discussed. futures slightly lore, adp came in a little lower than expected at 150,000. trisha. >> it has not been a good week for democrat, but i think it hasn't been a good week for the country either. joe biden is our congressmanner in chief for the next isn't months -- six months and while the american people did need to see what happened that night, unfortunately, our adversaries did as a well. i'm really praying for this country, but it's the greatest country on earth and proud to be an american and hope everyone has a happy fourth of july. cheryl: yeah. no, praying for our country and and as i said earlier, it is sad what we are watching in realtime. >>s it is. cheryl: thank you very much for joining us and, obvious, trisha and adam, great to see you. i'll see you for jobs friday on, well, friday. ashley webster's in for stuart varney. ash a, take it away. of. [laughter] ashley: good morning, cheryl. thank you very much. good morning, everybody. boy, what -- so much to talk about.

democrats now breaking ranks with president biden just months before the election. 25 house democrats preparing to call on biden to end his re-election campaign. this comes as who two the democrat congressmen, lloyd doggett and jared golden, publicly declare they have no confidence in biden's ability to win and serve another term. if well, the press also seems to be turning. reporters yesterday white house press secretary karine jean-pierre about the president's mental fitness for nearly an hour yesterday. the white house claims, hey, the president just with had a bad night and, oh, yeah, he had a cold as a well. meanwhile, biden telling donors he almost fell asleep at the debate. he blamed his travel schedule even though all of that was weeks earlier. this friday president biden will sit for his first interview since that disastrous performance and, by the way, president biden's also a going to heat with governors who are gathering at the white house today. it's all part of an aggressive campaign to try and salvage the

the president's re-election bid. the white house also confirming, by the way, in the middle of all of in that hunter biden has been sitting in on these meetings. great. all right, take a look at the markets. as cheryl mentioned, the markets closing at 1 p.m. eastern today. but in the premarket, all of the major indices, the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq all showing just slightly lower. let's take a look at the 10-year yield. that, too, with move -- is moving slightly lower at 4.4%. the 2-year, let's take a look at the 2-year yield. that too, i believe, was moving just a little higher, up by a basis point to4 minute.74 -- 4.75. bitcoin down about $2,000 at a $59,890. under $60,000. all right. on the show today donald trump's sentencing in his new york case has been delayed until september. all of this in the weak of -- wake with of the supreme court ruling on presidential immunity.

we also is have a new cnn poll conducted in the wake of the debate that shows trump with a roughly 20-point lead over biden on the economy and immigration. and speaking of economy, tiring up the grill for the fourth of -- firing up the grill for the fourth of july has gotten a lot pricier under president biden. from burgers to buns, potato salad to ice cream, it's going to cost you a lot more this year, did you hear that, janet yellen? we're going to take a a look at how much costlier they have gotten. s it is wednesday, july the 3rd, 2024. "varney & company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ am i wrong for thinking that we could be something for real ♪ ashley: am i wrong?

we look down sixth avenue in midtown, manhattan on this july 4th eve, is what we can call it, july the 3rd. let's get right to it then. the white house holding the first press briefing since that presidential debate, and and press secretary karine jean-pierre struggled to explain bidens' performance under a barrage of -- biden's performance under a barrage of reporters' questions as we would expect. good morning, lauren. lauren: yeah. the questions came thick and fast if. kjp tried to tell reporters that the bad performance we saw on thursday might was just a one-off. >> it was a 90-minute debate. it was a bad night, that's what we belief it to be. we're not -- believe it to be. we're not taking away what people saw, we're just not. that is -- want to be very clear about that. and, you know, we want to, to also make sure people understand that the president realizes, you know, i keep saying this over

and over again, he said he's not as young as he used to be, and hes has addressed this over and over and over again. lauren: yeah. but the "the new york times" is not buying the excuses. in a deeply-reported piece, they write: mr. biden was drained enough from the back to back trips to europe that his team cut his planned debate preparation by two days so he could rest at his house in rehoboth beach before joining advisers for rehearsals. the preparations, which took place over six days, never started before 11 a.m., and mr. biden was beginning time for an afternoon nap each day. but those excuses of foreign travel and even a cold, that's how the biden camp is trying to spin what president biden finally admitted to donors, it was a bad debate, at a fundraiser in virginia yesterday. biden said i decided to travel around the world a couple of times shortly before the debate, and then i almost fell asleep on stage, end quote.

problem is, ashley, the listlessness is both increasingly common, it's now well reported and frequently reported, and it's worrisome. not sure how the president and his campaign can continue to just brush this off. ashley: no. and to admit he almost fell asleep in the middle of all of that just adds insult to injury. thank you, lauren. look, "the wall street journal" reporting that president biden's inner circle is urging him to ignore the critics and stay in the race. karl rove, the perfect person to talk about this now. karl, look, this one bad night defense, or traveling, has a cold, it just doesn't hold water. what is the white house strategy right now? >> just to try and thrash it out, i guess. think about it, his foreign trip was, what, seven days before the debate? he had all that time at camp david with his aides, doesn't start until 11:00 in the

morning, finishes in the afternoon so he can take a nap, give him rest, relaxation and then he shows up at the debate after, you know, how many weeks does it take to recover from a foreign trip? and, look, new we're also a hearing reports that this is -- now we're also hearing reports that this is not an isolated incident, that people have been aware of, you know, lack of mental acuity for months and months and months and have kept their mouth shut because, after all, he's the leader of the democratic9 party, and he was the only guy running, and we've got to the protect him because, you know, if we need to ignore this issue and in the describe it plainly to the american people, so what. ashley: yeah. >> this is really disturbing. ashley: it is. and, you know, how could the so-called inner circle send him out on that debate knowing what we already knew, that he struggles in public, he has that vacant stare, the mouth open on top of everything else? how could they send him out on that debate not thinking that what the result was, you know,

was exactly what we saw, more of the same? >> yeah. well, i think it was on a wish and and a prayer. look, he is surrounded by enablers starting with his wife and including his sister, valerie biden owen, who's played a key role in all of his campaigns since the beginning. and we were told one of the principal people at the post-election meeting at camp david urging him to stay in was hunter biden. god, depend on that guy's good judgment. look at his life. he's made lots and lots of good decisions. please, for god's sake, what is going if on here? put the country first. ashley: yeah. next one for you, karl. on friday president biden apparently is going to sit down with abc news for his first tv interview since the debate. karine jean-pierre says he enjoys doing interviews. listen to this. >> this year the president has done more than 40 interviews. and -- unscripted, right? those interviews are unscripted. he has done more than 500

gaggles, right? if of course, unscripted, talking directly to many of you. let me just finish. and so he enjoys doing that, he enjoys engaging with all of you, can and we're going to continue making sure that happens. ashley: and half the time he says i have to go now, they're not going to let me stay any longer. karl, can biden convince voters that he's actually capable of another four years? >> i doubt it because, look, this is not new. go back to the beginning of this campaign. since the beginning of this campaign, we have seen a large number of people saying continually in the polls we think he's too old. and all we've done is confirmed in that debate that he is way too old, that he doesn't have what what it takes to be president. look, i worked in that place for seven years. my boss went into that office when he was 54, and i saw him age over that time. and this guy went into office, he's now 81. he went in there older than any president at the time that they

left office when he entered office a, and everybody, everybody ages differently, and this guy had two aneurysms. remember, he almost died in 1988 from an aneurysm. you cannot tell me -- i'm not a doctor, and i did stay in a holiday inn express last night, but you cannot tell me this is the normal condition for an 81-year-old. ashley: yeah. no, you are absolutely right. we'll have to leave it there. karl rove, great to speak with you today. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you, sir. president biden, of course, continues to face calls from democrats to drop out of the race. how many are there saying that, lauren? lauren: according to reuters, 25 democratic members of the house of representatives are preparing to call for biden to step aside if he seems shaky in coming days. translation, the president may be in danger of a widespread revolt coming from his own party. these are democrats in purple districts, in tight races in november. they'll face their constituents this weekend, right, when

they're home for july 4th. reuters also says they might if make their concerns public in a letter to president biden. if so 25 democrats now reportedly going to call on the president to step aside. if. ashley: seems to be gaining momentum. all right, lauren, thank you very much. let's get back to these markets now. check the futures for you. we were pointing just a little lore. the dow has just turned positive, essentially at the flatline right now. luke lloyd joins us to talk about it. all right, luke, you think investors should look outside of america. you say the u.s. is losing a little bit of its competitive edge, and in particular when you look outside of the u.s., you like mexico and india. how do you play that, and make your case? >> preface this with two things. first of all, me and charles payne were talking yesterday, i don't know how these polls are, you know, because a lot of them are taken over in europe. i don't know how trustworthy it is. second of all a, it is fourth of july week, and i don't want to

get too pessimistic on america. but right now america ranks 12th or 13 ifth in competitive edge. we haven't lost top 10 since 2009. this is the first year we've lost that. and if you also look at america in terms of happiness, we're ranked 23rd in overall a happiness, and what that means to us is when it comes to inflation inflationarier shoes and all the issues we're seeing here in america, we start to looked at a wig brother to come in with -- big brother to come in with solutions. and all that does is normally cause more problems. so really we're going to -- a lot of the policies being implemented are i'm-anticipate listic and antikind of growth policies being implemented, no matter what, whether it's democrat or republican, the government's too big. so we're looking at a countries like mexico and india that are a acting, actually, like we were a hundred years ago, implementing more capitalistic mentality and more growth trajectories because of the way things are growing. ashley: very quickly, luke are, you still believe as far as the u.s. markets go, we can con this

creep higher as we -- continue this creep higher as we head into the second half of the year? >> i think it's possible. i don't think we should expect a lot of growth in the u.s. markets. and, frankly, with trump kind of winning in the polls, typically in election years when the incumbent loses, you do see a big drawdown. but i think that money's going to flow out of america and into other areas with mexico taking over from china as a the biggest exporter to the united states. india is growing two that have times by 2030, and their average age is 28 the instead or 38 like it is here in america. again, it's more of a long-term are thing, but we own both mexico and india. i think they could be both place as diversifying entity as we head into the end of this year. ashley: certainly food for thought. very interesting stuff. luke, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thanks, ash. ashley: thank you. all right, coming up, a former editor at "the new york times" accuses the white house of a

massive cover-up on biden's decline. was there also a media cover-up? we're going to ask brent bozell about that. donald trump is using the supreme court's immune deruling to argue that his new york criminal conviction and jack smith's case should be thrown out. so what happens next for trump's court cases? that is next. ♪ ♪

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♪ ashley: all right, now this, donald trump outraised president biden during the second quarter. eric shawn joins us this morning. good morning to you, eric. tax through the number ifs. >> reporter: good morning,

ashley. former president trump is leading president biden. the biden campaign says its coffers increased after the controversial debate. former president trump's campaign says it has the edge reporting $331 million in donations in the second quarter of fund raising, outa pacing biden. a -- add -- at the end of the june, the former president's campaign has just under $22855 million compared to $240 million reported by the biden team. $285. so the the try and quell some concerns, the president will meet with democratic governors at the white house later tonight. >> i think the governors just want a direct and candid conversation with the president. we want to make sure he's doing okay. we all though him. he has formed a personal if relationship with us, and he says he is and we take him at his word, but it's always good to see somebody this person.

>> reporter: and we are getting the first public comments from ivanka trump about her father's recent criminal convictions in new york city. here's trump explaining why she is not on the campaign trail and how she felt about the outcome of the trial. she talked to a podcast. >> it's a pretty dark world. like, there's a lot of darkness, a lot of negativity, can it's just really at odds with what feels good for me as a human being. and, you know, it is concern really, it's a really rough business on a human level. it's my if father, and i love him very much, so it's painful to experience. but ultimately, i wish it didn't have to be this way. >> reporter: meanwhile, the biden campaign says the president is not going to withdraw and is not going anywhere. all this while more newspaper editorial boards say it is trump who should drop out. those editorials cite his continue lies and what they call his extreme agenda.

ashley? ashley: a all right. eric, thank you very much. great stuff. former federal prosecutor andrew cher cat sky joins me now. great to have you here, andrew. let's turn to the delay in trump's criminal sentencing. what happens now? how do you think that plays out? >> well, i think that it's a sign that donald trump is winning the lawfare battle at the moment. the delay, essentially, now gives time for the defense to file motions in the new york criminal case regarding immunity and the evidence that was used at a trial which the supreme court kind of mentioned in their ruling in the on the broad scope of immunity, but on the idea that certain types of evidence from his time in office, that can't even be used as evidence in a criminal trial. the prosecution's asked for more time to file their response, and judge merchan has put an early september date on his decision in that. that's something that could even go on appeal before the is sentencing takes place potentially if judge her chan

does not find -- merchan does not if find in donald trump's favor here. i think this goes all the way back to the trial when we saw evidence come in through hope hicks, other statements a that were made by donald trump through twirt that was used as evidence against him, and it certainly seems the ruling suggests that should not ever have been used in the first place. ashley: interesting. very quickly, does the supreme court ruling cover both the manhattan charges of which he's been convicted but also the jack smith investigation into his alleged actions following the 202020 the election? do they cover both? >> well, the ruling itself was focused on the january 6th9 case. that's where the appeal came from and where the immunity claim was head that they took the appeal on. the idea that we're now applying the supreme court ruling this week in the new york case is one that essentially is taking the baseline or the concept and applying it there. it can also be applied to the georgia case and the florida ca

case. ashley: yeah. interesting. all right, next one for you, democratic congressman joe morrell calling for a constitutional amendment to reverse the supreme court's immunity ruling. i mean, is that going to fly? surely not. >> there's, i guess, a lot of room for creativity in congress. it doesn't mean that it's going to -- [laughter] become law by any stretch. the idea of a constitutional amendment, i think, is a outlier in terms of possibilities. it requires the statements and a huge majority from -- states from and huge majority from the if senate to make that a happen. immunity has been assumed in presidents throughout the history of our country. there's been no discussions of past prosecutions of presidents, and so i find this ruling to be very much in line with the precedent and the history of our country as opposed to the ideas that the left is coming from, that this is some sort of crazy -- ashley: right. >> --

[inaudible] ashley: very good. we'll leave it there. andrew cher coski, thanks very much for joining us. let's take a quick look at the futures. the opening bell is in about six, seven minutes' from now. looks like a slightly lower open but essentially flat. guess what in the opening bell is next. ♪ yeah, way down yonder on the chattahoochee -- ♪ never knew how much that muddy water with men to me ♪

ashley: all right, let's get back to the these markets. there you go, flat to slightly lower is what we'll call it. let's bring in our good friend shah ghailani. great to see you, shah is. look, i know you're still bullish, right? if there are naysayers, we know that, you're not one of them. in there's no reason, ashley, to not be billionish. -- bullish. yeah, there are plenty of naysayers including those now saying the economy seems to be slowing and maybe it is. that doesn't mean if that is market is going to slow down or turn around, it just means that things are slowing down as far as the economy goes which really means the fed is likely to cut. that's bullish for the market. i don't see anything out there,

ashley, that is a negative for the market, you know? and i actually would love the see a correction bald there's a lot of stocks -- because there's a lot of stocks i would like to buy that, if they go on sale, we'll be loading up the truck. ashley: that was going to be my follow-up. look, you love to buy on the dip, but you don't see think on the horizon, so where are you putting your money? -- see any on the horizon? >> well, we own all the usual suspects, owned them for a long time, microsoft, google, meta, etc., etc. but i think a lot of investors are asking that question themselves, what to do now if they have been on the sidelines. and the short answer for that is you can buy the qqqs, you know, the nasdaq 100 and the etf form is the qqq. that is a great way to buy. you can put a stop this there if the market does dip and you want out. you want to go back in later, you've got plenty of liquidity there. that's a great way to go and keep it simple.

ashley: yeah. keep it simple. look, we, talk about nvidia every day because it's such a behemoth, but there are those who say it's overbought, but you still like it? >> yeah, still like it. you know, we bought it on the little dip that it had. if it dips more, we're going to certainly buy more, but we have a position,i'm thankful for that. nvidia, it comes down everyone should own it. this is a long-term play. i think -- i know it's had a tremendous run. it's got a lot more to go. i think it can double and triple from here the next couple of years fairly easily. ashley: very good. i love the tie, shah. i had the red, white and blue tie today but nothing compared to yours. thanks for joining us, my friend. good to see you. as we get ready for this shortened session on wall street today, the markets will close at 11 p.m., i would imagine -- 1 p.m., i would imagine that trading volume will be light, so it could be a little volatile at time, but we shall see.

let's take a look as we get out of the opening gate. the dow up 36 points, about a tenth of a percent if as a you can see. just slightly higher. we thought it might be a little lower at the beginning. let's take a look at the s&p, if we can. any gain, by the way, will be another record close as it finished at a record territory yesterday. as you can see, the s&p essentially flat at this hour. let's take a look at a the nasdaq where also any gain for the nasdaq would be another record close. the nasdaq just down barely a tenth of a percent. if let's take a look at a some of those big tech names as a well which we always like to do, and all of them in the red. marginally so. apple, microsoft, amazon, meta is and alphabet all a lower. alphabet down about half a percent, apple just turning barely p.o. s all right, let's dig into some of these names, begin with tesla. up theory 2 if after second -- nearly 2% after a second quarter deliveries came in higher than

expected so, of course, investors like that. let's take a look at apple. set to join openai's board, set to join ai's board in what capacity in and by the way, did just set an all-time high, lauren. tell me more. lauren: yeah. $220.38 was the previous all-time high. apple's head of the app store, phil shiller, can go to the meetings but can't vote at the meetings. i think this is really awkward because guess who else is at the meetings? apple competitor microsoft. but, look, this is all part of openai's partnership with apple intelligence. they're going to put their chatgpt on the apple iphone, ipad and mac. you know, this is good, that that apple has an integration now and a option at the table -- a position at the table with openai who is the leading force in a.i. right now. ashley: yes, it is. all right, let's move on to google. reportedly falling behind on their climate agenda.

oh, no. lauren: yeah. ashley: what's this about this. lauren: this is a political story, but it's the reality of the situation. if you look at the energy that is sapped by developing artificial intelligence, the electricity to power a.i. often comes from coal, natural a gas. -- natural a gas. they mitt greenhouse gases, ask -- e misgreenhouse gases. if you look at google's emissions, they're up almost 50% since they announced their plan to be carbon neutral. so the bottom line here is the political reality of the situation. the data centers needed to power artificial intelligence and the technology of the future threaten the transition to clean energy, to green energy, ashley. ashley: yes. yes, it's the conundrum, is it not? lauren: yes. ashley: let's move on. let's take a looked at eli lilly. the fda just giving a green light to one of its drugs. explain. lauren: so eli lilly has almost doubled in share price in the past year. it's up another 1 right now.

this is about alzheimer's. they have a drug, basically antibody infusions once a month. it targets amyloids in the brain. studies show that this drug slowed the progression of alzheimer's by 35%. it does come with risks. there were three deaths associated with the trial. but, look, it's a lifeline for so many older americans and their families who are struggling with the disease. the only other alzheimer's drug currently on the market is biogen's lo quell by. the price tag for one year is about a $3322,000. 332,000. ashley: 3 22,000.. -- 32,000, wow. let's move on. why did the ftc block temper sealy's acquisition of mattress firm? lauren: this makes me want to go to firm. they say they're going to jack up prices for everybody looking to buy a mattress.

so they nixed temper sealy's $4 billion offer for mattress firm that was years in the making. it would be a vertical acquisitions meaning temper sealy is a supply chain, mattress firm is the store, the brick and mortar. the ftc worries that temper sealy won't let competitors sell at hat dress firm if they own it. them per sealy says most people buy their mattresses online anyway which i never really understood, ashly. i like to test my mattress. ashley: no. that's a big leap of faith, in my mind -- ash. lauren: did you ever get the roll-up mattress? it come in a box? ashley: no, did you? lauren: yeah, for a guest room, and i don't recommend it. [laughter] up a indiana won't be a guest at the simonetti house. all right, we'll leave it at that. paramount is reportedly nearing a deal to merge with skydance media. lauren: look at this. the stock's up 10.25% i was just

scratching my head when i read the report, because i said didn't that exact deal fall apart last month? yeah, it did. now both sides are reengaging. skydance is looking to buy national amusements, the controlling shareholder of paramount, for $1.755 billion. the deal also includes a 45 day- go-shop period. look, paramount, most media companies have been struggling. they're the name behind cbs, mtv, the godfather, right? but if you look at a paramount+, it's got 70 million subscribers, netflix has 270 million. so they're struggling and they need some help. ashley: yeah. as paramount turns, it's the soap opera. all right, let's move on. [laughter] rivian just addressed reports that they were partnering with volkswagen to make cars. you know, what are they saying? lauren: reuters is reporting that is not the case. they will not producevehicles together. so this -- produce vehicles

together. this $5 billion cash infusion is just a software-sharing deal. but a german newspaper had reported that rivian's new suv, the cheaper r2, that that would be produced at the south carolina location, the plant of volkswagen. rivian say, nope, we're producing at our own plants. so that's the story. we'll see. ashley: maybe. yes. we will not mention it again until there's more developments. all right, lauren, constellation brands reported earnings. here we go. the season starting to get underway. lauren: yeah. let me take another look here because it had been sharply higher in the premarket trading because they reported better than expected numbers. their beer brands are selling really dell, co-- well, corona, modell -- hoe dello which overtook bud light as the top selling beer in america. shares are down half of 11 percent. -- 1%.

it could be this, they didn't raise their outlook, they reaffirmed it. sometimes investors get greedy and they want them to say, no, we're going to do even better -- and look at this, i just talked the stock into the green. ashley: well done, lauren. very good. excellent stuff. all right, coming up, take a look at this headline. it says the democrats deserve biden even if the country doesn't. gerry baker wrote that, and he says democrats gaslit americans for four years, and if he's here to explain in the 11:00 hour. look forward to that. in the first white house briefing since the debate, reporters hit karine jean-pierre with numerous questions over biden's mental capacity. roll the tape. >> after the debate, did the president get examined by a doctor or did he get a neurological scan? >> it's a legitimate question to ask, if this is an end episode or a condition. which one is it? >> is he disabled? is the president --

>> no. arkansas a ash it is a legitimate question. kjp struggling to answer those and more. we'll get into. that. and a new cnn poll shows trump leading bind on the economy by 20 points -- biden. does e.j. antiany think that cap could get larger given the president's performance? if e.a. is here next. ♪

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president joe biden has the edge in health care, abortion. the president doing everything he can to try and direct voters' attention away from the border and the economy. meanwhile, trying to get his base in order to tell his base that he can be president for another four years. president joe biden came out immediately after the u.s. supreme court decision to redirect focus on the court being political as well as going after former president trump. >> i know the i will respect the limits of the presidential powers i have for three and a half years, but any president, including donald trump, will now be free to ignore the law. >> reporter: so now the biden campaign came out with a new campaign ad about this. listen are. >> nearly 250 years ago america was founded in defiance of a king under the belief that no one is above the law, not even the president. until now. >> reporter: now, it's all meant to move attention away from the economy expect border. on the border sources tell fox news about a 168,000 people

crossed into the u.s. last month either under new programs or between border crossings. on the economy the president has not been able to avoid what people see and hear, overall prices up 19% since president biden came into office. all energy up about a 35% in that time. auto insurance up 51.5%. food at the grocery store up 2 11th since january of 2021. republicans say the president will not be able to run from the effects of his policies. 21 percent. >> outside of just how bad he was and the cognitive decline, his record's terrible whether it's energy, whether it's the border, when it's the economy. and i think what you're also seeing, guy, the final point here is this has been true for his tenure. it's gotten worse. >> reporter: now, the president has one public event today that will likely be a teleprompter event. ashley? ashley: yep, he's probably going to need it. all right, ed cared, thank you very much -- edward with, thank you very much. e.j. antony joins me now.

donald trump leads joe biden by 20 points on the economy. i'm, frankly, surprised it's not a larger gap because i can think back to the trump presidency and before covid, the economy was running at a 50-year high, right? >> that's true, ashley. but one of the things we have seen in this hyperpartisan age is a big divergence between reality and people's perceptions. in other words, we're seeing a rot of folks -- a lot of folks who identify as a democrat or liberal when 40 simply refuse to change their mind on how well or how poorly, in this case, the economy is doing. and that's helping to buoy president biden's poll numbers. ashley: yeah. but these higher prices, i mean, you know, you name it and edward laid it out from, you know, auto insurance, groceries, you name it, that really hits home when, you know, you're feeling it in the pocketbook. >> oh, it certainly does, absolutely. and i think that's a key reason why so much of the independent

vote now has left biden and is moving towards donald trump. and, frankly, i think one of the things that's very important for people to keep in mind is that for much of biden's presidency like much of his political career, he has simply been an empty vessel. in other words, he has been instituting the ageneral -- agenda of the radical left. so simply replacing him with someone else is not going to change the policies that he has implemented. ashley: i also a wanted to talk about home affordability. in the it's sunk to its lowest point since 2007. the typical cost of a home consumed 35 of the average wage -- 535% -- 35%. it's the american dream, buy a home, build your wealth. is that dream just a fantasy right now i? -- now? >> very much so, ashley. i think that dream is literally just a dream at this point. and, actually, if we look at data from the atlanta fed, home ownership affordability is even

worse. in other words, you have to go back even further in time before you can find a point where homes were this unaffordable to the average american. i mean, it's very sad, ashley, but for young people today home ownership will probably never happen. they're probably do you meaned to -- doomed to rent for the rest of their lives. a lot of folk, the only chance they have is if a relative passes away and leaves them one with. has a sad, sad state of affairs. ashley: it certainly is. i've got one minute if left, e.j., but i've got to get to this. global debt stands at an eye-watering $91 trillion, almost basically a quarter of the size of the global economy. how concerned are you about this massive debt bomb out there both in the united states and around the world? >> oh, ashley, it's extremely concerning. to the consumer, to the investor, you name it. you know, this is the problem with running your economy on a sugar high, essentially, where you continuously need more and more and more of these debt infusions in order to keep the

illusion of growth going. and eventually it all comes crashing down. it's very much like a drug addiction, the way the government has been running this economy. you need greater and greater doses of the same thing in order to get the same effect. and it's all going to end in disaster if we don't clean up our act and get our fiscal house in order. ashley: yeah. you have to pay the piper eventually, as they say. e.j., thank you so much for joining us today. we do appreciate it. covered a lot of ground. thank you, sir. all right, coming up, florida's new law which allows squatters to be arrested goes into effect if today and and now other states want to follow suit. we'll have more on that story. treasury secretary janet janet yellen says there isn't any if sticker shock at the grocery store. listen. >> have you been to the grocery store lately? >> i sure have. i go every week. >> it's sticker shock, isn't it? >> no. ashley: she said, no. sorry, janet, but firing up the grill for tomorrow's fourth of

july cookout could be much pricier. we're going to break down exactly how much costlier next. ♪ ♪ feels like summer. ♪ ♪

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ashley: well, tomorrow is the fourth of july, and if you're hosting an independence day a party, be prepared to pay up. madison alworth is in brick, new jersey, this morning. hello to you, madison. okay, so how much more will the barbecue cost this year compared to last? >> reporter: hey, ashley. that barbecue is going to cost you 19% more since 202211. take a look at the numbers here. according to the american farm bureau, this is the most expensive july 4th cookout on record. but it's a great holiday, you've got to celebrate. that's why we're starting early. i got my dad on the grill, he's the grill master. he's helped us with all the food today so we can talk about these prices from 20221 to today. it's a july 4th cookout, so you've got to have your burgers. two pounds of ground beef,

that's up 55% from 2021-2024. you used to pay $8.20, today the it's going to cost you $12.77. of course, you've got a bugger, you have to have the buns. -- burger. 20221, $1.66. today you're going to be paying $2.41. but i got some good news. if you're like me and you like your cheeseburger versus a hamburger, cheese, that's actually down. one pound of american cheese down 13 president, some good news there. -- 13%. today you're paying $3.57 compared to 2021, $4.005. but we like diversity. we don't just do the burgers here, we got all the meats. chicken breast, two pounds, that is up 16%. 20 the, you were paying $6.74, 2024, $7.83. if you like pork chop, more bad news for you, unfortunately. three pounds of pork chops, that's up3 3 in that time frame.

you got your lemm maid and your potato -- lemonade. your potato salad n. 2021, $3.6 a 55. now, today, $4.19. it's a great holiday to celebrate, is so if you can budget, still great to celebrate with family. ash? ashley: a thank you so much, madison. and thanks the grill master. tell him the check's in the mail for his hard work today, great stuff. [laughter] still ahead, there you go, the man with the spatula. texas congressman pat fallon will be here on hunter biden joining his father in white house meetings, what could go wrong? breath bozell, gerry baker on why democrats may be stuck with bind, and california congressman darrell issa on questioning jen psaki over the botched afghanistan withdrawal. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company" is next.

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