find a team of doctors. it's not just picking a surgeon, it's picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. visit cancercenter.com/breast maria: thanks, everybody. thanks, dagen mcdow. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart: i'll take it over. good morning, everyone. politics and money. that's what we do. and as we start the new week, i'll sum it up as follows. over the top, negative politics. but your money is doing just fine, thank you. start with this. the president is mentally unstable. he is unfit. he is seriously flawed. that kind of stuff has been all over the news following the gossip and speculation in a tell all new book. the left wants to use the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. really. zero impact on money. start with this number.

$7.2trillion. that's how much the value of all stocks has gone up since the election of donald j. trump. that's why we call it the trump rally. we are already seeing more gains from the big tech companies closing at record highs last friday. the big five are going to open mostly higher again this monday morning. pay very close attention to amazon. the super cold weather for the last two weeks has surely helped them. who wants to go outside in subzero temperatures? it was minus 13 at my farm yesterday. that has helped founder jeff bezos to increase his fortune. he's now worth $103 billion. a half hour from now, no sell off. the dow closed friday just shy of 25,300. we'll stay right around this level when the opening bell rings. monday, january the 8th, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

more fire at trump tower in new york city. ashley: well, fire and furry, and it had nothing to do with a book. apparently it's a electrical fire on the cooling tower. as you can see from this video. it was first reported about a secret service agent who looked up and saw smoke coming out of the top. no smoke inside the building. no one inside. there's a luxury apartment and businesses in there. no smoke inside. no one evacuated. two minor injuries reported. one more minor than the other. why this happened, no one knows. but it's all out now and everyone's okay. stuart: all good. thank you very much, indeed. amazon, that is the story of the day amongst individual corporations. i want to bring in market watcher scott martin. scott, i have a couple of points in amazon's favor. let me lay them out for you. the cold weather surely very good for online shopping.

two, warehouse prices doubling, that's thanks to this surge if two-day shipping. three, amazon we hear is premier soccer streaming rights. and one more, they have plans to put alexa in even more devices. this adds up for a series of pluses for amazon. what do you say? >> yeah. look at that. you promise me a couple and gave me four. and speaking to an englishman, i have to know my audience here, i think it's the premier league issuance, my friend. my best friend is a big premier league fan, which makes me a big fan. and it's the one sport that continues to grow, especially in the u.s. in the fall, stuart, we had two games that went over a million viewers in the u.s. amazon is behind those other sports that they're taking on. the warehouse thing is very interesting because a lot of these steps if you look at major metropolitan areas chicago, new jersey, los angeles, las vegas, they don't have the space for these

warehouses. so how the warehouse development goes is an interesting take for how that happens amazon and walmart. stuart: now, i have amazon crossing $1200 per share. they gained nearly $20 last friday. do you have a target price on amazon? >> oh, gosh. how high do you want it to go? we own it, stuart, as you know. we've owned it for a long time. we've told viewers that this is a great growth story for the u.s. going forward and that's why it should be in your portfolio. let's say in the 12-month period i think amazon could get near 1750, maybe 2,000 on the high end. you talk about this on the lead end there, everybody was sitting on amazon because of the cold weather and the bad weather and the bomb cycle that you had a week ago out there. but i tell you what. full disclosure if it's warm outside, all i did was take my ipad, iphone and go spend on amazon outside. stuart: yep.

got it. i want to talk about the overall market real fast. it's still flat, but we're right there in record territory. we have president trump tweeting this morning. the stock market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only record-setting stock prices but jobs, jobs, jobs. 7trillion created since our big election win. are you still a buyer of this overall market at this point? week one in january? >> i am. i'm out of cash, though, unfortunately, my friend. so i'm waiting to get more money and therefore putting it in. stuart: hold on a second. let me jump in. so if you could, you would buy some more. you think it's going to keep going up. there is inevitably going to be a pull back. would you buy on that pull back? >> absolutely. and if you do have that cash in the sidelines, it's probably good to put some in today and then leave a little scooch available for something that comes as far as a pull back. but you're right. if you're looking for areas that are going to rally hard this year, i think it's the same areas.

tech, industrial, health care, financials, those are our top four forget 2018. stuart: all right. stay there, scott. we'll bring you back when the market opens. the next case, the author of fire and furry, wolf says the 25th amendment is live every day in the white house. the 25th amendment would allow the president's cabinet to remove him from office. roll tape. >> this is alarming in every way. and then this is a little 25th amendment. so 25th amendment is a concept that is alive every day in the white house. stuart: all rise. judge napolitano is back with us, and he's live on the set with me. all right. judge, welcome to the program. >> thank you. stuart: the 25th amendment does allow for the removal of the president. is it germane to this case. >> i can't imagine that it is. it surely wasn't allowed -- wasn't written because you don't like the president's personality or temperament or tweets or means of

communication. it was written for let's say the woodrow wilson situation. president wilson had a stroke. totally, totally disabled. mrs. wilson was effectively the president of the united states. were this to happen after the 25th amendment, it would permit a simple majority of the members of the cabinet. stuart: yep. >> to declare the president disabled and to make the vice president the acting president until the president declared himself ready, willing, and able to resume the powers of office. if there's a dispute between the cabinet and the president and congress decides, but it would take two-thirds of congress to keep the president out permanently. something extraordinarily extreme and extremely unlikely in this environment. . stuart: so why are they bringing it up? they're hating him so badly, they're desperate to get something on him to bring this up. >> if michael wolf is speaking truthfully, then he's

listening to people. this is dangerous for donald trump. in the west wing who dislike him so much, they are discussing -- i'm going to use a dangerous phrase here -- a legal coup. that's what they're talking about. we don't like him. we don't believe him. we don't trust him. we want to invalidate the election and get rid of him. if what michael wolf is saying is true that they're talking about this in the west wing. not in congress, in the west wing. people who work for the president who have been hired by the president. if they're talking about it, it's dangerous. stuart: are they just interpreting off the cuff comments about his attention span. >> yeah. stuart: or his style of government. >> i think so. stuart: and moving that forward towards mental instability. >> yes. stuart: which is a leap and a half. >> yes, it is and i doubt that any of them is competent to address mental instability. look, stuart, i as you know have spent a lot of time with him. he's a character. he has a very big personality. he cuts you off. he answers his own questions.

he changes the subject a lot. he's five steps ahead of everybody else. that's his personality. the american public was familiar with that personality before they elected him. stuart: and he's also winning. the economy's doing well, the stock market's rallying, deregulation is in place, we have a foreign policy. the democrats can't stand it, so they trump up this erroneous and ridiculous idea that he's unfit to govern. i find it ridiculous. >> i was 17 when this amendment was enacted, and i railed in high school against this provision that allows the cabinet to make this determination. stuart: it was enacted february the 10th in 1967, according to the copy. >> how old were you in '67? . stuart: you will be back in the 11:00 hour. >> i shall. stuart: good to be with you. >> good to be with you.

stuart: wait a minute -- i'm reading the prompter. i can't believe it. no more reclining seats on british air way flights. what? liz: now, you wonder if they should rename themselves budget airways because that's about the amount of leg room you get on these flights anyways. stuart: it's not all flights all the time. liz: 35 new planes will have a gentle recline in the seat instead of the seat in front of you ending up in your lap. this airline has already gotten food and drinks. this is economy class. the theory is that this will go industry wide. there's leg room more, people get mad about leg room in flights. no, this is about cramming more seats into planes. so profits and sales have been going up for the airlines. their market value has trebled in the last six, seven years. ashley: british airways. liz: budget airways we should call it. stuart: for economy, flights

four hours or less. liz: in europe right now. but who knows. it could go industry wide. stuart: misleading headline, i do believe. partner with uber, vw, they're going to develop driverless car technology. that's a stock that's more than doubled in the last year up another 2.5% this morning. wild scene at new york city airport. flooding the baggage area at jfk terminal. that is is shut down for several hours. lots of unhappy travelers. my daughter arrived home safely, i am pleased to say. we were worried about that. next, florida congressman matt gates, he's a republican. fan of president trump, but he says the plan to open up drilling of florida's coast is catastrophic. he will make his case after this [ phone rings ]

hi, tom. hey, how's the college visit? you remembered. it's good. does it make the short list? you remembered that too. yeah, i'm afraid so. knowing what's important to you... it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. thanks, bye. that's what's important to us. it's why 7 million investors work with edward jones.

my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images.

and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy.

stuart: here's a reversal for sure. kohl's, the department store, they're looking ahead, they say their profit situation is going to be pretty good, and their holiday sales were up at stores open at least a year. now, wall street says that's same store sales. i don't want to get the buzzer but look at that. kohl's who would have thought. up 7% this morning. up $4 at 58. a reversal of retail ice age for kohl's. the white house wants to allow offshore droning all around the united states, including offshore florida. our next guest is not happy. congressman matt gate is a republican from florida, a trump supporter who opposes this. matt, welcome back to the program. good to see you. >> good to be back on, stuart s. stuart: may i make three quick points. if there is drilling offshore florida, it won't be in state waters. it will be over the horizon. number two, norway has been doing this offshore drilling

for generations and still pristine. number three, if florida allows this, you will get billions of dollars of revenue going to that state. why oppose it? >> i'll grant all three of those arguments and counter this. the in gulf of mexico today, we have the premier testing for missile systems. the same missiles we use in syria and air-to-air scenario we may use with a near peer adversity. general goldstein, the chief of staff of the air force has said is totally incompatible with drilling, then we may limit our foreign policy and military policy where the premier would be shut down. that's why i'm convinced president trump will be drilling out of the gulf. stuart: is that your main reason? i have not heard of that before. i thought it was because of

the danger of spills on beaches of beautiful florida. but it's a military thing to you. >> it is. plenty of people make the environmental tourism argument. i think those arguments have some credibility. but to my the most important thing is our nation's defenses and there is not another place on planet earth where we're launching things over water and then landing them on land. the largest air force base in the world is in my district, and it is a critical area for this type of testing ammunitions. so in florida today, we've been able to achieve the great balance of prosperity with a military mission that contributes 10% of the entire gdp to the state of florida. and then obviously, we've got the environmental impacts of it that are very favorable to our state. but most importantly, we have to make sure that we don't surrender capabilities that we could never get back essential to our military. stuart: well, that was an originallal point, and we thank you very much for bringing that up. that's interesting. i have to ask you about the justice department

investigation into hillary as you know it proceeds a pace. this is all about pay to play politics. while hillary was secretary of state. is this the moment where hillary is directly linked to some form of criminal activity? >> well, absolutely and there's a key distinction here in process, stuart. previously you had james comey, andrew mccabe, and others taking investigations of hillary clinton out of the hands of the local field offices so that we didn't have an investigative outcome, we had a politically-determined outcome to clear hillary clinton. now we have according to reports the little rock field office. the actual investigators empowered to go and look into the uranium 1 deal and also the general bribery allegations where people were giving donations to the clinton foundation in exchange for favors from the state department. and this isn't just revenge, stuart. we've got to make sure that those bribes didn't result in activities that are on going today to erode our nation's

interest. and that's why these investigations are so critical and why congressional oversight is essential to ensure they're not interfered with. stuart: matt gates, thank you very much for joining us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart,. stuart: two big stories out of the golden globes. nearly everyone wore black in solidarity. it was a statement against sexual harassment. plus, oprah winfrey, she made a big splash. now she's getting buzz about a possible presidential run. you'll hear it all. you'll see it all on more varney after this

>> 2018 marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn't. [applause] it's going to be a good year. . stuart: all right. golden globes host seth meyers poked a little fun at hollywood's sexual harassment problem. almost every actress showed up to the event wearing black. that was the way of raising awareness against sexual harassment. what's your judgment, liz, on overall performance? liz: i think it's braise for women to show up in black. i thought it was terrific because it is so hard to get rid of the power structure as it exists in hollywood. it is male dominated. i was surprised that harvey weinstein was not called out

more. only seth meyers called him out. he also call out kevin spacey and president trump. what was missing, though, were the true heroes who called out sexual harassment. rose mcallen, ashley were not by thanked by anybody. they were sitting there should have been thanked by men and women. i will say that barbra streisand is saying no woman has won since 34 years ago. stuart: the other main point was oprah's performance and they're talking about her now running for the president. ashley: she almost stole the entire show. she was given the award, spoke about civil rights and the me too campaign. she gave a terrific speech. got a standing ovation. seth meyers basically was joking that this is our future president because he had said a number of years ago at a white house components dinner looking at donald trump he wasn't fit to be. the.

he said look at how that worked out so looked at oprah saying you're not fit to be president. however, nbc tweeted nothing but respect to our future president. there you go that's from nbc. now, question is her long time partner told the l.a. times, look, it's up to the people, but she would absolutely do it. stuart: good. ashley: so that has spread the speculation. stuart: now, i was expecting an antitrump dire tribe from several of the winners. didn't happen, did it? ashley: no. stuart: it was all sex harassment and oprah running for. liz: such a severe problem in hollywood for decades. stuart: sure is. all right. listen to this about gopro. reportedly cutting hundreds of jobs from the drone division. we'll have more on that later. but the stock down 4%. about a being to $7 a share. how are we going to open that market this monday morning? ever so slightly lower. a minor leagues retreat from the al all-time highs that we reached on friday afternoon. what a day it's going to be.

back in a second

i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how.

monday morning and we're about to set forth on another week in the stock market. let me remind you on friday afternoon, the dow closed with a gain of another 220 points. it closed at 25,295 almost at

25,300. who would have thought? couple of week ago we're languishing in low 24,000 i hear the bell a ringing. i see him clapping and applauding and bang, it is 9:30 off we go we're up 12 points still is up 12 point okay up 9 point up 11 points. looks like a sub cued opening to the upside. i see plenty of red on the left-hand side of the screen but it is all tile record high for the dow. because we have reached 25,306. it is a tiny fractional gain in percentage material how about the s&p 500, much broader base that is down .04%. i'm going to call that flat a tiny bit lower exactly the same story on the nasdaq, plat to a tiny fraction low. it is actually down .01%. this is the stock ting that stock of the day maybe the year, maybe the decade i'm not sure about that. but look at it go. this is amazon. a new record high, 1,233.93

where it is right now up another $5 as we speak. that is the stock to watch today. joining us ashley webster, elizabeth macdonald from a freezing weekend in a rainy northwest and scott march had tin i think he's up in chicago for heavens sake poor guy. i'll start with amazon stock is truly riding high 1,230 a share keith would you buy it at that price today? >> i have no problem recommending this, my next target is $1500 a share. i'm very aggressive on it i think it is truly change world we live in and i love the stock. >> you would buy it now on expectation it goes to 1500 a share reare pete that piece. [laughter] >> i would buy is now and expectation that it goes to $1500 bucks share. >> nail you down so make sure everybody knows where everybody is coming from right now. we have some pluses for amazon

first of all the cold weather i'm sure that encouraged online shopping, we've got the average cost of warehouse land doubling in the past year. that's thanks to the surge in two-day ship an this is for you ash. amazon is going to bid for the streaming rights to o premier league stock now ting that's huge. >> it is huge and cost them a ton of u money because skying television in the u.k. and b.t. tell come combined nearly $7 billion, 7 billion back in 2015 to air $165 for game so if amazon will jump into this it will cost them a lot of money and another part to this just in the uk because football association in england holds separate auction for streaming rights outside of the u.k. and u.s. in elsewhere in the world so essentially what is amazon going to do to bit bid to take on the big boys in the u.k. or going to try are to bid in perhaps get rites to outside of the u.k. either way, it's a big move by amazon in a very

competitive field. j helping stock for benefit of our radio listeners at 1,235.96 per share for amazon u up nearly $7 this morning. big tech names, they have been on a tear. look at them now most are up only microsoft is down a tiny prax back to you now please scott martin. which one of these if any would you buy at these ultrahigh prices? i'm talking big tech, the five big ones? >> yeah. i buy them all curet but one that i like right now is pook. facebook is kind of falling behind some of the others and if you look at the fact of earnings power that facebook has. earnings as far as the u4 aren't far away now getting into earning season already guys which is great. q4 looks like a great period for a lot of tech companies as well as retail too. so looking at facebook here just given the fact that it is pulled behind a few of the other ones ones that i would pick up here with respect to buying big five there. >> fascinating.

and endlessly bring up five big tech an they keep on going. just extraordinary stuff. let me talk about apple for a moment. it is getting some criticism for what they call youth phone addiction you know this story. tell me all about it. what do you think the impact on the stock is if any? >> well we do know the story and personally my wife and i struggle with our boys with this taken over the brain wave and peeding regarding decisioning making like a lot of parents it is a challenge. i think this this potentially hits apple hard because -- it is something they aren't geared up for and something that many in the industry have been reluctant to dmit to. i thinking that challenges there how you handle this how you you know it is a pivot leak a shake shack all over again with the menu an consumer l pressure that come to bear on tim cooke right now. >> i want to bring up what may be another negative for apple that is. got a survey what says people with devices like the amazon echo use their phones less.

okay lizzy. >> i have a echo i use it all of the time i'm wait for lexus to stop talking to me because i talked with so much. but here's the -- well more than half of according to the survey well more than half of those responded say they use the echo for purchases for entertainment and for searching meaning not use their smartphone so here's the thing, apple has yet to come out with its home speaker. amazon came out with theirs three yearsing ago. samsung is slow to the game and has yet to come the out with home speaker why he's guys still behind eight ball it is a head scratcher. >> look at the stockses right now amazon is going up $10 per share and alphabet up a buck 90 soon to add about this kids and phones and amazon echo is? >> liz so spot on this. we have an echo as well and already radically changed the way we use our smartphone apple is is in serious trouble if it doesn't have something up its

sleeves otherwise it really is beginning to be behind the eight ball samsung is other one too. it impacts stock and potentially slow it is down this year. >> love to see how that would work out meanwhile i'm looking at the big board do you 30 points for the dow industrials that's where we are this monday morning. and that's just a tiny fraction lower, never forget bitcoin you can't afford to do that 14,800s that the price quote as of mow. overstock.com, that stock is going up the ceo patrick byrne on the show a k. weeks ago. he's turned the company from an online retailer into a bitcoin block chain vehicle. back then two weeks ago the stock was $65 now 85 and up another $2 at $86. how about general electric that's been coming back returning to -- well not that much. it's up 3 cent this is morning 18.56 on g.e. and blood disease biotech company impact biomedicines they're going to

pay up to $7 billion it is up on that news. kohl's department store chain, okay, they've raised their profit outlook there's a switch. and they're up 6% at 58. a new number from the investment firm ubs, nearly 8,000 retail store closures were announced and that's a new record. scott, the retail ice age is large and not going away? >> no it's january, and retile ice age is fully on stuart now here's something interesting if you look at some of the retailers they're actually having a pretty good couple of months because we have a good holiday shopping season contrary to what they predict but something interesting we're talking about industrial warehouses in the cost of the warehouse base going up because amazon is the world. how about stuart taking some of the these malls that are basically on death watch and turning those into the warehouses after also you go from a place that has thousands of people going through on given day to having box and robots

moving stuff around. that may be the solution for retail. and he know those areas like sears and say j.c. bennie get away from the real estate. >> mall operators are suing companies to keep their stores open simon property group is suing star tbux bucks to keep tea chain operate oinging. that's how small it shall >> store closures would be reaching inflection point because tax reform will give retailers extra money to invest in being more price and these companies are barely profitable many lose money, with retailers, the store retailers have a shot it is tough. and we're going to have more store closings this year but a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. mples because dollar general and t.j.maxx move many. >> looking at in video please that's a big tech company nowadays it is with über volings waggingen and this saw about

driverless cars a partnership to dealership driverless cars up $7 you like video? >> i do, and i have for a long time they make a unit processing unit what adds an awful lot more umph to this processing unit we grew up with. this is a 70% market share player that it makes the artificial intelligence needed for driverless vehicles bitcoin all kindle of other things possible. because it brings so much computing power to bear. love the stock. >> then we have dunkin' donut manies. it is scaling back its menu and trying to streamline its service. scott, the coffee competition is really fierce. is it a good move to scale down your menu with competition like that? >> you know it's kind of interest. my daughter and i went to dunkin' donuts over o holidays and actually we have a few thing because menu is crazy. you don't know what to order but that's kind of a good thing when you bring kids because they want so much u stuff anyway. but what's interest about duncan

if you look at some of the their profits and numbers in duncan they have caught up to starbucks so scaling back menu with profit adjustment a good sign but i like the company and the the stock here too. >> i like the coffee. doing that speeds up the service. it can be a bit chaotic one person wanting a certain type of sandwich it all becomes too long of a line gets longer i want my fast food fast. >> you like the coffee. >> i do. >> mcdonald's is cheaper. [laughter] gopro reportedly got hundreds of jobs in the drone division. keith, i always think of this as a one trick pony kind of company. especially with outdrones. what do you ?ai >> i think it's a few horses shy of rodeo migs. it has been a one trick pony for a long time stuart i don't think this i think chai the ball game i would avoid this stock and redeal value to it. but other than that a nonstarter when you go with bigger players

and capitalization and better profit. >> on that note i believe we have to say good-bye to keith and scott there. down there sorry or already. time flying when you're having fun. keith, scott thanks for joining us we'll see you again real soon. check that big board moments ago we were down 50 now we're down 35 i call had a very modest loss as wees open up trade manager monday morning cia mike says that north koreans are open to talks. why? because they're afraid and it is because of trump's policy is that the reason they're talking? we'll deal with it next. achoo! (snap) achoo! (snap) achoo! achoo! (snap) (snap) achoo! achoo! feel a cold coming on? zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45%.

shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam.

>> all right we're 13 minutes into the trading session, not much change for the dow. we are down 38 points as we speak. but look at united technologies

another record goldman sachs is out there saying buy united tech and investors are buying it it is up nearly .17%. ford planses to offer a diesel engine version of its best selling f150 pickup. nicole why are they doing that? >> they want to battle it out to be most efficient pickup and this one is about diesel so this is going to cost you a little bit more. between $24,004,000 for this specific truck but they want to take own other guys we know the f150 has been best seller for decades this one, this diesel molds with a 10 speed transmission will achieve highway fuel efficiency that's a level that is actually comparable it a mid-sized car. don't forget back in 2013 fiat chrysler had a life duty ram pickup, and they were claiming best in class for fuel economy and ford saying no way. we're going to make this happen now, so this will be out and

they expect 5% of the trucks coming out will actually everybody will be looking to diesel. >> okay we've got it nicole thank you very much indeed now overseas north korean scheduled to meet their counterparts from south korea tomorrow and meeting will be held in the dmz demilitarizedded zone here's what cia director said about the talks on fox news sunday. roll tape. >> north koreans are behaving out of fear that is they are very concerned that america for the the first time in an awfully long time is serious about denuclearizing peninsula and finding trying to find a foot hole or place to reach out. by the way, president trump say he's open to talking directly to kim jong-un on the phone. come on in ralph peters. do you agree request that? what mike said that the koreans are kind of -- they're unsettled by the u nature of this presidency. >> stuart with your fine english

education to use the word unsettled they're really not afraid but if anything overkflt but what north koreans are doing and mike pompeo is kreblght we have gotten their attention first time u.s. administration stood up to the north koreans in a meaningful way, but with the north koreans are doing is -- inreceive just stupid rhetoric they're trying something strategic by initiating talks by participating in winter game and fall. en on talks with that, they are buying time what north korean regime needs is time to finish their missile and nuclear development programs and they are betting that there will be enough -- sanctions cheating to let them survive until that point once that i got the new capability with the missile to hit had us then it is a different ball game so i think -- look at what's happening north koreans are very smart and also trying to drive a women between us and south koreans. >> okay.

looking down the road a ways -- i think america has to make a choice that some point in the future. do we accept and live with and accommodate a nuclear armed north korea or do we take some kind of measure probably military that gets rid of the nukes in north korea? we have to face that choice at some point. and i think we'll accommodate them. what say you? >> i think you're probably right. and this is certainly not something to be little about. we've lived with with other countries nuclear weapons capability from russia and china all the way down to small plier like pakistan. but i fear that north korea is profoundly different. they want to use those weapons for nuclear blackmail not merely against south korea. but against us as well. so it would be a very, very tough decision and when and if a decision is made i would look to general mathis to be the voice

of logic and reason and perhaps, perhaps reluctantly have to hit the north koreans. >> but we would have to make sure that north koreans understand that there will be no backing down by the trump administration slightest hint that we will accommodate and appease it is all over. right? >> yes, that's one was reasons i'm concerned about the ropt prospect of a phone call between president trump and kim jong-un these men are complex characters complex temperament and dealing to translator chances for misjudgment for misunderstandings would be very, very high although i would pay dollar for the transcript. and president trump has had notable successes in foreign policy. defeating isis, recognizing jerusalem, and numerous other o points but where he's been weakest has been in the face-to-face diplomacy with vladimir putin and philippines and most successful when he's relied on the professionals, the

experts to do the day-to-day operations for him. so i'm not i don't mean what as a knock on president trump on this point but i think that there's a time for face-to-face diplomacy works very well with our allies but with die hard had opponents, not so much. >> we shall see. ralph thanks for joining us sir happy new year to you. yes, sir thank you. where are we on this market open up on a monday morning nearly 20 minutes into the session we're down just 30 points. that's all. a lot of red on the left-hand side side of the screen but we're down a mere 28 point at 25,2-s 65. question, if someone gets high on marijuana, gets into a car drives down the highway, can the police accurately test the impact of the marijuana in their ?m can they, do they have an accurate test might be harder than you think. doc o siegel has the story, next. has their own way of conveying powerful.

yeeaaahhh boy. kind of looks like a monster coming to eat ya. holy smokes. that is awesome. strong. you got the basic, and you got the beefy. i just think it looks mean. incredible. no way. start your year off strong a new chevy truck. get a total value of over $9,600 on this silverado all star when you finance with gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer.

>> well on the market is in the big tech stocks i have three of them on the screen. will you look at that? amazon is up another or $16 reaching 1,245 dollars a share. alphabet up $5.48 and facebook reached 188 dollars per share. three big techs going, amazingly

high again today. okay. what else do we got did i see wal-mart there we go, dow all time highs look at that caterpillar wal-mart yieted technologies visa, all of them hitting new all-time highs this monday morning. i've got to get to is that story about regal weed has in marijuana and driving doc siegel is here. is there, sir, an accurate measure of the impact of marijuana in your system on your driving? >> there's a way to test the amount that's in your system. yes they can test the the level thc and in colorado since 2013 when it became legal there's double amount of fatal traffic accidentses with people having marijuana -- >> so there is an accurate measure you pull to the side of the road they can tell. now do they know that a certain level of this thc has

detrimental effects on your driving if you have .08% of alcohol in your blood you keapght drive is will equivalent number for thc? >> no. they don't have exact number but what they do have stuart is great study out of columbia over last few years, that looked at thc in your system now there was a five-time greater risk of causing car accident than a fatal car accident with alcohol. 6 times if you have alcohol plus pot, a 60% increase with pot alone so in other words you're driving along if you end new a fatal that accident you caused, it was a 60% chance that you have pot in your system i like those statistics. they show a correlation a direct relevance but how much pot we "don't ask, don't don't know and lasting in your system longer than alcohol. >> the medical side. what about pregnant women using marijuana is proof of a effect on fees us? >> absolutely. peferl studies that show low birth weight infants problems

with behavior in young children problems with focus problems with memory, judgment, problems in school don't perform as well in school. problems with thinking. also, a new study out of kraf all places where it became recreationally legal shows 7% of all pregnant women are using it for morning sickness and a 20% under age of 24. they're using it thinking there's nothing wrong with it. listen i'm not trying to down play effect of morning sickness. liz will tell you it is terrible. marijuana -- >> had it -- never had it. but marijuana is the worst possible thing to treat it with. maybe some tombs maybe water. not marijuana. >> we want strong medical evidence we have that dr. siegel democrats they have a new strategy call the, call trump nuts he's insane. i think that's shy of desperation personally my take on that coming up. top of the hour. here we go.

i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. . . . . . mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com.

stuart: the anti-trump frenzy has reached a crescendo. the president is unfit for office. he is mentally unstable. there are calls for him to be removed. use the 25th amendment to get him out. looks like desperation, calm trump nuts and kick him out and that is laughable and dangerous. the bb consider asked britain's prime minister if he was fit for office at a time when our president is confronting a real lunatic, kim jong-un of north korea. shows the left will do anything, absolutely anything to stop the trump train because his first year in office has been very successful. much stronger economic growth, super low unemployment, the lowest jobless rate for black folks in a generation a 7 trillion-dollar addition to the nation's wealth and an america first foreign policy a

long list of successes. the left sees it and gets worried. they hoped russia, russia, russia, would bring impeachment. instead the anti-trump cabal within the government is being veried. they expected the economy would tank and it didn't. they predicted the market would crash. instead we have a stock rally the ages. along come as book from a rabid trump hater and full of gossip and media jumps on it for lifesaver for never ending contempt. that is desperation. since when is gossip been a reason to remove a successful president? i would keep a close eye on the president's approval rating, for much of the 12 months, it has been in 30% range. not good. the "real clear politics" average approval jumped to the 40% mark. trump has gone over the head of hateful media and people like what they see. the second hour of

"varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: we have 31. >> 32 minutes into the trading session we're down 35 points. look at that level, 25,261 take a look at three of the big tech this is morning. they're making all-time highs. i'm talking about amazon which is now, $1247 a share. alphabet $1116 a share. facebook is at 188. how about that? some dow names hitting new all-time highs. we said this many times over the past couple weeks. we have caterpillar, walmart, united tech, visa, all of them brand new all-time record highs. retail bright spot, how about that for a change. kohl's is looking ahead saying

profits will improve. they're looking back saying the holiday spirit was very strong. the stock is up 3.6%. darden restaurants, parent of olive garden and longhorn steakhouse. lizzie have you been going there in. liz: i love the breadsticks and italian cuisine. driving your italian producer up the wall. stuart: despite your best efforts. how about this for a number, a big one? $7.2 trillion of wealth added since the president's election. that is overall value of all stocks, up 7.2 trillion since november of last year. brian wesbury, first trust chief economist is here. brian, a big criticism, all the extra wealth, 7.2 trillion only goes to the rich. what say you?

>> isn't that what we hear all the time, this class warfare. you about it is not true. it is, it is true that there are not that many people that hold taxable stock accounts. however, if you look at defined benefit, defined contribution pension plans, they all own stocks. insurance companies own stocks. if you look at state pensions, government pensions, they own equities in their portfolios, so the number is way close to 70% of all americans benefit from a rising stock market but then you add on the fact that a rising stock market, what it means is that corporations are doing better, which means more jobs, more income, rising wages, more investment, more growth. so the bottom line is the stock market helps more people than most people say and also signals better times ahead. stuart: you're a classic

economist. you're not a stock market watcher but you have to watch the market at some point. >> right. stuart: do you believe like a lot of other people believe, at some point a pullback in the market is coming? >> yes. we, corrections happen all the time. even in the biggest bull markets they happen. the reason in a sense they happen, this is the way i think of it is, that you have got to scare people into thinking it can't continue. if you go back over this last eight or nine years, how many times has that happened? that is one of the things that disappoints me about this market rally. we knew it was coming, at least i felt i did, yet people are still so scared about 2008 and 2009 a lot of people are worried about being in this market. so i would argue, get in it. if we have a correction, stay in it. if we have a correction and you're not in, use that opportunity to get in. corporations are doing well in

america. profits are rising. this tax cut is going to help profits rise even more. i think the stock market is going a lot higher. stuart: president trump is tweeting about positive signs in the economist. i will quote right now, african-american unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. the hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year, and is close lowested in recorded history. dems did nothing for but get your vote. >> economy at 4.1% unemployment. our estimate is we go to 3.7 and going to in 2019. that will be the lowest we've seen since the 1950s. a lot of people say '50s and '60s in america, that was the heyday, american dream was available for everyone, i would argue it is coming back right now. we have a booming economy and,

you know, yes, president trump has cut back regulation, which is one of the things that was killing american business. we've also reduced corporate tax rates. we're equal to the rest of the world. that will bring investment back to the united states. and so what is happening is the unemployment rate is falling to record lows. that is good for wages. stuart: brian wesbury, we'll see how it pans out. brian, see you soon. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: get back to my editorial at the top of the hour. the democrats in my opinion i think they're desperate with their anti-trump frenzy when they call the president mentally unstable. they want his removal. i think that is pure disper race. let see if kristen tate "the hill" contributor is with me. i say this is desperation, because it is pure nonsense.

removing the president from office because you don't like his style is flat-out ridiculous, but what say you. >> you're 100%, right, stuart. these democrats will do anything to take out trump. they're trying to look for bleak news to tear trump down. reality there is not a whole lot of bad news out there right now. the dow reached 25,000 for the first time. the economy is booming. the unemployment is lowest it has been in years. as you said before african-american unemployment is lowest it ever has been. how are democrats supposed to turn around to the african-american constituents that trump is hurting them? how are they supposed to pay anything in the economy in negative way. that is hard job and democrats have their work cut out for them. democrats refuse to get things done for the american people. they have become the party of no. i don't think the obstructionist strategy will work for them. this may come back it bite them

2018 pause they have no accomplishment to show their own voters. resisting trump is not a party platform to mobilize enough people to make them win. stuart: i don't know whether you saw the golden globes last night. nbc tweeting this about oprah at the golden globes last night. here is the quote. nothing but respect for our future president. kristin what do you make of that? >> you know what, stuart? we live in a country today where the american people want nothing to do with politicians anymore. look at trump. he was only non-politician to run in 2016. he was politically uncorrect. he was bold and brash. but he still won. i happen to think oprah may be the only one who could beat trump because she is charismatic. she is an american icon. she is a self-made billionaire. i mean look at other people who represent the democratic party today? people like nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. they're all entitled and angry, every single one of them. oprah she is likeable. she is carecharismatic.

she might not be that bad. she is a business person. she may know what she is doing. it will be interesting to see what happens. you have to say god bless america because this is the only country where you could see a trump v oprah matchup. stuart: that is very true. good points, kristin. thanks for joining us. good stuff. see you soon. >> thanks for having me. stuart: i'm breaking in here. i have breaking news. the house intelligence committee has received the bank records of fusion gps. that is the firm that created the anti-trump dossier. do you have anything more? liz: td bank forked over 70 pages of documents. the question is, jim jordan wants to know, did the fbi participate in paying fusion gps to look into the trump allegations in that steele dossier around hillary clinton campaign? there are unidentified journalists reporting and commenting on russia were also paid by fusion gps. stuart: oh, really?

liz: this is battle royale. fusion gps has been fighting since the subpoena issued to the house intelligence committee. gps filed a suit to stop it. they forked over documents to see who they have been paying. stuart: is it possible that fusion gps paid journalists? >> at least three unidentified journalists possibly in the bank records paid by fusion gps. jim jordan is asking did the fbi pay fusion gps. stuart: but journalists intrigue me. liz: got fisa warrants to spy on flynn. stuart: the idea journalists would be paid by a dirt monger, fusion gps. liz: three of them, possibly. stuart: i would love to know who? check this out, the tesla employee testing out strength of tesla during the "bomb cyclone." it works.

look at that. can we dismiss that as a stunt? no, i'm not going to do that. president trump wants $18 billion for a border wall. ashley: d.r.e.a.m.ors can stay. stuart: question by the border patrol union, why isn't mexico paying for the wall? they're not you know. all but three women wore black at the golden globes. all about solidarity and empowerment. a guest has the story about hypocrisy at the globes. you're watching the second hour of "varney & company." ♪ eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman?

hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

stuart: 45 minutes into the trading session, monday morning we're down 45 points. 25,250.

that is where we are. individual stocks making news. look at go pro, ouch, cutting workforce by 25%, leaving the drone market which is regulatory hostile environment for drones. look at that, down 25%. snap on the downside, got adown grade from jeffries. five below stock down after a downbeat profit outlook. that stock is down 9%. look at this. espn is trying a new pitch to reach a new audience, another audience to expand it. what have you got? liz: women. advertisers are realizing more people are not watching prime-time tv including women. they're going on line and watching streaming from places like netflix. they have to figure out how do we keep the female viewer? so now, espn is saying you know what? college football, four out of the 10 of viewers last year were

women watching college football. so nows, companies like northwestern mutual, warner brothers studios, are specifically targeting women for their ads in college football games. stuart: we'll see if that works. it is understandable. makes sense logically. no problem with that. got it. back to immigration, yes, the wall. the president says this. roll tape. >> we want the wall. the wall will happen or we'll not have daca. we want to get rid of chain migration, very important. we want to get rid of the lottery system. >> okay, he wants to build the wall. there are three criticisms here. number one, drugs can be flown over it, using drones. people can tunnel under it, using tunnels. okay. and who pays for it? look like us, not mexico. come in border at that troll union brandon judge with his

comments. you can fly drugs over any wall. what is your reaction to that. >> we need to get much better than what we'ring doing. we did a story not too long ago "washington times" the difficulties we're having with drones. we have to have better policies which we don't have. stuart: you build a wall and people will tunnel under it. they do already. they will do a lot more when the wall is built, what you say to that. >> that is not necessarily true. we have very good intelligence department. it will be the intelligence department that has to shut that down. we are finding these tunnels, which put as huge dent into the narcotraffickers, their budget. this is multibillion-dollar industry and it costs an awful lot of money to tunnel under the wall and we find them. stuart: number three, it will, president trump wants $18 billion as a starterdown payment to start building this wall. that comes from american taxpayers, not from mexico as

the president had suggested. what say you to that? >> at least you eased me in on the first two questions. way to hit me with the tough one. no, look, i would not bet against, we elected a disman as a president. a lot of people lost a lot of political capital and lost a lot of money when they bet against him. he has to start it off. we need the wall, so we dictate where the flow of traffic takes place. stuart: i hear there is talk of an entry fee, paid by mexicans coming north from mexico into america. you pay an entry fee. you heard about that? >> i have heard talk about that. i don't know whether that is going to be reality or not but what i'm hearing is there is a lot of ideas being bantered around. again that is why i would not bet against this president. he already had a huge win in tax

reform nobody thought he was going to get. now he will get a huge win in the wall where the democrats are definitely afraid of. stuart: we shall see. you guys cut illegal entry by 2/3 since the election of president trump. let's see if we get the wall built. brandon judd, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: the best of college football faces off tonight, alabama against georgia. huge game, the president will be there by the way. in case you didn't know. he is going to atlanta. lou holtz, legendary notre dame coach, he joins us in our next hour. ♪

retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver.

>> we have been weakened in our investigation into very important concerns at the the department of justice and the fbi because jeff sessions is not able to take the reins to direct that investigation. i think it may be time for him to step aside. stuart: he was appearing on cnn, congressman chris stewart, calling for attorney general jeff sessions to step aside and resign. one of many people calling for him to step down. who else? ashley: mark meadows, republican from north carolina. jim jordan, republican from ohio. the conservatives of the republican party not happy with jeff sessions at all. those two individuals are calling for him to step down. president trump, as we know has been very critical of jeff sessions. he is still hasn't gotten over the fact that sessions recused himself over the russia investigation. gave it to deputy secretary, rod

rosenstein. and wrought in. a libertarian, ron paul says, you are wasting taxpayer money that state voters are already passed. jeff sessions, the main thrust of the complaint he lost control of the department of justice around the fbi. stuart: okay. anything to add, lizzie, waving your hands there? liz: no, i have nothing to add. perfect reporting from ashley. stuart: i do remember the senator from colorado, ranting, that is pejorative word to use, but he was upset on the floor of the united states senate, reversed themselves over marijuana. ashley: said he had gone back on his word. stuart: doesn't make him popular, that is for sure. ashley: no. stuart: next, cnn's jake tapper and the administration's stephen miller, they went toe-to-toe over that book, "fire and fury." cnn even called security on mr. miller. howard kurtz will deal with that in just a moment. you have to watch that.

♪ [laughter] stuart: they're at it again. they're trying to bring a smile to my face. liz: it works, halfway through the show. liz: it is working. happy you. stuart: dow industrials down 50 points. sounds like a lot but it is not that much. 25,246 is where we are. now look at this. some big tech names like facebook, amazon, alphabet, all of them hitting record highs. can you believe facebook at 188? amazon is up 15 bucks, another 15 bucks, 1244 is the price. alphabet google, 1117 a share.

pandora out, morgan stanley worried how much they bring in down the road. you say things like that stock gets hammered, pandora is. dave and buster's, lowered the outlook for the future. they're down whopping 17% on dave and buster's. back to 46. how about this, white house advisor stephen miller had to be escorted off the set following a heated interview with cnn's jake tapper. roll tape. >> give me three minutes to tell you the truth about donald trump i know and all of our campaigns know and. >> i don't want to do that. here is my question. >> this isn't a courtroom and i have a right to speak. >> settle down. calm down. >> jake. >> i have a question about issues. >> i'm trying to get to issues. >> i'm getting to the issue of you are unfairness. you will not give three minutes for the american people to get the real view of donald trump. >> one one viewer you care about. you're being on second question just to please him.

i wasted enough of my viewer's time. stuart: well that was quite a standoff, wasn't it? howard kurtz we need you now, howard, host of "media buzz." i think tapper was wrong and i think miller was right. what say you? >> well, jake tapper was trying to get control of the interview. you saw him struggling there. he called him obsequious. at same time, stephen miller, went on cnn, a network administration doesn't deal with, to trash steve bannon and michael wolff. he called cnn's coverage anti-trump hysteria. it became a train wreck. i know steve miller. i don't think he beats people up. i am surprised they called security. stuart: after the, would you say, that it was good news tv, was it? >> look, you just played a clip. that means it went viral. obviously it was good tv. i don't think it was enlightening because the two were talking over each other.

for president trump to tweet against jake tapper, calling him a cnn flungky. he will praise his guy stephen miller, whether he goes after cable news host it is kind of like punching down. he doesn't like cnn. probably builds tapper up in the eyes of cnn. stuart: president trump changed the date for his fake news awards. it will be next week. it was supposed to be this week. now it is next week. what do you expect from those awards? do you have any idea? >> first of all on the delay i thought this was trump show man, trying to build up suspense. maybe because he is going to the college football championship game tonight. he has other things to do. the president is trolling the press. he is giving out awards. we can guess cnn, "new york times" is among recipients. is there going to be a show and lights and performers? is it just donald trump? press will take the bait. they will go on and on and how

awful this is, playing into trump's hands because this will get a lot of coverage. stuart: abc's brian ross is demoted. president trump noticed it. here is the tweet from the president. brian ross the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the stock market down 350 points, billions of dollars was suspend for a month, now back at abc news in lower capacity. he is no longer allowed to report on trump. should have been fired! he never stops, does it. i don't think, this is the trump show, isn't it. it is presidency, the country as, kind of a live reality show. >> we are all living in the trump show, the trump universe. look, abc did the right thing. brian ross, veteran investigative reporter made a serious mistake with story about mike flynn. he was suspended four four weeks. i thought the president would let it to go. as soon as he comes back assigned to longer term projects. he loves to get last licks in. he was active on twitter last

couple days. he just could not resist. stuart: howard, i think the country actually likes it. a lot of americans find this very amusing. it is funny, they just are delighted to see elites in the media get stuck. >> i have no doubt that you are right. i do think that it also drives the news agenda because journalists are obsessed with themselves. we love to report on -- stuart: just all about me. >> a little secret here. there is a chunk of the country doesn't like it, doesn't think it is presidential. thinks the president should tout the economy and 25,000 instead of going after jake tapper and brian ross. stuart: what do you think about this? this is coming to me now. cnn says oprah is actively thinking about running for president, afterrer had big appearance last night in the golden globes. any comment, howard? >> i have comments. five years ago i would have said entertainer not been in politics be elected president. she is popular figure. she has never had to say what is

her position on trade with china, on immigration. very different when you get into the arena. by the way in. bc tweeting much respect to our future president oprah after her speech at the golden globes. almost like a parody of liberal bias. if oprah will run we'll see -- stuart: i need judgment from you, howard. do you think she could win, trump versus oprah? >> we would be the winners covering it all. i'll have to see what her positions are. stuart: in journalism you are never supposed to say only time will tell but you did the equivalent. we'll see. >> i think she would win some states. she would win some blue states. stuart: that is not going very far. but i take your point. howard, thank you very much indeed. lively session. we appreciate it. thank you, sir. now, here is my point about amazon, i say this bitterly cold weather that we've had for the last couple weeks is a gift for amazon. look at the stock price! it is up another $17 a share,

$1246 per share for amazon right you no. bring in burt flickenger, managing director at resource group. who will argue with me? ashley: what? stuart: i say the weather is a huge plus for amazon, where am i going wrong? >> you're going right and to our collective credit, stuart, amazon is less than the four dollars than the high of 1250 we recommended. power to prosper, we recommended it amazon at 500 two years ago. amazon will benefit from people sitting at home. high repairs from cold weather. need lower prices. have to order from amazon. amazon will have a tough time getting product into the cold weather into the distribution centers and deliver. stuart: do you have evidence that they have a hard time, amazon delivering in the cold weather? do you have any evidence backing that up. >> talking to people at fedex and post office. stuart: is that all you got?

>> talking to team leaders, fedex, ups, talking to people at the post office. fedex, ups soaring. what should really be soaring is supervalu, kroger, costco, walmart because people have to cut back from their higher utility bills, don't go out to dave and buster's as you just referenced. restaurants will get crushed. amazon will benefit. food retail, food distribution benefit, led by supervalu, symbol svu, as well as walmart which we've been recommending a long time as well as kroger and costco. liz: quickly, amazon will have alexa, announce at consumers electronics show alexa in smartwatchers, headphones and fitness trackers to order products from your watch. stuart: is that dick tracy who had the shoe? liz: fitness trackers. stuart: are you sear us? you could speak to a little watch -- liz: speak to alexa and order things on amazon from your watch. stuart: okay. here is another one for you about amazon.

they're supposedly bidding for the rights to stream premier league soccer. how you don't know -- >> i know premier league soccer because i work throughout london, ireland, europe and worldwide. your point, stuart with, premier league soccer and everything else amazon is unstoppable but let's go to barnes and nobles support the book of fox's own don maloney inspiring book, the sandcastle for children. stuart: get out of here. what is your price target for amazon? >> amazon has been 1250. we're reviewing it. it may be 1350, 1400. it is a good bet. it is getting better. stuart: i am right. one more, 7800 stores, retail operations, closed last year. give me a number for this year, closures. >> 12,000 stores and restaurants. ashley: 12,000. stuart: 12,000 stores an restaurants. >> it will be closer 9,000

stores, 3,000 restaurants. stuart: wow. ceo of jcpenney says his company is aggressively targeting sears. do you think penny will push sears out of business. >> penny will push sears out of business. great dream team, mike ullman on the poor when bill ackman and pershing square had penny effectively buried four years ago. best rocky balboa comeback in retail. by pushing sears closer to the cliff and going to the edge of niagra falls breaking on the rocks with the barrel below. stuart: how many cliches. >> liz and i went to school up there. liz: buffalo. stuart: saying sears out, jcpenney may survive and do well? >> yes. stuart: is that it? no cliches? >> point -- ashley: every cloud has a silver lining, let's be honest. only time will tell. >> good merchants and good leaders does macy's and kohl's

which had plus 7% comps in store and online. less capable companies, sears going away. one with good merchants and leaders will win. stuart: i think you got it out? the end. amazon 1350 a share. thank you. >> gave me a few opportunities which i appreciate. stuart: gone on most of them. bert, thank you, sir. >> chipmaker nvidia, all-time high. it has a partnership, it is all about self-driving cars. liz: uber, hooked up with uber, volkswagen, tesla, china's baidu. you said this a while back, ashley. who would own the dashboard and robot cars. ashley: right. >> talking about calling up alexa. alexa get me a row bottom car at my front door now. that is the future. uber says you tracked 50,000 passenger trips. they have been testing this robot car in pittsburgh and phoenix. so nvidia is really dominating

this right now. where are the competitors like, i think you point out apple. is apple getting the guts of robot cars. stuart: people like me having a real problem actually doing stuff on a computer. ashley: yeah. stuart: if i can say to alexa, get me a car, i'm at 6th avenue and 48th street, going to newark airport now. liz: mcdonald's for my coffee. stuart: that is within the realm of possibility. liz: that is the future. stuart: that is a big deal to me. ashley: yes, it is huge. stuart: gigantic. ashley: made for stuart varney. stuart: right, right. check this one out. tesla, making a list of the oddest items that they have confiscated, in the top five, tesla, the tsa. oh. ashley: tesla [laughter] liz: getting into that too. stuart: i smell a lawsuit. festively wrapped narcotics. safety tan's pizza cutter whatever that is.

a bone knife, definitely a maybe, a dead cougar. i'm sorry i don't get that. ashley: weird things. stuart: next case. hollywood all but three women wore black last night at the golden globes. all high and mighty promoting women's equality but plenty of those had hypocritical pasts they would -- that is the view of our next guest. we'll get into it after this. ♪ okay, i picked out my dream car. now's the really fun part. choosing the color, the wheels, the interior,

everything exactly how i want it. here's the thing: just because i configured this car online doesn't mean it really exists at a dealership, but with truecar, i get real pricing on actual cars in my area. i see what others paid for them, and they show me the ones that match the car i want, so i know i can go to a truecar-certified dealer and it'll be right there waiting for me... today, right now. this is truecar. yes or no?gin. 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: the white house wants to allow offshore drilling all around the united states including florida. but that is not sitting well with florida congressman matt gaetz. roll tape. >> the most important thing is our nation's defenses. there is not another place on the planet earth where we're launching things over water and landing them on land. the largest air force base in the world is egg link air force base. it is in my district -- eglin. it is a critical area for testing and munitions n florida today we have been able to achieve the great balance of prosperity with a military mission that contributes 10% of the entire gdp to the state of florida and obviously we have the environmental impacts of it that are very favorable to our state. most importantly we have to

insure we don't surrender capabilities we can never get back essential to our military mission.

stuart: the story on the market this morning is not over all the way it is going, it is those three big tech names, amazon, alphabet, facebook, all of them reaching mirrored highs. look at amazon, it is up nearly 15 bucks, $1244 a share.

there are some dow stocks also hitting all-time highs on your screen. caterpillar, walmart, united technologies, visa, all of them brand new all-time record highs. the dow is only down what, about 45, 6 points as we speak. the golden globes, many wore black to protest sexual harrassment. there was one actress, blanca blanco, wore red. she was criticized not joining the club in black. i want to bring in gabe hoffman, hollywood producers. he has samples of what is hypocrisy of people that appeared last night. meryl streep, where is the hypocrisy from that great actress? >> well, gee, seeshe is right now the leader of that me too, time's up movement, but in 2009, when roman polanski was in jail very briefly in switzerland, they were thinking of extraditing him to the united states to face justice for the

crime he committed against that 13-year-old girl. meryl streep was asked, and she said, roman polanski, i'm very sorry he is in jail. stuart: you called that hypocrisy? >> just a little bit. stuart: but she is a great actor. you will admit that, won't you? she is a real star? i think she is terrific actually. >> absolutely. only in hollywood could they pick the most popular color for a dress and call it a protest. stuart: natalie portman, where is the hypocrisy with her. >> natalie portman had the big speech last night where she talked about how all of the nominees for best director were men. but in 2009 natalie portman actually signed the letter, the petition to the swiss authorities asking for roman polanski to be released from the couple months he spent in jail as opposed to the 40 plus he would have spent in the united states. stuart: james franco, you're accusing him of hypocrisy.

what is the story. >> james franco is very interesting. he won a best actor award last night you as you know. in 2014 at age 35, he was caught instagramming a 17-year-old girl, but he wears the me too time's up little pin that everybody had. stuart: you know, last night, i was expecting the usual anti-trump rampage from all of the presenters. i didn't really hear it. i heard one from seth meyers at the very beginning of the show. after that trump was not mentioned that much, if at all. were you surprised by that? >> i was a little surprised by that, although i have to confess i was more surprised that the only mention of child sex abuse in hollywood was a couple of sick jokes by seth meyers in the opening monologue talking about kevin spacey. stuart: what about oprah winfrey? cnn is confirming in their terms that she will indeed think very

strongly about running in 2020? >> well, meryl streep said afterwards in her post-red carpet interview, it didn't matter what oprah winfrey wanted to do. she would be drafted. it was a rocket ship. then of course you saw nbc's official twitter show a pick you are of it oprah winfrey saying she would be our capital letters, next president. stuart: lowest number of tickets sold at the box office in the last 22 years. that was set set of. did hollywood bail ititself out of that ticket problem last night? >> doesn't seem like it. in fact james franco may have tailspinned his career winning award last night, there are all sorts of accusations floating around on twitter, underage girls. nobody is yet the question about that acting school he and his partner quietly closed up within the last year. stuart: gabe hoffman, thank you for joining, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: two big apple investors calling iphones and children a

toxic pairing. we'll explain that in a moment. back after this. ♪ (siren wailing) (barry murrey) when you have a really traumatic injury, we have a short amount of time to get our patient to the hospital with good results. we call that the golden hour.

evaluating patients remotely is where i think we have a potential to make a difference. (barry murrey) we would save a lot of lives if we could bring the doctor to the patient. verizon is racing to build the first and most powerful 5g network that will enable things like precision robotic surgery from thousands of miles away. as we get faster wireless connections, it'll be possible to be able to operate on a patient in a way that was just not possible before. when i move my hand, the robot on the other side will mimic the movement, with almost no delay. who knew a scalpel could work thousands of miles away? ♪

ashley: two big apple investors saying that the iphone is toxic to kids. deirdre bolton here with this story. deirdre, what is this all about? >> so, ashley, there is a leading activist investor, leading hedge fund writing to apple this weekend needing to address a growing public health crisis, youth phone addiction. you see it in the streets. this challenge which is a serious one to kids mental health. more psychologists are doing link to increased teen anxiety, depression, suicide and phone use. activist firm jana partners usually pressures companies to make changes based on financial reasons but it says apple's high-flying stock could actually be hurt in the future if it face as pr backlash. long story short, they think kid's phone use is brandish issue for apple. it could ultimately affect the stock price. that firm could wrote a letter to apple this weekend along with

one of the biggest pension firms this country, along with california state teachers retirement system, calpers. maybe strategicgy apple doesn't have to listen to them because apple has 900 billion-dollar market cap. apple could ignore the letter. in the past apple made strong statements on social responsibility issues. we know it updated one of its iphone features when it senses that people are driving. it also given cash back to shareholders when faced with public outcry in the past. apple has shown itself, ashley, to be a company that wants to listen to its investors. at this time, it is all about, basically making it easier for parents to limit kids iphone use. back to you. ashley: good luck on that. it is difficult. everybody is walking around the street with the head down, including kids and adults. deirdre bolton, thank you so much. appreciate it. we'll have more "varney" right

after this.

stuart: the president takes to the road today as the swamp gets into a fit about his mental stability, trump goes right to his base. first up, tennessee, where he'll speak before 7,000 farmers. this is rural america, and rural america likes this president. in particular, farmers like the president's hands-off approach to the use of private land. now, you've heard this story before, but 15 years ago i bought land in upstate new york. i turned it into a hardwood timber tree farm. the feds have been trying to tell me how to manage my private land ever since. they even demanded i get a permit every time i moved a rock near a stream. the trump administration ended that nonsense, and i and my fellow farmers are truly grateful. today mr. trump will highlight his deregulation agenda.

good. rural america wants to hear more about that. hen he's on to atlanta -- then he's on to atlanta to watch the championship game. he'll be flying the flag for college football where disrespect for our country has not been an issue. in short, the president's going to stick it to the kneelers, and you know his base will love it. i wouldn't be surprised to hear him repeat that black unemployment on his watch has dropped to the lowest level in decades. now, i deliberately turned off the establishment media this weekend. i just didn't want to hear the trump haters questioning our successful president's mental state. but i'll be watching fox business today. i want to hear what the president is doing for rural america. i want to hear how the trump rally is going. and i want to see the crowd in atlanta respect our country. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

stuart: all right. you heard my opinion piece, top of the hour. let's bring in herb london, president of the london center for policy research. what do you make of all these charges that the president is unfit for the office, that he's mentally deranged and should be removed? >> look, i feel a little like groucho marx, do you believe me or your lying eyes? there is no doubt that the president of the united states has created an environment where we've seen the dow at 25,200, we've seen unemployment rate at the lowest level in 17 years. we've seen black unemployment, as you pointed out, at record lows. we see an economy that may be growing at 4% a year. we see americans in a far better state with the psychology changing, the american people and the way in which we conduct our consumer activities. there is no doubt that this president has been successful. keep in mind that in the beginning of 2017 here was rachel maddow, among others, saying the world is coming to an

end, we will have a depression. the united states cannot succeed. we are succeeding. is this mental illness? this strikes me as the kind of normality i would like to see in the united states. stuart: do you think it's a good idea to get out of the swamp, go over the heads of the elites who hate him, the media which detests him -- >> the average person in the united states is in a far better place today than in 2016. he's looking at trump and saying look at the misery index. there is no doubt we're doing a lot better than we were before. 80% of americans are invested in the market. those people are saying, my god, this president -- through deregulation -- has done something quite remarkable for the united states and for the average person. stuart: there's one thing i missed out in that editorial there, and that is his approval rating. i follow it very, very carefully. i look at real clear politics which has an average of his approval rating. for the past year, he's been down in the dumps, in the 30% range which is very bad for a sitting president. but today, as of today, he's hit

40%, and he's rising. i think he may be unpopular with the elites, but i think his base is still solid. >> i think that what you will see is a president on the ascendancy when it comes to his popularity. if you are looking at -- stuart: really? it's hard to believe that. >> i mean, there is no doubt in my mind president trump wins with 70% of the vote. stuart: what? he would trounce her.wait a second, oprah versus trump? >> he got 57% in the last election, he gets 60, 70% this time. stuart: well, oprah winfrey would win california -- >> and new york. stuart: -- and new york and new jersey and illinois -- >> okay. stuart: -- and connecticut, massachusetts. [laughter] a few more thrown in. >> look, i mean, there's no doubt if you run dumbo on those state, the blue state candidate is going to win. stuart: be careful of your language. [laughter] >> i'm referring to, i'm referring to an elephant, by the way. and that is a republican symbol. stuart: okay.

thank you very much, indeed. fiery stuff this morning. the new year's got you fired up, hasn't it? >> good. stuart: see you again soon. all right, check the big board and the dow 30 stocks. we are down 44 points for the dow, and there are more losers than winners among the dow 30. however, big tech still doing well. president trump tweeting about the economy, here it is: the stock market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country not only record stock prices, but jobs, jobs, jobs. $7 trillion of value created since our big election win. that number is actually $7.2 trillion. that's how much the value of all stocks has gone up since the election. jonathan hoenig is with us, the man who runs a firm with the extraordinary name of the capitalist pig hedge fund. welcome back, jonathan, good to see you. >> great to be -- they told me i could be on with robin leech, i just couldn't say no. [laughter] stuart: very good, i'll get you for that.

now, the conventional wisdom which always comes at us is that the stock market rally means nothing for the average american. what do you say to that? >> well, i disagree with that. the stock market is where wealth is created. the fact that the stock market has done well under president trump, put your politics aside for a second. you have to admit that's a positive. just the same way that under clinton, you know, everyone who's crowing about the president trump stock market gains, you have to once again say stocks did very well under clinton, they did very well under obama. the stock market, amazingly, is bigger than one president. it's driven by the tech stocks, the ubers, the intels, the amazons, the facebooks. they're the ones driving the market higher, they're the ones who deserve the credit and, you know what? everyone benefits, to your point. this isn't something just for the rich elite, everyone benefits from a rising stock market. you can't deny these are good times. stuart: i want your opinion on amazon because, seems to me, that is the stock of the day,

the week, the month and probably the year. >> yeah. stuart: i think they benefited from the cold weather around much of the country. we see warehouse costs or prices surging because of this two-day delivery system, and now amazon's trying to get streaming rights for premiere league soccer from england. that all ends up to anenedless stream of positives -- an endless stream of positives for amazon. are you onboard with the stock? >> it hasn't gone down in the better part of 17 years, stuart, so you don't make money betting against amazon. the thing that ultimately sounds the death knell, we've seen this before back in the '90s, cisco, for example, was the must-own stock, dell, we don't hear about these anymore. what they've continued to do is innovate. that's what continues to keep it on top. amazon is almost unrecognizable from even ten years ago, and last year with the whole foods purchase and potentially shopping at places like target, looking to even further their involvement in streaming, as you

said, that's what's going to keep them on top. if they stop innovating, the stock loses the premium, loses the leadership it's had for many, many years. stuart: in the interest of full disclosure, do you own amazon stock right now? >> should have, could have, would have. [laughter] i have a habit of not buying the companies and stocks that i use every day, apple, amazon, facebook. these have been tremendous performers, and i've sat these ones out. stuart: i tell you, jonathan, several years ago my children were saying you've got to buy apple. it was $57 a share back then, and i didn't -- i thought, oh, it's had its run, that's it. good-bye. [laughter] i use apple computers myself, we have apple iphones, but we don't buy the stock. what a mistake. anyway, jonathan -- >> often times, stuart, just when you think a stock is at the high, it's at a high, not the high. this is an indication that the

trend remains up, and i wouldn't bet against stocks. stuart: capitalist pig, the man himself -- [laughter] thanks, jonathan. we'll see you again soon. >> thanks, guys. be well. stuart: corporate stories, here we are. gopro going to lay off, what, 250 workers in its drone division. it released its first drone in october 2016. this will be the fourth round of layoffs at gopro in the last two years, the stock's down to $5 a share. invidia, the chipmaker, says it's going to partner with uber to develop driverless car technology. uber says it's all-driverless cars will now use invidia chips. that stock hitting an all-time high. tomorrow i'm hoping to bring you a story about invidia, filling stadiums in asia where they play video games together. i'll bring you that story tomorrow, that's a promise. microsoft -- [laughter] ♪ ♪ stuart: the trumpets. brilliant, i thought. 88.41 on microsoft, yet another

all-time high. now this: water main break delays and cancellations at jfk airport in new york over the weekend. it flooded the baggage claim area at the international terminal. >> wow. stuart: had to be evacuated. the airport was already struggling with delays because of last week's snow, ice and arctic temperatures. misery. now this, two leading members of the freedom caucus, mark meadows, jim jordan, calling on jeff sessions to resign. judge napolitano back with us on that subject later this hour. president trump heading to atlanta to watch the college football championship game. very soon we'll be joined by legendary notre dame coach lou holtz. there's a lot ahead for you. we're watching -- i'm sorry, you are watching the third hour of "varney & company." i think you'll like it too. ♪ ♪ a used car,

truck, suv. that's smart. truecar can help. it's great for finding a new car, but you already knew that. it's also great for finding the perfect used car.

you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. so, no matter what you're looking for... there it is. this is how buying a used car should be. this is truecar. ♪

stuart: yeah, that's a good graphic. retail ice age, indeed. 7, 800 retail stores closed in america last year. that is a record. radio shack number one in closings, 1400 locations shut down. here are the other chains that closed the most stores; payless, rite aid, then we have rue21, sears, the limited. our retail guy told us last hour that he expects another 9,000 retail locations to close this year. >> that's more than 2008 and 2009 at the height of the great collapse. >> right. stuart: yeah. that's retail ice age, case closed. >> bottom line. stuart: let's move on to immigration. president trump wants $18 billion for building of the

wall. he also wants to end chain migration and end the visa lottery program all in exchange for letting the dreamers stay. nick adams is with us, he's the author of the book "green card warrior." nick, welcome back. good to see you again. >> happy new year, stuart varney. stuart: yes, to you too, sir. i know you support merit-based immigration, i got it. i want you to talk to me about the dreamers. under what circumstances would they be allowed to stay? i mean, for example, did they get green cards? do they get citizenship? what do they get if we say you can stay? >> stuart varney, i have thought about this long and hard, i've wrestled with it. there are definitely all kinds of emotional issues connected to it, but were it president nick adams, there would be absolutely no circumstances under which dreamers would be allowed to stay. stuart: that's a bit harsh, nick. wait a second -- >> well, i'll tell you why. stuart: you and i were born in other countries, i was born in

england, you were born in australia. i got that. america is a big-hearted country, it's not a harsh place. and to say to all of those youngsters brought here as children, no, you can't stay, you've got to go, honestly, i think that's harsh. >> stuart, i hear you, i feel you, but i disagree with you. and i'll tell you why i disagree with you. i disagree with you because i think that these people have been enormous beneficiaries of incredible u.s. generosity and has to bialty until now. -- hospitality until now. and while this is a difficult issue, i think now that these people have had, these dreamers have had the opportunity to take advantage of all of the resources of the greatest culture in the world, it's now time for them to go home and come back to america the right way just like anybody else coming to america the right way would have to. stuart: okay. how about this one, president trump -- this is about san salvador -- he's ending protections for 200,000

salvadoran immigrants who are here for humanitarian, that's the description, they're here for humanitarian reasons. they were allowed to stay following the earthquake there in 2001. now, 16 years later are we going to throw them out? >> stuart varney, you really have got it out for me this morning. [laughter] you want to depict me as this unfeeling, totally devoid of compassion person. [laughter] look, i believe that it's time for these people to go home now as well. i mean, how else are they going to rebuild their country? they've been here, they were meant to come here for 18 months. what kind of a life is it when you're only ever waiting six months, eighteen months for another administration to keep renewing? there's no kind of guarantee. that's not how you can live your life. so i think it's also a time for those people to go back and assist with rebuilding of their country. stuart: but, look, you're going to need political support from

democrats. to get that support, and you've got to have that support to get this through congress, you're going to have to make a deal. the deal would be build the wall, end chain migration, end the lottery system and, okay, some of the dreams can stay. you really object to that deal? >> stuart, i'm with you for most of that. but if there's one thing i know, it's this: if there is any kind of idea that there's going to be a reward for bad behavior no matter how far back it goes whether it's someone associated with the bad behavior or whether it's those that perpetrated the bad behavior themselves, there is going to be a carrot. and as long as there is a carrot to, then we're going to have a problem. if it is abundantly clear that if you come to america the wrong way no matter who you are you will never, ever get to stay nor will any of your relatives, that's how we end illegal immigration. but if we're going to start making exceptions, if we're going to go varney soft on this -- [laughter] then i think we've got a

problem. stuart: tough guy, nick adams, on the ball there. all right, nick, i hear you. i do hear you, and it's a pleasure to have you on the show. come back again soon, okay? good luck, sir. >> always a pleasure. stuart sure thing. by the way, everything backing to normal now at trump tower. a small electrical fire on the roof of the tower. it's in manhattan. started this morning, it was in a cooling tower on the roof. nobody injured, no evacuations, it's over. back to normal. listen to this, senator chuck grassley, he wants a criminal investigation into the author of the trump dossier. that will be michael steele. >> christopher steele. stuart: i'm sorry, christopher steele. thank you very much, indeed, liz. thank you very much, indeed. christopher steele. napolitano on that coming up. and we have this for you, democrats in california and new jersey are trying to help residents get around the new cap on s.a.l.t. and property tax deductions using charity? ah, interesting. we will explain it. first this, though, this is

teresa from grand rapids, michigan, she turned 104 years old january the 1st. she's crediting her long life to one single thing. you won't believe it. >> scotch. [laughter] >> "varney & company." stuart: she watches "varney & company," i don't know. [laughter] we'll tell you the real reason after this. ♪

♪ ♪ stuart: all right are, she's 104, and she's crediting one item for her longevity, and that item is diet coke. teresa lives in michigan, she says she's drunk one can of it every day for decades can, and it makes her feel good. now you know, diet coke, 104 years old. a dormant volcano erupted first time ever leading to the evacuation of an entire island near new guinea, it's in the pacific. lava flowing from the volcano covering half the island. no injuries, but there is a tsunami warning. >> wow. stuart: the tsa revealing the five weirdest things they found in airport security last year. number one, festively-wrapped narcotics at lax.

[laughter] number two, a replica rifle umbrella in las vegas. number three, a bone knife. that was at bwi airport in baltimore. and number four, satan's pizza cutter, that was in honolulu. [laughter] >> that's fearsome. stuart: it is, actually. and number five, a scythe. imagine trying to get that on a plane. breaking news, sources confirm to fox news that president trump's legal team is in talks to have the president interviewed by robert mueller. conversations with mueller's team in the early stages, may never come to pass, but they are discussing whether it will be a face-to-face meeting or written responses to questions. let's bring in judge napolitano on that. he's with us after the break. also ahead, very soon the president will depart for nashville, tennessee. he'll speak to 7,000 farmers.

first time since '92 that an american president has spoken at that event. after that he goes to atlanta to watch the college football championship game. legendary football coach lou holtz, he joins us on that next. ♪ ♪ life happens. that's why feeling safe is priceless. with adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only $49.00. call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera included and installed at no additional cost.

that's a $449.00 value, installed, for just $49.00. adt has over 140 years of security experience, with our commitment to customer service, and round-the- clock professional monitoring, you have the comfort of knowing that adt is helping to protect what matters most. call today, or visit adt.com to get your adt starter kit installed for just $49.00. adt. we help keep you safe, so you can feel secure. call 1-888-337-safe or visit adt.com and get your adt starter kit for just $49.00.

show of hands. let's get started. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors.

1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. stuart: all right, we're paring the los, we were down 50, now we're down 27. [laughter] what are you laughing at? >> three points. stuart: okay. give me a break here. i'm not trying to talk this thing up, but i'm not talking it down either. we're down and there's more losers than winners. have you got that, ashley? >> i'm with you. stuart: look at roku, down bigsometime. citi citigroup says sell it, 5% down on roku. and now this, the college football championship game tonight in atlanta, and the president will be there. and look who's here to talk about that, former notre dame football coach, the legendary lou holtz, who knows nothing about soccer but everything about real football, ain't that true?

>> you're absolutely wrong. [laughter] what do you want to know about soccer? manchester united, the greatest soccer team, is number six, chelsea's number one, but manchester city's number three, and chelsea just signed barkley, the 24-year-old -- [laughter] stuart: you got it wrong. man city, as in manchester city, is number one, not number three. >> well, that just happened because the last time i looked they were number three. [laughter] >> i love him. stuart: i tell you what, we'll move on, shall we? [laughter] thank you very much. there's not going to be any kneeling at the college football championship tonight. there's no kneeling in college football for the anthem. why is that, lou? >> well, for a couple reasons. number one, the band has a 20-game pregame show, and they culminate it with the national anthem. you don't want your team out there watching the band. in 1973 i had a linebacker who asked if he could listen to the national anthem because it

motivated him. i said, you'd rather do that than listen to my pregame talk? that ended that. you are not going to use this football team to promote any cause other than our university. you aren't going to come on and try to promote pro-abortion. as an individual, you have that right, you do not have the right on this team to do it. i want you to understand that. you have a choice, these are our rules. we aren't going to change the rules just to appease you. stuart: i think the president is on a tour today, tennessee speaking to farmers, atlanta at the college game, i think he's going over the heads of the media, over the heads of the swamp, going straight to his base. and he'll be popular. what say you? >> oh, i definitely think he does appeal to -- the thing i always ask, stuart, is why. why does trump tweet? the reason he tweets is because that's the only way he can get his message out because the media's different. then you ask, well, why was

there russian collusion? why do we have this problem now with his mental stability? you ask why. the only thing i can figure out is the insurance policy was we cannot afford to let them find out all the things that we have been doing wrong against the people. we can't let that come out. you say why. somebody explain to me why is the media against trump? why is the democrats obstructionists? i don't know why, i'm just saying common sense, there must be something they're trying to hide. stuart: it's because we've never had a president like this before, ever, not even close. we've never had a president who uses this kind of abrasive language in public. we've never had someone who counterpunches so heavily against any critic. and the elites, they don't know what to make of it. they hate it. >> okay, but let me ask you this. oh, he just started that after he became president? he was elected because of that! i mean, he did this before. [laughter] it isn't like a, oh,

surprise-surprise, i didn't know he was going to be -- stuart: you like it. >> what happens in politics so many times, when somebody says something negative, they just brush it off, they don't respond. he's not that way. he's a fighter. you say something to him, he's going to come back. you attack his family, he's going to attack you twice -- it's not like we didn't know this was going to happen when he was elected. he wasn't elected because of the eastern shore or the west coast, he was elected because of the rural people, and i happen to be from a rural area in ohio, fly overland, and all you want to do is raise your family, have a beer, play in the soccer or baseball game and have fun. but, no, they don't want the country coming in and telling you how to run your lives. stuart: i just want to wish you happy birthday. i believe you turned 81, i think it was saturday if i'm not mistaken. >> oh! stuart: you don't look a day over 83. [laughter] you're in great shape, i tell you. [laughter] >> i tell you right now, thank you for that.

i really needed that. [laughter] stuart: i know you did. lou, you can come back anytime you like. it's always a pleasure. thanks very much, lou. >> thank you. stuart: all right. i want to get back to the news we broke just a few minutes ago, sources confirm to fox news that president trump's legal team is in talks to have the president interviewed by robert mueller. let's see what judge napolitano thinks about that. now, we understand they're negotiating. is it a face-to-face q and a, or is it a response to written questions. how do you react to the whole idea of the president answering questions to mueller? >> well, with a couple of caveats that, obviously, i don't know as much about the case as the president's lawyers do, and the other caveat is the president is probably a very headstrong client who asks questions of his lawyers and then decides what he wants them to do. so with those two caveats on your hands, how do you control a client? stuart: you don't.

>> who wants to tell you how to run the case when the client is not a lawyer. the answer is you don't and you can't. with all those caveats, i will tell you very, very, very, very few seasoned criminal defense lawyers will let their client speak to the prosecutors under any circumstances. it is extremely dangerous. the conversation that general flynn had with fbi agents which he now says he didn't even know they were showing up at his office resulted in his indictment. this is a very, very precarious and dangerous environment. i would do my best to talk him out of it if i were his lawyers. again, i don't know what they know about the case. stuart: okay. but what they would be trying to do would be to get the president to contradict something he's said previously in public. at that point they will accuse him of lying or, you know, a double take on a story. >> well, they probably want him to contradict something that they have strong evidence of. i mean, if they go in there with

the intention of trying to trap him, i am sorry to say they will probably succeed. he won't be under oath, but this is the same crime as general flynn -- who hasn't been convicted -- martha stewart, this is lying to an fbi agent in an official interrogation which is not under oath and often not witnessed by anybody other than the participants. stuart: i've got to move on fast because clearly you don't think the president should do this. >> no, i don't, but i have those caveats that you can't control him, number one, and number two, they won't know a lot more about the case than i do. stuart: two republican senators, senator grassley and lindsey graham, they want the justice department and the fbi to investigate christopher steele, the author of the trump dossier. >> this is very unusual. ordinarily people who are not americans are not prosecuted for lying to the fbi. but the allegation here is that they, the two senators, have seen evidence which shows that what he told the fbi -- he's

already had his interview with them -- is inconsistent with the evidence they have so, therefore, he lied. that's the investigation that they're looking for. look, this lying to the fbi also has a caveat. the lie must be so significant that it interferes with the fbi investigation. so if the fbi knows you're lying, then the lie probably does not interfere with their investigation. that's the defense to these allegations of lying. it'll be general flynn's defense, it was martha stewart's defense. i hope the president isn't charged with this, but if he is, that would be his defense. stuart: there's an op-ed piece, two conservative lawmakers are calling on attorney general jeff sessions to resign. your thoughts. >> oh, it's difficult for me to answer this, stuart, because i'm a longtime friend of the attorney general. i disagree with him on so many policy issues from minimum mandatory sentencing to the marijuana initiative last week

which has law enforcement at the local, state and federal level pulling their hair out. if fbi agents are going to -- fbi agents are going to arrest people for using marijuana. i mean, the country has just moved past that. what they're talking about is his failure to keep control over the justice department. those members of congress who are complaining about jeff sessions are behind the effort to hold the director of the fbi and the number two person in doj, rod rosenstein, in contempt. stuart: ouch to. all right, judge, you covered a lot of stuff. >> it just keeps coming. i was a lawsuit when lou holtz was the head coach at noter day. he was -- notre dame. stuart: i was already geriatric when he was a coach. >> i'm not surprised to hear that. [laughter] stuart: lay down -- [laughter] >> what a laugh. stuart: all right. well, look at this, it says here a secret satellite in space

after spacex's first flight of the year. listen in. >> ignition, liftoff. >> do not need to have as much stress on the vehicle. now, we're going to go through -- stuart: okay. the company's launched the zuma aircraft from cape canaveral, not revealing its mission. >> we don't know. it's up there, we don't know why. stuart: democrats from california and new jersey are trying to help residents get around the new cap on s.a.l.t. using charity. we'll try to explain that one. it's an innovative idea. listen to this, nancy pelosi's chief of staff warning democrats not to work with president trump. he says bipartisanship could lead to a voter backlash. we're on it. ♪ ♪ ♪

with expedia, you can book a flight, then add a hotel, and save. ♪ everything you need to go. expedia

>> i'm nicole petallides with yourx business brief. ford has some big plans this spring, and that is bringing you their most popular f-150 pickup truck in a diesel version. the stock is slightly lower today, but there are plans this spring for ford to pump out a diesel engine version of its best selling f-150. the ten-speed transmission can

achieve 30 miles per gallon highway fuel efficiency compares to some mid-sized vehicle ises, in fact, but it will cost a little more, $2400-4000 more versus a gasoline truck. there's been a surge in pickup truck sales, nearly 900,000 sold for ford in 2017. that is most of the f-series trucks, more than any other year since 2005. ♪ ♪ now's the really fun part. choosing the color, the wheels, the interior, everything exactly how i want it. here's the thing: just because i configured this car online doesn't mean it really exists at a dealership, but with truecar, i get real pricing on actual cars in my area. i see what others paid for them, and they show me the ones that match the car i want, so i know i can go to a truecar-certified dealer and it'll be right there waiting for me... today, right now. this is truecar.

stuart: alert, we're just learning thate president pence will travel to the middle east at the end of this month. he's going to go to egypt, jordan and, yes, israel. i've got a number more you, big one. 24.8 billion, that is the cost of regulations implemented by the obama team just in the last 16 days of their term. by comparison, the trump administration has imposed just $5.8 billion worth of new regulations in the first 11 months of the presidency. remember, the president signed an order last year that calls for the removal of two obama-era regulations for every one that he wants to implement. now this: nancy pelosi's chief of staff is warning democrats not to work with the president. he says being bipartisan will not help democrats in november. in other words, resist 100%. joining us now, larry elder,

salem radio nationally syndicated talk show host. so no getting together with the republicans at all -- >> right. stuart: -- the way to electoral success is down the line resistance. what do you say to that? enter what about what's good for the country? [laughter] you know, i was rereading a book that robert, stuart, that robert gates wrote, obama's first secretary of defense, and he said that he was appalled when he found out that both hillary and obama told him that when he were in the senate, they opposed george w. bush's surge not because they thought it would fail, but because they thought it would advance them politically. and he was shocked that they admitted it and that a public servant would do something that was not in the best interests of the country. one would like to think that politicians go up there to do the best interests of the country. george w. bush got bipartisan support for his tax cuts. why can't they come together on some things? most americans want our borders secured.

they can't come up with something like that? they can't do a deal with daca in exchange for border security? they can't even do that? come on! stuart: they are so contemptuous of donald trump that they think that any contact with the man is bad for their party. don't go anywhere near him. it stems from their contempt and hatred, that's my opinion. >> i agree, but that whole calculation will change as trump's poll numbers go up. when those tax cuts kick in and the american people see the benefit and he gets his numbers above 50%, all of a sudden there'll be a renewed interest on the part of some democrats to do some to sort of work with him. stuart: okay. i live in hope. [laughter] democrats in california and new jersey, they're trying to help the residents of those states get around the new cap on s.a.l.t. deductions. they're trying to make it so that homeowners could donate what they pay in property taxes and then claim a charitable donation which is deductible. do you think that would work? >> it's possible, but the point

is this: the democrats are seeing what -- [laughter] margaret thatcher said, sooner or later you run out of other people's money. rich people don't get rich by being stupid. they can leave high-tax places like california, new jersey, new york for lower tax places, and that's what they're afraid of. even democrats realize that at some point even rich people say i've had enough. i think i told you before they will change as soon as atlas shrugs, which means rich people are going to leave high-tax states and go elsewhere, that may very well be happening. i told you there's a silver lining here. a lot of democrats are going to have to rethink some of their assumptions and may even do something called cut spending. stuart: i'll believe it when i see it, but as i said before, i do live in hope. larry, thanks very much for joining us. we will see you very soon. thank you, got it. >> my pleasure. stuart: pfizer is cutting jobs, 300 workers laid off, being laid

off after the company ended research into drugs for alzheimer's and parkinsons. they're choosing to spend the money elsewhere where the results are better. the move affects workers in massachusetts and connecticut, but that's quite a policy bombshell, is it not? >> yeah. stuart: pfizer stock is down. last night oprah stole the show. now she's getting buzz about a possible presidential run. oprah 2020? stay right there. ♪ ♪ building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral...

...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.

retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology

that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver.

[applause] >> it's 2018, marijuana is finally allowed, and sexual harassment finally isn't. [cheers and applause] it's gonna with a good year! stuart: that was golden globes host seth meyers joking about hollywood's sexual harassment problem. almost every actress shared up to the event wearing black to raise awareness about harassment. oprah winfrey, she generated the biggest headlines for her speech after accepting this lifetime

achievement award. roll tape. >> i've interviewed and portrayed people who have withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning. even during our darkest nights. so i want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! [cheers and applause] stuart: all right. afterwards nbc and celebrities dubbed oprah winfrey our future president. now, that tweet has since been deleted. >> yes. stuart: sidebar, check this out. weight watchers surging on all the o paragraph hype. -- oprah hype. the stock is up nearly 13%. oprah is a weight watchers' spokesperson, and she owns 10% of the company. it's up 12.8%. this morning a new report claims oprah is actively thinking about running for president in 2020.

now, what thoughts tough on this? >> i think she's a force to be reckoned with. if you can have donald trump and others, why not oprah? i do think there's a lot of democrats pushing her because who else do they have? compare her to the nancy pelosis of the world, i don't see anyone in the democratic ranks -- but the question howard kurtz raised earlier was so what is her take on trade with china and, you know, dealing with north korea. those are the types of things where you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, but i can see this gaining momentum. stuart: well, she's got name recognition, she's popular, and she's a self-made billionaire. >> right. stuart: what do you say, liz? >> she's probably the most beloved person right now in terms of that speech in america. i don't think she runs, here's why. i mean, it is correct, what would her positions be on economic policies, who would she choose to be the fed chair. to make those choices, you alienate the other side, the people who don't like your choices and economic policies. she's such a strong brand, i

don't think she threatens her brand recognition with a run for the presidency because she would basically have to make policy choices that could alienate a lot of people. stuart: why don't you think she runs? >> i think she is in such control of her name, she's never gone public, she's never let anybody else use her name. i think that it is really hard to run for the presidency and make calls like that that could alienate a lot of people on all sorts of policies. >> -- her career and, you know, her standing. i think, i think at some point the ego kicks in, and she's going to have some very influential people saying, come on, do this. >> people thought will smith was going to run and jay-z -- she's a wonderful human being, i'm a fan of hers, i just don't think she makes the choice. stuart: there is the enormous risk of failure. if you run and lose to donald trump, it's the equivalent of hillary clinton running against donald. >> right. and by the way, it's sort of how people underestimated ronald reagan. remember he went to eureka

college, said ketchup was a vegetable, he won two landslide victories. [laughter] you want to underestimate what's going on in the economy right now? you can't. it's really powerful -- >> so ketchup isn't a vegetable? [laughter] stuart: isn't it great to be in the news business? it's incredible. there'll be more of it, more "varney" after this too. ♪ 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. . . . .

whoooo. when it comes to travel, i sweat the details. late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price. tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites

...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. don't sweat your booking. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com stuart: the favorite story of the day to me is amazon. look at that stock go. it is up 16 bucks at 1245. i am told the developing the echo device alexa to the point where you can do this, get me an uber car at the corner of 48th and 6th you no. liz: your headphones and fitbit. stuart: can they do that now? >> i can send a message, syria.

she just answered. stuart: what did you tell it to say. appeal, give me neil cavuto on the fox business network now. neil: thinking about what you're saying and reference to your farm before. have you ever taken an uber to the upstate new york farm. stuart: no. why did you ask that? neil: that is the way, i'm unpredictable 2018. stuart: yes, you are. neil: i heard that, wow. stuart: did you hear it was minus 13, 13 degrees below zero fahrenheit at my farm yesterday morning. beat that. neil: it is cold everywhere, stuart, i hate to break it to you. maybe a little colder at your little compound there. we're all dealing with it. liz: so funny