ashley: despite all the so-called turmoil, the dow just

133 points from its all-time high. how about that? the markets continue their march. meanwhile, disney refusing to pay ransom after hackers get ahold of the new pirates of the caribbean movie. the pirates -- aimed at his daughter sarah on saturday night live. we cover it all on varney and pane for you -- "varney & company" for yous which is about to given. ♪ ♪ ashley: and a quick look at the dow futures for you with. how about that? more green arrows. the dow showing it will be up 42 points or thereabouts at the opening, the s&p and nasdaq also up again after record closing highs yesterday. it just goes on and on. higher profit, by the way, in sales at home depot helped by a strong housing market. premarket up over 1%. nice quarter for home depot.

a few more retailers reporting this morning, tjx and marshalls and home goods, weak sales and guidance. weak sales also at dick's sporting goods but encouraging sales at staples. up nearly 2%. all right, let's stay on the economy and bring in economics professor peter morici. tenured professor, stuart likes to point out. [laughter] peter, i would argue that the strong housing market clearly giving the home depots of this world a nice boost and also another positive sign for the economy despite all of the political turmoil, a crisis a day it seems coming out of washington. the economy is going along nicely. >> i think the economy and the market is becoming immune to the, to these, the drama at the white house. the reality is most of this has very little effect on commerce. i mean, the president, essentially, was loose-lipped yesterday, and that was a

mistake. but it's hardly going to affect the profitability of exxon or the ford motor company or home depot or anybody else. americans continue to buy cars, they build homes, they live lives. let's face it, this is a market economy, and what goes on in washington can be an impediment but nothing that mr. trump has done has thrown up any impediments whatsoever. ashley: well, the argument before was it was the fed that was propping up the markets with all the cheap money, but is this based on solid fundamentals? we've seen the earnings report for the first quarter very solid, more investment, for capital expenditure. i would say all the signs they say green shoots, perhaps even more than green shoots. >> forecasts for the global economy are about 3.5%, which is fairly brisk, and american companies -- those that are prominently traded on the exchanges -- get more than half their profits abroad. american companies now profit no matter where there is profitability to be had. we're the new holland, the new

netherlands of the global economy. and as a consequence, you know, what happens in the united states is important, but what we've established through this recovery is this market can do well with 2% growth. american companies have very good profitability outlook. and as you know, i've argued in several columns that the nature of technology today justifies higher to price earnings ratios because they make capital fundamentally cheaper regardless of what the fed does. ashley: and peter, lastly, you know, look, all of this is being achieved on the markets at least without tax reform, without the new health care plan in place, without the infrastructure ball rolling. when those things -- and we hope and assume they will happen eventually -- we can go a step higher, right? >> well, absolutely. regulatory reform is going to be very helpful. as you know though, he faces legislative constraints there. some of it requires congressional action to move quickly. and in the state and local governments, this is where i wish the presidents were better

organized, had a stronger, more focused economic team, one that is more adroit at public policy as opposed to trading on wall street. a lot of what needs to be done requires leadership from the federal government to cajole state and local governments. for example, in housing one of the things that is holding us up are new state and local zoning laws of various kinds. ashley: right. >> and building codes and things. try to build a deck in your backyard. you have as many bureaucrats as they take to put up, you know, a new wing of the pentagon. [laughter] running around with clipboards and pencils and so forth inspecting all kinds of minutiae. that needs to be cleaned up. the obama administration was worried about it towards the end x mr. trump needs to articulate the need to move in this direction. ashley: you're right. >> but, you know, they're too busy putting out fires. ashley: they are. that's the problem. peter, stay you, you, minus a clipboard, to talk about china in a little while. stay right there. hackers are holding disney's latest pirates of the caribbean

installment for ransom. e. mac, what the heck is going on? >> yeah. it's either pirates of the caribbean: dead men tell no tales, or cars 3, and it looks like it's this movie. it's projected to bring in half a billion globally. this would be a big hit to the bottom line if these hackers are going to do what they're threatening to do. bob iger's saying i'm not going to pay the money. they're going to release the first five minutes, then ratchet it up, 20 minutes of the movie in increments. so, you know, this is an indication -- remember, orange is the new black got hacked and they threatened to put it up online? ashley: yeah. >> the small production studios don't have the digital cybersecurity -- ashley: that was my be question, how the heck do you think they get their hands on it? you'd think it would be in a vault somewhere. >> it looks like postproduction got hacked, a small vendor. we don't know. we're staying on the story. they're demanding money be paid by bitcoin --

ashley: do you know how much money they're asking? >> don't know. ashley: bob iger says, we're not paying. >> it's an important franchise. ashley: gas nateing. switch -- fascinating. transportation secretary elaine chao says taxpayers and private investment will fund the president's infrastructure plan. take a listen to this. >> the new infrastructure plan will include $200 billionç in direct federal funds. these funds will be used to leverage a trillion dollars in infrastructure investments over the next ten years. ashley: all right. joining us now is katherine wild with the partnership for new york city which works on infrastructure prompteds. so the question is -- projects so the question is, katherine, and thank you so much for being here. who gets the money first? do you have a list and is there a priority? you know, is this a number one, two, three and so on? >> well, i think every state around the country has a list and has their set of priorities, so, yes.

here in new york we're looking at our deteriorated transportation system, 100-plus years old and where we're losing the tunnels that are under the hudson river in a few years if we don't do something about it. we've got 5.7 million people a day riding our subway and bus system in the city which is also aging out. we can't replace the signals because they don't make those parts anymore, they're so old. so we've got a lot going on in the city on transportation, and we will certainly, in new york, be competing along with the other states for federal funding. ashley: so you get all this money. are we just fixing what's broken down? are we actually putting new structures and new infrastructure in place? >> well, it's very important that we do both. finish we've got to build new because our city is growing as are metropolitan regions around the country. we've got new centers of employment, new residential centers, so we have the connect to -- we have to connect to those. but also in the next five years

we've got $15 billion worth of repairs to make on our hoping subway system. anybody who rides the trains and the subways knows that. so we've got both those pieces to worry about. ashley: so you're talking rail, subway, roads, bridges, airports -- >> airports. ashley: we say this every time, laguardia which is already undergoing a massive facelift. >> three-quarters of the delays in the u.s. are based on the new york area airports. ashley: is that right? >> yes. we're responsible for a lot of the problems, and we're about to try and fix those -- ashley: are you sick of hearing about the complaints of laguardia? [laughter] didn't the mayor describe it as third world? the ex-mayor? >> i think that was joe biden. ashley: was it joe biden? i think he was one of many. [laughter] anyway, it's harsh, but in some respects i would say it's true, wouldn't you? >> yes, absolutely. especially if you go to developing countries around the world and see thes modern, efficient airports that are well

serviced. ashley: it's a boon for the economy too, right? >> infrastructure. a trillion dollar infrastructure investment that the president is talking about was projected over the next ten years to create 11 million new jobs. ashley: wow. >> and there's a 2.2% multiplier in that, so there's nothing more valuable you can do than invest in infrastructure in terms of the ripple effect in the local economy. ashley: everybody wins. >> everybody. ashley: i like the sound of that. thank you so much for being here. appreciate it. look forward to seeing the new laguardia. elon musk's launching spacex spacex -- >> it's the size of a double-decker bus, it weighs more than 13,000 pounds. you know, ash, this is falcon 9's, the ninth launch in about six months, the second in two weeks. it looks like it's a 23-story rocket that shot off from cape canaveral monday night. it's a very heavy satellite, the heaviest yet -- ashley: do we know what it's going to be used for in.

>> for communications. it's going to float around, stay in space. ashley: i'll get a better hbo signal? so it doesn't go out when it rains? [laughter] all right, thank you very much. hillary clinton might have lost the election, she's not going away. she's launching a super-pac call call -- and your daily dose of california outrage. governor jerry brown earmarking millions of dollars of taxpayer money to pay for the legal bills for illegal aliens facing deportation. you can't make this stuff up. if you did, they wouldn't believe you. and get this, a team of scientists say an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit earth a few minutes later, t. rex could still be walking the earth. that would be interesting. we'll explain with more "varney" after this. 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. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. brtry new flonase sensimists. allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything.

ashley: all right.

take a look at the shares of ford up 1% in the premarket, announcing that it is cutting 10% of its global work force. apparently, investors like the sound of it, cutting costs. e. mac, why are they making these cuts? >> it looks like it's going to be 20,000 -- ashley: 20,000 people. >> worldwide. potentially, half of them here in the united states. they are on track to cut $3 billion in costs this year. of so, you know, the reason they're doing it, this stock is down 40% since 2014, the market cap is below tesla and gm and, you know, so will this create a white house reaction or a backlash because donald trump has said, the president has said he's counting on job creation at the automakers. so, you know, the fact that ford is doing this -- even though the car sector has been growing over the last seven years, it looks like ford is still trying to get a grip on its bottom line. ashley: the company's not doing well and has to take steps, should they have to worry about the white house not liking what they're doing.

they have shareholders. >> yeah, that's an important point. and they have shifted towards small cars and electric vehicles where people still, of course, want the big cars. ashley: they've got the trucks, the f-150s, that'll help save them. e. mac, thank you. moving on to the global economy, china has a trillion dollar plan to build roads and airlines in africa and europe. they're doing that already. peter morici, china is a favorite topic of yours. i tend to be skeptical, to i've got the believe the so-called new silk road as they're calling it has to be designed to largely benefit chinese companies and their economy. am i wrong? >> well, that is the idea. china has a lot of excess capacity in steel, concrete and so forth, and let's face it, this' the stuff you use to -- that's the stuff you use to build roads, bridges and railroads. at the same time, it offers an opportunity to develop its middle tech and high-tech sector in areas that support those kinds of initiatives.

still, some american companies like, you know, caterpillar and ge stand to benefit from this. the real question is can they pull it off. generally speaking, big, grand schemes pursued by governments -- especially across borders -- tend to run into all kinds of problems because, you know, government bureaucrats, they're not the best risk managers, and they're going to be lending a lot of this money to people that they don't know in foreign cultures. ashley: but you could argue, and many have, that china's way ahead of the u.s. on this global infrastructure project. they've been in africa for many, many years building out the roads and rail lines there. they're very, they've been doing it under everybody's noses. i mean, that sounds like it's doing something, you know, there's a scheme involved. they're just very good at the long game, respect they? and are they -- aren't they? and are they getting a leg up over the u.s.? >> i think they are, and i think it's a wake-up call for the trump administration. for the last 16 years -- let's not be partisan -- the white house has worried about domestic welfare.

you know, basically providing prescription drug benefits to seniors, building out health care and so forth and been neglecting its international responsibilities. and we see the fruits of that. the obama folks emphasized tying foreign countries to america through trade. the trans-pacific partnership, negotiating a similar deal in europe. whereas the chinese are focusing on more tangible things that developing countries have trouble doing for themselves because of lack of money. and if it's the one thing the chinese have, it might not be expertise, it's cash. lots of it. [laughter] so they're willing to build you that airport where the united states saysing well, let's have a free trade agreement. now along comes many trump, and he cancels the free trade agreements while china is saying, want some more concrete? who gets a leg up? the answer is china is following through, it's got continuity, focus and vision. the united states is, quite frankly, quixotic in its action,

and this white house is not fulfilling confidence in its ability to perform. ashley: 30 seconds, peter. candidate trump made china to be the root of all evil when it came to trade, but now apparently the leaders of the two countries are bffs. do you buy into that? are we going to have more access to the chinese market? is this a trade deal that's going to work? >> it might work. in the past deals like this haven't worked, but even if it does, it only covers small slivers of our concerns about trade with china. it doesn't deal with the big picture. unfortunately, mr. obama persuaded mr. trump to focus on north korea, that somehow they could persuade china to help him out if he caved in on trade. well, he's caved in on trade, and last i heard north korea's still shooting off those missiles. ashley: they certainly are. peter morici, as always, great stuff. thanks for joining us. >> take care.

ashley: sears' ceo blamed weak sales on negative coverage from the media, now he's bashing one of sears' top power tool suppliers for threatening to cancel a contract with the company. maybe mr. lambert should take scott shellady's advice. roll that. >> i've got a shockingly great idea for him. make some money! that's going to make it all go away. go out and make some money, stop talking. [laughter] you always pay

your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509 on auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

ashley: well, it looks like markets shrugging off political turmoil. turmoil? what turmoil? liz, the housing story continues to look good. >> yeah. the existing home sales are up at the fastest pace since, in a decade. we're talking 2007 levels. 5.6 million plus homes sold in the first quarter. and house prices are popping in 85% of the 178 markets covered by the national association of realtors. ashley: very good. we are joined, by the way, mike murphy, a couple of superstars from "varney & company." shah, housing numbers have been pretty good, we had the housing sentiment number yesterday that was also very good. i don't care what's going on in washington, these markets are very resilient. >> well, home builders are doing very well, i think millennials may be starting to buy. but i think in terms of

inventory, there's not a lot of inventory out there, so prices are holding up well, increasing marginally in some places and significantly in other places. but some of the higher-end markets have come down a little bit. aspen, i think beverly hills, hamptons, i know it's a shame. ashley: all my property's in aspen and beverly hills. [laughter] >> i think the consumers are doing well, interest rates still below 4%, and things are very good. >> and, ash, i think you have to look at washington, i think, because the lack -- the reduction in regulations that have come occupy out on the banks allow the banks to -- ashley: at least something's coming out of washington. >> people have to be able to borrow it, so the knock that millennials don't want to own homes, a lot of that had to do with the fact that they couldn't get a loan. but now regulations are loosening up somewhat, people can apply for a mortgage and actually get it, and that's why you're seeing, one of the reasons you're seeing the uptick in housing. ashley: by the way, the markets continue to move higher, it's remarkable.

we're heading to the break now, but coming up, i'll have the opening bell for you. look, this is what we're looking at for the futures. all green arrows. the s&p and nasdaq setting record highs at the closiest. it's just up, up and away. we'll be right back with more "varney."

♪ ♪ welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday inn, smiles ahead. whether for big meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn.com

♪ ♪

ashley: the opening bell ringing about 15 seconds or less, they're all clapping on wall street. another record yesterday on the s&p and the nasdaq. futures pointing higher. no matter what happens in washington, the sunrises in the east and sets in the west, and the markets just keep on going. [laughter] we are off and running. here we go. >> wow, look at that. ashley: stocks turn green, they're moving higher. >> here we go, bam! ashley: up 30, there you go, at 21,016. it's really quite remarkable. these markets -- and is it based on the fundamentals? i'll be asking you guys about that. now, a few more retailers reporting this morning. tjx is the parent of tj maxx, marshalls and home goods, they're actually very good. you can see tj maxx down 3, almost 4%. sales at dick's sporting goods off 11%. ouch. but some encouraging sales numbers from staples. they get rewarded with the stock

moving lower by 2.25%. it's been tough going for the retailers each though staples did pretty well. strong housing market though, we've been talking about that, helping home depot's bottom line. up nearly 2%. and that does reflect what we're seeing in the housing sector. hackers, they're holding disney's latest pirates9 of the caribbean installment for ransom. the pirates have pirated the pirates. [laughter] plus, more pirates. the ford motor company cutting 10% of its work force. remember, ford lost market share to tesla and general motors. the stock, though, up half a percent. maybe investors like cost cutting. let's bring in for this extravaganza, liz, shaw and mike murphy. thank you all for being here. a a lot of political turmoil in washington, but we are seeing green shoots with wages, housing and hiring all picking up. shaw, this is based on, i would say, fundamentals. for is so long the fed was

propping up these markets, but the economy, i think, looking pretty good. >> doing much better than i think the markets really give it credit for. markets are look at earnings, and they've been doing a lot better with only 10% left of the companies to go in terms of reporting. granted, that's against a year-ogg period where earnings were terrible, but the expectations continue to do better. i think the market's anticipating better earning, they're looking at that, and no matter what's coming out of washington, the market is expecting something to come out. if we do get some deregulatory moves out of washington, that's going to further the market. ashley: very good point. mike murphy, we haven't had tax reform, health care repeal, we haven't had the infrastructure bill roll out, to to what we're seeing on the markets if we do get those things, finally get mr. trump's agenda going in washington, we're off to the races. >> absolutely. remember, the market is looking at future news, so i think the market's pricing some of that in. but to shah's point, engine's been driving this market, the

facebooks, the amazons, the netflixs, the google, and those earnings are up 22% year over year. i actually think the economy -- not the market, but the economy -- is stronger than what people are saying out there. ashley: right. even better. >> even better than what the numbers are telling you. i think there's a strong swell in the markets, you talk about animal spirits, people are feeling better, and that is going to affect the market. ashley: feeling really good this morning. [laughter] big name retailers reporting this morning, tjx, dick's sporting goods, staples, any of these names you like here? >> so look -- [laughter] we heard from home depot, right? ashley: yep. >> they had great numbers. people want to buy things for their homes. they walk into home depot and buy them. but when you look at a dick's sporting goods or staples, the way people shop, the way people are consuming those products has changed due to technology. people can go online and buy those. so i think you have certain retailers are working and

certain retailers aren't, and tough to pick which one. that's the one area you'd want to underweight, i think. ashley: what about you, shah, any in the retail sector that you think are working? >> i wouldn't touch anything. ashley: nothing. >> i took a shot at macy's, in terms of the value of their real estate, but part of that retail ice age, everything's getting hammered. dick's sporting goods is a perfect example. the expectation was for number to be pretty good, and they actually were except for seam same-store sales were down. everybody thought they would do good because of the sports authority stores closing. but again, their forecast for the year -- ashley: are they going online like everyone else? >> their online sales were up 11%. they're doing better too, but their full-year expectations were knocked down by management, and that's why the stock is getting hit hard. ashley: let's stay on retail. sears having a rough time, and it seems like the ceo is blaming everyone but himself.

first he called out the media, now he's blasting a craftsman brand tool supplier. am i being too harsh, shah? this guy has been on the defensive. >> full disclosure, we're short or sears -- ashley: you are short? >> yeah. i don't understand why the stock has held up, i didn't understand the pop in january when they said they were having concerns about going forward as a company. so that stock then popped a lot of big names got into it at that point, and we had a nice jump which wasn't warranted. as far as what's going on, esl, eddie lampert's investment company, has put up a lot of the funds to manage day-to-day operations. so they're lending money to the company, and suppliers are looking at this and saying we don't know whether you're going to be able to pay your bills in short order. ashley: so they're trying to to get out of their contracts. >> yeah, obviously, if you're not able to put things on the shelves -- ashley: are we in death wachter story sneer. >> we've been in -- >> seven straight years of losses.

>> staggering that they're still open. ashley: a we'll continue to keep an eye on it. it i want to get to ford motor laying off 10% of its work force. the stock down quite a bit. >> yes, off 40%, but it's moving higher on the news it's going to lay off 10% of its workers, we don't know where yet. they're trying to remove $3 billion in costs to improve its bottom line as that market cap continues to trend lower than tesla and gm. ashley: it's only up eight cents, but look at this. since, when is that? >> 204. ashley: since fields took over, down about 6%. i know, mike murphy, you're kind of a fan of ford. i see it somewhere in the deep recesses of my murky brain, i remember you saying good dividend, good, you know, the fundamentals are good here. >> great dividend. it's a stock we've owned in the past. ashley: what's going on? >> going back to technology, i think the way people are using cars is changing. so when you look at ford, for instance, the f-150 pickups

which are used by a lot of contractors, so you talk about recovering economy, contractors are going to buy those, that part of the business is doing great. but i think when you look at millennials, you know, used to be in our age when you were 18 or 22, you wanted to own a car. i don't think it's really a status for a millennial any longer to own a car because of technology and venture capital and all of these. iewb exercise ride sharing and on demand cars, you no longer need to own a car. i think -- >> that's a great point. ashley: the other automakers seem to be doing okay. >> look, they're all talking about investing in self-driving cars or looking at technology. that's why we focus really on these venture-backed companies in the venture fund that we run because we're looking where the economy is going to be, where the consumer is going to be. so i think ford, gm, fiat, all these big automakers need to realize that the consumer is changing. >> good point. ashley: all right.

a longtime tesla bull says sell the stock. he believes tesla is at risk from increasing competition other the long term. over the long term. so, in other words, the emperor's got no clothes on, according to the analyst. what do you think, mike? >> i see his point. and there is a ton of competition there, but betting against tesla is wetting against elon -- betting against e loan musk. i think he's that maybe being first to the party, so to speak, being the first ones out there, i don't know that you run out and buy the stock here, but i definitely wouldn't bet against it. ashley: shah, it's interesting here's this analyst saying, wait a minute -- we know there's competition out there. things a strange about turn to me. >> everything seems strange to me because i've short this stock going on one time -- ashley: how's that worked out for you? [laughter] >> thank goodness, i had tight stops on it. it defies logic. again, i'd like to find another spot and take it again, but i've

been proven wrong every single time. ashley: let's check the big board. take a look at the nasdaq. finished at a record high again yesterday, up again now. this is the dow up 21,000, there's the nasdaq up, again, 6154. taking a look at the s&p, another record high for that too, up record yesterday by three points yesterday. continues to melt upwards. don't forget about oil, up to $49. will it hit $50? up another 24 cents all on this extended production cut between the russians and the saudis. i still think we're crack cranking off oil at a fast pace offsets that. all right, let's take a look at disney. every day we have a hacker holding someone ransom. reportedly holding the latest installment of the pirates of the caribbean for ransom. meanwhile, the company also trying to reinvent espn's "sportscenter." what can they do, as we show the pirates stuff, what can they do about espn? >> they're trying to move around

and format and try to go more digital, and they're trying to -- they're going to produce short segments and run about two minutes on the digital platforms. they want to reach out to the digital -- ash aaron to the cord cutters, in other words. >> absolutely. they want ten million subscribers in the last four years which is a huge drop. stock hasn't been hit as hard as people thought it would have been. i think it's a little late in the game, but thank goodness they're trying to do something. as far as pirates, i think it could cause another hit to the stock to. >> yeah. that's separate from the overall hacks, right? ashley: if they held the internet ransom, would they pay it? probably not. [laughter] mike, is this going to work? >> i think they need to start -- this morning i watched the highlights of last night's basketball game on my phone, espn on snapchat. about 30 seconds. i'm not a millennial -- ashley: you sound like one. >> that's what i did. they need to realize this is something that they need. it used to be sit down for an hour in front of the tv and

watch "sportscenter." they are reformatting, they need to do that. >> do you think it'll work? >> i think lit, but they need to acquire some of these start-ups that are in touch with the millennials. ashley: mike murphy, look at you. [laughter] thanks so much for being here. let's check the big board, there you go, the dow higher, up about 30 points. "the washington post" says president trump revealed classified information to the russians. the white house flatly denies it. again, the question remains with all of this obstruction in d.c., can the president push through his growth agenda? that's what we're wondering. and then there's chelsea manning, the army soldier convicted of leaking secret military documents will be released tomorrow and will get full medical benefits. we're on that story as well. more "varney" next. ♪ ♪ i realize that ah, that $100k is not exactly a fortune.

well, a 103 yeah, 103. well, let me ask you guys. how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. well, i'm sure you talk to people all the time who think $100k is just pocket change. right now we're just talking to you. i told you we had a fortune. yes, you did. getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today.

buttrust angie's list to help., [ barks ] visit angieslist.com today.

ashley: all right. let's get a check of these markets for you. we continue to say the theme, i guess, forget about what's going on in washington. the markets continue to march to their own drum, and that is moving higher. the dow up 25 points at 21,008. life is good. all right, let's take a look at the shares of facebook and bring in nicole petallides. nicole, they are copying snap again? what's that story? >> again, they've done it four times, i think this is the fifth time they're doing it. and you know what? facebook, instagram even said, look, we're going to be copying snap. you know why? because they can, and they are i doing it. if you want koala ears that twitch and move, special hashtags, rewinding video, don't worry. instagram now has it, and this

is one of the problems of the social media rivalry. and that's just one of the many elements that a they continue to battle out. snapchat came onboard snap, they came out with their latest quarterly report last week, the stock's dropped over 20%. now it's getting a little bit of a jump because you heard that dan loeb and george soros and goldman sachs have invested in it, but the behemoth is facebook and instagram, and as soon as instagram put the stories where you could put ten seconds of, hey, i'm at toys r us, hey, i'm at gucci, as soon as they started to put those stories up, that started to crush snapchat. so it's this rivalry that continues and the wave of the future. ashley: now we know you shop at toys r us and gucci. [laughter] billionaire george soros betting big on snap while dumping amazon. to me, this is totally counterintuitive. e. mac, what's going on? >> yes. well, you know, it's fidelity, it's t. rowe price, blackrock,

they're all in that stock. ashley: these are the big, big guns. >> yeah. you know, the stock got crushed, down 23%, lost $2.2 billion in one day. george soros is in it bigtime, his fund has 1.65 million shares. so, you know, these guys got in, and it's a brutal first quarter for snap. so i'll tell you, if the smart money is buying, are they now selling?. liz claman said yesterday sometimes even the big guys get it wrong. >> oh, yeah. ashley: and with snap, i don't think the fundamentals of this company has changed at all. so it's interesting. >> some analysts are comparing snap to myspace. ashley: oh, boy. we'll leave it there. >> exactly. ashley: a new study, this is interesting, claims dinosaurs might still be alive if an asteroid had struck just a few minutes earlier or later. crazy story, but it's fascinating. >> the joke is if it weren't for that asteroid, we would not be here talking about because the dinosaurs would still be here.

they're looking at the yucatan peninsula, they're drilling into the rock there. and they realize this tower of rock shot up higher than the himalayas, basically squashing, squelching all life including the dinosaurs. the theory is if it had hit the ocean instead -- ashley: we would have had t. rexes running around new jersey. >> and we wouldn't be here talking about it. [laughter] ashley: fascinating stuff. all right, turning to politics -- no relation to dinosaurs, i promise -- president trump has an ambitious agenda tackling tax reform, health care, infrastructure, but he continues to be to dogged by negative headlines like yesterday's washington post story. quote: trump revealed highly classified information to russian diplomats. that's the daily crisis almost. joining us now, senator john kennedy from louisiana. senator, thank you for joining us. look, it's been a drip, drip, drip of headlines coming out of washington. do stories like this, the

russian, you know, leak to the russians, does this distract from the president's agenda of getting this economy growing? >> well, of course it does. and i think that's, that's the motive behind a lot of this. i mean, the headline, you know, president leaks classified information. says who? read the article. says who? anonymous source from the white house? i mean, come on. you know, have the guts if you're going to make an allegation like that to go say it. and man up. and take responsibility. and by the way, if you're working for the president and you're leaking like a sieve, you might want to think about quitting. you know? i mean, look, i support the press, i've supported the first amendment my whole life, i believe in a free press. but, you know, a lot of the news media in washington, they've gone full tabloid, you know? every day this administration,

they say, is doing, has done something that's going to end civilization. [laughter] i mean, come on. ashley: i know -- >> you know, enough is enough. ashley: it's very frustrating, and it's just overtaking everything else, getting down to the business and to put in place those policies that people voted for donald trump in the first place. talking of which, how are we doing? where are we on, on, you know, well, we've got the health care plan, we've got tax cuts, all of those things. >> we're working hard on health care and tax cuts. ashley: yep. >> the health care's a tough one. president trump, of course, we know what his ideas are. we're putting together our ideas. mitch mcconnell has been very inclusive. he is -- we meet about an hour a day, all 52 senators on the republican side. we finish anybody can stand up and say anything they want, make a suggestion. we're doing it together. as you can imagine, there's a smorgasbord of ideas. ashley: yeah. >> we'll eventually come together on a bill.

it'll probably be our own bill as opposed to the house effort. i want to thank the house for passing a bill though. my test is real simple. it's the joe taxpayer test. number one, i want to cover pre-existing conditions, and i want to lower the cost of health insurance. that's what we were promised with obamacare, and it didn't happen. that's what i'm trying to achieve. ashley: that sounds very good, senator john kennedy of louisiana. i hear your frustration and believe you me, it is felt here and elsewhere, all across the country. let's just get down to the business of getting this economy going instead of just focusing on another issue that is attempted to bring president down. senator kennedy, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: let's check the markets again for you. the dow 30 stocks, we like to do this. more green than red,s that is for sure. leading the way, home depot. good first quarter report. the housing market is coming along nicely. home depot doing well on the

bottom end of it, pfizer trailing on the dow. all right, california governor jerry brown's new budget, get this, includes millions of dollars to defend illegal aliens from deportation. we will take you, as stu calls it, to the formerly golden state in the 31 a.m. hour -- 11 a.m. and, of course, 8a. on the west coast. we'll be right back. g by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any medicare supplement insurance plan, these help pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and, these plans let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you could stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or go with someone new. you're not stuck in a network... because there aren't any. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan

that works for you. there's a range to choose from, depending on your needs and your budget. rates are competitive. and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. like any of these types of plans, they let you apply whenever you want. there's no enrollment window... no waiting to apply. so call now. remember, medicare supplement plans 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.

ashley: did the president leak secrets to the russians when he met with them? depends on who you believe. i guess let's bring in the judge. all rise, judge andrew napolitano here. two different stories being told here. it seems to me the president has said, well, yeah, but i stated facts. >> you know, general mcmaster, last night i was on set with martha maccallum while we're covering this live, gave a carefully-worded statement saying the president did not reveal sources or military information. this morning the president says i had an absolute right to reveal what i revealed. so he obviously revealed something. the president believed that by whit perking into -- whispering into the foreign minister and ambassador's ears, he could gain the confidence of the russians and make them aware of the danger posed to russia as well

as to the u.s. by the islamic state's efforts to use laptops to blow up planes. ashley: did he break rules? >> no, because the president has the authority to declassify even top secret information to a limited audience and for a limited purpose. but he has given the impression, or the presses has given the impression, or the leaker has caused the press to give the impression that the president doesn't know how to handle top secret information. let me tell you how secret this is. ashley: all right. >> in all of the hundreds of thousands of hillary clinton's e-mails, she only had three that were in this category. this is the highest category of secret there is. information gleaned from a human source on the ground. if the identity is revealed, the person would probably be eliminated or suffer an even more horrific fate. ashley: wow. we're already out of time, judge. i want to talk about the leak itself. you mentioned, that's a big problem. >> yes, it is. ashley: all right, second hour

of "varney" coming up next. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it's more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist experience you'll barely feel. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. new flonase sensimist changes everything.

. . . (alarm beeping)

(vo) when you wake up with miracle-ear... ...your mornings can come to life with sound. our exclusive speech isolation technology transforms a bustling café into a clear connection that helps you hear the laugh that made you fall in love with her in the first place. and, at miracle-ear, we take the time to get to know you, grandpa! so we can ensure you hear what matters most in your world. call, click or come in today to learn how to start your better days. miracle-ear...hear a better day.

ashley: hello, everyone, ashley webster. stuart is back on thursday, oh, yes, and we will explain where he is a little later this hour. as the trump sets to roll out infrastructure plan that could bring one of the top manufacturers is cutting jobs. mark fields, ceo of ford cutting costs by laying off 10% of the global workforce. the numbers don't lie, ford shares down 35% since fields took over nearly three years ago and has lost market cap to gm and tesla. meantime on capitol hill, the transportation secretary will begin to outline the president's proposed 1 trillion-dollar infrastructure plan but what gets built first and when. it took six months since stunning election defeat for hillary clinton to jump back in the political gain, she's launching a new pac. we will talk about that. new york state considering a law to allow police to use a so-called textilizer and check

texts at the scene and we will be talking to the ceo. mike huckabee speaks about nasty jokes said to his daughter's expense on saturday night live. jam-packed our two of varney&company and it begins right now. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> our infrastructure is in serious trouble. we will build new roads and highways and tunnels and airports and railways across the nation. we will fix our existing product before we build anything brand new. ashley: well that was president trump talking about rebuilding america's infrastructure, we will get to that in a second but first your money, always first. let's take a look at the big board for you. the dow up 38 points now at 21,002, good stuff on the markets, s&p also moving higher. up about another half a percent and the nasdaq 2.

the s&p and nasdaq breaking a record close yesterday. can they do it again today? strong numbers from home depot and that stock hitting another record high. up as you can see nicely, up 2, $3. the strong housing market giving home depot a nice boost. all-time highs by the way, we say this every day for alphabet/google and alibaba. check this out. hillary clinton getting back in the game launching plit cag action group. here is what she tweeted, quote, we are launching onward together to encourage people to get involved, organize even run for office. she's back. hillary that is. >> i'm also back. >> katie, thank you so much. >> good to be here. ashley: are we surprised that's she's back in the game, she's raising money for groups that are part of the resistance. >> right, resistance, organizing all of them.

first of all, i'm wondering if she tested this slogan onward together just like he tested campaign slogan, but in terms of what she's doing here, i think hillary clinton which this is going to be something that she was not going to do, what she should do is take a hard look at what she's doing will benefit the democrat party. they are moving forward. she's someone toxic based on primary season within the dnc and super delegate argument. she's not necessarily someone who is going to bring the party together and based on the numbers and based on the thousand seats the democrats have lost under obama's tenure across the country. how is she going to bring people, look, i'm helping people organize in grass-roots, well, where was that before november 8th, if she couldn't do it now, why would she be able to do it now? ashley: i could say that one

thing the clintons can do is go out and ask for money. >> that's true. >> how is she going to pay for all of her houses that she has? maybe she will set another sludge fund. maybe the people on the ground in the grassroots, the party is going towards more bernie sanders-type candidate at the front and leadership and i'm just not sure that hillary clinton really fits into the mold here and she keeps inserting herself into public life. she can't help herself when it comes to just walking away saying she had her time and the truth is, look, running for presiden two is a pretty good way to end your career. seems like she should take the high road there and leave everyone else alone and let new leadership within the democratic party come up forward. ashley: quickly, katie, could she ever consider getting back into a race for the white house? >> there are rumors, you never say never. i talked to a few people in new york that she's not putting

another presidential campaign totally to the side. ashley: wow. >> the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. [laughter] >> it seems like that's where hillary clinton is, whether it's getting involved with the grassroots organization or possibly running again for president, but we will have to see. ashley: cannot go gently into that night. appreciate it. >> see you soon. ashley: china proposing a $1.4 trillion infrastructure plan to build roads and rails in asia, africa and europe. this comes as a trump administration kicks off their own infrastructure effort. joining us now is drew, marilyn steel ceo, drew, thank you so much for joining us. let's begin with the china news, very ambitious project, a global project which china has been involved in this infrastructure building for quite some time specially in africa. what are your thoughts on that? >> china is going bold with infrastructure project and

america manufacturing needs america to go bold with america manufacturing leading the way for infrastructure. we desperately need new infrastructure program here in america. we have an infrastructure crisis. china is doing something wonderful for their country, we need to have great roads, great ports, great airports and lek call grid that meets 2007 manufacturing. it's very important that we put this at the top of the agenda. ashley: well, the biggest problems and one of the problems and the candidate donald trump talked about the amount of cheap chinese steel that floods the market here and makes it very difficult for the local steel companies to compete. is that going away? are we getting a handle on that? >> there's definitely a lot of dumping, a lot of chinese steel coming in at less than the price of what the cost is, but the bottom line is, america needs good quality ports, good-quality

airport. we spend too much time driving in traffic. here in baltimore, my team takes an hour to get to work when it should be 20 minutes. the traffic jams are crazy because we have roads that are very old that haven't been fixed, we have potholes, we have a bridge near us, it was built in 1916, it looks like it hasn't been rebuilt or retouched since then. it's unacceptable with all the potholes. so president trump has an initiative, a 1 trillion-dollar initiative and we actually visited with him in the white house in the oval office and that was the first thing he talked about, that he was going to pursue an aggressive plan to rebuild our roads, rebuild our bridges and get this economy running again and this was going to be one of his primary emphasis to stimulate the economy. it's critical for american manufacturing to have a wonderful transportation system. ashley: elaine chao would be rolling out the administration's

plan this week this -- my question is how fast we can get the projects going? >> i think we can have them going fast and the reason is because we can leverage the private sector with some federal dollars plus there's a lot of cash sitting on the sideline ifs we could offer bonds that are guarantied by the government. i mean, think about it, a couple of years back we had a bridge in minnesota fall, fall down. a couple of months we had a dam in california that was about to break and we had to evacuate a quarter million people in california. i mean, our infrastructure is crumbling, it's unacceptable. this is america. we are the greatest country in the world. we should have an a-plus infrastructure system. unfortunately the american society of civil engineers graded our infrastructure as a d plus. that's like bolivia or bangladesh. we should have the best in the world and president trump's plan that manufacturers are

coalescing behind is critical to install. we have a program called build to win and if we could have build to win, this is a national association of manufacturers initiative, that initiated throughout our system, you will see the enormous resurgence in american middle-class jobs. very exciting. we have to make it happen. ashley: it is exciting. it's time for the talk to finish and the build to go begin. no doubt, drew greenblatt. appropriate -- appreciate it. elon musk launching the biggest satellite into who are it. bigger than a double-decker bus. tesla getting a downgrade. liz: some of the so-called fans, four months after he upgraded the stock, so tesla, the final frontier is profit and what

jonas is saying at morgan stanley that incoming rivals from apple, waymo, self-driving car, apple with the cash flow, and also saying china is not a long-term market for tesla, other companies are pouring into china to take on tesla and not even solar power or energy storage. he's downgrade again. ashley: analysts change mind pretty quick. liz: that's right. ashley: check this out, 100-year-old sky diving this weekend in england. the d-day veteran. you know he's brave. the oldest person in the world to skydive, 101 year's old. son, grandson and great grandson joined him. talk about a family affair. fantastic stuff. liz: terrific, right? whoa. ashley: thumbs up, buddy, you earned. disney under attack. hackers are holding disney movie for ransom.

we've got that story. senators ryan paul and ted cruz hoping to go nuclear on the obamacare replacement but how long will that take? we will head to capitol hill next

ashley: all right, we are less than an hour into the trading day but so far so good. 32 points on the dow, 21 and 14, pretty good, huh? let's take a look at facebook. it's adding snapchat like face filters to instagram photo-sharing app. as nicole said earlier, basically facebook copying snap. turn to politics now. the trump administration is currently reviewing design bids for the border wall as a number of illegal border crossings has

slowed down to a trickle. let's bring in senator luther strange from alabama. let's talk about the wall. does that get put on the back burner because of the russian investigation or all other distraction that is are facing facing the white house, does it get pushed back? >> i don't think it does. i think the president is committed to number one campaign promise which was to build the wall and i'm glad to see that his seriousness about that issue and the work of jeff sessions as our attorney general has led to a significant reduction in illegal border crossings already. just showing intention to do something actually acting to do it and being serious about enforcing the rule of law has had concrete result in keeping the country safe and community safer. ashley: is the wall more of a symbolic thing, senator because you can tunnel under it or build a hole through it or go over the top to it, is it more of a symbol? >> i don't think so, i think

it's a real deterrent to illegal border crossings and i very strong support the president's proposal. i think he's doing the right thing and where i come from the former attorney general of our state, i believe very strongly in the rue of law and enforcing the rule of law, when you don't do that, ignore it, you automatically get the result which is more people crossing illegally. ashley: yeah, it certainly has had an impact crossings slowing to a trickle. senator, i want to talk about health care. your colleagues rand paul, ted cruz reportedly willing to test the senate procedure oil bounds in order to get obamacare repealed. would the "nuclear option" have to be used in order to get the health care reform bill passed? >> well, we are looking at lots of different options to get relief to the mesh -- american people. i wouldn't take anything off the table right now but my hope is that we figure out a way to get

it done without tampering with the senate rules there. they're very important in the area of legislation and so i hope we don't have to go in that direction and we ought to be curious and whatever tools we have to be there. ashley: how much different would it be from the house version? >> i suspect significantly different because we are trying to solve problems on the senate side that weren't addressed on the senate side like getting getting the medicaid system that's been expanded and changed so much by obamacare back on a sustainable footing so it's not a disastrous entitlement policy that is ultimately doom today fail. that's a critical issue for me and the people i represent them want affordable health care coverage that actually provides care to them and not just some expensive policy they can never use. i hear that all of the time as i travel around my state. ashley: very quickly, senator, you know, i mentioned all of the investigation, it's almost a crisis a day coming out of the administration, are you fed up

with it, is there a leak in the administration that needs to be plugged very quickly? >> well, i'm concerned about information coming out and i think the white house understands the need to get that under control, having said that i have great confidence in general mcmaster and the leadership particularly on the national defense side there and so as we stand here today i'm very confident that matters have been handled appropriately. ashley: senator, thank you so much for taking to time to talk to us. we appreciate it. >> absolutely, thank you very much. ashley: check this out, leftist billionaire soros dumping amazon making a big investment in snap. snap hot hitched with other investors. impressive list. liz: it's trending downward ipo price. that thing got crushed, lost 23% in one day after the quarterly came out. fidelity is the top holder, lobe and the other top guns on wall street in this stock, we are talking kenneth griffin,

rosenstein. ashley: who's who? liz: that's right. he did take a new spot position in snap. so what a time to buy. i don't know -- ashley: what are they seeing that most others are not? liz: listen, snap is one big giant app like facebook is and they saw -- solve millennial usage. it's not as powerful as they thought. 166million users is on the level of my space, the joke down on wall street. should it sell itself at this point? it's posting big losses on the order of sears, most than tesla combined, more than amazon ever posted in a year after it went public. ashley: basically copying it does with instagram stories. pretty tough to compete with a giant like facebook.

liz: facebook with pile of cash. ashley: very good point. maybe they know something we don't. new york state considering requiring drivers involved in accident to submit their phones to the software textlizer that will bust drivers while texting and driving. we have the ceo that's making that technology. stay with varney&company. ♪ ♪ you always pay

your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect.

for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509 on auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

>> i'm so sorry. were you still talking? ashley: that's a look at the latest pirates of the caribbean movie which by the way is reportedly being stolen by hackers and now they are demanding ransom from disney. it's like a scene right out of pirates of the caribbean. liz: this is separate from the global cyber-attack, what's going on -- ashley: right. liz: one of two movies, t either this one or cars 3. they suspected this movie that hackers have stolen and threatened to put it in five-minute increment and 20-minute increments unless disney ponies up a lot of money. bob iger says he will not do that and could threaten bottom line, this movie, half a billion dollars globally expected to bring in, the franchise has brought in 3.7 billion since 2003. so, you know -- ashley: they are

calling the bluff of ransom holders, if they go ahead and release it could hurt disney quite a lot. liz: maybe trace it to who is posting it. the big fear in hollywood is what about the postproduction studios that do digitize work. what's their cybersecurity, is it bad? yeah, that's right. ashley: seems like every day we have one of the cyber stories. liz: yeah. ashley: thanks, liz. looks like north korea, oh, yeah, cybersecurity experts now say the hackers in that country may have been responsible for the last week's massive cyber-attack. we have you working overtime on this story. liz: looking at the code, we have semantic and other security experts, wait a second, this code looks similar to the code that was basically used in the sony hack and, you know, cyber experts around the world are looking at this hack, this wanna

cry ransomware and used the same code as malware. that sony hack occurred over movie interview. manhunt is still on. they haven't caught the guys. 250,000 computer in 150 countries around the world have been hit by this. ashley: i don't want to say, hey, well done, shows you that north korea we look at it as a crazy place that shoots off wobbly missiles into the sea of japan but they actually do a lot of damage and this is an example of that? >> what they're noticing too it's hitting asia very hard, taiwan, ten schools and power company and hospital. they're looking at the sources of it and the manhunt is on. ashley: crazy world. liz: yeah, it is. ashley: coming up, to look little different. cleveland cavaliers to sport the companies' logo. we have the story and ford reportedly cutting thousands of jobs.

its stock is down 36% since mark fields took the helm. jeff flock at chicago ford assembly plan and he has the details. [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. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. ashley: my poker face is terrible that's why i don't play poker. [laughter] ashley: we were up 30 points and now we are down 7 points. so poof, our gains on the dow slipping a little bit. take a look at amazon, alphabet both approaching the 1,000-dollar mark, both moving higher today. strong housing markets certainly giving home depot a boost and that's another positive side for the overall economy despite all

of the shenanigans in washington, a crisis today doesn't matter, the markets move higher and the housing market moving along. liz: we know what we have seen in the housing market and the way the government has run the housing market effectively with subsidies, but so now we are seeing astonishing the numbers of existing homes sales coming at 2007 levels, decade highs. 5.6million annualize, that's pretty decent. as you noted home depot and other entrepreneurs in the housing market, i mean, we have seen such government interventions -- intervention with entrepreneurs going on since the clinton era for 20 years, now with the trump administration dialing it back and it's a tail wind not just a headwind as the economist has pointed out. ashley: maybe a little easier to get a mortgage for millennials. liz: that's right. ashley: thank you very much. check this out. the state of new york may

require drivers involved in accidents to submit their phones to the software textlizer will that bust drivers for texting and driving. thereon what judge andrew napolitano said on our program yesterday. >> it wouldn't surprise me if it is counted constitutional on the theory that when you accept your driver's license just as you consent let them measure blood alcohol through breath you consent them. it is profoundly wrong. it's just a stunt to make it easier for the police to prosecute. ashley: but if that person texting is conceivably till you -- look who is joining us here. come on in james grady, celebrate ceo, the company behind textlizer, james thanks for being here. why don't you respond to what the judge said there. he believes constitutionally it probably would stand up although he's not happy about it.

>> sure, sure. we talked to privacy advocates about how this works and when we have the conversation, normally what we find, we explain to them that we actually don't take any data off the phone about who you were texting to or what you were saying only the operating logs that show you were touching the phone, that's the only thing necessary and we take no data off the phone. they get a lot more comfortable, when the legislature crafted the law, they worked with privacy advocates. ashley: hand-held thing that the officer could have and at the scene of the accident take the driver's phone and do what? >> exactly. the police would let the driver continue to hold their own phone and ask them to unlock and they would put the cable in and in about 90 seconds read whether there was activity on the screen of texting or messaging. ashley: at a particular time. >> at a particular time. ashley: how did you come up with this?

>> ben lieberman told us about his son killed from a distracted driver. we could detect texting without checking data on the phone. ashley: that's pretty amazing. has it already been used? is it being used somewhere right now? >> no, it's not a product yet. wewe are waiting to hear the final version of the law. ashley: the technology is there but the actual product there has -- >> to work with police and forensic data. so what we do with cell phones is when there's a crime against children, a range of horrific crimes and police get a search warrant to get a suspect's phone, we can retrieve the data, evidence of those crimes off the phone. very different application. ashley: i see a lot of people texting. it's very dangerous because your attention and in this world we all look down at our phones all of the time, driving it's very dangerous. >> yeah, there's data that shows three times more dangerous that driving while intoxicating.

ashley: that's right? >> yes. liz: wow. >> 80% of adults admit that they are doing it. [laughter] ashley: i drive and i'm keeping an eye for people drifting. yeah, very interesting stuff. you have to come back if you wouldn't mind telling us once if this all goes through constitutionally and laws put in place it'll be interesting to see how effective it is. >> we would be happy. ashley: appreciate it. now this report. ford motor company will cut 10% of work flores. jeff flock live from a ford assembly plant in chicago. jeff. jeff: the explore plant back there in the distance, ashley, 200,000 is ford's total workforce. you do the math. 20,000 jobs potentially lost. half of them in the u.s. the president not going to be too happy about that touting the creation of jobs at ford. take a look at what ford told us. they're not confirming this. if you read through the lines in the statement, maybe it is a confirmation.

we remain focus on priority that is will create profitable growth but reducing costs and becoming as lean as efficient as possible also remain part of that work. mark field has been under some pressure, you know, the company remains very profitable but, you know, they haven't done much in terms of the stock and he's done a lot of investment in other stuff, so ford maybe going to cut some jobs. ashley: yeah. that's the bad -- it is. thank you very much, hillary clinton back in the political game, here is what she tweeted. quote, we are launching onward together to encourage people to get involved, organize and even run for office. bryan kilmeade join us live on the radio. after months of hiding cursing the russians and jim comey for torpedoing her campaign, hillary clinton is back with a pac, are you kidding me? brian: i was stunned when a couple of weeks she said i'm going to be the resistance, the resistance. what class?

al gore had a reason to be upset. one state decided it. he wasn't the resistance. mitt romney was crushed when he lost in 2012 in the prime of his life. he wasn't the resistance. was john mccain. he went back to work the next day. but now she's going to have onward together, that's her pac that's going to fuel and fund other campaigns. the problem is ashley, i have never seen do anything for anybody else. it's always about her and in a way this is sad. you have to move on. ashley: yeah. brian: you lost. it's not up to you to be the resistance. no one wants you to lead, you have the money and the connections but at 69 year's old the political future is done. ashley: yeah. well, there's one thing the clintons can do is go around and ask people for money. brian: yes, absolutely. and the thing is they actually get it. can they actually do it because they see a promising 34-year-old in north carolina that could possibly be a senator, are they going to do it for somebody in

texas that could turn the state blue, are they doing anything for the force or just do it for themselves? what is their message? hi, i'm not donald trump. how did that work the last time? [laughter] ashley: one more for you, brian, the nba cleveland cavaliers first franchise to place advertisement on the jersey. goodyear will get the first honors. i'm surprised it's taken this long. we lost brian kilmeade. there he is. come on back, brian. brian: here i am. don't go to the white house anymore. if you notice manchester united and other major teams they pay up a lot of money. now average of $800,000, nba is going to be able to sell jerseys. the question, i remember years ago during olympics jordan had to play for reebok. the reebok sponsored the olympic team so he put a towel over the logo and said i'm a nike guy. what are they going to do if lebron is advertising for one

company but the jersey might be for a different car company, toyota or gm, what are they going to do? tv is going to get a portion of the money and players and, of course, the team gets a portion of the money. more commercialization, i'm used to it. nascar is used to it. people wear those logos with pride, so i just think, you know, the nba wasn't making enough money so i think it's about time they make ends meet. even the nets make money, my goodness. ashley: while you are still there, i want to get back to this whole, you know, donald trump giving secrets to the russians. it's become a joke, has it not that we have a daily crisis where the president has stumbled and fumbled his way through according to mainstream media? i mean, i think it's this such an effort is underway to bring this president down. it's become laughable. brian: when he makes a mistake, i think that people get fatigued to support him but when he's unfairly piled on, that actually

builds up base and gets people angry. but i had pete here and chairman of house intelligence committee, he says when hr mcmaster picks up the phone after meeting with sergey lavrov is typical. here is what he told me, here is what i said. you might want to jot that down. my hope is mike pompeo didn't have the speaker phone on and others in the area weren't able to hear it because somebody clearly in intelligence ran to the washington post with that intelligence and was so concerned they exposed all the secrets to greg miller the washington post reporter which shows a lot of disingenuous outrage if you ask me. ashley: i agree. brian: and you did ask me, for the record. ashley: thank you, brian. i'm glad no anonymous sources here. fox radio, we won't go to the white house ever again, i promise, brian. brian: i'm hurt. ashley: i would be too. deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders daughter of

mike huckabee shamed on saturday night live, governor huckabee responds to this next. >> sarah huckabee sanders said james comey had committed basic atrocities while he was head of fbi like reopeningopening the hillary clinton investigation. that's not a basic atrocity. basic atrocity is where sarah huckabee sanders gets herded. wardrobe. to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph.

tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

liz: last hour we spoke with katherine from new york city and here is what she said to say about new new york city's crumbling infrastructure. >> here in new york we are looking at deteriorating transportation system that a 100-plus years old and we are losing the tunnels that are under the hudson river with -- in a few years if we don't do something about it. we've got 5.7 million people a day riding our subway and bus system in the city which is also aging out, we can't replace the signals because they don't make those parts anymore. they're so old. so we've got a lot going on in the city on transportation and we will certainly in new york be competing along with the other states for federal funding.

>> good morning, guys. for those who don't me, my father is mike huckabee and my mother is a big southern hamburger. ashley: saturday night live using nasty jokes saying the deputy white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders. well, joining us now mike huckabee who was mentioned in that skid, former republican governor of arkansas and, of course, the father of sarah huckabee sanders.

all right, we all like a good joke, mike, but what did you think as a father when you saw that? >> i think because my entire family has lived most of the last almost 30 years in the public eye, you know, you're kind of immune to it. i thought it was a little bit silly, sexist, has -- misogynist and my daughter is capable of holding more than that. it does not take away from who she is. she's a great wife, absolutely wonderful mother to three beautiful preschool children and she's a generous and thoughtful person who is very charitable in her life, good to her friends and what we taught her, that she's going to be judged by god, not by some not-funny comedy writers on saturday night saturday night live. ashley: obviously a very proud father.

one of the sketches suggested that she should replace sean spicer because she does very well so you can take that as a complement? >> well, she does very well and i'm grateful for the fact that she's capable of doing whatever job she's handed, but she's not trying to replace sean spicer. she loves, sean, respects him and has nothing but high regard for him. she's happy to do what shoes doing and grateful to be in the white house and serving this president. no one throwing a dart at her is going to detract her a little bit. ashley: i bet she is. next one, governor. the trump administration refusing a report from the washington that president trump revealed classified intelligence to russian officials in a meeting last week. president trump tweeting out this morning, as president i wanted to share with russia at an opening scheduled white house meeting which i have the absolute right to do, facts

pertaining, he continues to terrorism and airline flight safety, humanitarian reasons and plus i want russia to greatly step up fight against isis and terrorism. governor, your reaction to all of this? >> well, first of all, there's the allegation that trump confirm that had he leaked sensitive information. he most certainly did not. you read the tweets. what has been confirmed is that he said that there was information as did all the people in the meeting that was already public knowledge that was design today deal with national security. every person in that meeting dina powell, h.r. mcmaster. watch what the media is doing right now. they continue to run can it and that trump confirmed that he had done that. i read the tweets five times and he didn't do it and this is why

america hate it is media, ashley, they just have zero trust. they've got more trust in a bank robber and more trust in a whole room of cockroaches than they do with the media that continues to do everything they can to undermine this president and his presidency. ashley: we have 30 seconds left, governor. there's got to be -- there's a serious leak, where is this coming from? these anonymous sources and someone in there that's trying to break this president down, that's my sense. >> yeah, i think the biggest concern that these reporters ought to have is that somebody is breaking the law. this isn't just unethical, yes, this is illegal. when they run to the washington post and they give information that's classified somebody needs to be carted off to jail for it and that's what i'm wait to go see what happened but probably won't. ashley: probably not but there's a lot of people that agree with you, governor. thank you, governor huckabee, i appreciate your time. >> you bet. ashley: general motors expands ride-sharing products to attract

millennials, who else? liz. liz: amazing trend that gm is trying to pick up on, the 24-year-olds the number of them who own a driver's license has been going down and the car ownership has been going down for that cohort so it's viewing cars as a service and not asset. so basically called maven, it's not making any money for gm. it's a ride-sharing app that's going to take on zip cars. ashley: right. liz: coming out in manhattan and aimed at urban millennial. year and a half ago they launched in 17 markets. ashley: is it like zip car, basically you sign up to the club, so to speak, and you reserve a car for a certain amount of time? liz: look how cheap it is. 10 dollars an hour. ashley: cars are expensive, insurance, gas. liz: this is a trend. people will not own cars in 25

years. ashley: i'm sure ford and gm are saying, great. thank you very much. interesting. liz: sure. ashley: california governor new budget includes tens of millions of taxpayers to help protect illegals from being deported. that's taxpayers footing the legal bills for people in california illegally. i can't believe i'm saying it. more varney next think your large cap equity fund has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think again. it's time to shake up your lineup. the alerian mlp etf can diversify your equity portfolio and add potential income. bring amlp into the game. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. read the prospectus carefully at alpsfunds.com/amlp

ashley: viewers keep asking questions about where stuart is and he explained last week. >> it was a week-long gathering with the varney clan, my six children, nine grandchildren came in from australia, new zealand, florida, new york, new jersey, by the way my fourth child to marry, two more still to go. some think that stuart is about to retire. quote, stuart has gone again, soon he will be like johnny carson and fill-in host for his own show and only be there once a week. no. we promise you, stuart is taking time to visit with family. when you fly in from australia you don't say bye, good-bye.

liz: i was going to say are you the ed mcman. [laughter] ashley: stuart is most definitely here full-time. liz: he's probably in the take-out line in mcdonalds for a buck 50 and heading to guests. stuart: he hasn't retired but he's cheap. liz: he's cheap. i don't think he will ever retire and die in that share. [laughter] ashley: that's how dedicated he is on ratings here. i hope you are enjoying yourself, spending time with your family, relaxing and not thinking about what's going on here. you need a break. it's a long show and he does it with a smile every day. all right, stuart will be back on thursday and we will be right back break through your allergies.

try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything. i count on my dell small for tech advice. with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. ♪ ♪

ashley: well, it is coming up to 11 a.m. on the east coast, 8 a.m. in the west, and here is what's new. two irs executives say their lives are in danger if they publicly testify in the targeting scandal. they think that threat outweighs the public's right to hear their testimony. we'll have the judge on that later this hour. in california governor jerry brown, new budget includes tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to help protect illegals from being deported. californians will be footing the legal bills for people who need deportation defense. yeah, i believe it. it is california. and the legendary understander racing -- unser racing family here on in new york, on set with me. fabulous stuff. it's a big show. the third hour of varney and company starts right now. ♪ ♪ thunder, thunder --

ashley: start off with a little ac/dc, "thunderstruck." now to your money now that we've got that out of you are systems. we are -- our system. an hour and a half in, we're down about 37 points. investors don't seem too concerned with what's going on the in washington, getting a little deaf to that, i think. with us now the aforementioned new york times best selling author of american mojo: lost and found, peter kiernan is great to see you, as always. >> great to be with you. ashley: you know what? it always amazing me how resilient these markets have been. there's something going on every day, but the markets keep going on. are they turning a deaf ear -- >> i think they're really turning a deaf ear, and what's most powerful, i think, in the markets right now is not that the earnings were great, though

they were, but the revenues were great. now, you can do a lot of financial engineering to create great earning, buy back your shares, there's lots of stuff you can pretty up. earnings growth, that's one thing. revenue growth is an entirely -- you have to sell something to get revenue growth. that's what's encouraging and what's driving the market. ashley: we talk about the retail ice age all the time, so bigtime retailers reporting profits, tjx, the parent of tj maxx, weak sales at dick's sporting goods but encouraging sales at staples. kind of a mixed bag. any company in the retail sector you like? >> i just saw my first retail buy recommendation in a long time, it was like a unicorn. it was tiffany. the point is, there are some retailers that have wonderful niches that are defendable, and i would put tjx in a category. ashley: yeah. >> but if you look at the department stores, for example, they've lost their way. ashley: right.

>> if you look at apparel retailers, they are under enormous strain because this month the number one apparel company, seller in the united states is going to cease to be macy's and going to become amazon. so particularly millennials buying their clothing, they're buying online through amazon. they're buying several sizes and sending them back because they've got freeshipping. ashley: amazing. >> i think there's a fundamental threat, but you have to remember still 90 cents of every retail dollar in this country still gets sold at the store level, so there's a long way to go. ashley: right. yeah, it's remarkable. i want to talk about china with you. it's kind of up your alley, as they say. they have a trillion dollar plan, this big, massive, global infrastructure plan. trade routes across three continents, asia, africa, europe. you wrote a book about china. is this going to put them on top as far as global economies? >> well, let's talk about their psychology more than what it's going to do. ashley: yeah.

>> their psychology, on the g20 they have every desire and wish to become g1. everything they're doing, if you want to follow china's foreign policy, follow their checkbook. so, yes, this trillion dollar innovation that they're calling the belt and road -- ashley: yes. >> -- is basically a geopolitical statement. and they're making big bets, and they're betting enormously. they have much higher debt as a percentage of their, of their economy than we do. ashley: yeah. >> but if you walk into a country like pakistan, as they have, and say we're going to build you one of the most effective, efficient ports in the world and make you a global trading partner, most people say we like that idea. they don't look at it as one of these troh job horses -- trojan horses. ashley: right. >> but what they're looking for is an expansion. i flew last week into a new airport built in an antigua by e chinese. it is spectacular. ashley: better than laguardia?

>> it is much nicer. ashley: sarcasm. >> they're saying we're going to make alinements because we want to create an urge for chinese enterprises to go out and expand. ashley: yeah. >> and their goal, whether or not they're going to make it, is to be number one. what's most important to remember about china is really it's a tale of two cities. they have two faces. because no one in the g20 is more of an advocate for defensive, protective language -- ashley: than the chinese. >> -- than the chinese. so you get the good with the bad. ashley: fascinating stuff. new study finding wealthy u.s. retirees are keeping their savings after they've retired. they're even cutting their spending. getting very frugal. what's your take on that? >> well, i do think there's a cash hoard, and i think 2008 cast a long shadow -- ashley: on the psyche. >> it definitely does. people in their 20s or 30s, they're kind of over it. but you've seen that child of the depression scenario, and we're seeing a lot of cash or very, very conservative balance sheets by people who are 60 or

older. one of the fastest growing segments of our economy is the over-80 crowd. they are conservative because -- ashley: sure. >> -- if they're looking at longer lives and less time after their need to earn money, so what they're saying is i want to husband this cash and these securities as long as i can. so you're seeing a lot of defensive investments. ashley: you can understand that. >> psychology does cast, of 2008, a very long shadow. ashley: interesting. all right, peter, stay right there. boeing competing for a contract to build new military training jets. the company just announcing the location of the plant that will make those jets if it wins the competition. who's the lucky city, liz? >> it look like st. louis, missouri. potentially 1800 jobs there, bringing that work force at that plant back to where it was about a decade ago. 14,000, it was 16,000. ashley: right. >> a decade ago. so these are air force training

jets, 350 of them. value of the contract looks like $16 billion. they should be just for air first training, end then go full bore in 2024 bringing out these jets. ashley: that's got to be great news, peter, right? >> for any community. now, this is a three-way horse race, and lockheed martin has teamed up with korea aerospace, and raytheon was teamed up with an italian, but leonardo is pursuing on their own. so boeing is the home grown player, and we're hoping that they're going to make the right choice. i'm sure that all the people in missouri are doing everything they can -- ashley: yeah. >> this is great news for missouri, and it is, just as liz said, this is a wonderful, ongoing -- because this is going to be the centerpiece of training for all the flying that gets done. ashley: right, right. >> so if you get the first 300 jets, you're likely to get the next 300. it'd be great for them. ashley: we'll see what happens. next, delta testing new software

that could make checking your bags a lot easier the next time at the airport. you have to pay for it. [laughter] >> exactly right. yeah, the stocks haven't been in such an upright position these days. customer service is a real problem for the airlines in the airports. it's like getting prepared for a small military battle -- [laughter] so it's facial recognition where an automated machine can look at your face, match it to your passport and then you yourself check your bag. delta is saying we could double the number of passengers we process with their bags. and better customer service. that's in theory, right? so could there be a new fee to it? we haven't heard yet. this'll be at the minneapolis/st. paul term call coming up. ashley: what do you think, peter? >> jobs are going to be lost. and i think if you look at at this one instance, it's easy to get excited about it if it works, but one of the things

that we're not doing as a nation that we should be is keeping track of all these. movie theaters have gotten rid of ticketers, done a lot of things across our whole economy that are going to make it more efficient to work with computers, machines than people. who is keeping track? that is something that government -- if donald trump wants to make america great again, we have to find new work for the people who are going to be disrupted. ashley: yeah. >> good point. ashley: there's a lot of people being put out of work. >> if you look at this one instance, it's intrigue, but across the entire economy we're talking about millions of jobs. driverless cars, there are three million men and women in this country who make their living driving trucks. in some states it's one of the biggest employers, and we need to be much more sensitive and thoughtful about proactively where that's going. ashley: right. >> true. ashley: good point. elon musk's spacex launching a heavy communications satellite. >> yeah. and it's about 13,500 pounds.

it launched on a 23-story rocket on monday night. it's the heaviest payload too date. to date. nine falcon launches in six months' time, this is the second launch in about two weeks' time. good news for spacex here. this is launching a satellite into the stratosphere. so it's a boeing-built satellite. so spacex looks like it's doing well. the balance sheet not so great but, you know, moving ahead. ashley: as long as i get hbo, and it's a good, clear signal, i don't care. >> talk about a loss leader, this is the first falcon 9 designed by its payload not to return. it's going to expend itself entirely, and they are willing at spacex to take a pretty big loss in order to get that deal, so this satellite better fly. ashley: peter's with us for the hour. we're going to keep him working. check honeywell, starting up a $300 million automotive refrigerant productive facility in louisiana.

good news for louisiana. now this, the white house was lit in blue last night to honor fallen police officers kicking off police week which honors 118 law enforcement officers who have died and the 66 others injured in the line of duty last year. those numbers, by the way, were up 40%, 4-0, from 2015. meanwhile, disney saying no way, refusing to pay ransom after hackers get hold of one of those movies. pirates pirated the pirates of the caribbean. a full report from hollywood coming up soon. and california governor jerry brown's new budget includes tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars to help protect illegals from being deported. again, that's taxpayers footing for the people in california illegally. we've got much more ahead. stay with us. ♪ ♪

>> the new infrastructure plan will include $200 billion in direct federal funds. these funds will be used to leverage a trillion dollars in infrastructure investments over the next ten years. ashley: a trillion dollars, that was transportation secretary elaine chao who says we'll see president trump's infrastructure plan in the next several weeks. andy puzder joins us now, former ceo of cke restaurants. andy, great to see you. >> good to be here, ashley, thanks. ashley: how does business get on board with all this? how many jobs are we talking about here when we talk about, you know, improving and adding on to the infrastructure? >> well, you generate jobs in two ways. one is there's the jobs you generate by doing the projects themselves. obviously, we'll need people to build the roads, fix the bridges, you know, redo the

airports. but you also generate jobs because you encourage investment and more growth as the infrastructure improves. you can imagine what eisenhower did with our domestic highway system back in the '50s, how that's really boosted business. well, this could be a similar boost. we could see a real growth in the business people are able to do. so it could have a very, very positive effect. ashley: andy, stay right there. peter kiernan, this is desperately needed, we know that. huge boost to the country, right? >> i agree with andy,s this is a force multiplier. i think it would be a mistake for the government to say we're going to borrow all the money ourselves, build it all ourselves, and we'll charge the people who use it. i think what you need to have is much more of an, i would say, an integrated approach where business may even own some parts of it outright. so the toll road may be owned by a business itself rather than the government as a sort of franchiser. because there are ways that you

can get other e people's money to invest alongside the government if they believe in what annty's talking about -- andy's talking about which is a force multiplier effect. ashley: right. >> that's how, you know, one of the things that strikes me too is the absolute size. a trillion dollars is fantastic over ten years. just to put it in context, you brought up china before, last year china spent a trillion on its infrastructure, the year before that, the year before that. so we're in a global poker game, and we must do this. a trillion is the ante everybody agrees. ashley: andy, i want to talk about another trend. americans are now choosing mom and pop restaurants over the big chains. do you see that? why is that? >> well, we did see that. and, in fact, about a year or two ago it really started to become obvious. what happened is you've really got a lot of millennials entering the market, and millennials were told what every american of my age was told which is that you want the american dream, you go to

school, you get married, you buy a house, you've got the american dream. well, with the recession, what happened is they got education during the obama administration, they were unable to find jobs. so you've got a huge amount of debt, you've got no job. you listened and followed, you got an education. their parents, about 60% of them are divorced, and if they didn't lose their home during the recession, they probably know somebody who did. millennials don't trust the establishment, and they don't trust establishment brands. so if you find these restaurants that kind of have grit or a local connection, you're going to find millennials gravitating towards those brands. so this is a big deal for restaurant brands and for other brands like, you know, they want tesla rather than ford or general motors. ashley: right. >> rather than mcdonald's or carl's or hardee's, they want shake shack or hamburger ham let. ashley: andy, quickly, just your

take on the economy. certainly, the housing market is picking up nicely, a lot of green shoots to use that overworn expression, but i do feel the economy's on strong standing without the president's economic growth policy even getting through the d.c. quagmire. what's your take? >> well, there are -- i'll give you some numbers that you'll only hear on "varney & company." why they're not covered more broadly, i don't know. ashley: yeah. >> with the optimism in business out there and the deregulation that we've already seen, if you look at february, march and april of 2016 under president obama, we lost 15,000 people employed. 15,000 fewer people were working. under president obama -- under president trump in 2017 for that same period 682,000 more people are working. if you look at people that are unemployed during that february, march, april period last year, the number of people unemployed increased by 65,000. this year it's down 472,000 under president trump. ashley: wow.

>> we've got 60.2% of the population is working. that's the highest number since february of 2009, and the only three months where it's been 60% -- ashley: there is a lot. >> [inaudible] i wish we heard more about that and less about the fake news. ashley: we're doing our best, andy puzder. a lot to be optimistic about. >> thank you. ashley: now this. lois learner and holly paas, two irs executives who say their lives are in danger if they publicly testify about the targeting case. the judge coming up on that shortly. back to the story that's rocking hollywood right now. disney refusing to pay ransom after hackers get ahold of one of their movies. reports pointing to the new pirates of the caribbean movie as the center of all this. next. ♪ ♪

i can just quit school and get a job. daddy's here. hi hey buddy hey dad i think we can do this. adam baily. adam baily.

your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509 on auto insurance. call

for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. ♪ >>'s the ship? the crew? your pants? jack? >> i'm so sorry, were you still talking? ashley: a because we said earlier, pirates of the

caribbean. that was a clip from the latest movie. the news today though hackers holding part of the disney movie for ransom. deadline reporting it could be pirates of the caribbean. we're not sure but, apparently, disney digging its heels in, not giving in. hillary vaughn in hollywood with the latest. hillary? >> reporter: ashley, disney won't officially confirm they've been hacked, but sources tell the hollywood reporter that bob iger broke the news of the big breach to employees yesterday in new york. we don't know who these hackers are, but we do know what they want, they want a big payment in bitcoin from disney. if they don't pay up, they're going to release the first five minutes of the film online, and if disney still doesn't pay, they're going to release the rest of the movie in 20-minute installments. but like you said, disney promises not to pay off the hackers. instead, they're working with investigators. there are reports that the movie that hackers have their hands on is the fifth movie in pirates of the caribbean series, dead men

tell no tales. we'll have to wait and see what happens. right now disney is working with investigators to figure this out. ashley. ashley: interesting stuff. hillary vaughn, thank you very much. if disney gives in, then it could be, you know, other move studios -- movie studios being held for ransom on a daily basis. thank you very much. we will be right back. we're waiting to hear from, i believe, h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser, expected to be speaking to reporters in washington at some point probably about the ongoing situation with mr. trump talking to the russians. we'll have to wait and see what mr. mcmaster has to say, but that's why you're seeing an empty podium on the other side of the screen. we will be right back with more "varney." ♪ ♪

♪ what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream. except that the next morning it all makes sense. to power global e-commerce fedex networks are massive, far-reaching and, yes... a little magical. fedex.com slash dream hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. the microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans.

the microsoft cloud turns information into insight.

>> i'm definitely going to say it's a privilege. i see firsthand that for one to have health care, you need to have jobs. therefore, we need to continue to cultivate this environment that we're given the opportunity to have health care as well as jobs for all the american citizens worldwide. ashley: well, controversy surrounding the newly-crowned miss usa. some on the left not happy about her conservative view of health care. boy, you could say that again. here now, penny nance, president and ceo of concerned women.

who would have thoughting the miss usa package gent would have caused as such a ruckus. what's your thought? >> well, i think she's very interesting. you know, i think they want to keep throwing these policy questions so they can get in the news -- [laughter] but, you know, she's a smart woman. she works for the nuclear regulatory commission. ashley: yeah. >> she's a scientist. and she said she wasn't a feminist. she's in line with about 32% of american women who agree with her on that point. but, of course, the left doesn't want to hear that. ashley: well, she was asked about feminism, she says i'm an equalist, i believe in equalism. >> right, right. well, you know, american women want equal opportunity. and we want equal justice under the law, and that's what the first wave feminists were about. they were about equal protection under the law, the right to vote, you know, the right to own property and have custody of our children. and then the second wave took it in a new direction and took it to the left, and the issue of abortion came into play. half of american wimp don't

agree with them on -- women don't agree with them on that position. ashley: changing positions, i want to talk about sarah huckabee sanders and the way she was portrayed by saturday night live. it got downright nasty. what was your thinking? >> it did. she's a class act. she's a smart woman, and she can hold her own. and, by the way, you've made it when you get parodied on saturday night live, so good for her -- ashley: so there's a compliment in there somewhere. >> a little bit. they went so far. they never would have treated hillary clinton or susan rice or valerie jarrett with such disrespect and distaste. they're so personal when it comes to conservative women. there is no equality in -- ashley: if you made that kind of, those kind of jabs against a hillary clinton, to your point, can you imagine the outrage? >> oh, they would be bombarded with women, you know, lining up outside studio and, you know, holding them accountable. maybe we should do more of that as conservative women. but the bottom line is, you

know, it's wrong to shame and to be personally talked about her clothes, the way she looks, and it's hard, you know? women on tv get it, women in news get it. it's -- but we're held to a different standard. ashley: what are the left so afraid of? when one makes a at the same time like this it's just their beliefs and how they see the world, it creates such a threat to the left. why is that? >> well, they can't win on the policy argument, they can't win, you know, so you have to get personal. and it happens all the time. ashley: do you think it backfires when they to these kinds of things? >> i think it plays to their base. i mean, bill maher still is, you know, has a big audience even though he called sarah palin the c-word, and that was okay. ashley: yeah. >> but, you know, i think we do ourselves a disservice when we don't stand up for our own. ashley: i thought the liberals and the left-leaning were kinder, gentler party, those that were more encouraging and nurturing. it seems like everything has flip-flopped. >> i suppose they need a safe

space, and there's none available. [laughter] ashley: penny, thanks so much for being here. now this, a public school in new york city turns away an i.c.e. agent looking for a fourth grader. this part of a city policy to turn away federal agents without warrants. all rise, judge andrew napolitano is here. judge, i guess, is the school within its rights? my personal feeling is it's a bit over the top to send agents into a cool to grab a fourth grader. >> well, the school agrees with you, and the school basically said where's your warrant to enter the school and where's your warrant to arrest this person. they didn't have p a warrant for either, and so they dispatched them, and they, quite properly, left. this is really getting a little bit over the top when they are looking for children. the trauma to the arrested child and to the other children who see one among them being arrested, particularly when there's no warrant for the person. ashley: right. is this a part -- even if they had the warrant, is this

something that they do, that they would execute? go into a classroom and pull out a fourth grader? >> well, they do except where locals are saying don't do it on our property. now look, they can't stop the i.c.e. agents from arresting someone on the street, though the concept of arresting a child is something that has to be taken very seriously, because, as i said, the trauma on the child. the child is hardly culpable -- ashley: right. >> -- in the fourth grade for any offense other than violence which would justify this kind of an arrest. ashley: do school grounds get any special protection? >> it's government property where the person who runs the government -- here, mayor de blasio -- saysme on. if this were the state of texas where the people that own the government say you may come on, then the arrest would have taken place notwithstanding the trauma to the child or the reason for the arrest. eventually, this is going to have to come to a head where these things are treated uniformly.

a child cannot be arrested in new york city schools, but a child could be arrested in austin, texas, schools. ashley: could they wait for the child to come out of school at the end of the school day and pick him up on the street outside? >> yes. yes, which is the preferred system so as not to disrupt the school. why they those -- ashley: yeah. have you heard of things like this before? >> i've not heard of it with children. i have heard of it in the following scenario: a person is released from jail or a person's personal injury trial -- ashley: right. >> -- and there's an i.c.e. detainer for that person, and the i.c.e. people go into the jail or the courthouse, and the locals say get out, and they wait for the person to come across the street and then arrest them. it's a little easier to do it when you're not disrupting government service. ashley: seems a little bit over the top. another question, irs executives say they can't testify about the targets of conservatives by the agency because they're afraid for their lives. does that mean -- is that a good

enough reason for us not to hear -- >> i'm sorry to tell them that is not a good enough reason for them not to testify. they're involved in a scandal which alleges with great credibility and much evidentiary support -- ashley: yeah. >> -- the gross abuse of governmental power in order to taunt and torment conservative organizations not unlike the one that penny represents. and that's a felony. ashley: sure. >> that's using the the power of the government to drive out of the marketplace of ideas a hated, by the government officials, political idea. ashley: in fear for their lyes, is that enough to have them taken out of the -- >> no. it would be the government's job to protect them from their fears, notwithstanding the evidence that have -- the information in the government's going to extract from them. ashley: we are awaiting national security adviser h.r. mcmaster. i'm assuming we'll get more on

this allegation that the president shared secrets with russian diplomats, foreign minister. what's your thoughts on that, judge? >> i'm writing my column on it week, and i'm doing a lot of research and gathering all the information that i can, and much ofs it is on con that districtl. the statement he said yesterday was full of parsed words in which he said the president did not reveal intelligence sources or the location of any military. he didn't say the president did not reveal any top secrets. in fact, the president in his tweet basically said i'm the president, and i have the power to do this. ashley: is that true? >> it is true that the president can declassify. he can declassify for a limited purpose, to whisper into the ambassador or foreign minister's ear, or he can declassify for all purposes by making the secret public. he chose the former. we still don't know what these secrets are. ashley: i mean, they were talking about isis and the

threat of using laptops on planes. how much secret is there? >> well, the secret is the source of the information. ashley: exposing the source. >> yes. probably human sources who are in touch with a foreign intelligence agency which spent a lot of resources and time to develop those human sources. so we have human beings on ground probably within isis spying on isis, revealing it to another intelligence agency which is friendly with ours, they're revealing it to us, they tell the president, the president tells the russians who are on the opposite side of what's going on in syria from us. that's why lindsey graham and republicans in the senate are agitated by this. ashley: starting to just get numb to all of this. >> and, of course -- ashley: very good explanation. >> well, the president did not commit a crime. he may have serious, serious political problems. the allegations of an american president revealing a top credit to the russians are grave, among

the gravest allegations -- ashley: this is your opinion, but is this just a guy who is not a politician, is now president of the united states, chats freely, friendly with whoever's around him, happens to be a couple of russians and perhaps oversteps what he -- he doesn't really -- >> i don't want to minimize what he did, but i think your summary, knowing him personally as i do -- ashley: yeah. he's a gregarious guy. >> i think your summary is right on the mark. ashley: he's just having a chat. >> yes. but he is the president, and he needs to realize there's certain things he can't chat about. the ambassador is a known russian spy, even though he is the ambassador, we all know he's the chief russian spy in the united states. you bring him into the oval office and discuss top secrets with him, there's going to be political consequences. ashley: and there is. now this: fabio was on the show last week, i kid you not. he had some strong words for california's democrat governor jerry brown. roll tape. >> 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 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 coming to a theater near you. ashley: there you go, that was fabio. now governor brown wants to spend $15 million to defend illegal immigrants facing deportation. our next guest, larry elder, salem radio nationally-syndicated talk show host. larry, i mean, i know what stu's going to say, what the heck? but it's governor brown, it's california, of course you're going to use taxpayers' money to defend people who shouldn't be there in the first place. [laughter] >> well, that's right. ashley, i'm not often in the

position of quoting fabio -- [laughter] but fabio is right. [laughter] you know, the essential function of government is to protect people and property, and the fact is that california has so mismanaged its money that its prisons are overcrowded, and prisoners are being released early, and they're out committing additional crimes. fabio was absolutely right. and budgeting millions of dollars for illegal aliens when we can't make sure that a spillway is properly refurbished so it doesn't leak? it's outrageous. the democrats have run this state into the ground. they're taxing, they're spending, and they're regulating, and this is the end result of it. ashley: larry, i wanted to bring this story to you. awe roar pro -- aurora, colorado, passing a declaration that it's not a sanctuary city. would that ever work in california? [laughter] >> well, frankly, i think aurora has a point. i'm not in favor of sanctuary

cities, but it certainly is true, there isn't a specific definition. does it mean that if you stop somebody lawful any, you can inquire about his or her immigration status, and if you don't, you're or a sanctuary city? does it mean when you arrest somebody, you must be inquire about their immigration status and make a notification to i.c.e.? does it mean you must cooperate with i.c.e.? what does cooperate even mean? these are the kinds of things that the trump administration has not defined well, and whether you're in favor or opposed to sanctuary cities, it does leave a great deal of gray area here. ashley: i guess just simply put, you cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities, does that ultimately get the leverage needed to address this issue? >> i think so. if you're talking about maybe 5 or 10 or 15% of a given city's budget threatened to be taken away, i think you've got their attention. so i think that's the only leverage that donald trump has, to take away their federal money. ashley: yeah, it's interesting.

so, listen, is it ever going to change, larry? i think back to the glory days of ronald reagan as governor. i mean, is this a lost cause? for california republicans? >> i don't, i don't think so. i think, ultimately, people are going to realize iceberg ahead, you know? the largest, fastest growing item in the california budget is the money for these unfunded pension liabilities. sooner or later the voters are going to realize that we need to have a change of direction. america changed direction with donald trump. i think california can do it as well i. may take longer, but sooner or later the voters of california are going to realize there's no such thing as a free lunch. taxing, spending and riegelating -- regulating makes the state less prosperous. at least i hope so. ashley: let's talk about what's going on in washington, d.c., the crisis du jour, if you like. here we have the president accused of unveiling or whether accidentally giving away secrets to russian diplomats.

i want to know who's leaking all this stuff in washington, d.c.? and what can be done to get this under control? >> frankly, i don't think anything can be done to stop the leaking. the leaking is because a whole bunch of people hate donald trump's guts. many of them are employees and, therefore, have secret service protection, can't be really fired. i don't know that there's anything that canning be done about it. -- that can be done about it. you can try and stop the leaks and at least make people recognize that there's going to be a price to pay if they're found out to be leaking, but leaks have always been part of human history, and i don't think anything's going to be done about it. ashley: we'll have to leave it there. larry elder, thank you so much. appreciate it. one of the lone conservatives left in the so-called golden state. [laughter] all right, judge napolitano's still with us -- >> i tell you i agree with everything larry just said. ashley: yeah. >> it's interesting, there is no legal definition for sanctuary cities. this is a term coined by the

media -- ashley: of course, it is. [laughter] >> so when aurora, colorado, declares we are not a sanctuary city, the statement is meaningless. they don't want federal funds cut off, but there is no definition of what it is or what one has to do in order to be declared a sanctuary city. ashley: i want to get back to the issue that larry touched on there, this whole leaking going on. there's someone, we can always quote anonymous sources. someone in there, in my opinion, seems to be hell bent on bringing this president down. >> i have argued that it is probably a group of people in the intelligence community. these would be the same people that were spying on him before he was president and leaking information that they found. these would be the same people that contracted with a former british intelligence agent to dig up dirt on donald trump. the fbi offered to pay him $50,000. the dirt they dug up was so lurid and unbelievable they decided not to pay the $50,000.

these are the same people that selectively conceal and reveal intelligence information in order to frustrate and manipulate him over and over and over again. and whenever they do this and do it with classified material, they commit a felony. ashley: all right, judge. we have to leave it right there. again, going a bit numb up here with all of this stuff, but it's happening. thank you so much to, judge. by the way, guess who's joined us? johnny unser joined by daughter lonnie. you are here, guys, hello. >> hi. ashley: great to have you here. you're here for safety, a national tire safety week. what's all that about? [laughter] tell me. [laughter] >> well, the interesting thing is that we're headed towards memorial day weekend -- ashley: right. >> last year over, just on this weekend, over 34 million people hit the roads. ashley: right. >> so they're driving on our highways, and the one thing that connects, you know, their car to the road is the tires. so cooper tire has developed an

app for your phone called tread wisely. and it's designed to educate teens and young adults on tire safety. how to take care of your tires. ashley: we're going to have to can cut off right there. mr. spicer has arrived at the white house to speak with reporters. let's go there right now. >> mr. mcmaster is going to give an update on the president's trip, and i know there's additional questions regarding news of the day. without further ado, general mcmaster. >> good morning, everybody. last week we discussed the president's upcoming trip. i promised i'd come back and go through the schedule this more detail. i'm happy to do that today, and sean tells me there's another topic you might want to talk about as well, so i'm happy to answer questions about that after we go through the schedule here. but first of all, secretary tillerson will accompany the president for most of the trip, breaking off just before the g7 meeting. and as you know, the trip will begin in saudi arabia. it's a historic trip. after of an arrival ceremony in

riyadh, the president will have coffee with the king, attend a royal banquet and hold bilateral meetings with the king, the crown prince and the deputy crown prince. he will also participate in a signing ceremony of several agreements that will further solidify u.s./saudi security and economic cooperation. that evening the president and the first lady will join members of the saudi royal family for an official dinner. the next day the president will hold bilateral meetings with gulf cooperation council leaders as well as broader meetings with all the gulf state leaders. in the afternoon he will meet and have lunch with leaders of more than 50 muslim countries where he will deliver an inspiring, yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and his hopes, the president's hopes, for a peaceful vision of islam to dominate across the world. the speech is intended to unite

the broader muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate america's commitment to our muslim partners. the president will then participate in the inauguration of a new center intended to fight radicalism and promote moderation. by establishing and operating this center, our muslim friends -- including saudi arabia -- are taking a firm stand against extremism and those who use a perverted interpretation of religion to advance their criminal and political agendas. the president also looks forward to participating in a twitter forum with young people who will be able to live tweet his remarks to people all over the world. the president will then continue on to jerusalem where he will meet with president rivlin and lay a wreath. the president will then deliver remarks at the israel museum and

celebrate the unique history of israel and of the jewish people while reaffirming america's unshakable bond with our closest ally in the middle east. later that day he will meet with prime minister netanyahu. that night the president and the first lady will join the prime minister and mrs. net an a ya hue -- netanyahu for a private dinner. the following morning the president will meet president abbas in bethlehem where he will convey the administration's eagerness to thatting ill tate an agreement that ends the conflict. and he will urge palestinian leaders to take steps that will help lead to peace. and he will visit the church of the holy she pull kerr and say a prayer at the western wall. in rome the next day, the president will have an audience with the pope at the vatican. he looks forward to celebrating the rich contributions of catholics to america and to the world and to discussing a range of issues and mutual concerns,

some of which i summarized last time. before leaving the vatican, the president will meet the cardinal secretary of state and will tour st. peter's. later that afternoon the president will meet with the king and the prime minister of belgium and the heads of state and government of the host country to the nato alliance. he'll also, though, meet president mat rell low before departing rome for brussels. the next morning the president will travel to the e.u. headquarters to meet with the presidents of the european union and of the european council. he'll then hold a working lunch with the newly-elected president of france whom he will meet in person for the first time. that afternoon the president will deliver remarks at the unveiling of nato's memorial to our shared struggle in front of a piece of the berlin wall and a segment of the world trade

center. he will reaffirm america's commitment to the alliance and repeat his insistence that, for the good of the alliance, all members must share responsibility and share burden. joined by secretary mattis, he will participate in the nato leaders' meeting and dinner before then traveling to sicily for the g7. throughout the summit he will meet bilaterally with leaders including the italian prime minister n. the formal meetings, he will press america's economic agenda and call for greater security cooperation. on the first night of the summit, he will also attend a concert performed by the la scala philharmonic orchestra followed by a leaders' dinner hosted by the president of italy. before departing italy for home, the president will speak to american and allied servicemen and women and their families. he will thank them for their sacrifices they all make to keep us safe, and he'll also recount the highlights andmplishments o.

and so i'll ask sean to call on any of you who have questions. thanks. [inaudible conversations] >> thanks a lot. general mcmaster, you came out to -- [inaudible] area yesterday and in coming out to the stakeout area, you said that "the washington post" story that came out late yesterday afternoon was false. to you stick by that -- do you stick by that assertion? and do you have anything to correct in terms of what you said at the podium yesterday afternoon? >> no, i stand by my statement that i made yesterday. what i'm saying is really the premise of that article is false, that in any way the president had a conversation that was inappropriate or that resulted in any kind of lapse in national security. and so i think the real issue, and i think what i'd like to see really debated more is that our national security has been put at risk by those violating confidentiality and those releasing information to the press that could be used connected with other information available to make american

citizens and others more vulnerable. [inaudible conversations] >> general, was classified information released? >> you tell us, is prime minister netanyahu going to join president trump at the western wall, and does the president believe the western wall is part of -- [inaudible] >> part of what? i'm sorry. >> [inaudible] >> no israeli leaders will join president trump to the western wall. he's going to the western wall mainly in connection with the theme to connect with three of the world's great religions and to advance, to pay homage at each of these religious sites that he's visiting, but also to highlight the theme that we all have to be united against what are really the enemies of all civilized people and that we have to be joined together with an agenda of tolerance and moderation. [inaudible conversations] >> sir, i just want to try to get into some details of this reporting on the president's conversations with the russians. are you denying that he revealed information that was given to the u.s. by an intelligence

partner? >> so what we don't do is discuss what is and isn't classified. what i will tell you that in the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he's engaged. >> but was it -- [inaudible] received from an intelligence partner? >> i'm not going to be the one to confirm that sort of information that could jeopardize, it could jeopardize our security. >> u.s. allies that do have these types of intelligence-sharing relationships with the u.s. will stop providing that information? >> no, i'm not concerned at all. that conversation was wholly appropriate to the conversation, and i think wholly appropriate with the expect -- what the expectations are of our intelligence partners. >> if i can follow on that, general, have you reached out to foreign partners who might have contributed such information to the u.s. and talked to them about trying to reassure them,

and if so, what was the reaction? >> i have not, and i'm not sure what conversations have been held about that. >> carol. >> going back to what you were saying earlier, if there was nothing that the president shared that he shouldn't have shared, why did his national terrorism director contact the nsa and the cia about what he had said? >> i would say maybe from an overabundance of caution, but i'm not sure. i've not talked to him about that, about why he reached out. >> so what -- you would understand why -- >> yes, sir. i was in the room. the secretary of state was in the room, as you know. the deputy assistant, deputy adviser for national security, dean that powell, for strategy was in the room, and none of us felt in any way that that conversation was inappropriate. >> general? >> thank you, sean. general, can you tell us when was the decision made to share that that information with the russians? did the president spontaneously, on the spot, decide to give that information over, or was there

an interagency possible or some kind of formal decision-making process in advance of that meeting? >> as you know, it's wholly appropriate for the president to share whatever information he thinks is necessary to advance the security of the american people. that's what he did. as to your question on had that information been shared previously, i'm not sure about that. >> [inaudible] >> when did he make the decision? >> when did he make the decision to share that? >> he made the decision in the context of that conversation. which was wholly appropriate. i think it's worth recapping one thing here. the president was meeting with the foreign minister about the terrorist threat. he'd also raised some difficult issues. what we expected in terms of different behavior from russia in key areas like ukraine and as in syria. but then the president was emphasizing, hey, we have some common interests here. we have to work together in some critical areas, ask we have an area of cooperation with transnational terrorist organizations, isis in particular, an organization that

had already taken down a russian airliner and murdered over 200 people in october of 2015. and so this was the context of the conversation in which it was wholly appropriate to share what the threat was as a basis for common action and coordination. and cooperation. >> in the moment then? during the context of that conversation? >> i want to follow up on jennifer's question that you didn't answer about the western wall being part of israel. >> oh, that sounds like a policy decision -- [laughter] you know? and that's the president's intention, and i did answer the question in terms of what his intention and would he go with israeli officials. the president's intention is to visit these religious sites to highlight the need for unity among three of the world's great religions, unity in confronting a very grave threat to all civilization and unity in embracing an agenda of tolerance.

[inaudible conversations] >> i get to the question that i had, please? did the president reveal a city? i mean, the spin is that the president revealed the name of the city, and that gave away information that undermined an ally. >> okay. i will answer -- [laughter] okay, so all of you are very familiar with the threat from isis. all of you are very familiar with the territory it controls. if you were to say, hey, from where do you think a threat might come from territory that isis controls, you would probably be able to name a few cities, i would think x. so so it was, it was nothing that you would not know from open source reporting in terms of a source of concern. and it had, it had all to do with operations that are already ongoing, had been made public for months. [inaudible conversations] >> sorry, back to my question, sir. was this information that was shared with the russians also the same content that was shared with ours?