>> joe biden's america is doing well for the elites, but they're called elites for a reason. there aren't a lot of them so

when you look at a poll, it's the reason the poll numbers are all going down and asked to name a accomplishment, most people say nothing. >> we know joe biden is mia. we know he's not going to come save the day. this is exactly what they want. if anything, they're going to add gasoline to the fire. >> we need to let the israelis do what's necessary to once and for all root out terrorism in gaza and hamas. americans have to understand, this isn't just a threat to israel, it's a threat to our own way of life. >> it's a hard case to make that democracy is at stake here given it's a situation that a lot of people decided the 2020 election were people that voted for donald trump in 2016 who swung over into the biden lane. ashley: life on mars, my favorite david bowie song.

there's so many, and there's midtown manhattan in the clouds and the merk and mist on this thursday morning. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. thank you, producers, for that song. let's check the markets. we're all in the green and modestly so. the dow, nasdaq, s&p all up a tenth of a percent or less. look at dow, exactly flat. let's take a look at big tech names right out of the opening gate. the most were down and that's still the case, amazon up half a percent but microsoft, alphabet, meta, and apple all down. apple down 1.5%. the 10-year treasury yield has been moving ever so modestly higher. it's up less than 1 basis point at 4.19%. take a look at cryptos, we do this as sbf sentencing underway in new york and faces a maximum of 110 years in prison and the judge is not happy with him.

bitcoin up 71,500. now this, a new fox news poll shows that more than half of voters say they are financially worse off now compared to four years ago. and that's not good, is it. christopher bedford joins me now. great to have you here, christopher. how is the biden team going to spin that one do you think? >> there's no way to spin it with the biden administration and there's a policy problem with this white house and they're doubling back saying there's a messaging problem and getting more tiktokers out there and let people know how great we are. now, this is a bad poll for the white house and of course all the polls are generally bad for the white house and this one, which country -- or which direction is the country heading in and better off than under the last president. that one is more historically

determinative if someone wins reelection which party goes and takes the white house and those are the polls that really do matter. ashley: you know, it's also interesting, chris, the biden team is trying to convince voters that donald trump is the one now using a basement campaign strategy and also touting biden's resent swing state events. trump can't be out there campaigning constantly. why? because the democrats have him tied up in court. what do you have to say to that? >> that's one of the tactics they've been using, which is donald trump is a threat to democracy. well, democrats try to pull him off the ballot and put him up in prison. donald trump is not out there campaigning, well, joe biden didn't run his first campaign. a lot of corporate media allies did that for him. it's been intelligent from donald trump in his moves and there has been a lot of fatigue in the country with both candidates and they're both the obvious nominees for the party, a lot of folks expressed dismay and seeing a rematch between the two candidates and trump laying

low and stories that get out there about him being persecuted and the cases persecuting him falling apart have really pushed back some of the trump fatigue going on. why does he need to be out there quite as much? he's one of the best known candidates in american history and he's already been president. i think it's been a wise strategy from them. ashley: you know what, chris, doesn't matter what they throw at him, it appears that with each new accusation or development in any one of the legal trials, he seems to gain support, more donations coming in. hasn't hurt him. >> no, it hasn't. in 2016 when he ran for office, americans could still have arguments around thanksgiving or easter table on whether or not the media was biased. by the time trump was in office for a few years, you didn't have the fight and people accepted it. the justice system not out to get donald trump and he's full of it and victim complex and

independent voters and folks on the fence and look at it racking up place after place and look at cases falling apart, and it's no longer a question and now it's pretty obvious. democratslaw fare not well thought out or well executed. ashley: very quickly, christopher, is it a concern that biden campaign has been able to outfundraise trump by a 2-1, 3-1 margin. >> one thing trump and ma gather folks have not been able to do is get maga donors on the gop side and that's going to be a hard sell for them. ashley: it is indeed but fascinating to follow and long way to go yet. christopher bedford, great stuff as always. thanks so much. appreciate your incite on this. now let's take a look at these markets and bring in adam johnson. he's with us for the hour. aren't we lucky.

>> thank you, sir. ashley: adam -- no, it's true. i love your insight and you're always generally very bullish. this is the last trading day of the first quarter and heck of a quarter. can we keep the moten men it up going? is there -- momentum going and knight there that can upset the apple card so-to-speak? >> yeah, there are always, ashley, things that can upset the apple cart, but i think there are more positives than negatives. we keep talking about those three es of earnings, employment, and the economy, we've got more evidence of two of them this morning. in particular we found out that the gdp price index: inflation, is only rising 1.6%. think about it, ashley, that's below the fed's target of 2%. we found out that gdp is rising 3.4% and that's better than we thought. that's almost goldy locks and i don't mean to be drunk on the punch but, you know, when inflation is coming down even if it doesn't feel like it and numbers prove that inflation is decelerating and growth is accelerating, that's a pretty powerful combination and against

that, you have full employment; right? a lot of people working and when people are working, they're spending money and when they're spending money, that's good for earnings. for all those reasons and they're all related, yes, i'm fully invested, and i think that markets with continue up from here. despite what's happening in washington, which seems to be a perpetual mess. ashley: ain't that the truth. i have to ask you about donald trump, djt. what's your thought on this? it's down today 4%. have you had clients wanting to buy it? what's your take on it? >> no, but if clients had asked me weather we should be buying it, my answer would be no. i'll it tell you why, ashley. if you compare donald j. trump stock to meta or facebook, what you'd find is that the djt valuation right now, his current stock price is basically valuing the stock at about $1200 per subscriber. facebook or meta, trades at about half that, $600 per

subscriber. the difference is that facebook make as lot of money. the djt stock does not. they're absolutely no profits there. so, no, i would not be a buyer, and then you say to me, well, okay, does that mean you'd short it? no, you can't do that either. you can't touch the thing. i tell you why, ashley. there's so few shares out there trading and because it's so expensive, people really do want to short it, but the borrow, if you borrow the stock and short it, it cost you 150%. has to go all the way to zero and then some. my point is i can't justify being long it, or short it as my first trading boss told me years ago, ashley, when a stock is blown out, don't touch it. just can't touch it one way or the other. ashley: i understand, don't touch it with a 10-foot pole. all right, adam, stay right there. bringing lauren back n. lauren, you're take ago look at reddit. lauren: down 9%. one week ago today the ipo went out at 34 and now at 52.

the reason it's down so much today is top management including the ceo and cfo and coo selling shares totaling $41 million. tesla still moving down. there's nerve nows ahead of -- nervousness and stock off 1.5% and this could confirm the demand slow down that we're seeing in every market but particularly in china. and general motors is up at a new annual high today. their ceo mary barra tells yahoo finance it's the year of execution for ev technology and dreams. they've made a five year investment of $35 billion in evs and hybrids. ashley: coming up, democrats abandoned their bush to promote bidenomics and voters critical of biden's economic failures and we're going to bring you the full report. don't say bidenomics anymore apparently. a new study says officers should

be re-designed with hybrid workers and artificial intelligence in mind. we'll explain how that's going to work. and by the way, sacramento has declared itself a sanctuary city for tranqs gender people and they want to protect people from states that limit gender affirming care. clay travis will be here to take that on next. ♪ if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision and can help you go up to 4 months between treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eyla hd may cause eye infection,

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her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for.

ashley: too bad stu is not hear to talk about this, amateur soccer team with five transgender players has gone undefeated in a women's only tournament. lauren, come in here. what are the parents saying

about this? lauren: they won prize money of $1,000. the parents are pulling their daughters and don't want them to get hurt. nearly half the team, biological men. men are physically bigger and taller than women. a will the of the argument is they can play because if you keep the testosterone levels low enough, that's fine. trans women should be able to play against women because they identify as women. but critics are saying that's not fair because even if the test toosh roan levels are -- test toast roan levels -- tesky toast roan levels are lower, that doesn't make chem shorter. a biological man regardless of testosterone levels going through puberty have a clear advantage and the parents say there's five trans players on the team, and they don't want their daughters getting hurt. ashley: yeah, it's making a mockery of sports, no doubt about it. thank you, lauren. now this, a teacher's union in massachusetts is accused of

being anti-semitic and hosted a webinar with a professor that was praised hamas for the october 7 attacks on israel. clay travis joining us. why does anti-semitism seem to be taking such a hold at schools and college campuses across america? it's remarkable. >> yeah, because of this toxic identity politics is the root cause. thanks for having me on here. what it teaches is your skin color dictates whether you're a victim or oppressor and many young n knuckle heads on college campuses and jewish people tend to be light skinned despite the fact they were victims of hamas terrorist attack they have to be considered the oppressor and can't understand the jewish

holocaust in living memory for many people still out there and feels like in many ways race or relations and just basic intelligence on college campuses have been in a retrogression for some years now. ashley: very quickly, a story about the australian soccer team and nearly half of the team transgender women or girls, i say it make as mockery and stories go more and more. what's your take? >> well, this is ridiculous and absurd and indefenseable and what's particularly disappointing is the number of feminists that won't stand up and say women sports should be for women. men that decide to identify as women should not be covered and

this is covered aggressively on outkick with riley gains, she had to swim against a man that decided to identify as a woman and swam for three years on men's penn team and flips and becomes a woman and win as women's ncaa championship. it's everything wrong with sport. there's a reason we divide men and women. lauren was 100% right. men are bigger, faster and stronger than women are. that's a biological reality. some women are strong than some men, but an elite athletic competitions, men are bigger, stronger and faster. ashley: yeah, it's -- i can't even get my head around it. i want to get to this one, clay. sacramento just declared itself a sanctuary city not for illegal migrants but transgender people and no city resources can be used to criminalize people who are looking for gender-affirming care. is this going too far? >> i don't have a major issue personally with adults deciding

they would be happier if they identify as a member of a different gender. i think it's unlikely to make you way happier personally, but if you're an adult and want to make that decision, i'm okay with it. what i have an issue with is giving puberty blockers to 11 year-olds or 12 year-olds or trying to change the biology of children before they've grown into adulthood and some of the kids are getting sterilized for life and making life-altering decisions. we don't let kids get tattoos at 16 years old. you can get punished for that. how in the world can we let somebody decide they want to remove their gene gentles at 16- genitals at 16 or 15 or 14. that's an issue. ashley: i hate to put it in these terms but is it a fad? i can't understand how all of a sudden all of these young boys or young girls want to change sex. >> well, i think it speaks to more than anything else how

deeply uncomfortable many people are in their own skin. that's been exacerbated by social media and look at phones and make themselves get depressed and i think look for lifeline. why am i depressed and don't know how to handle the emotion. maybe i would feel better if i were into a gender and different sexuality and it's challenging times and i think social media worse. ashley: lifelong altering transformation and god forbid they regret it later in life. we'll leave it there. clay travis, great stuff as always. thanks for joining us. >> hey, appreciate y'all. thanks a lot. ashley: all right. oh, yeah. thank you, clay. there's a new call by the way for reparations in los angeles. lauren, what's this got to do

with dodger's stadium. lauren: back to the 1950s when mostly mexican, chinese and italian families were forced off the land that ultimately became dodger's stadium. elmore nimminent domain. there's a bill in california that would lead los angeles to create a task force to compensate the families booted in the 1950s. i want to point out that la face as $300 million budget short fall and now they're looking for ways to spend money that they do not have. ashley: welcome to california. that's how it works. lauren: life is not fair, period. move on. ashley: bottomless pit of insanity costing taxpayers money they don't have. lauren, thank you very much. check the markets before we burst into tears. the market's been stable since the opening bell almost a couple of hours ago. very flat and last trading day of first quarter and we begin the new quarter on monday.

speaking of good quarter, first quarter by the way, but right now all the major indexes essentially flat. let's get another look at cryptos if we can. we should point out we are awaiting the sentencing of sam bankman-fried. adam, come back in here. does today's news have any significant impact on the crypto markets? we know that prosecutors want, what, 40, 50, 60 years and defense attorney says 5 years and appears the judge will come down hard. >> yeah, unlike what's happening in los angeles with reparations for dodger's stadium, there's no reparations in the market but there'll be certainly punishment for mr. bankman-fried. he did something he should never have done. he commingled his funds accounts with customer accounts. you can't do that. it's illegal. no matter how you slice it. he knows that he shouldn't have done that. he admitted it, which is why the trial happened very quickly and while he will be sentenced to jail. you know, markets, we live in

such a strange world, ashley. you know, you and lauren talking about transgender sports in reparations and all the d do ovs and interpretations and the markets are very honest. you come in every day and you are either up money or down money. and it's amid all this craziness and refreshing to know at least that one part of what we do is honest every day, ashley. ashley: very good. it's a constant. go ahead, lauren. lauren: and you're see ago lot of money come into the 9 spot, the coin etfs. on monday and tuesday a billion of inflows. when there's inflows into the big mechanisms, right, to own a part of cryptocurrencies, you often see them go up. that's another reason they're pushing closer to all time highs. ashley: very good point. we've got to move on. coming up, a number of colleges in new england including yale are going to see a spike in tuition prices. oh boy. how much you'd have to pay.

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ashley: this just in, sam bankman-fried is speaking and feels bad for ftx workers and customers and admitted he failed customers but at the end of the day it looks like those customers will be paid and should be paid in full at today's value because we're awaiting the full sentencing. we'll bring it to you when we get it. prosecutors are asking for 40-50 years in prison and defense attorneys much lighter sentence of 5-6 years. we'll tell you what judge lewis kaplan decides but appears the judge is in a severe mood. let's put it that way. as soon as we get that decision, we'll let you know. as we do that, let's take a look at the markets that santa claus rally been absolutely -- that

have been absolutely flat since the opening bell two hours ago now so there you have it. take ago breather heading into the long holiday weekend and good friday tomorrow. the markets are closed. adam johnson, he's sticking with us for the hour and brought stock picks. let's begin with black stone. why do you like it? >> i love it. it's the premier private equity firm in the world, ashley. it's really the company that createssed by steve shwartzman and created the p paradigm of private equity and hundreds of billions under management and why i like it, last year the stock was down 25% because earnings were down 25% and had to do with rising rates because, you know, the market for ipos really shut down and couldn't sell any of the companies they'd bought. that changed this year. as markets stabilize, we're starting to see ipos again and mna and that's very good for their business.

earnings will be back to where they were so if they were down 25%, they'll be up 25% this year, maybe more. it's yielding about 3.5% and by the way, trading at 25 times earnings and i know that's more than the market, but for a best in breed pre-imminent company with the wind at its back, it's excite. this stock was as low as 70 and as high as 200. i'm comfortable owning it and new highs over the next 9-10 months. ashley: and before we run out of time, the other pick you brought is marvell. >> yeah, it's ai -- down about a point today. the stock was trading above $80 a couple weeks ago and then they announced earnings. there was an interpretation by the market that earnings will be down. no, they guided up and in fact every analyst on the street not only raised his or her numbers but actually the target price as well so the market really had this wrong. all that was happening was some of the money going to be booked in the first quarter is being

booked in the second quarter. just buy it. it's ai. that's all you need to know. ashley: very good. well done, adam. got through that very well. now this, new fox polling showing that only 38% of voters approve of how president biden is handling the economy. those aren't good numbers. edward lawrence at the white house. edward, didn't the white house call the economy their top priority? reporter: yeah, messages priority. under president joe biden, prices remained too high and retirement off the table for some folks and that's being reflected in the polling. latest fox news polling showing that regardless of president not using bidenomics anymore, in fact he's used only one time in the past two months, about two-thirds of registered voters see the economy as poor or only fair. within that number, 86% of independents view the economy negatively yet this is what americans hear on the blitz across the country, listen. >> of course, the president and

i recognize the cost of key household expenses like energy and healthcare are still too high. so we remain committed to taking additional action to bring them down. this is our top economic priority. reporter: still fox news patrolling shows just under half of registered voters believe the president failed on the border and the state of the economy with inflation. inflation again accelerating when you look at past three months. here's the former fed board member on kudlow, listen. >> you and i know that america's inflation problem isn't because americans are working too hard or earning too much or living too well. it's because the government is printing too much. the government is spending too much. debt financing too much. that's the core of this inflation problem. it's not going away. reporter: in the reading of the gdp, personal con summit suspended ands of what people -- consumption of what people bought was up and government nondefense spending pushed up by

5.2% and that says it's driving the 2023 yearly gdp growth and federal reserve chairman long said we're on an unsustainable fiscal path and government spend asking not slowing down, ashley. ashley: spend, spend issue spend. edward, thank you very much. bring in peter morici talking about this. peter, you heard edward's report. what does the white house have to do to get the economy back on track? what should be the priority? >> the economy is on track in a macro sense. after all growth is fairly robin lou bust, especially for this point in the -- ro robust especially for this point in the psychoand will bidenomics benefits his friends and the people he thinks are his constituents. you know, labor unions, private sector unionization well below 10% so helping unions doesn't help the average guy. building a semiconductor factually doesn't do you much good working at hershey chocolate factory in

pennsylvania and special best that leave out most working americans and they don't feel better off because the money he's spending makes them worse off. it goes to his special interest friends like the automobile industry or the semiconductor industry, and it's paid for by printing money and higher prices that everyone pays at the gas station, super market, or when they rent an apartment. ashley: it's interesting. we got the final read on fourth quarter gdp and the economy grew at ann yule rate of 3 -- an annual rate of 3.4%, faster than expected. this economy, this economy has been remarkably resilient, has is not? >> yes, one of the thins we neglected when talking about recession coming up was that after folks ran out of their pandemic savings and most of that is now finally gone for middle class and working people. is that they built up a large reservoir of credit.

that is that they weren't maxed out on their credit cards because they weren't spending during the pandemic and afterwards running down the balances and a lot of head space in credit cards and i expect that to be used this quarter or the quarter we're now completing. i'm expecting growth to come in around 2.5%. but then things will slow down. at that point point, the fed isa tough spot. gas prices up in march, inflation up in march, but yet growth will be maybe 1, 1.5% in the second quarter, third quarter. cutting rates risks inflaming inflation, but holding back, you know, with everybody expecting a rate cut, it could tank the stock market. if they don't do it. ashley: it's interesting. look, the fed is walking kind of a tight rope if you like between inflation and recession. i mean, are you in favor of a rate cut coming sooner rather than later? >> no, we need to deal with inflation now. the experience over 100

experiences across 40 economies and right here during the vulker years and ease back too soon, inflation comes back even stronger and have to raise rates even more than the last time. that's exactly what happened with vulker and around the world so over a five year period, if you quit too soon, you get less growth than if you stay the course, endure a recession. people are pronouncing a soft landing, we're not there yet. ashley: no, we're not. main more hope than anything. peter, thank you so much as always for giving us your incite into the economy, the ever fluctuating economy. thank you so much. a new study actually reveals what offices could look like in the near future. it's interesting. tell me more, lauren. lauren: a lot more conducive for hybrid work and also for ai. so hybrid work, what does that mean? you want more space so you have your cubicle but then an area to

socialize. i guess the area we used to call gathering around the water cooler. but companies are saying they want to bring people together a few days a week so you need to embrace company culture. as for ai, what does artificial intelligence look like in an office? think more screens, more rooms to use the ai software and train employees on the ai software. so that's what thousands of -- i should say tens of thousands of companies and their employees are telling sysco who did the survey. ashley: that's the future. lauren, thank you so much. a new report shows having easter earlier in the year could actually cost retailers well over a billion dollars. we'll explain that story. a new york city is one step closer to implementing congestion pricing for drivers. oh boy. how much more you'll have to pay to drive into the big apple. and this could be implemented in other major cities. don't do it.

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moving farred with a congestion pricing plan. madison alworth joining me to talk about it. how much will this cost commuter s? >> ashley, it's a lot. charging $15, $15 tax on cars and a surcharge on tax season ubers of up to $2.50 per ride. big apple the first in the nation to implement pricing and eight points the where you sayiest areas and it's going to help with gridlock supporters

say but critics are slamming the idea saying it's on the backs of middle and lower class workers and critics include folks like new jersey democrat phil murphy and call it is a blatant cash grab. economists tell us this is part of a largest progressive plan to scale back plan and push public transportation that's both less reliable and concerningly less safe. >> the way the system is designed is kind of a war on cars. new york has numerous problems with congestion and could be solved without a fee. the purpose of this is tax motorists and discard driving and use the revenues going to public transit. >> >> it has passed and mta hopes to have it running by june and most of the infrastructure has been installed and cameras

that read license plates and rollout a bit delayed because of several on going lawsuits and new york is the first but likely not the last, ashley. other cities like boston and even los angeles are considering similar plans. la really wild because such a car reliant city and public transportation even less reliable and arguably more dangerous than ours here in new york. ashley: yeah. you know what, madison, london had congestion pricing for years and doesn't work. in phaco, believe it or not, congestion in london is worse than new york city. that's, you know, that is how its. >> make is make sense, ashley. ashley: yeah, interesting stuff. good report, madison. thank you. adam, come back in here. what do you make of this plan? i can tell you firsthand it did not work in the uk and it's not going to work in new york city. >> ashley, i believe that smaller government is better government. this is a great example -- i say a great example but unfortunate

example of government overreach and just trying to force decisions upon people using money to do it. as madison pointed out, it's going to penalize people that can afford it the least. i don't like it at all. i ride a city bike just about everywhere in the city. that too has gotten more expin sieve. ashley: that's good. >> no, this is just public policy run amuck. it really is. ashley: it really is. okay, with verne breaking news we understand about -- we understand about sam bankman-fried because we've been waiting for his sentencing. let's find out just in, he's been sentenced to 10-20 years on fraud and conspiracy charges. considerably less than what prosecutors were asking for. they were asking for 40-50. his attorneys wanted 5 years so it's coming in for 10-20 years for 32-year-old sb -- it's 20 years. 20 years. that is it officially.

that's a big sentence for someone that's 32. that means 52. i'm sure he'll be able to get out earlier and all the rest but the judge coming down hard. adam, what do you think on this, 20 year sentence? he's 32 years old. the judge was very, very strong on his criticism of sbf and all, i mean, what, $10 billion disappeared. sbf says, you know what, we can make our customers whole but bottom line, this person is to your point earlier was mixing his own money and playing with other people's money. >> yeah, well it speaks to a judge and in this case arguably really the government because there were so many different aspects of the government involved in this case. trying to uphold the integrity of markets. i'm certainly someone who has been involved in the markets since i got out of college. i'm someone that supports that and you need a belief in integrity that there's a rule of law, and i think this decision not only that he's found guilty but now going to be serving 20

years speaks to what needed to happen. and my guess is as you just pointed out, he probably won't actually do 20 years. he'll -- if he behaves well and seems like someone that would behalf well and certainly learned his lessons would get out sooner but 20 years sends a message that certain behavior is completely unacceptable and will bring down the heavy hand of punishment. ashley: yeah, lauren, your reaction to this? we've been covering this for so long and it's all come down to this. he was found guilty and made an appeal to the judge. the judge definitely was in a mood to make a point and make a statement and he got 20 years. lauren: yeah, he also apologized, and i think that's part of the flushing out, if you will, of the bad parts or recognition that the crypto market could be shady at times and certainly was as was his behavior, downright illegal. i think this is happening as you're seeing cryptocurrencies

rise in value. it's like i said, a flushing out of some of the bad things that have happened in the industry. ashley: you know what's interesting, adam, when this happened, ftx collapse, there were a lot of people that said, you know what, this is -- could be really bad news for crypto, the credibility. that hasn't been the case. >> no, look at bitcoin trading at all time highs but i tell you, it was brutal for so many of us. i lost a lot of money. i was long silicon valley bank shares and silver gate. it was painful. i never thought that the ripple effect of what was happening down there in the bahamas was going to be so extreme, and it was. so a lot of us lost a lot of money on this whole thing. by the way, the fact that he now is going to have to serve 20 years, it doesn't feel good, it doesn't bring back the money i lost myself and that i lost for clients. but it does -- it keeps people honest and that's what's

important. ashley: i'm being told, adam, this is the been a correction. it's 25 years so you can add on another 5. let's bring in kelly o'grady outside the courthouse with the very latest. kelly. kelly reporter: that's right, ashley. i can confirm it is 25 years and my producer ran notes out to me. this essentially, sam bankman-fried learned the penalty for that 10 billion fraud. certainly sends a message to the crypto community. we were expecting something in that 20 year range, even though the government was asking for 40-50, the max seasons was 1 -- max sentence was 110. a few nuggets for how it went down in the courtroom. the defense really tried to, again, paint sam bankman-fried as someone who was misunderstood, a math nerd. sam even got up and spoke himself today. he said i'm sorry. he said i regret what happened but, ashley, i found it funny. he didn't take responsibility. that's important, because he

does plan to appeal this conviction as well as this sentence. in fact, when we were listening to him, it almost felt like it was something that happened to him, that all of the chaos that he felt so much regret and sorrow but he didn't have an active part to be played in it. now, you were talking about how hard the judge came down. judge kaplan was definitely a star in the sam bankman-fried trial back last year and never made any apologies or tried to conceal how he felt about the defendant. that rang true today. there was one line i want to share with you, he said that sam painted a picture of being the good guy of crypto, and he said "that was a lie". you can see that in the sentence that came down. what goes into sentencing, it's really about deterring both the defendant from doing something like this again when they get out of jail but also deterring the wider industry, others that could be considering

perpetrating this type of fraud. so, ashley, what will come next, we're expecting some press conferences from the lawyers. of course there'll be an appeal but as of today, 25 years for sam bankman-fried. definitely not the 110, but a very long time for someone who's only 32. back to you. ashley: no doubt. kelly, thank you very much. let's get to greg jarrett on the phone with us. an attorney and someone who's obviously been following this very carefully. gregg, what's your reaction for 25 years for sam? >> he was lucky because prosecutors asked for more than 50 years and sounds like the judge was not buying into the defense's argument and in fact the judge said, you know, the defendant committed perjury. which is an aggravating factor in terms of calculating the

amount of time he should be served. the defense wanted five years saying he's not going to socialize well in prison, which is a bit laughable. that he suffers from this condition in which he can't enjoy anything. well, you're not supposed to enjoy anything behind bars. you know, his argument, the judge wasn't buying that, you know, these investors who lost $8 billion were made whole. no, they weren't made whole. they weren't receiving today's value on cryptocurrency. ashley: yeah. i think what really upset judge lewis kaplan too, gregg and to kelly o'grady's point, he never really admitted -- he said i wasn't guilty of any selfish acts. i never acted for myself. i was guilty of really bad

decisions and i don't think the judge bought that for a second and that kind of contributed to the sentence he handed down. >> absolutely. and the fact he was taking this money that didn't belong to him and living this incredibly lavish lifestyle under scores that's not a winning argument that sbf made in court. ashley: you know, he's been convicted -- he's going to -- supposed to be sentenced to 25 years but in today's world, serving good behavior, how soon could he be out? >> well, in state jurisdiction, you can get out a lot sooner than federal prison. i mean, he's going to have to serve at least a third of the 25 years, probably more even with good behavior.

he's going to be behind bars for a very long time, but he certainly got a better sentencing than bernie madoff. ashley: that's true. do you think the judge -- you say prosecutors were asking 40-a 50 years and coming back to your original point, he's been kind of fortunate, even though based on what you just told us, gregg, he'll have to serve at least 16 years. >> yeah, that's true, and probably more than 16 years even with good behavior. i think the judge probably factored in the youth of sam bankman-fried as opposed to bernie madoff, who ran his scam for so many decades. this one by comparison was run during a very short period of time but, you know, he stole $8 billion plus and nevertheless he lied and deceived and committed fraud. he seemed to feel very little

remorse until today. even then as you point out, he was not exactly taking responsibility. it's not enough to say oh, well, i was the head of the corporation that stole this money so the buck stops with me. no, a sincere apology and expression of remorse might have made a difference and even to the end, he was in a period of denial. ashley: very true. gregg jarrett, fox news legal analyst. thank you as always for jumping on the phone and reacting to this sentencing. thank you so much, sir. >> my pleasure. ashley: let's get back to kelly o'grady outside the courthouse. what ot other nuggets of information do you have for us, kelly? reporter: i want to react to something gregg just said about the remorse point. that's something that judge kaplan underscore when had he

was giving this sentence. he said there was no remorse. he did admit, okay, this person has trouble communicating and may even has autism and a bit of empathy we haven't seen from judge kaplan, but he hammered home that remorse point and if i go back to the trial, everyone was wondering if sam bankman-fried was going to testify. that lack of remorse when the prosecution cross examined him was so glaring and really was hammered home in judge kaplan's sentencing that it was as if it were yesterday for him in his mind. one other thing i want to highlight, sam referenced a few times his girlfriend caroline ellison. well, judge kaplan did too. we've all been wondering, what was it that did sam in. for judge kaplan, he said over and over, caroline ellison underscored that he knew what was going on. ashley, might take away don't

through your girlfriend under the bus. back to you. ashley: as we fight the sirens, which is always a problem in manhattan, kelly, i know that sam bankman-fried's parents have been following this, they always look very grim faced. of course they do. have we had any reaction from them? reporter: we haven't had any reaction from the parents just yet. we do know as they were walking in, they looked very concerned, very thin and pail. pale. the entire time the judge was giving the sentence, sbf wasn't looking up. he was looking down. looked sullen. we know he's going to appeal, but something like this coming down today doesn't give you a lot of confidence for that process going forward. ashley: kelly o'grady. thank you so much, kelly, for all your hard work as we digest this sentencing. 25 years for sam bankman-fried on seven counts of fraud

following the collapse of the ftx. let's bring in adam. you know, it's been interesting, hasn't it. he's going to appeal but i don't think there's going to be much. i'm not a legal expert, but the message today i think was very clear. >> oh, the message is crystal clear. if you break the law, if you mess with the sec, if you commingle with other people's money, if you steal other people's money, if you do things that you yourself know you can't do, you will be held accountable for it, and you will ultimately found guilty and you will serve time. i think it's powerful message to the market. and interesting, ashley, to note that bitcoin is up 3% today and so is coin base. so in a strange sort of way, it's almost as though the market has moved past this chapter that was so painful for so many people. where was it those of us actually long some of these stocks and lost money or more importantly the investors that lost $8 billion because of his actions. ashley: you know, lauren, it was

always -- crypto was seen as a place that was not overly regulated, but you could argue that sbf but you could argue spf was the face of what could happen under that scenario and now that this is behind us, barring an appeal and so on, for the crypto industry, it moved on and strongly. >> reporter: that's the point i was trying to make earlier. spf is 32 years old and the judge said he knew what he did was wrong, he knew it was criminal, he regrets that he made a very bad but about the likelihood of getting caught and he got caught and surveying 25 years, he will try to get a count to 61/2 but -- ashley: we've got to go. coast-to-coast begins right now.