right now. ♪ good morning, everyone, welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick, along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. it is inauguration day we are continuing to watch the markets this morning, and ahead of all of this, the markets which have been up so sharply are kind of treading water this morning. they were up yesterday, and in fact, the nasdaq was the big gainer yesterday it was up by about 1 1/2%. this morning the nasdaq's indicated up another 107 points. dow was up by about 100 points yesterday, and this morning it's up another 85, and the s&p is indicated up by about 16 points, probably worth pointing out that since the election back in november, the s&p is up by 12.8%, just a gauge of where things have gone to show you how strong these markets have been

again, s&p has moved hundreds of points 12.8% gain since election day. let's also take a look at what's been happening in the treasury market you'll see that right now it looks like the ten-year is yielding right around 1.104% andrew, much happening this morning, and we'll be focusing on washington through much of the morning. >> absolutely, becky we are going to be talking washington throughout the program, but first we want to talk about a couple of quick corporate stories making news this morning shares of netflix, they are soaring. this after the company recorded strong subscriber growth, and said it's considering buybacks netflix added 8.5 global subscribers, 2 million more than analysts had expect it brought the subscriber account to above 203 million and importantly the company now saying it's able to generate more cash than it needs, and no longer anticipates having to borrow money to fuel its growth strategy that is a huge shift from a

business that has been borrowing money throughout to fund its programming but now it is a -- it's a virtuous cycle. shares of disney, netflix ceo said it's great they are competing show by show, movie by movie, and disney cut performance-based bonuses for its top execs. >> another one of the things we look forward to, so many things in reopening, but get hollywood back on track, full force. hollywood, content, all those things that we look forward to i'm surprised they have done as well as they have. i have found some things, guys, recently apple tv opened up some new vistas for me. teheran, which reminds me a lot of fauda. >> i have been telling you about that show forever. >> i haven't been able to watch it i haven't been able to watch it, and i'm going to tell you

something, because i'm this type of person. i'm very sensitive ann with an e, it's about anne of green gables, andrew, if you haven't seen it, get the kleenex box. >> okay. >> i find myself, it's just very -- she's an orgphan, i was an orphan, anyway, we've got stuff, playing that music, hear that music, serious day when we play that music. you know, we're not making fun of this. we're very serious it's a big day president-elect joe biden is going to be sworn in as the 46th president of the united states a few hours from now you guys ever read this skjourn piece, it was pretty interesting. it's maybe not your paper of choice, but just interesting how they characterize some of his k choices and where he goes from here we've got a 30 or 40 year history of what he's like, and we'll see whether he continues

in that vein or maybe doesn't continue in that vein. he does promise to get right to work after today's inauguration, one that will be unlike any other, says here, eamon javers joins us now with a look at what's ahead and the final moves by the outgoing trump administration a day you have been waiting for, eamon. you're a washington guy. this is why you're in this business. >> that's right. this is a washington day that's for sure. and let's start with the outgoing president of the united states who ended his term in office last night with a slew of pardons, nearly 150 pardons and commutations for a host of powerful and famous people including a number of the president's own allies and advisers, a raft of political corruption here being washed away by the president of the united states as he leaves office let's look at a couple of the notable names here amid this group of nearly 150 starting with elliot broidy, the former deputy finance chair of the

republican of the national committee, convicted on one count of conspiracy to serve as an unregistered agent of a foreign principle. steve bannon, the president's former ally and adviser. they had an on again, off again relationship it's apparently on again he'll be spared his pending trial on charges he raised money to privately build a wall along the southern border with mexico, and pocketed those funds himself. kwame kilpatrick, the former mayor of detroit, he served approximately seven years in prison for his role in racketeering and bribery and randall duke cunningham, released from prison in 2013, sentenced to eight years imprisonment for accepting brides while in public office. famous for the bribe menu where he listed the prices for various official actions, and lil wayne the rapper who pled guilty in december for carrying a loaded firearm while traveling on a private jet. all of those folks among the people who were pardoned here. if you look at the list in

total, it reads like a greatest hits list of recent american corruption scandals. the president deciding to step in in all of these cases and make life easier for those who were convicted or facing charges. meanwhile we pivot to joe biden, the plresident-elect who's comin in today to be sworn in. it is going to be unlike any other, as you say, guys. this is going to be a scaled down, socially distant covid safe, and insurrection safe, and highly secure inauguration it's all going to begin later on this morning president trump is going to skip, but we do expect that former presidents obama, bush and clinton will be there. we're going to hear the national anthem from lady gaga in a star studded event. jennifer lopez and garth brooks will be involved in performing here the supreme court justice john roberts will administer the oath just after noon, and it all continues tonight instead of those inaugural balls, we're going to see the celebrating

america tv event at 8:30 p.m. on the east coast here, so you can imagine there will be a slew of hollywood celebrities and the like involved in that event this evening as the biden team comes in and tries to turn a page from the tumultuous trump era, guys back over to you. >> no family members, no self-pardon, no julien assange, what did you call it, a raft of political corruption being washed away? that was pretty good you had that ready to go. >> top of the head, joe. top of the head. i don't use teleprompters. >> what happened to assange? >> i don't know. it's interesting julien assange, though there was an aggressive lobbying campaign there, no edward snowden maybe the president decided his loyalty didn't lie there or it was a bridge too far the steve bannon one is interesting, right, bannon is an antagonist of mitch mcconnell,

and trump and bannon have had these falling outs over the years, but trump deciding at the last minute here to include him on this list you know, bannon was -- the accusation here is he was raising money for the border wall with mexico on a private basis and simply pocketed the money to use for his own personal expenses taking advantage of trump's own supporters who would have been the donors to that project nonetheless, the president deciding to wash that away you wonder how all of this will land up on capitol hill where those senators are considering the president's impeachment by the house of representatives in a trial that's going to start any day now. >> that's what they said, that an assange party would have thrown some republicans into the impeachment camp, supposedly i remember some good ones in the past mark rich was a really good one. we've had some good ones in the past, that's for sure. i don't know i thought some people would have been disappointed that there wasn't even more red meat here on the way out, eamon,

especially family members, or i don't know, could have been some others. >> no self-pardon attempt, which would have been constitutional suspect. no family members here, nobody with the last name trump on this list, but a lot of the president's advisers and allies. >> no rudy. >> some democrats, kwame kilpatrick is a democrat it is certainly bipartisan in terms of the political corruption that the president is looking at here and saying you know what, i think these people deserve a second or third or fourth chance in some cases. it's nearly 150 people there's a lot to go through here as the day goes on, we'll find more in here some of these lesser known names. there are people associated with the duke cunningham scandal, geological layers of washington corruption are represented here. >> who spoke out for lil wayne, do you know any background there? >> it's a really good question i think one of the great investigative stories over the next couple of weeks is going to be figure to out the back story to each one of these pardons

in the pardon list, the white house does actually provide, you know, some of the people who advised each of the -- advised the president to issue these pardons, for example, in the case of duke cunningham, it said former speaker newt gingrich was supportive i don't have the list in front of me, i can't tell you who's listed for lil wayne, i'm sure there's an epic back story for each one of these. >> the ones that caught my eye, ant anthony levindowski, being supported by peter teal, michael ovitz, all people in the "squawk box" universe. the founder of the oculus, supported that pardon. ken kerson, friend of kushner, but more importantly was the editor and chief of the new york observer and then zangrillo, part of the varsity blues admission scandal

that people have been so fascinated by over these years and do you remember the walters insiders trading case that we covered hour by hour that connected phil mickelson, and carl icahn was accused of being part of it there are unique and interesting characters that very much live also within the business community that we cover so often. >> yeah, the common theme here seems to be that these are people who are wealthy, well connected or well known. that seems to be generally the running through line in all of this people who had access to people close to the president who had a lot of money to spend. there are reports that a lot of the lawyers around the president have been charging enormous fees to advocate to the president for some of these pardons, so i think, you know, the follow the money is going to be interesting on a lot of these, the especially the names you mentioned. >> "squawk box" universe, the business universe of covering

business stories, not actually "squawk box" universe type i mean, right, andrew, just to make that clear. i know what you're saying. stories i covered. >> the way i look at the list, i go down the list, and i say who is it that we either have had a guest potentially or people who support -- >> or coworkers. >> we have had palmer lucky on the show, michael ovitz, the idea that they're supporting that uber case which we covered almost religiously, the walters inside trading case. >> no elizabeth holmes in there. >> right >> do you guys have a chair on the set skjust for the indicted and accused. >> no chairs for anyone here no chairs for anyone here right now, except for me >> not right now >> farma bro it could have gotten spicy in our universe we got some good ones. go down the list of american

greed. cherry pick, one after another anyway, thank you. >> you bet >> we will check in with you later this morning becky, united health care, lead story, it's a dow component, that's the lead. it is, and i am checking through, just reading through some of these things right now company coming out with its earnings reporting this adjusted quarterly number of $2.52 a share. that beat what the street was expecting by $0.11 revenue came in above forecast united health did say the 4th quarter results were hurt by covid-19 care costs and other pandemic related factors they're talking about their full year guidance for 2021 including net earnings on an adjusted basis of 17.75 to 18.25. this is kind of affirming some of the guidance they had recently given it caught my eye just because it's so rare we're getting anybody who's giving guidance these days people can't figure out what's

to come until we have a better idea of the course of the pandemic health care company in particular to do this. 17.25 to 18.25 matches up with the streets estimates of 18.18 right now, so in the middle of that range we'll hear more about it, but again, it's surprising as we go into the earnings season it catches you off guard anytime you see a company that's willing to put numbers on the board and what they're expecting for a full year, given how difficult it has been to do in terms of the pandemic the stock up by about $0.21. andrew. >> okay. thanks, becky. coming up when we return, tapping into the public divide we have new focus group data from pollster frank luntz on what people think about president biden's picks. and regulation former chiefs of staff, members of congress, a cabinet secretary, and major investors all straight ahead as "squawk box" rolls on on inauguration day.

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it's your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile. voter data to bring you, frank luntz conducting a focus group on wall street tax policy and more he started by asking them what they want on tax policy from the biden administration >> there's got to be fairness injected into the system >> fairness.

>> yeah, i mean, you've got to be able to expect that those who have received the greatest benefits from the economic system would also then have the highest responsibility to contribute >> i would like to see a cut to the bone the reforms i would like to see to offset that would be cuts, cuts, cuts, to social programs >> and this morning as always, frank luntz joins us frank, walk us through that. you saw two people with two very different views of what should happen here? >> i had trouble sleeping last night. it was the most contentious group that i have done in a long long time. it was even more contentious than in the lead up to the election they don't see eye to eye. they don't find common ground. they actually seek to divide themselves so if somebody says something positive about corporations, the next person will say something negative if someone says we need to raise x, they'll argue that we need to cut y, and it's going to be very

touch for the president and congress to find that middle ground because quite frankly, it doesn't exist. >> so when you think, though, about just the fight, let's just -- over taxes, for example, you don't think there was any middle ground there? >> you've got about a third of the country that wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, wants to institute a wealth tax you've got most people who want -- there is one common ground, one area where we agree on and that is that they support more stimulus. they want to put more money into the pockets, directly into the pockets of americans, and we have been finding this in our polling as well. 85% of democrats and 55 to 60% of republicans want another, yet another stimulus package because they know people who are suffering or they themselves are suffering. so on that policy of spending more to get more into the economy, then you've got a majority on everything else in the

economic policy, no majority at all. >> frank, i want to get to the next clip in a second. i have a philosophical questions, in terms of raising taxes does anybody say philosophically where the upper limit is, where americans just generally say, you know what, after this number, it's just not fair meaning do you see 50%, 60%, 70%. sort of the top marginal rate where people say okay or no? >> absolutely. >> and what's that number. >> that rate is 50%. americans do not believe, a majority of democrats do not believe that any american should pay more than half of their income in federal, state and local taxes and what they don't realize is that's exactly what they do, you live in california, new york, most states, you may more than 50%.

>> it's interesting. i would be very interested if you polled people whether they actually know that, broadly across the country, but nonetheless. let's show you another clip, views on regulating wall street. >> alec, why do you not want anyone from wall street working in the administration? >> because i don't think that their values line up with the american people. i think they just want to enrich the corporations that they worked for i don't think they care about every day working people this is a question about the kind of people >> for this show, for you all, i've got all of this data. it's been taken within the last six to nine months, so if you've got an economic question, i've got an answer, and most americans do not know what the average american pays. they think that in the end it's somewhere around one-third, and when they find out that it's one-half, it changes their attitudes completely

the american public wants to tax the wealthy more, but when they realize how much the wealthy are paying, they say that's enough, in fact, that may be too much. in terms of wall street, the moment that you frame it that way, you have hostility among most democrats and among a fair number of republicans who are small business, main street. wall street really needs a public relations campaign. they need to focus on what they do, what they say, and the values that are probably most important right now for the community, accountability, personal responsibility, and share the wealth they want the idea that the money that's going to that industry helps build schools, helps educate young people, helps address the income divide because that is going to be over the next year, mark my words, income inequality is going to be the number one economic issue as the biden administration takes hold >> hey, frank, i hear your idea

about how people don't think you should be paying more than 50% in federal, state and local taxes but i think it's more nuanced than that. when you say to people, well, california is charging me this much or new york is now looking to raise that top tax rate to 14 1 14.7%, the answer from red states is well, move, not our fault that new york and california are taxing you so much point your fingers back at them for the blame. how does that kind of get a little more convoluted >> that's a very good point, and that's exactly what's happening. look at all the businesses that have moved from california, particularly to texas or how many individuals have moved from california to arizona, nevada or florida. look at how many people from new york have moved to florida right now i'm talking to you from palm beach, and the number of new yorkers that have moved down here in these homes that are being sold right now, a tremendous amount of wealth as moved from the city and suburbs

of new york to florida because it's a zero income tax state that doesn't just help florida by bringing all of these people and individuals, there are businesses that are now moving, and new york city in particular, which is, i know, the home for a lot of you, new york city is being devastated by their tax rate right now, and really it's something that we need to explore. the problem is the tone of our politics is so negivative and so divisive, and the people who watch the program have a negative impression of the american people that it's hard to sit down and get a solution that the public will support there needs to be some way to look at this in a grand, comprehensive manner because right now new york city is in tremendous pain, and they need a new policy to keep their businesses there >> frank, i want to show the next clip but i have a wall street question. given all of the advertising campaigns and marketing and pr

efforts post financial crisis and we're now ten years on, is there any bank or financial institution that you think has done a good job, clearly not good enough to cover the entire industry but when you talk about messaging, you're in the business of messaging, is there anybody out there that comes to mind that you say, okay, they actually figured this out? >> that's the best question of the show, and i can tell you groups from wells fargo -- probably wells fargo has done the worst job, and the attitudes towards banks is still very hostile. and i'm trying to think. any organization that demock si - democratizes what they do, so the little person can get a loan or make an investment, or put together a nest egg, if you're focused on main street, you're going to have a positive reputation i'm trying to think of one company in particular. that's the key does it help the average individual, the small investor, and the problem is too many of these organizations are catering to the big guys, and that's

what's hurting them in reputation. >> okay. let's real quick, we only have about a minute left. let's show the last clip, if we could. >> describe wall street, pamela. >> crooked. >> annie. >> greedy. >> brian. >> a fantasy >> jamie. >> greed. >> michael. >> disgusting. >> arkay. >> propped up. >> ventor. >> business as usual. >> alec. >> greedy and corrupt. >> there you go. >> so was there anybody who says anything about capital formation, about helping finance the economy, supporting small -- anything like that >> the only people who say capital formation are people who wear white shirts and striped

ties at 6:26 in the morning. the only -- i'm sorry, andrew, but they have done such a bad job at their overall communication, such a bad job at demonstrating to the public that they have made a difference, that they have lost the democratic party they have lost the independents, and frankly, they have lost half of the trump republicans as well if they want to succeed, and they want to have the freedom to invest and do what they do, they're going to need to change their reputation and focus on the individual, not the big corporation. >> okay. frank luntz, as always, appreciate it. talk to you very very soon >> thanks. >> thanks. still to come this morning, jack ma made his first public appearance since an october speech ruffled feathers and helped spark a regulatory crack down in beijing on his companies. shares of alibaba soaring overnight in hong kong we've got the details right after this. a few other major chinese stocks are among the biggest

gainers in the nasdaq 100 in the premarket this morning we'll talk a little bit more about that, too. you can see baidu, and jd.com each up by about 3 and 4%. we'll be right back. ♪ all day long wearing a mask o false bravado ♪ this cnbc program is sponsored by ibm, the world is going hybrid with ibm. in other words, we want a hybrid. and so do retailers. which is why they're going hybrid, with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps manage supply chains while predicting demands with ease. from retail to healthcare, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh.

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and a recording of that video call was first posted on a news portal backed by a chinese provincial government. a spokesperson for his foundation confirmed that ma participated in today's event. back in october, ma made comments that appeared to be critical of china's financial regulator. that appears to be one of the reasons they pulled the plug on the ipo of ma's ant group. a source says ma had been laying low. if you search there, there has been so much speculation, and if you're searching on google now, the first search that comes up, jack ma found. this is something people have been waiting for, kind of wondering about, but again, you can see him in that video call i think it was only about a 50 second clip that was released. >> all right guy looked fine. looked like he's always looked, i guess, so no worse for the wear. coming up, our inauguration coverage continues next with

bill daly, former chief of staff to president obama, and all morning we're going to bring you big names on how president-elect biden's policies could impact your money, including big investors like mario gabelli, leon couperman right now, as we head to break, here's a look at yesterday's s&p 500 win skpers losers. -- winners and losers winners as s and losers winners and losers winners and losers winners and losers inners . i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth.

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r good morning, and welcome back to our coverage of the inauguration let's get a check on the markets today before the moment later today at noon. right now the futures look like they would open 56 points higher nasdaq looking to open 96 points

higher, and the s&p 500 looking to open about 13 points higher >> andrew thanks in just few hours, joe biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the united states joining us right now to share his thoughts on the president-elect and what we can expect from the biden administration is wells fargo vice chairman bill daley, he served as commerce secretary under president clinton and president obama's chief of staff. thank you for being here today. >> thank you, becky. >> i know the message that president-elect biden is expected to be preaching today is one of unity, but that's a pretty tall order given the fraying of the nation. we just heard from frank luntz and he says the focus groups he watches, the divide has gotten even deeper since the election how does he do that? >> well, i think, you know, each president sends a message on his inauguration day that is about him. and the nation

i think you're going to hear as you have heard from the president-elect, the idea of bringing the country together because it really is who he is he has worked his entire career as a senator and vice president to try to bring people together. try to, in the process of governing, make a deal, make a compromise that's what the president-elect's about. so i think you're going to not only hear the words of unity, that's who he really is, and that combination is pretty powerful, no doubt about it. we have a divided nation, and it is a tall order, but knowing the president-elect for almost 40 years ago it's who he is and i think it's a unique challenge for him. but it really is in his sweet spot of what he believes, and how he thinks about himself as somebody who can bring people together, and what he believes governing is all about, and that is trying to solve problems by bringing people together a tall order, no doubt about it. >> yeah, he comes from the moderate wing of the party, like

you do yourself, but there have been divisions in the party. we haven't seen as much of it because the divisions in the republican party are on such display right now, how do you think he'll be able to maneuver just within his own party, the left, the far left wing and the more moderate wing. >> i think he did it quite well of the election, obviously through the primary process and then the general election to hold that coalition together i think if you look at it as a stabilization plan that he put forward, it is a combination of things that appeal to different parts of not only the party, of the country. we at wells fargo support that plan and hope that quickly there will be a bipartisan move to get that plan or a version of that plan done quickly to help the economy. so i think he's done it quite well over his entire career, and i think he is, as i said, uniquely qualified, because he does understand that to govern, you cannot just govern by

yourself and in a 50/50 senate, and a house that's rather close, everyone's going to have to compromise, if they want to make progress those who don't, whether they're on the right or the left, hopefully the senator, a majority, will move forward with some progress on some of these issues that have been not dealt with for now 12, 14 years in many ways. >> hey, bill, i don't know if you heard frank luntz when he was on with us before but andrew asked him a question about the banks and how people feel about the banks right now. he pointed out wells fargo as a bank they particularly don't like couldn't think of a single bank that the people he speaks to at least in his polling do like and just said it was a particularly tough message you mentioned that wells fargo is in favor of this bill, this bill, the $1.9 trillion that's been put forth, but what do you do in terms of the breakdown in

trust and the way that america views banks and wells fargo in particular right now >> no question, under charlie's leadership in the last year, we have begun to change this bank the states and the actions taken by previous leaders put us in a very difficult position but we're moving forward, and i'll give you a good example. we took our entire feed from the ppp program in the spring, about $400 million, and we're in the process of giving that to organizations to help small businesses who have already given about 60 some million dollars in nets. probably saved about 50 to 60,000 jobs. our average ppp loan was somewhere around under $50,000 so taking the success that an constitution has like ours and helping our communities, and that's $100 million was on top of 350 million that we have given away in normal course of our foundation and actions in the communities, so the large institutions whether you're a

bank or any organization, no doubt about it, frank luntz is right, the break down of faith in large institutions by the american people, especially banks after the crisis of 12 years ago, and the success that financial institutions and financial service industry has had over the last 12 years, has continued to sort of chasm that was there, the -- whether it's jealousy or anger over the success, and the institutions like ours have got to turn around and show people that we use much of those resources to help our communities, and help our employees, and help our customers, and that's a biggal order obviously for wells fargo because of the mistakes of the past. >> hey, bill, the journal, there's some op-ed pieces. i just thought that they

described this point in time mr. biden could be the man for the moment a lot of people think that he's a moderate liberal. sympathy for the working class, inclined to reach across the aisle. he's got a 50/50 senate, narrow house majority and at 78 maybe he's a one termer. they point out, this could be a unified presidency, but then they go on to say, mr. biden, though, has always been a party man, floating with its ideological currents and they mentioned the ascendancy of the progressives i don't know if you have done any soul searching either because you're kind of old school does he have people he will disappoint and what would be their recourse and i'm talking about the aocs i have seen the president-elect biden say, look, i beat bernie sanders. you saw that i pushed back on what he wanted to do i've seen him take that stance what do you think the end result is going to be when he gets all

of that pressure from that wing? >> look, the presidency is about taking pressure from all wings, not only of your party and your own friends but obviously those who don't agree with you i think, again, i think joe understands that better than anyone because he has spent his life in this game of trying to make a deal, and trying to bring a compromise there will be people disappointed that they don't get everything they want but, you know, as clinton used to say, you can't make the perfect the enemy of the good. and i think joe has shown in his career, and in this campaign, and the since the election that he is going to outreach. i think the gesture to bring the leaders to the services today and i think you will see an enormous amount of outreach to -- when was the last time four leaders, republican and democrat, were at the white house. and i think you'll see that quite often, an outreach so look, today should be a day of

optimism no doubt we have difficulties and challenges and divisions, but i really do believe, joe, in some ways, president biden may be much more similar to harry truman and the opportunities that truman had at the end of the war to bring the company together and be a successful president, and then maybe people will think. >> bill, i want to thank you for your time today. i know we'll be calling on you again as we get into this administration we appreciate your time. >> have a good day thank you. yes, thank you coming up, former house majority leader eric cantor, and former congresswoman donna edwards will join us next to talk about president-elect biden's policy priorities, and what they could mean for your money. continuing a lot of the themes that we have been hitting on "squawk box" will be right back. ♪ don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. you'll get interviews, original

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it is inauguration day, 2021, and there are several policy challenges ahead for the incoming administration. for a look at the biden/harris economic agenda, let's welcome donna edwards, u.s. congresswoman for maryland's 4th district, and a contributor for nbc news and eric cantor, former u.s. congressman of virginia, who served as house majority leader. he's now vice chairman and

managing director with molus and company. thank you both for joining us. eric, i don't want to even bring up frank luntz and what he said about wall street. you're saying molus and company now, you're saying that's like, you make valves in the midwest, right, you don't - street you're saying mollis and company, that's like you're making valves in the midwest, right? >> you know, listen, joe, i thought it was interesting when asked the question about capital formation. >> yeah, i know. >> does anybody say that, does anybody talk about the sort of nervous system of our company comes out of the availability of capital. and we just -- we just have to sort -- i think take a step back and really work on that. because that is the crux of really what people in finance want to try and do, they want to help businesses grow i know moelis and company, we

help positions, providing capital, so their management side can go about serving the public >> right >> and unfortunately, there's been a real pr problem there's no question about that i'm worried more, joe, as the incoming administration about some of the policies that they're already talking about that may come down to business that will ultimately hurt what frank lund said that working taxpayer on main street. >> even big companies -- some big companies have tens of thousands of employees that all pay taxes and all, you know, feed the family and make a living so, i don't know if there necessarily should be -- have such a terrible reputation councilwoman edwards, we were talking about bill bailey about the progressives in the democratic party and then joe biden's 30, 40 years in public office where he has, you know, sort of staked out a middle ground sort of --

that's what we think of, when we think of joe biden do you think he's going to be, and would you urge the left -- the far left to push as hard as they could to get some of these things done even with the 50/50 senate >> well, you know, i'm on the left, and i'm a progressive. and if i were in congress i'd be very excited to get behind -- especially some of the aspects of biden's agenda that are really, truly, progressive items that have been on the to-do list for a very long time for example, such as raising the minimum wage, dealing with issues around family leave and health care. and, of course, climate change and i think that these are all things that progressives can get behind and, look, i think that coming in, president biden is going to have a lot of goodwill across the democratic caucus. but really across the united

states i think there's going to be a lot of goodwill. you can see that coming out in that very pointed ceremony last night at the ellipse and i think if he uses his early days wisely, and i believe that he will, that joe biden is going to put a marker for success to this administration, and tamp down some of the challenges that he might have faced otherwise coming from the left and other parts of the caucus. >> i guess, congresswoman, some of the things that you just mentioned would need -- you'd need to get rid of the filibuster to get those done is that a means to an end that you'd support? >> well, i mean, you know, i think that should be on the table. i think anything -- i think, first of all, i think the attempt should be made to work across the aisle to try to bring people along, but if there's going to be an effort to stand

in the way, and to obstruct, then democrats need to use every tool possible to make sure that president biden is successful. >> so, that's what we hear when you hear, eric, everything should be on the table, that sounds like a yes, doesn't it? >> listen, don't -- look -- >> the nine-member supreme court is -- >> i hear you, eric. >> the make-up of the nine members of the supreme court is not to the left's liking either. so, i just wonder, should everything be on the table there, too congresswoman edwards, yeah, put it on the table? >> no, look. what i'm saying is that there are elements of the legislative process that can be obstructive. and i think the question is, early on, and we'll see this today, i think joe biden is who he is. and he's going to make every effort to try to work across the

aisle to try to bring people along. but if that is not possible, i do think that chuck schumer and the senate and, of course, nancy pelosi should figure out ways, whether it's reconciliation, or removing the filibuster in other ways in order to advance an agenda that is going to work to the benefit of the american people i mean, i think that's what joe biden is challenged with figuring out how you get things done in this very polarized environment, poisoned environment even how do you restart and get things done for the american people and if there are tools of the legislative toolbox that can be used to, you know, keep those things on the agenda and not have obstruction be the order of the day, then democrats should use them >> donna, on that point, mitch mcconnell, you probably know,

requested from chuck schumer yesterday, that they remove this threat of getting rid of the filibuster how do you feel about that what that be something -- with the understanding if he doesn't, it's going to be very difficult to negotiate all of the things that the biden administration wants to get done in the early days >> look, i think that the biden presidency wants to begin with the notion that we should figure out how to work together and i applaud that but i also recognize that there are some, you know, take josh hawley, already in the confirmation process, who want to stand in the way. i think chuck schumer should not allow that to happen but at the beginning, i think it's important to figure out where there is some common ground and i know that, you know, schumer and mcconnell are going to have to figure out ways that they navigate this, you know, divided senate, even though democrats will have that deciding vote with kamala

harris but let's not let obstruction govern the day the way it did, in the early days, and the days of the obama administration. and hamstring getting things done for the american people >> yes well, one party's obstruction is another's -- you know, what happens. that was quite a bit of obstruction, judges and other things, four years -- i don't know it comes back to get both sides when things get changed. we'll see. we've got to go, congresswoman edwards, thank you appreciate it. >> thank you >> eric cantor, keep making those valves out in cleveland. those moelis valves are really good >> okay, look forward to talking to you again >> you're nowhere near wall street anyway, we're going to do sports, beth, what do you think? maybe we ought to do sports? >> maybe not today

maybe soon when we come back, procter & gamble is set to report in the next few minutes we're going to bring you those numbers and interview with the company's cfo. we'll be right back.

joseph biden preparing to be officially sworn in as the 46th president of the united states the futures are higher ahead of that big event as investors digest what the biden administration will mean for the markets and the economy. we lay out how your mope will be impacted plus, procter & gamble up for the premarket. the company results just crossing the wires cfo jon moeller joins us to discuss. the second our of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ good morning, welcome back to "squawk box." i'm and drew ross sorkin with becky quick and john kernen.

>> the nasdaq up 75 points s&p 500 looking to open about 12 points higher. we've got a huge lineup of guests today on the inauguration day ahead of the ceremony. mary gabelli is going to talk markets and new administration former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney and jon bryant, operation hope founder and ceo will discuss main street and leon cooperman our special guest. and barry diller and secretary pritzer and so many others. we've got a couple others to tell you about joe biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the united states the ceremony will take place under heavy security after that january 6th capitol attack dow point united health group is reporting better than expected sales and profit for the fourth quarter however, its earnings did fall

38% from a year ago, that, of course, due to pandemic-related costs. and take a look at shares of alibaba this morning higher this morning, coming after gentjack ma, founder of t company had made an appearance, questions raised about his whereabouts after his criticism of the chinese government. there were headlines, everywhere, where is jack? well, we now know, jack at a minimum is okay. video has played joe. >> yes he needed to hold up like a newspaper with the date on it. >> proof of life >> i've seen too many movies where they do that, you know procter & gamble without with its second quarter results moments ago. p&g reporting profit of $1.64 a share beating estimates by 13 cents. joining us to break down the numbers, vice chair and cfo jon

moeller and coo. as well as counsel jon, all through the pandemic, it wasn't immediately obvious that procter & gamble was a stay-at-home stock necessarily i think that kind of has, in be hindsight, maybe we should have known with all of the cleaning products, obviously. i know that helps sales this time but what we always focus on is organic sales growth and you're boosting that estimate, again, based on the environment you're operating on right now. you can bring our viewers up to speed on that. >> certainly it's really based on our portfolio of brands and strength of the strategies and organizations executed against those all around the world we have strong momentum that we built pre-covid and i think

we're positioned for a post-covid environment as you said, top line 8%, organic sales group, 15% and precost, 118%. very encouragingly, the success was broad-based. on the two largest markets, u.s. and china, we grew 12% in each each grew sales. a stronger quarter, which again as you indicated allows us to raise guidance for the second quarter in a row on the top line on the share growth and preshare productivity and raise our commitment of shares we purchase >> okay. all of those things are going up so, the organic sales for fiscal '20 you now see up 5%, 6%, did you say 8% -- you had been -- was that a conservative 3 -- 4% to 4% and now you're 5, to 6%?

>> so, we went into the year, fiscal year which starts july in guidance 2 to 4% we increased it last quarter, 4 to 5 and increasing it again to 5% to 6% there is slowdown in the index as we get to the back end of our fiscal year and we annualize the strong back of last fiscal year. >> jon, this unit growth, are you able to raise prices >> that's another encouraging aspect of our results is the components of that top line were very balanced and very strong. we grew units by 5%. we had one point of positive pricing and two points of positive mix so, very broad-based contribution to that top line growth this is an environment where if we can improve performance of a product, we generally compete in daily use categories where

performance drives brand choice. our ability to price is coupled with that performance advantage which we're investing in and which is increasing over time. >> so, jon, logistically, the way that the entire supply chain works from, you know, from just across the entire gamut for procter & gamble, were there challenges and you figured that out during pandemic, obviously, we've all had some toilet paper -- do you still make charmin -- >> yes yes. >> the whole toilet paper thing, nobody understood what the hell is happening there why toilet paper -- it may be the thought of running out, that's bad but were you able to figure out exactly how to maneuver? and were those some of the initiatives you had embarked upon before the pandemic to make you better at doing that >> so, you're right. very right to mention challenge

and that's another impressive thing about the results. you know, for the last year, we've gone through the lockdown in china and then various countries we've had closures of major retail channels for us the travel retail channel, the electro channel, europe, specialty beauty, dennist offices. certainly, we serve the away from environment and lower occupancies challenges as well operating challenges have been significant. just sourcing materials to support much higher levels of production has been a challenge. and getting those materials and finished products transported has become much more expensive to accomplish. but we've managed through all of that, and importantly, delivered against three key priorities one is the health and safety of our employees. two is product vaavailability t serve consumers and their heightened needs of health,

hygiene and a clean home and three is support for communities with which we live and work for front line workers we've donated money, ppe, we're using our expertise to advertise money that encourages people to follow safe health practices. generally, our operations are in really good shape. i credit that to the 99,000 colleagues we have around the world who have really made a yeoman's effort to step up and step forward to serve consumers during their difficult time. in terms of product initiative which you asked about, there were some fortuitous launches. so a product like micro ban 24, a 24-hour disinfectant was planned prior to covid and launched in february but on the other hand, we've been responding, again tours help consumers with their changing needs and concerns

we've introduced for example, safe guard hand sanitizer. it was a plan and a quick response to real emergent needs. >> i don't know, i got stuck with this huge thing -- i was worried about toilet paper i bought this huge supply. it's the crapiest toilet paper it's generic you touch it and it goes -- i'm still working it off they had so many of them >> there's a difference. >> i'm waiting to get back to charmin. there's a huge difference like mr. whipple used to say, you can squeeze. becky, i got sold this crappy toilet paper, becky, and i'm still working it off do you have comments no >> no, no, go ahead. >> you were raising your hand. >> i'm not going to touch that one.

i have a question but we don't have time. >> we don't have time. all right, jon mr. whipple, he's gone now, isn't he he got a new campaign, anyway, but you're here. thank you for coming along and explaining all of this looks like a pretty good quarter for procter & gamble and the stock's up nicely. thanks >> thanks, have a great day. >> you, too, bye up next, senator mark warner on the transition of power at the white house and the u.s. economy. before we head to the break, though, let's take a look at the futures this morning on this inauguration day you'll see that things are in the green right now. in fact, s&p is up by 12.8% already just from election day now, you're going to see a gain of 13 points in e thpremarket. dow indicated up by 41 nasdaq indicated up by almost 100. we'll be right back. ♪

today, president-elect joseph r. biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. joining us right now with a look at what the economy will look like under president biden is senator mark warner of virginia. senator, things are already heating up a bit what do you think we can be in for? what should we expect the next four years? >> well, i think we're seeing this president, president trump, leave, and many ways the way he

came in. i remember sitting four years ago when he gave one of the darkest inauguration speeches in american history i was sitting with john mccain he was astonished at the tone of his speech mean-spirited, no willingness to reach out. that really was the hallmark of donald trump's four years. now, we're leaving with 400,000 americans dead we saw 140,000 job loss. recently in this last day, we see him leaving pardoning a lot of his cronies literally, i don't know if you guys talked about yet, he did away with the drain the swamp executive order he put in place so that his staff, though i am not sure are very marketable are going to go out and immediately become lobbyists i think he's left an economy that's reeling i joe biden thinks the right

approach he's got empathy the first thing he's going to do, make sure we're geared for this, vaccine distribution, that's rolled out in a first world approach, not a third world approach i think as an economy, as somebody part of putting together the last covid package basically said enough with the political leadership, we need to do our own thing, i want to see more of the results of that $900 billion. biden's put out a marker of $1.9 trillion a big number i think there may be repositioning of some of that. but the good news, again, i think biden has said he does not want to force this through some reconciliation process but we really wants us to get 60 votes so this bipartisan coalition that's grown close to 20 senators i think we'll have a lot to say in terms of getting the next package out

>> i think there are a lot of people in this country who would like to see bipartisanship and healing that takes place usually, a president gets a honeymoon period the first days are important, but this is setting up for a potential showdown we know that mcconnell and schumer are scuffling over whether the filibuster will continue mcconnell would like to see that moved. and then the impeachment hearing that's hanging over all of this. what do you think, realistically can get done, with so many other things calling for attention, including the coronavirus pandemic >> well, becky, i think some of this squawking back and forth seems to have become the accepted means i can tell you yesterday, my committee, the intelligence committee, held the hearing on avril haines to be the next director of intelligence it was thoughtful, we asked hard questions.

but there was broad bipartisan support. i'm not sure i'm going to get a unanimous vote but i'm going to get an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote out of that committee and my sense, and i say that from my republican colleagues, this committee's three-year russia investigation, we kept it bipartisan but this group of republican colleagues i think they're ready to turn the page as well they know our country faces enormous challenges. candidly, one of the biggest challenges at least on a propaganda basis we face right now the incredible gift that was given to vladimir putin with the images of those thugs walking through congress those images of disarray is about the biggest gift to give to putin this helps china as well i think there's rank and file level in the senate who are

tired of the bickering and want to get something done. and on an economic basis, i'm sure we'll make changes to what biden has proposed, but i think we'll get a package done >> you said, you think there will be some markers that move from the original plan that the biden administration has laid out for $1.9 trillion. what do you think the big pieces are that are up for grabs? i guess i would start with minimum wage, how likely is that to get bipartisan support from the senate >> listen, i'm a strong supporter of minimum wage. i think we need to raise our minimum wages up to 15 bucks an hour that barely still is above the poverty line it's a couple dollars above the poverty line i think it can be phased in. i think there will be pushback there. there will be some concern on whether those checks, i support additional checks, whether there can be more targeting towards those most in need as a former governor, i was a

big, big advocate for state and local government funding and through the fall, and i know many localities particularly have been hurt but the actual revenue loss numbers out of many states, not states like new york, new york has been really clean, but a lot of states have not had the revenue loss in virginia, we projected a $1.3 billion revenue loss, we actually ended up with a surplus. so, how can we potentially readjust one of the things that the package did not include is additional broadband deployment. i know he may be reserving that for infrastructure package you can take that out of some packages and put down an 80 to $100 billion broadband initiative and make sure every home no matter where you live had high speed broadband delivery, as well as affordable

broadband delivery and that would be a huge economic stance. >> let me get this correct, as a democratic senator, you're in favor of taking some of the money out of the money set aside for states and municipalities? >> i'm in favor of getting real numbers in terms of how much state revenue loss there were a number of states again, including from the length of this negotiation in december, that really didn't have the amount of loss that they'd expected but, again, i speak to my own state where we ended up with a surplus. or riding towards a fiscal year surplus, rather than the $1.3 billion loss that we've had. there are a number of local governments and this is where you need to have a little finer tune do i think there needs to be a state and local category 100% does the number need to be a full 350 i would say let's make sure we have some target for every state.

and then opotentially a secondar category for those states and localities that have had significant revenue loss -- they are states like new york, states in big cities that have complete shutdowns there. tourist areas, new orleans, for example, has had huge loss they depend a lot on tourism again, i think we should be targeting this because there are a number of other areas, quite honestly, i think we could spend this money more efficiently both from an economic stimulus standpoint but from long term. >> so, senator, are you a yes on ending the filibuster? >> listen, i said during my rehiring process last year, i said it would take an awful, awful lot for me to end the filibuster i don't think that we ought to be coming in willy-nilly and changing the rules >> you say no -- >> let me finish let me just finish i would also expect my republican colleagues not to

come in with a single mantra the way they did under obama, which is let's make this president unsuccessful they want to work with joe biden, i think we ought to keep the rules. and there are other democratic members like joe manchin who already much more definitive no than i am. i'm not inclined to move towards that unless we -- >> how about d.c. statehood or the supreme court? >> i've never favored additional packing of the supreme court additional judges. i think that's been tried in the past during roosevelt. i don't think it makes sense but i have been on record for the last close to ten years that i think the district of columbia, and those 700,000 folks, more folks live in the district than i believe four or five other states, they ought to have a right to have representation in statehood. >> okay. all right. thank you, senator >> sounds like you're cutting me off with the music there >> it wasn't me.

you know, i've asked for -- >> you know, you get an answer you don't like, and you cue the music. >> i've asked for that button and they just -- they won't do it they won't give it to me i just like cutting people -- we have played around with that, where we pretend to cut someone's mic off. i get audio to do it but i don't have that either senator, thank you okay real quick, before we head to a break, a quick stock to watch right now, the company reporting stronger than expected growth. this is netflix, of course, said it's considering buybacks this morning, wells fargo upgrading the stock to overweight, the new target, $700 a share ubs with a buy of $600 a share now at $569 a share.

13%. we're back after this. time now for today's aflac triv qiauestion. which president's inauguration was the first to be livestreamed the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues at. that's right. it's hard to know exactly what your health insurance is going to cover, so you gotta protect your blind side. aflac! aflac pays you money directly to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. really? aflac. get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. get to know us at aflac.com.

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now, the answer to today's aflac trivia question. which president's inauguration was the first to be livestreamed the answer -- president bill clinton in 1997. >> yeah, i guessed jefferson i knew that was onwrg. when we return gamco chair mario gabelli joins us to discuss the next administration, plus the markets. we'll be right back.

♪ watching washington on this inauguration day, but also, of course, keeping an eye on wall street morgan stanley is reporting right now and wilfred frost has those numbers, wilf. >> hey, becky, beat on both lines frappers, 11.5, eps, 1.1 per share. pretty much on every single line led by investment banking, 2.3

billion. the forecast was 1.8 and equity trading came in at 2.5 billion and forecast was 2.1. some questions after goldman's trading whether morgan stanley would lose their number one spot 2.5 for the quarter compares to goldman's 2.4. for the full year, 9.8 the wealth quality margin down a bit due to the integration of etrade which pushed up commence and noncomplex expense doesn't matter when you have such a high revenue beat and revenue coming in on beat, stocks up 3% >> i know. we all get these things confused working pretty long days wilf, thank you very much. we'll check back with you later. joining us with his outlook of the markets under the biden

administration is mario gabelli. he's the chairman and ceo of gamco investors. mario, you've done this before watching investors coming in >> i started investing 13 presidents ago with eisenhower so i went through his heart attack and so on basically, we look through more cooperation in congress. he knows how to deal with the pluses and minuses from my point of view, though, the climate. what is he going to do about it? that's a focus what is he going to do about the fundamentals which is basically the rule of law and make sure we're following that again and secondly, it would applause the premarket system third, education and education so we can help income inequality then how do we raise money to

pay for what we want to do from my point of view, becky, i seed precondition with regard to the stimulus give money to hotel and trade workers in new york. give it to nevada, to people in need because of travel and leisure. obviously for the covid point of view, he's got that focus for the 100 days to get the vaccine out. then say how do we grow america through infrastructure, and put that money in, that's not only roads and bridges but as broadband. the federal trade commission put out the biannual views of what's going on in broadband. those are some of the dynamics and then obviously raise taxes whether for individuals or corporations >> let's talk about the tax aspect of it governor cuomo talking about how he's going to be looking for highest taxes on the wealthiest new yorkers.

i think for new york that would mean a top rate of 15.7% he's got a big budget deficit to address but is he driving out the wealthiest new yorkers >> that's okay the answer is new york has a problem with way it's governed and it's not going to drive new york unless they pay attention to crime in the streets. when the guardian angels come back, then that's an issue the rate on individuals to go higher, however, you have to examine it for places. that's what the job is going to be what's going to happen with the sole tax with middle america and should that be eliminated. the plight of anti-capital is e. and taxes on the corporation, when we raise $3.5 trillion,

corporations are about 240 of that, you know, we have to go lightly over the next 12 months on that part nominal rates, yes minimum cashbacks, yes eliminate territorial -- no, continued bonuses or the equivalent, absolutely there are pluses and minuses on that they have to work on this under a microscope we have to have individuals pay for on the cosmetic point of view but the real work, becky, is work people and increasing growth and amount that we say in to social security and so on that's it. >> mario, let me just ask, obviously, you think people should be paying higher taxes and that's okay for places like new york city to raise the taxes. you also think salt is pretty important. are you okay with that then? >> well, the practical side, if

you're paying 14.7% and it's 50% federal, you're paying 65% that's going beyond what i consider in the american public to consider fair how do we keep it at the 50/50 high percent if you're able to deduct the new york stacks of 14.7% or california 15, whatever they're up do, then you look at the notion of deductibility of that. 45% federal, you get up to about 50% all in tax but that's not going to necessarily stop the intellectual capital moving to areas where they create critical mass but that's a different issue >> mario, let's talk a little bit about something we just heard from senator mark warner he would like to see some of the money come out from state and local municipalities, if it's not needs, 80 to $100 billion to make sure people everywhere in america can make sure they get connected to the internet.

i know that's something you have thoughts on as well. >> yeah, they just had an auction. clearly remote learning, remote hotel care, bringing it into rural america. they just published a report last night, a couple hundred pages, 280 pages a couple weeks ago on the biannual. basically, that lays 0 out what we need to do. remember, if i'm a democrat, and senate elected, think about 1930s, what roosevelt did p.o.t.s. -- plain old telephone service. and basically, we want to bring that to everyone 100 meg, that's a challenge to the home they just had an auction that elon musk put a billion dollars to build out some system so we're intellectually at work. and i'm very optimistic that

this kind of intellectual focus, we'll solve that challenge >> you've been investing in companies that you think work towards the climate change goals that have been laid out. but you don't think tesla should be getting any special favors here >> well, i love our climate enough people. and i believe right now without any incremental dynamics of payments, we will have 135 million electric vehicles or hybrid-type vehicles on the road, in the world in nine years. so, that we're ramping up this production for example, it will be at 70% but the world will have 1.4 billion vehicles at that time. so we have to accelerate it. second part is that, if i live in the city in the bronx, in an apartment building, how am i going to get a charging station, becky? secondly, this notion of giving me money for my climate. there's a report out that one of the major challenges, one of the

major challenges of income equality is the carless person. the american in the inner city that does not have a car they need a vehicle to increase their optionality for income the notion of giving money to rich people to buy a car -- ehh, i have a problem with that doesn't make sense second, how do we allocate the cost of highway maintenance to the e.v. if they're not paying a gas tax. third, raise a gas tax you got to raise revenues to pay for the bridges and roads. thank you, that's it >> mario, you always have a lot of ideas and we appreciate hearing them thank you. >> i've got a lot of stocks i've got to work one is auto nation because when you look at values in the market, becky, auto nation sells at $6 billion with

mike jackson car vanna sells at 50 billion market value there's where the problems are at valuation you can do it with $20 bricks and mortars much the way that general motors just went with mary barra. and companies like auto nation, there's a whole bunch out there that can have the benefit of doing what they're doing with real earnings and real great rates and lower valuations so the wall street language of pair trades. s >> we'll have you back soon. >> thank you, becky. and let's applaud biden as he takes over the helm of this country. >> thank you, sir. okay, coming up, former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney and operation hope founder and ceo john hope bryant on today's inauguration of president-elect biden. the state of the ecomy anond

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a couple stocks to tell you on the day right now. p&g reporting profit of 1.64 a share. beat estimates of 13 cents should also tell you about another dow component, united health out with its results. the health insurer reported a quarterly profit of $2.60. revenue was also above forecast, that stock, though, down 3.5%. joe. >> yeah, down 1% >> i'm sorry, down 1% -- >> down 1% -- >> $3.59 i apologize >> that's okay you know what, you have seen the ali mcgraw/ryan o'neal movie, right? love means never having to say -- love means never having to say you're sorry. andrew you know that. >> fair enough fair enough. coming up, former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney and operation hope founder and ceo john hope bryant

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welcome back to "squawk box. this morning after president-elect biden is sworn in, one of his biggest challenges will be fixing the economy and helping small businesses hurt by the pandemic. joining us right now is mick

mulvaney, former white house chief of staff and john hope bryant on two sides this morning, as we try to understand and debate what's needed to get small business going i want to start with the issue of taxes, and in particular, the issue of the minimum wage. because i think both of you gentlemen deliver on what it may take to get there. mick >> yeah, good morning, andrew. thanks for having me i welcome this discussion. we've had it many times in the past i saw senator warner on here a couple minutes ago saying we needed a $15 an hour minimum wage we had full employment we've had as many folks working as we have in the past under the trump administration without forcing a minimum wage plus, i think the senator will be the first to admit a federal minimum wage makes absolutely zero sense the cost of living in new york is different than montana.

we have a system where states can set and do set minimum wages. it makes great political sense i understand where my democratic friends are coming from this and makes economic sense and maybe the economic sense will be to lower the level of unemployment >> john hope bryant, are you on the other side of this, or no? >> yeah, i was so hoping we were having a different conversation this morning actually give the guy a compliment for abandoning the crazy ship before it hit the rocks and then he disappointed me look this economy is 70% consumer spending this is a radical movement of common sense when you -- my rich -- in order for my rich friend to stay rich, my poor friend has to do better. listen now, it's consumer

spending 64% of americans before covid didn't have four dollars for an unplanned event. we can see the effects of not supporting the bottom of the pyramid with what's going on right now with economic greatness and arrival of the great depression i pay my people $15 an hour. no one forces me to do i'm a small business owner i'm doing well my suits aren't atear. they're going to pay their bills, live in a condo go to a restaurant we need positive support go on a vacation once a year all of this circulates, andrew, as you know, back in the economy. and this drives the gdp. we will survive a minimum wage of decency i will go one step further, andrew that it be mandated for all americans, so that people

making $60,000 a year or less which is most of this country get a bonus for working every year, just like wall street. so main street and wall street are excited about getting up every day and going to work. it's ridiculous that the average person has to work 2 1/2 jobs to have a decency life of a roof overhead, a car note and food on the table. we are better than this, and we will have economic growth by doing more and making america great again. >> john, let me ask you a question, and mick can weigh in on this as well. you go back at history and look at the critique of president hoover, actually, after the financial crisis of 1929 the critique would say, i think, fairly, that you raise taxes not only do you raise taxing at the time and you can blame the fed at the time he was pushing companies to hire people at higher wages all things which, from the heart make a lot of sense.

but i think potentially and arguably, potentially set that economy back at that time. fair analysis? unfair analysis? i know we're doing history over 100 years ago now. almost 100 years ago now >> it's okay it's a continuing story, andrew. you have -- you have the thing that came out of the great depression which nobody acknowledges was social security, okay before that, you worked, 80 years old, and you fell out dead leaders in europe saw that people had a thing called retirement they gave people a chance to stop working at 65 as it is now and that allows young people to create jobs to go into the workplace. that created a whole new opportunity for employers. that was the private sector feeding off the government sector innocent stiff. then you pivot to when the economy really took off which was really world war ii. it took a decade but world war

ii was the trigger and that was a government sector contracting, by the way, where we're at right now and led to the martial plan. we're at war with the virus -- i'm sorry, virus at war with us. we aren't returning fire, okay we need to return fire and we need to use the massive backgrounds the federal government with smart taxing, smart incentives for the private sector which includes internships at scale infrastructure reinvestment at scale which will trigger additional gdp so we take something that, i don't know, took 15 years as andrew said -- >> if i may, i couple of different things that are wrong. goodness gracious, i don't know where to start when social security started the life expectancy was 63, not 80 to help somebody live beyond their workable life. let's put that aside we're not here to talk about

history. we're here to talk about the future which is what happens starting today i think what you just heard is democrat orthodoxy which is we need to tax more and spend more and everybody will be better off because of that. we proved that false over the last four years. take your hatred for donald trump aside. take the covid disaster aside. the policies were working, what was that lower taxes, lower regulation, less government actually worked. who was benefitting most from the trump policies? the folks at the bottom end of the scale. where was all of the benefit going? it was going disproportionately to folks in the lower parts of the economy. you want $15 minimum wage, great, you want to make $15 working at mcdonald's, john, go to north dakota during the fracking boom, that's what you had. the policies work. that's where the discussion is going, where we going from here not where we are we have a democrat house, a

democrat senate, a democrat president. there's going to be a short period of sort of this euphoria, especially in the press because donald trump is gone, then we're going to realize we're right back with barack obama >> gentlemen, i'll give you 30 seconds each guys, we have marine one on our screen right now i'm just waiting to put this in context. when you look back at his legacy, economically, four years from now, ten years from now, john, 30 seconds to you, 30 seconds to mick. how will we see it >> because a nation for one person doesn't work. we're about to get it done with a the party, democratic vote having all votes rise. he will go down as a loser on the economy and a loser on all people coming up we're worse off than when he came in. and with all due respect that

was a continuation of the obama administration recovery that the trump administration continued this is not one or the other and we shouldn't be placing blame and pointing fingers we need to be rising up because we're at war and we can't afford to fight each other this is the problem of the last four years we've been fighting each other it's ridiculous. and a house divided cannot stand that as biblical >> my experience, andrew -- >> mick, were you pyou were par administration. >> here's the five second, supply side economics works. period we abandoned that we'll hope to get back to that in the future >> can i just push back on that? you look at it and say it works, it worked to an extent until, obviously, we had a pandemic but at the same time, you look at capital spending it did not rise the way it should have. we've added a tremendous amount

of debt, even before you land on the pandemic, unto itself. you can argue one of the lessons of the pandemic is that we didn't have a stable system underneath us to keep us from falling. and talk about a safety net, a safety net when a pandemic came, no >> real briefly, that's a great discussion to have outside of 30 seconds but i think what history will teach, the economy had nothing to do with the way the covid was handled. it was a crisis in leadership. it was a crisis in management. it had nothing to do with the underlying social safety net you give me 30 seconds, that's the best i can do. >> i'll give you more time than that what do you say about capital spending? what do you say about the amount of debt that the country went into during this period? it's one thing to look at an economy and say look, it's great. but if you're borrowing the money now it's a little fake in that regard, no? >> andrew, i can't defend it, i

would consider myself a fiscal conservative going back to the taxes, it did go up. but how do we employ the people at the highest rates i guess that is the point of this interview, we were doing that. lowest rate of black unemployment ever. lowest rate of female unemployment ever. those are facts. you can have an argument why you got there, was it obama administration, trump administration bottom line is, for the trump administration, we were there before covid i don't think covid and the economy had much to do with each other with why we handled it the way we did >> final word to you, really only 30 seconds. >> so, i would agree with him that the unemployment rate went down and some of the good things went up. as a continuation of two parties working together on stable policies but when the crisis hit, andrew, there was no undergirding to support an economic democracy.

you cannot create your own facts as he says you cannot now disconnect the economy from the crisis. the crisis is not being aid by the -- the economy is not being aided by the fact that the crisis was mismanaged. now, the economy is in the toilet because we mismanaged the crisis these things are intrarelated. now, we need a business plan for america that is economic and decency in the same breath >> mick mulvaney, we appreciate the conversation, debate and the context you provided as we look at this image of marine one getting ready to take off from the white house this morning on inauguration day thank you to both of you all right. it is just after 8:00 a.m. here on east coast. this is "squawk box" on cnbc thanks for joining our special inauguration day coverage. i'm joe kernen along with becky

quick and andrew ross sorkin u.s. equities at this hour have gotten flatter but we're still in the green on the dow up 40 points it's going to be a day of pomp and circumstance, just getting under way in washington, d.c., though, the coronavirus and the politics of the moment make it different in large part from past presidential transitions. president trump will not be attending joe biden's inauguration he's heading from the white house to joint base andrews where he's expected to deliver remarks before boarding air force one and flying to palm beach, florida vice president mike pence will attend the inauguration which thanks to social distancing will be much smaller than in the past, next joe, thank you, as we await the remarks, let's bring in lee cooperman for his thoughts on trump's legacy and as well as

what he's expecting for the business and markets under president joe biden. lee is the chairman of mega office lee, you've been pretty open about your political dent the last several years including what you said about the most recent election. you said you'd be voting for joe biden. i take it you did do that, and i just wonder what you'd do next for the markets. >> well, what i said on your program is i intended to vote my values and not my pocketbook my values did not lie with president trump. i did not vote for president trump in 2016, i voted for mitt romney i did not vote for hillary clinton or the president frankly, i turned off on him very early in the game you know, in 2016, i believe he thought it was appropriate to mock "the new york times" reporter with cerebral palsy, you learn when you're 5 years

old, you don't make fun of handicapped people it's a real shame. he could have gone into the textbook as one of the great presidents he did open up the necessary dialogue on illegal immigration. and trade with china the previous speaker neglects to mention that the economy before covid, which was running at a fully employed level was running at a trillion dollar deficit you're not supposed to have a trillion dollar deficit when you have a fully employed economy. and now we're spending it into oblivion we have a very difficult situation out there because i think in the near term, it's hard to fight the market you know, you have extraordinary stimulus and fiscal monetary policies, all of which i think is pulling demand forward. but somewhere along the way we're going to have to pay for the party when the party's over. we talk about the poor performance of the economy

i'm not an economist, but let me just share with you numbers that strike me as interesting if you talk to most economists, they would say trend real growth in the economy is probably around 2%. trend real growth is derived by looking at the productivity growth in the economy, 1%. and labor force which is about 0.5% trend real growth in the economy is 2%. if you talk to most economists today they have real growth this quarter versus fourth quarter last year of 6%. three times trend yet the fed finds it necessary to keep the interest rate at zero. what the fed is doing is pushing effect at risk curve and people concluded i can't survive on zero. i'm going to take duration risk and buy t-bonds. the t-bonds said 1% doesn't work, i'm going to buy industrial bonds

the industrial bonds say i'm buying high yields and industrial bonds saying i'm going to buy structured credit the structured credit says 25% of my credit in equities and the equity guy is moves into bitcoin. everybody is moving on the risk curve and they're forced by very forceful fiscal policies somewhere along the way, we're going to have to pay the price i have the dual outlook. i think the near-term outlike is probably okay. long-term, i think we borrow from the future. whatever you're borrowing from the market, at the present multi estimate of 22 times or higher you've never really made any serious money one year, two here ins, ythree years out. and understand, as much as i voted for biden, i voted my value of my pocketbook he's talking about higher corporate rates, higher capital

gains. more protectionism, you know, they're attacking high-tech companies that are probably the main source of the growth in the economy. and have done a fabulous job in dealing with the virus i mean, it's a less pro-business, less friendly business environment at the same time, where the fed and the congress is just pouring more fuel on the fire. so it's a very interesting thing. you know, many times in your program i quote the great john templeton who observed growing keptism and did dying euphoria there's a need for trump in the market that's euphoria, you see 50% stack a minute that's ringing the bell. on the other hand i find a lot of things that are attractive. i'm finding things to do investments to be made but i'm very skeptical about the longer term outlook >> let me ask, if you're finding places -- >> if that makes sense

>> no, it does so often people say i'm concerned about things at the top you think they're pulling out of the market and putting money into cash, if you're finding things you like right now, what are some of those areas? >> well, interesting, i'm on fixed income and my largest position is investment grade fixed position a company called negado, 55 megahertz, thank god in this country, spectrum policy is set by the fcc and not by the department of defense. the fc c spent over five years studying the great detail, the application of spectrum of lagado they brought in 80 billion dollars of bids. lagado got it. they have bonds out that i think

you'll make 50% in three years with virtually no risk and 15.5%, trading around 103. the three calls, and no matter what happens, i believe somebody will buy this company. i think the department of defense should be ashamed of themselves how they raised bogus objections i think pai has done an outstanding job. on the other end of the spectrum, lagado notes are a no-brainer for me. spectrum, i like a smaller company, $600 million market cap with a company called lago resources, second largest manufacturer of vanadium in the world. vanadium is an alloy used to strengthen steel they have companies under of $00

mil $600 a year. they're looking at the battery business and battery companies trade at astronomical values. and the machine, five times earnings, you know, i went back and looks add 1972, nifty 50 it's interesting at that time, jpmorgan u.s. trust ruled the roost. they had a process philosophy. ibm 37 times earnings, ge, 25 times earnings eastman kodak, 40 times. pol polaroid, 90 times at that time, 1962, the government was 6.5%. amazon 38 times next year's earnings, facebook, 20 times next year's earnings

google basically trading, i don't know, 30 times next year's earnings microsoft 29 times earnings. against interest rates of 1% there are very few stocks overpriced but the question you have to decide for yourself is 1% sustainable interest rate i think not. i believe somewhere along the way we have to pay attention to what's going on with fiscal policy this nation was founded 244 years ago. it took 244 years to take national debt to 27 trillion it's going up at unsustainable rate >> lee, let me back up a little. when i read the notes you had sent me the night before, i guess a night or two ago, i looked through and thought you were more concerned about the market than you'd been in quite a while. >> i am more concerned >> than the analyst. but you just named a number of

really decent stocks that have much lower pe ratios than the nifty 50 you were just citing. so, would you buy some of those stocks as well >> no, my focus is more away from the nifty 50. i'm a value investor all of this hysteria about how overpriced the market is, i would just say the infavor part of the market is not out of whack with current interest rates but i don't think current interest rates are sustainable, okay so, my biggest position is google i have a big position in microsoft. i have a small position in facebook i have a meaningful position in amazon but that's not where i'm trafficking. i'm trafficking in things like atheen ashland, global oldings, citigroup, contrast, mr. cooper. i have a decent position in general motors you know, i look for value, but

i do have long-term concerns because i think the policies we're running are unsustainable. so, we have this push/pull we have the push of very, very stimulus and fiscal monetary policies hard to fight that presently, okay and then we have the pull of a new administration i don't know why they call them progressives for me, they're retro progressives but progressives, more government regulation. higher taxes, higher corporate taxes and rule the roost and somewhere post this year we're going to have to start dealing with some of the longer term problems but again, i voted against my economic interests because i felt that the president was the divisive force to the economy and he only handled himself in a different, more intelligent manner, he probably would have won a second term. be that as it may, he's not the

character that i felt should lead the country so, i don't know i'm confusing you but long-term concern -- >> no, i understand there's a lot of nuance in your opinions on these things. long-term concerns you hear a few things that sound like bell ringing. you mentioned spacs before what other things make you think it's time to step back from the table a little bit >> i think the dramatic fluctuations in many individual companies. you know, the ipos getting 5, 10, $15 million value with virtually no revenue and no earnings, you know it's also clear, it's that canary in the coal mine. >> right >> 1972 -- >> we're watching president trump -- lee, we're watching president trump leaving the white house for the last time as president. he and melania trump, the first lady, walking out and addressing what looks like the media scrum

right there, right now, potentially giving comments as he's ready to make his way to marine one for the last time as president. marine one will take him, again, to andrews air force base where he'll be boarding on air force one and on his way down to florida. again, you see president trump and melania trump, the first lady, leaving the white house for the last time during his term as president. lee, i want to thank you for your time. we'll definitely have you back more to talk about it. again, historic moment as president trump leaves the white house. >> you stay healthy and pray for the country. let's pray for the new president. >> thank you, lee. we will. okay we continue to watch marine one take off for the final time with president trump aboard meantime, we're joined by a very special guest this morning as well, barry diller, chairman and senior executive at isc and

expedia. barry, it's great to see you this morning as we're watching this historic moment on the screen next to you help put this in context to the extent you can you've been outspoken about the president and also hopeful about the next president >> well, i think -- i don't know, i think of this as kind of new year's day we all wanted '20 over with. it really wasn't over with on new year's but it is over with today. i actually think now once he actually lifts off and goes up into the air, i hope that hehe heliumish balloon rises up i think as time goes it fades i think all of the 75 million

people, i think if the election were today, i think that number would be cut way, way down so i think it's really a turn of a page and all of this drama that is attendant to it. i mean, to see the capitol in lockdown to see all of the cumulative effects of the last four years and they're going to be gone i mean, i believe that the best thing to do is just move on. i'm not in favor, yes, you can impeach him for symbolic reasons -- go ahead. sorry. >> well, no, that's what i was going to ask you about because i do want to talk about the future and what the country and the economy looks like under a biden presidency but you just made the case that you don't think we're going to be seeing a lot of president trump in the future. there's still obviously the outstanding question of whether he's impeached it sounds like you don't believe

he should be but also the idea that he may ultimately get into the media business, so we might see a lot of him in that regard. or back into the political business come four years from now, either himself or continuing to have a remarkable amount of influence. do you think that's -- >> i would impeach him, i would impeach him yesterday, but for sure, if that could all be done effectively. and it be over i just want it to be over. and i do think that this is the turn of a new day. so the issue of him in the future we can't discount the fact that for the last four years you couldn't get away from him but now with a new administration and him not until power, this will naturally fade.

he'll stir up whatever he can stir up. he'll have his friends for sure. i think it will dwindle over time, too. i'm just -- i'm very optimistic that we are now at the apex. this is just the exact moment everything that has happened in these last month or two, since the election and it is now truly over and i think we all should kind of get used to it. we have a new leader that leader is calm. that leader is maybe going to be hopefully a little boring. and we will get on and anyway, i just think -- i do believe it will fade over time >> we'll be watching marine one take off and it is now officially in the air, as you were commenting there, barry let's talk about the economy under a president biden and what you think it looks like and how very different or not you think it will be in the challenges ahead.

>> well, if anybody had -- i mean, there's so much steam behind him there's so much pent-up desire for this whole period to be over not economically the economy is -- i mean -- there's nothing terrible going on, obviously. other than the fact that we have this last hopefully stand of covid which with the vaccine one way or the other and i think the administration getting on to in terms of its delivery will be effective. let's call spring/summer, it's over there's going to be certainly, i'm very much invested in travel there's going to be a huge rush for people to get out, get around i think you're going to see people make references to that

what happened after prohibition in the '20s. i doubt we'll have that. but i think we'll have exuberance we have irrational exuberance in the markets. >> what's your take, we have this -- at noon, we'll call him president biden, can plan to tax folks both on the very upper end but also corporations. and where do you stand on that >> oh, where do i stand? look, what i would actually do is say let's actually be really progressive. let's take this 2 trillion page tax code that is so complex, that has so many things about it

that are pockets of lobbyists and all sorts of -- i mean, it just reeks i would actually spend my time truly reforming the tax code as far as individual rates, they can go up some i think they're actually paying about 50% your taxes at the highest point. seems reasonable half for yourself, half for your family, half for and -- then half for the government. that seems rational to me. i don't think the issue, although it's symbolic in terms of imagery, whatever, to raise taxes on the wealthy but i think the bigger issue is to comb through that and actually truly have a reformed tax system that is transparent that is clear. it does not have exceptions or

this or that and does not obviously -- how we've lived with carried interest through all of these administrations without being able to get rid of it, when with all know it is an exception for no reason. all of the things that you can do in real estate that make you basically like -- whatever his name was -- not pay any taxes at all, all that we have got to wipe away. and if we have the energy to reform the tax code, i don't really care about rates. >> what is your expectations in terms of regulations under a biden administration there's obviously a number of executive orders that are going to go in effect. and do you credit any removal of regulations or what some tpeople describe as a pro-business environment, the encouragement of president trump to remain

under president biden. what's that relationship between the business community and the president going to be? >> well, i think on regulation, it was more actually the imagery of the removal of regulation that trump gave. yes, many of those impractical ones were removed. and hopefully, that stays. you know, progressives don't have to overstrangle much of, i think, anything currently. so, i'm not so sure. i mean, yes, relative to oil, drilling and things like that. and environmental issues but some of the environmental regulations made no sense. we all know that so one hopes it's just proved one thing that would happen is, certainly, a topic of the moment, is relative to

communications, mass media communications and section 230 which says that basically these big platforms are, quote, not publishers the truth is they are publishers now. they made the choice, i think, wisely -- well, i don't actually think wisely i think they've done it under a strict policy guideline rather than simply say we're going to take this person or that person off. and they issued it with very clear policies of what could and could not be said. and in the context of that remove to whoever was vetting those policies would have been probably better. but once they did that, once they removed -- once they began that, they are publishers, you cannot get away from that. since they are publishers, then the question is what do we need to do? i'll do it this way. i think we should have, if -- i think related to colors.

there's a color called blue. you can't say blue is not blue you can say you don't like blue. you can say you don't like blue, you can say you don't like the people who don't like blue, you can comment on any of that but you can't say blue is not. this goes back to the very beginning of the past administration where on the first hour of the first day, the administration said there were more people here than ever looked at the picture. you looked at the other picture, and it was not true. it was a lie so, i deeply believe what we've got to do is get some standard of fact and not go out and hold clearly anything that can be factual -- >> but who is going to hold companies that you indicate responsible? and the reason i ask that it's one thing to talk about the quote/unquote platform of a facebook or a twitter. but now in the context of

parler, for example, we're talking about these things moving up, quote/unquote, the spacs. like google and others, the service providers, aws or maybe google cloud in the future o oracle, meaning how do you take to the tiers of responsibility >> you take all of the tiers of responsibility to the issue at hand which is you cannot allow false, untruths, lies. that, you can't do you can have opinion, but you can't have lies. how do you deal with that? it's difficult, but it is hardly impossible you know, you say who is in charge of this go back a number of years. we had a thing called the fairness doctrine which was imposed on broadcasters. remember, we had three basic --

>> [ inaudible ]. >> -- greatest people in the world greatest home in the world. we called it a home. in four years. we've accomplished a lot we love you it's having very special. and i just want to say good-bye. hopefully, it's not a long-term good-bye thank you very much. >> mr. president, do you have any thoughts about your presidency mr. president -- >> barry, you may have been interrupted for the last time by the president as he made comments to marine one there we were talking about social media. but is your expectation in a

biden administration there is consideration of breaking these companies up do you think four years from now something like that will happen? >> i don't think the companies will be broken up. i don't think they should be broken up. what i think they should be is regulated. we have not regulated as these companies have gotten more and more centricity and some of them absolute monopoly. it is not the breakup of them. how do you break up google google is a search engine. that's all it really does. 99% of their income. >> right >> you can't break it up what would you be breaking up? what you can do is regulate it so it's a relatively level playing field. and that is not that hard to do. regulation has to come to these tech companies it is time it is -- one would argue somewhat past time but it will happen i think in the next year or two. whether it happens through one

arm of the government or the other, i can't imagine it won't happen we all know that these companies entities have to have regulation it's just naturally normal when you get to their size. but the most important thing, i think, is for us to figure out some way where these mass masked sprayers of individual opinion do not get out of bounds and i think that is doable and i hope it's done and if it isn't done, the next person that comes along that is charismatic -- oh, the thought of himself being charismatic -- whatever, comes along, able to spout lies to the degree -- every day was a lie -- if you

don't strangle -- strangle -- if you don't deal with this now, it will inevitably repeat itself. we certainly have been taught a lesson you know, aside from the violence, what happened -- what happened on the 6th, that is -- it is such a lesson. we have to take from it and do something about it and something about it does deal with preventing clearly false things from being promulgated and thrown out to everyone where they are convinced of, quote, the big lie. >> barry, no question that regulation should be coming. but i just wonder after that regulation, who's the decider? does the government set rules like this? or are these platforms responsible for deciding what are big lies and what aren't,

and when you stop something? i mean, you understand the media well you've worked in television, in movies you understand the internet well how do we go about doing this? it seems to me it's a little more complicated than having cnbc or a publisher's rights for doing these things is it the government or the platforms responsible for doing it >> government has to set the framework, without question, as they did with the fairness doctrine where the government just -- by the way, fairness doctrine is fairly simple in its language but as it got carried out, the players, the people, the broadcasters knew they lived in certain boundaries or it was dangerous to their businesses. the government has to set it and businesses will abide. it's something that i don't

think they would reject that i think they're -- they're in the terrible troubled water now of trying to deal with this. i think well-intentioned look i believe with mark zuckerberg that they should not edit political discourse. but when i -- when the 6th happened, i realized that the issue is what is fact and what is not if you can -- if you can say -- look, you can say the election was unfair to the extent that states had certain rules, enabled by their legislatures, et cetera. and you could criticize that and say let's change that for the future but to say it was a fraud and all of that begat, that's the thing to me, that's like, if it's red, it's red comment about whether you like

it or not. but don't change the color >> the president's arriving at joint base andrews right now and he will be speaking. i said that you won't be interrupted by the president again but you may be in just a moment i just wanted to ask you two things, though, how do you think about tv, for example? you worked with rupert murdoch for a long period of time, he owns fox i think there's a fair argument to say there were lies parole m prom mull gate prom promulgated. >> i think fox is abhorrent. i'm talking about the commentators they spew lies they should not be allowed to do that whether that's the editorial decision of the management of fox or it is done by some other

means, but you listen to them up to june 6 and during it, and all you heard was lies so -- >> united states donald j. trump and melania trump. >> it appears that the president is going to be offering some comments in just a moment. barry, if you want to stick with us, as we await what may be his final words as president this morning, delivering remarks now. at joint base andrews. ♪ >> it appears, barry, he isn't making the comments just yet i want to ask you about the markets, about the exuberance,

you watched the spacs, and how do you feel as an investor in the market right now >> i'm really not an investor in the market i invest in companies that i believe in what they do. deeply, and i'm very long oriented so i'm not a player but there's, look, it's a very difficult time you know, all of the people, months and months and months ago, we thought, my god, biden is going to be elected president. >> cut off there, barry. one last time. thank you, barry president trump right now set to deliver those remarks at joint base andrews >> thank you we love you. and i can tell you from the bottom of my heart this has been an incredible four years we've accomplished so much together i want to thank all of my family and my friends and my staff and so many other people for being here i want to thank you for your

effort your hard work people have no idea how hard this family worked, they worked for you. they could have had a much easier life, but they just -- they did a fantastic job i want to thank all of you, everyone i want to thank mark meadows who is here some place right there i want to thank mark it's been something very special. we've accomplished a lot our first lady has been a woman of great grace and beauty and dignity. and so popular with the people so popular with the people in fact, honey, would you like to say a few words, please >> being your first lady was my greatest honor thank you for your love and your support. you will be in my thoughts and prayers. god bless you all. god bless your families.

and god bless this beautiful nation >> what else has to be said, right? but what we've done, that's true, honey, great job what we've done has been amazing by any standard. we rebuilt the united states military we created a new force, called space force, that in itself would be a major achievement for a regular administration we were not a regular administration we took care of the vets 91% approval rating. they've never had that before. the vets have given us, the va have given us an approval rating like never before. we took care of our vets beautiful vets, they were very badly treated before we came along. and as you know, we get them

great service and we picked up the bill and they can go out and see a doctor they have to wait long periods of time. we've got it so that we can sadly get rid of people that don't treat our vets properly. we didn't have any of those rights before when i came on so, our vets are happy our people are happy our military is thrilled we also got tax cuts, the largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country by far. i hope they don't raise your taxes. but if they do i told you so and if you look at the regulation which is i consider the regulation cuts to be maybe even more important. that's why we have such good and have had such good job numbers the job numbers have been absolutely incredible. when we started, had we not been hit by the pandemic, we would have had numbers that would never have been seen, already,

our numbers are the best ever. if you look at what happened until february, a year ago our numbers were at a level that nobody had ever seen before. and even now, we really built it twice. we got hit, nobody blames us for that the whole world got hit. then we built it again and now the stock market is actually substantially higher than it was at its higher point prior to the pandemic. so, it's really -- you could say, we built it twice and you're going to see -- you're going to see incredible numbers start coming in, if anything is sort of left alone be careful very complex be careful but you're going to see some incredible things happening. and remember us when you see these things happening remember us. because i'm looking at -- i'm looking at elements of our economy that are set to be a rocket ship up it's a rocket ship up.

we have the greatest country in the world. we have the greatest economy in the world. and as bad as the pandemic was, we were hit so hard, just like the entire world was hit so hard places that thought they got away with it didn't get away with it. they're suffering right now. we did something that is really considered a medical miracle they're calling it a miracle, and that was the vaccine we got the vaccine developed in nine months. instead of nine years. or five years. or ten years a long time. it was supposed to take a long time many, many years to develop a vaccine. we have two out. we have another one coming almost immediately and it really is a great achievement. so, you should start to see really good numbers over the next few months. i think you're going to see those numbers really skyrocket downward and i can only say this, we have

worked hard. we've left it all as the athletes would say, we've left it all on the field. we don't have to -- we don't have to come and say, we'll never say in a month when we're sitting in florida, we're not going to be looking at each other and saying, you know, if we only worked a little bit harder you can't work harder. we had a lot of obstacles. and we went through the obstacles. and we just got 75 million votes. that's a record in the history -- in the history of sitting presidents that's an all-time record by a lot. by many millions in the history of sitting presidents, it's been really just an honor one of the things we're very, very proud of is the selection of almost 300 federal judges and three great supreme court justices that's a very big number that's a record-setting number so, we've done a lot

and there's still things to do first thing we have to do is pay our respects and our love to the incredible people and families who suffered so gravely from the china virus. it's a horrible thing that was put on to the world. we all know where it came from but it's a horrible, horrible thing. so, be very careful. be very, very careful. but we want to pay great love, great love to all of the people that have suffered including families who have suffered so gravely. so, with that, i just want to say you are amazing people this is a great, great country it is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president.

>> usa usa! >> trump trump. trump. >> i will always fight for you i will be watching -- i will be listening. and i will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. i wish the new administration great luck and great success i think they'll have great success. they have the foundation to do something really spectacular and, again, we put it in a position like it's never been before, despite the worst plague to hit since, i guess, you'd say 1917, over 100 years ago

and despite that, despite that, the things that we've done have been just incredible and i couldn't have done it without you. so, just a good-bye. we love you. we will be back in some form and, again, i want to just, in leaving, i want to thank our vice president mike pence and karen. i want to thank congress because we really worked well with congress at least certain elements of congress but we really did. we had gotten so much done that nobody thought would be possible but i do want to thank congress. and i want to thank all of the great people of washington, d.c. all of the people that we worked with to put this miracle together so, have a good life we will see you soon thank you. thank you very much. thank you very much.

all right. president trump wrapping up there. he will now make his way with the first lady melania trump over to air force one for the final trip, headed down to palm beach, down to florida mar-a-lago presumably. he spoke at length, to summarize some of what he sees as the major accomplishments of his administration including, obviously, the economy he mentioned both before and after covid. the military, rebuilding of the military which has been a common theme from the president the operation warp speed and how quickly a vaccine was developed for what he once again referred to again as the china virus, even in one of his last speeches from there

and, obviously, the stock market which he said is above where it was actually when we were hit by covid-19 so well wishes, there's tiffany trump, along with -- i actually saw something about her earlier in one of the tabloids that got a big new ring supposedly from the gentleman next to her, i guess. joining us now, as we watch the president head to air force one. penny pritzer, she's been a leading adviser for the biden team as commerce secretary, you know, probably, i don't know, at some point, you talked to almost every business leader in the country, secretary pritzer so, i've been in conversations during the transition period and trier to that. what are you hearing -- what is a priority for these business leaders in the first 100 days?

>> the first leaders, the first thing is -- first of all, thanks for having me. it's a great day it's a great day to be here. i talked to hundreds of business people and business leaders across the country and what they're looking for is certainty and stability. i think that will start today. and a clarity about a commitment to facts and science it's extremely important that we really get this virus under control so that businesses have greater confidence in their planning and can pick up hiring again, especially for our small and medium size businesses which have really been devastated by the virus. >> well, the science has been done to some extent. the vaccine is ready now, we need low-tech science. and that is the science of getting it where it needs to go, logistically how it needs to be stored. and how it needs to be immediately put into as many people's arms as possible. how do we do that?

well, first of all, i think we need production, we need to make sure there's sufficient supply coming out of the major corporations that have done a fantastic job, our pharmaceutical and bio technical companies that have created a vaccine, thank god for science but in terms of logistics this really requires clarity an transparency between the federal government and state and local governments. and then our state and local governments to be ready to administer, which most of them seem to be, they're excited to put shots in arms. i know the american public really wants a vaccine and wants to move forward. so, i am optimistic over the next months that we will make great progress in this area. i think the team that president-elect biden has put together is first class. and is absolutely committed to getting this job done as quickly and as safely as possible. >> we hear a lot about

inclusive -- inclusive growth. we actually have one of the former associates of president trump on mick mulvaney who said the growth was inclusive before covid hit, in terms of unemployment for women, for minorities for wage gain, we saw some of the biggest wage gains we've seen in years. how would you try to effect include employment would it be with minimum wage? would it be with organic growth? from the ground up growth? raising taxes? how would you do do it it's a fine line to walk especial withly the pandemic >> well, absolutely. president-elect has called for raising the minimum wage which i think is extremely important it would affect 27 million americans. and if you look over the last 50 years the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation which has put families in that situation really just falling further and

further behind so that's absolutely an important component. but i think it's also important that, you know, we recognize that we need to get our small and medium-size businesses back open so many businesses in the we ne businesses get back up on their feet, bet get people back in restaurant, back traveling, back enjoying our theme parks and a lot of service organizations need to be able to get folks traveling again. so there's a lot of work to be done in that respect obviously, it's the private sector that creates jobs but it's the job that can help set the conditions for that and i think the team is well positioned to be able to help. but you've got to address the virus first, in order to be able to get many of those jobs filled again. >> i was just wondering about raising taxes, too, you know,

whether you get rid of the corporate tax cuts that we saw, that president trump and the republicans passed a couple of years ago, do you do that? do you try to start doing that, day one? in a weak economy? in an economy that's still dealing with the pandemic? is that the right move to make to raise taxes on anyone where, on anyone at this point? >> i think the first couple of moves that you're seeing the administration focus on is the american rescue plan, which is focused on increasing money for vaccines, and for health infrastructure, for direct payments to american families, for funding reopening of schools, for raising the minimum wage, for funding for states and localities, to fund firefighters, and teachers, and police, our first responders the second priority is really around jobs and economic recovery, so think about infrastructure, skills, r&d

expenditures, innovation funding, polling shows that the american people recognize we're not spending enough money on the latter issues that i just raised, on infrastructure, scaling on innovation. >> but don't repeal -- >> so those priorities - >> don't repeal it day one wait until next -- when would you do it? when would you do the repeal of the president trump tax cuts on corporations, when would you do that >> i'm not suggesting that i'm suggesting that you got to get the economy going and that's priority one for the biden administration. >> but down the road, do it, as soon as it's feasible? next year? the year after >> i think down the road we have to figure out how we're going to deal with our fiscal situation, but right now, 100% of the focus is on let's get america healthy and let's get america back to work >> very good all right, i guess we're going to have to end it there.

we'll move on, we have jim cramer standing by, i know you probably have seen the "mad money" man many times and we'll hear from him now on some of these same issues, if that's okay thank you, madam secretary, we'll see you again, soon. say hi to your brother. >> thanks so much. >> see ya. let's get straight to cnbc headquarters, jim cramer is standing by, and jim, we've been watching president trump leaving office, you have the inauguration coming up in a matter of hours and i just wonder what you think, on this historic day >> well, look, i think that there's many people who feel like president trump said, that there's been a recovery coming, i think for a lot of people who are saying look, if you just focus only on the vaccine, that's more important than anything that you could do i completely am in the latter camp you need that. you need the vaccine and you've got to get it away from public health officials, as nice as they are, who really don't know what they're doing. they just don't.

>> meaning get it to the big boxes? to the walmarts, the drugstore, the cvss >> yes. >> give it to doctor's offices who already know how to vaccinate people >> we have all lost it we don't know where it is. i thought i could get my appointment at cvs or walgreen's, that would be an easy one, instead, you're in new jersey, you know you've got to go to your public health official, why are we asking these people to do these things? how did that happen? they don't know anything other than to do the regular job they're not paid to do this. and suddenly, they're the most important people this is so screwed up. and anyone who is actually trying to get a shot knows that the people you are relying upon just can't handle it it's no fault of their own so i think a federalization of the vaccine process would be viewed as being something that's, with tremendous hope by this country it's just got to get back to people who know things >> i would appreciate seeing

that happen jim but i wonder how quickly, i wonder if we're building our hopes up thinking okay, everything is going to get fixed instantaneously, it is not easy to build ale from system or make some of these changes and i'm hoping by the time we get there, just like you have been hoping, a flood of vaccines at some point particularly if johnson & johnson's gets approved and i wonder if we fix the federal system enough, or run down demand and fix up supply, and that's a longer term issue. >> i think there are millions of vaccines and some sort of bottleneck, they're getting thrown out every day, we don't know where they're going, we don't know what happened to them the politicians are naive. the army disappeared the drugstore chains that have been so anxious and came on our networks to tell us everything is going to be fine, they're gone the public health officials are not talking. the only place i'm seeing anything being done correctly is in charlotte, north carolina, with dave tepper, has gotten

together, to make it so you can get vaccines it's pure chaos. i never thought it would be this bad. and the idea that you have to rely on people who are not returning calls, and don't know what's doing, it's just so painful, that if president biden just says on day one, it's a do-over, we've got plans, military, get ready, i think this market could explode. >> military, get ready, meaning, i mean by age 65 >> i spent yesterdayhitting refresh a million times on the web site trying to get a vaccine for my mother-in-law, up in maine. >> it's such a joke. it is so, look, i tell you, there are so many countries that are doing it better than we are, and i just find that it's painful. we're a great country, but in this particular thing, we're a catastrophe, and a fiasco. >> jim, what do you know about

johnson & johnson? we heard i think fauci say in a matter of weeks. so j & j gets done and then the difference in manufacturing between the moderna, pfizer vaccines, and j & j, how much more quickly could you have big numbers from j & j? >> i think j & j goes right to the drugstores because it would be something that we all know can just be like the flu vaccine. i think that we don't know the ethics of j & j, and they have really kind of hid that, but we theoretically should have a vaccine glut by the end of the first quarter if j & j comes out. this he have the ability to make a lot. but right now so many people's lives are in the hands of public health divisions in different counties in this country that have never dealt with this, and really don't know what to do, and it's just a travesty that they have evenbeen asked to do this i thought i was supposed to go to my cvs. i thought that mr. merlot said that's the way to get it i thought that mckesson was

going to do something. i thought the army was going to get it but look, whatever happened, we just need a do-over. i don't care how it happened but we need to make this thing, if we get, if you want to get this economy going, forget, i want stimulus for people who are obviously unemployed, who doesn't want that, if you want the economy to move and you want the stock market to explode, find a way to get the vaccine to people we spend all of us are spending a lot of time trying to find it for our parents. and we're all failing. i don't know anyone who hasn't struck out we need to get it for our parents. then we get it for us. and then we get it for our kids. and instead, we refresh. becky, you and i hit refresh endlessly, that's what we're doing in this country, we're hitting refresh. >> i thought i had an appointment yesterday but by the time i filled out the paperwork, the appointment had disappeared. >> my 94-year-old grandmother was able to get her first shot last week.

>> that's front page news. >> parents and my inlaws, in their late 70s, who can't. so we're still waiting and seeing what happens. anyway, jim, we will let you run, because we're picking up with you again in just a moment. jim cramer, folks, in the meantime, we are watching air force one, taxiing, at andrews air force base, joint base andrews, this will be carrying president trump, and melania trump, on their way down, to florida. on the right-hand side, you see pictures outside saint matthew's church this is where president-elect joe biden andhis family will b attending church this morning. before the inauguration. we have a number of others there, obviously, many of the democrats, who have been coming in with us, joining in, there but plenty of republicans, too, minority leader in the senate mitch mcconnell is expected to attend along with the minority leader at the house, kevin mccarthy, also vice president pence, so this is where you'll see a lot of the leaders in washington at this point, kind of convening ahead of that

inauguration that's coming up in just hours time. the bidens are expected to arrive at saint matthew's church shortly for that we should check very quickly on the markets ahead of all of this we've been watching the dow which is indicated up almost 100 points right now we've seen green arrows all through the morning as wall street awaits. >> there's air force one. >> eyes on washington this morning. not on wall street. >> on wall street as well. and there is the plane. >> the plane is in the air. >> the plane is in the air air force one. for that last trip for president trump. that does it for us today. make sure you join us tomorrow but right now, "squawk on the street" will be picking up coverage it is an historic day, a transfer of power, the president departing joint base andrews with about three hours to go until joe biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the united states the president-elect now at a church service, with kamala harris, who will become the firs