪ trading at schwab is now powered by ameritrade,

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stuart: the u.s. haunched airstrikes against houthi targets all across yemen overnight. jacqui heinrich is with us, is she's actually at the white house. does the president plan to speak publicly about this? >> reporter: we don't have any heads up on that yet, stuart, but we did get a statement last night. you know, the president signed off on this on tuesday after the houthis effectively layoffed off the -- laughed off the final warning the u.s. and its allies issueded last week and launched their most complex attack on commercial if shipping directly affecting american ships, targeting american ships. one of 27 such attacks which biden says were, quote, endangering u.s. personnel, civilian mariners and our partners, jeopardized trade and also threatened freedom of navigation. this has affected more than 50

nations with crews from more than 20 countries threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy. the president promised the u.s. would not hesitate to take more action, and the coalition strikes have received applause from top republicans including mitch mcconnell and mike johnson. but progressive democrats blasted the president for this. ro khanna tweeting section 2c of the war powers act is clear, potus must only introduce the u.s. into hostilities after congressional authorization. this is a retalia story offensive strike. and congresswoman pramila jayapal called it an unacceptable violation of the constitution. but we've just learned that top congressional leaders including the gang of eight were given a heads up on this. moreover, the u.s. did give that final warning last week and also the houthis effectively got a 32-hour heads on up on -- 2-hour heads up after reporters in the

u.k. leaked the plans. the houthis claim that five people died and and six were injured. still, critics say this aggression will not stop until the u.s. goes after targets inside iran and, moreover, they say guiden's decision the -- biden's decision to remove the i houthis from the foreign terrorist list have hurt the ability to respond. >> reporter: does the president have any regret over delisting houthis as a terror organization? is he reconsidering that at all? >> i've already said that we are going to review that decision. >> reporter: when? >> we are. i've said it, i said it a couple of weeks ago, that we were going to take a look at that decision. and we still are. >> reporter: the houthis are still holding captive the crew of the galaxy leader where the ship is being used as a tourist attraction where people can take selfies and stomp on american and israeli flags placed on deck, stuart. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. retired lieutenant general keith kellogg with us.

biden hasn't been seen in days, defense secretary austin in the hospital. who do you think is actually running the show? >> yeah, stuart, thanks for having me. that's a pretty good question to ask. look, i'm glad we did something last night with these strikes, that's pretty good. but the next step is more important because they're going to come back at us. and my frustration i've got with everything that's happening, stuart, is that it's taken this long for this to happen. and we're actually driven into this by economic concerns meaning the shipping lines, you know? you had maersk, you had singapore shipping all saying nowhere more ships through the red sea, we're going around africa, the cape of good hope, which doubles the transit time and doubles the cost of container shipping. we finally said, okay, enough is enough. but my concern is, again, going to go back to once they retaliate, and they will, what is this president going to do, what is this secretary of defense going to do? stuart: well, general, what do you think we should do? >> yeah. well, you know, stuart, you

almost have to -- look, you don't have a lot of targets in yemen. the targets they went after are okay. it's not really what we'd call in the military a target-rich environment. here's where you have to escalate, you have to take a bigger step. you don't necessarily have to go after iran which is the state sponsor, but you basically say, okay, you've got the leader of the houthis, he's a spiritual leader, he's the economic leader, he's the military leader. much like we did with soleimani, you basically have to say you've got to go to the source, and the source is the leadership. there aren't that many targets there. this stuff that they're providing the iranians, the missiles and the drones, it's transit. it comes in, they use it, then more comes in. there's no factories, this is no real good ports to hit, so they're going to have to do something dramatic. it's going to be a change, but they're going to have to do it. the problem you run into, it's a question of will. and what i mean by that is intestinal fortitude. are you willing to go up the escalation ladder. are you willing to go there. are you willing to take that

risk. and you've got to be able to say, yes, if you're going to quiet this down. otherwise this is going to go on. i guarantee you there's going to be another attack in the near term. stuart: do you think it's likely that this president would take out the leader of the houthis? as you suggest? if do you think he's likely to do that? i don't. i don't think his party would have it, the democrats don't want this, i don't think. >> yeah, stuart, that's what i think i would recommend to the former president. this president will not do it. i'm telling you what i think should be done, i believe should be done. it won't be done, so you're going to keep going tit for tat. and what's going to happen though, stuart, and if they send a missile, the houthis, and it hits an american warship and kills a lot of american sailors, and that's clearly in the line of probable, then you've got a real problem on your hands, and then you're going to have to really escalate. it's going to be interesting what this administration does. stuart: a more likely

retaliation by the houthis would be to attack saudi arabia's energy assets in the red sea, and that would be a very serious move. would that then produce a firm reaction from us? >> no, i don't think so, stuart. this is one of those it's a regional issue. what's going to take to get a firm reaction is if they hit a u.s. warship or something like that. and, look, the houthis are going to do it. they believe that we are the devils of the universe. and they're going to come after as, because they're doing the bidding of the iranians. we're going to have to expect this. and they're all within range of those missiles. the ballistic missiles, the sea-skimming missiles they've got, they've all a got ranges of about 1,000 miles, so they can hit. and if they want to do it, they will. i don't think anything external to us getting hit from a military perspective, meaning our ships, our vessels, is going to cause any more reaction are. it's going to be one of those, gee, saudis, i'm sorry it happened. let's be honest about it, stuart, you know this. the relationship between mbs,

mohamed bin salmon, and the president is not really good. you know, the crown prince gave him a fist bump, not a hug. stuart: got it. general keith kellogg, thanks for joining us, we always appreciate it. check futures, please, in a time of war, the dow's down only 43 points. benign inflation news helping the nasdaq. we'll be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ want me to get you out of my heart -- ♪ baby, out of my mind ♪ you can't buy great conversations or moments that matter, but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. t. rowe price, invest with confidence.

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stuart: futures suggest a mixed opening. dow down 12, nasdaq up 28 points. mark mahaney with us today. mac, you brought with you two stocks that you like, meta and dash. let's start with meta, because i think you've got a target price of $425. make your case, please. >> yeah. so we think this company can do $20 in earnings next year. so you put a little over a 20 pe multiple on that. you twenty to your $425 price target. look, the wheels are spinning well for meta right now. they're managing costs extremely well. you've got this click to message ads that are doing well for the

company, and then these reels ads, these are the short form video, tiktok-like video that you see on meta. those have gone from monetizing poorly in '23 to monetizing well in '24. i just think you've got a nice setup here for kind of 15% top-line growth with some margin expansion, good, solid 20-25% earnings grower. high quality asset. stuart: 425 on meta. okay. i -- those reels are kind of aa dicktive, aren't they? then you've got dash, you think it's going to $120 a share. you like delivery services, don't you? >> yes, i do. i'm replacing uber. i know you've liked, stu, i know you've liked uber, and i still like it, but we had a catalyst path. this is what you want to look for as a stock picker. so with uber, you had the influence pollution into the s&p 500, and they reached profitability. and they're starting to buy back stock. they're going to announce in this the upcoming quarter. i think that catalyst path you've not now aced -- ahead of

you with doordash. i think they're going to hit income profitability because they've scaled enough to get to that point. and possibly not this year, but next year they'll be included in the s&p 500, and they'll start buying back stock. it's sort of the same value catalyst path you had with uber. they're rolling out a lot more ad revenue, and it's a just a really good service. they execute well, most people have probably used tour carb, and they probably -- they keep expanding. i like the diversification play. stuart: one other quick one. you say that google will underperform. give me 20 seconds on that one, please. >> i prefer meta to google. i just don't sense the cost discipline. investors want cost discipline. you don't get that from google. it's one of the reasons i'm more cautious. stuart: mark that maney, on a friday morning, nothing better. [laughter] i'm serious. the market is about to open, and away we go, thank you. the dow has opened probably with a small gain.

yeah, there you go, up 221 pointings. and -- 21 points. if you look at the dow 30, most of them are in the lead there. i mean, in a wartime situation, an expanding war in the mideast, we've got benign or softer inflation numbers. i think that's balanced it out. we've got a move to the upside. the s&p 500 also on the open, it is up just about one-third of 1%. the nasdaq composite with treasury yields coming down, the nasdaq is up about a quarter of 1%. and we've got, now, 26, 25 of the dow 30 in the green. let's have a ab -- a look at big tech. that's where the money is. alpha alphabet, meta, microsoft up, amazon down. lauren: two longtime board members are now 75 years old, and that violates apple's -- don't laugh -- apple's longstanding policy that directors cannot stand for re-election at the age of 75.

former vice president al gore -- [laughter] i wish the camera was with on you -- and former boeing ceo james bell are out. stuart: so i could not be on apple's board. lauren: correct. they could make an exception, perhaps. stuart: they wouldn't. [laughter] >> president though. stuart: we've got a lot of earnings including blackrock. they're down, not much, but they're down. lauren: the story is good. they manage $10 trillion in assets. they did fine in the quarter. profits up 9%. but they will buy the fund manager global infrastructure partners, that deal worth over $12 billion. i think that's why they're down. they have a portfolio that includes gatwick airport. so blackrock is getting those assets in this deal. stuart: i don't want to talk about everything sg with blackrock. i don't want to go there. delta, i think it's down today. lauren: by almost 4%.

how is that possible with the record flying? well, they cut their full-year profit forecast because costs, including labor, are just too high. that overshadows the good quarter, the earnings beat and the record 2023 for delta because markets are forward looking, and they don't like what they saw from this company. stuart: real fast, bottom right-hand corner of your screen, the dow just hit a new intraday high, 37,8. united health, i think they're well down. lauren: earnings better but their medical costs are high. they blamed medicare specifically, government program coverage being more ebbs fencive. -- expensive. they are a dow stock, so you do have do the dow at a high. stuart: how's doing going -- boeing doing? lauren: passengers on that alaska a airlines flight are suing boeing because of what happened when the door blew off. six family members -- six passengers and a family member, i apologize, say they suffered physical injury ises. one had a concussion, difficulty

breathing. all sorts of things. so their suit also alleges that the oxygen masks seemed inoperable. they're not suing alaska, their suing boeing. stuart: when you get a dollar number from the passenger lawsuit, then you can have some movement in the stock. you wouldn't touch boeing, would you? >> absolutely not. ing it was never a name i owned and absolutely not a name i'm owning now. stuart: i lost my shirt on that a couple years ago. >> once a year they've got another problem. there's other places to put my money. stuart: oh, dear. cvs closing pharmacies in some target stores. i didn't know they had these stores in these places. so why are they closing? lauren: about 1800. they want to right-size, if you will, their operations because they're shifting to services, health care services. so they're closing dozens of pharmacyings as the ones that they do run in most targets. pharmacies are a headache, right? all the pharmacists at every company are complaining that

they're overworked, and they're just -- i guess not that profitable. i think the reason cvs is down is because of the rising cost of health care. stuart: show me tesla, please. they've got a problem with their factory in germany. they're actually lowering production or did they close the thing? lauren: they're halting production for two weeks at the end of the month. they won't have the parts to build the cars. why won't they have the participants? because of the supply chain disruptions in the red sea. this is the start of the economic fallout that begins. tesla is the first company that i've heard about to disclose that there is an interpretation to their -- interruption to their business because of the red sea. key transit route. you get your goods, your participants, your semiconductors from asia to europe and the united states. so tesla will cease production between january 29th-february 11th. stuart: that is dramatic impact, isn't it? you think the war has fallouts. well, that's fallout. >> yeah. and to your point, it's the

beginning. how many more companies are going to have that same story? lauren: and the general said earlier that helped inform biden's decision to conduct these strikes, it was economic. stuart: okay. cpny, you brought some stock picks with you. start with nvidia. >> listen, we had ces this week out in las vegas. there was, everything you looked at was all about artificial intelligence, where it was going to be in every single thing that we're to going to start using in our life, refrigerators, telling you what's in the fridge, what to make with everything that's in your fridge, all that stuff. so names like nvidia and advanced micro devices sit right at the nexus of that artificial intelligence story, so it's not going away, right? they're down, apparently a little weaker this morning, but over the long term, those are names and a space that you want to have -- stuart: i just, i would feel very, frankly, uncomfortable buying nvidia at $547 a share. >> okay. you might, but this is where that is story was at the beginning of the week when it really ran up, is that this is about where it was when they

split it in july of 2021. they split it 4 for 1, right? while we know that doesn't mean anything in terms of market k579ization, it becomes attractive because suddenly it's a $130 stock and retail investors think, now i can buy it, all right? lauren: but for amd, do you buy something that's doubled in the past 52 weeks? stuart: takes a strong stomach to do that. >> it might be, but if you believe in the a.i. story, the tech story, i think we're still very much at the beginning stages of the story. i think these stocks -- look, like apple and google, they just keep improving, improving, improving. so i like the -- lauren: the new magnificent 7 includes -- >> yeah. now it's just going to start to be a bigger number. it's not going to be just the seven names. stuart: okay, i got it. [laughter] thank you, kenny. stay there, please. don't forget to send in your friday feedback. you know i love hearing from you, and i can take the good, the bad and even the ugly. e-mail us at

varneyviewersfox.com. it's the end of an era in new england. bill belichick leaving at the end of the season. dave portnoy is a huge fan. remember this? >> it's grave i have, belichick, portnoy. that's where it is. stuart: i thought we'd include a little flattery for dave because he's going on on the show -- to be on the show in our next hour. west virginia -- virginia attorney general patrick morrisey is with us next. ♪ ♪ -- see it through 'cuz you got a friend in the me ♪ you've got a friend in me ♪

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stuart: donald trump's new york

civil trial wrapped up yesterday with closing arguments. c.b. cotton with us now. when can we expect the judge's decision? >> reporter: well, stu, the judge says his written ruling could come by the end of the month. and while we wait for it, trump says the case and all of his legal troubles are a big setup. >> my legal issues, every one with of them, every one, civil and the criminal ones, are all set up by with joe biden, crooked joe biden. >> reporter: now, trump is facing six cases ranging from defamation allegations to election interference and insurrection. he says that he wants to attend all of his upcoming trials in person. his defamation lawsuit with e. jean carroll is set to start next week in new york. trump spoke out during closing arguments yesterday in his civil fraud trial. he said that he's the one who's been defrauded in this case. trump and his legal team argue they did not inflate their assets, and banks did their own due diligence with the financial statements and that there are no fraud victims because trump paid back his loans in full.

after his team's closing arguments, trump and his attorney held a press conference saying he is the victim of political interference by new york attorney general letitia james. >> she's using this to paint a canvas that donald trump is a fraudster because they can't beat him in the polls. >> reporter: now, james argues her team has proven trump, his two oldest sons and trump organization executives intentionally defrauded banks and insurance companies in a decades-hong scheme. decades-long scheme. >> the fact is, is that this trial has shown and we have produced evidence about the scope, the scale, the depth, the breadth of the illegally, the fraud that personally enriched donald trump and his family. >> reporter: james is seeking $370 million in penalties and wants trump to be banned from the new york real estate

industry for life. the judge's ruling will determine what penalties trump will face, stu. stuart: what a story. extraordinary, isn't it? the banks didn't lose any money, there's no victims here, nobody got hurt, nobody at all, and they want to run him out of town and take all his money. that is, that is political victimization, that's my opinion, c.b., you don't have to agree with it. >> reporter: well, the banks in their testimony, they talked about this. stuart: yeah. they didn't get hurt. nobody got hurt here. c.b., thank you very much, indeed. fine report. okay, donald trump has appealed colorado's ballot ban to the supreme court. west virginia's attorney general patrick morrisey wants a quick decision, and he joins me now. why does the supreme court need e to act quickly on this? >> absolutely, stuart. thank you for having me on. this is such is an important decision because we have to make sure that there's not chaos occurring in the states. as we all know as americans, there is one withdrew anemic national election, and that's for the presidency and the vice

presidency of the united states. if you start seeing individual states exercising their own judgment to interpret the 14th amendment section 3, we're going to have varying standards a across the country, and we're going to have situations where the major nominee, the guy a a ma -- that's going to win the go fp nomination for president is not going to be on the ballot when the states don't have the authority to define that term. i think everything in the history protects the constitution -- of the text of the constitution suggests that this is a call for congress. and if the states do it, i think there'll be chaos and different standards across the board. that doesn't work. i think the supreme court needs to step the up and make a decision on this quickly. stuart: what kind of time frame do we have here? how many weeks or days does the supreme court have before you get this chaos? >> absolutely. so, first of all, we'll be submitting our amicus brief on january 18th, and then the oral

argument is february 8th. i would imagine if that this is going to move much faster than the traditional case that you might see toward the end of the term because you have elections coming up. super tuesday will be on the horizon. so i think you're going to see fairly rapid action on the part of the court, and i am very optimistic about the arguments we're bringing to bear. stuart, just on the case of how you define the term insurrection, they have not actually defined exactly what that means. and you have to have specific standards, you have to have due process. everyone is entitled to that including donald trump. he's not even been charged with insurrection. and it's not part of all the trials, including the one you just talked about, a lot of the crazy interference going on. stuart: you've got it. attorney general patrick morrisey, thank you very much for joining us. >> they're, thank you -- hey, thank you so much. stuart: vivek ramaswamy, he's another gop candidate possibility, he's coming to trump's defense.

lauren: as a contender to trump. he filed an amicus brief with the supreme court asking it to keep trump on the ballot in colorado's primary which is in march. he says there are three reasons donald trump should not be banned. number one, the section of the 14th amendment being used to do this doesn't apply to presidents. number two, it's political. and, three, it sets bad precedent and it opens up this pandora's box of future candidates of both parties being disqualified. vivek said you could look at a future election where candidates are only on half the ballots in the country. like, not on the ballot in half the states. stuart: i think -- lauren: in half the statements in the nation. stuart: i just think this is an organized judicial attack on donald trump for political purposes. stuart: supreme court's hearing this on february 8th. that's not what the judicial system's supposed to be about. thank you very much, lauren. we're on the brink of a direct clash between the united states and iran. ooh, yes, this is not a comfortable moment for the administration. and we've arrived at this point because, in my opinion, the

president's appeasement of iran simply did not work. that's going to be my take, top of the hour. the last minute campaign push in iowa could be complicated. much of the hawkeye state is under a blizzard warning. the weather in iowa after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ do you shop for supplements at vitamin shoppe? force factor products powerfully

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♪ ♪ stuart: iowa is expecting some severe winter weather over the weekend right before the iowa caucuses on monday. bill melugin is there. all right, bill, how bad is it expected to get? >> reporter: stuart, it's expected to be the coldest caucus in recorded history. we are already under a blizzard warning. temperatures expected to get upwards of -40 with the wind chill. that can put you at risk of frostbite or hypothermia if you're out there too long. but most of the iowans we've been talking to say it's not going to stop them, they're going to be out there on caucus night. take a listen. >> diehard trump supporters are going to come out under any circumstance. >> i think no matter what the weather is, people are going to get to the polls. >> my mother's 92 years old, and she's already told me if it's

snowing or ice, you're going to come pick me up. we will find a way to get there the. >> it would take a lot for us not to go. i think that you've got a loyal crowd that always caucuses, and unless there's a major weather event, i think the turnout will be great. >> reporter: nikki haley is number two in the latest polling here in the state of iowa moving past ron desantis, also number two in the fox news power rankings, also number two in the state of new hampshire. she is enjoying some positive momentum, and she says she's peaking at the right time. take a listen. >> so get excited, four days until caucus. now, i know why i'm excited, because it's 11 months worth of work of going all over this state multiple times to really get to answer all your questions and take pictures and be the last one to leave. >> reporter: as for desantis, he's been struggling in the polls here in iowa. they have him in third, but he says count on his ground game. he's visited all a 99 counties,

he's got the endorsement of the popular governor out here, and they've knocked on 3 million doors in the early a states. he is hitting back at trump who said desantis is, quote, the biggest fan of dr. fauci. take a listen. >> former president was here the other day doing a town hall, and he said he had nothing to do with fauci. he said i was the one that was involved with fauci. that is gaslighting. that is revisionist history. he elevated fauci. >> reporter: and because of the blizzard warning, weather out here, we're told that the desantis campaign is not knocking on doors, they're having to switch the making phone calls instead. back to you. stuart: it's that bad. all right, bill melugin in iowa, thank you. kenny poll kenny polcari's still with me. let's do speculating here. if donald trump were to become the next president of the united states, how would the stock market react? >> i think the stock market would welcome that, i do. not because it's him, but because it's republican policies

again, you know, it'll be defense spending, it'll be about taxes, paying down the debt, drilling. so i think the markets and the economy would benefit. again, not because it's him, per se, but because of the part. stuart: and if biden wins a second term? >> i think we're all in trouble. [laughter] stuart: thanks for joining us for the hour. >> who says i'm leaving? stuart: well, it's 9:55 -- [laughter] jill biden defending her husband's age. tammy bruce on that. the new england patriots lost tom brady and now bill belichick. i've got to see what dave portnoy says about that. morgan ortagus back from saudi arabia where she met crown prince mohamed bin salman, did mbs see this war coming? and a new york times op set saying biden's in serious trouble. leo terrell on that. the 10:00 hour next.

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