>> final thoughts on all the topics today. i was, i think, most persuaded by this meta censor isship situation. what it does show is these big tech conglomerates are still very much engaged in, you know, kind of swaying the population into a certain party p you know? they are colluding with the democratic party, and thanks to elon musk, you know, or we now have a free exchange of ideas on x, meta needs to to be next. cheryl: yeah or, rebecca, you made the point they don't want to be regulated. this section 230, this whole debate is going to get reignited in washington. >> amen. we need it. cheryl: all right. rebecca, caroline, thank you very much. that is it for me. maria is going to be back tomorrow here on "mornings with maria," and "varney & company" is up now. stuart varney, over to you. stuart: all right. good morning, cheryl. good morning, everyone. a bombshell admission from mark zuckerberg.

officials from the biden administration pressured him to the censor covid information. he says they were frustrated, but he refused. but he did admit that he did censor the news about hunter biden's laptop. it was not russian disinformation, it was real and he's sorry he, quote, demoted the story. tulsi gabbard, who ran as a democrat for the presidency, now supports trump. she says she wants to help put him back in power. within the last week9 another prominent democrat has stepped forward tones doer trump, rfk jr. another rewriting of the script from kamala harris. she will say it is trump who is the deficit bomb. that's the same as blaming trump for the border crisis or for inflation. axios reports that harris will sit for a formal interview later week. let's get to the markets. about 160 tomillion americans have at least a small piece of the market action. they've done mostly well because the market has a rallied. this morning though, we've got a small pullback after reaching a record high yesterday. the dow off about 100 points,

nasdaq down about a 76 -- 67. i'll get back to the rest of the financial action later in the program. ment on showed today, meta if funds a new form of geothermal energy to produce vast amounts of emissions-free electricity. only the big tech has the money for that. and the astonishing story of new york city buses. half the people don't pay. tuesday, august 227th, 2024 -- 27th, "varney & company" is about to given. ♪ ♪ we light it up, we won't come down ♪ stuart: the greatest show. okay. a little compliment for us, i'd say. pat if on the back from our own producers, why not. [laughter] look, it's tuesday morning. let's -- i'm going to start with

the markets. david bahnsen joins me now. i keep hearing talk that there's a 25% chance or a 35% chance of recession. that's all nonsense to you, isn't it? >> well, don't you think it should be 27.3%? [laughter] these things drive me crazy, stuart, as you know. they're so random and arbitrary, unhelpful, and i want listeners to know every day you wake up there's a 20% chance of a recession. any kind of world event or unexpected circumstance can can come and push the economy into con action. so the big wall street firms saying this have to have something to the the say, but it doesn't mean anything. what we know, and it frustrates a lot of people, is it's a mixed bag in the my right now. there are some positive attributes and there are some negatives. and we've been in that a tug of war of economic data for a long time. stuart: do you think this rally has legs? >> well, i think that what's very interesting over the last

few weeks this rally has not been dependent on the very overpriced technology the names getting more overpriced. that the market has done real well with energy, financials, consumer staples, that's a good thing. we're, of course, going to see what nvidia announces tomorrow. but your microsofts and amazons over the last month have really struggled even though the market has really rebounded. and i think that that's what we have to see, what the market can do without big tech. because there are some big tech names that are brutally overpriced. senator. stuart: i just want to make it clear that this, wall street, has been an extraordinary wealth creation machine over the past 10, 12 years. you'd agree with that, i think. >> no, over the last 10-12 centuries. and 10-12 centuries to go. you can't have capitalism without capital markets. wall street is a euphemism for financial markets, and they are a blessing to all of us. stuart: david, stay there,

please, i'll get you back on the show many just a couple of minutes. i want to move on to politics. axios reports that kamala harris will sit for her first interview this week. would that interview, if it takes place, be make or break for harris, todd piro? >> no, because nothing will come out of that interview that'll give any sense as to their policy. stuart: depends who does it. >> that's the harris campaign saying we are going to basically do the nancy pelosi, remember that? vote on it and then we'll let you know what's in it. that's basically what the harris campaign and the democratic strategists are doing. they are not going to tell us what her broad-based policy positions are until after the rex -- rex, and that's scary. stuart: can't an interviewer get her out of it? what kind of interview is that? >> if i'm wrong, fox news will let me know in a mice e-mail, but presumably it's going to be

one of the very, very welcoming interviewers who's going to give her softballs who's actually going to couch that we in a softball way. the american people want to hear from you. democrats -- republicans say they need to hear more from you, and it'll be a nice softball question that'll allow her to punt. stuart: all right, todd, we'll see. trump just got a bigtime endorsement from former democrat congresswoman tulsi gabbard. what did she have to say, lauren? lauren: trump didn't start new wars, took action to prevent wars, and she said this on the third anniversary of the death of 13 americans following the withdrawal of america from afghanistan. >> i am proud to stand here before you today whether you're a democrat, a republican or an independent. if you love our country as i do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, i invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect

president donald j. trump and send him back to the white house to do the tough work of saving our country and serving the people. lauren: and she joins the growing list of former democrats now endorsing donald trump. stuart: all right, todd, first rfk jr., now tulsi gabbard, how much do these endorsements help trump? >> i think r rfk jr. because he actually brings voters because he was in this election, in some states will still be in the election. tulsi, i'm not 1000% sure. i think she should go back to hawaii to the victims of the maui fires and say where has the biden administration been, with where's the biden-harris administration been in terms of helping your recovery. that is a liberal state through and through, if not the most liberal. where did those liberal policies get you with, those lib trillion politicians get you -- liberal. you're not going to win hawaii, but you could get other voters on the fence saying, hey, in a

tragedy, they did nothing for me, and donald trump would. stuart: stay with me for the hour. david bahnsen has brought with him a couple of dividend picks. i think you've gone back to your old favorite, chevron, david. >> well, the issue with chef chevron is that the energy sector is very healthy right now, and the stock is still offering a 4.5% dividend. they're going to to to close on their buy of his. they -- hess. they bought mobil drilling during the covid moment, so they've picked up a ton of market share, and we think it's still underpriced so, you're right, we've been longtime holders, we will be for years to come. stuart: gilead sciences, i know you like 'em. >> we sure do. i just want to point out it's the leading biotech company when it comes to hiv treatment. they have a huge market presence in hiv, and they've added a lot in oncology. you get over a 4% dividend yield, they're growing it like crazy. this is just a really impressive

name that i don't think the price reflects how good of a company it is. stuart: all right, david, we'll take it. david bahnsen, everyone. see you again real soon. we just got a read on home prices. a reminder, these numbers are from june, so they're two months old. it's not the latest read, but it is a read. lauren: they confirm the tend. prices up -- the trend. prices up 6.5% from june a year ago, 2023, and the most in new york, 9 growth. stuart: what do you say to that, todd? rising home prices, affordability, mortgage rates, etc., etc. >> if california gets its way and gives free money to illegal migrants, that's not going to lower the price of homes in any way, shape or form. and if kamala harris wins office and gives $25,000 to each aspiring home buyer, that's not going to the lower costs any more. there's also a matter of where are you finding the workers because i don't know a lot of people our age who are building a home. a lot of older people, new

people who can build homes. you combine the cost of tools and materials, i just don't see all these homes popping up. lauren: yeah. stuart: go ahead. lauren: she wants to build 3 million of them -- >> how? lauren: how are you going to do that, right? you have to make more of an incentive for the builder to make the homes for less. also insurance, home insurance. >> yeah, just got the bill. lauren: up 50% since 2019. no one talks about that because in the cpi there is not homeowner's insurance, there's renter's insurance. >> i just got the bill, we're going to be up $1,000, basically a one-third change. we haven't add ad any improvements. it's because insurance has gone up. and watch your car -- not to say everything's going up in this economy, but pay attention to home. stuart: thanks very much. coming up, trump and harris trading barbs over debate rules. now trump is claiming harris doesn't want the face him. >> the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. in that case,s it was muted.

they're trying to get out of it because she doesn't want the debate. stuart: well, the debate is in two weeks. can they agree on guidelines at least? marc thiessen here on that a at. harris is pitching an opportunity economy to win over voters. >> we will create what with i call an opportunity economy, an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed. [cheers and applause] stuart: okay. does this opportunity include taxpayer-funded handouts? e.j. antoni on that next. ♪ once i get you up there where the air is rarefied -- ♪ we'll just fly starry-eyed ♪ r. or a night person. or a...people person. but he is an

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stuart: i'm afraid to tell you that futures are moving lower. it's not an awful selloff a by any mean, but the nasdaq is down 103 points. the yield on the 10-year treasury, that is raise radio-- rising. 3.86%. that has something to do with the nasdaq downside move, i think. 10-year treasury yield, 3.86. have a look at the price of gold, at or very close to its all-time record high, $2,5422 an ounce. bitcoin, $62,300. oil has stopped moving up, it's at a $76 a barrel as we speak. kamala harris blames corporate profits for higher grocery prices. according to the new york fed, however, that is not entirely accurate. edward lawrence at the white house. so what is to to blame for inflation? >> reporter: it's labor and the input costs according to grocery stores and the new york federal reserve study. vice president kamala harris still blaming grocery stores for the higher prices.

now, the national grocers' association president told us that his members, independent grocery stores, just struggle to survive rather than price gouge. listen to this. >> labor is a huge component of that. we've seen a significant wage increases since before the pandemic, but we've also seen know enormous increases in commodity prices. and while those have come down a bit, they are still absolutely elevated. >> reporter: he says his members' average profit margin was 1.4% in 2023. so independent grocery store owners have been the victims, he say, of verbal abuse and threats based on the language from the vice president and president. he wants the biden-harris administration to focus on adding competition among supply chains. still, the vice president and her surrogates won't back down, looking for a villain for higher prices. >> kamala is ready to take on grocery prices. and the way she's going to do this is she's going to the take on those companies that are just

out there price gouging. she said, i get it. after the pandemic, sure, there were problems in the supply chain, war in ukraine meant the commodity prices went up. i get passion along prices. i -- passing aa long prices. but many of these giant corporations have said inflation has been very good to them. >> reporter: democrats never looked at the policies for the biden-harris administration as the reason that overall food prices at grocery stores are up more than 321 is 1% since -- 21% since president biden and vice president harris got into office in january 20221, stu. stuart: must you put senator elizabeth warren in so many of your pieces? [laughter] >> reporter: one time! one time. [laughter] stuart: i'll let you off the hook. thanks, edward. see you later. the harris campaign is calling trump's agenda, quote, an inflation and deficit bomb. okay. e.j. an known ty -- an tony

jones -- e.j. antoni joins me now. what's going on? >> think that's exactly what's going on. we've talked before about how this is a unique if moment in modern political history in america and the fact that you essentially have two candidates of who have already basically done the job. they've already held executive office. they have records. we don't need to listen to the promises, we can simply look at what these candidates have actually done while in office. under trump you had very low inflation, actually even below the federal reserve's the 2% target, and under biden and harris you had inflation run all the a way up to over 9. so i think it's pretty clear who has the good record on inflation and who doesn't. stuart: yes. what we need is a sit-down interview with someone who knows what they're talking about to ask the important questions of the vice president to get some importance answers. we're supposed to get an interview later on this week, but i have my doubts that anything will come of it. what a say you? >> stuart, again, i think that's a really good assess.

, because it seems like gatekeepers of the harris campaign are intent on making sure she does not actually have to to answer any of hose questions. and rightly so, because if you look at how she has performed in the past when asked difficult questions, it has not gone well. and maybe that's a character fault, but maybe it's the not. the facts just simply aren't on her facts. you're -- her side. you're asking her to do defend the indefensible when it comes to her policy record. stuart: harris is calling for an opportunity the economy. the way the left sees it, i think, we should use taxpayer money to create that opportunity. does that work? >> no, it doesn't. it has never worked in the past, it's not going to work now, it will never work in the future. stuart, look what they want to do with housing, for example, where she wants to create more demand subsidies, essentially. she wants to provide tens of thousands of dollars to people in order to have to more money to put down on a home. well, sellers are going to smell blood in the water as soon as you do that, they're going to raise selling prices, housing

will be less aforbe, -- affordable, not more affordable. we've done it for decades with student loans where we keep giving kids more grants and more loans, and what do colleges do? the they simply raise tuition and other fees to compensate. stuart: that's not an opportunity economy it's just not. e.j., thanks for joining us. thank you very much. now this, can't believe this story, the dallas fed says the rising demand if for sausage is a worrying sign for the economy. you want to explain that? lauren: it's the sausage economic indicator. it's the cheaper protein, right? so the dallas fed said this is representative of price-conscious consumers trading down. so they see an uptick in sales of sausage as opposed to buying more expensive steak or chicken. why do you see some confused? [laughter] stuart: it's just unusual. lauren: it's a cheaper meat! stuart: it's a valid statistical analysis, it says something about the economy. lauren: it's also in the

commentary in other parts one farmer said, yeah, we're preparing for the recession, that's a quote. another said they're increasing wages again come october, and now it's more expensive for them to pay their factually workers than their desk workers. so blue collar more expensive than white collar. stuart: do you have anything serious to add to this discussion? [laughter] >> only -- the. lauren: i know what you're going to say. >> i will go on a serious political thing, this is bad news for kamala because in the next 70 days it's on donald trump to tie her even more to the current economy. and if he can do so, you know, look, i don't have a problem with sausage, i have a problem with the recession indicators. you never root for a recession, but if you're donald trump, you certainly don't want things to go crazy good between now and november 5th. if these indicators say we're on track for a recession, he can say i can get us out of the tail spin, you have to elect me. there's the serious comment. we can continue to make fun jobl break. stuart: no, we will not.

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stuart: right. we're heading towards the opening bell, looking for some red ink there. dow's off 1000, nasdaq's -- 100 to, dow's off 83 points. david nicholas, earnings for nvidia tomorrow. you call yourself a stubborn bull on that stock. why don't you explain. >> stuart, that's right. i have all the confidence that nvidia's going to have a solid report this week. look, the stock sold off almost 25%. why? because there were concerns over the shipping delay of their blackwell chips. i think you'll see ceo jensen huang address this on on the call -- i think there's still strong demand for the h200 chip. the only thing, stuart, limiting nvidia's growth is supply. nas it. the demand is almost unlimited it. if taiwan semidoes what they say they're going to do and they can ramp up production, we could see

$20 200 billion in revenue for nvidia in 2025 the so, yes, i'm a stubborn bull, and we continue to to raise our price target. stuart: it's not just the supply of the blackwell trip, it's the quality of it and its abilities. if there's any hint that it ain't up to scratch in some way or another, that will be mortal, couldn't it? >> yeah, that's a great point. guidance is important here. and you're right, the numbers are going to be great. what does the ceo guide? the that's a big part of it. stuart: we've got some wall street investment firms saying there is a chance of recession. ubs raises the odds to 25% from 20%. david bahnsen on the show a few minutes ago said it doesn't matter, it's tyrrell haven't. what say you? it's irrelevant, what say you? >> yeah, we're not seeing robust growth. we are growing, but we are slowing. inflation is coming down. we're still above target. so the economy's not collapsing. but where's the real growth,

stuart? where's the robust economic, risk-taking, entrepreneurial growth we used to see? that concerns me. and consumers are trading down. if you look at a walmart, walmart if had great earnings. you know who didn't? home depot. that tells me consumers are still spending, but they're spending more on food and groceries, gas, than home improvements, the things that really drive economic growth. stuart: is david nicholas selling anything today? >> stuart, i will be your biggest bull on this program today. i am still bullish. i am optimistic. i think this is a big week for markets. nvidia could give the boost that we need. remember though, september is historically a bad time for the markets. i salivate, stuart, if we get weakness in september, david nicklaus, our firm, we will be buying. stuart: are you a melt-up kind of guy? [laughter] >> i don't see -- i don't think we see a melt up. i think we see solid growth, i think nvidia -- what we don't want is a breakdown. as long as we don't get a

breakdown, we're buyers. i don't think we see a melt-up until after the elections, unfortunately, stuart. stuart: okay. david nicholas, good luck. we will see you later, i'm sure. thanks very much. we're heading up towards the opening bell. we are going to see some red ink in the background here. dow's off about a 70. this is running up to the start of trading. nasdaq down 72. we should remind you though that the dow hit an all-time record closing high yesterday. if you're looking now at a 600-point pullback at -- 60-point pullback, that's not much of a pullback after hitting a record high. we should really make the point that that over the last 10-the 12 years if you've been in the stock market, you've done well. middle america has done very well out of this rally which has been going on for years. little ups and downs, but essentially an expansion of stock prices for 10 years. we've all a done well. here we go. the opening bell is about to ring, it is ringing. we're going to see the dow off just a few points at the open. look at that, it might even go

positive. down if -- that's flat to slightly lore. and it's an even split on the dow 30 sock thes, half up, half down. s&p 500 also opening ever so slightly lore, .211% down. the nasdaq composite just a fraction to the -- well, not a fraction, .41%. evidently, big tech, show 'em, please, i think big tech is probably mostly on the downside. yes, it is. alphabet, microsoft, meta, apple, amazon, they're all down just a little in the early going, very early going. let's look at apple. they've announced their iphone vent for september the 9th. do we know what a to expect? lauren: the iphone 16, a bigger phone, a better camera. and i think it means they're glowing up, they're improving siri. their assistant is redesigned, 22.0. a.i -- 2.0. a.i. is not coming to apple on september 9th. it comes at a later date, but the new phones are capable of

running it. now you know. apple gets the 16 sales in this quarter, and then they get the a.i. sales in the next quarter, so this works out really well in terms of their revenue. they're also expected to announce a new watch and new air pods and some news in the et. what's that? the executive team, that as' what they call it at apple. their longtime, well regarded ceo is out. he's a taking a reduced role. he'll be replaced in january. but, i mean, the market capitalization of apple from a $640 billion to $3 trillion plus company. and you look within that et, the executive team that reports to cook, a lot of these guys are getting a little bit offedder including tim -- older, including tim himself, so i'd watch some of the can c suite movement. stuart: there's a headline in the "wall street journal," younger workers are getting frustrated because older workers in their 70s and 80s will

not retire. leave it right there. [laughter] meta -- lauren: i'm so frustrated. [laughter] stuart: meta just signed a new deal to power its data centers. this is an extraordinary -- to me, this is extraordinary. a geothermal energy project. tell me more. lauren: it uses fracking technology to tap into the heat that's buried in the earth. meta is in a deal with sage geosystems to use its technology to the power meta's data centers so it can train the its a.i. models. getting energy and reducing carbon footprint. separately, the ceo, mark zuckerberg, just admitted that the white house pressured him to censor and remove covid content k and he says he didn't like it. he says he would push back if this were to happen again. i'd call that a big win for free speech. more on that coming up. stuart: and the geomemorial operation as well. openai, adobe, microsoft,

they've all thrown their support behind a new artificial intelligence bill in california. lauren: there are 65 a.i. bills working through the california legislature. this is one of them. it wants -- you have to put it, water mark your a.i. content, label it as such. i feel like this is a duh moment. companies should tell you, hey, that was made with a. a.i., but actually some of the major tech companies were opposed originally. they said bad actors could manipulate the water marks and the warning labels -- stuart: but these guys are in favor of it. lauren: they're in favor of it, and elon musk is getting behind another one of the bills, he wants big tech companies and a.i. developers to safety test their own models. stuart: okay. not sure i understand that. lauren: well, i mean, if all the a a.i.'s coming from california, they need to figure out a plan that will work to continue to grow it but keep it safe. stuart: okay. i want to move on to eli lilly. i want to talk weight loss

drugs. zepbound, they're looking to offer it at a discount. lauren: patients can get the lowest available doses for 50% off or more. a 4-week supply is going to cost between $40 4000-550. -- 4000- 4000 and 5 -- 4 hundred dollars. stuart: telehealth. lauren: hims and hers is down sharply on this news because they offer weight loss shots at $200 a month. it might be easier for some people to go to lilly, have that script from their real doctor and not a telehealth -- stuart: i keep saying it, i'm waiting for the bill. lauren: $400 a month isn't enticing enough for you? stuart: i'm waiting for the pill. netflix, new target price, what

is it? lauren: $7 a50. he basically thinks it's going up 10%. he says netflix is in the best same shape he's ever been. consumers are satisfied with the content. they see growth potential in live sports, the christmas nfl games, and they say 60% of current subscriber scribe -- subscribe scribers will stay if more live content is added. stuart: jd.com, they've announced a $5 billion stock the buyback. lauren: this is effective in september. it allows the chinese e-commerce giant to buy back its stock over the next three years. i think the message from the market, from china e-commerce there, their consumer's so weak right now. it's what we heard a from the temu owner yesterday. pin if duo duo said business is bad. shares declined so much that they wiped $55 billion in one day from their market cap. it's cutthroat competition in china. their housing prices are down,

prices are down. their consumer's in bad shape, and they're the world's largest hexer -- e-commerce market. stuart: i think that's one of the great uncovered stories. lauren: we don't talk about it much. stuart: we should. we're now six minutes in, 66 points down for the dow. 41,174. dow winners, give me that list, please. top of the list is american express. coca-cola, travel legger, chevron -- travelers. and the s&p 500, list of winners is headed by insulet, don't know it. resmed, eli lilly is on the list, 958 for lilly. nasdaq, am a md, sirius radio, astrazeneca. the 10-year yield now at 3. 86. price of gold down $8. bitcoin, $662-- 62,300. oil, $76.77.

there you have it. nat gas below $2. the average price for a gallon of regular, $3.35. and we always like to tell you this, in california regular average as $4.61. donald trump trashing the biden-harris foreign policy for putting network danger. >> america's future -- america in danger. >> america's future is under threat like never before. i don't think we've ever been closer to world war iii than we are now. stuart: christian whiton here with answers. biden was spotted in delaware looking tired, frail and confused. who's running the country? if maybe mike huckabee is as a confused as the rest of us. he is going to be the on the show. mark zuckerberg says the administration pressured him into censoring covid-19 content. he says going forward meta won't bend to politics. former parler chief executive

john mats if -- has more on this, he's next. ♪ i got this crazy feeling deep inside -- ♪ when you called and asked to see me tomorrow night ♪

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stuart: 12 minutes into the trading session, i see a significant loss for the nasdaq. it's down 121 points. that's .if 69. the dow, after hitting a record high yesterday, is down just 24 points. not much of a pullback there. big tech, last time we checked they were all down. they're all down still. meta, apple, amazon, microsoft on the downed side. mark zuckerberg has admitted that the biden-harris administration pressured meta to censor covid content. take me through it. >> yeah. basically, zuckerberg in this explosive letter to jim jordan, he basically writes, quote: in

2021 senior officials from the biden administration including the white house preetededly pressured our team's -- repeatedly pressured our teams for months to the censor certain content. ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions. regreat that we were not more -- regret that we were not more outspoken about it. the white house telling fox this this morning, quote: when confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. our position has been clear and consistent. we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the american people while making end dependent choices about the information they present. they admitted they did this. the letter also acknowledging it was the wrong to stifle coverage of hunter biden's infamous laptop. stuart: thanks, todd. former parler chief executive, john matts, joins me now.

what do you make of the the biden-harris team pressuring zuckerberg to censor information? deal with that one first. >> sure, of course. i mean, this is not surprising at all. if you look back in 2020 the when i was running parler, we were confronted with similar warnings from the fbi to also censor the hunter biden laptop scandal, and we chose not to. it was obvious that that was inappropriate. we stood up for that. and now that the biden administration is doing that the or has been doing that to facebook, it's not surprising at all. what's kind of surprising to me is that a tech executive isn't taking a principled stance against the government interfering with how it should run its company. stuart: but it really made a difference, i think, to the election. they suppressed, changed the story of the hunter biden laptop. just, what is it, weeks or a month or two before the election. had they released that information about that laptop, it would have had a huge effect

on the election, but they chose to suppress it. he says he's going to be politically neutral in the future, zuckerberg. what do you make of that? >> i mean, hindsight's 20/20, right? his actions show that he's not principledded on this issue, but the good news is that he is responding the market pressure. people don't want to be spied on, they don't want to be censored, and so -- and they don't want the data sold. so he is responding to market pressure, and that is positive. stuart: isn't it all about content moderation and how you do it? >> not only that,s yes, and that the pressure if is pretty scary because if you take a look at what's happening in france right now, the telegram ceo has been arrested. the government there is putting immense pressure on him to censor, to hand over information about a people to the french government. and by refusing to do so, they have thrown him in jail, and they're essentially holding him personally liable for all criminal activity on the platform.

and they've hand pickled some oe worst -- some of the worst things, and they're basically making him an accomplice to criminal activity if he doesn't cooperate with government censors. it's crazy. stuart: right. where does this leave x and elon musk and oh platforms? -- other platformses? are they vulnerable too? >> i were mark zuckerberg or elon musk, i would be petrified to go to france right now because they are as a equal ally as responsible of the content under that the particular law as pavel is. it's selective prosecution, and it sets a terrible precedent for the world in the tech space. the biggest issue, i think, in the tech space right now. stuart: what about free speech? this goes to the heart of it, doesn't it? do we or do we not have free speech? >> exactly. and right now we need that more than ever. and telegram is a platform with 1 out of 8 people in the world on it, almost 1 billion people. and that's a lot of speech that

they're trying to kind of put the kibosh on here. stuart: it sure is. >> especially in a platform that's so credit call in the war many ukraine right now and in the middle east. this is a place where people can broadcast really time-sensitive information, get it out of to a large -- out to a large audience if in a timely american. so this is pretty scary right now. stuart: john matze, thanks for joining us this morning. thank you. a couple of bigtime tech leaders will host fundraisers with j.d. vance. who are we talking about? lauren: david sacks or reportedly holding a $50,000 a person event for j.d. vance in los angeles september the 8th. sacks has been a major player, instrumental in bringing silicon valley support to the trump-vance incompetent. he's a big hitter in -- ticket. he's a big hitter. and then you have jacob hellberg of palantir fame reportedly holding a fundraiser in new york september 12th, tickets

reportedly as much as $2500,000. what they're doing is trying to close the money gap. what did we tell you yesterday? harris has raised $540 million sense she entered the race a little over a month ago. stuart: thanks, lauren. meta has the money to make ground breaking investments, and they're doing it. however, the socialist wing of the democratic party likes to bash tech billionaires. if america want wants promise many green energy, it's big tech that has the money and the will to develop it. seafood restaurant red lobster becoming one of the biggest food service bankruptcilies in decades. what happened? -- bankruptcies. we have the story after this. ♪ ♪ with chase freedom unlimited, you can cashback 3% on dining including take-out. cashback on flapjacks, baby backs,

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stuart: red lobster has declared bankruptcy. they're making big changes. they're hoping to keep something going afloat for that restaurant. kelly o'grady is at the red lobster in times square, new york city. kelly, what are these changes? >> reporter: well, it's going to be a new ceo for one, stuart. that's going to be the former

p.f. chang ceo. he shepherded the brand through the pandemic. and with this choice, red lobster is betting on what we call in the industry a private ec by turn-around ceo. -- equity. finding new revenue streams and cutting costs is the name of the game. now, when announcement was made, he shared. >> statement, quote: i'm looking forward to working with our team members across north america to reinvigorate the brand and improving the -- improving the experience for our guests. remember lobster -- red lobster filed for bankruptcy back in may. it was also a strategic challenges as well. so in that that bankruptcy filing, the company cited an ill-fated promotion. you might remember that all a you can eat shrimp for just $20 got way more customers in the door than expected. it hurt not only profits, but customer wait times as well. analysts argue a this really all stems from bad management. there was a company that

transitioned from being the restaurant's top supplier to their largest shareholder back in 202020. they made a slew of questionable decisions that impacted company culture, hurt the customer experience and according to those documents may also have forced red lobster to source shrimp exclusively from them, of course, driving up costs even further. red lobster just announced they're going to shut down 23 locations by saturday in addition to cutting more than 100 this year. so, stuart, the new ceo's priorities, they're going to be employee retention, customer experience and cutting costs. i'm guessing we're probably not going to see that all you can eat shrimp discount on the menu again. stuart: i think you're right, but are the cheesy biscuits gone? if. >> cheesy biscuits is accurate, and we're kind of joking, but i would base more around the cheesy biscuit9s. lauren: and sausage. >> stop with the i i sausage. they sell the recipe or but they

don't, i believe, sell the cheesy biscuits. people will come in, they are that that good. you have to work on the source sourcing, i get all that, but you've got to focus around the -- and close restaurants in places where there are a lot of other seafood restaurants because if you're faced with the choice between a real seafood place and red lobster, you're going to the real seafood -- stuart: just start selling sausage. >> all right with the sausage. stuart: thanks for joining us for the hour. you were great. the market, record high for the dow yesterday, down a mere 34 points now. still ahead, christian whiton will react to trump saying under biden and harris world war iii is closer than ever. biden has been on one vacation after another. he's always at the beach, so who's running the country? mike huckabee will deal with that. jimmy failla hit the streets in manhattan to see who's voting for trump. he's here in the 11:00 hour. you will be surprised. karol markowitz on schools

bringing back pandemic-era measures like closure and remote learning. yes, there has been a covid surge. the 10:00 hour of very amy and company is next. ♪ -- "varney & company" if. ♪ give me all you got and don't hold it back. ♪ i should probably warn ya, i'll be just fine ♪ ..

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