gallon and 51 million americans traveling this holiday, so be safe. dagen: and, absolutely, thanks to everybody, heather, mike and amy -- >> thank you. dagen: happy thanksgiving. get out there and shop. ashley webster, it is all yours. ashley: appreciate that, and hope everybody at home had a great thanksgiving as well. i'm ashley webster. stu is back on monday, but here is the big story. yes, black friday is here. traditional hi, the biggest day for retailers, but the numbers may tell a different story. more people shopping online, on their phones and waiting until the last minute for the very best deals. we are on every angle of this story over the next three hours, you can be sure of that. in washington, the calm before the storm. president trump already making calls to get ready for the tax reform push. the ball, as we know, is in the senate's court right now. they're back on monday. can they get it done before the end of the year? that brings us to our market question for the rest of the day, and perhaps for the rest of

the year, will we hit 24,000 on the dow by christmas? the dow up 41 points at this hour. by the way, more bad p.r. for uber, the new ceo knew about that massive data hack for months before disclosing it. so plenty to go at. if you're at home enjoying that post-turkey glow, settle in and buckle up for the next three hours. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ashley: it's hard to believe, but black friday may no longer be the hottest shopping day of the year. a new study shows only 35% of consumers plan to do their holiday shopping today. amazingly, that's down 24% from just 2015. interesting. let's go to jeff flock. he's live on chicago's michigan avenue. jeff, i know it's a little early, and i was going to say a lot of people out there?

i don't see anyone behind you. [laughter] >> reporter: you know, i always look to challenge these surveys because i sometimes think they don't make sense. well, i've got to tell you, if you look at the magnificent mile right now, ashley, there are not throngs out here, and i have been on black friday when there have been a ton of people, and right now that is not the case. yeah, it's kind of early but, you know, a lot of people start early on black friday. i know they have in other parts of the country. but i don't know, it doesn't seem to have the same punch, to me, as it did in the past. ashley: that's interesting, jeff. you're going to be there all day, and you mentioned the past. where were they crowded into, were there long lines waiting for the doors to open? >> reporter: in fact, at this store here -- well, there's two here. this is one of the reasons i think also. this is h&m, they said, oh, yeah, black friday collection, but it starts on november 24th. and right next door this is a store, a japanese retailer, and

there were big lines here just a year ago. but you look at this, their promotion,11/24 through 11/27, good deals but, again, not just on black friday. maybe people are buying just as much but not all at once like they used to on this crazy day. ashley: i think you're exactly right, jeff flock. i think they've already done their big purchases or waiting until the very last minute which has been my strategy for years now. >> reporter: me too. ashley: jeff flock on michigan avenue in chicago, thanks so much. appreciate it. not exactly a great picture of commerce going on there. let's bring in the author of "six billion shoppers." pretty dismal scene in chicago, no one really around. is black friday dead as we once knew it? >> yeah, i think this is the year that's sort of the beginning of the end of black friday. as you mentioned, people were shopping really all month because everyone, all the

retailers have moved up their promotions earlier starting sometimes at the beginning of the month. so people are beginning to say it's no longer black friday, it's black november. ashley: that's interesting. so is everyone staying at home and doing it online? we know those numbers will probably go up again. what's this season going to be like, do you think, for the brick and mortar stores? >> well, overall it looks to be pretty good. consumer confidence is high, the economy's doing well, wages aren't as good as people were hoping, but, you know, what people are doing instead of going to michigan mile now is that they're using their mobile phones. so i think the mobile phone has changed everything. now everyone has a shopping mall in their pockettings. and so even -- pockets. even at my own family thanksgiving last night after the pumpkin pie was finished, we found people in various rooms in the house kind of secretly going through the deals on their smartphone. so i think now what you're seeing is that people do their holiday shopping on their smartphones, finishing as soon

as the final pumpkin pie is eaten. actually, it turned out last year the 24 hours right after thanksgiving dinner was the biggest online shopping period in the cup. so not only -- in the country. cyber monday is dying, and it's the moving ahead now. ashley: it's all moving at such a fast pace. getting back to those brick and mortar stores, the department stores, what can they do to get more people to actually come through the doors? >> well, i think one thing they've done, which is good, is they've moved -- made it sort of a black friday week now. so their still getting the -- they're still getting the traffic, it's just people aren't having fistfights over tvs outside the front of shopping malls anymore. they're getting people to come in and linking mobile phones to shopping. so it now happens if you show up in a store and you're on your mobile app, you can instantly be, you know, alerted to a deal that the store has locally. so tying online to offline, brick and mortar stores are doing more of that. and then the smart ones are

tying sort of mobile promotions so when someone checks a price inside the store, they've got the customer right there, and they can make a deal with them. ashley: i mentioned my strategy is always leave it to the last minute, typical guy thing to do, but there are people who believe that strategy works. in this age of all of these amazing deals online, is that really a good strategy, or -- you know, because it's a very stressful one as well. >> well, it's very stressful. it's always been my strategy -- [laughter] and it usually ends in me giving a coupon book to do the dishes or take out the trash, which actually seems to be a more well-received present than the g.i. joe with the kung fu grip or something. [laughter] that's a good strategy in a way because consumers have gotten more savvy now. they realize that after black friday's gone and after a lot of the shopping's done, there are even better deals online. you may not get exactly what you want. ashley: fascinating stuff. thank you so much for joining us on this black friday.

and as we saw in chicago, not many people out there. porter, thank you very much. let's take a quick look at the futures ahead of the opening bell in about 25 minutes from now, the dow up about two-tenths of a percent. abbreviated trading session, the markets will close at 1 p.m., but trading will be going on, and we'll be following it every step of the way. checking on amazon, of course, that's a big topic today, americans rushing to catch those black friday deals. up slightly, i say slightly at $6, $1162 a share on amazon, up half a percent. let's check on walmart, probably amazon's biggest competitor. its web site, by the way, ran out of sale items last night. that's not good. the stock moving higher at 96.p 96.p -- 96.75 for walmart. the latest allegations against senator al franken, two more women accusing him of inappropriate touching. that brings the total to four. franken issuing a statement

saying, quote: i've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations. i'm a warm person. i hug people. i've learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters i crossed the line for some women, and i know that any number is too many. that's from al franken. all right. joining us now, washington examiner chief political correspondent byron york. byron, what'd you make of this latest statement from al franken? >> well, i think it's kind of striking that senator franken found it necessary to issue ap apology on -- an apology on thanksgiving day. stuart: yeah. >> i believe it's his fourth so far since the educations against him -- allegations against him began. but i think that's clearly an indication of his level of concern. coffining, he's back home in minnesota -- of course, he's back home in minnesota trying to take the temperature there k and he's clearly concerned. ashley: should he quit, do you think, byron? >> i think we have a different situation with the franken situation and also with

representative john conyers. i think their situation is different from some of the other cases we've seen because they are elected by the people, and they don't have bosses. so charlie rose had a boss who fired him, and mark halperin had a boss who fired him. in this case, the bosses are the voters. and in most cases, the way that voters deal with their unhappiness with a lawmaker is to vote them out the next time around. so john conyers is up next year, as all members of the house are, and al franken is up in 2020. so i think what you're seeing with both of them is these harassment allegations are moving so quickly that i think they think it would be better to hang on, see what happens, don't do anything in a moment of panic. ashley: well, franken and others have said, look, i'm quite happy for an ethics committee to look into this, but what power would

the committee have if they get to the conclusion, yes, you behaved inappropriately? what can they do? >> well, the ethics committee is kind of a black hole. it's where allegations go and they're never heard of again. [laughter] conceivably, and we've heard this mentioned with, about roy moore, should he be elected senator from alabama. the ethics committee can investigate, and they can recommend punishment up to the expulsion of a senator. but remember, these take a long time. senator bob packwood who got in big trouble in the 19 is 90s -- ashley: i remember. >> -- his investigation began in the ethics committee in 1992 and finished in 1995. so these are long, involved processes. ashley: but at what point does it become unmanageable for these lawmakers? it seems like a couple more women have come out talking about instances involving franken. does there get a point when it's just unmanageable, do you think,

byron? >> well, that is true. you wonder whether there is some sort of tipping point where there's so many against him that the voters simply don't believe that each one of them has an innocent explanation. ashley: right. >> so, and also you have to remember there are gradations of offenses here. i mean, i think people look and see what charlie rose or louis c.k. did, and i think that is really, really bad. ashley: yeah. >> and they look at what al franken did, and say, i don't know, i need to know more about this. ashley: yeah. >> so each voter in minnesota, in the case of senator franken, is making a decision, and i think they probably don't feel they know everything they need to know to make that decision right now. ashley: i think you're exactly right. byron york, thank you so much for coming in on this friday and talking to us. appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: militants are suspected of an attack on a mosque in egypt. state tv in egypt reporting 184

people dead, more than 80 injured. we, of course, bring you updates as more information becomes available on that story. all right, now this: call it a sign of the times. new york city police officers forced to hide while going to the restroom at one college. find out why next. also, another check of the market futures for you, about 20 minutes away from the open on wall street. the dow futures showing we will start the day up by about 38 points. we'll be right back. zar: one of our investors was in his late 50s right in the heart of the financial crisis, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. it really scared him out of the markets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65. having someone coach you through it is really the value of a financial advisor.

ashley: well, markets back in record territory according to the futures, you can see the dow up 42 points. at least that's where we think we're going to be when the markets open in just under 15 minutes from now. ge announcing it's going to slash even more jobs beginning next year. this stock had been down in the $17 range, now up a quarter up at $18.38, up 1.25% in the premarket.

we'll keep an eye on ge for you. now this, a judge in seattle ruling that the city's controversial tax on the rich, it's illegal the judge says. deirdre bolton here. god bless her, for the next three hours. [laughter] >> pleasure. ashley: thank you for agreeing to join now. to join us. >> it is illegal to tax on income, so the lawmakers who passed this last summer trying to do just that, they knew they were going to go to court. they were ready for the fight, but just to give you some of the metrics involved, basically, if you make over $250,000 a year, the city of seattle wanted to tax you at 2.25%. however, the courts, as widely anticipated, slammed it down. so for the moment, no go. but the point is the lawmakers who do want to tax the rich have begun the conversation. and if you look at it -- ashley: they've opened the door. >> that's all they wanted to do, was make the point rich people

should be taxed. ashley: and they'll just move somewhere else. they forget that -- >> yes and no. when you have kids in schools, i mean, sometimes you're just cranky and complain for a year or two, but, yes, longer term. however, the way that this court decision goes, this is a much longer fight -- ashley: but the fight, you think, will go on. >> the fight will go on, but i do think for the people who make over $250,000, they have a few more years to not pay that additional high tax. ashley: thank you very much, deidre. wait until you hear this one. brooklyn college is asking police officers to hide while using the restroom. strange but true. joining us now is a program manager at campusreform.org. okay, hannah, explain to me what's going on on this brooklyn campus. what are the police officers being made to do? >> so the nypd, they're asked to use campus bathrooms that are on the other side of campus, dirty, out of order bathrooms because their mere presence makes

students feel uncomfortable, and the public service director says it makes safe spaces feel less safe. this is not only degrading and dehumanizing, this is a regressive form of activism. i think these students seem to have forgotten on 9/11 hundreds of the men and women of the nypd died saving lives. and just a few weeks ago they thwarted what would have been the 23rd terrorist attack on new york city since 9/11. so these students should be very careful what they wish for by demanding cops leave campus and use separate bathrooms. ashley: we sent a reporter out there to speak with some of these students, and they said they didn't want the police on campus because it makes safe spaces feel not so safe, another student said, you know, your first instinct when you see a cop is to be care ised. i mean -- is to be scared. what's going on? >> this is anti-police rhetoric that we've been seeing across the nation especially on college

campuses. it was reported recently students at the university of pittsburgh demanding the disarming of all police. and at the university of wisconsin, students sold anti-police hoodies and released a promotional video depicting police officers as bloody pigs. and it's just terrible. and we're seeing a glorification of this resistance movement towards police officers and towards law. and, you know, we see this with -- look at colin kaepernick. he was awarded citizen of the year after wearing socks at nfl games that depict police officers as pigs. we're seeing an entire generation not only disdain the rule of law, but actively engage in civil disobedience and learn to hate and resist anybody who represents or stands for it. ashley: now, you're with campusreform.org. what exactly is that about? >> we're a project of the leadership institute, we're kind of a watching to of higher education. -- watchdog of higher education. aaron ash bet you're busy, respect you? >> oh, yeah. very busy.

ashley: the one thing we hear a lot is anyone who doesn't have a liberal point of view, they get shouted down or they have to call security, they're so afraid of hearing another point of view. is that still prevalent? >> absolutely. and this is why it's so important for us to expose stories and to stand by them. with this anti-police rhetoric, for example, this is just one example of the many biases and abuses we see on college campuses. if we continue to teach our college students to hate police officers and shut down ideas they don't like, we can only expect another city like chicago where, i'm sorry, crime rate has skyrocketed because police are standing down, they're afraid to do their jobs because the community is learning and they're encouraged to engage in civil disobedience. and, you know, if this happens to new york city, it's dangerous because terror is on the rise. we need to start teaching our next generation to respect law and order, respect authority and act with decency. ashley: couldn't have said it any better.

heather, thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. ashley: another hit for uber's image. we're now learning that the new ceo brought it in, brought in, he was, to clean things up. apparently, he hid the news of that massive hack for months. we're on that story, you can bet. but first, it is a shortened trading day but any boost to the dow would give us another record. up to 23,532. we'll be right back after this.

ashley: we have a headline for you on uber. the massive hack attack we told you about a couple of days ago happened under the previous ceo, but the new see you knew about it -- new ceo knew about it and didn't say anything for months. >> yeah, he took the job and two weeks later learned of this hack that affected 57 million people, drivers' licenses taken, names, addresses. so this new ceo has so much work to do ahead of him with uber, but he may run into -- i mean, new york a.g. eric schneiderman has opened an inquiry -- ashley: yep. >> so this is not going to go away. this company is beleaguered, let's just say that. ashley: stumbles from one scandal to the next. >> it certainly does.

ashley: could he get in trouble for this with the federal trade commission maybe? >> yeah. normally, when you learn of a hack, you are supposed to contact the ftc and the a.g. in your state with the hopes of prosecuting the person who hacked, not just pay that person $100,000 to be quiet. ashley: don't say anything, delete it all. all right, we'll be right back with the opening of the market after this.

ashley: the market opens now, how about that? we're expecting it to move higher. we pulled back just a little bit on wednesday's session, see if we can break a few more records today. the market's only open til 1 p.m. eastern, but there's trading going on this morning. we're going to follow it all the way, and here we go. just as the futures have surmised, we're up about 40 points, 39 on the dow, 23,564. let's take a look at the s&p for you as well, a lot more stocks in the green than the red, the s&p also up two-tenths, 2602. a quick look at the nasdaq for you on this abbreviated friday version, also up about a tenth of a percent at 6877 on the nasdaq, green across the screen. also today there are 21

trading days until christmas, if you were wondering. so the question is, can the dow hit 24,000? we're not that far away, by christmas. joining the conversation, scott shellady from tjm investments. yes, he's still in westminster, and also here with us in studio david dietz and, of course, the unflappable -- [laughter] deirdre bolton. thank you all for being with us on this friday. let's take a look at this story. walmart customers are furious because walmart ran out of black friday sale items very quickly. deirdre, how can that be? >> i have no idea how that could be, and it's really a huge mistake, right? in this day and age, we keep talking about how every single retailer needs to protect itself from amazon. this is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, and walmart dropped the ball. i don't know how that happens, but it is bad news for them. they have tried so hard in recent weeks, and they actually successfully from their last earnings have been making

inroads to hold onto some of their market share against amazon. that is to say you have an app, you can return something in five minutes. they're doing everything to make it easier. i have no idea how this happened. ashley: not good. scott shellady, i asked the question just as the markets were opening, can we hit 24,000 on the dow by christmas, and you say -- [laughter] >> well, yeah, that's -- it's one, it's very possible. [laughter] that's about 2% away. we've got 21 days left, can we go a tenth of a percent a day? i think so. there's no more volatility left in the market, investors are getting more comfortable the less and less bad news affects the market. so as long as the investors are comfortable and we don't have some calamitous event, it's well within the sights, yes. ashley: why not? david, do you agree with scott? >> i'm going to give it about a 25% likelihood. ashley: that's not very good. there's a 75% chance it's not going to happen. >> absolutely. of course, everyone's saying santa claus is on steroids this

year, but when everyone is bullish, you got to look at the other side. i'll give you two reasons to be cautious. why did the chinese celebrate thanksgiving by dropping 2.3% in their markets? what's going on there? i know they're trying to dampen speculation, reduce debt, watch that. and the other thick, where's -- thing, where's the inflation? there's no inflation in goods and services. why is that? ashley: well, the fed is asking that every day. >> yeah. so i don't know whether you want it or not. if all of a sudden we see the inflation, then the fed goes on steroids, the market goes down. but if interest rates the stay low, there's no inflation, you have to wonder where's the strength in the economy? ashley: scott, jpmorgan says they believe if tax reform gets done, that's going to be an 8% -- they've worked it out -- 8% boost to the market. they believe that 3% of that has already been baked in, so they say if the lawmakers can get it done by the end of the year, look for a 5% jump on the

markets. would you agree with that reasoning? >> well, i tend to believe it's going to be more of a solidify case of the market and maybe a little bit of a trade higher, but i don't know if we're going to see this big jump, per se. a lot of folks are looking at the models from back in 1986, and the s&p put on 40% after we saw that tax reform back then. but you know what? we were growing much stronger back then. there was a lot of things we had going for us that we don't today. we've got systemic problems still. we still aren't growing like we need to be, and if that's the case, i think we solidify and probably trade a little higher rather than see this huge leg higher. ashley: all right, i guess we'll take that. clearly, today amazon and walmart will be the big winners in retail, but who's still around and doing well now and will even be here a year from now? david, anyone out there other than your amazons and your walmarts that you like? >> i'm going to give you two names. one is macy's. macy's is now trading below the

value of the real estate. so they just need to have less bad news, you know, develop some sort of a convergence strategy between mobile shopping and physical, and i think they could do can better. the other one is a little nontraditional, but it's kroger. ashley: the big shopping chain, supermarket chain. >> everyone talks about walmart and the online experience, 60% of their business is perishables, in other words, groceries. kroger is trading about a third of the valuation of walmart and about a 20th of the valuation to amazon. so where are they? but, i mean, you know, i think sometimes these names that are not in the news may be a more defensive bet at this point. ashley: scott, anyone else other than walmart and amazon that you like? >> well, i mean, if you look at the numbers, ashley, i mean, if this was a horse race, amazon is half a mile ahead, and the other two horses, believe it or not, online sales is apple and then

walmart, and the others would be macy's and cost cose. and -- costco. and we're talking about 95 billion in online sales for amazon and costco down to 4 billion from first to fifth. so it's still really about walmart and amazon. but at the end of the day, i like kohl's just how they're taking amazon returns. you have to start thinking about stuff like that outside the box. i just saw the ceo from macy's ask if he's spoken to amazon, and he wouldn't answer the question. maybe they're thinking about something too. ashley: interesting. let's stay on retail. the ice age, of course, we know continues with j.crew, it's going to be closing 39 stores by the end of january. this year alone a record 6,700 retail stores have closed overall. that number's just going to go up, don't you think, deirdre? >> and that's actually double what j.crew had planned about a year and a half ago. the ceo saying, listen, we want to be a digitally-focused company, this is part of our plan. i just want to make a note at

this point j.crew is really owned by a group of hedge funds, and they're really struggling. retail is hard. their big alliance with their executive editor who was dismissed a few years ago, i think they're struggling are they going to be a forever 21 and go kind of cheaper but to teens or stay with the more professional person, and i think they've just lost their way a little bit. ashley: it seems to me to get people to go into a store, you've got to give them a decent experience, and one of the things is customer service. i can't get that online as i click away merrily, but if i can get someone who can really help me in the store, that's added value to shopping, right? >> i think that's absolutely right, and that's why it was so distressing to hear what was going on online for walmart, not getting that service right. amazon talks about selling the alexa in the whole foods stores, and i'm thinking who would go into a whole foods store to buy the alexa? is. [laughter] you're going to ask the guy putting up the bananas how this

thing's going to work? i do think that is an opportunity for a bricks and mortar retailer to shine by being outstanding in that regard. ashley: scott, do you do all your shopping online, or do you hike to go into a department store or wherever as opposed to just sitting there in your bunny slippers on the sofa? [laughter] >> well, it's funny you bring it up. i like to do my grocery shopping in store -- ashley: sure. >> -- and i like to order everything else. i think that's going to be the new dichotomy. i agree, you have to have that experience in store with a lot of folks are starting to drop because they're too spread out, and i like the idea of, say, macy's getting rid of some stores and monetizing some of those upper floors and some of the real estate they own. another good one you'll know -- [inaudible] here has done a fantastic job of revamping. they've been able to attract millennials who don't even shop anymore. if you can get over that, you've got a chance. ashley: very good. now this story, tesla's testing out the world's biggest battery

in australia. of course, deirdre, the question is how big is it. >> how big is it? [laughter] lithium ion, they're trying to make the southern part of australia more energy independent, right? so a 100-day deadline, they're ready, and it's really for this whole entire region -- ashley: they're going to power an entire region on a battery. >> the southern aussies. ashley: they're going to have a giant battery powering a city. very interesting. tesla into everything, aren't they? of course, we like to follow general electric closely every day, still near a multi-year low. it was right around 18, there you go, 18, 19. it did dip into the 17s. doesn't seem like investors, david, really bought the turn-around plan for ge. what's your sense on ge? >> you know, we think if you have a reasonable time horizon, this looks very attractive here. i was heartened by the fact that several insiders including mr. flannery and mr. tish in the last couple days made huge purchases this. i mean, look, 70% of all their

sales and 85% of all their profits come from businesses that they are number one in. so that's a high quality business. you know, i'm saying to myself $124 billion in revenue last year, how can you not make a profit when that's coming through the transom? i think the wind is at their back to really cut costs. ashley: we've got to talk about this, of course, the senate gets back to work on monday. they've got exactly 21 days in the legislative calendar remaining to get tax reform done. the question is, will they do it? david, are you confident? >> you know, i'm actually going to give it better than a coin toss. you look at the proposals, and i think there's room for compromise and, certainly, the republicans realize it's going to be much harder next year when midterm elections are coming up. mr. trump so much wants a legislative win. of course, investors say will the market go up if there's the news, and i'm saying, okay, we're going to sell on the rumor, buy on the news? ashley: right.

>> i'm a little cautious that's going to happen. ashley: scott shellady, i know you're a big fan of congress. what do you say? [laughter] >> well, you know what? if you really look at the animal, they're self-serving and self-preservationists, and if they really, truly are are that which is not anything what they should be doing, but if that's what they are, they're going to have to pass it because they're going to have some elections coming up, and they're going to want to stick around. if they really are caring about themselves and not their constituency, they're going to give us tax cuts. ashley: very good. scott shellady in the u.k., big ben behind him and david dietz here in studio. thank you both for being here on this friday when you're not out shopping. quick check of the big board, we've been open now just about 11 minutes. er up on the dow about 36 points at 23,561. we've already seen a record on the s&p and the nasdaq in the first ten minutes of today's session. all right, saudi arabia about to open up its doors to tourist visas. the question though, what

strings may be attached? and would you even go? we'll talk about that next. another blow to president trump and the liberal -- on the liberal left coast, and again it has to do with sanctuary cities. that's next. when it might be time to buy or sell? with fidelity's real-time analytics, you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today.

fidelity. ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. ashley: let's get a check of big board for you. there we are, the dow up 37 points at 23,563. it's a shortened trading session today, but nevertheless, people are buying and selling, and they're buying more than they are selling and, therefore, we are up. nicole, what's going on? >> reporter: now we're seeing records across the board, and i'm watching a story about lyft. of course, uber, which had a bevy of p.r. wounds over last year, and the latest was the breach and the cover-up. lyft now is raising money, more money, $500 million in addition a round of funding. so this comes from alphabet capital ig, and this $500

million comes on top of the $1 billion round that was announced in october. this puts the valuation of lyft at roughly $11.5 billion. you know the companies have been battling out, and lyft has been trying to expand. heifer going to be moving in to -- they're going to be moving in to canada, they have added cities throughout the united states and now are in 95% of the united states, adding a hundred new cities in 2017. so it's a battle of these ride companies, and we know that uber has certainly been under a lot of pressure, and lyft's striking while the iron's hot. ashley: that it has. nicoleing thank you very much. now this, a federal judge in california has struck down president trump's sanctuary city order. it would have stopped sending federal money or grant money to cities who have sanctuary policies for illegals. california judge says you can't do that. joining us now, ken paxton, good friend of the show, texas attorney general, and an

opponent of sanctuary cities. we know that, ken. i'm not surprised that a california judge would do this. what are your feelings? >> no, i mean, there's a reason they filed in california. this has been the strategy since trump was elected; file on a liberal court, get the liberal court to overturn these executive orders even if they're lawful and even if they're legal. ashley: so where do you stand on this? you have sanctuary cities, obviously, in texas. you know, do you give up now? i mean, the executive order's been turned down, is this something you don't believe a court will actually agree to? >> no. i think the judge could easily determine that it's legal. all they had to do was make sure it was tailored to what congress allows, which there are certain grant programs that congress has said, yeah, you can restrict these cities from receiving grant funds if they don't participate or cooperate with the federal government. so this judge could have easily found that. instead, he struck the whole thing down. ashley: right. as you say, no big surprise in

california. next one for you, a u.s. border patrol agent mysteriously killed in texas. we've been covering this story. one officer killed, another badly injured. can you give us the latest on this story? >> well, obviously, the fbi's still investigating, there's still lots to be known about this because there were no witnesses to it. so i think as time goes on we're going to learn more. but right now, you know, the investigation's ongoing, and i think that's the reason that you see a reward from the state of texas and a reward from the feds, because look, we're still looking for information. ashley: yeah. this happened on an interstate, is that right? they were responding to an incident? but other than that, it's very unclear as to actually what happened. and, you know, there's an assumption they were attacked, clearly. but the details still very sketchy. >> yeah. that is the problem. although, you know, i guess they fell off an 8-foot 'em bansment, bridge -- 'em embankment, so it seems unlikely both of them would be as beat up as they were

if somebody hadn't done this purposely. ashley: all right. by the way, you're also seeking the death penalty for the suspect of killing a texas state trooper in a traffic stop, is that right? >> that is not uncommon in texas. if you kill a cop, we're likely going to seek the death penalty. i would not be surprised if we do that every time. ashley: yeah. what are the circumstances of that, ken? >> you're talking about the one that just occurred? ashley: yes. >> yeah. so what happens is that is typically a process that our local d.a.s deal with. but a lot of times these smaller counties will refer those to us. and if you're killing a cop, then we're very likely to look for the death penalty. ashley: also i wanted to mention you have joined other attorney generals to stress to the supreme court to let president trump's new travel ban stand. what's your thinking behind that? >> look, there have been 44 other travel bans that have been upheld. these are the first ones to be

struck down. and, obviously, they did it, again, in a liberal court. they asked a liberal court to overturn what we believe is completely lawful. there's a specific statute that gives the president the authority to do this, and so we stand with the president to protect citizens of this country. ashley: but, you know, critics, of course, just argue this is just an attempt to block muslims from entering the united states. that's the standard response opinion to what you say. >> well, there's nothing in the travel ban that specifies anything particular religion. what it does specify is it goes after countries that have a history of terrorism. so if you cannot do things like if the president cannot do these thing, then it puts my people in the state of texas at great risk. ashley: right. we'll have to leave it there. ken paxton, texas attorney general, thank you so much for joining us on this friday. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. have a great day. ashley: you too the. an update on that mosque attack in egypt, state tv now reporting 200 reported dead after

militants opened fire on a mosque during friday prayers. they were driving offroad vehicles while shooting. no word on how many are injured. clearly, this is a developing story. we'll bring you the latest information when it becomes available, but 200 dead now in that attack on egypt. let's check the markets for you, taking a look at the 30 stocks on the dow, more green than red as you can see. looks like chevron leading the way as oil prices continue to rise. verizon the laggard right now on the dow, but overall the index is up 41 points. ucla, new study on depression that could eliminate the disease. is there any truth to that? it's an interesting fact. dr. marc siegel up next on that. also for the doctor, a detached human head reattached and reportedly working. can't be true. is there any truth to that? we'll get into that as well. is this a phone?

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ashley: well, the head of jpmorganing, jamie die mornings says, guess what? he believes president trump is going to be a one-term president. we'll get into that, but that's what jamie tie monosays. turns out we might have a little more cash in our pockets before christmas this year. what's that about, deirdre? sounds good. >> very promising, right? ashley: love it.

>> hr officers from 500 corporations, they are saying in this general american population gets a 66 increase in christmas bonuses -- 66%, add aing as well -- stuart: who gets a bonus these days? >> i don't know. average is going to jump from 1,081 to 1,797. ashley: that's a big jump. >> it is, and if it is younger workers, let's say, maybe you look at that and say, okay, for a family of four maybe nobody's going to go crazy, but for a young person who's working, that's great. i mean, that's the difference between going online or going into a store and splurging. ashley: interesting. jpmorgan's ceo, said this earlier, says donald trump is likely to be a one-term president. what's all that about? >> well, jamie dimon has been expressing some very clear views, let's call it, about the president in this case, bitcoin in others. you remember he said it was kind

of a strawman currency, then had to backtrack and, apparently, jpmorgan also investing a little bit of money in the currency tuition. but i think the premise here is, of course, donald trump, president trump is a president like no other, and i guess mr. dimon's perspective is not likely to be repeated. ashley: i'm not so sure he thought he'd be president in the first place -- >> yes. bias, right? ashley: be careful of making political predictions. even though the president's agenda was pro-growth, and you would think it would be good for banks, especially when you talk about deregulation. >> especially of financial services, of course, and even when we look at the markets as we were talking about with your guest just here, you look at the dow and the s&p 500, this is a record year for the stock market. a lot of people saying this hope of tax reform is a big part of that reason, this idea that corporations can be taxed at 20% instead of the current levels of 35. ashley: i'm glad you said that, deirdre. s&p and nasdaq hitting all-time highs today.

why not? we have a team of reporters, by the way, checking out the retail scene on this black friday. more "varney" next. ..

>> 7:00 on the east coast in california live at a toys "r quote us store that has been open for 14 straight hours. 10:00 am on the east coast, shopping for four i was at the target store in new jersey. target decided to close overnight while competitors remained open. live reports from both locations. knew this our donald trump speaking to the president of turkey tackling middle east peace on his working vacation in mara lago before the state department issue is with us. seattle's tax on the wealthy struck down by a judge. we will tell you why the judge called it illegal, socialism on

hold in seattle for now. i am ashley webster, stuart will be back monday, the second hour of "varney and company" begins right now. ♪ ashley: just about half an hour on the markets we are up 40 points on the dow. 55 points from an all-time high of 23,165 lose the s&p and nasdaq did get new highs earlier today, both of those exchanges on the plus side today. disney, pixar's cocoa opens wednesday, it is expected to bring in $70 million this holiday weekend blowing away the superhero movie justice league was the big tech stocks, we like to check those every day. amazon up on black friday, amazon hit another all-time high, but 11 $74, the only stock slightly lower, sorry,

stuart varney, microsoft down slightly. staying on the retail theme shoppers have spent $1.5 billion online as of last night but a lot of brick and mortar stores have opened early, even yesterday to compete. hillary von in the sick of it all, what is it like today, right now? >> it is pretty dead. we are on our 14 of their 30 hour black friday shopping event but the extended hours not bringing more shoppers. 40% of gifts are going to be toys and toys "r quote us is ready for that but they are not flying off their shelves like they have been in years past lose here the deal they offered some people today if you got here before midnight. this baby nursery $80, you got $30 off of that if you were here before midnight. the next big toy is the barbie

three story townhouse selling for $120 would if you were here you got 50% off that, that is expired but tons here, they are not sold out, the third big item, the boomerang, they are keeping the door buster deal open because they haven't sold out of these, offering $150 off of that. 160 million people plan to shop on thanks giving weekend but where they all are we don't know. interesting to see where they are choosing to spend cash. a toys "r quote us employee said this year is a lot slower than years past. a lot of people going online because the prices online are cheaper. there other big competitor amazon, they say they will match amazon prices but they cannot be from a third-party vendor. a lot of big deals on amazon are from third-party vendors so if you bring that in the won't match the price but if it is in

amazon price they will try to get those deals in store. ashley: very good job, thank you, it plays out what we have been saying, black day not the day we thought it would be, more people shopping online, more people getting those deals last week or maybe last month so black friday itself, jeff flock with no one behind it, it was 8:00 in the morning but most people go out early dawn on black friday. we didn't see that. kind of quiet out there, bears out what we have been saying. congressman john conyers has no plans to resign despite allegations of sexual misconduct loses attorney releasing a statement saying if people were required to resign over allegations a lot of people would be out of work including any members of the house, senate, even the president. tammy bruce joining me now. okay, interesting statements,

should he resign? >> we don't have a lot of transparency here. we know congress through its shush fund has suspended $17 million in payments to people. we don't know the details or accusations, it is difficult. in this case as we have seen before you have multiple allegations in dynamics, situations where the latest is conyers came out in his underwear. why men think we want to see them naked or in their skivvies is beyond me but they think so. the woman making the accusation are known democrats, respected women, women everyone knows and this makes it difficult. when you have one allegation, depending on what those allegations are, right now you

look at a lot of stuff is conflated but for mister conyers, what i say in my column, you have a body here that paid a lot of money, how many would be affected, if one person setting a precedent whether it is al franken or conyers everyone else has to be dealt with. almost as though the democratic party seems to think there is a danger in one resignation because it could start -- don't american people deserve to know why there are so many dominoes, why we got this issue? that has to be addressed by mitch mcconnell and paul ryan. they were very vocal about roy more, and there seems to be comments about men in their midst and we deserve more than that. ashley: let voters in minnesota decide, do you agree?

>> this is the problem with mitch mcconnell, voters made their choice earlier here saying he should drop out, not even go to the general election, getting mixed messages. the senate will decide who gets to run. and it needs to be a process and the ethics committee, that nothing happened. and fired because of their behavior. and to maintain some kind of environment where laws are not broken, women are safe to work, this is serious and has to be

addressed accordingly. >> he tweeted about it this morning, bringing peace to the middle east. wouldn't that be nice, the former trump administration senior advisor, over the years, what can be done to achieve some semblance of peace in the middle east? >> a tough question, trump is doing something important, not so much talking to the turkish strongman which -- threw syria a big change from past administrations that approached through the israeli-palestinian dispute or iraq, but recognizing some of the other problems in the middle east that are talked about less in particular the dispute between iran and the rest of the middle east, the big divide,

approaching that and setting back iran is a bigger more important step toward long-term peace, these efforts we have seen in the past, searching for agreements with palestinian seem to pan out. ashley: another international headache, north korea, cubing backing north korea and backing demands to curb the nuclear weapons program in north korea. what a shocker. what is the end game with north korea? a dangerous game? is donald trump doing the right thing being vocal? is it having an impact? >> it is having an impact, one reason you see north korea hanging out with hugo, never a good sign, we have successfully pressured almost every other country in the world and had helped doing this from our allies, do not deal with north korea, to in fact downgrade relations with north korea. we have quietly been doing that throughout southeast asia, so

the countries that used to trade a little with north korea, have been expatriate labor or use to engage in diplomacy aren't doing that as much, pushing north korea into a box but one thing with north korea policy is we made a lot of noise and had some demonstrations of force, a risk that north korea will assume we never actually do anything beyond that and has gotten away with having a nuclear arsenal. that is the key risk. ashley: we have do leave it there. peace in the middle east and north korea, you did a great job, appreciate it. stock alert, amazon hitting a record high at 11 $74, up nearly $18, $1174, not bad at all for amazon. it is black friday. an actual brawl shutting down a shopping mall. women punching and kicking each

other as staff and police try to pull them apart, one woman she's throwing her shoe which had a baby. no words on arrests or injury, the ugly side of black friday. look at these shoppers, a little calm are looking for black friday deals but many stores are empty today most people shopping online but we can't forget the legislative agenda, house and senate only have three weeks to get something done on tax reform. you are watching the second hour of "varney and company". [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock.

ashley: begging for those things, got a jumpstart, it started a week ago, maybe in some cases, to go online. smartphones accounting for 46%

of all retailer traffic, an increase of 15% over last year, all in the palm of your hand, national retail federation president matthew shay joins us now. are smartphones killing black friday? >> i don't think so, not sure why they should be. if you look at the top 25 e-commerce sites, only one of them, amazon, is operated by a place with physical stores. people are shopping on smartphones and retailers, that is a good thing. ashley: brick and mortar is what i mean, people using their smart phone to do their shopping they don't have to go into the stores. what impact does that have on the brick and mortar folks? >> 24 are brick and mortar, a few times you and i and stuart

talked about how they are adapting to this changed environment. we know will be 164 million people shopping across the holiday weekend and the majority shopping online and in stores, 50% of those we surveyed indicated shopping both places, researchers shopping online and in store, better customers, higher levels of engagement. be engaged online is a good thing, positive thing, another form of shopping but that is what is happening, we are transforming the way -- ashley: my feeling if you can get the customer through the door they may end up buying stuff, had no plans on buying, they are surrounded by all these goods and that is what stores like, for people to pick up things they wouldn't normally do. is that killed by online shopping?

>> retail sales will grow this holiday season 3.6 to 4%. based on the numbers we have seen so far, the kickoff to the official black friday weekend we got yesterday we will be on the high side of that range. it is true we like to get customers into stores, be on their mobile phones and tablets and laptops but getting them engaged in this 365 ° is the way to engage with tutors and that is what we are seeing. that is why retail is bullish about this holiday season, macroeconomics are very good. we talked about the policy issues and creating optimism, tax reform and other things for corporate and small business pass-throughs, good for consumers and the economy. we expect a big weekend and based on everything we have seen and heard so far we are on the way to having that kind of weakens. ashley: walmart facing customer backlash, ran out of holiday sale items online.

>> the inventory no longer available if you go to walmart this morning, started selling last night at midnight and some of the smart tvs there is a sharp, 55 inch gargantuan tv. oddly enough -- there seem to be some items in inventory mismanagement. what is a shame for walmart is they did actually based on the last set of results seem to be holding their own surprising wall street. the stock turned up 4% when they released their numbers showing they were holding their own against amazon, the biggest retail story. this will hurt them in the next 12 to 24 hours, they will figure it out in time for cybermonday but tons of people complaining on social media, that is not good for their brand where they have invested so much in saying we are new and modern and make returns easily within 5 minutes.

we have invested a lot in their website. ashley: you got to be prepared especially as we head into black friday. how much of a black eyes that? >> no retailer once a stock on any item at any time of the year and doing what they can to correct that. we have seen that happening before. greater live interest in these fabulous deals you see these things happen occasionally but something we want to avoid. i point to the fact because we are talking about it and deirdre recognized the stock at 10% after analysts report was confirmed and the forward guidance, 13 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, this company is doing everything it can and doing it right and taking share from people.

they do not want -- and north for the results they grew, by 55% last quarter, incredible performance and that demonstrates many of them have the ability to be successful in this environment, target doing the best price. ashley: we have to leave it there, thank you for joining us this friday. pricing of the new semitruck. we have to leave it there. thanks for joining us this friday. appreciate it. now this. tesla pricing its new semitruck. it begins at $150,000 with the

300 -- coming up next kathleen stabile yes, democrat blasting the clintons for what happened in the white house when bill was in office, we talk about that next. if you have medicare

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ashley: kathleen stabile yes, secretary of health and human services under president obama criticizing the clintons over handling bill clinton at sexual misconduct while in office. what is -- >> clinton doubled down on abusive behavior, she says it is fair to criticize hillary clinton not only did people look away in that administration but after the women came forward, people attacked the victims, she said

it makes her feel very sad. before she was hhs she was governor of kansas and said sorry to see years later i started in politics, these patterns still exist and she went on to say never about sex but always about power and sorry to see, she says i could walk away at any time but i want to stick up for people, but she was very critical of the clintons saying there was a pattern and they encouraged attacking victims which is very powerful. ashley: for a while bill clinton used the oval office as a pickup joint. the victims were shamed and in some cases by all accounts destroyed in many ways. >> george stephanopoulos's book and noted hillary tried to destroy the accusers. this is the 25th anniversary of bill clinton been elected

president and i don't take seriously kathleen stabile yes after decades, a quarter of a century having any tiffany that something went very wrong. houston jell-o brand from new york city should have resigned. she says things have changed, it didn't change for a lot of us 25 years ago when we were saying the same thing. this is clearly political and when jell-o brand --gillibrand was asked about al franken, when we have things in front of us which i contend is a direct result of the standard that was set, if you are right on the issues -- they need to investigate.

you hired me, what happened to my personal life doesn't matter and this is a widespread problem, chickens coming home to roost and they want to go after republicans, try to establish that moral superiority's they say they have. ashley: more varney after this.

ashley: signed, sealed and delivered. take a look at the big board, take a look at the big board, the dow of 24 points at 22,571. we have a shortened trading day, still going higher. big tech names, gold moving higher, microsoft down, we are keeping an eye on amazon, black

friday, all-time high right now, nearly 181/2, $74, amazon. by the way dear hitting a record high, from deutsche bank. hitting another all-time high. right now up more than 1%. black friday sales in full swing. we see chicago, california. deutsche bank upgrades, not going to do well, the stock is up $246. black friday sales in full swing. we have been to chicago. lauren simonetti live. >> it is true. 150 million people are expecting -- ashley: so far shoppers, the amount of shoppers hasn't been impressive. look behind you, doesn't seem like that many. lauren: 150 million people are

expected to shop on black friday, biggest day of the holiday weekend but everything is happening online these days, not only online but half of the sales and giving remain on local phones so it is difficult for brick and mortars to compete. i know you went to hillary von in california earlier, she did not have this. they are in stock here for $200. ashley, if you see this little guy, $10. hard to buy it. a couple of these, asked for some back because they are selling them quickly so i hold onto this one. you see this little guy? $10. this is the last one. they sold yesterday 600 of these guys per minute.

600 a minute. we are seeing steady traffic throughout the day. you can make the argument target lost $6 of potential sales or you can make the argument they stayed open overnight. they closed overnight, competitors jcpenney, calls were open overnight. you could make the argument target lost 6 hours of potential sales but you can also make the argument, you see this when you look online numbers that the sale are happening but happening on a computer and on the phone. ashley: you and the bear looking lonely. our executive producer said there are more fox employees in the store than customers. lauren: we will give you some customers, come down the tv i'll. there is activity. here we go. you can get your cake over

here, italian and ultra hdtv at the same time. and you can run into some people. ashley: human beings inside the store, great efforts. great job. lauren: one more thing, a request. i have been looking for items for you. is there anything in particular you would like? ashley: i love electronic gadgets. i will give that clue to you. lauren: see what i can come up with. ashley: sunglasses and gadgets, those are good to go. warner: i am on it. ashley: thank you. what a job she has been doing. donald trump heading to the grill next week to visit senate republicans. this is all about tax reform. former chief of staff mike lee, lloyd matheson joins us on this friday. not right now, not yet.

it is all about tax reform. by christmas. making a prediction. >> i think it is less then 50/50, maybe 40% chance we will get this done. there are so many holes in it. this is what happens last-minute behind closed doors, drop it on the floor, false armageddon moment. the only thing that will happen i can guarantee is a lot of money sending out fundraising emails 8 of his go through grandma is going off the cliff and republicans will make money with their fundraising saying if we don't pass this before christmas we are on the road to serfdom, socialism. that is a problem, a leadership problem in the senate that is the problem. the president is struggling with the fact that we are not getting that in the senate. the senate said for a year they would have a once in a generation opportunity to deal with taxes and they put it off and put it off and throw it together the last minute. this looks like a big business

give away more than hard-working americans that elected the president. there are a lot of challenges when it goes to the hill. ashley: do you blame mitch mcconnell as the leader of the senate for not hitting everyone on the same page? >> absolutely. it does fall at his feet. the house did their job, did it across the board. we are floundering. we saw this with healthcare. the problem is in the senate and things are not getting done. the president will not only fire if you shot across the bow next week but may take a few shots at the bow telling mitch mcconnell this has to get done for christmas. ashley: utah senator orrin hatch, deciding whether to seek another term. >> he may take a few shots at the bow telling mitch mcconnell this has to get done. my wife appreciate that as well.

there were a lot of good reasons to run. we just described the biggest one, why i considered it at all. i look at it, right now more than any senator, 100 senators, individuals that shape the conversation the country will have for the next year. my skill set and focus is better to help give people the skills, strategy and structures because when we talk about this, not just swapping out a better deal, the way of the swamp. better to help build leaders and focus on skills, strategies, structures. we can't just swap out -- not just one senator for better senator, it is the way of the swamp. ashley: are you clearing the way for maybe -- >> instead of running to be one

of 100 we can champion whole bunch. ashley: to approach this like a bain capital turnaround, go at it from a leadership standpoint, that could be good for the country but we will see. he hasn't made his decision yet so that will be fascinating to watch. ashley: thank you very much. are you going shopping after this? >> no chance. ashley: i am with you. so much. the survey shows 20% of millennial's 26 to 34 are living at home. the conservative millennial blogger joins us from dallas. why are they staying at home? if i am 34 years old. conservative millennial blogger joins us. >> let's hope so. ashley: why are they staying at home? >> the older set of

millennial's born in the mid-fozto late 1980s suffered through a recession when they were graduating from college and unfortunately many of them never recovered. you have the younger set of millennial's born in early to mid 1980s suffered in 2008 from the recession when they were graduating from college and looking for jobs which many of them never recovered. you have a younger set of millennial's -- for other reasons as well. undoubtedly there is a stigma against independence in the media and social media and pop culture. it becomes trendy to be irresponsible. what i call the disease of adolescence where it becomes cool to go out like a college student until you are in your mid-30s. it has become a trend to push off the responsibility and that

is why you see so many opting for bernie sanders style socialism. they are not afraid of dependence. that is why you saw so many vote for bernie sanders in 2016. ashley: arrested development is what you are describing. i want to change gears to sexual-harassment on capitol hill. senator out franken issue another apology after two more women said, he said i feel terribly -- i am sorry and i want to make sure that never happens again. should there be a former punishment? women said he touched him inappropriately -- >> i don't think an ethics probe is enough on the senate side but not on the house side if you look at representative conyers who has not only been accused of sexual harassment but using taxpayer money to pay

off a former employee who says she was fired because she didn't respond to his sexual advances. in congress, traveling as people say what they want to pay off a former employee who said she was fired because she didn't respond to his sexual advances so this -- they are public servants using taxpayer dollars so these congressmen should immediately resign. ashley: thank you for joining us, appreciate it. donald trump -- on the middle east, play golf quickly with tiger woods and dustin johnson, why not. venezuela on the brink. our next guest says the maduro regime is controlling its citizens, that is next. shield annuities from brighthouse financial, allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities.

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>> shoppers turning to mobile phones to do holiday shopping, people start shopping online as soon as dessert is over. >> what people are doing instead of going to michigan, they are using their mobile phones, the mobile phone, everyone has a shopping mall in

their pocket. even my own family thinks giving leslie towards the end, we found people in various rooms in the house, going through deals of smart phone. now what you are seeing, holiday shopping, smart phone, finishing the final pumpkin pie is eaten and then actually it turned out last year 24 hours after thanksgiving dinner was the biggest online shopping period in the country.

ashley: venezuela on the brink of asking nicholas maduro, wall street journal columnist and wall street contributor grady joins us now. this has been going on for some time, the collapse of this country. at what point does he get overthrown? someone has taken those steps. >> it doesn't look very good in the medium term. the military as part of the operation, the purged military, putting people who support him, they do drug trafficking, government has a lot of money, less than what it was but still has those dollars. it the same time it has those

dollars, a lot of this, enormous amount of control, holding onto power. ashley: in particular food, to exert control. >> they did two things. it destroyed the currency, making it hard to import or to buy food from outside the country but also destroyed the production of food inside the country and that was partly done because of hyperinflation and because of price can. when you impose price control you get shorted. there is very little production. farmers can't get things like spare parts for their farm equipment or seed. they can't sell products at a profit because of price control so they are not producing. ashley: what can be done on the outside? what should the us be doing?

>> one encouraging thing is the country is more isolated. in the 20 century most of latin america was written to isolate cuba. they saw fidel castro as a balancing against the united states. in this case a large number of countries have banded together on human rights and more accountability on the part of the government. one problem is russia and china and iran are helping venezuela and cuba is helping but the more the country can be isolated, that will help a lot. we are big buyers of mexican oil and we don't have to be. ashley: a have oil reserves. >> we don't have to be big buyers of venezuelan oil. we can get lots of oil from canada and we have a lot in reserve. that is what i think would be a useful tool. ashley: in your mind there

doesn't seem to be as you say short or medium-term any change for the people of venezuela who are continuing to suffer under this regime. >> i am pessimistic because in july, to push back and see action. there was even some signs of rebellion in the military but that has been put down and one of the ways it is put down is in control of food. it is not an encouraging scene at all. ashley: we have to leave it on that down note, thank you so much. now this. 12-year-old from texas is suing jeff sessions hoping to make marijuana legal, calling himself a medical refugee. fascinating story, we will explain. is this a phone?

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ashley: a 12-year-old girl from texas is suing jeff sessions hoping to make marijuana legal nationwide after her family was forced to move to colorado where it is legal so she can use it for her seizures. medical marijuana legal in just 29 states.

we are joined by michael hiller, new york attorney and the 12-year-old girl herself who joins us. alexa, thank you for joining us. you call yourself a medical refugee explain what that means. >> it means in texas i had seizures and because i had seizures i tried several drugs none of which worked. they either did nothing or just made the seizure worse or came in a different form. we watched a documentary, and it showed that cannabis can treat seizures. so one night i had the worst seizure of my life. after that, our doctor actually said it would be best, we had

to choose between brain surgery and moving to colorado to get my medicine, we hope it is because it is legal. we were basically after talking to many politicians, forced out of texas and forced to move to colorado because it is illegal in texas. ashley: very well put. you are represented, suing jeff sessions, attorney general of this country so all states should make marijuana available. is that it? >> the controlled substance act is unconstitutional. right now cannabis under the controlled substance act means federally it is illegal, you can't travel to washington, lobby representatives or across state lines to safely. what we are trying to do is invalidate at the federal level

which we believe will pave the way to legalization throughout the united states. 29 states of legalized cannabis. ashley: how hopeful are you can make around with this? >> we have ever been in a better position than we are now. the evidence we collected and the fact we uncovered make clear the united states government knows cannabis is safe and medically effective but for some reason it is continued to be illegal for people like alexis who desperately need the medication to preserve their health and lives. ashley: if you had a chance to talk with jeff sessions, the attorney general, what would you say to him? >> you can answer this too. ashley: go ahead. >> okay. cannabis has saved my life. if i stay in texas and got brain surgery, who knows what would happen? i could have died.

seizures, just imagine being stuck in your own body, you can't scream or say anything or call for help. ashley: we have to leave it there, thank you very much, more varney after this. and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. it really scared him out of the markets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65. having someone coach you through it is really the value of a financial advisor.

yes or no? do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service

that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. ashley: two hours to go now until the end of this shortened trading day. the dow, hone though, what we'vn so far, up 52 points, not bad. all this while the s&p and nasdaq have already hit all-time highs today. the dow, by the way, about 50 points away there a new high. so how about that one on this black friday. meanwhile, the senate gets back to work on monday, and president trump will meet with senate republicans on tuesday. this is all about, of course, getting tax reform done. christmas is the deadline. the senate has just 15 days left on its legislative calendar this year. time to get going, as they say. plus, yes, it is black friday, and every store we've checked in on so far this morning empty.

that's not a good sight. coast to coast, a lot of people -- you guessed it -- shopping online, on their phones or waiting for those last minute deals right before christmas. look at those empty stores. but first, jeff flock is in chicago where protesters are gathering on the magnificent mile. jeff, set the scene for us. >> reporter: yeah. here at the water tower. this is the famed chicago water tower on michigan avenue out there, and this, as you see, is a protest not yet getting under way but just about to as we speak. these are people protesting against police injustice, they say, to black citizens in chicago. you know, two years ago at this time on black friday it was just after the release of the laquan mcdonald shooting video that sparked such outrage in chicago. and at the time, there was a tremendous demonstration. protesters actually shutting down multiple stores along michigan avenue. i'm not sure what the plan is today, but one of the things

they're pushing for is a police accountability, public accountability council for the police. you know, over the years the police have sort of policed themselves in these police shootings. they would like to have a publicly-elected, popularly-elected council to investigate the shootings. that's what they're pushing for. i suspect we'll hear more of that later today, but we'll keep an eye on the protests and see how it turns out. ashley? ashley: thank you for setting the scene there in chicago. appreciate that. let's bring in charlie kirk, turning point usa founder, and as stuart always likes to say, will be the future president of the united states, charlie kirk. he joins us from chicago, funny enough. charlie, what's your reaction to these demonstrations that jeff was just outlining for us? >> it's a total and complete distraction, you know? being from chicago, i wonder why they don't make such a ruckus over the over 600 black-on-black gun crimes here in the city just this year alone. it's incredible, the carnage

that has happened in this city, and it seems like there's near silence. is there some police brutality in this city? of course. but there's no more than maybe ten deaths of police shooting african-americans in the city that are questionable a year where there's over 600 black-on-black gun crimes. i think it's an issue that needs to be addressed in the community rather than making this sort of distraction on black friday. ashley: stay right there, charlie, we'll get back to you in just a minute. a new survey finds that the number of black friday shoppers is down this year. more people shopping online than in stores. and as we've shown you over the past two hours, a lot of empty stores on the east coast, on the west coast and even there in chicago. jeff sica from circle square investments joins us for this last hour. does black friday matter anymore, jeff? >> well, here's what you have to consider, 5,000 stores were shutteredded in the past year. courtesy of amazon and on line.

so black friday since 2014 when there was about 14% of people said that they would shop online, now it's more like 75%. so online shopping has become crucial to understanding the dynamics of this. also what investors need to understand is that, is that sales for the retailers that have survived have been going on all month. actually, have been going on since october. ashley: right. >> so at this point a lot of people have already gotten out and already taken advantage of these sales. so you put the two and two together, this holiday or this day has become a lot less relevant. jeff: used to be one day, then it became a week and now, as you say, a month or more. you're absolutely right. next one, jeff, besides amazon and walmart, what other retailers will stand out, do you think, this holiday season? it's a tough environment out there. >> here's -- first of all, if you don't have an online presence, you are going to be decimated.

so what i would say is in what we're looking at, we actually went out and bought 40 pieces of real estate for realtors that are involved in things that amazon is going to have a hard time getting into, things like tires. you could buy a tire over the internet, but if they send it to you, what are you going to do with it? [laughter] we looked at it as tire stores, things like auto parts stores -- ashley: niching areas. >> yeah. and what we really like is dollar general because impulse items, people want impulse items immediately. ashley: right. >> not waiting for toilet paper or toothpaste. they want it immediately. dollar stores are going to make it. ashley: it seems to me, we talked about this earlier, jeff, another thing that stores are really losing out on is that shopper that comes in, they're not quite sure what they want to get, they'll look around, and they'll buy a whole bunch of stuff whereas if you're on the sofa at home, you're not going to be doing that so much. >> right. but here's the alexa dynamic

which alexa, from amazon, is going to change everything. i've said that alexa is a search engine where you could sit on your couch or look in your pantry and say i need milk, i need sugar, is and iowa lex sa will -- alexa will take care of it for you. as much as, yes, people need to go to stores and the grocery, that's why amazon bought whole foods. you still need to buy groceries, but alexa will change everything, and people need to know that where you could literally sit on your couch, look around and just -- ashley: tell alexa. >> -- say what you need, and all of a sudden it'll show up. ashley: next one, jeff, 21 trading days until christmas. does the dow can, do you think, hit 24,000 by christmas? >> here's what i think and, no, i don't think it's going to hit it unless, unless the congress makes significant progress. we're up against this deadline. this market has been very

dependent on us getting these tax cuts. if we get tax cuts or definitive progress -- ashley: then we could. >> you know, i've said it all along, don't underestimate the incompetency of congress to blow this. so, yes, investors are anticipating it's going to happen. if it does happen, we could push close or a little above that. if it does happen, we're going to go the -- if it doesn't happen, we're going the reverse direction. ashley: thank you very much, jeff. now this, president trump tweeting about anthem protests or thanksgiving saying, quote: can you believe that disrespect for our country, our flag, our anthem continues without penalty to the players? the commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. players are the boss. exclamation point. charlie kirk, still with us. charlie, do you think the president's got it right on this one? >> i do, and i think this is an issue that, like myself, millions of americans take very seriously. i don't watch the nfl anymore. i love college football. i will not, you know, spend my time watching a league that tolerates this blatant

anti-americanism. and, look, how much is it to ask just to have nfl players stand for two and a half minutes, you know, during the national anthem? there's a reason why before the national anthem at every nfl game they say over the intercom, ladies and gentlemen, please remove your hats in honor of all those that have served. they say that for a reason, and they bring out military mens, and they -- members, and they drape sometimes the entire field with the flag, and that's because the flag matters. it's a symbol across the entire world the freedom and justice of the greatest country in the world. and when you see these players kneeling, first of all, i don't think they understand what they're doing. secondly, it's so disrespectful to those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. so i do support the president weighing in on this very important culture issue. ashley: very well put, charlie kirk. you know, the league is paying for it. they're losing ratings on tv, they're losing the number of fans who show up to the stadiums, and it doesn't look like it's going to get solved

anytime soon. charlie, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: an update on thats mocks attack in egypt now -- on that mosque attack in egypt, reporting 235 people dead after militants opened fire on a mosque during friday prayers. president trump just tweeting about this. quote: horrible and cowardly troirs attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in egypt. the world cannot tolerate terrorism. we must defeat them militarily and disthe credit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence. that is the tweet from the president. and, by the way, these attackers were driving off-road vehicles while shooting. no word on how many are injured but, again, 235 people dead. developing story, we'll continue to follow it for you. check this out, the crew of the international space station tweeting about thanksgiving. they had a turkey dinner with all the fixings. of course, it was floating around. they also had lettuce grown and harvested in space. that's cool. nasa says the crew is taking the day off to enjoy the view of

earth. i wonder if they're doing any shopping? probably not. still ahead, sexual harassment and who pays for it becoming major issue on capit hill. we're asking what t pishment should be f those whore accused. and the hits keepn coming for uber. turns out the new ceo knew about that major cyber attack for months. we're all over that story. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ dad: we walk inside... and it's raining... our home was ruined... we couldn't live there. mom: our first concern was the kids. this was going to be hard on them. chubb got us a place to stay in the same school district. otherwise it could have been a nightmare. dad... chubb turned a disaster into an adventure for our kids. mom... and no one missed a day of school.

♪

ashley: it seems uber's new chief executive knew about that massive data breach. the question now, deirdre bolton, is how long did he know about it? >> okay, so he just started as uber's new ceo in september to try to just turn the page. the previous ceo, travis kalanick, many people said lacked the maturity for that

position, his harsher critics said he lacked the ethics of the average or person. so the new ceo, he knew two weeks after he accepted the position about this leak, 57 million people hacked. customers and driverses collectively -- ashley: that was two months ago. >> actually, but the hack happened in october 2016. ashley: but he knew about it when he took over. >> exactly. now, in his defense, i suppose, what i could say is he did say he was just honestly trying to figure out how this happened and how it happened that the former ceo actually paid the hackers hush money, $100,000 of hush money, to not share the data and to keep the fact that they allowed themselves to get hacked quiet. so this new ceo, he's just, he is just cleaning up. ashley: put out fires everywhere. >> yes, he is. i think so far he's done a good job. i mean, you know this, uber's been banned in london, he put out a very noble statement going

forward we are focused on integrity. he does seem like an adult in the room. the question is, is it too late? is it going to affect uber's chances of going public. one of the reasons they had to disclose this is because soft bank is not quite sure it's going to write another check to uber until they see things running better. ashley: deirdre, thank you very much. the tax reform debate resumes in the senate next week. go pac senator lisa murkowski is backing that obamacare mandate repeal. katherine munson joins us now, good to see you. do you -- let's start there, shall we? do you support that repeal of the mandate? >> absolutely. very important that we do that. if we don't get that done, then understand that these pass-through businesses, these small business taxpayers, will be paying that additional medicare surcharge tax of .9%. so we need to have parity between small businesses and c corporations. ashley: okay. so some small business owners

are concerned about the new legislation. there are are those that say for those pass-through corporations, basically, you know, you distribute the profits and pay individual tax rates on those which, of course, are much higher. they say that the proposed bill just doesn't do enough to help small businesses, and it's the big corporations, the big, giant guys that are getting all of the breaks. what would you say? >> i think that's exactly right. 90% of all businesses in the united states are pass-throughs. that means they pay their taxes, as you said, on their personal income tax returns. those are s corporations, sole proprietorships, hlcs, partnership -- llcs, partnerships. 90% of those companies are going to pay higher taxes than the c corps. my company, we're a c corp.. we're going to benefit from that 20%, but my 600 franchisees throughout the united states are going to pay higher income taxes than i am. it's just not fair. another unfair part about the bill is state and local taxes.

c corps like myself, we get to deduct them before we get to our taxable income. but those pass-through entities are not going to be able to. so what we want is wareness and parity -- fairness and parity, a level playing field for those 90% of american businesses, those small businesses and the c corporations. and the current bill in the senate -- and i'm even going to tell you the current bill that's passed the house -- they don't give us that parity. and that's important to the small business community. small businesses employ 50% of all private sector employees. they create two-thirds of all new jobs. that's where all the engine of economic growth and innovation comes from. we can't hamstring them and treat them unfairly and discriminate against them which both plans currently do. i think we ought to tax c corporations and pass-through entities at the very same rate even if both were at 25%. that'd be an improvement, a vast improvement over where we are today. ashley: that said, katherine,

are you confident that they'll get something done before the end of the year? and if it goes through pretty much in its current form, if the senate and house can come together and put through something that's pretty, you know, pretty close to what it is now, would you be happy with that, or would you rather them wait and get it right? >> you know, i would rather have it done right than rushed. i think we need to treat all businesses fairly, and i don't think this rushing it through to get it done before christmas is going to end up the way it is. you know, with reconciliation they've got some tricky math that they've got to do to make it work with 51 votes. and if they're going to keep the c corporation, the big corporate tax rate at 20%, they're not going to be to able to treat small businesses fairly if they're stuck on that 20%. let's go with 23 or 24 or 25% for all businesses. that would be fairer, parity, level playing field. ashley: hopefully, they get your message, catherine monson, thank

you so much for joining us, appreciate it. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: good news for workers across the country, a new survey from accounting principles say that christmas bonuses expected to jump by 66%. the bonuses will average nearly $1800. here's another stat for you, why not? nearly 40% of employers plan to give workers other perks instead of a bonus. and if you plan on buying a real christmas tree this year, you better hurry up. a tree shortage expected this season. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

ashley: guess what? your christmas tree could cost you more year. deirdre, tell me why. >> there is a national christmas tree association, in case you did not know that, but there is one, and they are saying that there is a shortage of certain holiday trees in certain states. so when you're out shopping, you may see a little bit more of an expensive tree this year. or you may face limited supplies. you may have to go, like, douglas fir -- ashley: fancy, fancy. or end up with a charlie brown tree that's like, you know, a foot high. >> actually, that's what i end

up getting anyway. [laughter] those are going to be your choices. you either get the 10-footer that's a monster and takes over your house -- ashley: right. have you ever done that and it looks so much smaller -- i actually went into the woods when i lived in montana and did the whole thing. >> i can see that, ashley. ashley: i completely blew it, and half of it's bent over in the living room. there was no squirrel in it, but -- [laughter] funny of stuff. a new report says less people are heading out to the stores on black friday, but that may not be the case in some places. we'll see. hillary vaughn inside a toys r us store near l.a. with, well, a look at the crowds. hillary? >> reporter: ashley, the lack of crowds, actually. the black friday frenzy that we're used to seeing has slowed down a bit. the hustle and bustle on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, well, it's not here. you can see as we browse through the aisles there aren't a lot of shoppers.

there hasn't been a line at any of the cash registers since we've been here, and all their big door-buster deals are sill this stock. compare that to years past when they sold out in minutes. we asked some people why they are going in store today instead of online. here's what they said. >> there's something about coming out here and sort of seeing the products, touching them, getting away from the kids. >> kind of a tradition with us to come out and shop for the kansas city together. and it's harder to -- the kids together. and it's harder to shop together when you're shopping online. >> there's nobody here. i mean, not nobody, but it's great. i was expecting to have to claw -- i've never been out on black friday before. >> reporter: you know, ashley, just because there aren't that many shoppers doesn't mean money isn't being spent, but a lot of it is going online. they're pushing online sales, they even have better deals online than some of the deals in the store. that's where people are going, and bottom line, it's also more convenient. you don't have to wait outside for hours waiting for doors to

open anymore to get those good deals. now you can do it from the comfort of your own home. it's a lot more convenient for consumers. ashley? ashley: wearing your bunny slippers and your favorite pjs, what a way to shop. [laughter] i actually saw two people behind hillary. not exactly a huge crowd, but at least there's someone in there. walmart getting slammed by customers after it sold out of a bunch of items on its web site yesterday, that's not good. they kicked off black friday sales at 12:01 a.m. on thanksgiving, but it ran out of items such as clothing, 55-inch tvs and other electronics. but the stock's still moving higher today. alabama senate candidate roy moore and doug jones locked in an increasingly nasty battle. and a new ad from jones features the names and photos of women who have accused moore of sexual misconduct. we'll have that story next. let's begin.

yes or no? do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. ♪ ♪ ashley: welcome back, everyone. that's kanye, by the way. i was just told that, i didn't know it. check the big board, the dow up 62 points this morning. it's an abbreviated sessioned today, we're going to be closing in about 90 minutes from now, 1 p.m. eastern. from what trading we've seen, there's been a lot more buying

than selling, 23,588. pretty impressive. all right, take a look at this number. a new study says online sales reach $1 is.52 billion -- 1.52 billion starting on thanksgiving. deirdre, that's remarkable. >> as of midnight. some people apparently starting before, so consumer spending up something like 17% if you look at this 24-hour block compared to years past. and a lot of it done on mobile phones. so it seems like you have a nice dinner, maybe you excuse yourself, you go into the room -- ashley: just crash out on the sofa. >> sugar crash, alcohol crash maybe -- ashley: i have all of those. >> check, check, check? ashley: yes, yes, yes. thankthank you, deirdre. holiday online shopping seems to be changing the landscape. with us now is rob fudderman. welcome, by the way, thanks for coming in on black friday, of all days. what does this mean for retail jobs? we know a lot of jobs have been lost, and they're not being

picked up at the same rate by online operators, so retailing is a tough business right now. >> well, it is tough, but in a year you've seen big changes. you've seen, you know, shoppers getting out of the house, off the couch and actually going into stores and having that experience and touching and feeling merchandise. so i do think, you know, 45% of e-mails to consumers have increased this year, and e-mail is a great merger of digital technology and e-retailing and bricks and mortar. where the e-mails are getting customers to come back into the store i think that's a big difference. ashley: it's got to be a positive experience. i always believe crust her service is -- customer service is critical. if you get someone who can really help you, that makes a difference. >> absolutely. the retailers are all trying to figure it out. if you look at the tj maxx, gap outlet, they're all doing extremely well. when you look at louis vuitton, gucci, again, unaffected and

doing extremely well. it's everything in the middle that's got to get fixed, and customer service is a huge part of that. ashley: next one more you, amazon and walmart expected to do well despite the retail shake-up, but what other retailers talking of those, i guess in the middle, which ones do you expect to do well? >> if you look at companies like j.crew, madewell is expanding. they're doing extremely well. so you do see more stores opening than closing in 2018. so as much as everybody's talking about the retail apocalypse, it's really not happening on the ground. ashley: yeah, but what about the macy's? we know that jcpenney and sears are really struggling, but a macy's and maybe a kohl's a little stronger? >> well, absolutely. look, macy's right now is going to be discounting today 60 of their inventory. ashley: right. >> so, you know, you get two extra shopping days this year because christmas is on a monday and new year's is on a monday, so that should help. and i do think at macy's, just like lord and taylor just

announced a monetizing of their reality, is where macy's is going to go to close stores, downsize stores and make the customer experience so much better. ashley: is that because they overbuilt, finally come back to roost? >> absolutely. the u.s. is overretailed. every highway and too many shopping centers, too many regional malls, and you're going to start to see changes, start to see company like brookfield, you're going to talk about a ggp which is brookfield is their largest shareholder, talk about them taking over the company. to use these sites for alternative purposes, maybe schools, hospitals -- ashley: right. >> -- residential office, etc. ashley: i read somewhere for every person in the united states, there's 26 square feet of retail space. in europe, it's 2.5 square feet. that tells you something. >> when there's too many alternatives, too many shopping centers, and we're overbuilt. and now we're in the thick of figuring out what to do with all this excess space in these great

locations. so they can be reutilized and still be reoriented and repurposed for customers with store the downsizing and improving customer experience and improving the experience in the stores. ashley: that's the -- >> because millennials like to shop in stores. ashley: yes. >> but they just need something that's going to wow them and something that's experiencial and creative. ashley: very quickly, think it's a good holiday season for the retailers? >> i do. i think that black friday is, everybody's putting a little too much emphasis on what black friday means as a barometer. ashley: yeah. >> but i do think with those extra shopping days, cold weather in the northeast, it's a good holiday season. ashley: rob, thank you very much for coming in, appreciate it, on black friday. okay, the senate expected to pick up the tax reform debate next week as the president is prepping to meet with congressional leaders on tuesday, lay down the cost a little bit, get this thing done, the president's going to say. with us now is john fund,

national review columnist. thanks for being here. we have, what, 15 days left of actual legislative days for the senate. can they get this done, or are we still going to get hung up on some of these issues like state and local taxes, repealing of obamacare mandate? i mean, can they get this done? >> they may have to if they have any chance at all of going to the voters next year with a record. roy moore and his democratic opponent are going before the voters on december 12th. ashley: right. >> if the democrat win, the republicans go down to 51 seats. that makes it very problematical in passing a tax reform bill. even with roy moore he's, shall we say, unpredictable. ashley: right. >> the current thinking right now is get a bill passed before the election in alabama on december the 12th. as for these ore issues -- other issues being resolved, they can be hammered out in conference committee. the key is the senate has to pass the bill. if they can hammer it out in conference committee, that probably would be approved by

the full senate even if there was a change in alabama. ashley: what's the key stumbling block, in your mind? >> the key stumbling block is there's a bunch of senators who want always just a little bit more. ashley: right. >> and the problem -- the one advantage mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, has right now he's saying, look, the bazaar is closing on december 12th. [laughter] you've got to take what you can. because there's one thing that's even worse than not -- the senate bill, and that is not having one, going before the voters and saying we controlled congress and the white house for two years and, guess what? we didn't do anything. ashley: what are they going to hear from the president on tuesday? >> a pep rally. the president will say i will sign what you send me which, of course, makes it easier because then they don't have to negotiate with the white house. ashley: were you surprised the mandate repeal in there, throwing in a little bit of a health care into it? >> egg, think about this --

well, think about this, that score there, that $300 billion score makes it much more difficult to get other parts of the tax bill scored under a static model. so if you can put in the individual mandate, it really doesn't change anything because people aren't being fined if they don't get health insurance, and it gives you much more breathing room to get other things into the tax bill and, shall we say, give some of those goodies away to the senators demanding -- ashley: right. who are wanting their piece of it. on a percentage chance, you think they get it done by christmas by what percentage? >> two to one odds. ashley: we've had a lot of people who are less optimistic about it, which ises interesting. >> samuel johnson, the british writer, said nothing concentrates a man so much as the prospect of his own happening. [laughter] i think -- hanging. i think politicians are very much like that. if they don't get this done, that race in alabama could make it less likely. and, of course, the longer this lasts, the more that the opposition, the k street

lobbying crowd will gather forces and try to stop the bill. ashley: we had a small business owner on this morning who hates this bill. both senate and house versions, because it doesn't do enough for small businesses which she argued was 90% of the economy -- >> but it does more than the status quo. ashley: that's true. that's true. but she says it's all tilted towards the big, giant corporations that get the 20% -- >> well, that's within the problem with our -- been our problem with the tax code from the givenning. those with the clout get the most. this at least gets the beginnings of tax reform, beginnings of equity as to how small business and subchapter s corporations are handled. it's a starting point, and beggars can't be choosers when it comes to tax reform. ashley: you're definitely in the stuart varney camp, something is for the better than nothing. >> and something has to be done or this congress is branded to failure. ashley: yeah, it's toast in the midterms. >> yes. ashley: john fund, thank you very much. capitol hill rocked by sexual misconduct allegations that continue on, but congress,

well, it's not alone. other industries are not immune to bad behavior. we know that. we're asking what the punishment should be for those accused. facebook is building a giant solar drone to bring wi-fi to remote regions. details on when and where facebook is going to show off this drone. it's a fascinating story, and that's coming up in 90 seconds. ♪ ♪ [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.

>> i'm nicole petallides with yourx business brief on your kids day here at the new york stock exchange. you can see some of my friends helping me here today. we're talking about facebook. facebook has a new drone, and this drone will provide wi-fi for regions that don't have it. it's being debuted in london in may. now you can see some of the video of it. it's solar-powered. this technology will wring this this -- will bring this wi-fi to remote regions early next year. it weighs less than a thousand pounds, designed to fly between 60-90,000 feet and also, as i noted, that goal to bring that internet wi-fi. i will tell you that year to date we've seen that facebook has been a real winner. it's hitting a new high today, and everybody wave!

hope everybody had a wonderful thanksgiving. [vo] progress is an unstoppable force. the season of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event.

ashley: senator al franken issuing an apology yesterday after allegations of sexual misconduct. here's that quote. he says: i've met tens of thousands of people and have taken thousands of photographs often in crowded and chaotic situations. i'm a warm person, i hug people. i've learned in some of those encounters i crossed a line for

some women, and i know that any number is too many. joining us now is a policy analyst for the independent women's forum. patrice, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. ashley: with regard to al franken, you know, what should the punishment be here, do you think? >> i mean, some will say that the people of his state should decide, but, you know, he's making light, i think, of the allegations against him. you know, it's one thing to give warm hugs which lots of men do and lots of people do, it's another to, you know, to grab at a woman's genitals while she's not, you know, awake, you know, and some of the other things that are coming forward. so i think he should do the honorable thing and maybe step down. certainly, it would be a disgrace to him and a hit for the democratic party, but it would send a message that sec yule harassment is not going to be tolerated in congress. ashley: have you been shocked and surprised by, you know, the constant coming out of victims who apparently feel safer now to come out and relay their

stories? are you surprised by the breadth of what's been going on? >> i actually am, you know, because i think we've seen in the past allegations made against different people in different industries, and this hasn't happened. there hasn't been this avalanche of people feeling empowered to come forward. you know, i think it's a good thing that people, that women or men feel like, you know what? i want to share my story. that doesn't necessarily mean there are going to be legal repercussions for the people that allegedly violated them, but it does mean employers have a chance to look at their sexual harassment policies and for society to think about how are we training our young men and young women to have character and treat each other with respect and dignity. ashley: do you think men, in general, get the message? [laughter] >> i think they're certainly getting it now, and they're scared. but, you know, i want to push back on this idea that every man is a predator and that every young woman who enters into the work force is going to be the

victim of some sort of discrimination whether in pay or in terms of sexual harassment. that's not necessarily the case. but it is an opportunity to educate men about, you know, what's appropriate, what's not, what's off-color, what's not appropriate and then to empower others -- who happen to be bystanders, but to say, you know what? that budget right. let's just deal with us so we can use this as a teaching moment and learn together. ashley: were you surprise, as we all were, there's kind of, basically, a slush fund that congress uses to settle, you know, these harassment charges? essentially, it's the taxpayer paying for these settlements. >> oh, i was not just shocked, i i was irate. ashley: yeah. >> our hard-paying, hard-working tax dollars are going towards members of congress' bad behavior as hush money? i mean, i think that there is so much more that can be done with the american tax dollar including returning it to us so we can stimulate some economic growth in the work, you know, in the economy. but i think turning a blind eye

to what members of congress do, you know, it's immoral and it's inappropriate. we hold them to a higher standard, and i don't think there's anything wrong with expecting that our taxpayer dollars should not be funding their bad behavior. of. ashley: so you obviously don't think we've heard the last of it. do you expect more people to come forward in other industries? >> i do. i mean, we saw this start off in tech earlier this year, going into media, politics, we've seen it generally in the workplace. it'll continue to come out, and a lot of these allegations go back two, three decades. hopefully, i'm hopeful that currently in the workplace a lot of young women are not experiencing this, and those who, you know, don't realize their behaviors could be misconstrued or mistaken as inappropriate are going, you know what? let me just be careful. at the same time, we want to make sure there's no chilling effect between how men and women are engaging with one another. ashley: very good point. patrice, thank you so much for joining us today, talking about, obviously, a hot topic right now. >> thank you. ashley: thank you very much.

colin cap canner nick taking part in an un-thanksgiving day celebration. where? on alcatraz. deirdre, what's this all about? >> yeah. obviously, the former san francisco 49ers' qb, wants to call attention to this kind of sit-in, native american activists were at that prison between 1969 and 1971, sort of a nine month occupation. and he wanted -- he did make this surprise appearance, colin kaepernick, to call attention to that saying our fight is the same fight, we are all fighting for our justice, freedom and realizing that we are all in it together. so he wanted to show up there on thanksgiving day, according to himself, and just call attention to that incident back -- ashley: not playing football anymore -- >> '60s, early '70s. he has become an activist. that's it. ashley: deirdre, thank you very much. let's check shares of amazon, already having a huge black friday and now amazon just reported it sold more than

200,000 toys in the first five hours of black friday. not bad. a year ago it said that customers purchased 100,000 toys in the first few hours, so a pretty good rate this year. again, online and mobile phone ordering really.com naying. the -- dominating so far. apparently, a lot of people did their shopping last night after all the turkey and the pumpkin pies. they crashed out on the sofa and did shopping from there, up $21 at $1177 a share, hitting a new all-time high today, up nearly 3% in today's shortened trading session. well, we're going back to chicago where protesters are calling for a day of defiance. jeff flock shows us what's happening on the streets. ♪ ♪ think your large cap equity fund has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think again.

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mistreatment by police. they would like to have a civilian police accountability council, a publicly-elected board that would supervise the police and investigate these cases of alleged mitt conduct. they also -- misconduct. they also point out cases of police misconduct over the past ten years have cost chicago taxpayers, $660 million in judgments against the police that the city's had to pay. so they suggest that perhaps it would be different if there was more supervision of the police for. at any rate, the mission is to go on a march at some point. we'll be following that. as we said, a couple of years ago they were pretty successful in shutting down commerce on michigan avenue. they believe that in some ways the mayor, rahm emanuel, only cares about places like michigan avenue in chicago, the magnificent mile, and not about communities on the south and west sides of chicago that have been plagued by the violence. that's the attitude out here. we will continue to wash it,

ash. ashley: very good, jeff flock in chicago with those black friday protests. thank you very much, jeff. let's take a quick check of the big board, the market closes early today at, well, just about an hour from now, 1:00 eastern. and you can see the dow up nicely, up 51 points at 23,577. so not bad. be -- cbs and dish network have ended a three-day blackout that affected more than two million customers over the thanksgiving holiday. l.a., chicago, new york, you're happier now. cbs and dish stocks, by the way, mixed. cbs up slightly, the dish network down at just under $50. disney pixar's coco is on pace to rake in more than $70 million over the holiday weekend. it's a juggernaut. it made $13 million on its first day of release which actually put it ahead of justice league. so there you go. disney's stock now up about a tenth of a percent at $102.85

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$125 off. plus, a free pillow worth $75. and free shipping too. go to buyleesa.com today. you need this bed. ashley: it is black friday, the market's been moving higher. but what's interesting is we've been going to chicago, l.a. and new jersey and the stores, at least this early morning have been pretty empty. why? because apparently most people are online last night after all the big turkey meal and everything and organized online and with their mobile phones. deirdre bolton, did you do shopping last night? >> i timely did not. but a lot of other people did. $1.5billion nationally has already been spent. ashley: wow. >> so a lot of people to your point shopping after their pies are finished, i guess, and a lot on mobile. mobile is up.

ashley: cyber monday is it supposed to be the big day but a lot of people have jumped the gun on this, and it may not be so big. >> yeah. but in theory, we're all spending. christmas bonuses are up, so either today or monday -- well, there you go. ashley: thank you very much, deirdre. the markets are moving higher. let's take it away and give it to charles payne, i believe. charles, there you are. take it away. charles: thank you, ashley. see you soon. this is cavuto coast to coast. i'm charles payne in for neil cavuto. as we heard from ashley, surging 18% from a year ago, that according to dolby analytics data. but while bargain hunters are knocking down doors, others are shopping from their couches. and other retail surging as well. lauren simonetti has details. lauren. >> charles. okay. some people are actually getting off the couch, and we found them. just check out the line behind