>> that will do it for us. someone is going to be walking home with this beauty, soon. here is "varney & company" and stuart, take it away. stuart: i'm so jealous, you're there and i'm not. thanks, maria, have a good weekend. baseball, we don't usually start with sports, but this was nan partisan, highly symbolic baseball after a political shooting. republicans and democrats made a big show of unity. good friday morning, everyone. here is a fine piece of symbolism, the democrats won the game and they handed the trophy to the republicans so it could be kept in the office of steve scalise until he returns. the message from all sides, let's keep it civil. and last night,they did.

here is the political situation this morning. president trump continues the rollback of the obama era. today he will shift cuba policy. new restrictions after the opening of havana two years ago. obamacare, repeal and replacement coming, reportedly by the end of this month. afghanistan, 4,000 troops to be added, that's a reversal of the obama drawdown. now, the president has already cut a lot of red tape. he's rolled back some financial regulation, doesn't make a lot of headlines, but he's chipping away at the obama legacy and it begins this week. news this morning from the russians. they believe they've killed al baghdadi, the isis leader. the u.s. has not confirmed his death. what will the left say about this russian connection. here is where things stand. unity last night, pledges to tone down the rhetoric, knock off the person attacks. politics, however, rolls on. the reversal of president

obama's legacy will keep this debate red-hot. keep it here. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ . >> in washington we have our disagreements, but we all agree that we are here to serve this nation we love and the people who call it home. that's the source of unity and more than ever, we must embrace it so that on this special night, i leave you with three great american words that for generations have torn down barriers, built bridges of unity and defied those who sought to pull us apart. ladies and gentlemen, let's play ball! . stuart: i was going to continue about the ball game last night and as you can see, economy prevailed. let me interrupt the banner

headline at the bottom of the screen. amazon is going to buy whole foods. this is just breaking as we speak. i don't have a premarket price for you on amazon or whole foods, but, lizzie, you've got more. liz: 13.7 billion deal, all cash, including debt for whole foods. john macky will stay on as ceo and continue to operate under the whole foods name coming at $42 a share this acquisition. it's probably the biggest corporate news of the week. stuart: i would guarantee that one. premarket, amazon is down a bit more $950. i'm trying to figure out the strategy here. amazon is king of on-line selling. recently it's gotten into a little bit of bricks and mortar stores, opening a couple around the country and now buying whole foods. i wonder what they'll do with whole foods. liz: taking out wal-mart in a big way.

stuart: what was it working out to, abouter share. liz: $42 a share, 13.7 billion all cash deal. stuart: i don't know why the stock is down, but we'll see how it works out. that's dynamite news. liz: yes. stuart: amazon is always, always, ahead of the news, ahead of the trend and they constantly go into all kinds of different industries, and dominate at move on. stuart:. liz: it's smart for whole foods to sell itself now, it's lidl coming in from germany and others. stuart: would amazon use the bricks and mortar whole food stores as a kind of warehouse, order on-line and drive up and take it away, just wondering, wondering. what a move it is. $13 billion for amazon to buy whole foods. that's money, here is politics.

two years ago to this very day, president trump did that, rode down the golden escalator at trump tower to announce his candidacy. byron, i met you didn't see it two years ago. did you. predicted on that very day, we're in an amazing place two years later. stuart: we are. please discuss with me, my main point of the day, which is president trump continues vigorously the rollback of all things obama. i think he's making a lot of progress. it doesn't make headlines because that's dominated by russia and comey and what have you. do you agree with me, he's rolling back a lot of that? >> absolutely. that's what he's doing today. he's going to miami and he's going to roll back significant parts of the changes that barack obama made in u.s. policy toward cuba. he will have a lot of support for doing that in south florida, including one of his

former rivals, marco rubio. and a lot of what rubio has been proposing. this is another example of trump using executive power to enact his agenda, and in the longrun, no, he hasn't had any big legislative accomplishments like obamacare and tax reform, he's done smaller things. if you look back and i had to use the first six months undoing the damage that my predecessor did. that's one way to spend your time. stuart: we hear, there are reports that the senate is going to have the obamacare repeal and reform bill available to look at, maybe discuss, by the end of this month. that's about a couple of weeks away. is that a possibility, byron? is it likely? i'm hearing it's likely. >> as they say on capitol hill, that's a little bit optimistic, ambitious, but the senate is kind of keeping closed doors on this thing and it could well be

moving ahead. they have to do it, by the way this month, basically. they want to do it by the july 4th recess because after july 4th, the rest of july, they're going to need that time to reconcile this bill with what the house passed and see if there's something that can pass both houses of congress. because if they don't get it done about of the august recess, we're back in september, there are budget pressures. remember, the government runs out of money again september 30th. and there will be another one of those dramas, so this is something they need to get done before that. stuart: let's see if the momentum carries through. byron, thank you for being with us. i know it's cutting short, but we've got a lot of news today. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: the left-hand side of the screen, amazon stock up to 959. amazon is going to buy whole foods. we'll be talking about that all news. republican chris collins says

that after the scalise shootings, he's going to carry around a gun. >> i'm a sponsor of the law if you have a concealed carry permit in any state, you can carry in other states. i've sponsored that legislation, but for the time being, i will say this, once we're in the capitol compound and the complex here, it's extraordinary safe and that's very different if we're in our districts, we're going to public events. stuart: tammy bruce is with us this morning. i see this as a back doorway to get over gun control. you know, you've got a permit to carry in wherever, you can carry wherever. >> that's been something the republicans and n.r.a. has wanted for a long time. and we've argued that you could have the laws in every state. you can travel in america and not be committing a crime in another state by happenstance. americans have seen what happened on that baseball field. it's clear without the firearms in that field with the capitol police, that would have

eliminated-- 24 members would have been assassinated, including a little boy who happened to be there, as well. americans know that this is about safety for americans, their own safety. ask the people of chicago and anywhere else. and what i should caution, that this should only be an example to lawmakers. the bill that he's suggesting is for everyone. that means all american in that position have a right to defend themself, and obviously bad guys carry their guns and will use them. americans have a right to defend themselves and that's what law abiding americans always do. stuart: in the aftermath of the steve scalise attack, what i'm seeing is the gun control advocates actually in retreat. i thought they'd be right outfront. i think they're in retreat and the people who want more guns are in the asen den--

>> and the on thing that stopped this from being a massacre was the guns. we've got to make sure the homicide level and gun violence in this country, yes, interestingly, will go down when the law abiding are able to defend themselves. >> always appreciate it. an announcement at the u.s. open. nothing to do with golf. a blimp crashed into the ground and the pilot suffered serious burns and injuries, rushed to hospital. no one on the ground was hurt and did not interfere with golf. ricky fowler atop of the leader board, going in 7 under. you can watch the u.s. open all weekend on fox, i will be joining you. i will be glued. facebook out with a plan to fight terrorist propaganda, developing new artificial intelligence software that would flag terror-related posts, more on that coming up.

and rocker ted nugent, big time republican and critic of the left, he says he's done using hateful language against the democrats and says it's time for civility from both sides of the aisle. more varney after this. what if technology gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. there are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. with the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. if we can detect new viruses before they spread, we may someday prevent outbreaks before they begin.

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>> well, if you want big corporate news, i've got it for you. amazon is going to buy whole foods. 13.7 billion, that's what they're paying, all cash, they assume the debt as well. amazon, five minutes ago, as this news was being digested. amazon was around 948. now it's gone straight up 973, that's a pre market quote. whole foods still around 32, even though the offer values whole foods at i think, 42. liz: all cash deal. stuart: all cash deal. they'll do it. they've got the money. and next case, about 4,000 more u.s. troops reportedly going to afghanistan. what do we have on that. liz: really, after a string of

deadly attacks on kabul. after the president gave the pentagon authority to get troop levels where he wants them. there are 8500 u.s. troops and adding 4,000. 12,500. they want to wipe out resurgence isis presence in the area. stuart: that's a reversal of president obama's policy. another reversal. liz: that's correct. stuart: amazon up ten bucks, 974 there. as everyone knows, i'm sure, father's day comes sunday and our next guest says don't be friends with your kids. that's an interesting headline. here he is, the author of "the new dad's play book" baltimore ravens tight end, ben watson is his name and that's what he looks like. happy father's day. stuart: i have six and you don't. >> i'm at five. and we're talking how do you make the next jump to six, we'll have the conversation later. stuart: much later, son, much later. i tell you. what's the headline?

baby boomers like myself, we tended to bring up our children as if they were our friends. i think that's a classic mistake, what say you? >> i think it's the same thing. and talking about arrows, and sharpening them, sending them out in the world and do things maybe we don't do. while you want a relationship with your relationship and only five and up to eight, a ways to go. the relationship kind of gets blurred and so they have problems as the kids grow older. teaching while they're young, an establishment of the relationship and a hierarchy. stuart: some parents who are christian, they take it from the bible and that includes the father being the leader of the household. now, a lot of people would say that's male supremacy, whatever you want to use.

where do you come on that one. >> well, it's a fact of order, so when you look at scripture and the father, son the holy spirit they're all god in one, there's an order there. the son is all god, and the god has the son, but there's an order and how god established the family. the family works best with an order. we as humans, take it and he is more important and her and that's not what god intended. he intended the husband and wife to work together as the building blocks of society. the family is important. what we've done is taken some things in scripture and perverted them and turned them into something they were never meant to be. stuart: i'm going to get this right, a tight end. >> i know you love football. [laughter] >> you're the tight end for the ravens. >> yes, sir. stuart: what does is tight end do? >> a tight end, he has a tight end. no, a tight end is like a big

receiver, and also got to block, so i missed a year with a torn achilles and what i talked about in the book, leading the kids, the kids, my kids have prayed for me every single day since i got hurt and just able to go on the field for mini camp two days ago a victory for our whole family and i'm excited. stuart: and 30 seconds, i want you to tell me the main point of the book, new dads play book. >> gearing up for the biggest game of your life. the biggest game is when the baby is born, but leading up to that kind of like football season, nine months of pregnancy and three trimesters, and part of it is equipping dad to be the dad they want to be. stuart: the new dads. >> new dads, but also for dads because in the book i talk about when the baby comes home and first few years after when you add kids, and basically about encouraging men they can be fathers, and do it, number one, it's important because the

opportunity, whether they had a father or not, to change the course of generations and the women who are having our children need us 100% to know how and why to support them through this process. stuart: benjamin watson with "the new dad's play book", your we're going to take a commercial break and you and i are going to talk about number six. >> going to love that conversation. we have been talking about it a lot. stuart: i'll record it. you're all right. appreciate it. >> we're honoring father's day on "varney & company" and show you a picture. me, obviously the one in the middle. liz: oh. stuart: those are my six grown children. how about that? who is that? that's-- that is eric's dad and that's michelle lebowitz and dad and that is megan and dad, obviously. liz: so nice. stuart: mib else? anybody else.

liz: justin and his daughter penelope. stuart: would you like to anchor this segment? connell: no? if you need some help. stuart: happy father's day, one and all. we'll be back. ♪ ♪ teach your children well ♪ [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

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>> this is a big story. amazon is going it buy whole foods. look at amazon stock, goes straight up. 983 now, a gain of 18, almost 19 dollars. jeff sica is here. i know the buying price and what's going on. what i don't know is amazon's strategy in buying whole foods. >> here it is. amazon, first of all, this improves their domination of the consumer. amazon knew they had a mountain to climb with grocery. the only place they made any traction with grocery was inner city, but buying whole foods, which is the true pioneer organic food puts them in a position now to be able to own the grocery sector, which is a multi-billion dollar sector. stuart: hold on a second.

liz: yeah. stuart: whole foods is bricks and mortar. >> bricks and mortar. this is where amazon breaks down the barriers of thought and they know that people when they want to buy produce, when they want to buy meat are not going to buy it from amazon. most people are going to go into the store to inspect the produce and inspect the meat. liz: whole foods has-- is a big presence in high income neighborhoods. 430 plus stores. they can use it as a distribution center and amazon doesn't need to spend money building the outlets and use whole foods instead. their vision is to use alexa echo to order groceries and package for the prime customers via income. stuart: now amazon is up 991, 26 bucks, close to 3%.

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>> there's one stock that you really have to watch very closely today and you're not going to believe what's going

on. we're talking amazon. literally 15 seconds before the opening of the market. as we speak, amazon is now going back towards and very close to $1,000 per share. i'm looking at premarket now. it's at 995. it's up about 30 bucks on the day so far. here we go. it's friday morning, you're going to see a little green on the left and a little red as well. before we get to amazon, look at the dow 30. down 20 for the dow industrials, plenty of green and red and they're opening gradually and we're a little lower for the dow industrials. look at the news, and here is why we've got amazon stock in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and it will be back on the bottom right-hand corner in a minute. 991 a share and that's because it's buying whole foods. this is very unusual. whole foods has halted until, i believe, around 950. give us 20 minutes to get the news out. this is unusual in that the

buyer, amazon, is going up. often, the buyer goes down or stays flat. today, it's zooming straight up, 22 a share. more on that in a moment. let me check the rest of the markets for you. where is the price of oil today? it's around 44, 45 per barrel and back to 44 where we are there. how about the nasdaq composite, home of a lot of companies, nasdaq is down 16 as we speak, a quarter of 1%. how about the big name techs. apple is down 143. amazon way up, 983. facebook is below $150 a share and how about alphabet. microsoft and netflix. they are all down. so the big tech names, apart from amazon are lower this friday morning, backing off microsoft. 151 is netflix and alba--

alpha pet is 955. we've got to discuss amazon, which is buying whole foods. liz: you look at action in target and kroger and wal-mart is selloff mode. this is a direct strike at wal-mart. wal-mart gets about a fifth of its sales from groceries, trying to take on amazon in other ways, in general, selling. stuart: let me chime in fast. i've got kroger down 15%. target down almost 10%, dollar general is down 8%, and i've got costco down 6%. those are enormous changes in price of the stock. >> i've said on the show, a month ago, that amazon was going to have a mountain to climb with grocery. this puts them in the sector they need to be in. these are the retailers that liz mentioned are in deep trouble if amazon decides to go this route because they will dominate. >> you said they want to

dominate groceries, that's the strategy here. >> the only strategy that bezos had was inner city and now they're going off wal-mart. stuart: let's bring in todd horowitz. we're talking amazon dominating grocery, any argument with that. >> good morning, mr. varney, no, they want to nominate everything. a year ago i said on your show, amazon is trying to take over the world, and now coming back into brick and mortar with grocery because as liz said earlier, produce and meat people want to look at and of course boxed goods and canned goods order on-line. it's a perfect model on them to continue to knock them out and taking it out of wal-mart, target and every other grocery store. stuart: i see wal-mart down $5. liz: this is such a big story, even the european grocery retailers that are publicly traded are trending down. they are, too, also in selloff mode. this is amazon's biggest acquisition to date. >> and part of amazon's

strategy is cost. so the big retailers, the big grocers right now are looking at what is going to be the impact on margins. amazon has the ability to lower margins, to lower prices, so now you're going to be looking at a price war when it comes down to it. stuart: and we seem to have an amazon story and now we've got a huge amazon story, they're going after everything and now they're going after the grocery store chain. shortly i'll get you on your screens, the wal-mart quote, the dollar general quote. amazon is buying whole foods and down goes the competition in the grocery business. wal-mart is now down, trying to squint here, 5% lower. target is down, and costco, 7% down. 14% down at kroger, which is-- >> the reason why to your point, amazon is moving up. the market sees it as a great move by amazon, it gets a brick

and mortar presence a very high income neighborhoods, 431 stores and very high healthy income neighborhoods. >> todd. >> one big thing here as well. they took the costco model, which costco works in low margins and work on the membership. now, you've got the prime membership and you've taken costco on-line and added the ability to go into a store and get those things cheap. it will go through capital as well. >> jeff. >> not only that, the trend now is organic food. organic fooed is the trend and now that amazon is going into organic foods, what we're going to continue to see. one complaint people have about organic food, cost. it's much more expensive. this might lower the cost of the organic food and the fastest growing part of food is organic. stuart: as we speak, the market

clearly believes that amazon's move to take over whole foods is a good move, a solid move and winning move. that's why amazon is close to $1,000 a share again. it's got a 3% gain. whole foods, by the way, that's been halted. the stock trade-- no stock trading until 950 we understand and at that point whole foods will be looking at the stock price may be reflecting the $42 per share which amazon is offering. and last trade we saw was 32. i expect that to go up at about 9:50 this morning. i'm going to move on because there is other news here. show me the other tech names apart from the-- apart from amazon. last time we checked, they were all down. and i want to bring back todd horowitz because you don't like any of the big techs. forget amazon for a second. you don't like the big techs, do you? >> i don't like them. if you're an investor you close your eyes and let them go. they're good companies, but i think from the standpoint of

price and probability and simple math model, they'll sell off. if you can wait. if you're coming with new money, the tech in ridiculous valuations with a low interest rate and an economy, we're not going to get tax cuts and obamacare done because they're too busy fighting each other. there's too many issues that are going to let the markets pull back. >> liz. >> i want to give you one dollar number. 186 billion. 190 billion dollars lost in market value for big tech names since friday. so people are moving in to take profits now. >> that's a tip of the hand. would you buy any of them? >> no, i'm saying that these five stocks create add narrow door when they screened professional money managers and 75% of professional money managers said that they're over allocated in big techs. when everybody begins to run

for the doors you'll have a much more momentum driven selloff which may create an opportunity. but these tech numbers are up 30% this year. the rest of the s&p without tech is up 8. so, that should tell us something. the narrower-- the thinner the air gets on the top, the more dangerous it's going to be when it begins. stuart: the guys on this program do not like the big tech names despite amazon's zoom to close to a thousand bucks a share today. moving on, look at this. the other markets here, the price of oil at $44 per barrel. still an oversupply situation. way down at 44. gas, well, the. >> an is still at $2.31, but i'm predicting it goes lower than that. todd horowitz, you trade this stuff, i believe. where are we headed on the price of oil and gas? what do you say? >> well, i definitely agree with you, gas is going to be under $2.

probably quicker than it's going to be. oil, we have a tremendous glut, they tried to manipulate it. longer term, we're looking below 40 because there's a glut in the oversupply that's not going to go away because we decide it's going to. it's got to be demand and not having the growth to pull out there to create the demand it's going to continue the same way. under $2 oil and it's quickly. >> under $2 for gasoline quickly and under 40 per barrel for oil. i wonder if that would give the economy is shot in the arm. gas below $2, i would think so. all the action at the moment and all that people are looking at amazon because they're buying whole foods. so the dow is down 21. with are is the s&p 500 as of right now? i'll tell you, it's down .13%, and change. and the price of gold is doing

what? let's look at that, it's up $2, 1257 is your price. individual companies, fiat chrysler recalling 297,000 minivans in america and canada because the driver's front air bag can inflate unexpectedly. wal-mart says it's going to buy the on-line men's fashion retailer for 310 million in cash and the mark is not looking at that. they're looking at whole foods which is going to be owned by amazon, big competition for wal-mart. wal-mart down. facebook ramping up its efforts to fight terrorism on its site. they've hired more than 150 counterterror experts and using artificial intelligence that can understand language and analyze images. what does it do to the stock price, jeff? nothing? >> the reason why facebook is doing this, they're trying to eliminate to the best of their ability the human component of censorship and use the

algorithms. i'm a free speech advocate, but the ultimately it's necessary because those on facebook need to be eliminated and the human initiatives. stuart: 149 as we speak. liz: getting back to whole foods and amazon, it's going to start resuming quotations at 950. and look for whole foods stock to start trading. and nine minutes' name. stuart: that's the price, so that's-- >> clarity, we need clarity here e i want to thank todd for coming back on the show and jeff sica. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. all eyes on amazon, our eyes on amazon, that's what we're following for it. the student released from a

north korean president, otto warmbier, his father says that president obama didn't do enough to secure his release. we'll play the sound bite in a moment. listen up, heart disease.) you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care-

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♪ you know i'm gonna be like you ♪ ♪ and the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon ♪ ♪ little boy blue and the man in the moon... ♪ the story of the day is amazon, buying whole foods. it's close to 1,000 a share again. whole foods, that will open in four or five minutes, likely to open close to the $42 share offering price, we're on it, believe me. otto warmbier released from north korea, now his father is calling out the obama administration. watch this. >> even if you believe their explanation of botulism and a sleeping pill causing the coma and we don't, there's no excuse for any civilized nation to

have kept his condition secret and denied him top-notch medical care for so long. when otto was first taken we were advised by the past administration to take a low profile while they worked to obtain his release, we did so without resolve. stuart: joining us now is mike huckabee. governor huckabee, i should say. governor, one of our guys have been brutalized by the savage regime in north korea. what should our response be. >> i think our response ought to be, we've got to recognize north korea is not a nation that has any business continuing to exist as it is. i think the only way that that's going to change is that the chinese have to be the ones to go in, can't be us, it's not logical for us. stuart: can't go in in that sense? and i think that at some point it's got to be from the chinese an aggressive action to make a regime change to save the country and its starving people.

and they're the ones to put that off. and some are talking about what obama didn't do. can we give this president some credit for stepping in and people are upset, could we not thank for this president putting resources toward this young man and getting him out of that hell hole. i don't hear enough about thanking our president and what he's positively doing. stuart: i haven't heard a word of it. >> you never will on most mainstream media. stuart: the north koreans launched another missile over the sea, should we shoot it down? that would be an aggressive act on america's part. >> is it an aggressive act that they continue to fire missiles. stuart: they would. >> if you say something about kim jong-un's haircut, he's taking it as aggressive action.

stuart: but if we shoot one down and-- >> and they're testing because one day they want to launch into south korea, japan and one day the united states and this is not a regime that has a long-term good conclusion, so, i just -- i'm saying it for what it's worth. i don't think long-term you can sit back and fold your arms and say it will work out. it will not under these conditions of conditions. stuart: i want to bring up something else here. ted nugent, the rocker. >> yeah. stuart: he says he's going to tone down his own speech. just watch this for a second. >> okay. stuart: roll the tape. >> we have got to be civil to each other. that the whole world is watching america, where you have the god-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we have got to be more respectful to the other side. stuart: he said he's going to do it himself with his own

speech. >> i just got off the phone with ted, a great friend, and we hunt. ted nugent is the kindest, bravest, warmest human being i've every known. he's a great guy. he loves freedom, fights for freedom and liberty and says stuff like all of us do to provoke, he has never advocated violent actions against other human beings. stuart: he stood up and said i'm backing down for hate speech. i'm waiting for somebody on the left to say-- >> i don't know how long you plan to live. i don't know if you'll see someone to back off. stuart: governor, that's not like you. that's a cynical comment, not like you. >> i haven't seen any evidence.

the left plays by a different set of rules. i don't see conservatives out there saying let's go break windows and hit people over the head and wear black ski masks and prevent somebody from speaking. tell me a conservative rally where that's happened? i can't. stuart: i'm hopeful after the baseball game last night i live in hope. i hope the personal comments to be stricken. but i expect the political debate to be as hot as ever. >> it should be hot and heavy and-- one thing we ought to do the big thing is this, i've said this, if you want to turn down the temperature you've got to have a thermostat. without the thermostat, what is that, it's the moral compass inside who says i may disagree with everything you say and stand for, but, stu, i respect you as a fellow human being and i would never say anything that would hurt you and that's where

the thermostat has to be controlled. it's called morality and it's not that complicated. we have a world of people growing up without a sense of moral responsibility for the fact that he is my brother, she is my sister. stuart: you know, all older people, they all look at the new generation, the younger generation, and say, you know, they're not like we used to be. >> you know how it could be fixed, golden rule, my mother drilled into me, do unto others. stuart: hold on, governor, i've got whole foods starting to trade, i'm sure it's going to pop. yes, there it is. amazon is offering 13.7 billion for whole foods. that's an offer of $42 per share. and that's where whole foods has just opened up. $9 higher. $42 per share. as the gain in amazon continues, up $24. liz: yeah, who would have thought amazon would move higher. here is why, amazon now gets a

big presence in high income neighborhoods. 430 stores, plus, for whole foods it's now buying. that means the high income vedz can shop for groceries at whole foods via their alexa echo devices, and get the prime delivery within hours of whole foods. these are really wealthy people that go to whole foods. stuart: that is kind of-- >> that is jeff bezos. stuart: amazon wants to dominate the market. liz: look at wal-mart. stuart: yeah, look at it. look at nicole on the floor of the new york stock exchange. set the scene for me, please, it just started trading. nicole: it broke before the opening bell and the other guys in the grocery market is tanking and amazon has the biggest one-day gain since

early january and analysts look at how amazon is this behemoth, and goes into this, and continues to take on the wormed. look at the other guys they compete with, super value, kroger, target, selloff. double digits. super value down 20%. kroger new low 14%. they had some trouble yesterday. the point of the story is all the competitors dropped and whole foods is up 27% because that's the premium on the deal. it is a 27% premium. so, it's right in line with the $42 a share. we've been waiting for it. it's open around 950 and here we go. stuart: hold on a second. our viewers are looking at things, the grocery stores, the establishme establishment grocery store, the left-hand side of the screen. the market confirmed what you said. there's whooping decline in some of the biggest names in

grocery. kroger is down i think about 14% now. super value down about 20%. nicole, this seems to imply that amazon is making a bid to take over grocery and the market thinks they're going to do it. nicole: what's interesting, we got a glimpse into that and some of the analysts said we heard about this and talked about it and whole foods in particular being pressured by some investors, hedge funds and money managers. and others say, hey, you're losing your value and you better tell yourself. i think they said on this network, if you paid attention, you knew something was brewing for whole food. amazon steps in and continues to take over our lives, use that new dash wand and order more products from them and they'll have a distribution around the corner. stuart: you're an amazon prime lady, i can tell. nicole: i am, indeed.

stuart: look at that, amazon is 992. where was it, about 10 days ago, amazon reached 1012. >> i think it was 1016. 1016.50 was the all-time high for amazon. stuart: well done. we're about 20 bucks shy of the all-time high of amazon, but nonetheless, up 3% this morning. the market is saying, amazon's going to try to take over grocery and the market says, amazon may just do it. look at amazon go, and look at the competition go down. nicole, great stuff. thanks for being with us, i'm leaving you now and leaving the subject with amazon up nearly $30 a share. total shift in gears, the comments of steve scalise's condition. dr. marc siegel is here with an update for us. >> improving. the hospital issued a statement he's improving. they went back in yesterday presumably tied off more bleeders and checked what they had done before, they repaired

a fracture. as i predicted the first 24 hours were key, if they could stabilize the bleeding, remember, the pelvis is rich with organs that bleed a lot, so the key is repairing those organs, like the colon, the blo bladder, the kidneys and get the bleeding stopped. right now i'm predicting he'll probably be okay. stuart: good news. >> good news. they have more surgeries ahead for fractures. stuart: i'm going to ow about otto warmbier. >> i listened carefully. stuart: no evidence of trauma, they hadn't beaten him. but he's not in good shape. his brain is not in good shape. what did they do to him? >> my feeling about this, and they were very clear at this press conference, it wasn't trauma to the head and it wasn't that and his heart was probably okay. but his brain is at trophied and even if his eyes are open,

it's likely a vegetative state. that occurs in this because they almost definitely gave him something to suppress his breathing, like a poison, or suffocate, not enough oxygen or blood supply to the brain. even minutes is enough to cause this brain damage. a very sad story, brutal. you don't have to be hit with a pipe, believe me. a sleeping pill will do it, too. stuart: horrible. he was brutalized. >> absolutely. stuart: thank you, doctor. appreciate it. big story of the day, amazon buying whole foods. and here is what we've got at 10:00, trump is chipping away at president obama's legacy, that infuriates the left. it was two years ago today that president donald trump came down the golden escalator. and there is a day to her. we'll be being bah. back. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference.

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the paris climate accord, environmental system a religion, and when president trump took office, took america out, it was treated as blasphemy. hello hath no fury like a

climate warrior scorned. president trump reversed war on coal. wants to reverse restrictions on fracking, less red tape, less bureaucracy, faster permitting. how will the left control us without all the government rules and regulations. with all the headlines about russia, comey, impeachment and investigations you tend to lose how much sight of obama world has ended and it continues today, with new restrictions on cuba, and 4,000 new troops going to fan fan. no wonder the left is upset. in a few month the president has fon a long way to reverse what president obama took eight years to build. following the shooting of steve scalise, there is a call for unity and an end to personal attacks. we all hope it holds. but don't expect politics to cool down. as long as the left is denied a socialist future, it will stay red hot. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪

stuart: we're looking at dow jones industrial average down 34 points. we have news on consumer sentiment, liz? liz: coming in worse. what happened consumer sentiment popped after the president was elected. started to trend plateau and now going down. is this indication consumers saying congress start to play ball on president's growth agenda? stuart: good point, liz. maybe why the market is down, 34 points lower. now we're down 34 points, 21,329. now a selloff, folks. the story of the day is this on the right-hand side of your screen, amazon is going to buy whole foods for $13.7 billion,

all cash. the market loves it. the market thinks that amazon is trying to take over grocery. that's why whole foods competitors like walmart, like kroger, they're all way down this morning. can we get a look at that, declines in some of these establishment grocers are just astonishing. earlier today i saw supervalu down 20%. now it is down 17%. kroger down 14%. sprouts, farmers market, target, major company down 10%. lasts time i checked walmart was down five or six bucks, down to 73, $5 lower. national grocers, i don't know what that is, down 5%. costco, huge company, down 7%. why? why, liz? it is because amazon is going to take over the world and grocery included. liz: kroger is included to want to buy whole foods. wow it is really taking hits today. this is is direct strike at

walmart. walmart gets 1/5 of itsç revens from groceries. stuart: yeah. >> this is such a big deal even european grocery retailers are down as well in sympathy. stuart: i think this is the large of the outflow of cash, the largest layout of cash amazon ever made. i don't think they bought anything of equal value. liz: biggest deal ever. stuart: look at that stock go, virtually, 1000 bucks a share. as we told you earlier today, marks two years since then donald trump came down the golden escalator in trump tower and declared his candidacy for the white house. i was there when it happened, watching, listen to what i had to say. the crowd is looking to the left of the screen. from the top row. there he is, from on high. "the donald" appears. thumbs up. comes down the escalator.

>> best looking first lady. stuart: there you go. running commentary on the variety of the situation. first time i ever have done running commentary on donald trump coming down an escalator. the last time we did running commentary donald trump coming down an escalator. we gave a lot of donald trump commentary the last two years. yes, we did. joining us from the blaze, lawrence jones. i bet you weren't thinking i'm looking at future president of the united states, did you? >> unlike some of the typical pundits. i'm not going to lie. i didn't think he would be president. i didn't think he would win the primary. stuart: nor me. i couldn't see it. we were astonished at progress he made. give me your judgment, lawrence, last two years he has been a candidate, he is now the president. how do you judge his performance? >> there has been some distractions along the way but i

would give him a b. simply he nominate ad conservative supreme court justice, got him confirmed. he stopped illegal immigration. it is down by almost 40%. i mean you got people not coming into the country illegally. that is a big improvement. you have got businesses staying here in america and job growth is up and unemployment is down. those are all three major accomplishments. now if we could see some national reciprocity, if we could see this health care bill be reform, we already got a strong military. he is rebuilding the military and going after isis, this is good stuff. stuart: he reversed president obama. not entirely obviously but that is the road he is going down. i think he has made more progress in that respect than given credit for. >> right, you have a mainstream media that are a part of the resistance, you're not going to see these stories out there with the public. but i think donald trump has to really start connecting back

with the american people. you know, that is what he mastered. i think sometimes he toys with the press when all he has to do is talk with the people. remember the press, every poll from the press said he wouldn't win. he doesn't need to worry about them. he needs to worry about the people. stuart: i had lunch the other week with a few conservatives, and the speak are was mick mulvaney, the budget director, and one of the things was talked about at the lunch, why doesn't the president go to an oval office make an address to the nation why we need to cut taxes? zooms likes a really good idea to me, explain directly to the people what tax cut something all about, what hopes to achieve. that is a pretty good idea. how about you? >> well, i don't know any american that is going to argue with that. of course we'll see the left try to spin it just say tax cuts just for the rich. i think all of us americans that pay taxes can use a cut. at the end of the day it is our money. what american will argue them

being able to keep more of their money? stuart: well, i can show you a few, believe me, lawrence, i really can. time's up, we have all kind of big stories to talk about today especially amazon-whole foods, you know the story. lawrence. a pleasure. >> happy brother. see you in new york next week. stuart: deal. later today president trump will announce that he is rolling back part of president obama's cuba policy. joining us fox news contributor, ray kel campos duffy. forgive me informing viewers that you are hispanic, is that correct? >> yes but not cuban-american. stuart: i will get it right. what do you think the hispanic community of the united states will think, openness and exchanges are brought to an end? >> i think that the dealç the obama struck with the cuban government is another example of

bad deals that donald trump promised to reverse. after the opening that obama had with the cubans, we saw more repression, we saw more arrests. and more restrictions on the cuban people who are suffering under this regime. i think some of these changes, they're not huge changes, but there are changes big enough to put that regime, put the castro regime on notice, let them know there is a new sheriff in town. if they want our business, they will have to strike a better deal. that includes giving more freedom and internet access and political freedom to the people. stuart: i think he has reopened the deal to kind of renegotiate the deal as he has done in other areas of diplomacy. >> that's right. stuart: there are still going to have cruise ships visiting cuba with american passengers. flights to havana and back. what this does, is no financial transactions between america and cuba's military or its intelligence services of the that is a real restriction.

>> that's right. because the military doesn't own the ports or airports but a lot of bars and restaurants and hotels tourists are visiting are actually owned the cuban military. the way they pay people who work in the businesses is shameful. the money you give at that hotel goes directly into the coffers of the castro regime. they pay just a miserable amount of money, almost indentured servitude to the people who work in those businesses. they also, the people on the other side who are opposing, bed and breakfasts, people won't be able to go to. people get licenses from those bed and breakfasts are paying extraordinary amounts to the government for those licenses. they're often given to people who are attached to the regime. so it's a control factor. i think what donald trump is doing is really great thing for the cuban people. stuart: did you go to the baseball game last night? i ask, because you're losing your voice. were you shoutings up a storm

last night? >> you would think i did. i did not, but what happened this week, as member of congress, my husband is member of congress is very personal to me. i'm happy about what happened last night. i think it's a good first step. boy i think we have a lot more work to do. stuart: rachel campos duffy, thanks for joining us, i always appreciate it. >> happy father's day, varney. stuart: rachel, thanks. left-hand side of the screen, we're waiting for amazon. getting awfully close to $1000 a share. why is it going up like this? it is buying whole foods with the intention of dominating grocery. liz: can i tell you jeff bezos' net worth almost popped a billion. stuart: richer in a matter of minutes. mr. bezos strikes again. all right. last night, city hall, los angeles lit up by, the bat signal. it was in tribute to the late "batman" actor, that would be

adam west. russia claims it killed isis leader al-baghdadi. u.s. is still working to confirm that. the fight against the terror group, when would it mean for that fight? we're on that one. golden state warriors star steph curry if it were up to him, he wouldn't to to the white house, snubbing the president. fox sports 1 host jason whitlock joining us later this hour. this is the second hour of "varney & company." ♪ can i give it to you straight? that airline credit card you have... it could be better. it's time to shake things up. with the capital one venture card, you get double miles on everything you buy, not just airline purchases.

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stuart: looking live, marine one, there it is, at joint base andrews. the president is on board. they will, does a helicopter

taxi, i'm not sure. jack keen, a helicopter taxi? >> it sure does. that is what it is doing now. they will keep the rotor blades, they won't let them on until the rotor blades shut down. stuart: you want to do commentary? that is marine one. president gets out of marine one. heads over to air force one, takes him down to miami. when he gets to miami, he will announce new restrictions on our relationship with cuba. all of that coming up. watch the screen. that is marine one. check the big board, that is the money side of the day. we're down 30 points. that's it. we're still at 21,032. let's not ignore the huge story of the day, a amazon will buy whole foods. amazon stock has gone straight up. the strategy, amazon wants to take over the grocery business. the market thinks they are going to do it.

so look at this. these are other gross ares who have to face amazon aligned with whole foods and all of the grocery stocks, supervalu, kroger, sprouts, target, walmart, you name it, all of them are way, way down. there you have it. costco is even 7% lower. walmart is down 6%. the food companies they're down as well. kellogg, general mills, kraft, mondelez, why are they down? i'll tell you. amazon controls whole foods is likely discount, cut prices. it will be price competitive. an those food companies, they see their profit margins shrinking, down go those stocks. next story, more u.s. troops are heading to afghanistan. the pentagon will reportedly send four thousand additional forces to the country. the aforementioned jack keane with us now, four-star general retired. four thousand troops to afghanistan.

are we playing to win? >> well first of all, we're not winning now. we're actually losing. the taliban had momentum for two plus years. they're taking territory back that we had control of. in other words the afghans had control of. but, the reality is this. you ask a very good question. the on scene commander asked for three to 5000 more trainers and advisors. he did that in congressional testimony. so the white house has that, general mattis has that number. the pentagon has not made a decision. general mattis will make it by july. what he will do first, look at the strategy, what are we trying to accomplish? he will ask himself, 3 to 5,000 troops the come mander is asking for, will that be decisive, will that be enough to turn the momentum around to our favor where we eventually get a political solution here, no. stuart: not enough? >> not enough. stuart: most of them trainers. >> they will beç helpful, but that is not the same question will it be decisive. stuart: well, i thought that if

president trump got involved in military action, the man plays to win. so does general mattis. this doesn't sounds to me like a winning strategy. it sounds like a holding strategy. >> i agree with you. that is about what it would be but that is not his decision though. this is being leaked out from somewhere. he hasn't made a decision, i know that for a fact. stuart: would you do it differently? would you play to win, go gung-howin or walk away? >> it is disgrace, 16 years involved this, stuart. it should have been over years ago. we should have crushed guys against the obama administration. changed their momentum. never made a commitment. pull out too early. same thing we paid in iraq. we're paying consequence and price for that. also the taliban has sanctuaries in pakistan. and that's where they operate out of. that is where the leaders are. that is where they train. that is where they get

resourced. no insurgency has ever been defeated in the history of man when they have had sanctuary outside of the combat zone. so we have to deal with pakistan and general mattis no, sir that. stuart: okay, now the president just boarding air force one. shortly will be on the way to miami m miami he will announce new restrictions which he is placing on america's relationship with cuba. general keane, one more for you. russia claims it has killed the isis leader, abu bakir al baghdad ditch. they claim, they think they might have killed him in an airstrike. no confirmation from the american forces at this point. if he's dead, that is a big, good deal? >> yes, certainly. he is the iconic figure of the largest and most successful terrorist organization. if he is dead that is good. i'm skeptical. because baghdadi and his leaders moved out of raqqa weeks ago. they are down southeast in a town.

that is where they're i hiding for some time. we're aware of that. we're trying to find him down there. we'll see if this gets confirmed. stuart: how about this for an angle, if i could do that. president trump, made a lot of his friendship, not friendship to the russians they are useful to us fighting isis. do you think president trump will get any credit out of this if they kill baghdadi? you have got a smile on your face. >> president won't get plenty of credit from the media at least. he gets plenty of credit for us because we're objective. stuart: could the russians put out disinformation to sow dissent on isis? we killed him. we got them. we don't know whether they got him or not. >> the russians are professional liars. they're really good at it. stuart: you want to leave it at that? >> i will leave it at eight. stuart: a fine performance. hope you enjoy father's day weekend. thank you for being with us. >> appreciate it, stuart. stuart: check out the big board,

we're down 31 points. the big story, we'll return to it throughout our three hours today, is amazon buying whole foods. that is a very big deal. amazon straight up. whole foods straight up. all the grocers, food producers, down. liz: now entire consumer staples stocks, whole sector is down. worst performance, worst daily drop in six months. grocery stores around dollar general stores. they're all going down. even the european grocers are going down. this is unbelievable upheaval we're seeing just within the past couple of hours on the news of this announcement. stuart: gerri willis sitting next to us. you want to add something to this? >> i do. this is confounding to me as you know whole foods has been in a world of do doodoo. it is interesting that amazon would pick this company, strength of its brand, whole foods is well-known.

has certain -- people know what that brand means but i'm surprised it was whole foods. stuart: hold on a second. general keane, still sitting with me, he looks this set, he likes this show. so i'm going to ask him a question about amazon. wait for it. >> i'm waiting. stuart: you know a thing or two about logistics. that's what the military does. you have to be good on logistics moving millions of people around. amazon, i put it to you, best logistics company in the world bar none. >> never seen anything like it. that's why they're dominating so much. stuart: that was a fine commentary on amazon, general. that is really good stuff. you can come back any day you like. are you stockholder of amazon. >> no i'm not. but i do buy. stuart: you use the service? >> yes i do. stuart: thanks very much much, general. >> no next one, the cost of insurance under obamacare keeps on going up. big premiumç increases are coming, so we hear. that is what gerri willis is here to talk about.

tell us, please. >> that's right. so the average increase, what we're hearing, comes from a survey by oliver wyman, 20%, that is the average increase insurers are asking for in premiums for states across the country. 43% of those insurers want more, more than 20%. a company called caremark in maryland, says, no, we want 52%. this is on top of increases we've seen already baked in. stuart: which presumably puts more fresh impetus into the legislation which is going to be passed quickly to repeal and replace obamacare. >> i was talking to senate offices all day yesterday. they feel that pressure. they have to do something. yet that bill is hamstrung on a couple things. medicaid expansion. conservatives they want the medicaid expansion gone and gone quickly. more liberal members of the gop caucus want it gone more slowly. what about taxes obamacare put in place, should they all go

away? conservatives say yes. liberals say no. stuart: if they don't pass repeal and replace, just don't get it done, consumers will say, look what you left me with? you left me with 20% average increases in my premiums. almost doubled in the last few years. consumers are going to say you republicans are to blame. >> that's right. it will be on the shoulders of republicans. that is what they're going to have to decide. are we willing to back away from things we love most in order to get this through? let me tell you, the other thing that is going to happen here, the more that these premiums go up, guess what? more and more people can't afford it. fewer around fewer people will sign up. this is disaster in the making. congress has to get on this. senate has to get on this. they have to come together to find common ground. stuart: 20% bottom line average increase. >> average. stuart: average. that's painful. gerri, thank you very much indeed. next, virginia shooter james hodgkinson targeted republicans.

another member of congress is facing threats. she joins us in just a moment. two years since president trump, then donald trump took the trip down the golden escalator. ever since he is chipping away at president obama's legacy is. more on that after this. ♪

♪ stuart: well, you're looking at pictures of members of our staff here on "varney & company" with their fathers. happy father's day to one and all.

producer casey's father is there. production significance assistant kevin's dad. associate producer jeff, his father. that is his father him, right there. our executive producer of the show with his dad. there you go. michael's father as well. happy father's day one and all. if you're not careful, i will show you pictures of my six kids. watch out, world, here they come. the dow at 21,300. that is not a selloff, folks. that is down mere 1.9%. the big story, reason you're seeing amazon's stock receipt hand side of the screen, amazon buying whole foods. that is earth shaker. amazon trying to dominate the grocery sector. market thinks they will win. if you look at grocers and grocery stores, indeed the food-makers they're all way, way down because amazon will eat their lunch. that is the way they think. liz: what a switch in strategy.

walmart buying internet companies jet.com to take on, to take on amazon. amazon saying nope, we'll buy whole foods because of that footprint in high income neighborhoods. say it again, 430 plus distribution centers for now, for amazon to sell fresh groceries to up every brackets. they can buy it off the alexa device and get it delivered to them within hours. that is the play here. they have just upended the entire grocery sector. stuart: it is the world turned upside down. that is what the british army ban played when they were defeated in 1976. liz: that is what fox business played when you walked on the set. stuart: i like that. two years ago, today, virtually to the hour, president trump declared his candidacy for the presidency and at a news conference at trump tower. there he goes. tony sayegh, assistant secretary of public affairs at the u.s. treasury is with me now. tony, be honest, you never ever

thought two years ago, no you didn't -- >> i did, sir. stuart: wait, wait. let me finish. two years ago today you did not think that you were looking at future president of the united states? >> i think two years ago today most analysts, myself perhaps included, were not as aware how deeply, profoundly, most of the american people felt disconnected from both political parties and entire established order. when you had a candidate like donald trump who certainly was unique and dynamic, outside of the box, took some people a while to get accustomed to that thought. once you realized he was tapping into the sentiment, eight years you heard from the former administration things were getting better economically, stock market was up. but guess what, wealthy were getting more wealthy and average american wasn't feeling improvement in their economic conditions. wages were going down, people working multiple jobs. when donald trump runs on that kind of a strong, populist economic message, majority of

the american people responded because they know the american system has to work better for all americans. not a you few. stuart: he hasn't done it yet. he has not got it done yet. i applaud the man. he has cut red tape. he is trying to reverse obamacare. he pulled out of the paris climate accord. i give him all that. he hasn't gotten america's middle class into prosperity land. he is trying. i know he is. he is not there yet. >> we're in month six. let's paint the picture. consumer confidence has never been higher in 16 years. small business confidence is up highest in a decade. manufacturing, home building sectors, high outout look on economy in over a decade. people understand, policy he is working on, tax reform, regulatory relief, restructuring unfair trade agreements will lead to the type of economic growth we need for everybody to succeed. stuart: only if you can unite the republican party behind that message and get the legislation passed, and frankly, tony, at

this moment i don'tç think the republicans are not that united. >> look, stuart i understand people see what is happening in washington. they see the same bureaucratic impediments stopped progress in the past. i can tell you with confidence, our partner with treasury, secretary mnuchin, nec, gary cohn and congress both house and republican sides we are much closer getting tax reform done, than meets aye. we are doing it correctly. stuart: how do you know that. >> i'm working on it with hundred of my colleagues in the treasury. stuart: you're at the treasury building in washington and every single day you work on tax reform, that is it? >> secretary, gayry cone, we do a lot of things. president are focused getting it done. we're not litigating in public in media. we're negotiating when it gets introduced in congress, stuart, it can pass boeing houses get signedby the president. that is our strategy are you allowed to tell me, whether or not the hutch that i have,

speculation i'm hearing that is accurate? all we're going to get, what we really want is what we're going to get, a cut in corporate tax rates and cut in individuals tax rates, that's isn't. >> no. i will tell you the focus is certainly getting absolute tax reform. stuart: tax reform is different from limited tax cuts? >> and i'm telling we're looking much broader than limited tax cuts. i would beg it differ, stuart. i really would. we talk about tax reform. that is one oc three pillars creating economic growth in this country. treasury just released our report on president's executive order on core principles of financial regulation this week focused on making community banks and smaller banks more competitive again by removing impediments created by dodd-frank. created every bank and financial institution equally. you have basically smaller banks and huge institutions under the same regulatory regime. that was crushing lending to small businesses which are job creators and middle income americans. we're doing it, stuart. we're doing it.

stuart: i haven't got a tax cut yet. >> it has been six months. stuart: exactly. >> third part is also trade. you've seen a lot of progress there. secretary mnuchin is working with secretary ross expanding markets in china. stuart: here is another one for you. >> trade is not that interesting? stuart: no, it is not. tax cuts far more interesting. >> we're working on them. stuart: get a tax cut, passed in late august, early september is it backdated to january 1st. >> the plan is to be it retroactive. stuart: taxpayers get whopping big tax break before april 15th? >> american economy will become competitive again. 1.8% economic growth averaged eight years. that is not good for the economy. we're looking sustained economic growth over 3% under proposals. stuart: you're talking fast. >> i'm a new yorker. stuart: you're a good sport. that is a fact. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: dow industrials down 38. big story amazon buying whole foods. got that. just hours after the shooting of

congressman scalise, new york congresswoman claudia tenney received a threatening email, titled, 1 down, 216 to go. it reads, did you not expect this? when you take away ordinary people's very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forefit, certainly your soils and morally were lost long before, good riddance. congresswoman 10 any joins us now. what was your reaction when you got that? >> stuart it, was pretty disturbing to get the message on the heels of the terrible tragedy to congressman scalise and capital policemen and staffers involved in the terrible shooting this week. we have been getting death threats or similar threats, i don't know if i call everyone of them a death threat, threatening messages, voice mail, email, facebook messages for months. we got jaded. stuart: when you get this kind

of threat, that was a threat, that was a threat, no question about it. >> definitely. stuart: do you set the police on it and say who did this go get them? >> yes. stuart: have you ever prosecuted anybody. >> we haven't yet because there has not been action attached to a lot of these. people will come in and they will hide behind facebook or e-mail or voice message, sometimes we don't know their name, sometimes we do, everything we received since i've been sworn in january 3rd we reported to capitol police and our local authorities. they have been wonderful providing security to capitol police. the they are phenomenal obviously. local police stepped up, when there is public event where they're concerned i get security. stuart: chris collins, your colleague in the house from new york, he says he will carry a gun around. how would you feel about that? >> i support chris collins carrying a gun as long as it is lawful. i'm a huge second amendment supporter. i think we should have concealed carry around the united states.

stuart: would you do it? >> i think we should have it everywhere in new york,ç thanks to our notorious governor we have one of the most onerous gun laws, so-called safe act which has taken second amendment rights from our law-abiding citizens. stuart: lawmakers, both parties came together at baseball game last night. democrats handed game trophy to the republicans be kept in congressman scalise's office until he comes back. now it was a show of unity. it was frankly wonderful. a lot of money was raised. will that unity last? >> i think so. my freshman class took unusual step. we signed a commitment to civility. we'll tone down the rhetoric, lead on this issue as freshmen and also always sponsoring legislation, cosponsoring on bipartisan way, whether legislation, whether it is resolutions, and we always reach out to our democratic colleagues. i had opportunity and asked to sit with my colleague, democrat brad schneider.

we have both in common, our sons are both serving in active duty. my son is a first lieutenant in the marine corps and i believe his son is a lieutenant in the navy of the so we sat together and really enjoyed the game. i got to hop around, to meet other people as well which was a fantastic experience. you can look at my pictures online. i have a lot of pictures of bipartisan experience. brad and i posed with leader mccarthy, speaker ryan, their families. it was really wonderful event. wonderful gesture they handed trophy over. i wish the republicans could have won the game. hey, we got policy on our side. that is the way i look at it. stuart: claudia tenney always a pleasure. >> thanks so much. stuart: check this out, please, a blimp flying over the u.s. open, the golf championship, crashed to the ground. the pilot suffered serious burns and injuries. he was rushed to the hospital. no one on the ground was hurt. the golf was not interrupted. next, espn politics one host

is saying it was not colin kaepernick who got political, it is the nfl's fault for playing the national anthem at games. fox sports within, the host, jason whitlock will join us next on this. [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.

♪ liz: conservative rocker ted nugent, he says he is toning down his hate speech personally. listen to what mike huckabee had to say about that roll tape.

>> i just got off the phone with ted. he is a great friend. i love the guy. we hunted together. to quote sergeant marco from the manchurian candidate, ted nugent is the kindest, bravest, warmest human being i have ever known. the truth is ted nugent is a great guy. he really is. he loves this country. he loves freedom. he fights for freedom and liberty. he says stuff like you all of us to do provoke but he has never, he has never, never advocated violent actions again another human being. ♪

stuart: remember colin kaepernick, the player, the nfl player who knelt during the national anthem? it was kind of a protest on his part. well, an espn host says the nfl is being political. he is critical of the nfl. he says she shouldn't play the national anthem. listen to what max kellermann said. >> colin kaepernick also did not go looking for a protest. it came to him. he was asked to stand for the national anthem. you do not have to stand for the national anthem. even if it was a rule that you did, is that colin kaepernick injecting poll tucks into the nfl? no, that's the nfl injecting

politics by playing the national anthem and putting pressure on you to stand for it in the first place. stuart: i think this needs some commentary. who better to look at this, jason whitlock, the host of "speak for yourself" on fox sports 1. what is your reaction. that gentleman said, it is the nfl, they shouldn't play the anthem. what say you. >> max kellermann is dear friend of mine, i know maxwell, he is well-intentioned. max is one of those ivy league guys that likes to get a little buzz and overthinks things. is he clearly over thinking here. we used to agree on certain principles in this country. sports bought into the narrative, affixed itself is to the narrative america is good and there are certain values an principles we believe here in america that we have baked into the sports culture and, playing the national anthem at sporting events has been a long tradition

that goes well beyond the nfl and football and now wehave people like max, a good friend of mine but he is far left-wing, and he, there are people, they just want to overthrow everything and everything that we used to agree upon, that america's good. that there are ideas and values baked into the american culture we also baked into sports culture, those things are good. we played the national anthem. respect the flag. respect our military. remind ourselves of what we like about america. and now there are people that have just bought into this far left ideology that let's just overthrow everything. we don't agree upon whether america is a force or good for not. we don't agree upon the values an principles we thought used to make america great. we don't agree on those. this is a preposterous argument max is making. i love max kellermann. stuart: i like description he is

ivy league kind of guy. i like that very much. >> yes. stuart: golden state -- >> i'm a ball stater. i'm from middle america. stuart: so am i actually. this is steph curry. he doesn't want to go to the white house to celebrate the nba title. here is the quote, somebody asked me about couple months ago, a hypothetical if the championship were to happen, would i do it? and i think i answered i wouldn't go. i still feel like that today. he says basically he is not going. your reaction to that, please. >> start, we've been talking about it on this show every week when i come on. this is a san francisco, silicon valley-based basketball team. steph curry is part of that culture, instead of engaging with people we disagree with, we want to eliminate people we disagree with. america has never been about. that is not a healthy strategy. if steph curry and members of the golden state warriors have strong disagreements with president trump, they should go

engage him in debate and discussion, an make their disagreements known to him, and give him an opportunity to react. this whole thing of resist, we're not going to deal with this person, and we're goingç o ignore this person, it is unhealthy, it is un-american, it is really cowardly. i like steph curry a lot but he is a young person being led astray by social media and people in this country that just want to overthrow everything. stuart: you know, i used to offer sports commentary. i wasn't very good at it. you came along and you're great. whitlock, this is a future for you, lad, there really is. we will see you you next week. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: thank you, sir. >> appreciate that. stuart: oil, let's get to the markets. oil, lowest prices seven months. a lot of supply, there is a glut actually. jeff flock is with us on this subject. this should drive down gas prices, right, jeff? reporter: yes. absolutely we get a little bump at the open by the way today,

but now we're giving up the gains so you're absolutely right. when i heard you yesterday he say we'll get 2-dollar gas in bunch of states very soon but i thought you were out over your skis but i came over to the cme and actually traders agree with you. they think we will get less than two dollars in multiple state. we have it in one and close to couple others. this is great driving season. nothing to goose demand like $2 gas. people will drive to a lot of places. stuart: that is a good story. jeff, happy father's day to you. >> same to you. stuart: after shooting of congressman scalise, lawmakers pushing a bill that would allow lawmakers to legally carry guns in d.c. not allowed to do that right now. former police chief of dallas joins us next. he will weigh in on that subject he will weigh in on that subject and we will be back. we're on to you, diabetes.

he will weigh in on that subject and we will be time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. 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. hey, i'm the internet! ♪

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liz: baltimore ravens tight end ben watson, listen to what he had to say about parenting your kids. roll tape. >> it's a fact of order. so when you look at scripture, when you look at father, son, holy spirit, they're all god in one but there is order there. the son is all god and the son

but there is order that is how god established the family. family works best when there is order. what happens we as humans take it, we manipulate it. we turn it he is better than her, she is more more r important thanker her. god intended the family was social building block of society. as you mentioned the family is important. what we've done, taken some things in scripture, perverted them turn them into something they were never meant to be. stuart: am i right -- >> i know you love football. stuart: you're joking with me. >> i am, i am. stuart: you were a tight end for the ravens. >> yes, sir. stuart: what is a tight end do? >> he has a tight end. no. a tight end is like a big revere. i catch passes but also got to block. this past year i missed most of the year, really all the year with a torn achilles. i'm just coming back. a lot of what i'm talking about in the book, leading the kids, actually my kids prayed for me

every single day since i got hurt. i was just able to go on the field for mini-camp two days ago. kind of a victory for our whole family so. i'm excited. that is what a tight end does. stuart: i got 30 seconds. tell me the main point of the book, the new dad's playbook. >> gearing up for the biggest game of your life. what i was talking about the biggest game when the baby is born, leading up to the game, kind of like football season, nine months of pregnancy, the three trimesters. that is part of equiping dads the fathers they are to be. many dads don't know how. stuart: for new dads? >> but also for dads. when the baby comes home, first few years after where we want to add more kids where we are now. encouraging men they can be fathers, do it, number one, important they do it. they have the opportunity, whether they had a father or not to change the course of generations.

stuart: it was exactly two years ago today almost to the hour when donald trump descended the golden escalator to announce his run for the presidency. we put it on the air, live. we sat and watched, astonished. none of us had ever imagined a candidacy like this. virtually nobody thought it would last. a trump presidency, are you serious? with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight we see how he did it. he crushed 16 republican opponent with name-calling and insult. that was very new. it was startling too. he attracted huge crowds. he brought new voters to the republican party. he outmaneuneverrerred the political pros. he took over the gop basically and changed its character. in the final stretch he beat hillary clinton in what remains a stunning upset. now just a few months in office, president trump has reversed a

good deal of president obama's eight-year legacy. if he gets obamacare repealed and taxes cut, the make over of america will be just about complete. you may or may not approve but there is no denying, two years ago today the earth moved. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ keep on rockin' in the free world ♪ stuart: why are we playing that particular music? any guesses? well you know, lizzie. liz: i do. stuart: i will tell the audience. that was the music played as donald trump descended the gold elevator two years ago today, okay? rockin' in the free world. that was the song. sort of caught the moment, didn't it.

basically when president trump launched his run for the president den sy. here now her london, president of london policy research. tell me the truth, you never thought that man on the golden escalator would be president of the united states? >> i did not at that time. but, it took me a couple months. i was traveling through pennsylvania. i started to count the signs many donald trump and hillary clinton. there were 377 signs in pennsylvania. 40 points in pennsylvania, going to republican side. 40 point swing. at that point i said donald trump with upset everyone. stuart: give me 20 seconds whether are not he has been a successful president? >> reasonably successful. b or b-plus. no question the president engaged in major changes.

liz: herb just invented lawn sign indicator. what were we saying? a lot of turnout with the president with the lawn signs. stuart: as soon as you got out of the cities and immediate suburbs, new york, whatever, soon as you got outside you started to see trump signs. liz: yes. stuart: suburbs and cities not a one. liz: not a one. stuart: there you go. last night the congressional baseball team, the two sides, they played for the first time since the shooting. republicans and democrats made a big show of unity. they huddled together as you can see to pray before the game. herb, there is a good show of unity last night. obviously very welcome. do you think it lasts? >> i do not think it lasts in part because what happened in country, partisanship changed very dramatically. you talked about the loyal opposition, adversaries, talk about political foes, now you talk about enemies. enemies have to be destroyed. they're not merely defeated, they're destroyed. we have a very different culture emerged in american life. unrelenting attacks on donald trump are designed in

large part to delegitimatize had presidency. seeing a left with very different view of america from the left in the past. stuart: do you think, i think it was violent rhetoric from the left, things like shakespeare in the park, the severed head, that kind of thing, i think that has something to do with the violence that we've seen. am i going too far? >> i don't thinç you're going too far. i think it is very difficult to make general judgments because there are a lot of loonies out there. they could easily attack a democrat or a republican. the problem, however the general atmosphere for political diatribes and discussion has changed, it has changed in part for reasons you've sighted. we're in area of increasing violence in the rhetoric that is employed. stuart: the shooter, of representative scalise, i don't think he was crazy. i don't think he was a lunatic. i think he was a very passionate, political guy who had been whipped up to this kind of near massacre by the environment in which we live. so i agree with you, herb.

i think that is part of the deal here. last word? liz: you know, play ball, right? that is what i would say to both sides. stuart: that is what the president said last night. liz: that's right. on his agenda. stuart: real fine shining moment when the democrats won, they handed the trophy to the republicans and said put it in steve scalise's office until he gets better and comes back. that was a very nice moment. i want to get to the markets. let's see where we are. dow jones industrial average is down 30 points, 21,300. that is not the big story. here is the big story. amazon is buying whole foods. amazon is up 30 bucks at 995. whole foods at 41.98. by the way because amazon is obviously going for the grocery market and the food market, probably with some heavy discounting, the other geese in that sector, the big retailers, the grocers, they have lost

$55 billion from their capital, their value, okay? look at them go down. supervalu, 13%. kroger 12%. sprouts, farmer's market. target down 8%. target as well. walmart down four bucks. national grocers, et cetera, et cetera down 3%. the story amazon want to take over grocery and the grocery existing establishment is way, way down. joining us lenore hark kins. -- hawkins. lenore, this seems like a huge play by amazon to literally grab hold of another big chunk of the retail industry. i think the market says they're going to do it. what says lenore hawkins? >> i think it was inevitable they did this they have been moving more and more into grocery particularly with the amazon fresh and this made a lot of sense because it is a lot

better to buy the asset than to build it themselves. they can leverage existing stores and whole foods existing warehouses. it is pretty much a destruction for kroger, for sprout, all the other grocery chains out there. i think reits as well need to start get nervous. like we've seen with the retail space with a lot of these department stores shutting down i think we're going to see a similar trend with grocery stores as more and more shopping moves online and you need fewer and fewer physical stores. stuart: hold on a second, lenore, liz, tell us again where these whole foods stores are located and why that is important for amazon. liz: there are 431 whole foods stores located in very high income neighborhoods. now they could be hughesed to pick up groceries and other amazon goods as well. you can bet that amazon looked at who was buying the alexa being coand where those a lex can echos were located and and

alexa echos. i. stuart: i find that fascinating you speak to a looks is a, get me pehe nut butter and it comes. >> from whole foods. stuart: lenore, still with us, please. following big tech names amazon, microsoft, netflix. they're almost all of them, except for amazon they're down. they have taken a dip. is this a time to buy? >> i will be a little bit more patient because we're still today, if you look at most of those like amazon, up 32%, look at apple, google, all of them are up, between, facebook between 20 and 30% year-to-date. that's still a very big move. and we also see ownership of these has been very robust. you've got, if you're looking at just tech in general, 32% of active managed funds are overweight tech in general. if we're looking at just the

"fang" stocks, actively managed funds are overexposed by 71%. i think you still have a lot of heavy ownership there. i want to wait for a little bit more selling. stuart: we'll wait and see as they say. i want to bring this to your attention. this may be a another story which is kind of hidden, the plunge in the price of oil, all the waydî]9 to 44, $45 a barrel. what i think will be a plunge in the price of gas. at the moment we're still holding at 2.31 for the national average but we've had several forecasts on this program pretty soon we'll have at least a half dozen states where the average price of gas is below $2. my point being, lenore, that seems to me to be a shot in the arm for the economy and therefore the markets. what say you? >> i think it is a double-edged sword. on one hand, yes, i love seeing the costs of energy, which is cost of making things and cost of transporting things from a to b, having that go down is fantastic for the economy but on

the other side if what we're seeing is actually a decline in dethat also tells you about something in the economy and in the past couple weeks we've actually seen the demand for gasoline is down 5% over the same period from 2016. so that tells me, well, maybe people are staying home to shop instead of going out. amazon will take ad a advantage of that. but i'm not happy when i see the demand for gasoline dropping. stuart: yeah, i understand that that is really quite significant. a 5% drop in driving, that is really extraordinary. lenore i can see you're in london. >> yes. stuart: have a good time. watch out. see you later, lenore. >> always great the. stuart: after the shooting of congressman scalise, republicans are pushing a bill that would allow lawmakers to carry guns in washington d.c. the former police chief of dallas is with us, coming up next. is that a good idea? ♪ my business was built with passion...

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stuart: carry a gun, got it from one state, you should be able to carry that gun in all states, including the district of columbia, washington, d.c. right now you can not do that. he wants to change the rules, change the law. come on in please, author of the book called to rise, retired dallas police chief david brown.

i think i got this right, david, essentially this is a move, an end-run around strict gun control in our major cities. you approve of this? >> well it is a perfectly understandable knee-jerk reaction, given what just happened so it is right in our face that we're unsafe when we're not armed, and shooter is trying to take us out. but, i think the other side of this equation trying to figure out policies to take guns out of the hands of mentally disabled and mentally ill and increase funding for treatment. it is a two-way sword. we don't want increases in these type of shootings but layers are mentally unstable people are able to get guns too easy in our country. stuart: what do you think we should do about our legislative representatives members of congress in d.c.?

at this moment they can not defend themselves with their own gun. they have to rely on other security and don't have security from the government themselves? what do we do with them? >> extension of capitol police security to members of congress, specially when they're gathering like, at a baseball game, and there is more than just a couple, i think that the leadership gets the capitol police security. but we need to discuss extending that. that is also a funding issue as well. how do we further protect our state legislators when they're outside of the capitol walls where there is tight security? i think there is a consideration for that as well. stuart: can i just in general terms ask this because i think this frames the debate. after the shooting, the debate is, do more guns make us more safe? would fewer guns make us more safe? in very general terms, david, which side of the argument are you on? >> well, i again, i'm in texas

here, born and raised, we have pretty liberal gun laws. while chief i had lowest murder rate in 75 years here with liberal gun policy state. you go to california, illinois, new york matter, they have restrictive laws it's a mixed bag. san bernardino still happened in california. you he see what happens in chicago with restrictive gun laws. it's a mixed bag, when you look at data. i would rather look at what statistics show us, deal with the facts rather than opinion eight where i sit. texas is pretty safe with liberal been laws. other state with strict gun laws which are safe. then like new york, they have one of the lowest crime rates and they have restrictive gun laws. there is no data i see to support either way. stuart: well-said, sir.

it is nuanced debate. it is not yes or no. >> that's right. stuart: a lot goes into it. david, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. congratulations on the book, and murder rate in dallas, very good stuff. thank you, appreciate it. herb london do you have any thoughts on this? i ask the general question more guns make us safer, less guns make us safer, which side are you on. >> who has guns. bun in the hands of st. francis is not a weapon. a gun in the hands of hooligan it's a weapon. who has the guns. liberal gun control last as you do in florida and texas, they have reduced crime rate very significantly. i think, i think the police chief is quite right in suggesting it's a mixed bag. there is no question it's a question of looking at the statistical analysis to arrive at any judgment. stuart: i'm worried about the prevalence of guns, but at the same time i'mç worried about if my right to defend myself and my family and my home is taken away

from me, that i don't want. that is not america. >> i think you look at, you want to look at those who are mentally ill and have access to guns that is a problem. no question about that. stuart: you have to break the patient-client relationship in psychiatry to do that. that is not an easy thing to do. >> exactly. stuart: i know you have a lot to say, lizzie, i'm moving along. liz: that's fine. stuart: this is something about the u.s. open but has nothing to do with golf. look at that. that was a blimp flying very close to the tournament, very near to it. burst into flames, having hit the ground. the pilot by the way suffered serious burns and injuries. he is in the hospital. no one on the ground was hurt. but that was quite an explosion, was it not? look at this, ricky foul are topping the leader -- rickie fowler topping the leaderboard. he doesn'tware the wild fashionista outfits. he is the leader at 7 under.

you wan watch with me the open all weaken long. i will be glued. look at the bat signal lighting up los angeles city hall, a tribute to the late batman actor, adam west. more "varney" in a moment. [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.

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♪ imagine all the people living life in peace ♪ stuart: there you have it, john lennon song, "imagine," north name added to credits that would be of course yoko ono. national music publishers association is in process of listing yoko as a writer. he took lyrics from her poetry. he said in 1980, "imagine" should be credited to both of them and it will be. plans for this hotel, i don't believe this stuff, designed by arc it being ral student in need. hyperloop, would visit hotels without stepping outside. here is how it works.

guests get into pod-like vehicles, connect to cities by tubes. sponsored by a similar project in the works. what nonsense. never get off the ground. can you understand the g-force at 3,000 miles an hour. get out of hire. negligence case. look at this, that is an enigma machine, broken by the brits, and it helped win world war ii for atallies. that one on the screen moments ago was on a german u-boat connected to the an admiral in berlin headquarters. went up for auction at christie's, guess the price. i will tell you. $547,000. the base price was 300 grand. that's a record price for an enigma. markets not much movement. 20 points down for the dow industrials. here is the story of the day, amazon buying whole foods. amazon up, whole foods up. look at the reaction of the grocery stocks which will have

to compete with amazon whole foods. look at them go down. huge percentage losses by the grocery stocks, all across the board. look at food companies. kellogg, general mills, kraft, heinz, mondelez way down. what else have you got? liz: also strip malls where groceries, anchor stores done 5%, reits that invest in them. in is a ripple effect. stuart: got it. georgia, special election on tuesday, security hole, exposed 7 million voters to hackers. we're on that one after this. ♪

♪ he came to the world justin the usual way ♪ ♪ but there were planes to catch and bills to pay ♪ ♪ so i moved my meeting saw him walk that day ♪ ♪ he was talking 'fore i knew it, and as he grew ♪ ♪ he'd say i'm gonna be like you, dad ♪ ♪ you know i'm gonna be like you ♪ ♪ and the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon ♪ ♪ little boy blue and the man in the moon... ♪

at crowne plaza we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. 'a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally?

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stuart: now, this is breaking news. we've got some movement on health care. senator charles schumer has sent a letter to majority leader mitch mcconnell and other republicans requesting a bipartisan meeting on health care reform. so the democrats reaching out to the republicans on health care reform. previously, we'd heard that the senate bill on health care reform would be in front of us by the end of this month. charles schumer has now reached

out. i call that progress. it's certainly a development. check the big board, no impact on the overall market, absolutely none, down 24 on the dow, but look at this. the big story of the day, and it's big. amazon buying whole foods. an interesting note is the amazon deal has erased $55 billion from other big retailers' market value because amazon/whole foods is going to compete with the walmarts, the targets, the costcos and the krogers of this world. that's an uncomfortable position to be in, i suspect. john lonski is here. you think this is a whopping, great big deal. >> it is a very big deal, i think, for the u.s. economy and the inflation outlook. imagine what they're thinking right now, walmart, costco and target, they're going to strive even harder to cut prices. this is going to push inflation lower. price of crude oil is down from a year ago, so look at this

whole thing together. inflation is dead! let the unemployment rate drop under 4%, inflation's going to have one heck of a time reaching 2%. stuart: you know, you should really try decaf, i've got to tell you, son. [laughter] so to you, as an economist, the impact is less inflation -- >> yes. stuart: -- or no inflation because amazon, walmart is going to drive down prices at the grocery store. that's your story. >> definitely. that's the big macroeconomic implication of this merger. let's not forget in the end, amazon is nothing more -- in a way -- than walmart on steroids. stuart: okay. well, now let's look at the impact on the grocery business. is amazon making a play to just take it over? >> i don't think they can take over the entire business, but they're going to be putting a lot of downward pressure on prices, margins suffer, and this price deflationary pressure is

being reflected in the share prices. stuart: okay. not much inflation. that presumably means the federal reserve is not going to raise interest rates if you've got zero or very, very -- >> they shouldn't be -- you know, right now the fed funds futures market assigns a 57% probability to the fed funds rate remaining where it currently is at 1.125%. futures market doesn't see -- stuart: so the market is passing judgment on this. the inflation outlook, saying we don't have it. interest rates are going to stay where they are. do you own amazon. >> >> no, i don't. stuart: okay, i had to ask, you're so pumped up about the company. you have to ask these questions. [laughter] you do not own it. >> do not. stuart: how unfortunate. [laughter] okay. now, the other side of the coin here is those shopping malls and strip malls, i think, is the correct expression. i'm told that the reits, real estate investment trusts, which

deal in that kind of real estate are just plummet, way, way down. comment? >> well, they have a headache. it's not only amazon, it's not only the web, it's also an aging population. twenty years in in 2000, you used to have the population growing by more than two million a year, the working age population grows by only 400,000 per year. the baby boomers got older, and as they age, the need for all the shopping space necessarily declined. of. stuart: well, herb london is with us, and he's observing the pumped-up john lonski. did you think this is as big a deal for inflation and for real estate prices and for the grocery industry? >> i think that it is. the deflationary impulse is quite significant. whether, in fact, he's on decaffeinated coffee or not. [laughter] the interesting thing about this is if you look at whole foods, the prices at whole foods are rather high. is so you're talking about the convenience factor. it is not only the price factor

that will be the competitive environment, it is also the very fact that now you will have your salmon and brussel sprouts delivered to you by a drone at amazon. you're going to call up, and that meal will be delivered in minutes. that, i think, changes the character of the way in which food is distributed in the united states. stuart: very true. one last point to make, you're so pumped up, make it. >> housing starts are horrible, that argues for lower interest rates. i think the 10-year treasury yield has to come down to about 2%. what he was stating, again, the reason why whole foods is going to hold onto this market position is because they're going to keep prices low enough that they scare off competition. stuart: we shall see. lonski, take a rest. [laughter] thanks very much for being with us. good stuff. new concerns about georgia's special election which takes place next tuesday. the hole in a state's election technology has exposed nearly seven million voter records to hackers. national review columnist john

fund is here. does this mean that a vote, the actual votes cast, are likely to be changed or subverted in some way? >> highly unlikely. stuart: okay. >> what is vulnerable are the voter registration records which are on computer databases. the votes themselves are cast individually by electronic machines that are not connected to each other and are not on the internet. so if you wanted to change the votes, you'd have to go machine by machine, take out the electronic innards, replace it with something else -- your malware or whatever -- but you'd have to be only change one machine at a time. stuart: so what's the significance of seven million voter records being hacked into and taken away? >> public confidence in the integrity of our elections is at an all-time low. the fact that georgia's electronic machines don't spit out a paper receipt that you can take and match with the results on the electronic screen doesn't inspire confidence. i think they should have

machines that actually provide a paper backup. now, we have a presidential commission that's been appointed. vice president pence is going to chair it with secretary of state of kansas. this is the kind of thing that the presidential commission should look at. it should also look at illegal voters, it should look at the impact of id, voter suppression, voter fraud. stuart: you brought us the story of that small part of virginia where there were 5500 illegally-registered illegal immigrants -- >> no, no, legal immigrants. stuart: legal immigrants, but they're not allowed to vote. they're green card people. >> almost 6,000 had registered to vote, and a third of them had voted in recent elections. stuart: and we don't know which way they voted. >> no. on the other hand, academic studies that have been conducted show they do lean towards one party. stuart: and that is? >> the democratic party. stuart: okay, so the skewing here -- >> probably about 80% democratic. stuart: have we any idea what

kind of skew there was nationwide in the last election? speculation? >> for eight years the obama administration refused the requests of states saying, look, you have the records of every legal alien in this country with a green card or student visa. let us have the list so we can compare it to our voter registration rolls and see if there's overlap. for eight years the obama administration said, no, we're not going to give it to you. that will change with this presidential commission headed by pence. they will have access to those records from the department of homeland security and other records. you know, there are millions of illegal aliens who file taxes in this country. they have a taxpayer identification number. if we could match those names that the irs has -- not for purposes of catching them, but just to see if they're on the voter registration rolls -- we could find another treasure-trove of people who are voting and shouldn't be voting. stuart: at this moment the georgia election suggests a lack of confidence on the part of voters and the integrity of the system. that's as far as you're going. >> this is one reason why we should never have internet

voting anytime in the foreseeable future. because if you can hack into voter registration databases and also have internet voting, then you could change votes. that would be a catastrophe for the integrity and confidence we have in our elections. stuart: all right, john, a quick word from you, herb. >> i think john has stated it very effectively. the integrity of the system is very much at stake. i think the american people have lost confidence in the electoral process, and one of the things that can be restored is the commission that vice president pence is heading. stuart: it might enhance voter ids when you go to vote. you've got to show photographic idea. >> almost half the states don't require it. i think that needs to change. stuart: okay. john, thank you very much, indeed. thank you, herb. stay there, we have got more from you. look at this, the u.s. treasury hauled in more than $240 billion in taxes last month. that is a record. get this, however, the federal government could still run a deficit of more than $88 billion for that month of may because of

how much they are spending. [laughter] does that make you feel better? two items on health care. today top health officials are meeting at the white house to work on high prescription drug prices, and the senate may vote on an obamacare replacement plan by the end of this month. we also have senator schumer, outreach to top republicans in the senate about health care reform. that's a development, and we'll be back. ♪ ♪

>> big deal today on wall street, and that is amazon buying whole foods. it has affected markets across the board in many different ways, amazon jumping about $30 right now, whole foods up 27%, and that is exactly the premium. it is a $13.7 billion deal, $42 a share. we are seeing whole foods moving to the highest levels in more than a year. amazon, when you look at the acquisitions it's made, this is easily the largest at $13.7 billion. the others don't even reach a billion. zappos back in 2009 was $930 million. we've also had news on amazon

today, whether they're going to consider buying a work chat app for $9 billion. there's been talk about amazon versus some of the other companies such as google and fail source interested in that. and we'll also watch donald trump's vision of amazon and whether or not it's too big.

♪ whoa that's amazing... hey, i'm the internet! i know a bunch of people who would love that. the internet loves what you're doing... ...so build a better website in under an hour with... ...gocentral from godaddy. type in your idea. select from designs tailored just for you and publish your site with just a few clicks-even from your... ...mobile phone. the internet is waiting start for free today at godaddy. stuart: this is a development, i'm going to call this potentially a breakthrough on health care reform. senator schumer, leader of the

democrats in the senate, has sent a letter to mitch mcconnell and other republicans. he leads the republican party in the senate. he wants, senator schumer wants to meet a bipartisan meeting on health care reform. looks like movement of sorts. alex aczar is with us -- azar is with us. i'm saying that this is a development. it's project it's a sign -- it's progress. it's a sign that they may be getting together about something or other on health care reform. do you agree with this? >> stuart, i will leave it when i see it. listen, if the democrats were willing to work with republicans to try to get to that 51 votes needed to pass health reform in the senate, then, yes, this is development. if -- because, frankly, i don't know right now how the republicans get a bill through the senate between the conservative side and the more moderate side. i've been trying to figure this out. i don't know how you skin that cat. but if the democrats -- stuart: why does he want a

meeting? why would he want a meeting if he's going to block every suggestion at every possible turn? i mean, why not -- if he wants to hold a meeting and the letter suggests that he does, then presumably they've got something to talk about. they've got an offer maybe that he could make. i'll agree with you on this and in this and this if you don't do that. i mean, that's progress, isn't it? >> well, it very well could be. let's just, let's see what happens in that meeting. at this point, frankly, some of the views of the more moderate republicans are seeming a lot like more tinkering with the existing obamacare than real, structural, underlying reform of it. so there may actually be rapprochement there between the democrats and moderate republicans on this one. i don't know. we haven't ever seen anything like that in sort of the modern time with the congress, so let's see. stuart: okay. i'm calling it progress, and you can abstain on that if you like. [laughter] >> i'm just a hopeless cynic. [laughter] stuart: no, you're not, alex,

you're not. now, top trump officials, they're meeting at the white house today. the subject is drug prices and how to get 'em down. now, a, can they get 'em down and, b, alex, how do they do it? >> so the first thing is the issue shouldn't be just to focus on drug prices. the issue is what are people paying when they go to the pharmacy to get their drugs. is it affordable to them there. list price, whatever else, the most important thing is what's that patient paying when they go to the pharmacy. and i think there are some really good things they can do. the president has made clear he supportsish novation on the -- innovation on the one side, but he wants to make drugs more affordable. one step is i think he's going to tell his trade negotiators to get on europe and get off the free ride on the investment and innovation. you know, they have such radical price controls over or in europe and get on them for those unfair practices and see if we can get more investment from them in r&d

and less of the burden being shouldered by u.s. citizens. we can increase generic and branded competition. scott gottlieb, our great new fda commissioner, has launched an initiative to get more generics approved so they're competing against each other, driving prices down, making things more affordable. stuart: how about importing tough from canada? >> -- stuff from canada? >> stuart, one of the best things in the american health care system is our closed distribution system. we have such tight control on product here in the united states, that's why went you walk into a walgreens or a cvs, you know it's safe, it's authentic. this thing about importing drugs from canada is a canard. these drugs are not american-produced drugs sitting in a canadian retail a pharmacy. these are often drugs coming from china or india or elsewhere who are just -- that are just being trans-shipped through canada into the united states. the administration, the public health officials have repeatedly found these are not safe.

there can be no guarantee of safety there. the u.s. distribution system is a crown jewel. let us not mess that up. stuart: okay. we will not mess that up. alex, thanks very much for joining us. we appreciate that. now, herb, alex was a little cynical about the letter from charles schumer to the leaders of the republicans in the senate about health care reform. i'm not. i think this is progress. >> well, i think it's progress as well. i mean, look, it's very unlikely that schumer is going to be cooperative. however, if you're going to have a meeting, there has to be something to the discuss. are they discussing pre-existing cases, the new fund for those people who have a pre-existing condition? there are issues that can be, i think, laid out very nicely in a meeting. and very well true, i mean, may very well be true that the moderate republicans and the democrats have an awful lot in common. if that is the case, you get to the 51 votes, that's what you need. and i think i am encouraged. stuart: 51 votes. >> yes. stuart: i'm with you on this one. thanks, sir.

now, i've got a breaking news development on a case you may have been following. a woman who sent her then-boyfriend dozens of text messages urging him to committet suicide, which he eventually did, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. that verdict just coming in. and now this, president trump tweeting this morning about firing of james comey, continues to call it a witch hunt. stay right there, we'll have a lot more on this in just a moment. ♪ ♪ your insurance company

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with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. stuart: earlier today president trump appeared to confirm reports of an fbi probe into the firing of james comey. here's the tweet. i am being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. witch hunt. i'm not sure how to put that in context, but that just happened, it's just in, and we thought we'd show it to you. check out that big board. we're ever so slightly down. not much, we're at an 8-point loss at this point, 9 points. 21,350, is where we are.

here's the big story of the day, we've been following it all morning: amazon is going to buy whole foods. they're paying $13.7 billion, all cash. amazon straight up and so is whole foods. however, the theory is that amazon's trying to dominate grocery, so the grocery competitors like supervalu, kroger, target, for example, not to mention walmart and costco, they're all way, way down. and so are the food makers. kellogg, general mills, kraft, mondelez, all of them straight down because they've got to compete on price and compete with amazon-whole foods. big story, herb london. >> i think it's a great story, a technological story in addition to being an economic story. and what you're going to see is this competition across the board which i think is very desirable from the consumer's point of view. stuart: amazon is the ultimate company of the last decade. >> that's right. stuart: they're into everything and win constantly. >> they win constantly. but, of course, if you are in

the business of looking at markets, people who are winning constantly at some point lose. so there will be competition. that's the remarkable thing about the free market. stuart: who would have thought you and i are of a somewhat similar generation, i think we are. back in our day you took your bag to the store, you bought your groceries and drove home. you put them in the trunk, and you drove home. that's what you did. >> imagine, you call up and say i'd like to have my salmon, my brussel sprouts, please deliver. drones deliver right to your door. i mean, there's no preparation in the kitchen. stuart: that's new. it sure is. all right, everyone, we are honoring our fathers here on "varney & company" today. that is producer christine. her dad and her daughter. one of our bookers, francesca, there she is, coming up, coming up with her dad, there you go. that's francesca with her dad. our associate producer erin with her dad, pause for a second. there you go.

erin with her dad. production assistant sarah with her dad. the list is endless, our giant staff all celebrating with father's day. if you're not careful, i'll show you my picture of my children after this. ♪ ♪ [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.

stuart: well, look at this on a friday morning. we've been down all morning, for the last two and a half hours, but suddenly we popped to the upside, a tiny bit of momentum. a slight gain. but look at that level, 21,360. and now, as promised, the varney brood. [laughter] there you go, there you go. i'm in the middle, of course, that's me, the older gentleman. from the left that's angela, my youngest daughter. the guy with the beard, max, the organic farmer from new zealand. stuart varney himself, then we have emma. she's no longer emma varney,

that was her wedding day last month. next to her, the lady in the blue dress, by older child, that is chill in chatham, adam, winemaker in australia, and rachel works for ralph lauren in new york city. okay, who's taking it away? it's not neil, is it? no, it's not neil. who is -- neil: it's neil. hi, how you doing? stuart: i'm sorry. neil: all those kids look so happy. knowing your fame and everything else, do they every day pinch themselves and go, ka-ching? stuart: what are you talking about? [laughter] get out of here. neil: okay. well, happy father's day. stuart: thank you, neil. neil: with that many kids, if you can even remember them -- stuart: yeah, i was struggling. [laughter] neil: i like her. she's a good kid. congratulationses and hope it's a great day, stuart. all right. in the meantime, well, you remember that old twilight zone episode, it's a cookbook?