>> gorsuch hearings, going to be more compelling tv. maria: dagen. >> smart man, easy on the eyes, too. maria: you're right. congressman eric cantor, and kristin, thank you for joining us. we'll see you tomorrow. "varney & company" begins right now and stuart, over to you. stuart: i'll take it. do they have the votes to reform obamacare? and at stake, the rally. and at this moment we're told there are not enough yes votes to pass it. that's a problem. if the first test of the president's legislative agenda is a failure, the markets shall we say wobble. and closed back to 20,600, about 500 points below the high. today, we will be down a little more at the opening bell.

watch this market move according to the likely vote count. there is one positive from politics. judge gorsuch had a solid performance for the supreme court and likely to be approval and it's approval that investors want. one more headline, please, sears is definitely in the retail ice age. it says there is substantial doubt it can stay in business. how about that? "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ > >> you are a no on this. do you know how many other nos are out there? there are more conservatives. >> there are 30 or more no votes for conservatives and 10 to 20 other moderates.

stuart: that was house freedom caucus members, there may be as many 50 house republicans who will vote against the g.o.p. health bill tomorrow. liz peek is here, if you listen to that, they don't have the votes. i say this is make or break for the presidency shall the agenda, the republican party. what say you. >> and the country. let's not forget the country here. there's a reason we're trying to get rid of obamacare, it's hurting the country in terms of driving premiums so high, they're losing their insurance and the effort to gain more jobs. it's do or die of the president, a test not only of his agenda, but his ability to move the agenda forward. he has been strong arming republicans to get the votes and by the way, the last read i heard on this is more like 24 of the house freedom caucus group that wasn't going to vote for this bill. i don't think it's quite as high a number as bratt is talking about. stuart: 24 hours of horse trading and sharp elbow politics. >> there's a lot of that and i

think there will be on medicaid, older americans, issues that are very important for moderates and also some of them that were important for conservatives. this has got to pass. stuart: now, i think that yesterday, where stocks turned in their worst performance of the calendar year. yesterday was a taste of things to come if we get a no vote tomorrow night. investors just don't like the uncertainty surrounding tomorrow's vote. down 230 yesterday. we will be down a little bit more, the opening bell today, off about 30, 40 points maybe, but down at the opening bell. retail ice age, that's our expression, sears and kmart say there is, quote, substantial doubt that they can stay in business, the stock premarket is down 12%. you know, we put sears on death watch not too long ago, we were right. ashley: it feels like they're doing the same thing itself. if you read the statement, it's poor reading. they've got to borrow money or

sell stuff real estate to keep the inventory in the stores. they're circling the drain and looks pretty grim. stuart: i don't think there's that much value in the real estate that sits under a sears store. liz: no, the market has priced that in already. and you see that in the price action. this is a 130-year-old company and astonishing that this iconic brand is going down. they merged two struggling chains,sears with kmart and other problems as well. >> you're exactly right, the model was to keep the business going to fund the real estate. now that real estate is not valued, so-- >> it's not working. >> terrible. let's get to the gorsuch confirmation hearings. today, by the way, will be day three, thises my opinion, investors want gorsuch confirmed. they don't want the legislative scheduled delayed. gregg jarrett is back by popular demand, ladies and gentlemen. are investors going to get what they want? that is, is he going to be confirmed quickly on time?

>> it's inevitable, a slam-dunk. he's not robert bourke. originalism isn't the bogeyman like 30 years ago and gorsuch, unlike bourke, is the right messenger to deliver the right message. he's unflappable as you pointed out, he's composed, really smart. bourke was, too, but bourke was combative, arrogant and pompous and didn't help them and democrats back then, 30 years ago, cold the senate and here is the opposite. >> there's a vote in the senate judiciary committee on-- >> april 3rd, a hard date for the vote. stuart: the way the vote goes on april the 3rd, is that reflected in the full senate vote that comes later? >> it absolutely is with this caveat, i mean, democrats may try to filibuster gorsuch, in the end i don't think they will. even if they do, republicans, thanks to harry reid, can

eliminate the filibuster with a so-called nuclear option. so, gorsuch is a done deal. stuart: he's in. >> absolutely. stuart: investors don't care what kind of a justice he will be. >> they just want them in. >> they don't like uncertainty and there's a 4-4 supreme court. they need to lift the uncertainty. stuart: is this a case if you did get a no vote on the nominee, the market takes a hit? >> it would be devastating and speak to paralysis in congress and inability to get things done. don't forget, as far as investors are concerned, judge gorsuch would have a say in labor laws, impacted, a lot of things before the supreme court that his vote will help decide that are important to investors. stuart: i misspoke, i think investors do care what kind of rulings judge gorsuch would hand down, i think they do. >> yeah, i wouldn't necessarily

assume that he is going to be a rock solid conservative at all times, as an originalist, he looks at the law and he ininterprets the constitution as the framers who wrote it meant it. stuart: so there's an element of uncertainty there? >> absolutely it. >>, but it argues against overreach which a lot felt was a problem in the obama years and led to a lo the of the policies stacked up before the supreme court such as on immigration. stuart: that's politics. thanks, everybody. we wrap that up. got three hours to go on this. [laughter] >> so i'm going to switch gears. how about this, north korea's missile test reportedly a dud. details? >>. ashley: well, literally seconds after it launched, it blew up. and that is a dud. we shouldn't run that file video. come on. >> he's not going to have video of that. it was picked up on satellite and south korean and u.s.

authorities keeping track of this. saw the launch, saw it explode almost immediately after the launch. this particular missile they're testing has a minimum range of 1500 miles, but seven of the eight times they've tested it, it's exploded. more worrying is the monday testing of an engine that could be used as icbm which brings in another threat and has the u.s. and that part of the world really nervous. stuart: let's bring it back. the mayor of los angeles garcetti is expanding protection for them. >> and ice with the government and dealing with illegal immigrants, also a push to possibly get an entire state to be a sanctuary state. the mayor agrees with that. here is what they're saying on the ground though, that the reports of sexual assaults and things like rape and domestic violence have gone down in latino community because they're afraid of being deported.

stuart: now, there's a second level to this. four days after the rape of a high school girl, allegedly by a 18-year-old illegal, maryland's legislature, this is four days after that rape, legislators voted to make maryland a sanctuary state. there's a lot of turmoil. ashley: that upset a lot of people. stuart: it does. it's a major headline story of the morning which we will follow later on. let's wrap this up. we've got a new study it says that college students who protest violently against conservative speakers, guess what? they come from wealthy families. ashley: well. stuart: who would have thought. ashley: they don't need a job. stuart: right. and there's this one, too, some of the wealthiest new yorkers written a letter to lawmakers and they say we want to pay more taxes. no, they say, the wealthy people should pay more taxes, okay? that's wealthy people should

pay, for better roads and better bridges, spent on pathways out of poverty, there's nothing stopping them from paying more already. if you want to, folks, do it! we're on this one, all right. look at futures, we're down at the opening bell, about 40 odd points which is less than 20 minutes away. we will be back. ( ♪ ) it just feels like anything is possible here in upstate new york. ( ♪ ) at corning, i test smart glass that goes all over the world. but there's no place like home. there's always something different to do like skiing in the winter, jet skiing in the summer. we can do everything. new york state is filled with bright minds like samantha's. to find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin.

>> we're quoting the price of oil at $47 a barrel this morning. that may change around 10:30 eastern time when we get the latest read on how much oil we've got in storage. that could move the market again. and tstepping down at cke restaurants, they own hardees and carl's, jr. it seems that the left killed him because he stood up for trump. liz: and the fight was, he's been around since the year 2000. he built cke into a billion

dollar plus operation and employs 70,000 people with benefits, including flex spending accounts, paid vacation leaves and the like and retirement accounts. he's a good ceo, a solid ceo. the left went after him hard because he said, you know what? if you raise the minimum wage, you've got to layoff people. they turned it into a nasty fight and went into his marital life and they destroyed him. and andy puzder knew what he was talking about. stuart: we liked him on this program. liz: he gave good benefits and good wages, 70,000 people working there. stuart: and he built the business. liz: he built the business. stuart: 15, 16 years. >> he said there was something like a profit margin per employee of about $6,000 and the increase in minimum wage pushed was going to cost $11,000, so the upshot was you had to layoff a lot of people.

stuart: he told the truth. ashley: that was his undoing. >> numbers don't lie. stuart: let's get back to obamacare, the this is important. the replacement vote, former hhs secretary and governor tommy thompson, welcome back, good to see you. >> stuart, it's always a pleasure to be on your program, thank you. stuart: you know what we want, we want you to handicap the vote tomorrow. is it going to be a yes or a no? investors really need to know this. what are we going to get? >> it's going to be a very close yes, but right now, they don't have enough votes as of this moment. but i am very confident, i've been talking to a lot of congressmen and they're leaning toward voting for it. i was speaking at the tuesday group yesterday and had the opportunity to meet with a lot more last night at the congressional dinner. and i've been helping trying to get the votes for this bill and i think when it's all said and done, republicans cannot go

home and not vote for this bill. there's no option. failure is not an option. they have to vote for it. stuart: governor, it seems that conservatives like the freedom caucus has a lot of leverage at this point. they are the standouts and saying we're not going to vote for it so that puts them in a position to horse trade and get something out of this and impose more conditions on this bill. they're in a strong position, i think. >> they are in a strong position, but the truth of the matter is what's the alternative? the alternative to vote against a proposal that's going to repeal obamacare? that's no option. and when the president calls you in the oval office, i've seen it happen many times, stuart, it's very difficult to say no to the president. so, i am absolutely certain they're going to get the votes, but it's going to be tough, it's going to be tough slugging. i know i did this on part d when we were on the floor and i had to have somebody call the president george w. bush at 4:30 in the morning to get the last votes.

i know it's tough, but i know it's doable and i'm confident they're going to get it done. stuart: earlier this morning on the fox business network, senator rand paul told our maria bartiromo that the president or that the bill should be pulled. what chance does it have in the senate if rand paul is a standout like this? >> well, i think it's got-- there's going to be some major changes, there's 85 billion dollars that's placed in this bill for the senate to make the necessary changes to get the vote. so, i am confident that once it gets over there, and people start looking at this, and making the changes necessary to get the votes, i am confident it's going to improve the equality of the bill and then i think the votes are going to be there. right now, it looks a little bit bleak, but i think it's always darker at the dawn before the sun comes up. so, i'm fairly confident that it's going to be okay. stuart: i just love--

i've said this many times recently, i'd love to be a fly on the wall, who gets what for doing this, that and the other. it's going to be wicked horse trading, isn't it? >> that is, that's legislative. one court judge says if you like good sausage and good laws,better you don't watch either being made and this is a prime case. when it's said and done, republicans, what are republicans going to do, campaigned for seven years, they can't go home and say we had a chance and vote it had down. this is only the first step in many steps at repealing and replacing and making health care better. stuart: okay, governor, you're down on record. tommy thompson says it will be close, a squeaker, a yes vote eventually. the market is watching you closely. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: appreciate it, next case. look at dow futures, we're still down 50 points, that's how we're going to go this morning. it's all about the vote tomorrow, that's the bottom line for the market today.

we have another example of what's being called the retail ice age, that's our expression. sears and kmart doubt that they can stay in business, literally said, we've got serious doubts about staying in business. you remember? we put them on death watch. should we put them back on it? we might. up next, college kids who protest conservatives speaking on campus, a new study says they come from wealthy families. who would have thought? back in a moment.

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>> moments ago judge gorsuch arrived on capitol hill. he's about to start the hearing, round number three. round two was yesterday, headline in the wall street journal this morning, gorsuch rebuffs challenges. odds are, we'll get the same thing this morning. check the price of gold, please. this is the market coverage, we're up about two bucks on gold, 250, holding above $1200 an ounce. now this, that new study, it found that college students who protest violently against conservative speakers on campus, they tend to come from wealthy families. liz peek, what do you say? [laughter] >> i am not surprised. look, these are kids who don't have to worry about the fact that they might get in trouble doing these protests and their parents are going to bail them

out and put them right back in school. the truth is, kids who really have to work hard to get through school, borrow money, they take it much more seriously. i'm involved actually with a university where the average family is very close to the poverty line and they're struggling to keep their kids there, no protests at this school. trust me they're not. they're working hard, they want to do well. stuart: a case of liberal guilt. that's just my opinion. right. another one for you, liz, some of the wealthiest new yorkers are asking the state to raise taxes on the rich. liz. >> bring your checkbook. there's nothing to prevent you from writing a check to the government or if you want to get a whole bunch of people in the room, create a fund to fund things you care about. oh, wait a minute, that's what we do, called foundation and charity and in fact, a lot of wealthy new yorkers give money to that. this is as i say, it's a great thing, go ahead and do it. stuart: yes, you pay. >> exactly. stuart: if you want to, they pay.

wealthy people, wealth is not taxed. >> no. stuart: you built up in your company or wherever, you don't tax that. you tax income in america. so, strivers, they get out there and work, they pay the full taxes. liz: that doesn't matter if you want to feel better about yourself. stuart: whatever, liz. liz: talking wealthy people. >> going to take away taxes-- and wealthy new yorkers will have every opportunity to pay taxes. stuart: and round three of neil gorsuch's hearing is about to start. we'll monitor, and any headlines you'll know about it. in four and a half minutes the market opens and we'll be opening down again. down 250 and another 50 today. investors do not want a no vote tomorrow. back in a moment.

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>> all right. we're off, we're running, it's wednesday morning, well, not quite, give us 20-odd seconds and we'll get this thing off and running. please remember yesterday was the worst performance for the dow industrials this calendar year. we were down 237 points, why?

because there's a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not the president and speaker ryan get their way with obamacare repeal and reform in the big vote tomorrow. if there's a no vote, watch out. if there's a yes vote, that's the other side of the coin. bang! it's 9:30 this wednesday morning, i expect the market to go down substantially at the get-go. 25, 36 in the early going, look at the level. 20,600, that's about 500 points away from, down from the record high that we reached earlier this year. down 36 right now. 20,629. take a look at the banks. they were the biggest winners since the election and yesterday, they were the biggest losers and as of this morning, down again. look at bank of america, i think they were down 4, 5. ashley: 5 1/2% yesterday. >> down nearly 2%.

red arrows. and same for the technology stocks, they were riding high since the election. they took a hit yesterday. apple is coming back, $140 per share. facebook is down a fraction more, netflix is up 142. a mixed performance on the big techs which did badly yesterday. got it. next on the retail ice age front, if i can put it like that. sears and kmart say there is, quote, substantial doubt that they can stay in business. we've put this company on death watch not that long ago, down 10% this morning. $8 per share on sears. who is going to help us out to cover what's going on on wall street this wednesday morning? ashley webster, elizabeth mcdonald, liz peek and shah gilani, around the deck near in new york city. we're going to start with the

obamacare replacement vote that comes up tomorrow. i say if there's a no vote tomorrow, a big selloff on friday morning. >> huge selloff. the markets are leaning towards that now. the pushback the democrats had in terms of this is monument. if it doesn't pass, it's highly unlikely, the markets-- >> you think it's highly unlikely. >> so far from what i've seen, it's highly unlikely. stuart: tommy thompson said >> i don't see how the tea party could go back to voters and say keep obamacare in place. stuart: and i say this market up and down in line with the probable vote count tomorrow. ashley: yeah, it's going to move side ways until we know what happens. yesterday is a preview of what will happen friday if this thing does not get through. it's not just health care stocks, if you look at what was selling off, the industrials, the industrials are supposed to be behind the big infrastructure spending. all of these programs, all of

these promises that came with a trump administration are questioned. >> it's the trump agenda that's on the line, it's not health care reform that's on the line here. stuart: that's very true, the agenda. >> and maybe continuation of a republican majority in the house, that's a serious issue. stuart: i would predict all day long, you get a hearing from conservatives who say yes i'll vote for it, no, i won't. you'll hear from the other side of the fence we've offered this, we've offered that, here is what we can do to twist your arm, we're going to be hearing that all day long. >> i'm not sure many conservatives will come out with a real pronouncement, i think they'd rather make a deal and be able to go out later and say, yes, the bill was changed in a way that allowed me to vote for it. stuart: or figure out the vote count in advance which would allow 20-odd conservatives to vote no, and everybody else has to vote yes. figure it out beforehand. you might, look, i don't know. >> even if they figure out the vote count, if it's not a reasonable majority they win

with, so slim they barely pass it, creating more problems and uncertainty about the rest of the president's agenda and i think that's going to give the democrats a push. >> i disagree, i think getting it through, getting it through and push-- the markets say maybe he squeaks by, if he squeaks by on that, he's going to have to fight for everything else on his agenda. stuart: one quick second here, we're down 37 points, one of the big names, nike is down 6%. into i can-- nike is a dow stock. that decline in one dow stock accounts for 25 points for the dow jones industrials average the you take nike out of the picture and the dow is pretty much dead flat, dead even with where it closed yesterday. i think we should remember that. it's a wait and see and waiting for the vote count. they want to know that vote. the big tech names did so well after the election, they were down yesterday. look at them now, apple is at 140, netflix at 142.

amazon and facebook are down. shah gilani, any of those stocks, would you buy? >> all of these stocks went up, but if there's a pushback, maybe go lower. and if it gathers steam, back on. and i think as we pull back, the political agendas i think are going to bear weight on the market, and i'm nervous about. stuart: i don't ask you about which stocks you would buy because that's not your area. but in general, do you think-- >> in general, i think it all comes down to how this health care thing goes. if we don't get progress on this, then tax reform is backed up, then all the other things in the trump agenda are backed up. it's so critical and honestly, to use this points, i don't see how the freedom caucus goes back to the constituents and say we didn't mean it. stuart: look, the big tech

names are up this morning and all down yesterday, but all of them, know the much, but they are up and for the last two years, that's where the money has been flowing. take a look at the banks. best performers of all the groups of stocks that are out there. they were the best performers since the election, took a huge drop yesterday. this morning, they're all down a little bit more. shah gilani, this is all about uncertainty, about the reform of dodd-frank. they were counting on it, they might not get it. >> it's a combination of things. they haven't seen the reregulatory push they were expecting. interest rates have not been-- even though the fed has continued to hike, they have not spiked. interest rates have gone the opposite way, the banks net profit on loans isn't going to rise. if rates continue here or slip further, the prospect of them having better profitability on loans, that's gone. that vanishes, another reason the banks are moving. and also the factor of oil. if oil continues to drop, a lot

of these banks have exposure to oil patch stocks and leverage loans to the oil patch. we're looking at oil again, if it slips further from here, we have a problem with oil and the banks. stuart: at this point moment we're down 20 points from the industrial average the could you say it's dead flat. one stock, nike is down 6% and accounts for the all of the loss in the dow 30. now we're down 20 points. 20,645. we have strong numbers coming in from winnebago, it's a winner this morning, a 2% gain there in an otherwise flat to down market. check the share price of nike, please. one more time. adidias and under amour giving them a run for their money, investors don't like that, and the stock still down 6%. the retail ice age story, we bring it to you every single day and so we should. sears and kmart say there's substantial doubt, their words. substantial doubt that they can

stay in business. we talk about retail ice age every day and it's rit large. >> it's a tectonic switch, there's noi way of going backwards on this. companies like sears, bought by a financial guy who thought the real estate was his ace in the hole. the underlying value of that real estate, much in the malls, is a problem. liz: it's an ugly back story, they've loaded them up with debt. 1500 stores, you can't tell anybody each of the stores are worth 107 million apiece based on the debt load. they've been losing 20 straight losses. and if you lose the anchor store, you turn that mall into a ghost mall. stuart: more on retail, a delivery service will start making runs to costco for you to pick up your orders from

costco, bring them back to your house. they're going to start doing that. that's a costco delivery service, not owned by costco, i think separate from them. liz and ashley, this is all about delivery of groceries, isn't it? that's what is going on here. >> and liz was laughing about this earlier. hasn't it always been, back to the milk carton. >> i did not make up milk carts. ashley: you did not. [laughter] >> let me explain. we were talking about the delivery of groceries before the break. back in my youth, it's a long, long time ago in england, a horse and cart literally delivered groceries. ashley: amazon of its day. [laughter] >> the amazon of its day and the horse's name was dobben. that's the truth. liz: i want to wake up early and say hi it dobben. stuart: shut up. [laughter] let's get to the broader economy, all laughing at me. report to the new york fed, one third of people say they have trouble coming up with an

emergency $2,000. the pressure is on for the president to expand the economy i would have thought. >> there was an encouraging article today in the wall street journal, chinese moving investment dollars to the united states. guess what? manufacturing in the u.s. is a win for chinese companies. process that because wages have soared in china because they're closer to the major market here and lower electricity costs and power costs and big factors like that. i think it's encouraging, so the stage is set for a manufacturing revival in the united states. you know, we should embrace that and be excited about that. >> we certainly, this is an indication we certainly need greater improvement in terms of wage gains, this is a recent survey, last done in february, so this is pretty brand new, this is on top of the unemployment right being 4.7%, so, we're at almost historic lows here and people cannot

muster $2,000 that's rather frightening. stuart: yes, it is. we're down 32 points on the dow industrials. i want to thank shah and liz, good coverage on a wednesday morning, got it. again, we're down 33 points on the dow, almost all of that is accounted for by one stock, nike. that's a dow stock and it's down 6%. happening right now, round three of neil gorsuch's confirmation hearing. we're monitoring for you and we'll bring you any highlights as they occur. how about this? a millennial snowflake test, that's supposed to weed out whiney, needy, entitled little brats who apply for jobs. yeah, i did say that. in the 10:00 hour, i will answer a few questions on the test. am i a snowflake in. [laughter] >> start laughing, i'll be back. ♪ yes?

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>> round three of the gorsuch hearings have begun, or about to begin. i think the questions have started. any highlights or headlines, you'll know quickly. and 14 minutes of business on the downside not by much, it's not a carryover of yesterday's decline. nike is 6% lower. how about this for a title of a book. generation of sociopaths, how the baby boomers betrayed america. there's the guy that wrote it. bruce, welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me on.

stuart: i am a baby boomer, what have i done wrong? spell out the faults of my generation. >> you haven't done anything wrong, my argument is american baby boomers raised in a time of what seemed like them to be effortless prosperity and that sort of conditioned them to believe that you didn't have to invest in the future, you could simply consume and that's undermined the foundations of prosperity, you see that from net infrastructure 0 to 0.5% of gdp. we see it in a massive increase in the federal debt, i was born in the 1970's, now 105% of gdp, exceeded the world war ii levels and down the line. it translated to the economic growth and people are unhappy about it. stuart: this is a financial program. to me, greet-- growth leads to prosperity and that binds us together. you're making a conservative

argument. >> sort of a 1950's republican argument in a way and arguably they were more than modern democrats are, but both parties, both modern parties are fiscally sort of radical in the sense they have not cared at all about investment and they've only cared about spending and spending has been overwhelmingly to the baby boomers and tax policy perceived to benefit the top 1 to 5% overwhelmingly overflowed to the baby boomers, which constitute a large share of the rich and it's been translated into the federal debt which my generation will have to bear and that's fine about if it produced higher growth, but it hasn't. stuart: right, exactly. would you stay that president clinton, president bush, president obama, they're baby boomers. are they typical of the politics of that generation? >> clinton and bush certainly are. trump is as well. obama is culturally different

and i exclude him from my analysis, he was born at the tail end. boom and don't focus on the minority experience, his assumptions were much different than say trump's were or bush's were or even clinton's were. stuart: why is it unique to american baby boomers? >> the phenomenon is most strong in the united states. the booms are smaller in the other anglophones countries and it's been boomer skewed. canada's the most boomerish, u.k. is somewhat boomerish, i think that brexit was in part a boomer phenomenon, but the boom is largely the most powerful in the united states, in part because the boomers united around a single issue and this is what gives them enormous political power and causes the economic problems and that's the maintenance of old age benefits in the united states which are not sustainable as is. this is not just a republican talking point or a democrat

talking point, it's the opinion of the social security administration themselves. stuart: but this large group of people, baby boomers, as we progress through the population, we vote and we're not going to vote the entitlements which we feel, not me, but which my generation feels entitled to. we're setting up a monumental problem down the road. >> it will start manifesting no later than 2034 when the social security trust fund is exhausted, cbo projects 2029 at that point people not in the system. i suspect that everyone on the roles will be grandfathered in, automatically fall 16 to 20%, to my generation, 1.0 to 1. for boomers on a same dollar basis adjusted basis, 1.53 for each dollar they put in. thing to remember for young

people, social security is not return of capital. it is $1 is return of capital and 53 cents is functionally it's welfare and he can decide as a matter of empathy that's appropriate when we have to pay for it and the boomers didn't pay for it so this is really in a sense an act of social charity, not opposed to that, but we need to understand exactly what it is. stuart: you're a conservative, aren't you? you may reject the label, but you're a conservative? >> actually i think i'm fairly progressive. stuart: what? >> on the fiscal side, you know, i do believe in climate change, certainly on expected value basis we should be doing about. the potential costs high even if you think the probability is low and you just pay for it. stuart: do you like raw, naked capitalism that brings out the animal spirits, that grows the economy, where profit is not a dirty word, where the rich can get richer if so be it? do you approve of that? you don't? you don't? you're just like a baby boomer. >> here is the deal.

i think our job in finance and i was in finance most of my career, is to play according to the rules and i think it's washington's job to set an appropriate set of rules for us to adhere to that allows fun and profitable for everyone because in the end, if the game is perceived to be rigged, we won't be allowed to play any more. stuart: lower taxes, less government, are you on board with that? >> that would be a nice place to get to. we can't get to that right now because the fiscal situation in this country does not permit the continued low taxation of the baby boomer generation, so, you know-- >> low taxation. >> for the baby boomers, yes. this is why you've seen political things like reagan raising the capital gains tax in the '80s when the boomers didn't have capital income and lowering on personal income and clinton lowered the capital gains tax and expanded the housing exemption in the '90s, i'm sorry, but that's the way it works.

stuart: you did well to start with and you blew it at the very end. the name of the book again? >> a generation of social paths, but if you want to get to a low tax environment you have to deal with the fiscal situation. in the end if the deficit blows up and medicare is not brought under control, what you're certainly going to end up with is civil strive or enormous tax increase, that's it. stuart: you're going to get an enormous tax from the left. >> medicare part d, bush two. stuart: and bruce, thank you, sir. check that market scan and give you a sense of the marketplace. we're 34 points down for the dow industrials. former california governor arnold schwarzenegger going off president trump. what the governator is saying after this.

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president trump who took a shot at arnold schwarzenegger for his low ratings on the apprentice. liz: yeah, made fun of him. now, the terminator, schwarzenegger, whatever, is coming back and saying look at your gall lup approval ratings, now, you're in the 30's and saying, how are you, mr. president, going to make america great again cutting things like after school programs and taking shots here. stuart: okay, we hear it. ashley: well, the president started it, so there you go, be honest. stuart: got it, got it. next case, investors send ago message to washington, president trump and the g.o.p., hey, agree or else. my take on that top of the next hour.

. .

. . stuart: what do investors want? what gus the economy need. those are fair questions, when stocks look wobbly and politicians make a great deal of noise, they're fair questions indeed and easily answered. investors want the house to vote yes on obamacare reform.

they want the republican party to exercise some discipline. as the president told them, vote no and some of you will be out of a job. and investors want the president to exercise some discipline too. stop hurting your program with angry tweets, which leads to what the economy needs, easy, answer, growth. that moons tax cuts. that moons keeping the legislative agenda on track. repeal and reform obamacare. then cut taxes. then build infrastructure. and all of the time deregulate, but keep on track. voters gave the republican party the house, the senate and the white house to get the country moving. if that agenda falls apart because of division within the gop, or because of angry outbursts from the president's twitter account, there will be hell to pay at the polls next year and you probably will not be smiling when you check your 401(k). it is very clear. money is telling the president

and the gop, agree. unite. grow the economy or else. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: numbers just coming in very, very important to the realtors and the real estate marketplace. what have we got? ashley: existing home sales coming in at 5.48 million at an annual rate. that slightly misses what was hoped for. it is down 3.7% from last month. also, it is interesting home prices year-over-year on existing homes are up 7.7%. why? because we talked about this. there is a lack of inventory out there and too many buyers looking for few homes. what that means? prices go up.

stuart: not that many sales of existing homes. this is the big numbers realtors look at. ashley: 5.48 million. liz: ashley is right, the supply of homes lowest since 2005. stuart: supply, strong demand. higher prices. up 7% in the past year. that is important news. check that big board. we slipped a little bit more. now we're down 68 points. i don't think the existing home sales number had anything to do with this. i think people are looking a the vote count tomorrow and making a negative judgment. nike is down 6%. that is, that is about 30 points down for the dow industrials because nike is a dow stock. the price of oil is around $47 a barrel. that may change in a half hour when we get new numbers on the supply of oil in the market. that in turn could affect the stock market. let's get to that health care vote which comes up tomorrow. it is still a fight.

investors do not like uncertainty here. listen to what rand paul, what senator paul said to bartiromo this morning on fbn. roll tape. >> i think if the ryan plan has to be pulled down, which i'm pretty sure it is going to be pulled down today or tomorrow, when it is pulled down, we will continue debate and the discussion. the real negotiation begins after they pull the ryan plan. if they pull the ryan plan. conservatives don't want to walk away from the table. we want a seat at the table. we want a real repeal of obamacare the thing we all rant on. stuart: senator paul says, speaker ryan should pull the bill, just take it off the floor, don't vote on it. joining heritage action for america chief operating officer, his name is tim chapman, and he joins us now. tim, welcome to the program. i know you're thoroughly opposed to ryan bill. you're a no kind of guy. i put it to you, if your guys win and you vote no on this,

then obamacare stays in place and the agenda are to the rest of the year is the all put, derailed. i don't want that to happen. >> neither do i, stuart. we're working to get to yes right now. the main issue we see in front of us right now is that the ryan plan actually keeps the architecture of obamacare in place. so we're worried if you don't repeal the regulations which are beating heart of obamacare, these are the things that tell insurance companies exactly what they have to after at all times, then you're not creating a free market upon which to build a new plan. so we like a lot of what is in the ryan plan but the foundation is missing. i think that can be fixed relatively easily. stuart: if you don't get your way, will you guys on the right, will you vote still no and defeat this? will you do that? >> if the architecture of obamacare remains in place i would recommend that people vote no. but i do believe that if they

don't have the votes, that they are willing to go and kind of rip that architecture of obamacare out. i think the white house wants to do that. i think they're going to let paul ryan make a run at this, if he doesn't have 218 votes. i fully expect to see them pull the bill from the floor and put the regulations into the bill and move forward on that. stuart: what you're telling us this will go right down to the wire? there is going to be horse trading all day long today, all night, going into tomorrow. >> yes. stuart: right down to the point where a congressman, member of congress places their vote. it is all the way up to the very last minute, right? >> yes. absolutely. it is going, it will get ugly and reminiscent of maybe 2003, the medicare part-d vote where republicans didn't have quite enough votes. kept it open during the night and twisted arms. conservatives learned a lot. they don't want to give their vote to something.

what this is about to insure the president's plan becomes law is successful. we want prices to go down, right? prices are not going to go down if the architecture of obamacare is still there driving prices up. premiums have to go down. we want the to have a good midterm. we want the president to be reelected. this is we have to get it right over next couple weeks. stuart: if it goes down it will be a republican debacle, you know it? >> short-term but it will be a republican victory if it goes down and then the actual regulatory structure that obamacare put in place gets put in the bill has passed. that is republican victory and american victory frankly. stuart: tim, we appreciate your point of view, and it is going right down to the wire here and there are two clearly defined sides of this fence. thank you for your appearance this morning. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. stuart: mark serrano, former campaign director for president

george h.w. bush. okay, mark, i say that the republicans can not afford a no vote tomorrow. they can not afford to pull that bill. they must have a yes vote. they must be successful or the otherwise it's a republican debacle, and it is a derailing of the entire legislative process. tell me where i'm wrong? >> well you're largely right, stuart, but i wouldn't agree to that extreme. this bill is not going to pass, it will not make it to the floor. they will not put it on the floor for a vote, if they don't have the votes lined up before that time. if you look at it, there are 237 republicans. this bill needs 16 votes to pass. we're 20 one votes away. depending on who you listsen to, 26 to 31 will not vote for it. that means donald trump is five to 10 votes away. believe me, he has 30 hours. he is going to get those votes. stuart: buy them, i mean, i hate to say he will buy them but i'm

talking horse trading here. you can have that if you do this? 10 of these if you do that, that is how it is. >> no, it will not be like that with donald trump. what i think he has to do stuart, look at the tax credits. what we need to do is factor, where it is not factoring economic growth. we'll have economic growth with tax cuts and more people will be able to afford insurance. that is what, cbo and nobody is able to estimate the value of that. so i think donald trump may take a look at phasing out the tax credits agreeing to that in this bill. i think it is something more holistic than that, than what you're suggesting. i don't see this horse trading. stuart: okay. but you do see this boeing going down to the wire and you still believe there will ultimately be a yes vote? >> there will. look, the freedom caucus has a lot of power because they won very comfortably in their own districts by average of 67% in their congressional districts in november, nonetheless, nonetheless, i believe they like donald trump, they want to work with donald trump.set a standare

future. they will have a seat at his table. believe me, the financial markets will do very well on friday because donald trump will make sure this bill passes in an appropriate way, scoring more conservative votes. stuart: you've been watching the program. i know you've been watching the show. >> yes, sir. stuart: because we went right up front at the top of the last hour, and said if there is no vote tomorrow this market takes it on the chin on friday morning. >> friday will be a good day. stuart: friday will be a good day? >> yes, sir. stuart: mark, i hear you. i think we have a lot of horse trading to do before the vote is taken. we'll report on it. mark serrano,. >> thanks stuart. stuart: one of the big themes on this program for a long, long time, something we call the retail ice age. that is clear trouble for bricks and mortar retailers. well look at this. sears says that, admits they are in serious trouble and that the stock is down nearly 13% at this point, $7 a share on sears. spell it out.

ashley. ashley: when sears says it faces substantial doubt over its ability to even stay in business, that pretty much is, says it all, does it not? stuart: yeah. ashley: iconic retailer, struggled, some argued this brand and kmart which it went on to purchase has been stale long before the retail ice age even kicked in. even so, it needs to essentially borrow more cash and tap into other assets it has, namely real estate. to lizzie's point earlier in the broadcast, even the value of its real estate is starting to fall as well. where is the money coming to simply put the inventory in the stores? it's a bleak outlet. stuart: fair point. i have one for you, liz. pay less -- liz: pay less shoe store. stuart: they're filing for bankruptcy? liz: they have been around for decades. iconic american brand. they have 4,000 stores in 30 countries. discount shoe chain. women and men buying shoes on the internet.

who would have thought that? so, it could lay off 22,000 workers. stuart: whoa. liz: that was sears. you're talking tens of thousands of people losing their jobs and they're both swamped in debt. that is the problem. stuart: we've got macy's closing stores. jcpenney closing stores. ashley: yep. stuart: neiman marcus up for sale. sears -- ashley: we talked about. stuart: kmart the same. a lot of people bankrupt. it's a long, long list of trouble. ashley: thousands of people out of work. stuart: yes, sir. now low of the day on the big board at the moment. we're down 76 points, and inching lower. this is all about the vote count in tomorrow's vote on obamacare. if it's a yes vote, we're expecting a lot of analysts expect the market to go up friday morning. if it's a no vote, watch out. at the moment the market is worried about the difficulty of getting that yes vote. we're down 80 points, 20,500 that's where we are right now. just ahead, the ceo who is

testing job applicants to see if they are snowflakes. that's in reference to millenials who can't get upset with anything they disagree with, or they do get upset with everything they disagree with. coming up the ceo who gave a snowflake test before he hires workers. he will administer the test on me. we'll find out if i am a snowflake. >> you're young, ignorant and brainwashed by liberal professors who forgot to tell you the in the real world the only safe space in is your parent's basement.

stuart: not quite the low of the day but we're down 74 points. the market's slide coincided with the numbers on committing home sales which are not exactly stellar. i think there as a connection there. we're down 76, 20,500. how about that? north korea tried to fire off a missile this morning, it was i believe a dud, is that

correct? ashley: abject failure. exploded seconds after being launched. the definition of a dud. this is the seventh of 8th time with this particular missiles. it was picked up by south korean and u.s. authorities. they have satellites. they saw the thing happened. it failed. the biggest concern out of north korea the testing of that big engine monday they think could be part of stages putting together an icbm, which is a missile that could reach the west coast of the united states and is a huge worry. the bottom line the north koreans continue to antagonize not only the region but the united states. stuart: okay. there it is. ashley: there he is. stuart: okay. ashley: no comment. stuart: our next guest makes unpoll got i cannily patriotic apparel and he hires mostly veterans. tyler merit is with us. the founder of the apparel country, nine line apparel. here he is, tyler merritt. welcome to the program.

>> thank you for having me, sir. stuart: patriotic clothing, flag themed? >> yes, sir. stuart: trump themed? >> sometimes, might be, absolutely. stuart: made in america? >> yes. that is something we hold very near and dear to our heart. we're attempting to go more and more towards made in america. starting in my garage to 60,000 square foot facility we should be opening. stuart: hold on a minute. you started in your garage? >> yes, sir. stuart: apparel-themed, patriotic-theme. ed apparel how many years ago? >> 2012. stuart: let's not get carried away, four or five years ago. >> november. stuart: you're working on a 60,000 square foot facility? >> yes, sir. stuart: what will you do in the facility for 60,000 square feet? >> hopefully bring textile manufacturing back to the united states. stuart: is that what you're trying to do? >> yes, sir. stuart: are you a vet? >> i'm still serving active duty? stuart: you're doing on the side. >> i have incredible staff of

140 veterans, spouses and -- can. stuart: wait a minute. what is your sales, annual sales? >> right now we're, last year was about 14 million, projected 20 million this year. stuart: 20 million? >> yes, sir. stuart: this might be a problem. if i walked down the street in new york city and i'm wearing a che guevara t-shirt. everybody loves me. if i go down the street with a trump hat thrown people throw rocks at me if do you have that problem. >> not in savannah, georgia, not that much. stuart: well-said. >> to bridge the gap between americans and civil servant every person that is patriotic. stuart. you became an american citizens. stuart: i did. >> you wrote when you heard "the star-spangled banner" everyone in the room is teary-eyed. stuart:s that true.

>> we found resonates with the silent majority. the individuals who believe in the founding principles of our country and they respect and pay homage to police, firefighters, military, and the tenets of kind of what we stand for. stuart: tyler merritt, thank you for your service. thank you very much indeed for being with us this morning. do you have a website? >> nine line apparel.com. stuart: that simple? >> yes, sir. stuart: as in the number nine. >> that will redirect you or spell it out either way. stuart: nine line apparel.com. >> yes, sir. stuart: tyler, come back anytime. appreciate it. check of the big board, almost the low of the day, down 77 as we speak. the important thing is the level, 20,500. that is where we are. coming up, how badly us did the state of california not want that border wall to be built? the state is planning to punish companies just for bidding on the project. how about that? we're watching the confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee judge neil gorsuch.

we're on top of it all this morning. more "varney" after this.

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stuart: live look at the white house. this is an item of news that could move the market a little bit. we hear members of the freedom caucus will go to the white house at some point today and sit down with the president and talk the health care vote tomorrow. as we have heard earlier on the show, president trump needs to get and convert just a few of the flood he dom caucus members, get them to vote yes, full-court press. going to happen today, at the white house. that news has affected the market. i think it affected it a little bit. we were down 85 points. now we're down 63. the idea we can strong arm the freedom caucus maybe get them to

vote yes, maybe make some concessions but get a yes vote, that is a very, very big deal. at the top of the hour we also got the news on existing home sales going on at annual rate of 5.48 million. that is an annualized rate. not great. not terrible. probably had a minimal effect on the market. we're now down 66. now this, the state of california considering divesting from any company that works on building the wall. ash. ashley: california screaming. democrat state lawmakers introduced a bill that would basically force its pension investments not to be invest in companies that have any involvement at all with the border wall project, but also divest all of its investments in the companies may already have its pension money in. they say, look it's a wall of shame. it should not be supported in any way. they say immigrant stories are the history of america and this

is a nightmare but just let me point out. legal immigration is the story of this country. we're talking about illegal immigration. something they always tend to forget. stuart: the left, to hang on to the votes of legitimate immigrants to this country always makes out that it is about immigrants, immigration. it is not. it is about illegal immigration. liz: by the way one in 10 hispanic-owned firm want to work on the wall. stuart: let's not forget that. there is money at stake. all right, everyone, i think california wants to become a sanctuary state as well. ashley: yes. stuart: thursday's health care vote make-or-break in our opinion if it's a no, with think markets could really take a dive. it will likely delay the tax cut even further. that is the nasty progress in the future. but rich people, here in new york don't care. they are telling state government, the new york state government, raise their taxes, tax the rich some more they say. i can't get my head around this

one but i will surely try. more "varney" after this. at ange

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stuart: breaking news, looking at the whiteouts. later on today members of the house freedom caucus, they are conservatives, they oppose the ryan plan and obama care as it stands. threatening to vote no tomorrow when the vote comes down. at white house meeting with president trump at some point today. no doubt wheeling and dealing, strong-arming will begin. it has already begun of course because the president needs to have some of those freedom caucus votes moving over into the yes column. it is an absolute must for the president. everyone believes it is absolute

must for the republican party. if this fall down at this point derails probably the legislative schedule going forward. they don't want that. they want unity. they want a yes vote tomorrow. just in five seconds literally, we will get the latest read how much oil we have in storage. five seconds are up. i think we got the number. do we have the number? liz: way more than expected, up 4.9 million barrels. a is a bigger build of inventory than expected. this is the 10 of the last 11 weeks we've seen a build in inventory. oil is hitting negative lows, right around the time opec said we would cut oil production to bring prices up. the oil boom in the united states still going full bore. stuart: we're swimming in the stuff. there is so much oil in supply, we have it up wa-zoo. liz: that is british. stuart: no, it is not british.

i stole it from you americans. falling 70 cents as we speak. no impact on the stock market at this point. probably impact on oil company stocks. we're down 67, right there, 20,600. which is roughly 500 points down from the all-time high which we reached earlier this year. do check those big check names. we concentrate on these. that is where money is flowing. down yesterday. most of them down a little bit more today. microsoft, up, what, 23 cents. apple up 41 cents at 140. a mixed bag. back to obamacare, the repeal and replacement vote that comes down tomorrow morning. joining us, a.b. stoddard, "real clear politics" associate he had. ab, you're on. ab. i think we lost the audio feed. so she didn't know she was on. liz: can we weigh in on the freedom caucus for a second?

the koch brotherses are behind the scenes, hey, you know what, we supported you, conservatives. we funded your election campaigns. we got you in office. listen to us. we don't like the reform bill at all. so the koch brotherses are huge players behind here. they funneled a quarter of a billion into state races across the country, congressional races. if they're meeting today with the president. that means the koch brothers have to weigh in here as well. stuart: so i think we just got a tweet from president trump weighing in so to speak, look what he says. big day for health care. working hard. that's obviously correct because members of the freedom caucus are going to the white house. >> liz: if they vote for it, they face the wrath of financiers that put them in their seats. that is a big fight. stuart: if the freedom caucus, the conservatives say no to the ryan plan on health care reform, then the republican party takes a hit. and so does the legislative agenda.

liz: face wrath of voters at midterms. what a fight. stuart: i think that is affecting the market. ashley: sure. stuart: i think that the market is, we've got ab. ab, are you there? yes you are. you're there, aren't you? there you are. excellent. >> yes. stuart: we just heard that members of the freedom caucus will to to the white house to negotiate i presume later on today. i regard that as the opening salvo in the strong-arm tactics, muscling through on this vote. what say you? >> right. look right now they don't have the votes to pass this but it is always darkest before the dawn. i've been covering congress long enough to know that strange things happen in the final hours. they could absolutely end up pulling it off and having a house vote that succeeds on thursday. if it were to be held right now looks like it is in real trouble. stuart: but we have a day to go through with president trump

presumably offering all kinds of things to the conservatives to bring them over. now you're shaking your head. why? >> because as we know there is finding the sweet spot baking a soft cookie. one minute less it is raw dough. you go over it become as crispy cookie and you want it to be chew which. every single time he is throwing something, he and steve bannon are working closely to the freedom caucus to the right side of the republican conference it makes the bill less palatable to moderate republicans, don't worry, we'll work out all the tax credits. raise them for spike in premiums for seniors once it gets to the senate side. you will lose either moderates or conservatives on the bill if you tilt it right or left. they have them don't die the mountain and don't want the plank if it will come over here and not pass anyway. stuart: it's a debacle if there

is no vote or the bill is pulled because paul ryan knows there is not enough republican votes. it is republican debacle and failure of the president as negotiator in chief to get this thing done. >> it will slow-mo men tum. everyone is focused on tax reform. this is not so much about health care reform as getting to tax cuts. they need a budget baseline. they need get taxes, health care overhaul first. it is bad medicine they all have to take. it will really slow the momentum an become a problem for the agenda, ambitious one with mnuchin, treasury secretary saying thee need tax reform signed by august. stuart: last question. you have 20 seconds. here is your chance to move the stock market, what a golden opportunity, ab. it is on your shoulders, that's a fact. now is there going to be a yes vote tomorrow or a no vote.

>> i think my money on a yes vote. stuart: you moved market. it is only down 5points. >> only for a minute. stuart: it is good. thanks, ab. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: thank you. how about this one? you will love this. wealthy new yorkers say they want to pay more taxes. more than 40 millionaires asked the state for a 1% increase for what they call, a plan for tax fairness. tom bayer with us, democrat strategist. welcome, tom, welcome back. >> thank you very much. stuart: what do you make of this, stuart, rich people say, tax us, tax us more. >> i think it is dead on arrival. stuart: thank you. that is good news. >> this has been tried by the same group, they will pass anything that will tax the rich, the senate would not. now the other thing that is quite important -- stuart: what about morality here? if you're wealthy. >> all right.

stuart: you got a lot money. you think we should be paying more tax its there is nothing stopping these people shelling out more money to send it to the treasury. nothing is stopping them. >> here is the morality point. there is no assurance if more money goes to the state of new york that it will be used for the public good. that is the way it works. if these people want to contribute and they should, as you said, to the public good, let them give to hospitals, schools, other organizations, orchestras, that really need the money where you get a donor agreement, a written agreement, binding whoever the donee. stuart: what is wrong with that? >> what is wrong with that? stuart: nothing. >> i think it is misguided and dead on arrival approach. stuart: excellent, tom baer. >> never mind. ask me one about health care. stuart: even though you're a democrat. you're all right. >> i am a democrat. stuart: i want to ask you about

health care because vice president biden joined house democrats. they're rallying to save obamacare. we'll take a live look at it. he is speaking as of right now. this is an interesting move. galvanizing the democrats, get them all together. what do you think democrats should do on obamacare? >> essentially nothing in the house because, this is a situation in which the republicans are teeing up a major problem. the bill as amended with this, that and the other is what i would call an ugly stew or an ugly child. stuart: so you think the democrats should allow the republicans to pass their change and get on with it? >> it is going to happen anyway, you know. there is no reason to do anything other than posture. the point is, that the bill that will come out if it passes, and i kind of think it will, is really got some stuff in there that is odious. the smelliest one is where they

have put in the bill that in up state and rural communities in new york, the federal government will no longer pay for medicaid. that's going to be paid for by the state, another unfunded mandate. so that kind of stuff, even if it results in a passage, we're going to go to dead on arrival, that same phrase in the senate. stuart: but that is exactly the kind of horse trading that we saw before obamacare was passed all those years ago. i mean, i'll give you this to vote yes. i will give you that to vote. that is how it works. >> the differences there are no private bills anymore but there are things that the president who is working hard to get this done can do but, stuart, remember this, once this thing, this ugly child comes out of the house in which the democrats have almost nothing to say, let's face it, they won't have amendments on the floor. they won't even know the timing. and they will jabber. once it guys to the senate it is

dead on arrival in the senate. progressive amendments, back to the house. you tell me. stuart: i don't know what is going to happen. i don't know. tom, very interesting perspective. thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks very much for having me. thank you. stuart: by the way the dow industrials are down only 40 points. i think the news the freedom caucus goes to the white house has affected the dow. we're off 35. i think this is having some impact. how about twitter? banning accounts tied to terror. not much impact on the stock. it is at $14 a share. ashley, any details on this? ashley: second half of last year they shut down 377 accounts it says was promoting terrorism. since august of 2,015,636,000 twitter accounts have been shut down for promoting terror. british lawmakers accusing twitter consciously failing to

combat the promotion of terrorism, extremism. twitter says it is constantly improving internal systems. it is proof of that. stuart: nobody wants to buy them. fair you in. 14 bucks a share. wait for it, sports fans, i will take the test to find out if i'm a snowflake. i will, i will take the test. update on day three of judge neil gorsuch's supreme court hearing. right here looking at it. we'll be back after this. what's with the dog-sized horse? i'm crazy stressed trying to figure out this complex trade so i brought in my comfort pony, warren, to help me deal. isn't that right warren? well, you could get support from thinkorswim's in-app chat. it lets you chat and share your screen directly with a live person right from the app, so you don't need a comfort pony. oh, so what about my motivational meerkat? in-app chat on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade.

reporter: i'm peter barnes in washington. the confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch continues after two smooth day foss are the nominee. the high court pick has avoided major pitfalls, despite tension how he got there after republicans last year refused to consider former democratic president barack obama's nominee. the committee's approval is virtually assured, moving nomination to the full senate. there gorsuch's challenge will be there to get enough democratic support to avoid a prolonged floor fight, rocky filibuster, and may cause the senate to change the rules. nor varney after this. ♪

stuart: this is an intraday chart of the dow industrials how it moved during the session sofar. the market hit a low at top of the hour as existing home sales came out. we recovered a little bit as we have news that the freedom caucus will go to the white house presumably negotiating about tomorrow's vote on health care. right now we are down 47 points. that's where we are now. how about that new study that finds college student, the ones who violently protest

against conservative speakers on campuses, guess what, they come from wealthy families. liz? liz: this study comes from the liberal centrist brookings institute. liberal sent tivity study. more economically exclusive they are, the more they try to sensor free speech. the more they rail against privilege, the more they are economically successful, from successful families and rich families. they're lighting buildings on fire at universities like berkeley they're in the study. they are in the study. middlebury is in the study. they have affluent, rich parents. low income students with st. louis university, don't do those things. listen to speakers. stuart: rich kids guilt. ashley: limo to the protest. stuart: absolutely. i doubt my next guest would hire any of those youngsters. he runs a company that gives a snowflake test to job applicants. watch this. >> hello, hampshire college

students who had the american flag removed from your campus because it hurt your feelings. i'm kyle. i run the kind of marketing agency that you have always absolutely dreamed of working at. guess what? even we won't hire you. oops. did i forget your trigger warning? stuart: here he is, kyle ray, the silent partner marketing ceo let's get at it. you will test me to see if i'm a snowflake. two questions, go. >> what does privilege mean to you? stuart: what does privilege mean to you. oh. privilege means those people born into wealth enjoy a certain position in our society which they may or may not deserve. >> interesting. okay. my second question would be what does america mean to you? stuart: opportunity, space, dynamism, life. prosperity, profit, loss, capitalism.

individual freedom. individual liberty. >> well, i mean with those kind of answers only question whether i could afford to hire you. stuart: am i snowflake? >> our not a snowflake at all? stuart: absolutely not. >> not with this kind of energy. stuart: define snowflake. >> someone will whine and complain and cop to the table with entitled attitude with inability to back their perspective. stuart: who is a snowflakes out there? >> there are a lot but weeded out 60% through the application process. stuart: used? >> absolutely every single day. our company used it to weed out the people inundating us with resume's and don't even know what we do for work. stuart: you eliminated 60%. >> 60% drop out when they get hit with the test. stuart: why is it you have such enormous success with the snowflake test? i've seen you everywhere. >> what it comes down to people are sick and tired of having to be so entirely politically correct. i had companies across the country saying we wish we could do that we are afraid to.

we're afraid what the backlash would be like. stuart: you would have a problem, wouldn't you? you hire someone and they're ultrasensitive to everything, you've got a problem on your hands. >> you absolutely have a problem on your hands. if i walk into a meeting with ceo and slams an idea or complex we have, i start crying i'm going to be out of business. i need people who are willing to take a stand and have a backbone and spine. liz: are you guys seeing the screen? stuart: i see the snowflakes. i'm not a snowflake. i'm a blizzard. i can see lawsuits, guarranty that somebody will sue you, many people will sue you saying wait, wait, that is illegal discrimination. >> that's great. i appreciate you putting that idea in their heads. there is no discrimination here. all this is glorified personality test. this is something that happens in interviews every single day. i went to harvard. he went to emerson. i will not hire him. the only difference we have conversation. stuart: is this a political test. >> no.

stuart: snowflakes are political test. >> snowflakes are mentality. not a political mind set. it is not who you voted for whether you're on the left or right. whether or not you have the hustle and drive and willing to work for a living. stuart: conserve i was are generally characterized insensitive an hostile to those who are overly sensitive. >> that is identity politics. this is where we have such a divide and people are not having conversations. stuart: have you sold the snowflake test to any companies. >> published formally for free. i want to give back to america, sir. stuart: i don't know where to go with this. i'm not a snowflake. >> you're not a snowflake. you're hired. stuart: kyle, you're all right. thanks for joining us. you can come again. >> thank you. stuart: administer the test. okay. check that big board. we're down 50 point. we had been down about 85. then came news the freedom caucus is going to the white house. they're negotiating about the vote tomorrow. we'll be back.

stuart: all right. some folks in the audience have problems with the way we present tax arguments. listen to this from maria. hi, varney. one suggestion, next time a liberal comes to talks about taxes and how much more we need

to pay, have them bring their own tax returns. let's see if they took any deductions or if they paid extra to the irs. it is totally legal to pay additional money to the treasury department. liz? liz: check the box off. by the way bernie sanders pays 13 1/2%. he has three vacation homes. warren buffett pays at low rate because he doesn't pay income taxes like we do. he pay as capital gains rates that is the rich people. ashley: makes me so angry with warren buffett. my secretary, turn around, write a check, mr. buffett to the irs. equal it up. you can if you want to. stuart: we have the case of 80 wealthy new yorkers, i think it is 80. they say we should be, wealthy people should be paying more. liz: pay income taxes. so go give more. pay income tax rate, not capital gains. stuart: nothing which says you can not pay more if you wish to pay more. if you think it's a good idea to pay more to the treasury, pay more.

ashley: they want us, not them. us. liz: small businesses who create jobs in this country. stuart: wealthy people don't pay tax on their wealth. liz: correct. stuart: we don't tax wealth. we tax income. strivers who make food money, we end up paying all the tax money. wealthy do not. liz: we're into a field of cotton with this kind of thinking out there. stuart: that is new one. not heard that before. coined on this program, ladies and gentlemen. thank you,. ashley. everyone, we'll be back.

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stuart: a taste of things to come, stock and the companies that have done so well in the election drop sharply, financial companies, infrastructure companies, manufacturing companies. they're are the ones which took the biggest hit. as we said, it's a taste of things to come. think what happens friday

morning if obamacare repeal goes down on thursday night. another selloff is very likely. why? because president trump's legislative schedule would have been derailed. the republicans first try at passing major legislation would have failed. the tax cut package would at least be delayed. and that means the promises of rapid economic growth would fall flat. investors are already clearly nervous. the president's running out of time to negotiate an obamacare deal that brings in a yes vote. this is the art of the deal in realtime with real impact. now, the left, they smell blood. investors smell an upset. look at the market now and you'll get a taste of things to come if the trump agenda is derailed. the third hour of varney & company is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ stuart: i have breaking news. reports of shots fired outside the britain's houses of parliament, armed police on scene, running to the exit.

what's going on there. ashley: good question. reports of gunfire outside of parliament. we understand that the lawmakers inside parliament, they're in lock down, reports of a man with a knife. reuters reporting at least a dozen people injured on westminster bridge. we are familiar with the front side which is what you see from the river, you see the big bend and the tower but this is on if backside. it's all very confusing. there's a red helicopter in the scene. ambulance helicopter which is on the backside of the houses of parliament. but all we know from eyewitnesses, gunfire may be five or six shots, prior to that, maybe some sort of loud crash, a man with a knife approaching police, those shots fired and now we are getting the reports of people injured in west min cher situation.

we will continue to cover. stuart: there has been an incident. ashley: an incident. stuart: that covers a variety of things but it's an incident. ash, thank you very much, indeed. let's get back to your money, check the dow industrials, we are not at the low of the day. we are way off the low 85 now we are down 40. baa tom line, the markets are looking at the healthcare vote that comes up tomorrow. they don't like uncertainty, they don't know which way the vote is going to go, if there's a suggestion that it's a no vote, that market comes down in all probability f it looks like a yes, markets likely goes up. the price of oil down this morning up 47 per barrel. no impact from that on that on the stock market. look at the big name technology stocks. they have been riding very high since the election, came down yesterday, modest rebuind today for facebook, amazon, microsoft, alphabet and apple.

a very modest rebound. but that puts them very close to or right at their all-time record highs. how about the banks? they were the biggest losers yesterday having been the biggest winners since the situation. where are they now? >> most of them down except for jpmorgan who is up 30 cents. the rest are down some more. you're watching, you're about to see day three of the confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. we will continue to monitor for any breaking news. it's a repeat performance of yesterday thus far today. president trump's held a women panel. news from that meeting as it occurs. back to my take of the top of the hour. keith fitzgerald joins us now. keith, i say, let's say if you

grow with this, a yes vote tomorrow means an up market on friday morning. a no vote tomorrow, means a down market, big time on friday morning. what say you? >> i'm totally in agreement with that, stuart. we talked for a long time. if there's a yes vote that means the agenda continues to promise, the growth continues. if there's a no vote, not just this issue comes to text but everything else that president trump runs into question. this is a great opportunity to reambulance. you have something like this to use to your advantage. stuart: reambulance. i want to take to your attention owners of sears and kmart. there's a substantial doubt that

sears can stay in market. that's the retail ice age. is sears going to fade away? >> i feel like a kindergartner and want to say, duh. it's an iconic brand, taken apart piece by piece by piece. it reminds me of the film with michael douglas. stuart: look, this retail ice age, it's a real thing and it is happening. is there any bricks and mortar store which you would buy? >> you know, no and yes. here is the thing. the only one that even remotely interests me is foot locker, and the reason why, stuart, they engage consumers online and offline. you walk into the store and you have sales associates who want to be there, know their products and who are excited.

you come in as a customer and you're already engaged. there are very, very few retailers that have that recipe today. it's amazon versus everybody else and if you can't defend yourself, you might as well pack it up. stuart: i want to talk to you about bankand financial stocks which were the best performers after the election. big drop yesterday. some of them down a bit more today. where do you stand on banks or financial stocks or eff, financial companies, where do you stand on this? >> well, this is one of the things where the street is going get the better of you if you're not careful. most of these banks are easy-picking, there's a lot of money on the table and profit taking, here a bank is generally run by the ceo. you to look at who is at the top. there's a reason why jpmorgan is up today. jamie dima --dimon, one of the

few that knows how to make money. stuart: do you still feel that the market implicitly wants to go up? >> absolutely, the amount of money chasing quality stocks is like a bunch of eggs in the grocery store. if you have one egg and a thousand buyers the price of egos up, if you have a thousand eggs and less buyers, the price goes down. as long as the government continues to purpose it in, we will have a resistance higher. stuart: all right, keith, thanks for joining us, sir. we will see you again real soon. i want to get to the crucial healthcare vote that takes place tomorrow. a great deal uncertainty whether it would be a yes vote and no vote. congressman joins us now, republican from california. yes, there are republicans in california. we found another one. now, you were on the fence but now you are voting for the bill that comes before you tomorrow, why? >> well, it's not a perfect bill.

our system wasn't designed to draft perfect legislation, only i can do that and you might disagree with the results. our system is designed to produce the most acceptable legislation possible under the circumstances and i think we have done that with this bill. stuart: as things stand now, we are told that the bill will not pass, however, the freedom caucus members go to the white house later on today presumably to negotiate with president trump. at the end of the day, do you think the president will get his way and there will be a yes vote tomorrow. can you tell the viewers that? >> i can't read minds and can't tell fortunes, first of all, as you pointed out, there's so much riding on it. i cannot imagine it failing tomorrow. secondly, i do recl a member who has acquaintance done business witdonald trump and after the election this fellow told him, you know, these poor congressmen have no idea what's

about to come at them. when donald trump wants something, he's going get it. so i have great confidence in his -- his negotiating ability. stuart: it actually puts conservative, freedom caucus in a pretty strong position. they are the hold-outs. the president needs at least some of their votes. what do you think he can give them to get them to vote yes tomorrow? >> well, i think what he's going to do is ask them what benjamin franklin asked, to doubt a little bit of their infallibility. benjamin looked at the constitution and said, this is not a perfect document, it's not the one i would have designed but when you assemble a group of people for their collective wisdom, you also get their collective foley, that's not going to produce perfect legislation but this is pretty darn good and we better take it while we can. stuart: okay, tom, republican from california. thanks very much for joining us, sir. >> my pleasure, thank you.

stuart: we are following a developing story in britain. parliament building on lockdown after reports of shots were fired. sky news reports the alleged was shot by police and we are now getting report that is a police officer has been stand on the grounds of britain's parliament. ashley: that's exactly. he was injured, one assailant shot and that's all we have at this point. parliament shot down although there are report that is some are being evacuated. stuart: got it. more on that just a moment. wealthiest new yorkers say they want to pay. >> more taxes. stay with us, because believe me, we are on that story

stuart: i'm going to bring you up to date in the situation surrounding britain's parliament. ashley, let's see what we know here. one police officer stabbed? ashley: one police officer to have been stabbed in the parliament perimeter. he was attacked by an assailant. that assailant we believe was shot by police. stuart: that's the status of those two. ashley: correct. stuart: what about outside of the building? >> a dozen of people are injured on the bridge. there are reports of people literally being mowed town on the bridge. that's the bridge. we are seeing several people being ambulance services. that's the bridge and parliament will be on the other side. a theory being, perhaps, an attacker gets onto westminster

bridge, just mows down people and gets on the other side, makes a left, parliament square, gets out with a knife and starts attacking police with that knife where that assailant is shot. stuart: whatever happens, you'll know about it real fast. next case. rich new yorkers are asking the state of new york to raise their taxes, they wrote a letter to the governor crow uomo asking, tax us more, please. peter joins us now. what's going on, peter, rich people can always pay more tax if they want to. >> they know darn well that cuomo isn't going to raise taxes because he wants to run for president. he's done a lot to bring taxes down from up state newark. the state tax is integratewith the federal tax. if they're paying the carried interest taxes which you refer today in your set-up piece, it's not going to affect them very

much because they're not paying income tax. you know, i would like to see them screaming for this if hillary clinton had been elected. they probably would be taking bill clinton out, paying him a hundred thousand dollars per speech so they could lobby him to keep the carried interest in place. i doubt many of these folks are paying that much taxes. my tax rate is 26%, warren. stuart: you pay tax on income, so if you're a high income easterner, you pays all kinds of tax, the wealthy don't pay. >> i'm a small businessman and i have a marginal tax rate of 50%. i think i'm adequately taxed. not to mention all the regulators that are in my face. stuart: i'm sorry. i'm not going to put you on the hook on this one but i am going to bring toyota your attention. a new study finds that those college students who are taking part in violent demonstrations when a conservative speaker

comes to campus, those kids are from wealthy families, peter. >> this goes back to the first days to have wealthy kids that sat around. when i was in college i was busy trying to find the way to pay for it, borrowing money, working. i was a grave dig ner the summer times. when i went to apply for a job i was so amused, when i went to graduate school, how have you been spending your time to improve society and i wrote back and i said, i've been busy trying to get an education not like your rich kids, i didn't get into harvard. stuart: you're getting upset as i am. hold a second, peter. one second. many american -- many people say they have trouble coming up with an emergency $2,000, tell me. liz: comes from the new york fed. they can't come up with $2,000 in a month's time. that means they can't get access to credit, the credit scores are really bad, implication for mortgages, for the housing market and also for job growth which is what the trump agenda is about.

stuart: that was one-third. >> a third. stuart: one-third of the people contacted by the new york fed said they couldn't come up with 2,000 bucks, do you make of that or what? >> the truth. if you look at family income statistics, real incomes have been declining and the government has been imposing on the working families. think of the woman who does my make-up, i came in october, i got my obamacare bill, $1,400. we have some congress that says she should give up her cell phone. it's the whole thing is absurd the kinds of burden that is ordinary working people are expected to carry these days in terms of fixed overhead. i mean, i'm not at all surprised. the economy simply hasn't been functioning for both the bush and the obama administrations and now the democrats want to block any attempts to improving the rate of growth. 2% is good enough for milk, it's not good enough for growth. stuart: peter, stay there for a minute. i know that you've got a list of five areas where you say that

could be a financial crisis lurking. 5 places where animal spirits are running too high. you will deal with that in a moment. look at the dow. about to turn positive, i do believe. yes, it just turned positive. that's a big deal. maybe that's because the conservative freedom caucus is negotiating with the president in the white house later on today about the healthcare bill tomorrow. big deal. back in a momt. your insurance company

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stuart: bring you up to date on the incident in london. one police officer stabbed, the assailant reportedly shot, you're looking at westminster bridge where there are reports of a car that mowed people down, late develops, ash. ashley: got in the bridge and crashed the vehicle, guarded area and stabbed the police who is injured. we don't know the condition of the officer. as you're watc the pictures now people mowed down and

hitting people in bicycles and pedestrians, maybe as many as a dozen people. stuart: i want to get back to peter who has a list of lyricking financial crisis. the list is housing bubble, european banks, china and president trump's promises, which is the most eminent threat, peter? >> put up two portraits, chuck schumer and rand paul. right and the left seem to think that they didn't win the presidency and we can't have their agenda, we shouldn't have a government at all. the government is about to collapse because of health care. we don't get tax reforms and regulatory reform, forget about 2% growth, we may have no growth at all and that would be enough to take down the global economy given the shaky state of europe and china. stuart: all right. all right. you say it how you see it. we appreciate that. now, get back to the rich college kids that you pretend to

teach economics. i'm just being nasty. [laughter] >> god will get you, stuart. stuart: i know that. you're all right. we will see you again soon. all right, now, we've got the dow industrials down a near 4 points at one stage we were down 85. we come all the way back to dead even, why? this is my opinion, the members to have freedom caucus will later on today go to the white house and negotiate with president trump about the healthcare bill that goes before the house tomorrow. key decision, a vote yes is good for the market, a vote no is bad for the market. evidently the market believes that president trump has some leverage with the freedom caucus. we will be back

stuart: there has been an incident in london near the houses of parliament. here is what happened. one police officer stabbed, the assailant reportedly shot. you're looking at westminster bridge right now next to the houses of parliament where we believe a car mowed down several people either on bikes or pedestrians. it was a lone attaer who was subsequently w reportedly shot by police officers. that's where things stand, but

repeat lone attacker apparently the man is in his 40's. they have it, more details when they're available. the markets yesterday gave a warning about what happens tomorrow if there is a no vote on the obamacare replacement plan that goes before the house in the vote tomorrow. it was a warning the market went right down, the market very worried about a no vote. robert wolf is joining us right now. here is what i'm saying, let's see if you agree with this. if there's a no vote tomorrow, tomorrow night probably, the market goes down f it's a yes vote the market is either flat or goes up. >> i agree with you. stuart: what investors -- this is a rare moment of agreement. if trump causes the selloff, then i will call it a trump dump.

otherwise -- okay. the premise is that if they vote no on this healthcare plan, then it derails the growth agenda of getting a tax cut in place, infrastructure and all the rest of it. you're pretty much in agreement. >> i would say it a little differently, if it doesn't go through tomorrow night it's not getting through the april recess. if it goes after april recess you can cis -- kiss tax reform this year. those two things in they get back into 2018, i think the market is in trouble. i think they have to give it to them. ic they have to give trump a win tomorrow night. that doesn't mean that we get health care passed but they have to give him a win tomorrow night. i don't know if they will. stuart: consequences of a no vote will be serious for the party and president trump. >> i think that ryan put him really in a corner because i

think that this could have been a different plan coming out with a different plan and actually you could have been more to the center and if you lose the freedom caucus, but as the doctor you say but you include medicaid expansion, you would force dems hands on that. stuart: either way you will have serious horse-trading. >> he's a good deal-maker, we know that. stater tauter so he says. art of the deal. >> perfect. stuart: now the cbo, congressional budget office says individual insurance premiums go up. what 20% over the next two years under this latest obamacare reform plan from speaker ryan. dr. segal is here. you like this plan from paul ryan. i believe you like it. so how do you explain you liking it if premiums are going to go up. >> well, first of all, let me make key points here. premiums are going to go under current plan not as much as cbo

is saying because it's not base on 18 million people, it'll be half of that and a lot more healthier people in there. what i don't like and what the current struggle going on in the house is about that robert wolf was talking about, let me tell you what it's about, the freedom caucus is saying, we are getting rid of mandates but we are forcing you to buy something loaded with essential benefits and those with preexisting conditions are staying in the same market. stuart, that's why premiums will stay up. under ryan's original plan a better way in 2015, you had high risk pools and you've got rid of the essentiabenefits. i'm one that says the government cannot force you to buy a policy that covers copays on colonoscopies. that's not the government's role. we want more competition in there. i'm looking to sigh if the negotiator in chief can actually get this to work out and my prediction is they will squeeze it through the house. stuart: what exactly do you want change? be precise.

what is it? >> i either want preexisting conditions separated out in the state level to risk pools which will bring premiums down. stuart: right. >> or i want some of the essential benefits that are not really essential taken out of insurance policies and you know why, stuart, that's bring the little insurers back in. when we talk about one or two insurers only on the exchange, because there's no little guy. there's no middle guy. only the big insurers can deal with this high -- this essential benefit's package. conservatives wants some of it taken out. stuart: okay. i hear you. ashley, you've got something new on london. ashley: new development outside the houses of parliament in london. police believe there's a suspect vehicle outside of parliament and people are being evacuated from the area. also police british police say they are treating this incident as a terrorist incident until they know otherwise. it should be pointed out by the way, today is the one year anniversary of the brussels, whether that had anything to do

with it, one at brussels airport and one in metro area. stuart: the latest news about people being evacuated from the area, why? ashley: there's a vehicle that they are saying is suspect. it's close to parliament and they are not sure about it. to be safe they are evacuating people out of the area. we are continuing to follow that clearly. until we know that otherwise, this is a terror investigation. stuart: london is dominates britain the way paris dominates france. >> yeah. stuart: there's no american city which essentially dominates the country. what we are seeing is people running down the street, i believe that police officers, that suggests that those activity continuing, now, i don't know whether or not this is brought west of london or central london to a standstill but certainly -- ashley: westminster underground station is shut down. you can be sure this area has

been sealed off. >> uk has been severe threatening level. it did join with the u.s. on ban of electronic devices on airplane. hley: they arealling it a terrorist attack untilhey know otherwise. stuart: that's making a statement. okay. they are calling it terror until they know otherwise. ashley: yeah. stuart: what you're looking at is the vehicle which ran over people on westminster bridge right next to the house of the parol rent when over the bridge mowing down people and came around the back of the parliament building -- ashley: that's on the north end of westminster bridge. quick hard left on the gates there. the tower and big bend is literally right above where the car slammed in. the assailant got in the car and managed to get into the heavily guarded area and that's where

reports say he was wielding and stabbed an officer and then shot. stuart: did you also mention that prime minister theresa may was bundled -- ashley: bundled into a vehicle and safely, rushed out to the area. stuart: the house of parliament and house of lords -- ashley: don't forget wednesday is pmq, prime minister question times. she would have been in the building but would have hustled out quickly by plain-clothed officers. stuart: i'm thinking of the impact that one lone assailant has with a car. he drives across westminster bridge allegedly mows people down. we don't know there's a death toll but injury toll, that one lone assailant then shuts down britain's democratic process because the house of parliament are closed and you bundle out

the leader of your country, bundle away for security reasons, you then start looking at a suspicious vehicle, you evacuate people in the immediate area, the impact of one assailant who apparently only had a knife and a car is very -- ashley: significant but it's the open democratic society we live in that enables things like this to happen. stuart: we understand that in britain at the moment it's approximately let's see what time it is -- ashley: hour hours ahead. stuart: their market is still open and their market is, i believe, dead flat. i'm reaching here. i don't want to be -- if there was a financial impact it would be in the british stock market and there's no financial impact at this point. ashley: right. stuart: chopper landing right there next to the house of parliament. >> parliament square. >> yeah. stuart: that's big bend. obviously the symbol of the house of parliament and the chopper landed right behind it

in parliament square just to the right of this shot, i believe, would be westminster bridge, the right -- ashley: right over westminster bridge looking down. is that bridge where the assailant drove with a car -- what was it? >> four by four. >> police officer attacked as well. stuart: yes, that's after he finished mowing people down. he went across the bridge, heading towards big bend as you can see, he turned left to get into the gate. he got out and at that point he stabbed the police officer. ashley: stabbed the first officer who he came upon. stuart: reuters is reporting he was shot by police officers on the scene. now you have seen the pictures, am i right in saying that the police emerged with huge machine guns? ashley: yes, there was a heavily fortified area. you will see see in this area.

around parliament there are heavily armed police officers with big machine guns. they patrol this area. >> the people on the bridge, 8 to 10 possibly injured? ashley: 8 to 10. there are blankets over the bodies. people take video of everything. stuart: president trump is addressing this issue. we will tell you exactly what he said when his statement becomes available. it's not necessarily a statement. he's talking about it as we speak. i don't know what he said at this point but i will bring it to you very, very quickly. you're looking at a chopper taking off there from parliament square right outside of big bend where it is 20 minutes to 4:00 in the afternoon. ashley: that's an air ambulance. stuart: injuries, stabbing of a

police officer, the shooting of the assailant. the man was driving a car, he's in his 40's, lone assailant and went driving across the bridge that you can see in front of you, obviously all traffic stopped, he turn left it is a black car turned left, you see the greenery there. slammed into the gates, side entrance to parliament. he slammed into the gates there. he got out. he stabbed the police officer whose condition we do not know and then shot by the police and again his condion ashley: unknown. stuart: th have not released the name of the assailant. we know he's in his 40's and we also know that he was acting alone, that we do know. ashley: yes. stuart: no name or other identity. ashley: we do have a suspect vehicle london police are describing. a precaution, they evacuated that area as well. obviously on very high alert. stuart: we don't know if it's a separate vehicle from the one in

the shot right there. ashley: it's a separate vehicle. stuart: suspicious and taken people out of the area. ashley: okay. central london is at a standstill, doctor. >> emergency services in that area are excellent, that area of london, secondly what they do is fluid resissation u stuart. they will put it right into the bone if they can't get a wayne. they stabilize them and get them to the hospital. stuart: the only person shot at this point would be the assailant himself. that's all we know. ralph parties on the phone. ralph, the authorities in london are saying that this is a terror incident until otherwise known, put it like that. what do you make of this, sir, ralph? >> first of all, that's the correct attitude to take. you don't take obama attitude that gives excuse for everything. it looks like terrorism and has effects of terrorism it's terrorism until proven otherwise

and to me what this underscores, stuart, simply this is the age we live in. to live in a free society means taking risks and unfortunately these -- these subhuman monsters known as islamist terrorists and other sorts of terrorists take advantage of our freedoms and -- i hate to say this, but at a person point we have to live with this threat and go on with our lives. george w. bush was right about that certainly. stuart: what are the political implications of this? this has happened in britain. a new ally of the united states and theresa may does have a relationship with donald trump, a political relationship, obviously, what's the political implications of this? what looks to be and the authits say is indeed a terror incident in the heart of london? >> we have seen other terrorists in london not quite close to parliament.

we have seen a young british soldier decapitated. this is the times we live in. stuart: you have to update this. ralph, you to update this. president trump wants to exclude people traveling to america from six mostly muslim countries. the british agreed with the ban on large electronic devices on direct flights coming from several predominantly muslim cities going to the united states and going to britain. you've got to update the political implications of a terror attack right now. >> yes, well, indeed you do. you raised two separate issues. the issue of the laptops and other electronics being forbidden to take in cabinet of the aircraft. that has to deal with hard intelligence about how the terrorists want to bring down aircrafts by filling bombs and batteries. the issue with the ban, the

travel ban is more complex because on -- while i certainly support as you do, stuart, much, much tougher screening of dubious-would be visitors or immigrants or refugees coming to this country, nonetheless, you know, when we put syria on the list excluding syrian christian refugees and don't put saudi arabia on a list when more american terror deaths, i think it's all working progress. but back to your -- stuart: it is. ralph, i'm sorry. i have to interrupt you. i have to bring the viewers up to speed on exactly what they are looking at. left-hand side of the screen westminster bridge. we understand that an assailant drove across that bridge earlier this morning, mowed people down, drove straight into the fence or the side entrance of the house of parliament, got out, stabbed the police officer, he was then

shot himself. it is a lone assailant at this point. ashley: we do know that parliament remains in lockdown. 10 downs street is in lockdown as well as complis say they are treating as a terror attack until other facts are unknown. stuart: theresa may bundled into a car and got out of there fast and the parliament building, the democratic seat of government is on lockdown and on hold. mike baker is with us, former cia guy. mike, welcome to the program. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: i'm told that the british police like their counterparts in rest of europe and maybe in america too are overwhelmed by the number of people that they're required to

report on, follow and track. do you know that for a fact? is that accurate? >> it is accurate. just like we talked about in the past here in the u.s. with the fbi being stretched thin. they have active investigations in every state of the union. domestic security along with metropolitan police and others, law enforcement are really at their limit. they are outstanding personnel. they have unfortunately a tremendous amount of experience in issues of homeland defense, but they are stretched thin. stuart: i have to believe that there are political implications for the united states and for president trump. president trump has gone great lengths to try to restrict travel people coming to this country from six predominantly

muslim countries and now we have a terror incident, that's what the authorities are calling it, in the very center of london, ally in this and i have to believe, spell it out mike baker, tell me what are the political implications for the united states? >> well, what we were seeing with the suspension that the current administration has been trying to push through was a lot of eye rolling, not just from folks on the far left, but from, you know, folks who are ju in general are tired of the war on terror after all of these years. when something like this happens and also in particular when the news comes out that suddenly we are banning electronic device and you mention this briefly earlier from certain countries and airports overseas it causes people to stop, wait a minute. i thought we finished with that. i thought we defeated al-qaeda, we haven't heard from them.

i think this does is it brings the threat back up to the surface so that people don't necessarily just stand there and go this is not necessary. we don't need to do this, we are all moving toward a community of nation. if anything, from the current administration's point of view, you know, i think this will refocus people and understanding that this is not going away and frankly, we can do everything we want, we can defeat isis in syria and iraq and we can continue to have success against, you know, individual targets within and boko haram but we are in a long-term struggle with islamic jihadist and islamic extremists. stuart: president trump has addressed what happened in london. i don't believe he said that much but i'm going play you exactly what he did say, roll that tape, please. >> we are just getting an update

on london. only -- some big news coming from london. stuart: that was it. obviously the president is aware of what has happened. he made no other comment whatsoever but there are probably political implications for the united states. go ahead, liz. >> the other issue too is occurring to ashley, a person gushed through the main entrance in the house of commons. ashley: it's unclear whether he smashed into the gate. that part is unclear. there was an eyewitness looking down on when this whole thing happened. happens to be a daily mail reporter whose office looks in parliament. the individual, attacker got out of the car and approached two english police officers right there in parliament in yellow jackets, he approached them and wielded what appeared to be a knife and started officer, these

are not armed. the other officer who was not stabbed managed to run away to get help, two plain clothed officers come out and the attacker continues to go to the entrance the member of parliament used to go inside. both plain clothed officers fired at the assailant. >> we don't know the nationality of the assailant. stuart: we don't know his name. will farris knows a think about relations and policy. >> thank you. stuart: what do you think of the political implications for the united states and specifically president trump and his attempted travel ban? >> well, first of all, let's lo at the -- as they are growing and british authorities are releasing them. we have for now confirmed that it was a stabbing and a shooting of the stabber, other reports may come.

this is happening as you just said to link it to the general environment at a day where in wausht dozens an dozens of countries are meeting to discuss the strategy against isis. this is -- this is unique. so now the big question is if we defeat isis on the ground and that would be mosul and raqqah, would that terminate jihadi threat inside? stuart: just using a knife and a car, that one single assailant was able to close down a big chunk of central london, close down britain's houses of parliament and now we understand closed down access to and 10

downing street itself which is the home of the prime minister's resident, his or her residence. >> absolutely. just pointed the impact that the terrorist in general and maybe jihadist, we don't know in this case want to provoke, to shut down large concentration of big cities down. remember, in boston, two individuals shut down boston. we had to mobilize so many forces. in nice, one truck, not even a nice, knives were used in many places in france. this is the new phase of urban terrorism and has a reaction and liberal democracy a massive shut down. stuart: yeah. walid, thank you very much. always appreciate it. we will get back to you later. thanks so much for joining us, sir. >> the issue that they were voting on it appears brexit tiggering the brexit and that's

about uk oversee security and at the same time entering into security deals with the eu. stuart: they were debating that. liz: looks like that was on the table, yes. stuart: when they closed it down? liz: triggers will come on the 29th. ashley: question time. it's unclear whether that had wrapped up. i would have thought so because it was 3:00 in the afternoon local time. stuart: an hour and ten minutes ago. extraordinary. i want to bring in larry, radio talk show host. i want to bring him in now. he's in california, but you have a national audience, larry, i want you to sort of if you can tell us what you think are the political implications for america and for president trump and his attempted travel ban now that you have this terror incident at the heart of our

ally great britain. >> well, i think that if this is a muslim terrorist, if this is a muslim terrorist who is not from britain or if he's from britain is a child of immigrant parents, if this muslim came from or his participants came from one of the six countries under the travel ban, all of that will strengthen donald trump's hands -- stuart: i have to interrupt you because we do not at this point know the identity of the assailant. >> i know that. stuart: we don't know religion. >> i know that, i said, if, if id. assuming this is a muslim, assuming this person came from one to have six countries or his parents did, all that will do will add fire to donald trump's argument that we need to do something about it these six muslim countries. also it reminds us we are still at war. we may be tired of it, we may not like it, we may have pulled all the troops out of iraq and

put them back but we are still at war and this reminds us of that. as you pointed out, stuart w a knife and a car he's been able to shut down britain for this period of time. we are still at war and donald trump gets it in my opinion, his predecessor did not. stuart: all the tv stations are filled with images of the injured being carried away. we have on our screen, on the other side of the screen you can see the debris that's left over from the hitting spree that went on on westminster bridge. does this have big impact in america? general like on your listeners? >> no, not the same way as if it were to happen in the united states. it's just a question of time before we get hit again as we were hit in chattanooga, out here in california, in san

bernardino and i can name a number of others a you could. as far as i'm concerned, this is a serious matter even though it took place across the pond, it's still a serious matter because there's just question of time before we get hit here. i think it will. maybe only slightly but i think it will and enough so that politically he will have more energy of pursuing the travel ban and if gorsuch gets confirmed and he will and this ban gets up to the supreme court, i believe it'll be upheld by four. stuart: thanks very much for joining us this morning. short notice. >> my pleasure. liz: you wonder an an incident like this what it does to the national psyche to the people in the uk. the uk is, you know, famously an open society. stuart: so what we have at the moment is a lone assailant drives across westminster bridge

which is right next to the house of parliament. he mows people down. don't know how many. we are hearing eight to ten, maybe. he continues across the bridge. he swerves to the left, stabs a police officer and then what, ash, take it away? ashley: another officer at the scene wasn't armed, two plain clothed officers shouted a warning at this individual who continued to head with the knife towards the door that the mp's use to get inside parliament and that's when he did not stop, this assailant and he was shot by police. stuart: subsequently a the police very close by, i believe, and theevacuated people from the immediate area from there because they don't know what's in the vehicle and what it's capable of doing. at the moment, we have the authorities saying it is a terror incident until shown otherwise.

ashley: otherwise known. liz: we don't know the name and nationality. ashley: police also appealing for anyone with photos or footage which is pretty standard with these things now. as we know, everyone has a smartphone and they are asking anyone who have any captured any images to please contact them and turn them in. stuart: zero financial impact. ashley: correct. stuart: any financial effect from this incident in london. i do believe, however -- what you've got? ashley: european official told ap there was increased chatter on jihadi networks following the uk's adoption of electronics ban aboard flights from muslim countries. stuart: britain and america both banned large electronic devices like laptops, for example, on flight, direct flights from, i think, eight mostly muslim

cities to the united states. ashley: we have no idea that today's incident is connected to that. liz: that's right. stuart: i do believe there's political fall-out, political implications. that's how we will leave it. neil, it's yours. neil: very good reporting. we will follow up on what we are getting, stuart. urging all americans to be very cautious and to understand that the american embassy is there to help in any way possible. again, you've heard these developments over the last hour, do i want to point to an inflation point in the markets when they first got wind of this. that beeping dot there kind of shows you the moment which our markets just got when these