stick it out. sure. maybe don't buy now, but i think there's money that is captive that is likely to move into stocks, so it might be worth buying a little bit early and, you know, waiting for those flows to come in. the only way this doesn't work is if the fed actually starts to hike interest rating even more which i think is a very low probability event given everything they've told us. but i think that the theme from here is just where are retirees going to get their income. liz: savida, great to see you. tell the gang at bank of america we said hello. all right, fire off the fireworks, folks, what did i tell you? it was going to be another record day for the dow and s&p, ninth of the year. we are so ready for you, monday. mobius capital partner ifs' mark mobius and former apple ceo john sculley with us live. "kudlow" is next. ♪ larry: hello, folks, and welcome to account kudlow." we start with breaking news

today, right now, actually, the u.s. military appears to be finally striking back at iran for the fatal drone strike six days ago. this comes just hours after a heart-rendering dignified transfer of the fallen, patriot you can e american service heroes who gave their lives in defense of their country. sergeant william rivers, 46. specialist kennedy sanders, 24, and specialist bre onthat moffett, only 23 years old. the very latest on all this, let's turn to fox business' grady trimble live from capitol hill. grady, what can you tell us about the bombing, first of all? >> reporter: well, larry, the biden administration from the defense department to white house officials, to the president himself have been signaling all week that a retaliatory strike or multiple strikes are coming, and now we can tell you according to our colleague are, jen griffin, those strikes are underway in the form of airstrikes in syria

from multiple platforms. in fact, there are reports of explosions on the ground in syria right now. of course, the details are still limited because these explosions just started. they started hours after that dignified transfer that you mentioned for the three service members who were killed in jordan as a result of iran-backed militant the strikes just a few days ago, i believe on sunday. president biden was joined by the first lady as well as the defense secretary, lloyd austin. austin is one of those people who said that when the u.s. strikes back in retaliation to these deaths, that it's going to strike back on multiple fronts. our colleague jen griffin is reporting that that could happen in addition to syria which is happening right now in iraq as well. but some republicans have said that is u.s. isn't hitting back hard enough and that it's time

to turn the focus on iranian soil which the president has resisted so far. but listen here to senator lindsey graham talking about this. >> they're not going to stop until we hit iran itself. i don't want to invade iran are, but i want them to stop killing americans. and the only way that will happen is if you hit their oil infrastructure which they care about. that's where they get their money, or start punish eking some of their soldiers inside of iran, the revolutionary guard. >> reporter: and because the white house had been signaling that this is going to happen, jen griffin, our colleague at the pentagon, also reports that iran had time to move if it soldiers away from possible targets. in fact, senator graham is responding and criticizing in realtime this response saying the lapse of time between those strikes in jordan on u.s. troops last sunday and this attack now has limited and lessened the

impact of the deterrence of this strike. he has been saying for i believe a month now, larry, that the u.s. needs to hit on iranian soil, and he says that these strikes that have begun in the last hour or so are just not enough, that the u.s. needs to hit iran more directly. larry? larry: all right. grady trimble, we appreciate it. if we'll probably check in with youover the course of our show as events unfold. thank you ever so much. >> reporter: you bet. larry: let's bring in former lieutenant -- retired lieutenant general keith kellogg, former national security adviser in the trump administration. now he is the head of the afpi center for american security. general kellogg, keith kellogg, old friend, what do you make of this? what do we know about this exactly? >> well, larryly, we're -- thanks for having me. we're just seeing the first stages of it. we know there's a campaign planned, several targets. but one thing that's quite clear

is we're not going downtown, we're not going into iraq -- i'm sorry, iran, downtown tehran or places like that. we're going to hit secondary and tertiary targets in yemen or in syria or in iraq. we're not going after the real target we should be going after which is making a difference and reestablishing deterrence, and that's into iran. look, his the to haveically speaking -- historically speaking, you've got to make a big statement. we used to be pretty good at that. you know, when grant sent sherman into the south in the civil war, he burned the city of atlanta. that sent a pretty good message. in world war ii, we fire bombed and destroyed the city of dresden deliberately just to send a message. and then, of course, the atomic bombs in hi hiroshima and nagasaki which prevented us from having to conduct an invasions ins into japan. history is replete with examples of going a little bit to the extreme to reset conditions. we did it in the last administration or, larry, with

president trump with soleimani, al-baghdadi as well. when we sent tom a hack -- tomahawk missiles into syria after bashar al assad used gas on civilians, we said it was a human red line we weren't going to tolerate. if you don't do something like thissing we're going to see more of the same. what are you going to do if you're the iranians right now? they're probably going, boy, we dodged a bullet on that one. they're not coming downtown at us. okay, we'll just keep funding these other organizations and let 'em keep shooting at americans. i don't think we've solved anything by this except if blowing up a lot of buildings, a lot of as a fault and sand, and i don't think -- asphalt and sand, and i don't think we've gone to the cause which is preventing them from doing something further. larry: you know with, waiting six days gave, i mean, in a sense gives these iran-backed militias time to seek cover. some reports in the papers or and elsewhere are suggesting

they went to iran, but it doesn't look like we're going to touch iran. lindsey graham is making very forceful criticism. we're trying to get him either on the phone or on the show, but we're not sting thing iran. there's reports of explosions inside syria. i presume they're air a bombing, i don't know that for a fact yet. we're getting information on the fly. but, yeah, we can hit some militia, but the militias aren't the pay masters. the mull shahs aren't the puppet masters. the militias are not the people running terrorism in the middle east and around the world who hate america. >> you know, larry, look, i'm not being cavalier about this. i've been involved in military operations before, you know, kind of put it on the line as well. i understand the risk involved. i understand when you put young men if women in harm's way in the military. but when you look at a national security level, you are trying to do something. and what we are trying to do is establish deterrence, reestablish deterrence in the region which we had. and until you do that, these

attacks will continue, and americans and others will be at risk. so you've got to take that hard choice. larry, you've been in the situation room. you've seen presidential decision making. sometimes those decisions are hard. they rip at a your gut, but you know it's right. and that's what has to be done. that is not being done right now, and if that's a harsh assessment, but i believe it to be very, very true. we're whistling past the grave graveyard, and this is just going to continue meaning the attacks by iran and their supporting militias as well. laura: larry: i mean, the three young people who lost their lives after those militia attacks in jordan, today was the day they were transferred at, you know, in the delaware air a force base, you know, that breaks your heart. these are young -- two of them. two women, in fact, 23 years old and 24 years old. it breaks your heart. the gentleman, i believe, the sergeant was 46-year-old, okay? that a breaks my heart too.

these are pate if rots. they gave -- patriots. they gave their lives, the ultimate sacrifice. you know, or keith, i gotta tell you, yes, i have been in the sit room, i've sat through war discussions and seen people pull the trigger and all. the fact remains waiting six days, it sounds like we'll learn more about this, but it sounds like we gave time for these local iranian-backed militias to seek cover. there's reports that they went to iran. why did they go to iran? because they know the united states is not going to bomb iran. why is the united states not going to bomb iran? because we're still the running a policy of appeasement, not deterrence. lindsey graham is right about a one thing, keith, they should be bombing the oil fields. there's oil fields inside iran, and there's also offshore oil. that's where the money is coming from. that's what we stopped. they should be reinstating the sanctions. you know, if you don't like war, how about economic sanctions? if mr. trump the had those going pretty well. they were down to only a few billion dollars in foreign exchange.

anyway, i don't want to blather on. you're the general. but the reality is, what is it exactly that we did today? why did we wait so long, and did we dishonor the lives of those young people whose bodies were transferred today? if it e breaks my heart, but it gets me angry at the same time, keith. >> yeah. you know, larry, there's the mechanics to this. mechanics mean the target forwards have been established for a long time. central command commander, commands the area responsible for the middle east, these target packages have been set for a long time. the delay is always a decision making, because they could launch these aircraft, they can have the target plans in place, but it's the decision making in the situation room. and they've waited and they've waited and they waited instead of making rapid decisions. i actually went through some decision trees, you know? when we went after soleimani after they had attacked our embassy, you know, that was a grand total of four days. when we went after baghdadi, it was two days. when we've taken various strikes

throughout the area, it was always 2-3 days. once you get into that 4-5 day window, it gives the adversary time the make adjustments that you don't want them to make. so falls right back on the situation room and back on the leadership. not on the military, because those forces have been ready for a long time. you just have to give them the signal to go and execute the target packages which are always in place, larry. they just didn't come up with these. they've had them for a long time. larry: right. just to be clear, it's a civilian decision. it's a commander in chief decision. it's a biden decision, right? he says he made up his mind a couple days ago. why did he wait a couple days after that? you're the general, i'm just saying i don't know why we waited, but we'll wait. we have to see how events play out. we have to see the extent of this air attack if that's what it is, and we have to see exactly where it is occurring. maybe we're going to be wrong and it will be hitting inside iran. there's a lot that that we don't know.

the outbreak's just began as this show started on the air. general keith kellogg, thank you ever, ever so much. we may call on you again over the course of the show if you're still around. [laughter] thanks so much. all right, folks, we're going to move on. leapt me just say -- let me just say, as a reports come in, we will use our own great fox reporters, maybe we'll go back to keith kellogg, maybe we'll go to the other people and try to keep you as well informed as we possibly can. meanwhile, all right, on a different subject, we had a big, blowout jobs report today, and stock market's at new record highs. so we're going to turn to that whole story. let's go around to our great friend gerri willis. gerri, what can you tell us about that story? is. >> reporter: hey, good news from the stock market, the rally continuing with the dow and s&p 500 hitting fresh all-time highs. as a you can see here, the dow up 134 points here. this is marking its ninth record this year alone, very big numbers. s&p 500 also setting a fresh

high. the nasdaq up triple digits as you can see. you can credit good earnings for stocks' upside, meta and amazon reported blowout quarters, meta if announcing it will issue, get this, its first dividend ever. the stock rewarded by going up 20%. now, that surprisingly strong jobs report you mentioned, move payroll nearly doubling expectations, a gain of 353,000 for january and that raising even more questions about when the federal reserve might if cut rates. the future market pricing in a 72% chance of a rate cut in may. will it happen in we'll have to wait and see. not surprisingly, bond yields soaring on the jobs data. the 10-year treasury yield spiking above 4%. back to you. larry: all right. gerri willis, thank you ever so much. so, all right, let me talk a little bit about that. we had a blowout jobs report. more than twice the consensus

expectation. now, i know many of my conservative friends are trying to drill holes in this report. but you know what, folks? it is what it is. it's a very strong report. not every economic stat should be viewed through a political reasons. lens are. i've been in this business a very long time, and sometimes you just have to throw away the ballot box and just is recognize the numbers. they are what they are. this was a very strong report. 353,000 gained in non-farm payrolls, a very big number. prior two months revised up by 126,000, another big number. and the bottom line here is more americans are working. and that is a good thing no matter what your party registration is. also a good thing, worker wages continue to improve. average hourly earnings for production workers, aka a middle

class, blue collar folks, they're up 4.8% over the past 12 months. and you know what? their rate of productivity -- that is, output per hour, a very important efficient and economic growth indicator -- productivity rose 2.7% last year. that's a good number. so the work force is earning its pay hike. plus, over the past three months inflation-adjusted real wages increased by 4.5%, so typical working family's got a news real wage boost for a change. unfortunately, over the duration of joe biden's presidency real average earnings are still the down 2.4. that's the affordability crisis that i've been talking about so much. not even a good jobs report in january can erase that affordability problem. through december, which is the latest data, showed that real average weekly earnings have actually fallen almost 5% over

the course of mr. biden's presidency. that's why the recent tip poll shows that 44% of americans are still leaving paycheck paycheck. it's the afford affordability crisis. january's very good jobs report does not erase the fact that food prices up over up one-third, gas with lean up nearly 30% -- gasoline up nearly 30% and the overall cpi up nearly 18 percent. a lot of big government biden spending is behind all these numbers. over the past year, for example, while nominal gdp is up 1.5 trillion, federal debt has increased $2.5 trillion. that is a lot of spending and borrowing. last year's budget deficit was $2 trillion. this year's probably going to be over $2 trillion. so despite low unemployment and a resilient job market, the bidens are still running a roughly 8% deficits to gdp

number which is unheard of in a peacetime recovery. government spending in the new fiscal year is already up 8.5%. now, there are some glitches in the january jobs report. for one, the small business household survey did decline 31,000 after falling 683,000 in december. that's not good. none of this jobs euphoria jibe, by the way, with proliferating layoff reports. challenger gray, well, they report over 82,000 layoffs in january. over 23,000 the of that coming from the financial industry and another 16,000 from the if tech sector and over 6,000 from food producers. so the good number is the good number. but we will see if it is sustainable throughout the year. meanwhile, a word to wall street. the fed may not cut interest rates again in my lifetime. and that is my riff. all right, folks, stay where you

are, please. don't move an inch. we're going to talk more about this jobs record. we've got breitbart's john carney, mr. wonderful, kevin o'leary, we've got former cbo director doug holtz-eakin, we will also give you periodic reports on the military activities of the u.s.' retaliation against iran and the iranian-backed militia shahs as those reports come in -- mill a shahs as those reports come in. we will get it out to you right away. i'm kudlow. lots cooking. please, stay with us. ♪ ♪ your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel. nothing beats it. i recommend pronamel active shield because it actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a game changer for my patients.

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and have historically low risk. call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-217-3217. that's 1-800-217-3217. larry: all right. welcome back, folks. we are continuing to monitor the retaliatory u.s. airstrikes in syria. that's what the report's at, and those airstrikes have, in fact, begun. we are going to report several times over the course of the show with grady trimble and perhaps others helping us out. but let's go back to the earlier business, let's talk about today's jobs report and my riff and the likelihood the fed may not if cut interest rates again in my lifetime. we've got the great john carney, breitbart economics and finance editor and co-author of the breitbart busy jest, by old and dear friend douglas holtz-eakin, former president -- former director of the cbo and now

president of american action forum, and mr. wonderful, kevin o'leary, chairman of o'leary ventures, author of "cold, hard truth on business, money and life," and etc., etc. jon, you're the closest -- john, you're the closest, i'm going to give you the first whack at this. [laughter] let me just ask you this, i knoe names. i know a lot of people who are trying to shoot holes in this and shoot it down. >> right. larry: they are, shall we say, of the conservative persuasion. they are people who, i will say, do not wish joe biden to be reelected. i don't think they wish him harm, they just don't want him reelected, okay. [laughter] but i looked at these numbers up and down, and i made some calls. as far as these numbers go, which are always subject to revision, they look pretty real to me. what's your take? >> yes, they're very real. if i take out all the government jobs, just 36,000, the government-adjacent jobs, so the social assistance, i come down to just 217,000 jobs, larry. that's a really good jobs report

even if you take out all of the, you know, maybe not cyclically related -- larry: my heart yearns for honest reporting at times like this. and i'll be the first guy to say every forecasting model was wrong about last year. federal reserve, cbo, survey of professional forecasters, kudlow, i was wrong. there was no major slowdown or recession, and the economy -- actually, this jobs number looks like it's picking up steam. >> it is picking up steam, and what i think this means is not only is the march cut off the table, the may cut is off the table, maybe the june cut. if the fed doesn't cut by july, i don't think they cut at all until after the election. the november meeting starts the day after election day. [laughter] they pushed it back a day. it's usually tuesday-wednesday, it's wednesday-thursday in november. larry: they may not have a reason to cut, for all we know. i want to go to my old friend, doug holtz-eakin who was a

distinguished cb if o director and an honest one, and he's been a presidential adviser, and he knows a whole lot about this stuff. first of all, douglas, great to see you. second of all, what do you think of these numbers? if i don't care what your political persuasion, sometimes the numbers are really the numbers. >> yeah. the numbers are the numbers. i was as a surprised as anybody by these numbers. i think the really important number is not the one in this report, but it's the one you mentioned, it's the productivity growth. larry: yeah. >> the productivity in 2023, second half especially, has come out of nowhere. and productivity growth gives you a great luxury. it allows you to have a fed put a lot of restraint on demand and still have output grow without giving up to disinflation. so everything broke the way of and disinflation in 2023. my caution is things don't usually break your way all the time. there's going to be some bad news in the next couple of months, and we should be prepared for that, and i think that's why the fed's extremely

cautious. they have an economy that could are very well have some inflationary pressures come back, and they don't want to ease off too quickly. larry: well, i agree with that point. and, you know, productivity, doug, i mean, you're an expert on a lot of stuff, but you also follow the regulatory scene. i mean, productivity despite if regulation, maybe it's a.i., you know, quantum computing, i'm not sure. kevin hassett thinks it has something to do with a.i., and we all know he's a terribly smart guy. but the point i'm making to you is the wage gains that are slowing up in recent numbers to an extent, doug, are being earned by better productivity. >> there's no question about it. you know, another guy with whom we don't always agree, krugman, has said famously in the long run productivity isn't everything, but it's almost everything. and so, you know, that's actually the truth. great productivity growth four gives a lot of sins. that's what we got in 2023. here's the last thing, larry,

it's fuel to household spending. but business fixed investment, essentially flat in the second half of 2023. that can't persist. if that doesn't recover, we don't get the continued strength. the household sector comes down to earth. larry: yeah. well, the risk is there's too much demand chasing too few goods because the buzz sector has been door dormant. >> you're exactly right. larry: mr. wonderful, kevin o'leary, i don't know, why should the fed cut interest rates? it's interesting to me today, kevin, the bond market sold off, the 10- year was up, whatever, 10 or 12 bits. i think it closed around 4.10, 4.12, okay, but the stock market continues to rise. so, or kevin, how do you see it? >> two things, larry. number one, why is this the happening? speck iflating that it's the digitization of the american economy because during the pandemic margin all across the board in the s&p 500 companies and small business have improved about 2.5% because they cut out the middlemen in distribution

through direct to consumer models and direct b&b model. you look at nike or anyone doing business in america. number two on the fed issue, this puts a nail in the coffin of anybody thug they're going to cut rates in may. you had a 75% productivity there of people betting that they'll cut rates. in fact, the market thinks there's three cuts, 25 bits each, coming right after march which is a zero probability of a cut. i don't see it. i think the problem is -- and you said it's not political, these numbers. it is going to be political. you're going to see the incumbent, the incumbent wants -- wants to talk about the economy and jobs, but never, ever do they want to be in a rising rate environment. they want the fed to cut rates, so the pressure if politically on the fed cutting is going if to be very high particularly as you roll in to q3 when it's magic to have a rate cut right before you're in the ballot booth. that's classic.

it doesn't matter who's in the white house. it really doesn't matter. i think that's going to be an issue. larry: well, of course it's an issue. but my point was a simpler point, actually, and, rook, i've been -- can look, i've been doing this stuff on tv, radio, government, wall street, for a long time. you know, one month doesn't make a political campaign. people get way too excited about it. and as a doug holtz-eakin said, you have got a whole year to go. and we don't know whether this is sustainable, whether inflation's going to snap back begun. in fact, john carney, you've written about the possibility, i mean, jay powell does worry that it would be like the '70s, that the inflation rate snaps back again. >> that's right. i think there's a very good chance that we've gotten all of the goods disinflation is pretty much washed out of the economy. everything you were going to get from maybe increasing worker participation washed off the economy. all we have left really is for -- unless we get more productivity, we will get more inflation. so if we keep growing

productivity which, by the way, nobody if knows why it's happening -- larry: never. >> -- and we don't know whether it can continue, so that's the big risk. that's what jay powell if's afraid of. they don't want to cut and then come back and have to raise. i think kevin o'leary is absolutely right, no cut in may, no cut in june -- larry: not in my lifetime. they're not going to cut again in my lifetime. >> they may actually -- [laughter] but, seriously, rates may be permanently higher. larry: why not? this is like the '90. it could be like the '90s. but i'll tell you what's not, doug holtz-eakin, the '90s, at least in the second term of bill clinton with newt gingrich and the republicans in the house, you and i were both around for all this stuff, we went into surplus. so i just want to raise this point. as a former director -- >> what's that, larry? if what's a surplus? larry: yeah, i know, a sur surplus. you're a former cbo director, an honest cbo director. dowe -- doug, we are running $. >> 2 trillion deficits as far as

the eye can see, roughly 8% of gdp as far as the eye can see in a peacetime economy with a 3.7 unemployment rate. i don't know how you get that. when you're left, right or -- how do you get that? or sustain that? >> you don't sustain it. it's not sustainable, larry. something's got to give. the other thing you point out is, you know, it's gotten worse while we're at full employment. that's completely irresponsible. i mean, you just do not respond if a deficit with full employment. we've done that. and this is the bug withest headwind -- biggest headwind to better trend growth. when you borrow a ton of money, you're competing with the private sector, everyone knows that. but we're borrowing into subsidized consumption which is fundamentally anti-growth. so the structure of the budget is wrong, the financing of the budget is wrong are, is and we have a growth problem in the united states. yeah, we just had a great fourth quarter, but in the 221st century we're -- 21st century we're going a percentage point

slower per capita than we did in the 20th century. and it's costing everybody in the united states $20,000 a year so far, and it's getting bigger. larry: last 20 seconds, kevin o'leary, you're an ace. what's your favorite investment? favorite investment, 20 seconds. [laughter] >> it's stay longing bities, usd right now -- long equities. we have an amazing economy. just one thing, larry, that bily to the senate -- bad news for small business in there. they're going to have the irs auditing small business for a decade. they've got to change that. larry: they've got to change that. well, you know what? they've got to change a lot of things. all i'll say to that a one is, working on it. [laughter] john carney, breitbart, thank you. kevin o'leary, as always, mr. wonderful. and douggy holtz-eakin, great to see you. folks, we're going to switch gears again back to the major news story right now, the retaliatory strikes. let's turn to our own grady trimble. grady, you have some more info. >> reporter: we do, larry.

airstrikes have begun in syria and iraq are according to our colleague, jennifer griffin, and citing two u.s. defense officials. griffin is reporting that these attacks are designed to target iran-backed militants in those two areas, in iraq and in syria. where those militant groups keep missiles, drones and other equipment that they've been using to hit u.s. positions in the middle east. of course, this is a retaliatory response by the white house which it's been signaling all week after three service members were killed in jordan on sunday. they had their dignified transfer here in the u.s. today, and president biden along with the defend if secretary attendey attended. you know, both of them, president biden and lloyd austin, the defense secretary, all week have been saying that this is going to be a multitiered response, that this campaign isn't just going to be a one and done, but to expect

multiple points of attack. and that's exactly what we're seeing play out right now. if jen griffin says don't be surprised if this retaliatory response lasts for days. but it's already receiving criticism, larry, and that's because republicans and general critics of the biden administration and its military response, they say that they waited too long, that this comes six days after the initial attack, that it gave iran time toe their military members out of areas that might be susceptible to attack. and, in fact, lindsey graham says that unless the u.s. starts to attack iranian soil, think their oil infrastructure or members of the revolutionary guard or other personnel within the iranian government, that they're not going to receive the message. that being said, the white house thinks this is enough to deter more attacks in the middle ooh

easts and to protect u.s. troops. as we said, they have been signaling for some time now, for several days, that these attacks were going to happen and now the airstrike ises have begun in iraq and syria. larry: so, grady, there are multiple strikes over multiple days. we don't know if iran is ruled out, hitting iran. we don't know that. i mean, i want to be fair and unbiased about this. it's possible. you're in syria and iraq, that's for the militias. we don't know what the pentagon might have up its sleeve with respect to iran. >> reporter: father enough, larry. and they, frankly,ing don't want us to know -- larry: no, that's right. that's right. we shouldn't know. no, no, you're great. grady, hang out with us, please. you're doing great. i know this is hard, news on the fly. [laughter] it's why i love tv. anyhow, grady trimble will be right back. now we're going to go to congresswoman claude ya tenny of new york, congressman byron ronalds -- donalds of florida. it's a pleasure to see you both.

claudia, i'm not kidding, you're both really effective. claudia, start with you on the news. we're hitting syria, we're hitting iraq. what's your take? >> i hate to agree with everyone, but these are late. they should have been done more decisively as president trump did. but, you know, it's the policy that president biden has taken towards iran to try to get back into the failed nuclear agreement, also to allow sanctions to be lifted on the iranians so they can sell up to 80-$90 billion worth of oil mostly to china, by the way, so that they can continue to fuel the proxies, the houthis, with islamic jihad, hezbollah in jordan -- in lebanon. so it's the policies that we're seeing that have caused this unrest in the middle east. we had relative peace, as you know, urn president trump. we had -- under president trump. we had the abram a-- abraham awe accords. we were on the cusp of adding saudi arabia to that when these

strikes occurred by the attack on october 7th. so it is the policies, but i hope that they certainly have a lot more lethal response prepared against ranch but unfortunately, we -- iran, but unfortunately, we put ourselves in such a bad position against iran that we need to come back with much more aggressive force. larry: byron, you know, to claudia's point, let's say you don't want military involvement in iran, all right? whether i agree or disagree with that, let's just assume. but with you could restore the economic sanctions, which they have essentially unbound. that's the problem here. and as as a ya said, that's where the -- add -- as a claudia said, that's where the money's coming from. or they're selling oil to china, and it's coming to in the neighborhood of $50 of 460 -- 50-60 billion, and there are

other issues on top of that, a foreign exchange position that's gone to $80 billion in just three years. there's a military issue, military solutions, byron, but there's an economic solution. and it just doesn't hook like they're going to do either, and that's what i find so troubling. what say you? >> well, larry, good to be back with you. i agree with everything that claudia said and, march true, i agree with your premise -- larry, i agree with your premise. if you don't want to step on their soil, you have to cut the iranians off economically. donald trump had them cut off economically. he had hem really having to scrap things together for that economy, and they couldn't put money into these proxy fighters throughout the middle east. that's what's causing so much of the problem. these strikes should have occurred later that same day when our service members were killed. and, look, we've got to be honest, some of these targets were already understood by the pentagon. the question wasn't were we going to respond, the real question was, was joe biden going to get himself together and get focused on america's

security in order to respond quickly and decisively. that is the core problem here. and the weakness that they've shown with respect to iran has really empowered them in the region. the economic sanctions are critical if we're going to put them back in the box. larry: yes, sir. couldn't agree more. well, claudia, i wanted, you know, the original booking here, i wanted you to talk about the nobel peace prize. you're saying a friend of mine deserves a nobel peace prize. i know you're not going to give me an economics peace prize, but you're going to give trump a peace prize. i think he deserves it. [laughter] >> i agree, and i put that -- i nominated donald trump for the nobel peace prize because of his work on the abraham accords. it's actually never has been such an effective peace accord. and every other participant in peace aa cords in the past where it was jimmy carter and others -- whether it was jimmy carter and others, received a nobel peace poise for this. of course they're not going to give it to donald trump who

rushly deserved this -- richly deserved this. we were on our way to prosperity. the normalization agreements and the number of countries that wanted to get in there and get part, be part of these aa cords is really ground breaking. instead of waiting for the israeli-palestinian conflict to resolve itself which everyone including john kerry said was the only way to peace, donald trump took the novel approach. let's try getting everybody else to relative peace, and then we can have some strength against the problem which is what was created by if f -- by the plo, funded by iran as byron accurately pointed out. all of this money that iran is using and getting because of the lift of the economic sanctions, the elimination of the maximum pressure campaign which is also part of trump's secret sauce in order to keep peace in the middle easts, these people were seeing prosperity. and that is why -- and there's a very short mom nation, but that is why i think president trump should be awarded the nobel peace prize just for his work on

the abraham accords alone. they were novel, they were unique, and they were revolutionary. it really made a difference in the middle east. and look where we are now. larry: yep. >> president biden reversed all of president trump's successful policy policies, and now here we are in a war. larry: byron, can i switch gears for a second? 5,000 illegals a week, 8,000 illegals a weak or a -- a week or a day, whatever, just strikes me as a lousy deal, and i'm hoping that whatever legislative text may or may not come out this weekend, that that thing doesn't pass the house. can you give us your take on this so-called immigration bill? >> well, larry, look, what was released about a week or so ago about the headline number, you stated it, 5,000 a week with, is just outrageous. that's 150,000 immigrants into the country a month. that's 1.8 million per year. i mean, where are you going to stick the all these additional people? denver, colorado's, overrun. boston, massachusetts, overrun.

chicago, overrun. new york, you see the mess going on there, overrun. you can't put that much more people into the united states the way the biden administration has done. it's a terrible deal. and i know our republican senate colleagues tried to negotiate in good faith, but when you see just the idiocy coming from the democrats, you've got to yet up from the table, walk away and say, listen, follow the house's lead and pass h.r. 2 because we're done with you because you're not being serious is. you cannot do 5,000 entrants a day, larry. even jeh johnson under barack obama said if you do 1,000 a day, it's a crisis. larry: yeah. by the way with, jeh johnson's a pretty good guy. can i just say that? i know him a little bit. i've always had good relations with him. he's a pretty smart guy. some people who play for the other team can still be smart. it's not personal. anyway, ya tenny and bye. ron donalds, you're both fabulous. thank you so much. we're going to keep moving right along.

we're fixing to get another report on the military interventions by the biden administration. the retaliation in the middle east. but before we do that, let's talk to caroline downey, national review reporter, let's talk to joe concha, fox news contributor. boy, there's a lot going on. the bombing, let's start -- i want to get to the jobs report which was a shocker too, and the economy does play a big role in the election although one month does not make or break, but what does this bombing do? if good or bad? this may be a double-edged sword. >> well, i think lots of military experts have commented on this prior and basically, you know, my summary is that biden, every time that the the u.s. forces in syria and iraq have been targeted or attacked, which is over 158 times, biden's response has always a been delay and tit for tat. it's been a calculated, strategic hit on infrastructure or property, but it hasn't been disproportionate enough to really be deterring to the actual sponsor of this terrorism and militancy, which is iran.

so, you know, this -- maybe it'll hit 'em where it hurts, but i'm afraid that we've already waited too long, and biden's already showed a lot of his cards, which trump was the expert in not doing that. there's a little bit of element of surprise to military operations -- larry: yeah, boy, this was the most advertised -- not the specifics, but you could just see these militias, these iranian-type militias, running to the motherland, which is iran, joe,s which is kind of my problem. when you say hit 'em where it hurts, really? i'm not sure we're hitting them where it hurts. >> exactly. the element of the surprise was not here. larry: yeah. >> in this case. and we just seem to be a day late and dime short administration. remember what joe biden has been saying for months whenever he was asked the question, what are you going to do about iran and its proxies using our u.s. servicemen and women and our ships as target practice in the red sea, he'd look at the camera and say, don't. what because that mean, don't? i guess you're trying to be tough in this situation. the bottom line is we lost afghanistan in that horrible

withdrawal, and that sent a message to the world that we were disorganized and not ready. we saw ukraine get invaded by russia when that did not happen during the trump administration, and and china's never been as a aggressive towards taiwan with as we're seeing now. so these strikes are good, but they're a day late and about two weeks short. larry: yeah, it looks like it. caroline, the jobs number today was twice what the consensus expected, and the last six months -- and i'm going to say this as a conservative, and as you know, joe biden is not my favorite presidential candidate, i will say that as well. but the fact is, the facts are the economy appears to be picking up steam, and the jobs report shows that again today. now, is there political content? does this remove an election year issue or what? >> larry, like you said, we can celebrate good news as a country. however, as you said in your opening monologue, voters do not necessary hi feel the effects of

macroeconomic indicators. they feel prices, and prices are still very high despite moderating inflation. poverty skyrocketed in 2022, real household incomes dropped by thousands of dollars. i believe between pre-pandemic levels under trump and 2022 credit card debt is still surging. so i, i mean, the biden administration may appeal to these abstractions, but it doesn't hit home for most americans. liz: larry: i love that. economics, the whole thing's an abstraction. what am a i doing here? [laughter] joe, i'll say this again, a lot of my conservative friends want to blowholes through it, but it's a good report, a solid report, and i would guess if biden gets his act together, he can sell it on the road. >> well, does it move the needle, however? larry: yeah, that's the question. >> in terms of things that matter. grocery prices are still up 25% over the past four years, and they continue to rise. gas price up 30% since this president took the office. these are things peopl

because these are things that they buy on a daily basis. electric bills, home heating bills continue to rise. so you can talk about the unemployment rate being below 4, but that's what it was under president trump until the covid years. when you say the economy's getting better, in terms of the things people feel, they're not feeling it. gallup poll from this week, two-thirds of voters say the economy's getting worse, not better. about two-thirds say high prices pose a severe or moderate financial hardship to them, unquote. don't oversell it because people say, no, no, that's not what a we're feeling here at a home and not what we're seeing in our bank account. larry: i will say this, we've got to get out. you're wonderful to come today on a crowded news day, but if these good, quote-unquote, economic numbers continue through the spring into the early summer, it's going to help biden. if they don't, it won't. people will make up their mind ahead of time. we'll see if it's sustainable or not. caroline downey, national review, your boss was here yesterday, my dear friend rich

lowry, and joe concha, thank yo- >> thank you. larry: all right, folks, we're going to take a little pause, catch my breath. the latest on the airstrike campaign. we are going to go back to that. iran-backed targets in syria and iraq. i don't know. i would love to see at least hit the oil, at least hit the oil fields, you know? at least restore the sanctions. i'm not a military guy, but that's my take. anyway, we're going to bring back general keith kellogg who is a distinguished military man, and we'll get some more reports from grady trimble, and we'll try to parse through all this stuff. i'm kudlow. please stick around with us, much more happening. ♪ he hits his mark —center stage—and is crushed by a baby grand piano. you're replacing me? customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache. only pay for what you need.

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larry: all right. welcome back. more breaking news on the u.s. retaliation against the iranian-backed militias hitting syria and iraq. we're going to turn again to our own grady trimble. what you got? >> reporter: larry, u.s. central command is now confirming these airstrikes in iraq and syria. i want to get straight to a statement from centcom because it does provide some thorough details about what exactly u.s. forces hit. it says u.s. military forces struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from

the united states. the airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions, centcom says. the facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle or drone storages as well as logistics and munitions supply chain facilities of militia groups and their irgc or islamic revolutionary guard corps sponsors who facilitated attacks against u.s. and coalition forces. centcom says these airstrikes in syria and iraq started right around 4:00 this afternoon, just hours after that dignified transfer of the three service members who were killed in jordan in those airstrikes there. larry? larry: all right. grady trimble, thank you ever so much. we bring back former retired lieutenant general keith kellogg, very dear friend, keith

kellogg. we're hearing a lot, 85 targets, command and control centers, intel centers, locations in syria and iraq. perhaps kitting quds forces, iranian revolutionary guard. do you think we're inflaking, a a, damage to these local militias, or have they already fled; and, b, will it be sufficient? >> well, larry, thanks for having me back again. look, i'll answer the send one first. no, it's not going to be sufficient. and i think i would caution everybody, this isn't a time when you rip your shirt off and beat your chest that this is really cool because it shouldn't be numbers, it should be what happens is the consequences from your attack. and look, what we've given the iranians is a sanctuary. i've been through a sanctuary war before back in the years of vietnam when cambodia was a sanctuary, north vietnam was a sanctuary. you allow a sanctuary, he'll retreat, move back in there and

respond later on. so i would caution everybody, be very careful about understanding the amount of ordinance we've deployed and the number of targets hit. it's not what you do with volume, it's what you do with consequences. and the -- is this going to react. let's look ahead say two weeks. what happens if nothing changes because of what has happened today. now we are really blocked because we've beat our chest, we really hit 'em hard and we didn't really go to the root cause, the root enemy which happens to be iran are. and you hit it right, it just doesn't have to be kinetic, military. it could be economic, it can be diplomatic as well and also kinetic thrown in. but it has to be a very comprehensive plan to get them to change behavior. finish. larry: well, yeah, i mean, what if you wake up -- we're going to follow the news closely this evening, of course, but you wake up tomorrow morning and so forth and you read the houthis hit more commercial ships or u.s.

ships or fired more missiles at our bases or the hezbollahs fired more missiles or the hamas fired more missiles. i mean, i think it's almost inevitable that that's the case, and they're all feeding at the trough of mother iran. that's my issue here. >> yeah, larry. and, again, it's a sanctuary. we're not going after root cause. we're hitting the secondary and tertiary targets. and, again, the true proof in the pudding is going to be two weeks down the line. you know, we haven't gone after their leadership, we haven't had them change direction or intend to change direction. we have to do it. and that's the reason i've said repeatedly, and you've been there, you have to get uncomfortable with your actions because, you know, boy, i'm right on the kind of ragged edge here. i know we're taking risks. not a gamble, but you're taking risks to do it. you have to go there because we've allowed this to fester for so long. it's going to take much greater effort to bring everything and put it back in the box, and

we're not there yet. and i don't have confidence we're going to get there, not with the current path. larry: do you think they waited until today for the transfer of these, you know, great patriots who gave their lives, the delaware transfer? do you think they waited for the bombings for those transfers to occur? >> yeah, and it's really kind of gets my gut when i hear that and see that. i think it is. i think they timed it so it was right after the transfer, the dignified transfer took place. that's wrong. they're using it as a optics, and that's wrong. larry: yeah, yeah. >> these strikes could have occurred 24, 48 hours earlier. larry, those target packages, they've been in place for a long time. you nude noodle them around a little bit with the current intel, you move a ship, an airplane, a person. but those packages were there. it just took presidential authority, and that's who does it, to say go. and he waited way too long. in fact, those aircraft, from

what i understand, the b1 bombers that took off came out of the united states, they lifted off this morning. they could have lifted off two days ago, three days ago. larry: i don't know why, you know, i was going back and looking at way back, ronald reagan's statement when he smashed the iranian navy back in 188 -- 1988. they hit an american frigate. the other thing is trump made a strong statement with soleimani. my point is joe biden hasn't said anything today. he just hasn't said anything, and it seems to me that's missing. it's almost -- that lack of noise is deafening. last word. >> no, great catch, larry. you're absolutely right. why is not the commander in chief the person who sent these troops in harm's way in front of the american people to say this is the happening. larry: keith can kellogg, general kellogg, look forward to