>> absolutely. we are killing it this quarter not just on the earnings line, we are seeing revenue growth which is the good stuff. maria: 6% revenue growth. >> that's the real good thing. maria: pretty good. but we're not talking about that. we're talking about jim comey. that's the issue. great show today, everybody. thanks so much for joining us. we will see you tomorrow. "varney & company" begins right now. here is stuart. stuart: thanks so much, maria. good morning -- [laughter] that's so nice. good morning, everyone. great to be back. my thanks to my colleague, charles payne, for all his hard work over the past week. here we go. comey, comey, comey everywhere. despite the nonstop, over the top coverage, investors have barely blinked. we'll get to the money angle in just a moment. first of all, just look at this, please. new york times, trump is insulting our intelligence. and, again, new york times, sense of crisis deepens as trump defends fbi firing. how about the washington post? ouster lengthens the shadow

hanging over the presidency. and let's not forget the dismissive, mocking eye roll from cnn's anderson cooper during his interview with kellyanne conway. eye roll, really? you get the point. the heavily left-leaning, anti-trump media is pushing the view that the president's days in office are numbered. they really believe this is watergate. well, you make up your own mind. investors clearly disagree. the dow closed at 20,943 as the news of comey's firing was washing through the markets. investigators do not believe the event will interfere with the president's growth agenda. not at this point. you see what's going on here? the media is whipping up a political firestorm. they want you to believe that the presidency was stolen. i guess that's politics. wall street, the world of money, not listening. stocks across the board remain at all-time highs. it's great to be back. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ welcome back, your dreams were

your ticket out. ♪ welcome back. >> warm and fuzzy. stuart: that's welcome back kotter. >> yes, it is. stuart: i go back that far. the gang is with me as well. ashley's back from his assignment in paris. he calls that an assignment. [laughter] i'm back from what i was going to call a vacation. it was my daughter's wedding. a lot of you have been asking where have i been. well, my daughter's wedding. you'll hear a lot more about that in our next hour. let's get serious. first, let's get to your money. a slightly lower open for stocks this morning. you've got to say it though. despite all the political turmoil, the dow is only, what, a couple of hundred points away from its all-time high. how about snap?

yeah, that is the parent of snapchat. it's going to fall out of bed on the market this morning, down 23%. liz, what happened? >> they disappointed on daily active user growth. and revenues, even though they came in solid, that disappointed as well. the revenue is 150 million, and they wiped out virtually all of their earnings for stock compensation pay. they posted a $2.2 billion loss. the stock plunged 25% wiping out six billion in market value. the co-founders lost a billion each, actually. and now snap, by the way, is on track -- according to fortune -- to lose more than tesla and twitter combined, to lose more than amazon ever did in any single year, to lose about as much as sears is losing on the bottom line. sears is basically headed for bankruptcy. stuart: left-hand side of your screen, that's yesterday close. >> hockey stick action right now. stuart: that's since the ipo. >> they're trending down toward their ipo price. stuart: okay, got it. now here's -- that's pre-market.

they're down to 17. and $17 per share was the ipo price. >> right. stuart: basically, they're back to where they started from. all right, this is kind of shocking news. this is retail ice age bigtime. macy's tock down almost 10% -- >> kohl's down 12%. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. kohl's down, what, about 3%? yes, it'll be on the next screen. first of all, what happened with macy's? >> they missed on they are revenue, on earnings, same-store sales down 5.2%. all of that pretty miserable. it's going to be a 27-75 -- where's it at right now? this is a six and a half, seven-year low for macy's. even more disturbingly, the president says the results are consistent with expectations. so they say they're on to their guidance this year, but they're blaming store closures. stuart: how about kohl's? >> they are. kohl's actually beat on

earnings, but their sales were down. same will-store sales down five straight quarters. the retail ice age, any way you look at it, is very real. stuart: i think you're right. look at that. thanks very much, ash. get back to the big political come in, please, senator mike lee, republican from utah, member of the senate judiciary committee. will the fuss over comey delay the president's growth agenda, sir? >> i to who will replace jim comey. and i think where we go from here is what's most important. stuart: our audience is largely investors r. they okay, are they right to dismiss this political turmoil that has no real impact >> yes, absolutely. look, this isn't going to affect

the day to day lives of most americans. we're talking about one entity within the federal government that's changing management. that's not unheard of in any administration, in any department, in any bureau. this is not something investors ought to be worrying about, something that most investors ought to be looking at closely with great concern. especially because i predict in the coming days we're going to get a great nominee for this position. stuart: okay. i want to move on to health care. the news this morning is that aetna, a giant insurer, is leaving all of the obamacare marketplaces where it currently sells plans. obamacare is dead. the senate decides what's next. but, senator, i want to ask you a big picture question. if senator mike lee was inpay f? >> well, in the first place we have to remember that every time we transfer a big responsibility over to the federal government, something that the federal government's not uniquely positioned or authorized to do

as the exclusive provider of a particular service, bad things tend to happen. so i tend to shy away from anything that would transfer that responsibility to the federal government. with obamacare we've seen things get worse, not better. we've seen health care get more expensive, not less. and this failure that you're describing is just the most recent in a long string of failures over the last few years since this law was passed in 2010. stuart: at the end of the day, can you avoid the taxpayer and the government having a role in health care providing? >> at this point the taxpayer and the government does have a role. my point is to as, first and foremost, which government? why is it when we've got as much diversity geographically, politically, philosophically in every other way, and as much diversity in the way health care is provided and how much it costs around the country, why is it that we would want to centralize all these decisions in washington, d.c.? it doesn't make sense. they're stuart you're okay with transferring sthe constitution

says only the federal government can do and leave the rest to the states and to the people. stuart: senator mike lee, republican, utah, we always appreciate you being on the show, sir. thanks for coming in today. appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: education secretary betsy devos booed loudly and frequently during her commencement speech at a historically black university. roll tape. >> dr. jackson, board of trustees, thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. i am honor ored to become a wildcat. stuart: okay. lisa booth is with us, fox news contributor and washington examiner columnist. >> hi, stuart. stuart: i saw that about an hour ago, first time i'd seen it. what do you make of it? >> i think it's sad.

we continue to see the shutting down of ideas, shutting down of people on college campuses across the country, and i find that deeply troubling. i think it's sort of reflective of this point in history and this point where we are as a country and the divisiveness of the country. but even more so, stuart, is the fact that the president of the university -- and kudos to him for standing strong, because he took a lot of heat for bringing her in. there were calls, there were petitions for him to not allow the secretary to speak, but he let her speak. and now there are calls for his resignation both from the naacp as well as the national teachers union calling on his firing. and i find that deeply troubling as well because all he did was allow for diversity of opinion on the college campus, and that is exactly what students should be getting across the country. stuart: now that i'm thinking about it, i think this is incredible. betsy devos stands for school choice. now, everybody remembers the pictures of those young black kids who wanted to go to a charter school. there was a lottery.

some of them couldn't get in. they're bursting into tears. these are young minority children who want school choice, now they're being spoken to by the education secretary who wants school choice, and she's just about booed out of town. , i mean, i find that incredible. >> well, yeah, absolutely, stuart. all she wants, you know, is to better students' lives and create better options for students across the country. but, you know, it's just the shutting down of ideas that i really have a problem with, stuart. and i also think, you know, look, the orchestration of the national teachers union to now call on this president to be fired, i think, is really something that people should be paying attention to because there's been a lot of attention drawn and shown to the booing, obviously, because it's just downright disrespectful of the secretary. but i also think that it's deeply troubling that there are now calls from a left-wing organization, the national teachers union, to essentially try to get this president fired for allowing diversity of opinion on the college campus. so that is really troubling.

and i think it's something that people need to pay more attention to. stuart: well, thanks very much for bringing it to our attention, lisa, we appreciate it. see you again soon. >> thank you. stuart: do we have a special guest for you or what? that gentleman right there, he is fabio. >> wow. stuart: in case you didn't know. he's got a message for americans: don't ever give up your guns. [laughter] wasn't expecting that. >> or your flags. stuart: or your flags. [laughter] politics. congresswoman maxine waters, democrat california, asked about the firing of james comey. she could not give a straight answer. you'll hear it all next. but first, the video of a college lacrosse team making the rounds online, the players ran onto the field with a speech from president trump play anything the background. that's one way to get fired up before a game. watch this. >> we will make america great again! god bless you! i love you! [cheers and applause] ♪

♪

contributor and washington

stuart: verizon will buy straight path communicationsings. they will pay about $3 billion. straight path holds licenses to use high frequency radiowaves that some think could form the background of next generation networks. they're not paying as much as we thought, that's why the stock's down 20%. the left piling on president trump over the comey file firing. maxine waters' response may just about take the cake. roll tape. >> you think an fbi director without credibility would have been -- >> the bottom hine is i think if the president had fired him when he first came in, he would not have to be in a position now where he's trying to make up a story -- >> understood. >> if hillary clinton had won the white house, would you have recommended that she fire fbi director james comey? >> i believe that given what he did to her and what he tried to

do, she should have fired him, yes. stuart: i'm not quite sure what that answer was really about, but we'll move on. look at this, a letter to rod rosenstein from "the new york times"' editorial board: americans can have little faith that an fbi run by mr. trump's hand-picked replacement will get to the bottom of how or whether russia helped steal the presidency for for mr. trump. pat buchanan author of "nixon's white house wars," that is a new book. welcome to the show. where you been? it's been years. >> i've been down in d.c. i don't get up to the big city very often. [laughter] stuart: your response, please, to the fighter of comey. >> i think the president did what he felt and decided to do. i think he's got every right to do it x i don't think the optics were all that good but, look, it is not the saturday night massacre, it's not the firing of douglas macarthur by harry truman.

it's james comey, and i think if he gets a good replacement, he's all set. stuart: you've just written the book. they are comparing this to what mr. nixon did. >> i've got a chapter on the saturday night massacre, i was right in the oval office when nixon decided to fire elliott richardson. that was a major event in the middle of a deep political crisis in the country. this is nothing comparable to it. people like "the new york times" are using the word nixonian because they've got the old sense, the bit in their teeth that they can take down another president. stuart: you don't think it's going to come to that? they are hinting that maybe this is another -- there's no chance of this? >> look, the establishment, the media, the deep state and the, and the whole d.c. octopus be, if you will, has targeted trump the way it targeted nixon and succeeded. targeted reagan, didn't bring him down with iran contra. what they want to do is cancel the returns from last november. and, basically, overturn the

election by a man who they could not defeat at the polls. that's my judgment. stuart: why are they so contemptuous of trump? >> i can understand, trump has not been a lovable person as far as they're concerned. he calls the media an enemy of the people. but i think he's an outsider. he's not from the political class at all. his views and ideas, populist as they are, kind of campaign he ranker everything about him they -- he's not one of them. he's not one of us. and the white house correspondents' dinner, barack obama walks in there, and he's home. this is my base, he said. [laughter] and trump took a pass for the first time since the gipper was shot and said he couldn't make it. [laughter] stuart: are you a trump guy? >> listen, the trump issues on trade -- i'm not a free trader, i'm an economic nationalist. i'm also a believer in, you know, in controlling the borders and staying out of foreign wars. my slogan back in '92 was

america first. and so when i saw trump come in with these, i was elated because i think these issues put together with the reaganite conservatives, that combination is the only majority in the country which would advance ideas i believe in. i think trump was -- let me say in a order word, very courageous. the guy was just pounded worse than nixon, worse than reagan, worse than anyone, and he kept coming back day after day after day. whatever you say about him, he's got grit. stuart: what's the name of the book again? your book? >> "nixon's white house wars: the battles that made and broke a president and divided america forever." stuart, you'll see the issues we're talking about, judges, media wars, they began back in those years. stuart: you're a very popular guy on this program. i suspect we might just move you up a couple of notches on the amazon list. [laughter] >> that's what we need to do. stuart: there you go. pat buchanan, it's a real pleasure, sir. welcome back. all right, this is going to make you mad, okay? government employees getting

paid out for unused sick days when they retire. some of them are raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. i'm going to give you a couple of the most egregious examples, and that's coming up next. time's up, insufficient we're on prenatal care.es. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done.

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stuart: if you work for the

government, maybe you're in for a big payday when you retire. maybe. some public sector employees get paid six figures for unused sick days. fox business reporter tracy is here. you have got a couple of really egregious examples. go. >> all right, stuart. now, the president of a massachusetts community college, he was hired back in march. he got more than $266,000 for 1250 unused sick day over his 46-year career. can you believe that? now, in pennsylvania a state police major who retired back in october got more than $142,000 for 242 unused sick days. stuart: that's a lump sum payment -- >> one-time payment, yes. stuart: now, you've got a couple of egregious examples there, but i take it this happens quite frequently, in fact. >> you know, it does. lawmakers, they want to put a cap on that amount because it's draining these state budgets

that are already stressed for cash. stuart: how much have they paid out in new jersey? >> nearly $2 billion -- stuart: billion? >> yes. stuart: over what time frame? >> yearly. >> a year? >> yes. in chicago they're talking $15 million a year for the chicago school district alone for teachers. in massachusetts they're talking about a quarter billion a year that they pay out. now here's the issue. the governments don't budget for it, and all of a sudden they have to come up with money for it. so your taxes go up to pay for it. and tracy's right, there's also not a cap on the amount they can take. stuart: you see what you did, tracy? you owned up a hornet's desk. welcome to "varney & company." >> thank you so much. stuart: let's see how the market's going to hope. we will be down but not much. all this political turmoil? so what, say investors. back in a moment. dear predictable, there's no other way to say this. it's over.

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♪ ♪ >> how are they going to make money in that demographic? because that demographic does not spend money. it's reliant on their parents -- >> i think this is a fool's errand. it reminds me of ponce de leon chasing the fountain of youth. >> a lot of the content on snapchat doesn't strike me as absolutely critical and has the shelf life of a banana.

>> i think the runup is going to occur before the retail investor can get in, and i'm not going to invest in any company that has to compete directly with facebook. stuart: our experts are all pouring cold water on snap the day it went public, and by the looks of things, they we in three seconds this market opens up again on a thursday morning. where are we going to open? probably ever so slightly lower, yeah, we are. down 17 points, 20 points early going. that means we're still at 20,900. lots of red on the left-hand side of the screen, but this is not a huge selloff by any means despite the political turmoil. let me get to snap, please. down big. 22% lower, weak revenue growth, and they're feeling the heat from facebook. a lot more on this coming up; but that is a 22% drop for snap. got it. weak, and i mean very weak, sales at macy's and also weak sales at kohl's, although that stock is up. i've got more on macy's in just a moment.

they're off 9% in the first couple minutes' worth of business. whole booze up $1.64 -- foods up $1.64, they say they're going to turn around their soft sales. we shall see, but the market likes what it's hearing so far. who's with me? back after a week's -- not exactly a vacation. [laughter] ashley webster, liz macdonald. >> back from france. [laughter] stuart: and scott martin. james comey all over the media. it doesn't seem as if the markets care that much, scott. i don't think investors believe comey is going to interfere with the trump growth agenda. what say you? >> not at all, sir. comey's been a dead man walking for months now. this was just a matter that it happened, and i think the markets believe what trump's doing. actually making these moves is better late than say never and, therefore, the markets are

taking it in stride. stuart: hold on a second. liz is with us, and you say there is maybe an important development which gives real legs this story. >> yeah. even though the trump viewer is going to have heart failure over this, bank records trying to prove that russian people, russians involved in the government invested in the trump empire. so they're digging deep. these are powerful players on senate intelligence including marco rubio. stuart: we don't know those bank records exist. the house intelligence committee, or the senate intelligence committee is simply asking for them. >> they're looking for collusion. people call this investigation in search of a scandal, but if there's problems out there, they're on the hunt for it. that means there could be delays in the growth agenda. >> this has really become the left's benghazi. it will go on and on. stuart yeah, i think you're right there. do you think it will interrupt the growth agenda from prawmp? >> no, not really. comey was not a popular person.

he proved to be emotional, indevisive -- indecisive. but the left will use this as their core issue on trump. >> reality check. where's obamacare reform now, stuck in the senate? no order word on when that's going to come out, and where's tax reform now. stuart: fair point. i want to get back to snap. the parent of snapchat, of course. a huge loser today. last time we checked it was down 20 odd percent. what's the problem with nap? >> so the disappointing daily active user growth. sales came in at 150 million, less than expected. fortune's already saying they're going to lose more than tesla and twitter combined this year. they've posted $2.2 billion in loss for stock compensation. wall street saying they're going to lose $3.2 billion this year. that's more than sears lost and amazon ever lost in any year since it went public. stuart: would you buy it at 17? scott martin? >> no, i wouldn't, stuart.

and you know what's funny is yesterday maybe before the earnings report that might have been an attractive level. but like e. mac pointed occupant, the earnings -- out, the earnings report was a disaster. the users are declining which remember we saw last year, they pay a lot of money for those users that they acquire. so the fact that daily active user growth is already slowing, the demographic we don't like at the beginning of the segment here. so, to me, snap is still overvalued. and the joke is, is it facebook or twitter? it's worse than both companies, i'd stay away. liz: would you buy it at 18? >> no, this stock is overvalued at 10. i mean, first of all, there's this little company called facebook that is going to annihilate them. so, and it's just a matter of time. they are going to annihilate them in the space that they're trying to make money in that facebook is already -- >> instagram stories alone, 200

million daily active users versus snap's 161 million. stuart: i want to get to macy's because that's a very important story. and kohl's, by the way. macy's is down now 9%. they've got 5% down same-store sales. that's a traumatic figure, by the way. 5% lower same-store sales. would you buy either macy's or kohl's at those prices in. >> no. because amazon is not done annihilating them. i would not touch them. stuart: wait a second. you're the guy who said buy jcpenney when it was about $6 a share. >> yes. stuart: and jcpenney is now 5 and change. >> jcpenney has made the necessary cuts. they've done what they need to do. there might be a little more pain in this stock, but there is going to be a need. i like what they're doing with cosmetics with sephora. i think they're going to stabilize here, and we'll start to see a little bit of improvement. stuart: jeff -- i'm sorry,

scott, would you buy macy's at $26 a share? >> yeah, you know, stuart, i'd stay away from all retail, even jcpenney at five. i just don't like the outlook for the space. things are going to get so bad in retail that they're going to be good. i just feel like prices are still too high for those two names. stuart: wow. how about that? talk about retail ice age, that is our story. that's our banner right there. it is, indeed, a retail ice age. speaking of which, look at this. whole foods, that stock's moving higher despite sagging sales. their going to try -- they're going to try to turn things around, new board members. are you buying into that, scott martin? >> no, i'm not. what's funny about whole foods is, you know, a couple years ago it felt like this company was going to springboard, and it didn't. they had management issues and competitive issues with other grocery stores coming online with this natural brand. to me, whole foods is going to miss the boat. with respect to some activism

going on within the company, that's taking up speculation, but to me, this is still an avoid because it's moved so much off the high 20s. stuart: apart from which i'm going to walk down the street to trader joe's and get stuff 10, 20, 30% less. >> that's true. >> and the standard retail grocers are going into organic. but here's where amazon is going to not be able to make any significant progress, and it's in groceries. and i think and i believe whole foods has a nice niche. i think they're pioneers in organic, but they're going to face a lot of competition because you can walk into any food store right now and get organic -- >> yeah, target's avoiding -- stuart: are you buying at 37? >> good point. stuart: yes or no? >> not yet. stuart: it's not far enough down. >> no. it has to move down a little. because you know what? they're going to do a lot of right things with this management, they put some outsiders on the board who know how to tap into that millennial market. i think they're going to be okay.

stuart: all right. seven and a half minutes into the trading session, where are we? yes, i'll tell you, we're down 25 points. that's hardly a big selloff. look at the level, 20,912. ain't no selloff there. vista outdoor profit, vista outdoors, profit and sales down. slumping demand for guns and ammunition. how about that? down 4.5%. disney's stock took a hit yesterday. weakness espn down a fraction more now, 109 on disney. i'm not sure i believe this, but it's asson inning. yum -- astonishing. yum brands, taco bell is one of their chains, they're going to add more than 50,000 workers by the end of the summer -- >> 50,000? stuart: 50,000. how about that? i guess they're not going to be paid $15-an-hour minimum wage. [laughter] verizon is going to buy straight path commune occasions. they're paying $3 billion.

straight path holds licenses to use high frequency radio waves that some think could be the backbone of next generation networks. verizon's not paying as much as they expected, that's why straight path is down $45. adidas has agreed to sell its golf brands, taylormade and ashworth. they're saying $425 million. nike got to out of the golf club business last year. what's going on? >> well, they're just going to concentrate, as they say, on soccer and street fashion. they have a lot of apparel, and they're not selling their golf shoes unit yet. but golf itself has been trending lower, although there's a sign that perhaps it's turned a bit of a corner. but a adidas has been trying to get rid of the golf club business for over a year now, so this makes sense, i think. >> yeah. to ashley's point, the national golf foundation says 18-34-year-olds playing golf down 30%, so that's an issue for the --

stuart: when your market drops by 30%, you've got an issue for many years to come. how about tesla? they are selling solar roof tiles. so what, he says. would you buy -- >> i just have to say that tesla owners, this gives them another reason to be annoying at parties, to brag that they have these solar roof -- [laughter] i mean, tesla owners, don't send me any e-mails, but the bottom line is solar panels on roofs have been around for a while. so tesla, this is breaking news, did not invent the solar roof panel. stuart: $324 a share. before i went away last week, i mean, the tesla was challenging $300. then it got to 3, and now it's at 324 despite your negative review. >> it's just people who want to brag that they own tesla, and now they own solar panels on the roofs of their -- i don't get it. stuart you're not going to be

invited to many cocking tail parties. [laughter] -- cocktail parties. jeff, you're done. [laughter] thanks for joining us. scott martin, you're all right. thanks for joining us. check the big board, we're down 35 points, that's it. 20,908. now this: acting fbi director andrew mccabe testifies today before the senate. we discuss his ties to major clinton ally virginia governor terry mcauliffe. judge napolitano on that next. ♪ ♪

stuart: all right. where are we? 13 minutes into the trading session, down 39 points, holding at 20,900. now this, teen retailer

abercrombie & fitch in merger talks with at least two interested buyers. nicole, you tell me what's going on. >> so this is preliminary talks with express, these are rivals of theirs, express and american eagle outfitters. we know one thing for sure, and that is that abercrombie & fitch -- which used to be a behemoth back in 2007, it was worth over $7 billion -- they were booming, the teens loved it. they were willing to pay up going into the year 2000, they were willing to pay up for the merchandise. now there's a whole generational shift. everybody's running to amazon and some of the cheaper, fast-moving stores like h&m. they've tried to revamp the store purpose a couple of years now, holster is their only bright spot. we'll see if anything comes of it. they gained 12% yesterday and holding onto those gains, so we'll see if the deal's made. stuart: thank you, nicole, on the floor of the exchange. how about this? auto loan fraud surging. is this a bubble? >> yeah.

according to one analysis, it looks like the fraud in the mortgage housing bubble in 2009 is equating to those levels even though the auto loan debt is less than the mortgage bubble debt, they're talking about a doubling to $6 billion this year. they're saying car dealers are the worst in not catching fraud on -- stuart: what's doubling? >> the dollar amount of the fraud. stuart: okay, $6 billion worth of auto loan fraud, doubled last year. >> correct. stuart: that's a lot. >> that's a lot. stuart: acting fbi director andrew mccabe is going to testify on worldwide threats. judge novel hoe is here. now -- judge napolitano is here. now, this gentleman has tie toss a clinton ally, terry mcauliffe from virginia what do you make of this there. >> well, not only is he -- here's the ties. director mccabe's wife, a physician, dr. mccabe, ran for the state senate in virginia and in the course of that campaign received $750,000 from a pac

controlled by governor mcauliffe. so far not a problem. governor mcauliffe is the target of an fbi criminal investigation headed by andrew mccabe. so if he doesn't perceive the ethical problem with that, how can he be the interim director of the fbi? fast forward to what's going on today. attorney general sessions, deputy attorney general rosenstein are interviewing candidates to be interim director whom they can hire without the president's involvement and without confirmation by the senate. why do we need an interim director? because mccabe probably is ethically challenged and because the democrats probably will delay, delay, delay on the president's choice to become the permanent director, and you can't be leaderless in an era like this. stuart: so what we're looking for is the interim director who does not need to be approved by the senate. >> we probably will have such a human being by midweek next week n. the interim, mr. mccabe --

who is an experienced, lifelong fbi person and did rise through the ranks from agent to number two, now number one -- will testify today along with cia director pompeo, nsa director rogers, dni, director of national intelligence, coats. and they will be asked about what can you tell us about the investigation of russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. you know what they'll say? nothing. right, because it is an ongoing intelligence and criminal investigation, and we are not permitted to give you a snapshot picture of where the investigation is as of this morning. stuart: what do you make of it that a senior senator on the intelligence committee is demanding the bank records trying to show any connection, financial connection between russian people in the russian government and the trump campaign and mr. trump's personal -- >> this is what happens when you have an intelligence investigation, a criminal investigation and a congressional investigation at

the same time. i would like to think the intelligence investigation is aimed at keeping us safe. the criminal investigation is aimed at finding someone who committed a crime, if a crime was committed. what's the congressional investigation aimed at? getting reelected. [laughter] so you don't know where it's going to go. you don't know -- e. mac and i talked about this last night on her show -- what the documents are, whether it's a fishing expedition. are they looking for bribes or for legitimate investments in trump assets? viewrt.-- stuart: look, i've been away for a week -- >> you were at a family wedding, were you not? on a monday, the least expensive day of the week, was it not? [laughter] stuart: you bring this up? the bride is watching. are you accusing me of looking for a discount on her -- >> the beautiful bride whose photo you just shared? stuart: i did. >> you look like the happy father. stuart: i am. [laughter] i was about to say --

>> before we got off on this tangent. stuart: the fbi's reputation is not good at this point. >> i'm sorry to say that i agree with you. this morning i am reading about two camps, the fbi agents who staunchly admire him, comey, and wish he was still there, the fbi agents who believe he demeaned them, dragged them into the political campaign and are happy he's gone. stuart, there's no middle ground. stuart: what a mess. judge, thank you very much. >> congratulations on the wedding. stuart: thank you very much. all right, oh, look at this. now we've dropped a little bit more for the dow industrials. a lot of red, left-hand side of your screen. if it's green, it's going up. if it's red, it's going down. we're off 63 points. uber raising prices in some states to help drivers pay for insurance. we've got the story for you. it's a good one. there's nothing traditional about my small business so when

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help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. you'll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. whether you're on medicare now or turning 65 soon, it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today. stuart: what's the big loser of the day? snap is the big loser of the day. facebook's taking them to the cleaners, and that stock is down 20%. by the way, snap went public at $17 a share. almost back where it started from. now, the wall street firm that paid president obama $400,000 for a speech now wants a trump speaker as well. charlie gasparino, fbn's own guy, he broke this story.

what else have we got? >> he broke that story and the story that obama's getting paid $400,000 by cantor fitzgerald. charlie's saying they could be eyeing a trump administration official to offset what president obama says, defending his obamacare reform bill. so would a trump administration like tom price and not get paid to offset what obama says at this september 25th conference coming up. stuart: yeah. a trump speaker could not be paid. >> right. stuart: he's a member of the administration, he can't get paid -- >> yeah, but they are getting political goodwill because the administration would oversee their operations in some form of fashion. stuart: yes. and they would answer president obama who presumably does not like what's going on with obamacare. >> and charlie's story let off a firestorm because elizabeth warren and senator sanders criticized obama's speaking fee. stuart: next case, uber is raising prices in some states to pay for drivers' injury insurance.

explain. >> look, uber drivers are independent contractors. they don't get what we would consider from normal full-time employers, disability insurance, worker's compensation. they don't have any of this. uber said, all right, let's come up with a test, and they're using it in eight states as a test, and consumers will pay an extra five cents per mile to offset the cost of personal injury insurance for the drivers. drivers themselves will pay close to four cents a mile as well. they can opt out and have no coverage at all and put more must be in their pocket -- money in their pocket. that's their choice. stuart: got it. look at the market. we're down about 100 points. maybe the market heard us talking about this new line of inquiry in the president trump and russian connection. what is it, lizzie? we've got the senate intelligence -- >> yeah. stuart: wants the bank records. >> the intelligence committee is looking to the financial crimes enforcement network, a unit of the treasury department, for bank records. this is according to reports.

basically, the bottom line is did anybody in the russian government invest in the trump empire. >> and the more we get bogged down in this, the more the market says what about health care reform, tax cuts? that agenda is starting to get pushed back a little bit more. stuart: could be, because we're now down 109 points, and we've been falling steadily for about the last 20-odd minutes. now we're down 110 and falling, we're at the 20,800 level. okay. that's important. we're on top of it, guaranteed. i spent the last week up there on cape cod, massachusetts. now, i could have now -- i could have flown up there. instead, i drove. you will find out why in my take, top of the hour. is thing . i just had to push one button to join. it's like i'm in the office with you, even though i'm here. it's almost like the virtual reality of business communications. no, it's reality. intuitive one touch video conferencing is a reality.

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stuart: i have been on cape cod for the last week. to get there i had a choice. i could fly relatively short trip from new york to boston to hyannis. or, i could drive.

now that driving is more difficult, especially this time of year with all the tourist traffic. i drove. why take the seemingly more difficult route? because flying is no fun. it is getting worse. while i was away there was a brawl on a southwest flight. the whole world saw it and it looked flat-out awful. there was a near riot at spirit airlines after its pilots staged work stoppages that led to a lot of can selled flights, very angry people. we learn american carriers on flights here from europe are about to stop you bringing a laptop into the passenger cabin. terrorists may be able to put a bomb in an electronic device and take down an international flight. the airlines are not to blamed for this, but travelers are understandably happy with airline travel. i have no magic solution for all of this. flights are jammed full. tickets are not cheap.

even when you're booked the plane may still be overbooked. and delays can make airline travel a flat-out nightmare. one more facet of modern life that i think is fraying around the edges. may i suggest something that would make a difference? growth. yes, economic growth. where there are more jobs, better pay, society as a whole is less stressed. when there is feeling of rising prosperity, the mood shifts. there will be a contest for overhead luggage space. airlines will still overbook. the terror threat will not go away, but when the money is flowing our social interaction get as little easier. yes, i am an optimist, yes, i am again plugging tax cuts. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪

stuart: breaking news for you, acting director of the fbi andrew mccabe is about to testify in front of the senate intelligence committee. he is testifying in former director comey's place. there could be news from him on russia. maybe, probably not. we'll certainly bring you headlines if and when they occur. i have to get to your money, look at this. the big board is down sharply. we're down 125 points. i have the latest on mortgage rates, numbers please. liz: do you have numbers? stuart: not yet. we're waiting for them. we got it. 4.05%. liz: just trending where it was last three weeks. stuart: a tad above 4%. liz: sorry about that. stuart: back to the big board. we're down 12points, very close to the low for the session. we're trying to figure out what might have caused this selloff in the last 20 odd minutes. i'm speculating it is because the senate intelligence committee is going after any

bank records that would connect russian people with president trump's operation. that would be hard evidence of collusion. maybe that is why the market is down 130 points as we speak. we're at 20,800. but look at snap. one huge loser, down 20%. we have more on that for you in just a moment. look please at whole foods. they're trying to turn things around with new board members. the market likes that. it is up 3.% -- 3.7%. of the macy's going down, 52-week low. off 12% a huge loss for a company like that. it is down $25 a share. kohl's 4 1/2% down. more red arrows there. lots of trouble in retail. more details coming up. the firing of james comey, we await an opening statement from the interim director, james call strom, former fbi assistant director in new york. what do you have to say about

james comey being fired? your reaction please? >> i think it was a good choice that the president made as to timing and the fact that he actually did it. as we've talked a lot, stuart, in the last year or so, jim comey, a bright guy but he made some very critical common sense decisions that were just not reality of what the fbi does. stuart: now james comey was heavily involved in the investigation of president trump and any connection with the russians before and during the election. will his firing get in the way of that investigation? >> no, not the least bit. absolutely not. i mean whatever investigations are going on they will continue. they will come to a logical conclusion. that will be that. stuart: democrats are suggesting that he was fired at this time because he had asked for more resources to investigate president trump and the russians. what do you say about that?

>> the democrats are wrong. it is pathetic what i'm seeing you know by the chuck schumers of the world. stuart: how would you describe fbi morale at this point? >> i guess it is going to be a lot better because they really were starved for leadership. as i said comey was a good guy but i mean, you can't conduct a major investigation be told you can't call it criminal, be told you can't have a grand jury, and then decide to you know, sort of dance with the devil for the next number of months, then have this public display of laying out numerous charges that they could find even without a grand jury. and then say that they're not going to recommend any kind of an indictment. those things the fbi director does not make those types of decisions. nor do we ever lay out criminality if we're not going to indict somebody. stuart: this will not be left. this is going on for a long, long time, because the next fbi

director appointed by the president, or nominated by the president is going to get a very, very hard time from the senate because i believe the senate has to ratify the next fbi director. i think i'm right in that. >> you are correct. stuart: so it is not going to go away? this will go on for a long, long time. >> yeah, absolutely. who should that person be? it should be someone with great integrity, a good basis of knowledge about investigations and federal law and someone with great leadership skills that can have high morale. that is what the bureau is starved for. that is what the american people deserve. they deserve the rule of law, mes,someone that is going to you things, there being asked to be part of the political system, they stand up for what the fbi is all about, and that's, you know, straightforward integrity and rule of law. stuart: now on the left-hand side of the screen, i don't think you can see it, james, our viewers are looking at the

hearing room, where the acting director, mr. mccabe is about to testify before the senate intelligence committee. i guarranty he is asked about the russian investigation. you don't think he will say anything at all, do you? >> you know i don't know what he is going to say. newspaper report, stuart, i'm sure you read the same things i did months ago, three or four months ago, whatever it was, it was reported that he told the chief of staff at the white house that there was nothing to any of this russian stuff. now i have never seen a retraction. i never seen that was beaten down by anybody. you know, probably that, it probably did happen. so, you know, who knows. they have been all over the lot on this thing. of course it is only thing the democrats really have to hang on to for putting up such a hugely-flawed candidate. stuart: we'll leave it at that one, hugely-flawed candidate. thank you very much indeed. james kallstrom we'll see you soon. >> my pleasure. stuart: aetna, one of the largest health insurers,

completely pulling out of obamacare exchange incomes year. mercedes schlapp with us now. i say obamacare is no longer a death spiral, this thing is dead. what do you say? >> i absolutely agree with you, varney. for the most part it is important to understand with aetna, as well as united health, all these other types of insurance companies they're pulling out in these different states. in the case of iowa where they're basically, there is one insurer left for these individual markets, and what you're seeing if they pull out, what do iowans have? they don't have an option. stuart: yeah. >> i find what is happening is, with these health insurance companies, yes definitely partly obamacare. the other part of the equation is the uncertainty and instability right now that these insurance companies are experiencing. the problem is, is that the insurance companies themselves are not necessarily agreeing with the gop health plan. they have not basically supported this plan. they're staying on the sidelines and we need more tax credits.

we need more cost-sharing. the risk pool amount is not enough. i got to tell you, if we can't, if republicans can't get health insurance on board it will be more difficult moving forward on the bill. stuart: as we go forward, i don't see there is any way we the taxpayer can get out of the business of subsidizing health care for poor people. there is no way around it, is there? >> i think that americans have grown accustomed to the fact that the government will cradle you and take care of you from entitlement perspective. they will not get out of the business of medicaid or medicare. stuart: it is creeping socialized medicine, whether we like it or not? >> oh, absolutely. i think that there is a, there is a, basically expectation from americans that they want this government somehow involved. but it's a tricky business because you're right, that is when it creeps. when you start moving to a single-payer system. we need to focus on free market solutions.

let insurance companies compete for your business. that is what we should push for so consumers have more choices. insurance companies, they don't like idea you're taking out mandates of individuals required to have health insurance. they see them also something costly. stuart: if you ask the question who pays for poor people who have cancer, there is only one real answer isn't is that is the government the taxpayer. >> it is the government. stuart: there is no way around that at all. >> i think that is where the focus is, because when you look at community centers or in any way where you would have funding opportunities or more non-profit hospitals, there, they need, these individuals, low-income individuals need assistance. but the question is, the problem you have doctors that don't even accept medicaid, stuart. that problems problematic. where are these individuals going for help? one of the areas was on community health service centers i think is one of the areas they're looking at. stuart: i have a feeling that at some point we'll have to say, socialized medicine or absolutely not.

>> i hope not. ashley: feels like it. where will the money come from? stuart: we are. there is logical progression. >> i love how jonathan gruber blames donald trump for failure of obamacare, insurers started leaving exchanges in 2014. >> insurance companies need to step up to the plate to work with congress to work with the solution they need. they need to be patient-centered. that is what republicans focus on. stuart: mercedes schlapp thank you. >> i might stay here. stuart: show me airlines stocks, please. despite everything i said at the top. hour they're close -- they're down today, not because of what i said but they are down today. you know they're still very, very close to all-time highs. including united. ashley: because they're still very efficient. oil prices remain very low. they're not paying a lot for oil and gas. we had dragging incident.

we had the brawl in florida when there was work action on spirit airlines, all of these very negative stories, but people don't have any choice. they have a monopoly. you know what is interesting? i flew from charles de gaulle paris on tuesday to jfk. it was supposed to leave at 11:00 a.m. they asked me to get there 8:00 a.m. for security, which i did. didn't take off until 1:30 in the afternoon. i got on board, never once said we're running late. never acknowledged that. >> did you punch one of person until people? ashley: no, i did not. stuart: he is back with us. here is what is coming up. left-leaning comedians going after president trump for firing comey. blunt force truth host, chuck woolery, he says we're all victims of the democrat party. he will join us next. disney's espn continue to be plagued by cord cutters who do not want to hear leftist politics watching sports?

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>> this is outrageous. when something outrage just happens, i don't just sit on my hands, i do something about it. i will sell these, comey is my homey t-shirts. >> trump fired the fbi director. you can't just fire the fbi director. [laughter]. i mean if he is gone, who will investigate russia's ties to -- oh. [laughter] >> fbi director james comey has just been fired by donald trump.

[applause] huge, huge, donald trump fans here tonight. stuart: comedians, late night guys, part of the mainstream media apoplectic over firing of fbi director, mr. comey. who is with us now, chuck woolery, blunt force truth podcast. >> you're one of my favorites on the air. i just love you. stuart: how much time do you want? as much as you like? what do you make of all this? i'm astonished at late-night guys, vehement they are in real contempt for donald trump. where are you coming from on this? >> i love the last audience response. the host went, waita minute, they're against comey. they weren't all donald trump supporters. he wasn't ready to hear that applause when he said he fired comey. you know what? it is just, i don't mind political humor. it is funny. it can be very funny. what's happened i think, within

the last six, seven month, it is become nasty and hurtful and hateful, and fearful as well. so, it has an edge to it, it has never really had that much before. and, it is, i think it is rather dangerous, i really do. >> you know, chuck, it is not going to go away with it? i think we have four years of this. >> no, no, it will continue to go, this whole thing with the russians as you've been talking about with health care, progressivism, socialism, most people don't realize progressive system german idea. it came from hagel from germany in the late 1800's. political correctness is german idea from the frankfurt school. the left is operating on all german ideas, instead of american ideas. they are totally counter to the constitution, to the declaration of independence, to the bill of rights, everything we hold sacred, they do not hold sacred. when they talk about a

constitutional crisis, they talk about something they know nothing about because they hate the constitution. stuart: chuck, what are you up to? i know you as hollywood kind of guy. you are coming on as fairly free market, conservative type fellow. can you work in hollywood anymore? >> no. no, you can not. and while i was there, i did not allow my political leanings to be known because i couldn't. if i did, i wouldn't work. that is the truth. it is just, they would shut you down. and, we do it in very subtle way. they would i say things in boardroom, we're considering chuck woolery for something, someone would say i don't think that is good idea. that is literally all they have to say, everybody knows, nods, gotcha. tough to work there. stuart: happy to have you on the show. i'm intrigued at your podcast. tell me, give me 20 seconds on your podcast. >> yeah, we're just trying to

take the news and break it down so that people understand it. we have kind of history things where we teach like, i was talking about the political correctness, where it comes from. political correctness moved in the '30s out of germany because of hitler, it was communist, they were afraid they were going to kill him or kill them, they moved their campus to columbia university in new york. this is where all this stuff comes from. stuart: well -- >> i find this very interesting to know the history and how you build a movement on it. and the democratic party has literally since woodrow wilson built that movement on progressivism. it is socialism. you know that, as a brit. stuart: i do. >> you dealt with it. stuart: chuck, we're out of time, chuck woolery, who knew what that guy was all about. chuck woolery, everybody. get that podcast, i promise. chuck, thanks very much indeed. i'm running. i have something going on in wall street. we'll be back to you really soon. promise. check out the big board,

we're off session lows. only just. we're down 120 points. 20,800. individual stocks makes news here. look at macy's. this is the retail ice age, hitting all look at that, look at big percentage losses on biggest names in retail. liz: getting hammered. stuart: getting hammered. that may have something to do with the overall drop in the market because they're not just selling stuff like they used to. down they go. what do we have on this, anything more? macy's for example, that is the big loser here. ashley: seven-year low. same-store sales numbers down 5%. this is ongoing problem. kohl's showing sales declines five quarters in a row. they're desperately, macy's for all intents and purposes has a pretty good online presence, but knocked aside by the tidal wave called amazon. very difficult for the retail stores to compete. liz: bringing others down in tandem, in sympathy. stuart: on capitol hill at the

moment we have senator warner asking questions of acting, i'm sorry, he is giving his opening statement before he starts to ask questions to acting fbi director mccabe. he has so far said it is hard to believe that the firing of director comey was not related to the russians. so he is getting the two together there. that is his opening statement. now, at some point later this morning, we will have a response from mr. mccabe, the acting fbi director. i don't believe he is able to say anything about any probe or investigation that may be on going. anything to say, mercedes schlapp with us? >> well i think, they are going to ask those questions about the russian probe. stuart: to make a link in the public's mind, to make a link in the public's mind. >> the story which is why we need a special prosecutor. the democrats had unison message on the issue. whole focus will be any

information on the russian probe. on letter that president trump said directly, to comey, basically saying i am not under investigation. that was something that was brought up. for some of the democrats saying that is inaccurate. you will see a question possibly of michael flynn and subpoena on the senate side. there is all these lingering questions. don't be surprised also if they ask the question like they did to sally yates on leaks to classified information. that is something -- liz: he will be probably asked is the probe ongoing? we'll watch for the answer of that. jim kallstrom says because you fired jim comey, the fbi probe doesn't stop. james comey wanted more resources. there are three fbi probes right now. there are another seven probes into trump-russia collusion. a total of 10 ongoing probes. those seven are in congressional senate level. there are 10 probes we counted yesterday. stuart: 10? liz: 10 of them growing on including three fbi probes.

ashley: separate probes. stuart: they're all attempting to show a relationship, collusion, the right word, members of the russian government, russian agencies, they're often called and president, candidate donald trump. liz: the obama administration made decision to disseminate information to 1intelligence agencies. if there was russian collusion would you think that information would be out there already. now they're going to fin sent to see if there is collusion between russian officials and the trump empire. stuart: good point. >> he said he hasn't seen any evidence of collusion. liz: based on cia, fbi. >> what i think, what i think testimony will be important for mccabe to basically say you can have confidence in me, we will not have a disruption in these investigations. i think that is going to be one of the messa coming out. stuart: left-hand side of the screen. dan coats, the director of

national intelligence. he is making his opening statement. shortly we'll hear the opening statement from mr. mccabe, who is the acting fbi director. all the focus is on him at this point. we will bring you that testimony, i guess you can call the testimony, his opening statement, at least, when it happens. liz: opportunity for leaks are manifold. there are a dozen staffers, nearly a dozen, working on just the senate intelligence probe he alone. again, where is the collusion? is this investigation in search of a scandal. i think that is besides the point. we don't want russian meddling in the election. we don't want any corruption with the russian government involved with the trump empire. stuart: connection between what is going on capitol hill and 10 investigations you're talking about? any relationship to that and the dow? ashley: yes, i do believe, more you get bogged down in the russia question, more push back economic agenda of president

trump, health care, tax cuts, economic reform. all that is pushed aside focusing on russia. >> the democrats pushed forward on obstructionist format. they will not allow for health caremark-up because they're so focused on the special prosecution. they want to put pressure on majority leader mcconnell to say we want a special prosecutor. we want to move forward in this direction. i think what you're v.ing now, that the senators, democratic senators are not even willing to extend a hand to republicans. stuart: fascinating. the opportunity for obstruction is extraordinary at this point because of what you're seeing on the left-hand side of your screen. low of the day for the market. we're down 138 points we speak. barely holding 20,800. we'll be back with the acting chief and his testimony in a moment. hose financial regulatios being talked about? they could affect your accounts, so let's getogether and tal and make sure everything's clear. yeah, that would be great. being proactive... it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

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stuart: hearing on capitol hill, dan coats, that is the director of national intelligence. shortly get a statement from acting director from fbi. he is mr. mccabe is taking over from james comey. chart r charles hurt, "washington times" and fox news contributor. charles, zooms these ongoing protection -- seems these on going probes from president trump and russians and hearings gives opportunity for democrats to obstruct president trump's growth agenda, whether obama care reform or tax reform. a lot of opportunity here for obstruction and stopping and blocking everything. you agree with that? >> absolutely. there is no doubt that is what their strategy is here. i think it is a stupid one by the way. but you know, to watch the reactions of democrats over the firing of jim comey after they

had spent the better part of the past year lambasting comey, saying that comey should be fired, talking about how they had lost confidence in comey. soon as donald trump does something bit, they turn around and use that as the opportunity to turn it into a cudgel to beat trump and republicans. no doubt they will use it to stall the agenda. my advice to republicans, donald trump, keep going, don't stop. keep pushing your agenda through. this is a lot of republicans would disagree with me on this including donald trump but you know, if democrats want to stop this republican repeal and replace of obamacare, if they want to sit on their hands and refuse to do anything to fix the mess they made, then when they face voters again in 2018, the entire obamacare mess will be on their hands and that will help republicans. stuart: as i look at the

mainstream media's coverage of the firing of james comey, it seems to me that some, like "the new york times," really believe that president trump's days in office are numbered. that he will end his term before his first four years. i think they really believe that. >> oh, i think they do -- i don't know if they do or not. you would think after having been proven so delusional for so long at some point they would wake up, say, man, we've been really getting this wrong. that doesn't seem to be happening. stuart, my question is, who has the amount of energy that these people have to be outraged every three minutes? they're constantly outraged. their heads are constantly exploding. i would be exhausted and needing to lie down to take a nap. stuart: it is working, charles, to some degree it is working, president's approval level down

35%, disapproval, 51%. no matter which poll you look at way down there in terms of approval and disapproval is way up there. >> honestly think those sort of approval numbers are kind of little spot-checks. all they really do register is basically whether people think that he is up or down, whether they have, what their impulsive feeling at that moment is. honestly if you did a poll about jim comey, i don't think most people care that jim comey got fired, or if they do care, yeah, he probably should have been fired. it is one bipartisan thing everyone in washington has been in agreement on for the past several month. and that is that jim comey must go. so jim comey shown the door and these people freak out. stuart: i said this almost every time you and have been together on the air, i have never seen anything like this. sir, month since president trump was elected november 8th, six or seven months, i have never seen an interim period like that ever. nothing like it. >> no.

and before that, too, during the campaign, we kept looking at each other saying, this, we have never seen anything like this before. it was insane! so it is sort of, sort of fitting continues on. stuart: because it is such a huge upheaval, is it really a genuine, realignment of american politics? >> i think it is. you know, i realize this is sort of a superficial way of looking at it, but i do think the whole drain the swamp thing, there are a lot of swamp creatures don't want the swamp to be drained. i think that is what you see in hillary clinton's reaction to the election, what she says now blaming all -- she is clearly bitter about it. the same with the jim comey thing, someone like donald trump walks in very little regard for pomp and circumstance the way things are done forever and forever, fiddling with things in

big ways it really upsets people. he has members of his own administration who are working against him. there is no way of even, for him to even realize the ways in which they're undermining him, in terms of looks and things like that, efforts to, plant stories, to anything to upend any sort of progress by the president. we have never seen anything like it before. stuart: we said it again, again and again and again. charles, thank you much indeed for being with us yet another momentous day. we appreciate it. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: as we told you several times. we're waiting for testimony from mr. mccabe who is the acting director of the fbi. as we await for him, i will switch gears for a moment. fox sports 1 host and former espn jason whitlock appeared on our program yesterday. he said espn has become handcuffed by politics listen to this.

>> cord cutting was not some surprise. this technology did not come out of anywhere. leadership is supposed to be ahead of technology and adjusting, when you're so distracted by politics, take an eye off business, that is how mistakes get made. stuart: what is referred to as the 12 million people that disconnected from espn. that is real problem for espn and its parents disney, joining us, tuna mobley, a research analyst. >> subscriber losses has been somewhat sobering for espn across the industry. no question we're seeing migration from traditional platforms, to dedge tall platforms.

viewers look for cheaper alternatives online, et cetera. that exposed espn business model in some respects. that is why you see all the concerns have been expressed especially given how important it is for disney as a whole. they have taken a number of steps to try to mitigate that. stuart: what do you think about idea some of this cord cutting, moving away from espn has to do with political influence of some anchors on air? is politics getting in the way at espn? what is your opinion on that? >> you know i was listening to the that opinion just before we came on, that is interesting thesis to try to make some type of political connection but having covered the company for almost 20 years now myself you know i think -- i would tend to think what we're seeing more has to do with the shifts in the landscape, structural changes

that are going on with media consumption and audience fragmentation as as opposed to any midcall influences there. -- political influences there. leadership in the company, bob iger, has been fairly stable and clear in terms of the overall strategy, which by the way has been consistent 20 years i followed the company. it has always been about digital innovation, international expansion and content creation and that really hasn't changed. that is the core of the business model. that is what investors look when they invest in disney. the idea politics is somewhat intertwined, i tend to find it a little bit farfetched to be honest. stuart: okay, last one, i'm sure you heard speculation that bob iger, current chair at disney, is thinking about, or moving towards a run for the presidency. have you heard it, and what do you make of it?

>> you know, you can never really rule out such speculations based on experience but that question has been explicitly asked of him several times and each time he has dismissed it. i wouldn't rule out frankly what bob iger may or may not do when his term is in up in 2019. succession is such a heated issue at disney, i wouldn't necessarily conclude that he het he is going to retire when the current term is up. stepping into the shoes and filling is really big challenge. there is no obvious candidates now. i would take it on a year by year basis. stuart: you would dismiss it. tuna, thank you, we don't have many analysts on this program you're a good one. so we have you on. tuna, thanks for joining us. much obliged to you. >> thank you. stuart: let me show you the big board because the market selling

off down 124 points. a lot of peoplerying this, maybe all these hearings and investigations and firing of james comey may be all of that will interfere with the president's future growth agenda. maybe it will. that's maybe one of the reasons why we've got the market selling off now. here is another one. retailers taking a huge hit. give me more, liz. liz: macy's taking a hit as ashley was reporting and so is kohl's. what is happening right now as charlie brady, our senior editor pointed out, look reaction other retailers moving down in sympathy, in tandem. jcpenney, sears, have a boatload of debt on the balance sheet. 8600 stores according to credit suisse will close this year. the question will the pace pick up? is it happening sooner than expected? looks like yes with the price action, question for wall street is, should we get out of these

names more rapidly than we thought. stuart: those percentage declines are just huge, absolutely huge. liz: big double-digit drops. stuart: dollar general, dollar tree, one after another. liz: some of the dollar stores are expanding. they're building out stores and opening stores. they're coming down. stuart: dow down 120. moments from now we'll take you to capitol hill. that gentleman is dan coats, director of national intelligence. later we'll hear from the fbi's acting director. that is what we're going to take. you will be hearing from that. we'll be back in a moment.

♪ stuart: okay, now we're about to go to the hearing. i want to bring everybody into this. fbi acting director is coming up shortly. let's listen please. >> i'm sorry. sir, i can't comment on any conversations the director may have had with the president. >> okay. general stewart? you heard director coats state on everybody's behalf that there is a expected deterioration of conditions in afghanistan.

can you give us dia's assessment of afghanistan and what would change -- stuart: acting fbi director, who you saw on your screen momentarily, just a few moments ago. he was asked about any connections between the president trump. he said i can't answer. that was the answer expected and answer given. many other people are being asked the same he question, i believe. they're having pretty much the same answer. you can not answer questions about an ongoing investigation in a public forum of this kind. that is what -- it is high political theater essentially is what you're looking at. ashley: don't get much out of it. he can't comment. stuart: i would suggest the left gets a lot out of it, keeps the story going, keep is it in the public eye, keeps firing of james comey very much in the headlines.

keeps, puts to the forward position any russian connection. ashley: right. stuart: there is, as lizzie pointed out earlier, there are ten separate ongoing investigations trying to establish a link between agents of russia and the trump campaign or the trump empire itself. liz: this is senate intelligence. now there is is news breaking. senator chuck grassley, who is chair of the judiciary committee in the senate, he is demanding to the fbi, he is saying, fbi, you must say publicly whether or not you are investigating the president. there has been all these accusations whether or not this is going on. chuck grassley is saying put it to rest, are you investigating president trump. asking that simple question. stuart: he hasn't asked that question yet. liz: this is judiciary committee. that is chuck grassley over there. this is senate intelligence. chuck grassley said this moments ago. stuart: time to bring in governor rick scott, republican of the great state of florida who has been waiting very

patiently to get on our air. governor, we appreciate you being with us this morning. thanks for joining us, sir. >> good morning, stuart. we need to see each other in florida. stuart: i will be back there very soon. i promise you that. what do you make of going on capitol hill? our interpretation, forgive me for putting this out there, our interpretation that the left wants to keep comey firing, any connection with russians and all the investigations, keep that on the front burner, as way of delaying the president's growth agenda. that is how i see it. how but governor? >> first off, i think, president needed a fresh start. director comey became a lightning rod for the right and the left. we need a fbi director that is non-partisan. and so i'm sure the president will find the right person. now with regard to these hearings, we still haven't heard any evidence but i have not followed everything but i haven't seen any evidence of any

collusion. you know, i look, i hope it doesn't slow down. we have to repeal and replace obamacare. we need to reduce taxes. we have to learn to complete globally. repealing and replacing obamacare is important to me and reducing our taxes. stuart: what are you hearing from the inside on those issues? because to investors it's a great source of concern, can we get this done, repeal and replace obamacare, tax cuts, infrastructure spending? we really want to get all of that lot done this year. from what you know, do you think it is possible? >> it is absolutely possible. i don't know why it can't be done. you should be able to do more than one thing at a time. so i think congress has to put their focus on fixing -- i mean obamacare is a disaster. it's a death spiral. president trump inherited a mess. president obama left at right time. we have to come up with a program for health care that reduces our costs. it is, costs are skyrocketing right now. you can't afford it.

employer can't afford it. government can't afford it. we have something that fixes it focus on it now, not six months. same with tax cuts. we're at competitive disadvantage when our taxes are higher than other countries. in our state we cut taxes 55 times. we deregulated our state. added 1.3 million jobs. you have to do that same thing nationally. stuart: what about withdrawing from the paris climate accord. i know you wanted to speak about that. should we withdraw or stay in? what says governor scott? >> sure. i was with administrator pruitt yesterday. really what we focused on rather than the paris accord, really focused on in our state, i have to get the dike fixed at lake okeechobee that we don't have the green guacamole algae in part of the state when we have too much water. that was my focus yesterday. on top of that today i'm announcing a super-pac to try to make the republican party focused on deregulation party, party for younger people, party

for hispanics. i had a good meeting with administrator pruitt yesterday and secretary kelly from homeland security today. stuart: are you with secretary pruitt, administrator pruitt i should say? he has a pretty tough outline of getting rid of some of the green era regulations. are you with him all the way? >> well, i'm impressed. i have known the administrator for a while. we're not from the same state but i think he was, i think he is very optimistic what he can do. i think he as going to focus on how we make decisions. it is no different than what we did in my state. i told people, make a decision, yes is an answer, no is an answer. don't take forever to make a decision. don't take forever to solve a problem. that is what we've done in our state. i think he will do the same thing at epa which will be positive for our country. stuart: one proposal under tax reform is that when you pay state income tax it is no longer

deductible from your federal income tax. if that goes you through, that's a huge plus for florida because you don't have a state income tax, do you? >> absolutely. we don't have a state income tax. we have almost the lowest taxes in the country. we have on annual basis 350,000 people are moving to florida. there are a lot are coming there because of our weather but a lot are coming because, you know we don't tax them to death. a lot of these state with these ridiculously high state income tax are forces people to move to states like florida. i want them all to come to my state. they're going to all lower-taxed states. states with no income tax. why would you pay taxes when you don't have to? take new york, they have a million less people than we do. their state government, revenue source is double our. that means their taxes per person are so much higher than ours, for what benefit? why a lot of people are moving to florida. this will accelerate that. stuart: last one, only 10 seconds, you don't have an

estate tax in florida, do you? >> we have no income tax. we have no estate tax. we have the second lowest per capita taxes in the country. and we have cut taxes 55 times in the last six years. we just finished my legislative session. i'm going through that budget now. we'll keep cutting taxes in our state. we run two billion dollars a year surpluses. stuart: governor scott. thanks for joining us. i promise i will get back to florida real fast. >> have a good day. stuart: we'll take a short break. we'll be back in a moment. i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled

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stuart: i'm back after i've been off a few days. many are wondering where is the guy? this is from patricia. where is varney? he has been off the show for a week. we miss him. that is flattery. i like it. jim says this, we would like to know if you're on vacation. tell you in a moment. hold on. last one from cheryl, varney, where are you? the show isn't the same without you. that is right. this is where i was. there you have it. that is the wedding photo. that is my daughter emma with her husband, justin. the ceremony on cape cod. the weather was just about

perfect. we were indeed blessed. it was a week-long gathering of the varney clan, my six children, nine grandchildren, came in from australia new zealand, florida, new york, new jersey. emma is my fourth child to mary. two more to go. ashley: keep saving, stu. liz: no wonder you did it on monday that is the cheapest day to do it. stuart: she is utterly stunningly george just. ashley: you must have been very proud. stuart: i had a tear in my eye as i walked down the aisle with her. you suddenly realize, this is it. this is the moment. ashley: yes. all the talk something over. stuart: talking, preparation is all over. liz: did you give a speech. stuart: i did. liz: and? stuart: what do you mean and? liz: did you you get applause or con core? stuart: there was applause but on an encore is not appropriate. ashley: did you talk about free

trade and capitalism? stuart: [laughter]. you may use the speech if you need it. ashley: for a fee i'm sure. stuart: are we done? i'm happy to be back. that's it? liz: sure. stuart: i'm back and happy. there will be more of this after this.

stuart: let's get real. obamacare is dead. stick a fork in this thing. it's finished. aetna has announced it is withdrawing from all the exchanges. anthem, cigna, they are considering doing exactly the same thing. and in several states premiums are going up between 30 and 50% for 2018. if you think the obamacare system can survive these withdrawals and gigantic premium hikes, you are not facing reality. you might think the creators of the system would acknowledge their mistake and help fix it. dream on. the democrats and members of the obama team are creaming from the

rooftops -- screaming from the rooftops that proposed changes are immoral. was it not immoral to make promises about keeping your there and your plan and flagrantly breaking those promises? that's immoral. nancy pelosi says the house republican plan would gut rex -- protections for those with pre-existing conditions. by the way, she was wrong then and she's wrong now. the house plan specifically says insurers may not limit access for those with pre-existing conditions. an entire health care system is collapsing. those who created it accept no responsibility and stand in the way of a fix. politics has become increasingly ugly. we have now hit a new low. ♪ ♪

>> did you ever hear director comey tell the president he was not the summit of an investigation? >> sir, i can't comment on any conversations the director may have had with the president. stuart: okay. this is an ongoing hearing on capitol hill. acting fbi director, mr. mccabe, answering some questions from the panelists. he cannot answer questions, anything related to an ongoing investigation, and that's what we've been hearing all morning. same question, very similar answer. the weekly standard's executive editor, fred barnes, is with us now. i didn't expect to get any answers to those questions. what i expect is an attempt by the left to spin this thing out as long as possible and plant seeds in the audience's mind that, yeah, there's something there between president trump and the russians. >> well, there's no evidence. there's no known evidence, that's the problem, you know? and the democrats and the left are calling for a special

prosecutor. well, you have to have evidence for that, you know? you don't just -- they'd be happy with a fishing expedition, but that's not what prosecutors and investigators are supposed to act on. i remember watergate, i was around then. watergate really was a very advanced information, much more -- investigation, much more advanced than this one. you had the senate watergate hearings and so on, quite different. this one is just not there. stuart: okay. stay with us, please, fred. i've got to segway to the markets here because there is some reaction going on there. i'll get back to you in a second. look at this, now we're down just 92 points. we had been down close to 140. joining us now, john layfield, ceo of -- john, i get the feeling that maybe wall street is getting a little worried that this kind of, these hearings, the firing of comey and these ongoing hearings may interrupt

the trump growth agenda. is that what you're reading into this 90-point drop as well? >> yes. fred's a very smart guy, and i think he's very -- i think he's spot on with this. there's a lot of politicians right now, and i'm not sure they're interested in the truth. they want to make political points out of this, and all that does is put a block to growth agendas that the president has in mind, tax cuts, regulation reform and obamacare. and, yes, it is a huge worry. after le pen got defeated this past weekend, the market had a run x i think you're seeing pullback because that stuff is being put on the back burner. stuart: okay. now, i want to the talk about snap. facebook appears to be killing them. it went public at $17 per share. on this program you were kind of bearish at the time when it went public at $17. i think you've been vindicated. [laughter] >> yeah. look, i hate9 for that for the company of snap, but, look, i don't want to compete with

facebook, and i'm not going to buy a stock that does, just like i'm not going to buy a retailer that competes with amazon. it's just too big of a company. remember a few years ago when they thought facebook couldn't handle mobile advertising? they figured it out. i don't want to invest in any company that competes with them. stuart: you wouldn't touch snap at 17 or 18? >> no, absolutely not. no. stuart: all right. tell me about disney. that stock took a hit because of espn which has lost 12 million sub vibers -- subscribers in six years. what do you think about disney, would you buy it? >> no, i wouldn't, and it's because of the espn problems. disney with the incredible movie franchises that they own, espn is having a lot of problems. cop tent is still king -- content is still king. they overpaid for a lot of these sports licenses, to be able to broadcast these. you also have fox sports that's coming along. they're having a huge problem

with this cord cutting and how to monetize that context. when you talk about a guy like stuart scott, people love those guys, and they want to see sports used in a positive way, but they don't want to see them talk about politics. no matter what, half the country's going to disagree with you in what you say, and that's not what sports is all about. stuart: that's very true. you don't want to turn anybody off, that's for sure. i know there's one stock that you like, and that is walgreens. tell me what's so good about walgreens. >> look, no matter what happens with this health care, walgreens is going to benefit. they're now pressuring the government to make a ruling on the rite-aid acquisition. whether it goes through or not, it clears up a lot of their future which is what the stock market wants. stuart: well said. get back to that beach in bermuda, young man. appreciate it, sir, thank you. fred barnes still with us right there.

fred, i want to take you back to my editorial at the top of the hour. >> yeah. stuart: obamacare is not only in its death spiral, and i think it's just about finished, i think it's done. aetna pulling out of all of exchanges completely. here's what speaker ryan said about the repeal and replacement bill for obamacare. roll tape. >> absolutely. i really do believe we can get this by the end of the summer. i hope the senate can move this bill fairly quickly, hopefully in a month or two -- >> they said they're starting from scratch, some of them. >> at the same time, just so you say, we're going to be working on tack reform. it's not as if we wait for one to be finished and then go work on something else. we've been working on tax reform all along. stuart: freld, the stock market is very worried about the trump growth agenda. can you get it all done when you've got hearings like this and the firing of comey and all the rest of it? that's what's really upset the market. do you think they can get obamacare done, deal, signed,

delivered and tax reform all this year? >> boy, that's going to be awfully difficult, particularly with democrats in total resistance and not wanting to go along with anything. it'll be hard but it is possible. and, look, obviously, this comey thing was a -- didn't help the momentum, for sure, of trump and republicans. but, look, it'll -- i think it'll go away absent evidence. there's still no evidence that warrants a special prosecutor which is what democrats would really like because the whole issue would go on for years. and they could point to it, and it would be a real drag on trump. but, you know, look, we know a lot about tax reform. they know a lot about it. they pass bills, at least in house committees. and so i think they have a head start there. look, if they don't know enough about health care now, republicans never will. i think they had the good start in the bill that was sent to the senate. i think we need to ask the senate how quickly they're going

to act on it. stuart: well, they better act quickly because obamacare is dead in the -- i mean, it's finished. >> well, it is. and, you know, democrats would just as soon have it collapse and go to a single-payer system. you know, many people think -- and i'm one of them, and you probably are as well -- that it was set up in a way that it would fail, and it would lead to a single-payer system which, you remember, president obama said that's what he always wanted anyway. and so republicans are going to have to really -- i think they need to do a better job of marketing. they have to market their bill. they have to continue to talk about obamacare and how it's failing and what's wrong with it. i'm afraid that paul ryan's about the only one who's talking about this. president trump needs to. stuart: got it. fred barnes, as always, thanks very much for joining us. see you later. >> you're welcome. stuart: got a couple of stocks for you which are moving, vista that outdoor. their profit and sales way down because of slumping demand for guns and ammunition.

how about that? yum brands, taco bell is one of their people, one of their organizations, one of their chains. they're going to add more than 50,000 workers by the end of the summer. yum brands, dead in the water. down just eight cents. and now this: would you let a credit score decide who you date? a large percentage of people, apparently, do. details on that in this hour. and our next guest has two headlines for us. first, his messaging to americans -- message to americans, don't give up your guns. second, california is a mess, and it's because of governor jerry brown. next up, the man behind the headlines, and he is fabio! that man right there. he's our guest. back in a moment. ♪ ♪

stuart: we have a very special

guest with us this morning, and he's got a special message for all americans, and it is don't ever give up your guns. he says europe is proof when you have to give up the right to bear arms, you give more power to politicians. he doesn't like that. who is he? fabio joins us now. sir, welcome to the program. it's good to have you with us. >> thank you, stuart. thank you for having me. thank you. you know, we are from europe. stuart: yeah, exactly. we're not used to europeans coming here and saying that guns are great. we're not used to this. >> well, you know, it's like that's why, you know, america, it's called the american dream, and you have the european nightmare, you know? [laughter] everybody comes here because of the american dream. and, you know, look what happened in nazi germany, you know? they took all all away the gunsm people, and now you see what happened. so europe is a mess, you know? politicians, they are the most corrupted politicians in the world. and nothing works.

now they got invaded, you know? all they do is pretty much watch soccer and -- [laughter] and, you know, you've got the italian eating pasta, you've got the, you know, french eating cheese -- [laughter] and, actually, the only smart one are the english. they got out of the e.u. [laughter] it's like an abusive, a bad, abusive relationship. stuart: we got that, very good, very good. you're very vocal, a vocal opponent of governor jerry brown, especially his support of proposition 57 which would put some nonviolent felons back on the streets to save money. really opposed to governor brown? >> well, yeah. you know, right now prop 57 is a problem because, you know, is releasing, you know, tens of thousands of criminals back in the street.

and also he lower the crime into misdemeanor. and so, you know, also he turn his back to the law enforcement. i mean, the cops are very demoralized, and you see what happened to europe. the politicians in europe, they neuter the law enforcement. and now they have to be shot before they can even return the fire. and when you see this movie, you know, it's -- you don't want this movie tom -- coming to a theater near you. [laughter] in america, you know, it's, the last thing we want to do is take the side of the criminal. it's a known political issue, it's very simple. you have the criminal on one side, and you have the people in the law enforcement in the other. what side do you stand? of course, with the police and law enforcement. this is just common sense. stuart: you've been here for years. are you a citizen yet? >> oh, yeah. yeah, i'm a citizen, yes. and that's why i love this country. you know, our founding fathers, they were the smartest guys on the planet.

they wrote the most beautiful document, you know, the constitution. and, you know, it's, it's -- let's go back, you know, to the -- let's stick with the constitution. stuart: yes. >> the constitution works. and every single european in every single place around the world, they envious, america. they're envy yowtion of the american people. stuart: true. >> because of the constitution they don't have. and also, you know, like talking about guns. bad guys always going to have guns. look in europe right now. police have handguns, the bad think your large cap equity fund

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stuart: a actor dwayne johnson could be heading for a new role, or he's certainly eyeing it. commander in chief. he told gq magazine he's not ruling out a career in politics. >> yeah, it started as a joke -- stuart: for president. >> a run in 2020. a year ago "the washington post" put out an essay saying, you know what? the rock, he's a motivational speaker, he's got a following, he could be a viable candidate, and it looks like now the rock is thinking it over.

and, in fact, he did speak at the rnc in 2000 when george w. was nominated. is, you know, he's about inclusion, cooperation, you know? he's saying he's against the president's temporary travel halt. both the president and hillary asked him for an endorsement, he wouldn't give it. so who knows? the rock for president. who would have thank you that? stuart: do you really think he's going to run? >> no. >> we didn't think governor schwarzenegger was going to run, but he did and he won. stuart: next case -- [laughter] we've got a new study. it says if you have a bad credit score, you could be having a big dating problem. all right, ashley, wait a minute. what is considered a bad credit score? >> okay. 601-660 is fair. 500-601 is bad and everything under 500 is terrible. the reason this comes out, bankrate.com put out a survey. 42% of adults say credit score

would impact whether they would date someone or not. however, it is least important among the young millennials. ironically, they have the worst credit scores -- [laughter] so there's a reason for that. e but, yeah, some experts say when you get older knowing someone's credit score is a pretty good thing to know because often combining your finances, trying to get a mortgage, all the rest of it, it can have a big impact -- >> so how does it work? you say, can i have your phone number and your credit score when you want to date somebody? >> yes. she may have been a 10, but her credit rating was 500, so she was no good. stuart: i don't know how you go about it. >> i don't either! stuart: something much more important, macy's. yes, sir, really a drag on all the bricks and mortar retailers. macy's same-store sales down 5%. that is a a huge drop. if you're talking retail and you've got a 5% drop in same-store sales, really very bad. all the other major retailers

including nordstrom, jcpenney, the whole lot, down big. 13, 12, 7, 8, 9, extraordinary drops for the retail ice age companies. all right. president trump is going to spend two days in israel during his first foreign trip. he's also going to saudi arabia. we've got more on that story. what is the president up to in the middle east? and we've got the market, of course. we're down 86 points now, 20,856. we will be back. ♪ ♪ [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward.

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♪ ♪ >> how are they going to make money in that demographic? because that demographic does not spend money. it's reliant on their parents. >> i think this is a fool's errand here. it reminds me of pons deleon chasing the town take of youth. >> a lot of the content doesn't strike me as absolutely critical and has a shelf life of a banana. >> i think the runup is going to occur before the retail investor can get in, and i'm not going to invest in any company that has to compete directly with facebook. stuart: oh, yes, you heard it first right here. not one of the experts we had on

the program on the very day that snap went public for the first time, none of them liked the stock, and they were right. it went public at $17 a share. ran up to the mid 20s and is now all the way back down to 18. it is off 18%. we'll tell you why momentarily. and now this: later this month president trump will make his first foreign trip since taking office. he goes to israel and saudi arabia. joining us now, former mayor of shiloh from israel, david rubin. david, welcome back. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: what's going on here? the president goes to saudi arabia and israel? is this a new peace process? >> well, it's an instant kind of peace process or cooperation between the two countries, interestingly. there's been a convergence of interests. israel and saudi arabia both are very concerned about the terrorist threat the nuclear threat from iran. and at the same time, are concerned about the extreme islamic terrorism.

so there has been a convergence, both saudi arabia and israel were very, very upset with president obama because obama was adamant about getting that iran deal at any cost. and he, he did get that, and as a result, the security of israel, saudi arabia, the persian gulf and the middle east as a whole is, it's bedlam. stuart: so there's a common interest between saudi arabia, home of the wahhabis, militantly anti-israel, and israel itself. >> it's interesting because the saudi arabians can't say that. they would never say it publicly. it's absolutely taboo in the islamic world to say anything positive about israel. but i believe that if israel needed to attack iran to attack their nuclear facilities at some point in the future -- stuart: so that's a possibility, they'd cooperate? >> they would have the air space, i believe, over saudi arabia. stuart: the saudis would allow them to do that?

>> i believe so. they would never say so, of course. stuart: yes. but that is wildly different from anything we've seen in the past. >> yes. but, again, it's a quiet thing, it's quiet cooperation. if israel were to do such a thing, saudi arabians would be out there pushing u.n. resolutions against israel trying, crying fire against israel. but that's the situation, yes. stuart: is there something going on under the surface here? because the leader of the palestine liberation authority -- >> you mean mahmoud "jihad" abbas. [laughter] that's what he believes in, holy war against muslims. stuart: now the president goes to saudi arabia and israel. we have to believe that there's something going on under the surface which we've not seen before. >> there's nothing going on with mahmoud abbas, i assure you. what's going on is two parallel tracks. you have the cooperation, the tacit cooperation between israel and the persian gulf nations,

and then on the other hand you have president trump talking peace process. and meeting with mahmoud abbas in ramallah. and, but there's really nothing to be gained there because what is going to happen is that he'll go to ramallah, they'll talk peace, they'll talk negotiations. maybe they'll even make a date for a peace conference of some kind. and meanwhile, abbas is still paying thousands of dollars to every terrorist who comes to attack israelis. stuart: that was the issue that came up in the discussions. the palestinians do pay the families of terrorists a monthly sty pend, keep them going, and president trump, i believe, said knock it off. don't do that. that gets in the way of things. >> it's been said before, i'm not sure they're going to hold by it. but another interesting thing, stuart, is that president trump is coming to israel on may 22nd. may 23rd is jerusalem day. jerusalem day is a national holiday in israel when we

commemorate the reunification of jerusalem in 1967 in the six-day war under israel's sovereignty. so the convergence of dates, it's quite interesting because i find it hard to believe that president trump is planning to come on may 22nd, the day before jerusalem day, after having promised during the campaign that he's going to move the american embassy to jerusalem from tel aviv and finally recognize jerusalem as israel's capital if he's not intending to do something of that sort. i predict we're going to hear if not an actual, concrete step to move the embassy, i believe that president trump will recognize jerusalem as israel's capital. stuart: it's good stuff. there's something going on, david rubin. >> yes, there is. stuart: thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. stuart: we are, of course, monitoring the hearing featuring acting fbi director andrew mccabe and other intelligence officials.

we just had some fireworks when mccabe couldn't or wouldn't answer a question from senator ron wyden. watch this. >> sir, i'm not going to comment on any conversations that the director may have -- >> i didn't ask that. would it have been wrong for the director the inform him he was not under investigation? that's not about conversations, that's a yes or no answer. >> as you know, senator, we typically do not answer that question. i will not comment on whether or not the director and the president of the united states had that conversation. >> will you refrain from these kinds of alleged updates to the president or anyone else in the white house on the status of the investigation? >> i will. stuart: now, other people being questioned, mike pompeo, cia, mike rogers, nsa. mr. mccabe, who you saw, dan coats, director of national intelligence. they've all been asked the same question, and they've all responded in the same way: can't say anything about an ongoing investigation. our next guest calls all of this a side show. dan henninger joins us now,

"wall street journal" deputy editorial page editor. you call in the james comey show. explain. >> well, look, what i tried to explain in my column this morning, stuart, about the origins of what this story about trump and the russians came from, it originated -- described in two new york times articles back in january and march from two things that president barack obama did. one, he -- through a rule issued by then-attorney general loretta lynch, they said the nsa could distribute raw intelligence data to 16 other intelligence agencies. then we learned that what they were distributing was information they had about possible collusion between trump and the russians. that then precipitated a hurricane of leaks out of the intelligence agencies, perhaps, or perhaps former obama administration officials about this potential collusion. and i call it a side show

because there have been no leaks since. this story has not advanced very much other than things about michael flynn and possibly carter page. but beyond that it really hasn't -- why haven't there been more leaks giving us more understanding of what this possible collusion could be? they just haven't occurred. stuart: why not? >> possible because the leakers unloaded everything they have. for the life of me, you know, these hearings that they're having with the intelligence agency directors, they say they can't talk about an ongoing investigation, i find that very unsatisfying. if there was a set of things that the nsa had back in january, are we not at the point where that should be released to the american public to see what they have? rather than going on with this open-ended investigation that seems to be a hypothesis inf fa. stuart: if they did that, wouldn't they be breaking some code of silence around intelligence issues or breaking code of silence about any investigation? wouldn't they be doing that? >> i suppose.

but on the other hand, it's sort of a local police force that has a case they're trying to break, and you just send the cops out, and they walk from door to door interrogating people. we're talking about an issue involving the president of the united states. and what i would prefer to see is someone like deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to sit down with the facts, with the data, what they have and make a determination there is something here worth pursuing or there is not. either shut down this avenue in the investigation because it's too open-ended or pursue what should be -- stuart: and if that were to occur, this would come to an en. if you show me what you got, would it come -- actually, it wouldn't, would it? the democrats would pursue it. >> the media's very heavily invested in this story, and i don't think they're going to drop it. but the point is i wish that some of them would try to advance the story merely than simply repeating the same things over and over again. >> which leads me to suggest

there isn't anything to advance it. >> legitimately come to that conclusion. >> that was senator chuck grassley's frustration this morning. remember in the letter that the administration sent to james comey, the president said to james comey, you said, you admitted three times you're not investigating me. and then there were leaks saying, well, that's farcical. james comey never said that. those were leaks coming out after the fact. so chuck grassley's saying, hey, wait a second. enough. all this speculation, all these leaks, you're doing exactly what the russians want. you're undermining faith in the democracy. tell us now, fbi, are you investigating the president? clear it up, clarify it. stuart: i'm with dan on this. put it out there. >> the america public deservings it. >> all these calls for an independent counsel, and we've been through this experience before going back to the reagan presidency. they will simply chase the target for two years endlessly and destroying reputations along the way. stuart: thank you very much, indeed, dan henninger.

i think you're absolutely right. now this, remember when president obama told americans this? watch this. >> if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. [applause] if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. period. [applause] if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. if you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won't have to do a thing. you keep your plan. you keep your doctor. stuart: it never gets stale, does it? [laughter] nor this, when nancy pelosi said this -- >> we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in there. affordable, affordable. therethere's a reason. affordable. affordable. affordable, affordable, affordable. stuart: we find it hard to resist. >> oh. stuart: the latest on the obamacare death spiral.

et in drops out of -- aetna drops out of all to the exchanges, we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. stocks under pressure as commodities are on the rise. taking a look at the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p, all with

down arrows, the dow down 85 points at 20,857. all three of the major averages down for the week. what's dragging on the dow? take a look at some of the biggest laggards including intel and home depot as well as microsoft under pressure. all tech sectors have down arrows, telecom and consumer, also industrials, financials. speaking of financials, take a look at wells fargo. it's been under pressure to continue to cut costs, financial performance has been under scrutiny, down 1.5%, announcing they will cut an additional $2 billion in costs. and then taking a look at verizon, at trump's at&t for a deal. all things wireless, down arrows there. start at 5 a.m., fbm a.m., i'll see you there.

stuart: couple of stocks in the news, verizon is going to buy straight path communications. they're going to pay about $3 billion, less than they expected. by the way, straight path holds licenses to use high frequency radio waves. some people think they could form the backbone of next generation networks. valuable company but only worth $3 billion. now to whole foods. the company announced a huge board overhaul, trying to get back on track. they've had a problem recently. they're up 60 cents. that's it. how about uber? raising rates in some states to pay for drivers' injury insurance. >> this is a big issue for what

they call the gig economy, stu. these uber drivers are not an employee of uber. therefore, they have no benefits. one of the criticisms is, well, what if i get hurt on the job? now they're trying a pilot program where the cost for insurance, the personal injury insurance, will be five cents a mile for the customer to pay extra, and the driver himself will pay four cents extra a mile in order to have that coverage. they don't have to have that. they can pocket all the money, but if they want it, there's this pilot program. it's already being done in the u.k. and elsewhere -- stuart: i think that's a good idea. >> yeah. stuart: it's the driver's choice, it's your call. >> yeah. stuart: let's get back to obamacare. used the expression h spiral" many times. aetna has announced it's completely pulling out of obamacare exchanges next year. it's gone from that system. former hhs deputy secretary alex

azar joins us now. alex, i said at the top of the hour, stick a fork in this thing, it is done. it is kaput, good-bye, sayonara. anything to add? >> well, it's certainly circling the drain. i mean, this is -- obamacare plans are following the laws of economics, okay? first, if you're running an insurance company, you've got to be able to make money. to make money running an insurance company, you have to be able to predict risk. the obamacare system has made it impossible to predict risk. you don't know who's in your plan until 6-9 months into running it during the year. the government has these unpredictable reinsurance programs behind it. and now there's all kinds of uncertainty about whether the government even will live up to commitments around these what are called cost-sharing subsidies for the subsidized individual that is the insurance companies are on the hook for to the tune of about $10 billion a year. stuart: well, that being the case, i mean, it's finished, it's done.

what about those people who rely on these exchangeses and obamacare to get some kind of health insurance? what happens to them? >> it's going to be a really tough spot as we work right now from the status quo until whatever the congress comes up with by way of a repeal and replace here eventually. so right now you've got one-third of americans have a choice of only one plan. you're going to have increasing numbers of markets where there may not even be a plan. the aetna pullback doesn't cause that, but it's still quite significant. there's actually fairly few levers that the government can do at this point to try to stabilize this fundamentally broken system. i mean, one thing you could do would be, basically, provide reinsurance money to insurance companies to incent them to stay in, but i don't think there's going to be a lot of appetite for doing that either in the trump administration or up in congress. stuart: i don't see any way round poor people being paid for -- paid -- let me rephrase this.

idon't see anywhere round the government paying for the treatment of poorer people who get sick. i don't see any way around that, do you? >> well, we do do that through medicaid, through our state children's health insurance program, even through the republican plan that passed the house. i mean, this is still a large wealth transfer to individuals to help people be able to afford insurance. i mean, you know, this medicaid reform in the house bill may be the largest single entitlement reform in history, but let's remember all it does is slow the rate of predicted growth of medicaid, you know? only in washington is a cut slowing growth. stuart: you're right. i mean, i see a creep towards socialized medicine on a much larger scale. and it's going to be awfully difficult to roll that back. alex, i'm sorry to cut it short. i know what a complex situation this is, but we appreciate you coming on board and siphoning it down for us. thank you, sir, appreciate it.

now this, four democrat attorneys general suing the trump administration for lifting a ban on coal miners leasing federal land. three of them are from state that is do not even produce any coal. up next, napolitano on that. here he comes. you know who likes to be in control? this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. which makes me one smooth operator. ah! still a little tender. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

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stuart: moments ago, the acting fbi director was asked about the russia probe again. roll tape. >> is it your impression at this point that the fbi is unable to complete the investigation in a fair and expeditious way because of the removal of jim comey? >> it is my opinion and belief that the fbi will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely. >> do you need somebody to take this away from you and somebody else to do it? >> no, sir. stuart: that's interesting, he doesn't need anybody else, judge napolitano. >> you know, the fbi director is so far removed from the actual work of agents in the field, i wouldn't have expected any other answer. the agents go on with their work. they may be emotionally impacted by his summary departure, but i can't imagine that it interferes with their professional work.

so that's a standard and most likely truthful answer. stuart: he couldn't say, oh, yes, i'm gong from here. >> -- i'm gone from here. >> right. nor could he say the fbi is paralyzed because jim comey left on tuesday. he's not going to say that. [laughter] stuart: well said, young man. okay. i've got to bring this to your attention. there are four democrat attorneys general suing the transfer administration. they're saying, hey -- the trump administration. they're saying, hey, don't lift the ban on mining coal. three of them are from states that don't have any coal in them. >> i think they're going to lose the case not because they don't have the right to sue, but they're going to lose the case because of what's called chevron deference, a fancy phrase meaning the courts are supposed to defer to decisions made by administrative agencies, of which the epa is. so as long as the epa wasn't utterly irrational by saying two plus two equals twenty-two, the courts are not going to interfere. this case is a nonstarter, but

it's political. l who run for re-election, and it helps gin up their base. it's not going to change the law. stuart: and they're from states with a very, very strong green contingent. >> yes,s it is odd that the attorney general of the state of new york would be suing the epa in montana which is where this event that they're complaining about is to take place. but, you know what litigation's like today, stuart. stuart: you're asking me? [laughter] do i know what litigation is like today? >> one to have country's e foremost critics of excessive litigation. and rightly so. if loser pays here, guess who the loser is? taxpayers. it might change your mind if you are on the hook. stuart: i sue you because your dog chewed up my lawnmower or something. >> i know what you mean by that, but it's interesting. i don't know if loser pays applies in england to the government. stuart: no, i don't think it

does. >> separate rules for me and for thee. stuart: come on. what do you think i'm over here for? [laughter] >> how do you think i became queen, philip! [laughter] stuart: give me the english rule. that's what you need. we done? we're done. >> you have to tell me if we're done. stuart: it says on the prompter we're not done yet. [laughter] more "varney" after this. [laughter] ♪ ♪

. . . .

stuart: we've come back a bit. we were down 10040. we're down 87 -- 140 favorite story of the day. ashley: favorite but retire being public employees getting credit for unused sick days. a college professor in

massachusetts, one-time payment 260,000 for 1250 unused six days. stuart: public employees? ashley: yeah. stuart: don't use the sick day, you get paid for it when you retire. liz: nearly 2 billion in the state jersey alone. stuart: i'm out raged. on that note, here is neil cavuto. neil: i have never taken a sick day in my life, give or take a few months. good to see you back. thank you very much. as you've been saying, pounding these last three years, this distraction, whatever you want to call it over the comey matter is having an effect on stocks here. only good news not as bad after an effect. interest rates have been backing up. we got surprisingly jobless claims report, lowest level in close to three decades. the fact that wholesale