things happen for the american people. maria: peter. >> the way to hitchhike on your point, he's got to make point people responsible. mnuchin on taxes, tillerson and haywooden 0 russia. >> give our money back. maria: taxes down, thanks, everybody. stuart, over to you. stuart: i like that, maria, give me my money back. how about this headline, undermining the presidency deliberately, that's what's happening. the wall street journal reports today that intelligence officials withheld sensitive material from president trump, why? because they didn't trust him. the president himself sharply criticized the leaks from the intelligence agencies which did help bring down general flynn. he says, it is criminal. here is another setback. andy puzder, he's gone. the media piling on. the president unfit, and dan

rather thinks it's worse than watergate. the presidency is clearly under attack from its own bureaucrats and big tech companies, from the courts, academics, the left and media allies, this is intense. of course, investors are watching all of this, but they don't yet believe that politics stops tax cuts and growth and profits. for now they are ignoring politics. will you please look at this. the dow closed yesterday 20,600, up since the election and no significant retreat today. we will be down maybe 30 points at the opening bell, but on a 20,000 dow, that's nothing. . president has weighed in via an early morning tweet. part of this reads like this. great level of confidence and optimism even before the tax plan rollout.

as we often say, you have a front row seat, so, sit back, watch history unfold. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ we begin today with this, today is a so-called day without immigrants. ashley, you better explain this, as a fellow immigrant, explain this. >> we showed up for work. stuart: we did. ashley: this has largely been organized by social media. the concept is, i was reading one of the posters that they have out there, mr. president, without us and without our contribution, this country is paralyzed. they're upset about donald trump's, president trump's immigration policy, the crackdown, recent crackdown on illegals and travel restriction ban. let's point this out, this needs to be made very carefully. people here illegally

committing crimes, we've highlighted, of the nearly 700 have been arreste ed homicides, rapes, sexual abuse of children, rounding him and deporting, not people who are here legally. what's going to happen today? they tell stay at home. don't go to school, bring in the restaurants, shut down restaurants, and show how many immigrants are a part of the our society. stuart: i think this is a deliberate attempt to confuse people, to suggest-- rachel duffy is with us now, i think they're trying to confuse the issue. >> absolutely. stuart: president trump says if you're a criminal illegal alien, you're out. these demonstrators are saying, oh, trump's anti-all immigrants. >> absolutely. stuart: utter nonsense. >> there's been an effort to conflate, legal and illegal, and also, felons with hard working people who are here just to work. listen, it is a problem though, we know, like, for example, the milwaukee journal sentinel, we

think that nearly half of all workers in the dairy industry in wisconsin are illegal. they have an impact. we have an immigration problem and we do need to address the labor needs of many of the industries. stuart: but we're not anti-immigrant. >> absolutely not. stuart: america and president trump are not anti-immigrant, that's nonsense. >> absolutely not. and the irony is, if you want a solution to immigration, which we need in this country, the easiest way to do it is to get the border secure. that's always been what's been holding up this effort. so if you secure the border, you're going to get bipartisan buy-in for immigration reform and that's the fastest way to immigration reform and can i say this, too, stuart, once you take immigration off the table, republicans. stuart: fair point. >> by the way, the first lady, i believe, is an immigrant is she not. >> yes. stuart: you are, i am, we're all going to be here. you're not. >> i'm the daughter of an immigrant. stuart: i think we wrapped that up. rachel, please stay right

there. >> you got it. stuart: check that market, please. that's the close, okay? that's the 7th record high this calendar year, certainly was february the 16th, something like that. no big retreat. we will be down 25 points at the opening bell. that's nothing. it's .01%, that's it. check out some of the gains we've seen just since election day. the dow and the nasdaq up an astonishi astonishing-- the s&p up almost 10%. now, the president has been tweeting about this rally this morning and tweeting also about tax cuts. liz, come on in, please. because i want to know if there's any evidence that this rally is slowing down or going to sell off all of a sudden? >> no, it doesn't look like it. what we're looking at the big

spider retail sector etf, xrt. the big name spending kind of stocks and that's on a tear since february 7th when the president had that fight with nordstrom over ivanka's clothes. that tells me the border tax is not going to come into play. for this to be popping like this. stuart: that's you can buy in etf. liz: sprd xrt. stuart: xrt. liz: we haven't seen a market like this since 1992 and the president noted that. when the could i was coming out of recession 1992, we haven't seen the indices on a tear like this in decades. stuart: fascinating. look at this headline coming to us from the wall street journal. spies keep trump in dark on intelligence in sign of mistrust. the director of national intelligence denies this allegation, but nonetheless that's on the front page of the wall street journal this morning.

judge andrew napolitano is here. this is his turf. notwithstanding the denial, that looks like sabotage from within. >> it's very fair assessment and there is no director of national intelligence because he hasn't been confirmed yet and the prior director of national intelligence general clapper, lied under oath, he's in retirement. so the dni is run by the center most person there, just like the justice department before jeff sessions was there. this is a really, really serious problem and comes from something that i've been complaining about for years, whh is spying on everybody all the time. because the spies now,hopy on generals in the pentagon and justices in the supreme court, and the president in the white house, have the ability, with legal immunity, because they know how to do this without getting caught, to leak what they have in order to embarrass who they want to embarrass, whether it's president donald trump because they say they don't trust him or general flynn because he's an ex-spy who knows too much about them. stuart: judge, this is outrageous. >> it is.

and i can tell you from sources with whom i've spoken, the wall street journal headline is absolutely true. there are people in the intelligence community who will withhold information from the president of the united states of america in order to influence his exercise of judgment. stuart: is it illegal? >> it absolutely is illegal. they work for him. he is their boss. if they don't like him or they don't trust him, they should quit and go public. and let the american public decide. stuart: democrats and some republicans demand an investigation, not into the wall street journal story, but into leaks generally. do you favor that? >> i'd rather the investigation were by the fbi because the fbi has the ability to go to a grand jury and indict. look at the benghazi investigation. concealed more than revealed. shortly before he left office, president obama signed an executive order authorizing the nsa to share its raw data with all 16 intelligence agencies

for the first time in american history. so, we don't know who the leaker was. prior to this order that president trump could reverse with a stroke of a pen, before that, with a computer chip, i'm holding up my phone, and they used to to 60,000 domestic spy agents for domestic. now, after that order, they can share with fbi, with the defense intelligence and the other 16 publicly known spying agencies. we have created a surveillance state in which the spies know so much about us they can regulate our behavior, including the most powerful man on the planet, the president of the united states. that's where we are this morning. stuart: you've got to come back at 11:00. i want to repeat, for the benefit of viewers who joined us late.

you've got to repeat this, it's extraordinarily important. thank you for being here. thank you. it's another day of live action from this president. and he meets with congressional leaders at the white house around 10:30 this morning, this everybody a he meets with attorney general jeff sessions and that, again, will be at the white house. okay. the live action presidency rolls on and we're on it. coming up later today on the program, a new twist in the border, that is a catapult found attached to a border fence in arizona, used by smugglers to launch bundles of drugs into the country. we'll have more on that in a moment. >> i thought they were catapulting people. [laughter] >> whoa, look at this, look at this. this is from texas, a rookie police officer used his squad car to push a burning pickup truck away from the drive-through window, a fast food restaurant. nobody injured, caught on the cash cam, the officer was successful, pushed it out of the way. those cameras are everywhere. liz: he's a hero. stuart: you can see it.

ashley: he's a hero. stuart: stop it. you're an immigrant, you're supposed to be at home. [laughter] >> we'll be back, everybody. stay right there. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines,

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>> now, there are a lot of people who have children or young grandchildren who will. build-a-bear. it's a popular chain. sales, profits way down, the stock is going to take a gigantic hit today. that's premarket, that's build-a-bear. something similar at the nutrition retailer, gnc. weak profits and sales and they're going to be down what, 13%. liz, is this part of the general retail ice age? >> yes, it is. i don't know when it's going to thaw out for some of the players. because the companies have overbuilt. too many store locations, build-a-bear is parring back

and gnc is parring back. they're overloaded with a boatload of debt and driving them down and amazon taking them on. what a meeting of events. a confluence of events to take them out like this. ashley: to liz's point, the mall traffic dropped off significantly because of e-commerce and amazon. what struck me about build-a-bear earnings call, you know what? our website was not able to handle the traffic over the christmas holiday. i mean, my gosh, wouldn't you outraged as a shareholder in this day and age your website has to be-- >> hold on we've got breaking news coming to us here about an executive order from president trump that is coming, i think, next week. ashley: that's the word, that, yes, on extreme vetting, the immigrati immigration, may come next week, we don't know what the form and structure may be, but we open a new order next week. stuart: rachel duffy, wife of

sitting congressman from wisconsin. >> i thought the executive order would be what judge napolitano said, the executive order reversing barack obama. stuart: this is a live action presidency, nonstop. we've had tweets this morning and now we find there's going to be a new executive order next week on immigration, a big deal, ladies and gentlemen. big deal. >> it is a big deal. stuart: moving from there, remember the story about the catapult. i think we've got that. no, i'm going to do that later. okay? i want to get back to one of the big stories, andy puzder withdrawing as labor secretary. trey, welcome to the program, good to see you. i'm reading this as a blow to the administration because andy puzder was a champion against the $15 minimum wage and he was a champion against the overtime rule and i think we've all

taken a hit here. >> clearly, this is disappointing news. mr. puzder would have been a great labor secretary, a proven job creator and we needed to get rid of burdensome red tape that's stifling growth and job creation. they can't block every nomination and hopefully we can get a good nominee. stuart: look, the real reason why he had to withdraw is because he couldn't get the support of all republicans in the senate. there were a few who were wobbly. that's a problem. if you can force the withdrawal of a man like puzder from that position, i think that republicans have a problem, what say you? >> well, there have been good names floated out there, in particular, peter kershner, a former nlrb member, and questioned the benefits of some of the overreach of the obama administration, nlrb like the

joint employer rule. it's unfortunate puzder would have been a good choice, but-- >>, but do you think they're going to overcome republican, you know, republican opposition? because there is some opposition. can they overcome this? >> yeah, certainly they can. unfortunately, you know, big labor thinks they own the labor department and they're going to do everything they can to keep out someone like puzder who is from the business community and republicans need to have, you know, a better spine and push through, you know, good nominees. stuart: i like that. better have a better spine. trey, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. stuart: a doubling story for you, a double murder in chicago, a two-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man shot and killed, the whole thing was streamed live on facebook. it's a full story, we've got it for you after this. now on the next page you'll see a breakdown of costs.

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liberty mutual insurance >> now, this is a troubling story, it's a sign of the times story, i'm not sure what we can do about it. facebook live continues to be an outlook for gruesome crime. a double murder in chicago streamed live, live, as it's happening. you could see it.

rachel, with us this morning, you were one of the original reality tv stars. >> yeah. stuart: you couldn't see something like this coming down the pipe. i don't see how you stop it. >> you can't, these are people with no conscious, no moral and they're going to do what they're going to do and social media, we can track people because of what they've done, but this really-- >> facebook cannot stop it. i mean, you can't monitor what, a billion views a moment. ashley: no. stuart: you can't do that. you can't stop it. this is now part of our society. >> culture, yeah. stuart: it's going to happen again. and there's nothing you can do about this. >> just like you can't stop any other crime. this time it's on facebook. i think with this issue, by the way, the neighborhood this happened in, chicago, when there is no law and order, when our cops of vilified and the people who suffer are poor people. if this happened in our neighborhood, we'd love. if you're poor, you can't move and so this is really a crime

against people who are economically disadvantaged in the entire neighborhood in chicago. stuart: they better not sell ads. liz: that's the issue, we've got lawsuits against facebook saying you better not be making money off this stuff, gory violence. stuart: it's a new thing. ashley: but to rachel's point, it could happen to someone on the street, happening live on facebook. liz: facebook has self-reporting teams and you report it to the team and then they pull it down. stuart: we've got rachel with us. liz: too late with us. stuart: the wife of a wisconsin congressman. and trump will meet with early supporters from congress, like chris collins, what do you think is the purpose of the meeting. >> building support. and the last month, president trump will have these guys over, union people, he's had

manchin and democrats who are sensible. this is a guy to knows how to make relationships and. stuart: you stick with me. >> stick together and these guys are important people in the house and they're going to help build his team. stuart: andy puzder, he was going to be the labor secretary. he was out because he didn't get that much support from the white house and there were wobbly republicans. liz: at least a dozen of them. stuart: i'm not sure about this guy. you've got to come together as a group here and support the president. stuart: tell your husband. >> he is on board. stuart: rachel thank you. >> you got it. stuart: it's going to be another big day. the opening bell is moments away, we're only going to be

about three points, but 20,600, that's extraordinary stuff. you've got to sit back and watch history unfold. you'll see it right here after this. the future of business in new york state is already in motion. companies across the state are growing the economy, with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning, where the future is materializing. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov

>> every single day we open the show just at 9:00 and then

a few seconds before 9:30 we pose the question, can this extraordinary stock market rally continue? it's gone straight up over 2,200 points since election day, that's always the question at 9:30 eastern time weekdays, can this continue? here is the answer, it's 9:30, trading has begun and we're up 15 points, we're up 20 points. what on earth is going on here? ladies and gentlemen, we thought it was going to open down 20 or 30, it's opened up 15 to 20. the dow is now at 20,627. the gains in the indicator since election day. the dow and the nasdaq 12% higher and spf almost 10%. astonishing gains like you've never seen before. all this have despite extraordinary political turmoil that surrounds the white house and the entire administration.

investors don't seem to care. this morning we've got a story that intelligence officials deliberately withheld information from the president of the united states because they didn't trust him and andy puzder is out as labor secretary. and it seems that they don't care about inside baseball politics in washington. have i got it right, scott? >> you do. it goes in the face of as the kids say, haters. this is what the market loves, i tell you, you look at the promises that donald trump has thrown out there and look at the body language of the ceos he meets with, retail, industrial companies, automakers, they're all very positive about future economic growth, that's what's supporting the stock market. stuart: john, am i right in my analysis that investors don't care about the turmoil in washington? they will only care if it interrupts the pace and flow of

tax cuts and deregulation, what say you, john? >> i agree completely, and with what scott said as well. investors are worried about what's going to happen to the economy. all of this inside baseball stuff in washington d.c., while it's not good, it's not good politically, not necessarily good for our country, it doesn't have much effect on the economy, the question, can you build the bridge between the optimism of a perceived business friendly administration, to the tax cuts and the structural regulation reform? that's question is what investors are mulling right now. >> john, have you, like me, been astonished by this rally since election day? >> absolutely, yeah, look, you look at what ronald reagan had, october 28th, november 28th, he had the high in the market. he didn't reach that again until 1982. two years later, when rates started coming down. i thought there was going to be a euphoria, a pulse here and the market really seems to be taking off, which is fantastic. the question is, can we get those structural forms in time for the market to continue?

>> well said, john. let me draw your attention to snap. used to be called snapchat and now called snap. it's going public shortly in the future. it's going to raise-- it's putting the value of the company between 19 and $22 billion. it's going to go off between 14 and $16 per share. you think that's widely overvalued, liz. liz: the daily active user growth plummeted to levels not since since 2014 and it may never be profitable. they're doing the amazon way, plowing earnings back into the business, but i'm not sure, you may want to get into this when you want to when it falls, i think it falls like twitter did after the ipo. stuart: john, the same question, is snap going to be more like twitter or facebook? which is it? scott, you first. >> i think that e-mack is right, i think it's twitter. amazon, you made a comparison

they're plowing money back into the company and sacrificing earnings power just to plow money back in. but amazon is a system, amazon is a structure. snapchat is a structure, a service, an app. you look at the future and other things that companies will do to compete with them. that's not close to what amazon is able to do. >> would you buy it, john at $14 or $16 a share? >> i'm worried it will be like twitter. twitter can't make money, transformed the way we do live entertainment and the nielsen ratings are starting to include twitter ratings, it's so important. it can't ma i can money. if you have a president and uses twitter as a main means of communications and it can't make money, i'm worried that snapchat is the same. stuart: and one more ipo coming up, canada goose, the winter jackets, you see them everywhere, i've got one.

my family has got one. they're going to go public, i'm not sure when, but they're going public raising $100 million. would you buy one, buy the stock. ashley: to your point, everywhere you go, you see the patches on the arm. stuart: a red patch. ashley: and i saw a story in the u.k. and saw people with the jacket on. they're having worldwide succe success. they're not cheap, how long does that go on. stuart: i've got to ask john layfield who lives in bermuda, you're not going to buy canada goose. >> we've got this temperature and-- >> check the big board, we're coming off seven record highs for the dow this year and now we're up 20 points at 20,632, i've seen this movie before and i like it.

individual stocks making news, cabela's. they're a big retailer, of course, they're down this morning. weaker sales. i wonder if that's part of the retail ice age under threat from on-line selling? i'm not sure, but cabela's is down. better profits and hyatt, making money from franchising and fees, the stock is down 1%. mgm, profits falling short and takes it on the chin by a tune of 8% down. look at this, build-a-bear, it's called build-a-bear workshop, actually, 30% down today alone. kate spade shares up, why? because the company's up for sale. somebody might buy them at a higher stock price, up goes the stock. the vitamin store gnc, losing money. lori rothman at the new york stock exchange. are they the victim of the retail ice age or a special case? what is it?

>> retail ice age is a good way to put it. there's a fundamental shift to the way people are shopping. we're all going on-line. they're opening up a pop-up shop on amazon.com. that's part of the restructure. >> they were reporting a fourth quarter loss 143 million. came out with earnings, gnc did. they're ditching the dividend and doing restructuring and pop-up store on amazon as i mentioned and restructuring of pricing model. it's really bad. same-store sales for gnc, people are not shopping there. down 14%. stuart: they've got expensive real estate all over the place and i can buy stuff on-line. that's a problem i would say and the stock is reflecting that. lori, thanks so much. we're back to you later. boeing workers in south carolina voted against joining a union. that's not particularly affecting the stock, but it is up a fraction, 169 on boeing. ashley, what have you got. ashley: 75% voted no out of

3000 workers, so that was a very strong message. stuart: that's a surprise, isn't it. ashley: president trump is due, i believe, to visit that very plant on friday, interesting to see if he mentions the union vote. stuart: but the unions are on his side and they support him, for heaven's sake, how about that? how about this from warren buffett? he loves cheap airline stocks. i'm not sure which he's bought, but added to his portfolio substantially. john, would you be buying any airline at this point? >> i have been. i've been buying delta and american, a small dividend. most of the airlines are pricing as if fuel is going to 70, $80 a barrel and i think because of the west texas shale find, that you have a ceiling on that around $60 or something like that. i think they're off on projections of fuel prices. i agree with warren buffett and i do own delta and american. stuart: scott martin i lost my shirt on something called people express a generation ago and never touched airlines

since. are you an airline investor? >> i use today love people's express and i flew it all the time between dayton and columbus and stuart, i wish that airline was back. john is right, the airlines have been somewhat overdone. a lot of them are pretty expensive and betting on higher oil prices which i don't think they'll see and they're charging you for everything on board. they're making more money off you than they ever have. stuart: i don't think you're old enough to remember people's express. >> it's true, i've got pictures. ashley: pictures. [laughter] >> i want to see them. a serious story, it's awful. here is comes. a double murder in chicago streamed live on facebook. it doesn't affect the stock price, i'm not implying that for one second. but this is a hazard of modern technology. ashley: you can't stop it. we're live television, what would stop something from happening here? we have a delay, don't we? some sort of a delay if you suddenly started swearing. liz: a good point.

ashley: maybe they could enforce some delay on the video to stop this stuff from going out live. liz: some of the incidents stay on facebook live streaming for days and weeks, so, facebook says it has a team, a global team to stop it. the way it works, if you or i see it, report it to the team and then they pull it down. stuart: this stuff on twitter or hate on twitter, venom on twitter etrolls on twitter, hurt the stock. liz: it couldn't sell itself. stuart: could the same thing, what the streaming crime, could that hurt facebook stock? i mean, john, scott, you're with us. do you think it could hurt the stock, this kind of thing? >> yeah, it could because you give idiots a voice out there. they never had that voice before. they have access to a medium that has a million users. the murders are horrific, if it wasn't this, it would be a different platform. you can't blame facebook for that, but the fake news and trolls and idiots get on facebook and it's hurting the companies. stuart: the world in which we

live. thank you for joining us, always appreciate us. the dow industrials at a new high as of right now. we've got ann in-- gain, look at that 20, 629 as of right now. extraordinary. two main items on the agenda for republicans, first, repealing and replacing obamacare, second, tax reform. question, why can't they get both done at the same time? that's a question we will ask. elon musk tweets opposition to president trump's immigration orders and then he deletes it. find out why, what's his explanation for that. that's next.

>> still in record territory. the dow industrials now up 13 points. not much of a gain, but a gain nonetheless and we're at 20,623. look at wendy's for a moment please. people like the value meals. sales went up and the stock is down nearly 5%. we'll try to explain that for you. less money coming in, at trip advisor. fewer people signing up and taking it on the chin. trip advisor down 7%. look at this tweet, originally from elon musk. i'm going to read it to you. the blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily muslim countries is not the best way to address the country's challenges. that was a tweet from elon musk, basically critical of

president trump, then he deleted it. entirely. got rid of that tweet. why did he do that. liz: he's saying i accidentally published it and contradicting himself saying at the same time, i went to that white house meeting 'cause he is on that president's panel, right, and he said, i brought up the travel ban to have it talked about at that meeting and saying that spacex and tesla joined the number of tech companies in that amicus brief against the immigration ban. he's kind of contradicting himself. stuart: not sure what side he's on. ashley: how do you accidentally write something like that and send it? doesn't make any-- >> don't ask me, i've done something like that. liz: it was a three-part tweet. stuart: not funny. ashley: really. [laughter] >> couple of items on obamacare. humana pulling out of the exchanges entirely by 2018. humana gone. the ceo of aetna says the health care is in a death

spiral, his word, death spiral. come on in, if obamacare is in a death spiral as the gentleman says it is, congress has to act on it first before the tax cut, isn't that the unpleasant and unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in, that right? >> well, clearly, stuart, the republicans have boxed themselves in and by setting up this scenario where they had to do obamacare first, then the tax cut plan, but maybe the humana pulling out of obamacare is the catalyst they need to get obamacare replacement over the finish line and then move on to tax reform. stuart: how long is it going to take? you have to have legislation to get rid of all of obamacare, it has to wind its way through congress. it's going to be opposed at every turn. there's no way you can just do this like that. you can't do that. >> some are talking they can get something done by easter which would be an encouraging

move and set the stage for tax reform next. stuart: there's always this suggestion that you can do both at the same time. i don't think you can, can you? >> no, and it's really the way that they've set up the budget rules, they have to do obamacare under the 2017 budget before they move on to do tax reform under the 2018 budget. so, they really have boxed themselves in, and it's really unfortunate because they should be able to do two things at once. stuart: well, president trump talked about tax cuts yesterday. roll tape, please. >> in addition to reducing government regulations, we'll reform our tax code to help middle income families and american businesses grow and thrive and tax reform is one of the best opportunities to impact our economy. so we're doing a massive tax plan, it's coming along really well, it will be submitted in the not too distant future and

it will be not only good and simpler, it will be, you're talking about big numbers of savings. >> when that news came out yesterday, scott. the market went straight up. the president is really priming that stock market pump there. >> tax reform really needs the bully pulpit of the white house to get it over the finish like, much like we saw in 1986 when ronald reagan really pushed tax reform through the congress and i'm very encouraged by this, but the interesting thing is, will the trump plan be a lot like the plan that he ran on last fall or will he move a little closer to the plan that's now moving forward in the house of representatives by chairman brady? >> look, you're on the inside of this. the republicans are split, aren't they? >> very much so. just as-- it's interesting, they're split on health care and they're split on tax reform and you would think that they'd be able to get themselves together and really push this legislation. but they are paralyzed right now and both of those very, very important issues.

stuart: in all honesty, scott, when do you expect to see the details of the tax cut plan, when? >> well, the president's going to be speaking to congress on february 28th and i'm hoping that he releases the details by then and makes that is central part of his national address. stuart: am i right in saying that when we know the details, if the president says i'm going to do this, this and this, at that point businesses and individuals can act on the expectation of the tax cut? can they not? >> i'd be very cautious. we have a long way to go until we can-- until he signs in the rose garden that final tax reform bill. stuart: okay, scott. the market is looking for a tax reform bill soon. and you're telling us, it's going to take a while, and that market rally has faded. see what you did, scott? see what you did? dear lord. >> thank you, scott. we like your expertise.

check the dow, barely in positive territory, quite a few green arrows, about evenly split winners and losers, and just a fraction. the media is piling on president trump, headline in workout post, trump unfit to serve. more on this in a moment. washington post.

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>> there's a mattress maker-- no, not a mattress maker. they don't make them. the temper sealy-- i believe they sell them. they distribute the things. liz: that was very melodic of you. >> the stock is up 6%. i don't know what they did. but there's a downgrade, a angie's list, down. and now this, the mainstream media is pouring on its contempt in the attack lines against president trump. three recent headlines, washington post, look at this, why do smart people in the white house do stupid things? because trump tells them to. congress can take back power from the president, here is how. and here is the ultimate, admitted, trump is unfit to serve. that, liz, is extreme language and i think dan rather is talking about it being worse

than watergate. liz: thomas friedman is saying the election victory equating it to 9/11 and pearl harbor. it's bad to be cozying up to putin, and john mccain is right. but to talk to each other in the new york-d.c. bubble and talking to each other and coming up with crazy of headlines. thousands of people died in 9/11 and thousands of people died in pearl harbor, it's ridiculous. ashley: also, it's wrong to compare his presidency, all one month of it or less to horrific events, pearl harbor, 9/11, how dare you make the comparisons, they hated him on the campaign trail and they're so upset he won they're doing what they can to up end him. making suggestions he's unfit and what are they suggesting now? >> it's not four weeks since the president took office. liz: they're talking about impeaching him.

stuart: four weeks tomorrow. how about that. it's nationwide protest day, in fact, a day without immigrants. well, i'm an immigrant and i'm at work, and i'm staying. my take on that at the top of the hour. ange... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. i'm connecting so we can share our amazing trading knowledge.

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stuart: let's be clear. president trump wants to deport criminal illegal aliens. you come here illegally, commit a felony, this president wants you out. that is the president's position. it is being distorted, deliberately, by the left. witness today's day without immigrants. it is a nationwide effort to get anyone foreign-born to stay home from work, close their businesses. you are not even allowed to go shopping. clearly an anti-trump protest. the intention is ton fuse the immigration issue. the left is trying to portray our president opposed to all immigrants.

they suggest america is anti-immigrant. obviously that is not the case. this great country admits legally, fully-documented one million immigrant a year. every year. more than all other countries combined but that doesn't stop the left. they are desperately trying to hold on to their base. if that means distorting the very nature of our country, so be it. they don't care. i'm an immigrant. i'm at work. i'm staying at work. and i will do serious shopping. i will spend some serious money, believe it or not. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: get back to reality, please. the immigrants are still here.

we are still working. okay, got that right. now we got breaking news. we have mortgage rates. ashley: we do indeed. 30-year fixed. coming in at 4.15%. down a tick or two, down from 4.11 the week before. there you go. we were in the 3% range for quite some time, even 4.15% pretty darn good. stuart: i would say so. ashley: we look back to the old days, 18, 19% in the '80s. stuart: 12 1/2% in 190's on a house in san francisco. that was first thousand i bought. i thought i got a bargain. those are the days. check the big board. we're down, 11, 12 points. it is around 20,600. check all the big tech names that is the where the money flowing. microsoft owns some of it. close to 65. alphabet, google, 836.

netflix down a fraction, 141. i want to get back to today's day without immigrants protest. immigrants across the country, anybody foreign-born, anybody, stay home from school or work and don't open your business. not supposed to go shopping. all of this to show the president how critical immigrants are to the economy. many forget, however, the record number of immigrants deported by president obama. how many? >> 2.5 million during his presidency. barack obama was called the deporter in chief, as a matter of fact. he deported more immigrants in his tenure then all u.s. presidents of the 20th century, combined. he put out an edict when he first began deportations make sure they have criminal records. guess what that? that didn't happen. in fiscal year 2013 syracuse university did full study of all deported immigrants. 12% committed crimes.

just 12%. he was actually deporting those that had done nothing wrong. stuart: where were the demonstrators? >> exactly. stuart: where were they saying obama is anti-up my grant and america is anti-immigrant? i don't remember that. >> president trump, i believe unfairly targeted. a lot of these raids in particular in los angeles we heard from immigration customs officials say they were preplanned. donald trump did not order in tick -- in particular those l.a. raids. ashley: just enforcing the law. just enforcing the law. stuart: drumming up anti-trump hysteria. from the "washington examiner," let's bring in lisa booth. >> hi, stuart. stuart: you heard what we say about this immigrant stay home day, whatever it is called, i think this is deliberate attempt i about the left to obscure the immigration debate.

our president is not he opposed to immigration. he is opposed to illegal criminal aliens. not immigration. this is deliberate distorturings. >> absolutely right. another day of outrage here in america which is standard operating procedure for way things are done especially by the media. look at accounts of immigration protest going on. they talk about immigration. they're not differentiating between illegal immigration. the desire to deliberately skew the coverage and skew the debate. as cheryl pointed out president obama deported 2.5 million illegal immigrants from the country. president trump is looking to follow the law doing that. stuart: i think maybe the left feels the hispanic vote in particular is slipping away. if president trump is successful, creates a lot of jobs in america, taken by many

hispanic immigrants, maybe those immigrants drift to the republican party. i think immigrants are doing everything they can to stop that drift. >> i certainly think the left has politics on their mind in regards to the -- they try to win by stoking fear and utilizing this demagoguery. also to cheryl's point, regarding the l.a. crackdown, there was a report by cbs los angeles 150 of those illegal up my grants had criminal histories including child sex offenses and violent offenses as well. both of those individuals who were deported have committed egregious crimes. stuart: lisa, do you think this hysterical political situation there is in washington at the moment, i think that is accurate, this political hysteria, do you think that reaches most people, most voters? are they taking note of this and acting accordingly? are they? >> i think some does to an extent.

but i think a lot of people see through it. the problem what is going on with the media, when there is outrage over every single thing that is happening, outrage by the left over every single thing that is happening, they lose credibility in the eyes of average americans sitting home, you can't possibly be outraged over everything. i actually think, disadvantage for the media and the left to continue this way of just mass hysteria over every single thing president trump does, everything he says, every person that he surrounds himself. literally everything, every single day throughout the day. it is just getting absolutely ridiculous. stuart: okay, lisa booth, we hear you. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: we brought you some news earlier this morning about the president planning a new executive order coming from the president. okay, ashley, what's it about and when does it come about? ashley: that is with we like to know. new executive order on immigration travel restrictions.

he. stuart: we don't know -- ashley: it was replacement for the one rushed out be honest first time around. maybe it will have more clarity. stuart: and get through the courts. >> judge napolitano made that point to you, that he should have consulted a team of attorneys before he put the first executive order. that is where he went wrong. stuart: if this executive order is replacement for the bungled one first time around. gets rid of all those lawsuits are outstanding,0 of them across the country, gets rid of them. >> the court -- ashley: there will be mo are legal challenges. the way it goes. stuart: live action presidency. there you have it. ashley: yes. stuart: our next guest joins us now, wrote a column earlier this week, time for trump to hit the campaign trail. he is doing that. at 5:00 eastern time on saturday afternoon the president will hold a rally, plan to be a very large rally at an airport in orlando.

from the "washington examiner," byron york is with us now. byron, this was your suggestion. take some credit. why do you think the president is doing this? why do you think he should do this. >> i think he is probably doing it for the reasons i wrote about which is, look, he has accomplished quite a bit so far. he has been in an executive action phase in this presidency but look what he has done through executive action. he eased obamacare regulations. made significant changes in immigration enforcement. not what you were talking about overseas terrorist immigration but with immigration at the border and in the interior. he has gotten the united states out of the trans-pacific pipeline. he has done a bunch of stuff. each day it just seems to come in a fire hose of actions and controversies and tweets. i really lost, i think focus on some of the things that he actually did. so, it seems to me it would be a good idea for the president to

actually go out and try to build public support for the things that he has done. and try to build public support for this legislation. he will ultimately be sponsoring about things like obamacare and taxes. stuart: do you think that the country is concerned about this political firestorm that has hit washington, d.c.? is it seeping outside of the beltway and having any impact across the country? >> maybe half the country is, the half that didn't vote for donald trump. if you look at polls, fox news polls trump approval, it was 48-47. another, several other polls have been very, very similar. basically i think the people who voted for donald trump are with donald trump. the people who didn't vote for him are not with him. so i think as far as the press frenzy that we have seen over the whole russia issue -- stuart: i don't think it is getting through, byron. i don't. >> the facts -- stuart: if you still have

approval rating near 50% after this kind of firestorm been going on now for over three weeks, you're doing something right. the public is not listening to the media and what is going on. >> the public will listen if there are actual facts of the case that are very damaging for trump but what we've seen, we saw in the "new york times" a couple days ago we saw, big, slash think headline, alarmest-sounding paragraphs. they said they have no evidence of any cooperation. i think unless there are actual facts to build up the case against trump it is not catching on in the public and it should not except if there are those facts. stuart: i want to hear about tax cuts and deregulation, when the president speaks saturday afternoon, can you make sure that is happening, byron york? >> they're not listening to me. stuart: byron, thanks for joining us,. >> thanks, stuart.

stuart: go back to rather crazed story. you know what that is? any guesses? ashley: we know. stuart: maybe our viewers don't. it is a catapult. it was found on the border of mexico. this is used to cat at that bundles of drugs into florida. it is made of tubing, that thing, arizona. made of tubing and heavy springs, welded together attached to the top of the border fence. found nearby, two bags of marijuana weighing nearly 50-pound. we thought you would like to no. ashley: raining marijuana. stuart: you can catapult over the wall. congressional leaders making their way to the white house to talk to the president. live action presidency continues. we'll be right back.

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stuart: i will update story originally i thought was blown wait out of proportion. that russian ship trolling along the eastern seaboard, spying on us. where is it now, cheryl? >> they parked at hudson dock. they're coming over to visit. i'm kidding. they're heading south. as of last night fox news reported the ship is heading south. outside of norfolk, virginia. that is where the u.s. navy fleet is based but probably heading back to havana harbor. that is where the ship was based last year. they're in international waters. they're not doing anything. stuart: been there for years. >> they're probably heading back to havana. stuart: the media plays it up, the russians are right on our doorstep, spying on us! >> come on over and visit but they didn't.

stuart: check out the big board. very, very small decline at the moment. we're down four points. 20,600. ,. i have developments what we call the retail ice age, retail in real trouble. build-a-bear, they're in malls. sales down, profits down. the stock is it off what, 28%. same story at gnc. weak profit. they're in malls. retail ice age, a nutrition maker down 14%. check this out from the front page of "the wall street journal" this morning, it's a report that claims intelligence officials are withholding information from president trump because they don't trust him. he is the president of the united states. they don't trust him. the director of national intelligence, i should say the acting director, is downplaying this report saying it is not true. given that, notwithstanding that, let's bring in republican iowa, congressman steve king.

congressman, i say, i said very clearly this morning, i think the administration being sabotaged from within. what say you? >> i do. i think they're pushing back on him in many, many ways especially the intelligence community. to have all the stories coming out and leaking out. now one of course with regard to general flynn, but this specific topic was in the "wall street journal," to think that the intelligence community could withhold even classified information from the briefings we get to the president of the united states. one of the reasons why i voted against the legislation that set up the director of national intelligence, at least in theory he is the gatekeeper on testimony against the president gets to hear. there is a lot of power in the position. we don't have dan coats confirmed yet. it is a double vulnerability. i think the president needs to purge out of the intelligence community any moles can be identified. there are patriots to do that for him. stuart: very difficult thing to do. this sabotage leaking is

illegal, flat-out illegal. so the president had every right to find out just who did this. i want to move to another subject which is the border tax. that is the border adjustment tax, 20% on everything comes into the country. you say it is not going to happen. why do you say that? >> well, i just looked at imports coming in from mexico and multiplied it by .2, steve king and stuart varney would come up with the number. that is $54 billion. that would build the wall, three, four, five times every year. we don't need that much money. for one thing. starts a trade war. i would like tax remittances, 60 billion transferred south of the border. other thing jim sensenbrenner brought up. resources confiscated moving in on drug dealers, put that into all the border finances. a lot of ways to finance the border but don't need to start a trade war. stuart: regardless of rights or

wrongs of the border tax, i don't think the votes are there in congress to push it through. do you think they have got the votes? i don't think so. >> i don't think the votes will be there. this congress still remains predominantly freedom of trade house of representatives. we've had litigation back and forth on nafta. we lost that a few times. we're sensitive to that. we want to keep trade open. we want to build a worder, i say a wall and a fence to secure this border. as president trump said he wants wide gates. i'm fine with widening gates increasing efficiency so there are not long legal lines coming back into america. let's cut off all the contraband, $60 billion worth of illegal drugs coming into america, that happens to match remittances going the other way. stuart: interesting. steve king, congressman, republican from iowa. thanks for joining us, sir. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: i will go back to the

dramatic, this is dash-cam video. this is not dash-cam video. that is the white house, okay? here is the dash-cam video. it is from texas. a rookie cop used his squad car, watch this, push a burning car, truck, actually away from the drive-thru window. this is from his dash-cam. he is pushing that thing away from the drive through window from a fast-food outlet. that copies a rookie. he risked himself. he got the truck away from -- glen heights, is that the name of the police officer? ashley: glenn heights police department. stuart: glenn heights police department. i'm so new to america. only been here 40 years. check out the white house. have a look at that. get to that. 10:30 eastern time, which is ten minutes away. a meeting begins with president trump and lawmakers. i believe it is largely pubs

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stuart: we've got breaking news on president trump's pick for the supreme court. that is judge neil gorsuch. chairman? >> confirm hearings on march 20th. get out the popcorn. this will be one heck of a fight of course, to replace antonin scalia. stuart: that is the senate judiciary committee. >> that panel begins confirmation hearings for gorsuch. we got the date the hearings begin. it will be fiery. stuart: how many millions of dollars spent on opposition

research looking into every aspect of neil gorsuch? tens of millions. >> probably so. stuart: we have this. president trump calling on largely conservative news organizations during his news conferences and including the press conference with prime minister netanyahu. mr. trump take as question from a christian broadcasting network reporter before any reporters from the mainstream media. watch this. >> thank you, mr. president, mr. prime minister. both of you have criticized iran nuclear deal and at times even called for its repeal. i'm wondering if you're concerned at all as it relates not just national security advisor michael flynn who is recently no longer here but also some events going on with communication of russia, if that is going to hamper this deal at all, and whether or not it would keep iran from becoming a nuclear state. secondly on the settlement issue are you both on the same page. how do you term that as it

relates to settlement issue, thank you. stuart: the point was not the question asked by the christian broadcasting network, the point is the president chooses to call on relatively conservative news organizations. the response to that, him calming on conservatives, response from cnn oh, they said the fix is in. watch this. >> when the last three news conferences wolf, all of the questions to the american news media have been handled by conservative press. and i think wolf, there is no other way to describe it, but the fix is in. stuart: that was jim acosta. >> jim chaos at that from cnn. stuart: wasn't the guy who was rude to our president? he would not shut up. >> he was trying to scream a question and the president ignored him. but he kept screaming during that joint news conference between benjamin netanyahu and donald trump. also jim he chaos at that who at trump tower when president-elect trump, that was screaming and i mean screaming at donald trump. and so now they're saying the

fix is in. john king, another anchor on cnn, followed up later this is white house in crisis. the american people have questions. those questions are not being answered. i guess cn nrepp cents the american people and their opinion. stuart: ashley, do you think that the president should call on "the new york times" and cbs, cnn, msnbc, occasionally? ashley: he could. that is within his remit. should he? i don't think so. i mean does he want to avoid those people? how long can it go on? some point you have to take them on. stuart: but he is punishing them right now. ashley: making his point. i get it. do they deserve it? no. >> he is punishing jim acosta. this is personal. donald trump went after a nbc reporter for months on the campaign trail. he felt she treated him with animosity. so i'm not surprised this is a little hostile right now. stuart: be careful, insulting president trump. ashley: yes, bottom line. stuart: happening in just a few

moments, congressional leaders meet with the president at the white house. we'll cover it for you in just a moment. ♪

stuart: as of right now president trump is meeting in the white house with congressional leaders. we'll bring you any news that emerges from that. there are other meetings taking place later on today. again we'll bring you the news from this live action presidency. at this point it has not had an impact on the stock market, although the stock market is not declining after a series of record runs.

it is now beginning to move a fraction higher, four points higher. but look at that level! 20,617. some individual stocks are moving, cabela's for a start. they have huge stores, outdoor retailer basically. they're down. sales in trouble. maybe they're getting an online challenge, maybe but the stock is down big-time. kate spade makes shoes and handbags. >> the handbags are my favorite. stuart: the company put itself up for sale. the stock has popped. we check amazon every single day, usually almost every day there is news on amazon. there is no news today. nonetheless the stock is at 844. that is only 10 bucks shy of its all-time high. how about this? defense secretary-general mattis issued an ultimatum to nato, telling our allies they must increase defense spending by year's end, or the trump administration will moderate its

commitment to them. lt. general thomas mcinerney is here. we were told president trump doesn't like nato or stab it in the back or change it. that is not what is happening here, general. basically mr. trump is saying you have to spend some money to defend yourselves because we're not doing it forever, am i right? >> you're spot on. stuart, trump really likes nato but they have a lot of freeloaders there, and he did the right things. he is a negotiator. he set the tone during the campaign. he means business. they have got to start paying their fair share and stop living off our la jess. that is not un-- largess. that is not unreasonable. stuart: am i right in saying germans sent some troops to afghanistan they had a proviso, we'll send them but they can't fight at night? i think that is true. >> that is true. they put in rules of engagement unrealistic and not even worth sending them there. he is trying to get them, to get

in the real world, understand what the threat is, do their fair share. they must do that. that is what nato needs and it will survive because of trump's leadership. stuart: how do you feel, however, as a general, yourself, how do you feel about rearmament in germany, bearing in mind the history of the last century? >> i feel very good. they have got to do that. during the cold war the germans were really our strongest ally over there and had the largest force structure. stuart: yeah. >> they went down, they disarmed like we have done. we have disarmed ourselves. people don't really understand it. you can talk about numbers but our in commission rates are terrible. i have no problem. i had five tours in germany and i know they can handle it but they must stand up and be the strong player in western europe. stuart: one more for you. "the wall street journal" reports that intelligence officials have been withholding information from our president because they don't trust him.

we should say that the acting director of national intelligence is downplaying that report, but nonetheless, it is on the front page of "the wall street journal." i have been saying that amounts to sabotage of our president. what say you? >> well it is treason if it is true. it is certainly trying to sabotage. i believe the obama administration left a lot of trap doors behind that got mike flynn and did other things that are going on right now, that the president needs to get his inspector generals. we need to look into it thoroughly. we need to get rid of all those people and identify people who took actions against, and set up general flynn. stuart: real fast, general. i want a sound bite from the press conference yesterday or the meeting yesterday between benjamin netanyahu and our president. lots of this. >> as far as settlements i would like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit. we'll work something out but i would like to see a deal be made.

i think a deal will be made. let's see what we do. >> let's try. >> doesn't sound too optimistic -- [laughter] good negotiator. >> that's "the art of the deal." stuart: the president pressed him nicest possible way, didn't he? >> he did but the fact the president hasn't dealt with hamas and the palestinians, who will not even acknowledge israel's right to exist. the fact is, if we don't play hard ball with them and make them stand up, we ought to cut off all the funding and really lock them down. they are a problem. bibi netanyahu knows how to handle them. he ought, the president should listen to bibi's views. stuart: general, you speak in sound bites. that is why you're very popular on television. you speak right to the point. you phrase it just right. lieutenant thomas -- lt. general, i'm sorry downgrading a you fraction. lt. general tom mcinerney. always a pleasure. appreciate it. >> thankoustuart.

stuart: our next guest is the former walmart usa ceo, and wait for it? he supports the border tax. welcome to the program, bill simon. i am surprised sir. walmart, you're a former walmart guy, top guy at walmart and you support the idea of a 20% tax on everything that comes across the border, much of which is sold in walmart stores, and you're for this tax? >> well, it is good to be with you, stuart, yeah, the devil is in the detail like everything but the current tax code is structured, the way it is structured has resulted in a massive migration of jobs, manufacturing jobs in particular to, to countries outside of the u.s. and a simple restructure of the tax code to equalize the playing field would result in, in expansion of u.s. manufacturing, something that i'm very, very passionate about. now as i said, devil is in the

detail, and implementation have to be very precise, so we don't unintentionally harm industries like apparel where there is capability in the u.s. at this point and retail in general would need to have some implementation period so companies could figure out how to go forward but it is an idea has merit. stuart: but your ideas are not shared by the ceo's of other major bricks and mortar retailers, are they? they are almost unanimously opposed to that. >> i understand that that is short-term thinking. they deal with the world as they know it today, and they have to because of the constraints of their board and their fiduciary responsibility but they're making decisions based on the tax code as it is set up today and what is being proposed is a complete reform of the tax code where incentives to export jobs and export businesses that have existed for years would be,

would be turned around so that incentives to build capability and jobs in the u.s. would exist. it would take them some time. we would need an implementation period so that retail wouldn't be adversely impacted but long term that is where we need to go in the country. stuart: okay. bill, we are somewhat surprised you support a border tax when most retailers do not. let me ask you about andy puzder, who is no longer in line to be the labor secretary. he was very much opposed to the minimum wage going up to $15 an hour. he was very much opposed to overtime rule. are you, where do you stand on andy puzder? do you think i would have made a good labor secretary? >> well i do. stuart: that is unusual. >> i don't know the details of his, you know his circumstances and i'm sure he withdrew for appropriate reasons but the minimum wage discussion is exactly the opposite of the border adjustment discussion. if you want to create a healthy, robust, economic environment in

the u.s., raising minimum wage in and of itself will actually be a job reduction effort, and, what we really need in the u.s., is to see starting wage go up organically. when i was at walmart, my response would be, i would love to pay $15 an hour to start if that is what the market would bear. that would mean the economy was growing, that we had 3 or 4% gdp growth and labor was scarce and i needed to pay a $15 an hour. that would moment our business is terrific. stuart: if you were ceo of walmart, still running walmart usa you could not say what you are saying now, could you? >> no, probably not. stuart: you couldn't. you don't have the freedom of speech if you're the ceo of a publicly-traded company, you can not say what you think. you can't do that. >> it's difficult, it's difficult and i think ceos try to express their views but fundamentally they have a fiduciary responsibility to the

company they work for and their shareholders and today i don't have that sort of responsibility, which is why i take the opportunity to come and speak with you as often as i can. stuart: that is why you're on this program. you can speak your mind. you can tell us what you really think. i don't want to digress too much. this is the key reason why i do not invite that many ceo's of publicly-traded companies on to this program. you can't get anything out of them. they can't say anything without fear of a lawsuit. it is pointless. don't need them. >> well i think that's right. i haven't -- having been in at that role it is understandable. they have a responsibility to their shareholders. we're not talking about, we're talking about my view what is in the best long-term interest of this country and we need jobs and robust manufacturing base to get those jobs and i'm willing to consider everything including border adjustment. stuart: and your views and everything you did at walmart are appreciated on this program.

good stuff. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: oh, look at this. the dow jones average started to it move. here we go. up 25 points as we speak. 20,637. left-hand side of your screen, a meeting now going on between president trump and his early republican supporters in congress. wonder if there is any relationship between the two? live action presidency, live action news, stock market rally. we'll be back. ♪ guyhey nicole, happening here? this is my new alert system for whenever anything happens in the market. kid's a natural. but thinkorswim already lets you create custom alerts for all the things that are important to you. shhh. alerts on anything at all? not only that, you can act on that opportunity with just one tap right from the alert. wow, i guess we don't need the kid anymore.

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♪ ashley: and now this, foreign-born workers in the u.s. are being urged to join a protest called, the day without immigrants. don't work, state at home. in opposition to president trump's immigration policy. fox business's rachel campos duffy had this to say about it. >> there is effort to conflate legal and illegal, felons with hard-working people who are here just to work. listen, it's a problem though. we know, for example, the "milwaukee journal sentinel," we think nearly half of all dairy workers, workers in the dairy industry in wisconsin are illegal. so they do have an impact. we have an immigration problem. we need to address labor needs

in many of these industries. stuart: we're not anti-immigrant. >> absolutely not. stuart: we're not anti-immigrant. that is absolute nonsense. >> the irony, if you want solution to immigration which we need --

stuart: live action presidency. you watch it on this program. inside of the white house right now president trump meeting with republicans, his earliest supporters in congress. we'll bringing you the news. more breaking news we brought you this hour. fox news reporting president

trump will sign a new executive order on immigration later this week. congressman louie gohmert is here. congressman, is this going to be a replacement for the original executive order on immigration that was bungled with its introduction? do you know this? >> well, i don't think it is going to be a replacement. it is going to be a stand-alone executive order. and i haven't heard for sure what he is going to do but i was encouraging him to do a new executive order right after the court said what they did. and the only bungling though it was way it was rolled out. you got to admit, the white house was in a bit of a bind. if they give notice that we're going to roll this out slowly, so beware, then isis made clear they will be getting everybody they can in, in the window they had. so, there were, what, over 100 to whom we owe apologies,

administration owes apologies, but, if there had been 1000 isis radical islamists coming in, then they would be owed a lot more than apologies. stuart: next week, the new one comes out we are told at least. on this day without immigrants. >> yeah. stuart: okay. >> well, you wouldn't be doing fox, i wouldn't be doing this interview. my great-grandfather came over in 1870 and he never had slaves. he came over with $20 and didn't speak english. in 25 years he built one of the nicest houses still there and he learned english and worked his tail off. amazing you can do well in america doing those two things. thank god for immigrants. stuart: can we make something clear here? >> sure. stuart: i don't think president trump opposes immigration. >> of course not.

stuart: he opposes illegal immigrants who commits felonies and he wants to deport them. >> he does want, he grasps if you don't enforce rules, he knows this from business, if you don't enforce the rules across the board, then you're going to have chaos, whether it's a business or country. that is still the case. and for anybody to be saying he is anti-immigrant and then make fun of his immigrant wife, they're either nuts or, so without conscience, that they're beyond hope. this doesn't mean they're deplorables and can't be redeemed, because everybody can be redeemed. stuart: precisely. >> except for a couple of people i had to sentence. most of them can be redeemed. stuart: that is why you're popular. you have got a sense of humor. people on the left never have a sense of humor. maybe that is sweeping statement. cheryl is turning up her nose.

>> i don't think they do. why comedians, jay leno is last week, he was hilarious. he came to tyler. he what jerry seinfeld said, you can't do colleges anymore because people are so up tight and so afraid of being politically incorrect and can't relax and laugh at themselves, enjoy themselves like colleges used to be a place you could do that. stuart: well this immigrant is working today, all day. and i will be doing a lot of shopping and all the rest of it. and i will help this economy along. >> maybe it is good for the economy. you're out spending money. that will be a good thing because they will be helping other people's employment. so i would encourage all people that are immigrant, that feel they have been dealt unfair hand, go buy something as we know, money can buy happenness but can make misery a lot more tenable. >> i like that. i will steal that off of you,

louie. louie gohmert. thank you, sir. market turned around. we were up 25 points. now we're down 11. at the white house the meeting continues with congressional republicans. no news from that meeting but when it does you will hear it first. back in a moment. what if we could stop the next epidemic before it happens? what if technology gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? mosquitoes are the ultimate field biologists, taking blood samples from every animal they bite. microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and study the dna they collect. using the microsoft cloud, we can analyze over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample,

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stuart: on this program i indeed described president trump's administration somewhat chaotic. some of our viewers are not happy about this. here are some of your comments. first of all, from barbara. mr. varney, please stop. you keep up diatribe about chaos. if you and others keep this crap up about chaos, the dems get what they want. donald trump actually works unlike most politicians who just talk. works means chaos, question mark? alexander writes this, somehow moving with some sense of urgency is called chaos by those who have no idea of a working president. steven says, mr. varney, you talk about chaos in the white house because the president is go, go, go, and action, action. last one from andrea, i don't sense chaos from the administration. i sense action. big difference. my position is that there is a political firestorm surrounding the white house and there is a degree of problems within the white house.

that is my point. ashley: two things, they are absolutely right he is action, action, president which i love said he would do and he did it. mistakes along the way did not help him. rolling out of the immigration travel restriction was done too quickly. not everyone was onboard or knew what was happening. i think the general flynn situation, he lied to the vice president. that also caused problem which distracted president what he wants to do and get on with his policies in place. stuart: heaven for bid, i call chaos, difficulties in the white house, belied over into the president's legislative schedule for tax cuts. liz: i hear what viewers are saying. you don't want that to sap political cap he needs to do tax cuts and obama care reform. who will grab leadership to shepherd that through congress? there is "game of thrones" action happening behind the scenes according to an economist. there are worries here. does he feel like unhinged ferris wheel careening down the ocean as i said? you don't want to feel like

that. ashley: the liberal media, they smell blood in the water go for it 100 times. do we ignore it? i don't think we can ignore it to the viewers points. stuart: this is live action news program covering a live action president. there is a action, action. that is very true. all right, everyone. we'll be right back.

♪

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of silver last year at their 2 mexican mines. their recent mine acquisition in peru, once fully operational, stands to increase their production up to 75 percent. great panther silver . stuart: yes, an explosive stock rally. never seen anything like it. confidence is rising. there are signs of growth in the economy. all of this, despite a political firestorm that seems to have consumed this administration. the trump team is running into sabotage from government bureaucrats. it's been slapped down by the courts. two cabinet picks gone. and the wall street journal says intelligence agents are with holding information from the president because they don't trust him. all of that, and we've still seen an extraordinary run up in stock prices.

the dow is up over 2,200 points just since the election. that's unheard of. point number one. investors expect serious economic growth in the future. second, they don't care about inside baseball political moving. third. at this point, i don't think politics will interfere with the president's goal of growing the economy. surely, if they did think that tax cuts and deregulation were truly threatened, this market would sell off in a heartbeat. there may be intense, emotional, and very public opposition to this president. but investors are ignoring it. wall street is issue a vote of confidence in president trump. and the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ . stuart: breaking news. big news. we're just finding out that president trump will hold a

news conference today at the white house. 12:00 noon. 59 minutes from now a presidential presser. this was not scheduled until this morning. what's going on? ashley: well, we were just speculating. but apparently he's going to announce his new pick for secretary of labor after andy pulled out and resigned. that's what we're getting from him. whether he'll expand into other areas, we don't know. he will announce the new secretary. stuart: will he take questions from the new york times, cbs -- ashley: probably not. stuart: msnbc. i wonder. it's described as a press conference. ashley: yes. stuart: that means he opens up to questions of all times, as opposed to just making an announcement. ashley: we'll have to see. stuart: we'll carry it. that's for sure. no impact from the news. the dow is down 30 odd points holding at 20,574. a couple of individual stocks. you know these stocks. you know these companies, and they're way down.

if i first off gnc, the nutrition retailer, retail ice age, gnc stock is down what? 6.5%. let's get back to what i was saying at the top of the hour. steve forbes is with us. forbes media editor in chief. look, there is political turmoil in the white house. i mean, it's a firestorm of politics there. but i'm saying investors don't care. how else do you explain that we've got a 20,600 dow? are you with me? >> well, the key thing is, and i hope this is a wake-up call to the white house, go with that tax cut. don't put it off until summertime. if you put it off until summertime, make it clear that you're going to make it retroactive to january 1st. if you get a good sales tax through, you'll see this market go up another couple thousand points. stuart: if investors thought that this tax cut was going to be delayed and delayed and delayed, that market would evaporate. it would go straight down.

so the fact that it's staying at the 20,500 level, surely indicates that a tax cut is going to come on time. >> well, three weeks ago the president said he was going to unveil fairly soon a big tax cut proposal, and that boosts the market up. you remember for a few weeks it was just treading water. he makes that statement, gets in a upward surge. so for this press conference today, he indicates that they may put this tax cut effective date 2018. boom. stuart: yes. but if he says, no, i'm sticking with it, you'll get the tax plan, see what's in it in two or three weeks, if he says that again, the market will have some stability underneath it. >> absolutely. and they're counting on that profits tax going from 15 to 20%. stuart: this stock market rally is all about the president's legislative schedule. that's what it's about, isn't it? >> and the stock market to cart from the fact they got rid of a lot of bad regulations, which shows they're serious about removing

that burden on the american people. stuart: all right., steve, we have a lot for you. >> free coffee too. stuart: it's not bad, actually. ashley: you got it for free? . stuart: fox news is reporting that president trump will sign a new executive on immigration later this week or next week. i'm not sure of the timing on this. ashley: next week is what we believe. stuart: next week. okay. judge napolitano is with us now. now, i don't think you know what's in this executive order. >> i'm trying to find out. the announcement was made and quite frankly our sources just don't know. not that they don't tell us, they just don't know. the president hasn't made up his mind. will he amend the present order? which is going to cause more litigation. or will he tear it up and start anew? which undoes the 48 lawsuits filed against him, invalidates the temporary restraining orders, the nationwide one in seattle and the smaller ones elsewhere in the country and starts anew. perhaps some accommodation from -- guidance from the

circuit opinion. i've been pushing for that. he obviously knows more about it than i do. has far greater resources available to him, and he'll decide. stuart: we'll find out what's in it when it arrives. >> yes. stuart: it's like nancy pelosi. you find out what's in this executive order when you pass it. >> that's true. stuart: the next thing is the wall street journal front page article. they allege that intelligence officials have withheld information from president trump as president trump because they don't trust him. we said on this program earlier that's sabotage. what say you? >> well, it is a form of sabotage, absolutely. it is the intelligence community vested with profoundly constitutional but potential lawful authority to spy on whomever it wants without showing any fault on the part of the person spied is now using that authority to spy on generals in the pentagon and justices in the supreme court and the president in the white house. and then they are releasing what they want to embarrass people. the only thing they've done so

far is to release the nonsense about the president and the moscow motel room, which denies. supposedly before he was president. and now this stuff about general flynn. the selective release of portions of the transcript. but the wall street journal's reporting is the same as what -- essentially the same as what fox news has been told by sources in the intelligence community. sources in the intelligence community, assets are holding back giving the president information because quote they don't trust him. now, if that is the case, they have the duty to resign and go public. they cannot frustrate the president's ability to secure the borders of the united states of america by denying him raw data that he and his people are entitled to have. they work for him. stuart: this is what we're getting from kevin, fox news correspondent at the white house. essaying that president trump is talking about going after

the leakers and finding them and doing something about it. >> well, the president is rightfully angry about these leakers. but, stuart, i don't know their names. but i know the type of person. they are the most sophisticated steelers, keepers, and leakers of confidential information on the planet. stuart: and they're sabotaging president trump. deliberately. >> i don't think they'll ever be caught. stuart: this is antitrump people inside the bureaucracy. >> yes. you start with a base of 60,000 people and somehow you have to find who leaked? . stuart: yes. but the bottom line is there is an inside the bureaucracy they don't like trump, and they're leaking stuff about him and against him. >> i'm sorry to say the evidence of what you just said is overwhelming. stuart: boil it all down, it's sabotage. >> yes. stuart: as happy as you were when the word tax cut came out of steve for sure's mouth. these are the times.

stuart: judge, thank you very much. next story. president trump and the border tax. steve forbes is with us. i'm sure you say -- i know you, steve forbes. there's no way you're going to like a border tax on imports. >> it's perfect posterrous. first, they don't need it. second it, it hits middle americans, working-class families with a tax. raise the price of gasoline. raise the price of what you pay at walmart and target and other stores, and it's just going to grow in the future. why would republicans put in a massive new tax under the guys of the tax cut? just cut the tax rates. very simple, stuart. we've done it before. stuart: but i tell you what it's all about. it's an equalization tax. the revenue from it paid for immediately the tax cuts for individual rates and the tax cuts for corporation. >> so reraise one tax and cut another tax. why go through the silly exercise? and so in terms of equalization, if they want more capital coming into this country, more companies to move to this country, just cut

the corporate tax rate to 15%, don't tax overseas earnings, most countries don't do that. by golly, you'll see a flood of capital come in. using that to say, oh, we need a new tax. so europe as you know shafts their consumers with a value-added tax. so because they do bad by their consumers, we must do the same thing? why? . stuart: you think the border tax is like a value-added tax? >> of course. stuart: it is somewhat similar. >> it is somewhat similar. a step to a vat and some day the democrats will come back in and put in a vat. stuart: he's so good. i remember back in the day when the brits issued a value-added tax. we were assured -- i lived there in those days. we were assured if you taxed consumption, you didn't have to tax income. it didn't happen. >> when woodrow wilson introduced the federal income tax, we were sure the top rate would never exceed 7%. stuart: hold on a second.

i don't believe there are votes in congress for a border tax. do you? >> no. not right now. but if the white house comes out in favor of it, watch out. and, by the way, that vat in britain started at 8%. where is it at today? 20%. ashley: yes. stuart: now, all week long what we've got on this program is we've covered the live action presidency. meetings will be taken place at the white house, and then we get tape of the meeting. here's the tape. >> good morning. >> good morning. [applause] >> hello, everybody.

>> well, thank you, all, for being here. i had a lot of good discussions this morning. i'm negotiating a lot of contracts that are saving billions and billions of dollars for the american people. and for all of us, and i'm very proud of it. you know, the a35 fighter jet, the air force one program, which was totally out of control and now it's back euro control. and then the other thing. in addition, i had a very good phone call this morning about a major plant that's moving back into the united states. we'll be talking about it very soon. and what i do have is a little free time at about 12:00, so i don't think the press will want to show up. but i think i'll have a press conference probably at 12:00 in the east room. we had a little time in between, so if the press would

like to show up -- i don't know. had anybody show up to that press conference? [laughter] historically they didn't care about these things. but me, they show up. i think 12:00 in the east room of the white house, we'll have a press conference. i did want to thank you folks for coming today. this is great. scheduled a long time ago. some of them are very, very early supporters, and i've been your supporter also. we're doing really well. the fake news media doesn't like talking about the economy. i never see anything about the stock market sets new records every day, chris. i never see it. but i think the people understand it. we're giving a speech on -- in melbourne, florida on saturday. i think it's going to be around 4:00. and i hear the tickets, you can't get them. but that's okay. that's better than having too many; right? so it's going to be great. i look forward to that. so that will be melbourne at 4:00. i really appreciate you folks.

you folks have been so great and right from the beginning and, tom, right at the beginning, just about every one of you right at the beginning. some were a little after the beginning. [laughter] let's go around just for the media, and you can introduce yourselves, and then we'll start talking, and i'll see the media back at 12:00. chris. >> well, mr. president, we're all honored to be here. this is really our trump caucus reconvening for the first time in a little bit. but our first meeting was the first part of march. duncan hunter and i both introduced you a week from tomorrow. the trump caucus reconvening, and we're just so honored you're taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us. >> where are you from? >> western new york. >> very good to see you, sir. >> kevin cramer from

north dakota. >> bill from western pennsylvania in the transportation committee. >> give you some money for transportation. that's good. >> mr. president, it's a pleasure to travel from florida. congratulations. >> thank you. >> -- uh-oh. >> 60 some years old. never voted. never registered. registered to vote for you. this is the nice letter there. i'm sorry, mr. president but -- >> that's beautiful. thank you. >> a draft. >> talented guy.

>> the chairman and ceo -- >> right. stuart: and mr. vice president, i kind of figured you would be here as well. so this is from the new york team. that's for you. and this is a jersey, an original jersey of the new york time the world series. and this is for you. >> well, thank you very much. [applause] thank them for me. >> i will do that. >> mr. president -- >> rick, we know who you are. >> i just want you to know that tennessee is fully behind marshal, excited about the work you're doing, they know health care tax reform has to be done this year, and they like the work you're doing. >> we do get it done and the health care's going really well. now that we finally have tom,

that was a big thing. we are going to be announcing, i guess i'll do it at 12:00, a new secretary of labor who is really phenomenal. so that will be at 12:00. and we're getting -- i mean, this is the slowest in history the approval of cabinet and these people are outstanding people. the man i'll be announcing for labor is a star. great person. great person. so i look forward to that. but i appreciate everything you've done. you've been fantastic. i appreciate it. >> mike kelly. thanks so much. what an exciting summer we had together. we did better than okay. >> we took an area that wasn't big republican area, and we swamped them; right? >> we did. we did. 34 years, hadn't voted for a republican. >> wow. >> i'm co-chair, i'm going to

be leading the del graduation saturday. meeting with prime minister abe on monday. >> was a great guy. >> if you all tell me how many golf balls he lost. >> he played well. and we played with ernie. i said get somebody good to play with, i have the prime minister. japan. so we get to the front of the club, and ernie ellis is waiting for us. he played nicely, and he's a great guy. you're going to like him. >> yeah, i met him. he's a great guy, and i knew you all would hit it off. >> we had a good feeling. >> i knew you guys would get along good. >> well, i always liked playing golf. it's good to play golf with heads of countries. when you're looking for votes, don't play with your friends that you play with every week. does that make sense? i hit it off with the prime minister.

he's a fabulous guy. he's -- loves his country. and we spoke all day long and well into the night. as you know they launched a missile, north korea, and we were discussing that. so it was really something. but have a good time over there and give him my regards. >> ambassador was in my district for two full days, and he mentioned he was down there. he's another great guy. one last quick thing. she has a request that their battle for cancer that you have a cancer board that has one nonmedical person. she wanted me to put her name in the hat for that. >> you know what, why don't you give me that request and let's see if we can do that. >> we will. >> i'll give it to your people. >> marsha. >> marsha blackburne from tennessee.

we are looking forward to broadband expansion. >> you're going to get it. you're going to get it. thank you very much, everybody. see you at 12:00. if you don't show up, i won't be there. we're going to find the leakers. we're going to find the leakers. they're going to pay a big price for leaking. . stuart: okay. sorry i was just taking some notes there because it was a very interesting tape there from the president after he's meeting with republicans first thing this morning. i got two things out of it. number one. the president said he got a phone call early this morning. a plant. a large plant is going to move back to america. didn't say which company is moving those people back to america. but nonetheless the president did say that. at the very end there, he said we're going to find those leakers, and we're going to make them pay big. it was a very pleasant

environment. those are the earliest supporters of the president in congress. including on his left, he's been with the president now for the past year. marsha blackburne, another frequent guest on the program on the president's right. all very friendly to the people. if i call it a rah-rah session, that's not quite right. it was very much a support session for the president and his intentions. now, we have some information coming to us about president trump's pick labor secretary, which is going to be formally announced in the next hour. i think it's -- we are told it's going to be alexandra costa. he will be the new nominee for labor secretary. ashley: well, he served as assistant attorney general under george w. bush. i also just noticed that he was a member of the national relations labor did board.

he's been a judge, a very highly ranked individual. he was -- his name came up before. stuart: we want to know is he like andy in which he opposes the $15 minimum wage and opposes the overtime rule? steve, i don't know if you know acosta. >> no. stuart: but we want somebody like puzder, don't we? >> the thing about puzder is he understood how these national labor board regulations hurt small businesses. so he knew what to do about it. that's why they're so fiercely opposed him. i hope this new one, mr. acosta will have that same determination. don't do bad things. undo bad things, and then he'll earn a keep. stuart: one more thing that the president did say in that tape. he said "they never report on wall street and the enormous

rally that wall street has seen since his election" the president's right. if you look across the mainstream media, you see very little reporting of the most explosive stock market rally in many, many years in which all -- 100 million americans get a piece of that action. it doesn't go reported. what is reported of course is a constant political turmoil in dc. not the real action on wall street. >> although, if it went down 20 berst, it would be center headlines. stuart: oh, yes, sir. we would never hear the last of this thing. it would be another crash. and it would be trump's crash. i believe we have congressman jim jordan with us. yes, i believe we do. congressman, i'm sure you were listening to the tape. >> yeah. stuart: i'm sure you heard what we were saying about alexander acosta is the likely new nominee for labor secretary. do you know this man? do you know anything about him? >> i do not but like mr. forbes is saying, let's hope ends free market principles and basic economic principles. my guess is he does, but i

don't know much about mr. acosta. we're looking forward to learning more and hopefully he'll get confirmed in a speedier fashion than any other nominees. stuart: without any republicans wobbling about him. that's what we also need too. now, i want to talk to you about obamacare. i know you're very much spearheading this. i think all of our viewers want to know when will we see the plan that we can vote on? when is that going to happen? can you give us any kind of time frame, sir? >> conservatives unveiled a plan yesterday. we said let's reveal it like we did in 2015. same legislation and then our bill is free market identify oriented. senator paul has it on the senate side and former governor congressman from south carolina has it on our side. it's a bill that expands health savings accounts. allows inner state shopping for insurance, allows easier access for associations to form. easier formations of associations, which we think will give greater purchasing power. does the thing that actually

create a market so that we can lower health care cost, which is the biggest problem in the market today. we don't have a market. stuart: but that's not a big plan that's going to be voted on a little bit later. that -- i mean, the republicans are split. you do have rand paul putting forward his particular plan. but there are all kinds of people in the republican party who oppose that plan. the republicans are split on this, aren't they? >> well, what we're saying is, look, let's do something that's actually going to lower cost. we believe our plan does. it's going to create a market. you can't lower cost if you don't have a market. right now everything has run out of washington in health care. we have to get back to a marketplace. that's what senator paul's plan and congressman sanford's plan does. that's why we conservatives endorsed it. what we also said is let's not wait around any longer. let's actually repeal obamacare. because as we talked before, stuart, health care gets better and costs less when you get rid of obamacare. so let's get about doing that, which is after all what we told the voters we were going to do this past election. stuart: are you going to make sure that everybody is satisfied?

everybody has got a policy now who is maybe enjoying obamacare, whatever way you want to call it will stay on it? nobody left high and dry? >> no. i don't think anybody is enjoying obamacare right now. what we're saying is the effective data is two years out. let's pass it now. there's an off-ramp which you have to do to allow the markets to form. so we keep that off-ramp there for two years. but you also say you have to put in place those reforms that will create a market and empower individuals and empower customers, empower families. not keep control here in washington, which is what obama cares all about. that's what our plans do. that's why we put them out yesterday. because if no one else is going to show a plan. we said, look, let's conservatives get together and show what we think will actually work. stuart: okay. i do have to ask you about the story on the wall street journal this morning where intelligence officials are with holding information from the president because they don't trust him. looks to us and judge napolitano has confirmed it.

this is a kind of sabotage that the hold over bureaucrats going against our president. now, president trump just said he wants to find the leakers. and when he finds them, they're going to pay big. ashley: yeah,. stuart: what do you say to that? >> well, i want to find the leak too. you know, chairman put a letter today to say we want to figure out -- to the fbi -- offed you the where this leak came from. so we should do that. i find it hard to believe that the intelligence community is with holding information from the president of the united states. let's certainly -- let's hope that's not going on. that is just completely wrong if, in fact, it is. i find that hard to believe that that's taking place. the guy that the american people elected to be the chief executive is not getting information he needs to get to make sure our country is safe? that certainly should not happen. i find it hard to believe that it is happening. but if it is, we need to get to the bottom of it. stuart: i think it's a symbol of the president being attacked from within. that's the way most people are taking it.

>> yeah. and let's hope that's not going on. it's about the security of the country here. and the president needs to get all the information, access to all critical information to make decisions on behalf of the security of the united states. so let's hope it's not going on. but if it is, we need to get to the bottom of that. and as you rightly point out to the bottom of who leaked this information about general flynn in the first place. stuart: okay. got it. congressman jim jordan, always a pleasure. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, sir,. stuart: we've had a lot of action from the presidency, and we've had no action on wall street. we're still down about 20 points. this is slightly unusual for the past -- i don't know how many days. how many trading sessions. for this time of day the market usually starts to go up. at the moment, it's moderating and holding with a drop of 24. ashley: look how resilient it has been to all the chaos in washington to use the word the mainstream media has been using. but bottom line is tax cuts, cut back on regulations, those are the things that are keeping this market at this level.

and if we can make progress, president trump will take off from there. stuart: you do often find that when the president speaks, whatever he says right after it, the market goes up. and that's -- i'm not going to say that's happening now, but we have moderated the loss. ashley: yes. stuart: we were down 50. now we're down 16. it's astonishing, isn't it? we're still around 20,600. 2,200 points above where we were on election day. ashley: that was november 8th stuart: really quite extraordinary. do i now introduce the great dan? i said that because your story today is related to dan rather, who says that the turmoil in washington is worse than watergate. the scandal about the russians is worse than watergate. and you've written about that. is it as bad as watergate? >> some of my readers went

crazy for quoting dan rather. what he said got distributed exponential out there and picked up and then suddenly the web was full of stories by other writers saying what did the president know and when did he know it? it wasn't justly political world we live in today. and the question is are we entering a watergate-like atmosphere? this is not watergate. but it's the same as i remember living in was you had all of these anonymous stories about richard nixon. one bombshell one day after another, and it just gets the whole system shaking like thi t. stuart: you feel we're in the same situation now? there could be more leaks. >> there could be more leaks. i'm saying we seem to be on the cusp of a situation in which you have the intelligence services, you have all of these anonymous leakers, newspaper stories filling up with these sorts of things, and you've got all negative political static being put in the water in washington.

and in my view, threatening to get in the way of th the president's real agenda, which you talk about on this show all the time. stuart: how -- what's the mechanism? you've got turmoil in washington. a watergate-like atmosphere. what's the mechanism by which that translates into interference with the legislative agenda. how does that happen? >> well, you have -- suffered a loss with andy puzder. you had a number of senate republicans who got frightened by the attacks on puzder, even raising the immigration issue. stuart: uh-huh. >> this would have been an ideal secretary of labor. that's a loss. that's what the democrats want to achieve here. they want to show that donald trump can lose that he's not ten feet tall and that they're trying to take him down politically. stuart: i think they're going further. i think they want to make america ungovernable by president trump. i think that's the intention. >> well, i wouldn't disagree with that. that's the point of their famous hashtag the resistance.

they just decided they're going to not allow anything to happen. if you create enough turmoil in washington, it is just -- i'm just talking about politics. you have to hold the troops together to get things done like a tax reform bill or financial deregulation or more generalized deregulation. stuart: so what should the president do? >> i think the president, they need to find a structure within the white house to sequence some of these activities so that they just don't land out there and create all this kind of blow back. i understand trying to shake things up. but there's a point beyond which you're shaking things, in which cracks are starting to fall. show up in your own side. so i would tamp things down. you've got a good agenda. move forward with it. get going on some of these legislative actions. instead of having the senate intelligence committee being at the top of the news for investigating so-called russia connection. why not have the ways the means committee at the top of

the news with the details of the tax reform plan? . stuart: would you say that the republicans are in better shape now than the democrats? >> absolutely they're in better shape than the democrats. they control the government. this is the opportunity of a lifetime, stuart, to enact legislation and initiatives that do exactly what donald trump wants to do, which is get the economy growing, get people creating new jobs for the country. that is what is going to settle things down. not this kind of mayhem over anonymous leaks. stuart: dan henger. a powerful column again. especially when you mention watergate. >> thank you. stuart: all right. sir. i'm going to call our next guest a centerrist middle of the road democrat. his name is tim ryan. he is a democrat in congress. this is the man who stood to be leader of house democrats and was defeated by nancy pelosi in a landslide. sir, i put it to you that you lost.

you still -- you have lost your party. what do you say? >> well, we're certainly not where we want to be, but this happens periodically. it happened with the democrats after the 2000 election. we're regrouping. while we have to fight certain measures that trump is doing, i think it's more positive for us to have a positive agenda, forward-looking agenda on economics, on reform, on creating a new economy, what does america 2.0 look like? democrats should be driving that message, and we still have to get focused on that. stuart: how come you lost so big? i don't want to dwell on this. look, i think america needs a responsible, loyal opposition that makes a contribution to the on going policy debate. at the moment, i don't think we've got that from a far left democrat party. i think a lot of people look

to guys like you to resurrect the center of the party. but it doesn't look like your effort thus far has been very successful. the leadership is still way out there on the left dragging the whole party to the left. >> well, let me say that i have not abandoned my progressive credentials, and i think there is a role for us on issues of equality, on social justice, on wages. the problem i have with the party at this point is that we don't have a forward-looking agenda. i think our agenda is better than supply side economic agenda. i can sit here, and we can have this discussion all we want but when president bush cut taxes twice, we had one of the seven, eight years of most anemic growth in the country in a long, long time. we didn't see the kind of robust investments we needed to see from 2001 to 2008, and it led to the absolute collapse of the economy. so i say democrats have a better way.

a more balanced way. we see a concentration of wealth, we see the bottom 90% hasn't seen an increase in their wages in 20 years. we've got to address that problem, stuart. and our party needs to front and center talk about those things. stuart: congressman, i want to hear a lot more from you. but right now, i've got to switch to a -- speaker ryan, paul ryan who is now speaking about the border tax. listen in. >> so that means we do not have imports -- we're putting america-made products at a huge disadvantage. there is a built-in bias in our tax code to outsource manufacturing and reimport into this country. that's not good for american jobs. that's not good for american manufacturing. that's not good for american growth. so all we're suggesting is let's equalize the tax treatment. let's be fair to ourselves. and let's treat ourselves like every other country is treating them. so when we make something -- just wait -- when we make something in america, let's

put on a level playing field with everybody else. so let's just take this tape recorder here. i hope i didn't turn it off. american made tape recorder. i have no idea where that's made. made in japan. oops. i'm sorry. i just want to explain this to you. all right. american-made tape recorder. japanese made tape recorder. here's what japan does when they make this tape recorder. when they send it for export, they take the tax off of it. and then it comes to america, and it's not taxed, and it comes here to compete against our god good that wasn't taxed. theirs was taxed twice. when america makes something, it's taxed again to compete against their tape recorder. so we're doing it to ourselves. we are hurting american manufacturing in jobs. we are putting a bias against making things in america in a tax code. that is why i think -- i hope i didn't screw up your tape recorders. that is why we think this is very important.

this is good manufacturing policy. with respect to currency adjustments, it is obvious and mathematical that a currency adjustment would occur when we harmonize our tax law with the rest of the world. for people who are concerned about it, i believe that there are things that we can do in the ways the committee is looking into this to address those concerns so that the transition from a really bad tax system to one of the best in the world we would get out of this is a gradual transition. i would also say that those that are concerned about this i think they underappreciate how much better our tax system will be with this kind of provision. you got me going on tax reform. i'm sorry. >> republican opposition to the border adjustment tax will justify tax reform? >> no, i don't. go back to the books written about the 1986 tax reform. that was the last time we did tax reform. it's going to be up, it's going to be down, it's going to be on, it's going to be off.

you're going to report 150 stories on tax reform's fate between now and when we get tax reform done. we are doing tax reform. tax reform is going to happen. and you know why tax reform is going to happen? because it has to happen. america has the worst tax code in the industrialized world. it is killing economic growth. it is driving companies to become foreign companies. more and more and more u.s. companies are going to leave this country because of our tax laws or get bought by foreign companies, and we will lose our seed corn, our employers. we will lose economic growth. this is important to our economy, and we know this. so we're going to get tax reform done. and there's going to be a whole bunch of drama that you're going to enjoy covering between now and then. yes? >> affordable care act -- how does affordable care act credit to your plan and -- stuart: they called them refundable tax write-offs.

they're subsidies. and they say we will pay some people some money if you do what the government makes you do. that is not a tax credit. that is not freedom. a tax credit is you get the freedom to do what you did and buy what you need in your choice. the affordable care act is the opposite of that. the affordable care act is the government makes you buy this -- and, by the way, like i just said. there's one or two plans left. humanna pulls out, there will be zero plans left in certain markets. they make you buy, and then they subsidize what you buy. a tax credit is a fixed amount to the americans in the individual market to go buy the health insurance plan of their choosing. it is the opposite of obamacare, which is not a patient-run system. it's a government-run system. what we're posing is the patient gets to decide what they want to do the nucleus is her patient and her doctor versus the nucleus of the

government in obamacare's sake. case. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i know you heard from secretary price this morning. i was wondering if there are any areas where you think the white house could improve communications with capitol hill. >> i should know. we're doing really well on that front. i don't know what you guys report. but we talked with the white house daily. our teams -- our house and senate teams are in consultations with the white house. tom price was one of the primary architects of our obamacare replacement plan that we rolled out last year. and now he's the secretary of hhs to execute and implement that plan. so we're very implead with that, and i think we have fantastic communication with them. better than i've ever seen before, actually. >> government shared his pick for labor secretary. >> no. i heard it's coming. but i found who it is. >> just to follow up on that a little bit, the obamacare. obviously, there are democrat

democrats. do you think it's going to be possible to have the plan you just spoke of, do you wish you would try to go into this -- >> we would love to have support from the other side. they made it really clear to us that they're not interested in doing that. i think, jennifer, what the democrats just taking them at their word, they want to go down on the socialized medicine path. they want to go on the government-run health care path. they want what they call the public option, which is basically to have no options but a government-run plan. that is not something we're interested in doing. we think it will do even more damage to the health care system in america. so we believe in a patient-centered system where individuals have the freedom to buy what they want. and not what the government makes them buy. and also we think, jennifer, it's really, really important to have choice in competition and health care. because choice in competition lowers cost and increases quality. that is the opposite of what obamacare does. obamacare restricts choice. it denies competition.

we have monopolies in a third of the counties in america. and as a result of the lack of choice and the lack of competition, you have much higher prices and fewer supply. >> do you have any concerns that there's a group of republicans in the senate who come from states where medicaid expansion and they're very skeptical that takes that away from their state? >> yeah. i think it's 32 states if i'm not mistaken that had medicaid expansion. mine did not. we're going to find a solution that accommodates each of these two concerns. and i've asked gregg waldin, who is our chairman of finance committee to come up with a solution is that a state -- whether a state chose to take the money or didn't that going forward as we give states more control, as we advance the principle of federalism by giving states more control over medicaid so they can have innovative reforms that we do it in a way that doesn't disadvantage either of the two sides of that coin.

>> last question. >> on obamacare repeal and replace, -- >> after the recess. we're working on -- we're waiting for our scores. so i hate to tell you that cbo and joint tax are going to give us exactly what we want exactly when they say they're going to give it to us. so pending our drafting issues, we're going to be bringing it up after the recess -- after the district work period. excuse me,. stuart: that's the end of that. away the man walks the speaker of the house paul ryan. i found most intriguing the section where speaker ryan held up a japanese tape recorder, and he says, look, this is built in japan. when it's exported, any tax that they paid on that tape recorder is taken off. so it's exported tax-free. it comes to america. we levy no tax when it comes in here. he says, paul ryan says we need the border tax to harmonize the import/export situation.

i believe congressman tim ryan is still with us. i'm going to call you a centerrist democrat. i know you were listening to this border tax talk there from paul ryan. would you be in favor of a border tax? >> well, we've got to talk about exactly what it looks like. i mean,. stuart: okay. well, look. in principle, you put a 20% tax on to equalize and harmonize the tax system around the world. that's what speaker ryan described it as. can you say yes or no, you like it or you hate it? >> well, anything we can do to allow our products to be exported and sold in other markets creates jobs here in the united states. i don't think there's any question about that. and i am generally for we've got to simplify the tax code. i'm generally for a reduction in corporate tax. i'm okay with keeping business taxes low, as long as we're capturing the money when it comes to income. because we've seen a huge increase in inequality over

the last 30 years in the country. so those concentrations of wealth, i would prefer be captured on the income side where we keep business taxes low, especially for startup businesses. stuart: look, i didn't mean to interrupt you, but i'm just generally intrigued that a middle of the road democrat would give a fair hearing to a border tax. you're not going to dismiss it out of hand because it comes from president trump. that, sir, is very interesting. again, tim, thank you very much for being with us. i'm glad you could be with us, as it's a very important time. thank you, sir. >> thank you. stuart: steve forbes is with me. now, you are a total opponent of the border tax. but let me repeat what paul ryan said. he holds up a japanese tape recorder. he says built in japan. when it's exported, they take all the tax off it. they basically subsidy it. it comes out of japan tax-free, comes into america tax-free, and they've got an advantage. a border tax harmonizes and

equalizes the tax situation, and you're dead set against it? >> dead set against it if they're doing bad things for their consumers with these 15 to 20% sales taxes, so we should do the same thing to our own people. stuart, when you sell something from new york. let's take that tape recorder. somebody from delaware buys that tape recorder, has it shipped to delaware. new york rebates that 8.5 sales tax. you don't pay sales tax in delaware. any product in this country does not have that sales tax embedded in it. so because we don't have a bad sales tax doesn't mean we should put one in because japan has one. so -- and also when he says we tax exports, the constitution specifically prohibits taxing imports. right at the top of the constitution. so that's a connard. so what this is a 20% sales tax. japan shafts their consumers

with so be paul ryan in effect saying we should hurt american consumers. no. stuart: okay. you say no. >> and the reason why tim ryan likes this, it's a step to a vat, which is a money machine, which is why the europeans love it and the democrats love the idea here. more money. stuart: okay. we get it. an intriguing debate. and i think paul ryan did a very good job of explaining harmonization of tax. it doesn't come in the same ideological position as you do. >> 20% sales tax. that's all you need to understand. stuart: get the last word in. not bad. not bad. ate dow industrials. this point. but we're certainly not in retreat mode either. we're down 21 points. the dow's holding pretty close to 20,600. it is still up 2,200 points since the election. in the next hour, president

trump will announce who his labor pick is going to be. we understand it's going to be alexander acosta. ashley: right. stuart: who is a former assistant general. ashley: he's been a lawyer, a judge, been on the national relations board, he's done a lot of work in -- stuart: joining us now is paul conway. i'm very, very sorry. i do apologize. tim conway was a very funny guy, by the way. >> he was. stuart: he was my favorite, actually. i was disappointed that andy puzder had to drop out because i knew exactly what he was saying on the $15 an hour minimum wage and on the overtime rule. the man was against them both, and i think that's very much for america. now, we've got a new guy coming in or being nominated. alexander acosta. i don't know whether you know anything about him. >> i do. stuart: tell me about him. is he like puzder or not? >> let me tell you this.

so for labor secretary nominee, philosophically he was a clerk to andy. he was named as one of the top 50 9-1-1 hispanic-americans by hispanic business magazine twice. but most importantly here, i think you're looking at somebody who can take policy and translate it into the operations of the government. and through the department of labor. there are three cabinet secretaries that are the flying wedge or the trident of the president's policies. with acosta what you have is somebody who knows his role on the team and knows his job is to advance the president as much as it is the department. and really on behalf of employers of america, i think you're going to see somebody who knows how to look at a regulation, deregulate, look at law, how to implement it, and most importantly how to create opportunity, kidnap has pledged to do. stuart: but to get this man in as labor secretary, you've got to convince all republicans in the senate to vote for him.

it was wobbly republicans in the senate who upset basically, that's why andy puzder is not going to be the labor secretary. do you think that the republicans can hold their discipline if mr. acosta is very much like andy puzder? >> i think it's a two-way street here. what you have to do is make certain that the white house legislative team is on the game. they're talking to people like tim scott, susan collins, and others up there. and translating his history. neil: what it means for opportunity for people in their states. and removing anything that could be a potential fear factor for them and for their constituencies. and that's the job of the white house legislative staff. the job up on the hill is with the republican caucus is to make certain that they're taking a look at this person and seeing whether they're going to have good relations with the hill. there's going to be a sensitivity in the oversight committees. and i think with acosta what you're going to see is somebody who understands how oversight congress works and how expectations of lawmakers is translated into policy. and i think you'll find him very sensitive to that and a

very, very good solid nominee. stuart: paul, just in general, as a conservative, and i'll describe you as a conservative. >> sure. stuart: how do you think things are going? i mean, you live in dc, you're surrounded by this political, what do you think? >> well, we're less than 40 days in, and i think it's important that the president has the nucleus of his team in place. same thing at the cabinet level. what they're getting is a battleship or several of them parked offshore, all the turrets parked at all time. i think it's important for every single day for somebody to go into the white house and understand what am i doing today to advance the president's commitment to the people out there in america who elected him? and what am i doing to minimize or exacerbate -- not exacerbate the negative narrative that other narratives are putting forward? if you were to take three images and take them to your death as a white house staff person, this is what i would do.

a picture of the 9/11 towers and say that will never happen again. a picture of the unemployment line and say this is a large reason why i'm here and the last picture i would have is a picture of the united states constitution in my pocket and say this is what i swore to. stuart: thank you, paul. i'm sorry i used the word despair. >> always an optimist. stuart: i've got some concern. certainly not in despair. i shouldn't have said it. thank you very much, paul. still a nowhere market. but we're coming back a little bit. we're at exactly 20,600. that's where we are. most of the industry groups, and we show you these stocks whether it's energy, most of them are kind of mixed this morning. not that much stock price movement. however, i would like to draw your attention to microsoft, which is awfully close to an all-time high. it crossed $65 a share. steve forbes, i own a little microsoft, and you probably do too. >> i think everyone does.

stuart: hell of a stock. >> after waiting 12 years of nothing. stuart: irrelevant, steve. absolutely irrelevant. they're doing all right. now, we're coming back a little. now beer down 10 points for the dow. 20,600. i just wonder if this is a repeat of other days where we started off kind of slowly. ashley: and then we start building momentum. stuart: i wonder if that's going to happen again. what do you think, steve? how high is this market going to go? >> see that press conference in a few minutes. if he pushes taxes, say i talked to lawmakers, we're going to go on taxes. you'll see 100 points. stuart: well, the press conference we believe has now been pushed back to 12:30. ashley: right. correct. stuart: when that occurs, of course fox business will be running it live. and you're right, steve. any mention of taxes in a positive light, a tax cut. if he says, yes, it's coming, we've been talking about this. it is -- you do that, that market could gain some more ground. >> and, by the way, on those recorderrers paul ryan so much loved, japan does not rebate

all the taxes. and we don't charge new york sales tax if you send a product to japan. we don't have a sales tax if you live in oregon. they don't have a sales tax. you buy something -- have something shipped from new york, you don't pay new york sales tax. so you could say -- ryan could say by golly, we force oregon to have that tax because new york rebates it. it's just perfec crazy . stuart: i may have missed something that speaker ryan said. he was talking about obamacare. justin, you were listening more closely than i. did paul ryan say that he would have a plan after president's day, which is monday, by the way. so after president's day -- of course that could be any time. a plan will be presented -- and this, justin, this is repeal and replace agreed to by leading republicans after president's day, which is monday. down go the health insurers. i've never worked that out.

i don't understand why the health insurers go down when you're talking about abandoning obamacare and getting rid of it. what do you think, steve? >> because they're not going to have this forced entry. when you repeal obamacare, individuals don't have to buy that insurance. they've already been in the exchanges, so they're getting rid of that cost. stuart: look at that. look at this. those are the health insurers since election day. they're up very significant proportions. 14, 14, 12%. >> because initially patient-oriented health care markets, they're going to do well. but remember when airline deregulation, you're old enough to remember that and all the carriers thought by golly, this is going to be great times ahead. very few survived. everyone went through a wrenching change. everyone went through a bankruptcy when became in charge rather than government regulators. third party eventually going out in the next five years. those companies going to be very nimble to prosper in a

new environment where they don't deal directly with hospitals have to deal with you. stuart: you know, i should remember. a lot of people are listening to this program on radio. we've got a lot of radio listeners, auto listeners. so i should point out the percentages by which these health insurers have gone up. 14%, 14%, 12%. and those are three of the biggest name in health insurance. they are up since the election. ashley: we were going to talk about this earlier but barons put out an article saying there's no reason why dow can't hit 30,000 by the year 2025. sounds a long way away. it's eight years. and they also add this market could add another 5 to 10% this year alone. the only ointment, it's if donald trump manages to avoid stumbling into a trade war or real war. this market has nowhere to go but up. because it believes there's solid base for the growth in

the market. >> the market was going to go down when everyone says the market's going up. it's not a good sign. stuart: you do have to watch out for that. well, right now we're down 15 points on the dow industrials. holding around 20,600. i think you'll see a pause until the president speaks at 12:30. >> right. stuart: we make a big deal on this program of being live action news. the live action presidency. because that's what's developed in the past two, two and a half months since the election. the president -- president-elect in those days, says something, the market reacts. we're on it immediately. you don't have to wait for the cbs evening news at heaven knows what time of night these days. you don't have to do that. you watch programs in realtime. ashley: it's in realtime. stuart: yes, the news is happening in realtime. you can follow it in realtime. and the market reacts in realtime, and we can give you perspective in realtime. that's what it's all about. ashley: what a big deal. stuart: that's really good.

and if you've got one of these things with the right app, you can walk around the streets of wherever and listen to it. this is so brand-new. a man of my age finds this absolutely fascinating. and you do too. >> and we're so spoiled. the it takes more than five seconds to go through. you say what a piece of crap this is. it's crazy. spoiled we get with this stuf s. stuart: can you remember sending your first e-mail? >> yes. painfully. i remember things called faxes, card catalogs, you old enough to remember those? . stuart: of course. yes, of course. of course. i remember my first cell phone. >> oh, boy,. stuart: my agent actually bought it for me, and we had it in his office. this thing rang. it went off. >> it rang? . stuart: and it went off. it rang. and i didn't know how to answer it. >> do you know now?

. stuart: yes, i do. i've learned my lesson. 15 seconds to go and neil cavuto is going to take it over. thanks very much, everybody, for joining us. he's laughing. what are you laughing at neil? neil: it sounds like the cocoon club. [laughter] give me a c. stuart: listen, son. it's 12:00 noon, and it's yours. >> thank you, my friend. well, we are waiting for word out of the white house that apparently it is looking more and more that alexander acosta is going to be the president's pick for labor secretary, as you know. andy puzder cke restaurant was slated for that job and then all the controversy started swirling. he took himself out of the running. if that is true, and it's alexander acosta, former assistant attorney general, very big national labor relations board. he was a proponent of real