oath to the fbi. well, those former fbi chiefs, will they be held to the same standard? maria: we'll see about that, since we know andrew mccabe lied four times, three of which were under oath. >> liar, liar, pants on fire. [laughter] maria: let's get to "varney & company," charles payne in for stuart this morning. charles: thank you, maria. don't adjust your tv set es, i'm charles payne. we're going to start, of course, with your money. looks leak we're going to -- looks like we're going to start with a little or bit of a rally, futures up all day yesterday this as more big companies are reporting profits this week. another bank posted profits. of course, they point to the trump tax cuts. we'll have more details on that in a moment. but the big international story president trump launching airstrikes against syria, taking out military and chemical weapons facilities. president trump says, quote,

mission accomplished. well, lots of outrage over this one. two black men arrested at a starbucks in philly after they asked to use the bathroom without buying anything. starbucks now in damage control mode. you will see the ceo's apology. and it sure doesn't feel like mid april, does it? a wild winter wind storm blanketing two-thirds of the country, bringing cold temperatures, high winds, heavy rains, blizzards, tornadoes. you name it, it's out there. it's a real mess. but varney and company's not, and we're going to start right now. ♪ ♪ charles: a deadly riot at a maximum security prison in south carolina. ashley has the details. >> yeah, seven inmates killed, 17 injured. it all kicked off about 7:15 last night. the fighting spread to three housing units, took about eight

hours to quell this riot, and we're just getting the latest word from the coroner saying the majority of those killed died from stabbing and slashing wounds. this is a facility that holds about 1500 of some of south carolina's most violence offenders. -- violent offenders, and this is not the first time it's happened. in february an inmate was also killed, it's not clear what caused this riot to begin last night. when you say deadly, it really was. seven dead -- charles: and that's a maximum security prison. let's take a quick look at futures again. they were up yesterday before the infamous tv interview last night, and they held up, and now gaining a little bit of steam in part the bank of america which posted profits, getting a boost from that tax law. joining us now, market watcher dennis gartman. president trump claiming success in syria. for you, which one is a bigger deal for the markets? >> syria did not get any worse than it was, it was, indeed, a

one-off. we may argue about the constitutionality of the attack, but at least it's gone and it's been done and put to the sidelines. that takes that away. stocks want to go a little bit higher, or i'm bearish in the long run. in a bear market, you can only have one of three positions -- really short, modestly short or neutral. i'm neutral. prices want to go high higher, but i have to wait for strength into which to sell. this wants to go up. it's obviously very strong this morning, we might have another 3 or 4% on the upside. carl charles so why -- charles: so why are you bearish? >> >> because i think we've seen a top in the market, i think each top has been progressively lower, each low has been progressively lower. that's the hallmark of a bear market. this is going to be nothing more than a good, solid bear market rally. i've learned over 45 years of being in the markets that one can only adopt long-term positions, and my long-term outlook is bearish so, therefore, the most bullish that i can be at this point is to be

dead neutral. which is not such a bad place to be. charles: well, certainly hasn't been in the last couple of months. i suspect if we were to take out some of those highs or break the channel to the upside, you'd maybe go back to the drawing board? >> if that's what happens, but right now the market is telling me standing on the sidelines waiting to sell into strength is the proper place to be. charles: we're hearing about the impact from the tax cuts, we're hearing about it from corporate america. retail sales had three disappointing numbers in a row, and areas, by the way, where people seem to be splurging, restaurant sales higher. what do you make of that? >> i'm with stephanie, i thought she had a very good explanation, and i think you're going to start to see savings rates increase. after three months, we've had three very poor months of retail sales, to have one up month and

a revision is reasonable, rational, it's not unusual, but i don't think we're going to see a hearty return to robust retail sales on the part of the consumer. i think there's still enough concern about the past histories to say, you know what? the best that i'm going to do is begin to save a little bit more. and savings, as we all know, is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it's detrimental. charles: dennis, very much appreciated. >> thanks, charles. charles: james comey took direct aim at president trump last night. roll tape. >> do you think the russians have something on donald trump? >> i don't know. i think it's possible. >> that's stunning. you can't say for certain that the president of the united states is not compromised by the russians. >> yeah, it is stunning, and i wish i wasn't saying it, but it's the truth. it always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely, and i would have been able to say with high confidence. charles: all rise, judge andrew

napolitano's here. all right, it's possible. you know, some folks say that the existence of the easter bunny is possible. nevertheless, that was james comey, former fbi director. what did you make of that whole interview, including that part? >> it's not a lawyer -- it's not a word that lawyers like to use. if he said probable, meaning more likely than not, the next question is, well, what's the evidence that causes you to say that. but when he says it's possible, that's just speculation. i didn't see anything new last night. i saw some very strong opinions, to which he is entitled, but i didn't see any new evidence except for this: the one area that he and george stephanopoulos stressed is, i think, a very dangerous area for the president, and that's obstruction of justice. and i believe that jim comey may have been articulating what he heard from bob mueller and company with whom he's in contact. he's one of their witnesses. and he may very well have been or articulating aloud jim -- bob

mueller's theory of obstruction of justice about the president, and that's dangerous for the president. charles: but to your point, did he back up where that obstruction came from? because bob mueller has articulated as much himself. >> same thing that if it exists, it's the same thing that's been out there since comey was fired. i want you to lay off of mike flynn. now finish the sentence. because you have more important things to do, perfectly lawful. because you might find out that i did something wrong, unlawful. charles charles right. >> so the thought process is in the president's head. he didn't articulate any set of those words. charles: you know, the idea, of course, that he's taking all kinds of soars personal shots at president trump -- serious personal shots at president trump, he's put himself on this higher moral standing that i think a lot of people, particularly apolitical folks, are saying it doesn't seem proper for someone in his position or former position. this is almost one of these tabloid kind of books, you know?

or from what we know. >> if his goal is to sell books by engaging the president and causing the president to send betweens that are harsher than what jim comey is saying, it's a great way to sell books. if his goal is to establish a legacy, i don't think it's the best way to do it. but i'm not in the business of advising him. but i didn't see anything new other than the voracity of some of his opinions. charles: he wants to limit people's ability to show documents seized in that raid. >> this is a very, very unusual situation. the fbi seized -- according to michael cohen's lawyers -- thousands of documents and tangible things. they have moved, they moved immediately before a federal judge to prevent the fbi from turning these things over to federal prosecutors on the grounds that it's attorney-client privilege. the government argues that even

though michael cohen is a validly-licensed lawyer, he was not practicing law with donald trump. he was being a fixer. he was being a dirty tricker the. he was engaged -- charles: what's the difference? and i'm not being facetious, but what a lawyer do those things on your behalf anyway? >> but they might not be subject to the privilege. the privilege protects confidential information. if you come and say, judge, i got a traffic ticket, i need you to get me out of it. that conversation is not privileged. if you say i really was speeding, but i have a way of helping you show i wasn't speeding, that is privileged. now, the government has the burden of putting michael cohen on the stand and grilling him this afternoon about the nature and extent of his relationship to donald trump and is he really practicing law, or is he being a fixer and a dirty trickster? stated differently, the government believed that donald trump, the president of the united states, and michael

cohen, his lawyer, were doing untoward things and masking it by the attorney-client privilege. charles: is it illegal to enter into a non-nda? why is this -- >> the courts are reluctant to enforce them because they restrain speech, but if you accept money for it, it's enforcible. charles: what about cohen's to other clients? >> the reason i'm smiling is because the government says there are no other clients. he only has one. [laughter] and when the judge said to mr. cohen's lawyer who were the other clients, she couldn't say. charles: right. >> we'll find out this afternoon. fireworks this afternoon. charles: fireworks, thanks. former first lady barbara bush is in failing health. e. mac, you've got the latest. >> yes. 92 years old, she has said i do not want to be on, basically, life-extending conditions any longer. she's been battling congestive heart failure and copd.

again, she made that decision after talking with family and friends. she's been on oxygen for quite some time. she had surgery back in 2009 for a severe narrowing of her main heart valve. it should be noted that she's the second woman many u.s. history to be both a wife and mother of a u.s. president, the first being abigail adams. charles: it's heartbreaking, but she had -- she's had a great life. 92 years old, and we definitely pray for her and her family. >> yep. charles: well, check your refrigerator. the fda issuing a recall for more than 200 million eggs containing the 2 cases of --22 cases of salmonella. and president trump says the airstrikes in syria were a success, but is it too soon to declare mission accomplished? a state department spokesman is with us next.

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charles: the dow up 176 points, want to check oil. remember last week was a big week in part because of anxiety over syria. and then there's gold also sort of regained some of its status as a safe haven, had a pretty good week last week, going to be some carryover this morning. want to switch gears and bring in state department spokesman heather nauer. everyone's asking, what's our next move in syria? >> charles, good to see you. thanks for having me on. the first thing we could do is have syria declare its chemical weapons stockpile. they could declare it and get rid of it. that is something that russia pledged to help them do five years ago. russians failed in its attempt to do so, and that's why we talk consistently about russia continuing to back the regime of assad. i have an office of 100,000 names of syrian people who have been killed in this civil war, many of them killed by chemical

weapons attacks. and that's just volume one, charles. the first thing they could do is become a responsible member of the international community. charles: yeah, unfortunately, there could be six volumes of that book -- >> five already, yeah. charles: so here's the thing though, one headline this morning says the day after u.s. strikes in syria, a new onslaught is launched against rebels. this seems like a two-pronged thing, thumbing your nose at the international community and saying we're still going to destroy all of our competition, opposition. >> yeah. and that's certainly something that they have tried to do for many years now. but let's get back to the reason that the united states is in syria to begin with. the united states' reason for being in syria is to defeat isis. there's a 73-member coalition of that de-isis campaign. so we continue to do that. but when the united states, backed by britain and france, sees an additional chemical weapons attack on the part of

syria on innocent men, women and children, we have a responsibility to act. and you saw oural lies do that over -- our allies do that over the weekend. and i want to mention not a single life of allies' life. and is we tried to minimize civilian casualties as well. charles: to that point though, between containing isis and standing up for civilians against chemical attack, what is the administration's plan for the rest of the country? "the wall street journal" has an article out that says you should perhaps seek local lice, befriend turkey -- local allies, befriend turkey and keep a small contingent there the protect all those folks. i think this is the big question and not necessarily being articulated by the administration. what's the game going forward? >> let's break that down. our acting secretary, john sullivan, spoke with turkey over the weekend. turkey supported the u.s. in its actions, in its allied actions against the syrian regime's use of chemical weapons over the weekend.

and that's significant because we have other areas of disagreement with turkey, of course. but they agreed to back us on this. many other countries in the region also supportive of our actions, recognizing that regimes can't use chemical weapons on its people. so that's the first part. the second part is the united states continues to back aup-sponsored yes peeve ya -- a u.n.-sponsored geneva process to get syria back into a place of peace. it is a long way off, but that is a process that we have support, and we'll continue to do that. now there's a lot of action taking place at the united nations. the u.s., france and also the u.k. are backing new resolutions this week, new resolutions that would call for chemical weapons inspectors being allowed unfettered access to the site. we understand that syria and russia are blocking access to those sites right now. they need to be able to get in. we also call for a nationwide cease fire with the exception of the u.s. and coalition allies

being able to go after al-qaeda and isis. a ceasefire would help to pave the way to get back to the geneva process, and it's a good place to start. charles: it is good, but, you know, it takes russia, syria and assad, and it looks like they're not going to play ball there. heather, thank you very much. >> charles, great seeing you, thanks so much. charles: lots of outrage over this one, two black men arrested and charged with trespassing at a philadelphia starbucks because they asked to use the bathroom without buying anything. we're going to show you how it all played out right after this.

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charles: well, two black men arrested at a philadelphia stack bucks after they asked to use the bathroom. well, they didn't buy anything. i want you to watch this. >> what did they do? what did they do? >> they didn't do anything -- [inaudible] charles: that's hard stuff to watch for anybody, particularly a black man. any way, starbucks' ceo kevin johnson issuing an apology. roll that. >> i want to begin by offering a

personal apology to the two gentlemen who were arrested in our store. what happened and the way that incident escalated and the outcome was nothing but reprehensible. and i'm sorry. i want to apologize to the community this philadelphia and to -- in philadelphia and to all my starbucks partners. this is not who we are, and it's not who we're going to be. charles: all right. james freeman with the "wall street journal" is here with his reaction. what do you think, james? >> well, it's sad, disappointing, i think reprehensible is the right word. i think it's important now to focus this on this is 100% a starbucks problem. there's been something of an effort to blame police on this, and i think if you're a police department and a property owner calls and says we have trespassers, someone won't leave our property, i don't know how else we want police to respond. charles: yeah, i think the police finish i mean, we saw the video. there wasn't violence --

>> you need to put them in handcuffs though? charles: well, i think to james' point, i don't want to get too far on the police when you have starbucks which proclaims itself to be a capitalistic company who howard schultz has been planning to run for president on the higher moral ground that their company treats people and puts them over profits -- >> and to that point, the ceo will be traveling to philadelphia to do damage control and face to face meetings. but you made the point at the break, charles, that starbucks encourages a town square kind of setting with coffee. i mean, people linger there, they encourage peopleling arerring there for a reason. i'm thinking when are they going to start renting out space at the table? charles: they started doing this around 15 years ago when only a certain class of americans could afford laptops. now that everyone can afford them, the rules seem to be changing. all right -- >> it wasn't even crowded in there. >> good point. charles: we've got a few minutes til the opening bell.

the futures have been up all morning long. remember, though, we had a strong start to the session on friday. the big question will be can we keep it going. you've got to keep it right here. "varney & company" will be right back. . . they appear out of nowhere.

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seconds. got a little bit of extra boost from retail sales. by the way, it's not the headline, folks, look at where people are spending money. here we are, the bell now ringing, we will see the big board, the majority of green, mickey drveción's -- d's had a downgrade. for the most part, markets higher, caterpillar leading the way. starting to come back here just a little bit, pretty strong-looking start to the day, mcdonalds biggest loser down 23 cents. here is your s&p 500. also, of course, let's take a look at the nasdaq, nasdaq doing extremely well here. amazon up huge this morning.

nasdaq up 44 bucks, i want to check bank of america because they posted results this morning, higher profits, of course, boost they've gotten from the tax law. and, of course, check netflix, they are going to report profits after the bell, had a huge week last week including a few up grades into the teeth of earnings, that's big volatile stock like that, joining us now ashley webster, liz mcdonald, jeff sica, all right, jeff, you have any -- i guess everyone has high hopes because the numbers are supposed to be huge, a, can they live up to expectations and b, could this be a peaking process, they were fantastic but can they get better? >> earnings -- this is a very high-stakes game right now. i think the earnings are more important than any earnings we've had in the last seven years, here is the question, the question is not whether or not earnings are going to be good just as you said, earnings are going to be great. the question is, number one, is

there going to be muted guidance going forward because a lot of the companies will be affected by the potential trade war, do business with china, do rely on china for growth, if we get muted guidance there could be -- liz: offsetting that, now due to corporate tax cuts an company repatriating overseas, possibly 800 billion and 10% increase in dividends, 800 billion is more than 50% of increase of last year, that's a big deal, 525 billion in stock buybacks that will give a boost. charles: i believe that company's management, they bring up china, i think that'll be an excuse. most of them will say, we haven't modeled for it, it's a possibility, we will model for what we know, if they can give us clear-cutting guidance that would be pretty good. >> the china story is sort of the middle east story, it's sort of a threat than a current impact. but generally, i mean, if you're

concerned about the fundamentals overseas, that would be -- you would be looking at slowing growth in japan and the euro zone more than china impact. charles: we are looking at some of the stocks, key retailers up huge, cosco got upgrade this morning, sales came better than expected. up 4 and a half percent year over year. anything you lean out of that? >> yeah, it's a very solid economy. this is basically the best time ever to look for a job, so we've got a good labor market for job seekers, we have a good number on retail sales as we said global growth maybe not quite as good as we thought but still pretty strong. s&p earnings expected to go up 17% when companies report over the next few weeks so a lot of good news here. ashley: yeah, i think the economy, charles, are tunedmentals are there. let's be honest, the retail sales numbers are confidence,

they are certainly growing, the job market is solid, the economy is solid, the earnings are solid. it's all there, yes, china and the middle east, but -- charles: i have retail, the consumer, i think, is a lot smarter because of great recession and i hope the fed keeps that in mind before they raise rates too soon. i don't think consumers will go for it. they keep modulating, speaking of savings banks reporting, a lot of great earnings reports, then stumbled big time, what do you make of that? why couldn't financials hold onto gains on friday and what was the message to that? >> i think the earnings increases were expect as a result of tax cuts. i still -- charles: earnings was great and guidance was great. if jpmorgan is up 2 bucks and finishes the session down 4 bucks s there a message to that? >> the message is a lot of the banks, financials in particular

have been price today perfection and i think that they not only need to show great earnings, they need to show spectacular earnings and the earnings were good but not good enough to propel them to higher highs. charles: jim, we saw good trading volumes, right, of course, with this volatility, goldman coming up, morgan coming, could they reclaim momentum or takes bank up because of stronger trading? >> banks are reporting great numbers, expectations were higher. if there's a nit to pick in terms of bank earnings, i think investors are a little concerned. they'd like to see more loan growth. you saw it with some of them, pnc had nice commercial loan growth but you would like to see more not just generated by tax law changes and higher trading. charles: main street would love to see long-term growth too. all right, jeff, again, it's an area where you expect the

numbers to be strong but will that be enough? >> well, here is what's happening with netflix, netflix and i do love netflix, i don't own the stock, netflix has been growing internationally. they're expecting 5 million users internationally, if they exceed the 5 million, i think the stock could move up from here but netflix has one thing they have to be concerned about is disney what they're doing through espn is getting into streaming. netflix being the king of stream asking now going to square off against disney, the king of content, that could be an issue. charles: in the meantime netflix $8 billion a year on content. ashley: that may not be enough. charles: we know the threat but it's been around for few months now. the stock found equilibrium, if they miss, the consequences could be dire. >> yeah, but this is really a validation that they are now in partnership with comcast. this is a recognition by comcast

that they can't compete directly can netflix and streaming, that netflix really has the customer and is creating new content. this is really a great time, we are talking a great to look for a job, great time to be consumer. charles: actor, director. i'm looking around netflix, i haven't seen this guy in 23 years. [laughter] >> who is going to make profits as they all dumped billions from the traditional media companies to the silicon valley competitors -- >> they exceeded 100 billion, keep in mind, i had said that apple should have bought them when they were philandering. apple had a shot at them. liz: swamps their shareholder equity. they have to watch out. >> adults can solve problems in the marketplace, we don't need net neutrality laws that was put

in because netflix was complaining it had to pay too much to carriers. liz: monopoly, anyway, never mind. charles: is that it? quick check on the big board, we have been open for about 8 minutes. dow up 135 points. we know the script, we open with pretty robust start and we start to fade, anxiety in the market, i want to take a look at the 10-year yield because this has come back in into play, 2.6, a real stealthy surge last week, 3.0, that's the number where everyone is getting nervous. bitcoin, that showed a little life last week, we will check bitcoin, back to 8,000, it can't sort of get the mojo back, maybe it found support, we will find out. let's take a look at apple, home pod appears to be a flop and apple reportedly considering a cheaper version. so who is going the buy the cheep version of apple's pod or should we ask alexa?

>> no, i would say flop is a good word to describe what apple did with this, they built a very expensive product to compete with amazon and google and the only thing they had going for them is a little better sound quality, it was incompatible with any other product and now they're downsizing for a cheaper product, amazon and google -- charles: does that mean the halo effect is going out? is that fading for apple? i read it was going to be a cheaper phone. >> you have got to deliver, you to wow people with the technology and i think instead of wowing them they have consumers saying, siri, give me a better experience in part because you have innovative competitors in that market. ashley: i think they were two years late to the party on this issue, it took forever to get into the space and more expensive item, not surprised

that they are dropping the price. >> it's the no innovation, apple keeps rolling out new versions of new products and they keep steeling from the others. there's no ability what amazon and google has the ability for -- for orders, you don't have that on the apple. charles: here is another company that might have run out of involvation, zillow, they want to tweet model, buy and flip homes, emac, why are they going into the real estate business? >> consumers want on-demand experience with everything so they want on-demand experience with real estate. within 90 days all-cash offer could come up if you want to sell your home, they test-drove nit orlando, phoenix. charles: those are unique markets for flipping. >> some under duress, the stock is getting hit, why, the balance sheet has been under duress. it's going to take on debt to do

this proposition, they are going to have maybe a quarter billion dollars in purchases of a thousand homes and inventory by the end of the year can they do it and pull it off, the market is questioning that. charles: would you buy zillow? >> no, i look intoed this. there's no worst business and i'm in real estate, the only -- the only sector of real estate i don't like is -- is single family homes to inventory homes especially in the sand states -- >> charles: stay away from zillow. ashley: quick sand. >> it's not enough to start inventory individual homes. charles: let's leave it there, jeff, james, thank you very much. quick check on the big board, dow up 150 points. look at gm, by the way, it's cutting hundreds of jobs in ohio plant, we are going to have full

details on that coming up. president trump says while mission accomplished in syria but this weekend air strikes do enough to stop assad from using chemicals to attack his people again, we will talk to someone who has very personal connection with syria right after this. you know what they say about the early bird...

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charles: checking the big board, we are edging a little bit higher, 154 higher, we will take it. general motors cutting hundreds of jobs in ohio plant, what's going on? nicole: what would you rather suv or compact car? gm is looking forward and saying in one particular area in ohio where they make the cruise compact car, they only need one

shift of workers, not two because there's slower demand for small cars, they are laying up to 1500 workers in ohio at the factory because they are seeing demands for the suv's, the trucks, buick, cha cadillac under the you mean -- umbrella. it was hot for a while after financial crisis but now everybody is back to the big ones. charles: suv, crossovers are dominating, nicole, appreciate it. i want to bring in judy, we know this is personal for you, you have friends, family in syria. tell us just how bad things are, i've seen pictures of aleppo and other places there and seems that it can't be worst than what i'm looking at? >> charles, it's basically hell on earth and i have aunts an uncles in demascus in aleppo,

doctors and nurses have had to build hospitals underground because in this conflict the regime has targeted hospitals and schools where children are because they want to exert ethic cleansing of especially the sunni population but basically to start to entire revolution and it could not be worse, they saw the missiles from america to at least begin to finally punish the assad regime but basically a slap on the wrist and i will tell you, we just spoke to them, charles, the rain of hell has resumed yesterday, actually worst than ever because they saw once the bombs stopped they got the green light, you saw russia fit and gave assad a green light, it has not changed and ultimately the solution they need is really a solution where the un can put in protection forces, humanitarian corridors and move forward. charles: do you have confidence that any of that could happen

and how many potentially more people would have to die before you can implement something like that? >> again, you know, charles, i get it, it's not our war but there is no other solution, 40 miles from the israeli border you had the use of chemical weapons, both extremes of the conflict, assad regime and isis are threats to israel and to the west, if you want this radicalization of both sides to go away, you cannot get rid of isis and the jihadists without ending assad regime and having an area that's protected like we did with balkin, with we need to look pathway forward. i know we are talking about allies of saudi arabia an qatar, those are not democracies, the west needs to lead the solution. charles: not a lot of appear site in the country although there's a serious outpour when we see the slaughters incorporates chemical weapons,

setting up -- there was talk about safe zones and things like this but always seems tough. can you legitimate keep something like that even safe with the security be there, is that really a long-term solution? >> well, in the balkins we had in fly zones that kept un forces safe, anything safer for the syrian people than they have with the hell on earth that they are living right now. they are simply looking at a light rather than the hospice care that the population is in right now, so anything would be better and i think the west needs to start -- this is not like iraq, there's a revolution, it doesn't need too many soldiers on the ground, it needs a coalition, not just america, president trump did it right, he got britain and france involved. we need to get the rest of nato involved and begin to put protection forces in with no fly zone so that there could be corridors for humanitarian care, charles, the assad regime has no interest in even letting them get water let alone aid or

anything, this crisis is not going anywhere without some humanitarian aid from the west and other thing important is make the price too high for russia and iran to continue to colonize syria. charles: i have to tell you it's hard to believe in 2018 that the world is witnessing something like this, genocide that we all promised never would happen again but happening on our watch, it's complicated. >> exactly. charles: thank you so much for sharing the story, we will see you soon. let's check the dow 30, poll, all but three stocks are up, disney biggest loser, general electric and dupont under some pressure, merck leading the way. in the meantime fda issuing recall of 200 million eggs in nine states, the feds say they could be responsible for salmonella.

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so call now. remember, medicare supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. you'll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. whether you're on medicare now or turning 65 soon, it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today. charles: president trump about to board air force one, he's heading to miami where he will host a small business round table, you will see that live right here on fox business this afternoon. meanwhile massive egg recall covering nine states, fda says at least 22 illnesses have been reported, fox news medical

correspondent dr. mark seagal is here. 200 million. >> that's a very high number. charles: what's the vetting process? how do you not catch -- if it was in a small batch and got through? >> there's a problem from the beginning because salmonella comes out of the intestine out of cattle or in this case chickens, chickens are together and i don't want to get too graphic but then the salmonella is passed chicken to chicken. it's not that it's on the shelves, charles, it's on the inside. we don't know it's there. the manufacturer doesn't know it's there. charles: the chicken itself doesn't exhibit symptoms? >> either that or they're all with symptoms and not vetted with the plant.

we are doing a detective thing and the fda comes out and says, warning, if you have an egg p-16 5, that plant or date 1-1 to 102, you don't eat those eggs. charles: does it matter, you talk about close proximity, free range or does it matter? >> it can be both capabled an free range. anybody at home can use as public service, you must cook eggs properly, i'm not a fan of sunny side up, if you cook eggs properly you will get rid of this, you want to wash hand properly and be on the lookout for fever, abdominal pain. charles: real quick, i have to ask you about, i know you're close to the bush family, former first lady barbara bush, she

wants comfort care at this point, what are your thoughts? >> i think she's a pioneer as usual as she was with aids an literacy, there are multiple reports that what she's suffering is codp and heart failure and that's not usually where we put our comfort care because people don't know when to say it's enough of the aggressive care, we think of cancer with comfort care, we should be thinking more of these diseases, so she's on the forefront saying, it's time to let go, i don't want multiple hospitalizations, all of this aggressive care isn't going to keep me alive longer, i'm 92, that's courageous and pioneering. charles: thank you. >> good to see you, charles. charles: former nfl star, conservative, frequent guest by this show heckled by students in college speaking tour burgess will join us live to tell the story, varney & company next.

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charles: 10 a.m. on the ecoast. 7:00 a.m. out west. we are getting dramatic images this morning before-and-after pictures from the sites targeted in the airstrike against syria. coming up, retired general on what the endgame is for the united states in syria. president trump will sell his tax plan in miami today. i want to know if we're going to get a second phase of tax cuts? we have someone from the treasury department here with the answer. plus the rnc spending big time to keep the house red but will it an enough? i'm charles payne. stuart will be back tomorrow but the second hour of "varney & company" starts right now. ♪ charles: check on the big board. we're edging higher. we came out of the gate. we're holding it here, first half hour of trading, important that we hold it. we may have a day where we keep a rally going in part because of higher profits at

bank of america. they were posted before the opening this morning. all eyes on netflix. that is the big one. we know technology stocks, it is a consumer stock. it was up earlier today. now down two points. anxiety, profit-taking ahead of the biggs -- big number today. let's bring in keith fitz-gerald money map president. keith, you say this is a boom or bust? >> very much so. this is all about psychology right now. we have great earnings and numbers coming on the board thanks to all the ceos. we have highly contentious political environment in washington. the president seems bent on personal retribution. i don't know if that everywell manies one or the other that is the concern i have. charles: with someone in the market a long time should it? should a speculation and wayward tweet detract from great earnings and the economy? >> they should not because if we're doing our job right as investors we're focusing on

things that produce growth. that said, we have china, we got russia. we have fear of a hot war in the middle east. those are very real emotional drivers and though will cause violent short term swings. it is one of the moments investors need to look, what will i keep and what will i buy if i get the chance? irk netflix is one of the big winners. technology in general carried markets higher. consumer discretionary stocks only two sectors up this year, in part because of amazons and netflix of the world? can it keep going at this pace? it has been a hard pace and amazing but can't go on forever? what do you think happens after the bell tonight? >> that is an interesting question. companies like amazon and alphabet they can continue a long time. i'm not a fan of netflix, and here's why. it is 97 times earnings. it is bid up. it is not cash flow positive. that is not good recipe other than emotional or fear of

missing out. if there is anything other than 50 or 60% year-over-year growth i think the stock take as real hit. charles: keith, another stock everyone is looking at to reclaim some form of leadership this period is goldman sachs. we saw good trading numbers from some of their rivals. the stock is up nicely. can goldman sachs finally deliver? >> goldman sachs is an interesting one, charles. they trade in structured products highly specialized products that tend to do well when the market are shaky or uncertain. i think goldman is interesting play particularly as the political situation becomes unstable. charles: general electric will report on friday. you say the company is still on death watch? >> i'm very hard-pressed to imagine that company does anything even remotely positive. you know it is going to pull a rabbit out after hat somehow. that is how chief financial officers do things today.

they have reserves all over the place they can draw from. fundamentally it is not the ge we grew up with. it is not the ge used to see. charles: is it possible it will be a single hand snell. >> that is my speculation. it is trading on vapors now. unless they break the company up, i don't see value. charles: keith, you're one of the best, buddy, appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: republicans putting up to $250 million to keep the house come november. joining us now congressman andy biggs republican from arizona. there is a talk of a blue wave out there, we hear it over and over again. i'm sure you hear it every day in d.c. what do you say? obviously the republicans are taking it seriously with this kind of money. >> that's a good sign. the money is a good sign. i have to tell you think we're messing up we have a lot of people not running with the trump agenda. they're running away from the trump agenda. i think we'll lose that if we

run toward the trump agenda, talk about the things trump has done well, not what he has done well, how we will facilitate passage of the agenda, everything from the immigration issues to the tax issues to the regulation issues, to the appointment of judges, that we'll be there to help further this agenda get it done quicker than we've done in congress, that will help us staunch of the blue wave, keep both houses. charles: i tend to agree with you, particulary on the economic side. we learned in january, 600,000 fewer americans on food stamps. the number at a level we haven't seen since 2010. that should be articulated. that should be screamed from the roofs of everyone's office down in d.c. i don't hear enough about this kind of stuff from the folks who are running the party and running for these offices? >> no i agree with you. you take a look at the pennsylvania 18 race we lost in a district that president trump won by 20 points, if you look at

the ads that were being run by national parties you thought con for lamb was the republican. that is what we need to talk about. focus on what we do well. focus on the trump agenda because that's what he won on. that is what we'll win on. charles: we know all races are local and i'm not sure to what degree the party itself can get involved but obviously putting money in it. they have some say. who is vetting the candidates? a lot of times, i'm scratching the head, who is actually vetted this candidate, yeah we want this person to represent the party? >> well, i'm going to tell you, i think republicans are very different from the democrats in this area. republicans, we believe it is a hands off thing. you get some national people that recruit some candidates but i think the democrats do much better kind of clearing the field, finding the up with they want and clearing the field and telling people it is not your turn. we have to got in special electn

in arizona, 12, 13, 14 candidates get in the primary. we're much more open. we're much more egalitarian. that is not necessarily a bad thing. just an interesting thing. charles: it is an interesting thing for sure. i know overall it works but you don't have, you have razor-thin margins for it to backfire. i do want to ask you about this, congressman, national guard troops from arizona and other states securing our border, what exactly are they going to be doing at border? >> it is my understanding, i talked to the border patrol last week, they're very excited to have the national guard down there. they will help with spotting and surveillance. they will helping with transporting so that the border patrol agents who make actual arrests give them to the national guard to transport. national guard will take some of the duty for maintenance of vehicles. right now we have border patrol agents off the line to maintain

vehicles. national guard will help with that too. it will give us more boots effectively on the ground with border patrol agents on hand. charles: we have 30 seconds. today they're supposed to start the trial of "el chapo." this recalls the drug influence in mexico. 29,000 deaths in mexico last year from drug violence. isn't that a great opportunity to echo why we need the wall again? >> oh, absolutely. the drug trafficking, the human trafficking, the stuff, there is still violence along the border, but where you have walls built it really does cut down on the crime. you look at yuma's sector. the number one trafficking corridor on the border today is through the tucson sector. no fence, no wall. maybe a mile or two. that is the reason why we need to be emphasizing stop the criminal activity with the border wall. charles: congressman, thank you very much we really appreciate your time this morning. >> thanks, charles irk now this, martin sorrell, the head of

brittish advertising giant wbp stepping down abruptly. the news taking the stock down. you can see a pretty big move. ashley, you have more on this. it started a week ago? ashley: it did. it is frustrating we don't know the details. there were allegations of improper behavior but and misuse of assets. he resigned over the weekend he is one of the most influential people in media, advertising, market, you name it. this is one of the largest ad companies in the world, wpp stands for wire and plastic products. he built this thing into a huge behemoth. what happened and why -- charles: seems so odd someone who was paid a couple years ago $100 million for a single year would need to do or would do anything financially misappropriate funds. ashley: doesn't make sense. we don't know the fine details on think, the questions that

will linger what was the money used for. ashley: they say there is no client money involved but he felt this is too much after disruption. charles: he doesn't have a non-compete clause. he can go back tomorrow. ashley: he is giant in the industry. he is out. sir martin sorrell. charles: he read he didn't write an ad himself aft business genius. liz: love the history of it. charles: thank you very much. >> sure. charles: nearly 2/3 of the country getting hit by a winter storm. take a look at this video. it is from minnesota. nearly five 1/2 fell in the twin cities. got to remind you, it is april by the way. burgess owens speaking to students at hobart college. some of them shouted him down. owens, we'll play it for you. owens will talk about it himself. president trump on the way to miami to tout the tax plan. will we get phase two of the tax

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charles: checking on the big board, we've been range-bound but at least we're up. holding a rally. up 165 points. dow 30, all but three names up. general electric we had a conversation perhaps going even under $10 share. we'll see. goldman sachs bought personal finance app called clarity money. it has a mobile storefront for its growing consumer bank business. we'll find out more when they report earnings also. now this, some fund managers are thinking about jumping ship on facebook. liz: morgan stanley, janus,

because of the data privacy scandal. they're saying not out of the woods yet. there is still scc probe. they have state attorney generals after them. they lost $200 million since that first broke a month ago. can facebook get out of the way of this? and continue to grow? it is worth pointing out, so far looks like they have not lost users. so they have not lost advertisers. charles: right. people feel like zuckerberg won. still facing european regulators. liz: real cloud for facebook the amount of time people are spending on facebook has been trending down. charles: instagram may be the facebook savior as as far as the company is concerned. former nfl star burgess owens heckled during several

speeches. i want you to listen to this one. >> okay. we'll see. [all talking at once] >> talking about policy for obama. what kind of rhetoric are you starting to spew, dude. >> united states is imperialist nation. >> it is an imperialist nation. >> that is what we need -- >> "florida face to face" systemic racism every day. charles: joining us now burgess owens, author of liberalism. burgess, tough watching that, my man. you know, you look like you still in football shape. you were physically, rather looked like you could weather the storm. that was pretty tough? they were saying america was imperialistic and things like that. >> charles, first of all. good morning. i hope everyone get as chance to take a look at that. it was respectful conversation

until a few of them decided to get up to do their thing. if i can just say this and i say this as we talked before, we're at. we're fighting heart for the country today. judeo-christian and marxists and socialists those you see in the video don't want to do that. i will say this, black lives matter, kkk, black lives matter, the deep state, the college professors, all in common with the kkk, is that, at the end of the day, you take away the white privilege, take away the white hoods and black masks, and you have nothing but bullies and cowards. we have to understand we need to fight for heart and soul of our country, getting free speech to allow the kid to learn stuff when they get to college. charles: your assessment someone visiting college campuses, speaking to young people, is the other side winning? in other words, the things that you say are the antithesis of

america, feels like it has the momentum though in this country. >> well i'll say this. we learned a great lesson last couple years. i'm so proud of americans, with the nfl showed an industry we care more about our country than care about teams. what we have to do as americans again look at our colleges. we look at country more than caring about the alma matter, if their turning socialist and marxist, they are set up to fail and we should stop supporting them. they love to get ingrained in these colleges. charles: i think it happened long before the colleges. to that point, what does the system have to do? the folks that champion the republic and democratic ideas, what do they have to do to win the argument? because it feels like you're losing the argument? why are you not winning the argument? >> we have to first of all, be, have the courage enough to have these conversations. they're good, there are kids in

these communities that would love to hear the message of conservatives, particularly black conservatives if they have the opportunity to do so. at the end of the day we have the right message. we have the right facts. we have to get past the fact that these folks some of them think they have to shout us down to stop us. if we get past that we'll be in good shape again. charles: burgess, i tip my hat to i think a noble thing you're doing. you handled yourself very well. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you, charles. charles: gas prices up five cents in a week. we're on three dollars a gallon watch once again. it is already there in several states. google wants to work with the pentagon on artificial intelligence but its employ rest are not too happy about it that is coming up. [♪ the. [fbi agent] you're a brave man, mr. stevens.

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charles: wpp, martin sorrell head of the british advertising giant. he stepped down abruptly. we had earlier incorrect symbol. under a huge amount of pressure. getting hammered on the news. national average price for regular $2.71. that is up a nicole. that is expected to climb this spring and possibly through the summer. kristina partsinevelos is with us. $3 a gallon? >> we'll see prices climb 14% this summer. that is $190 more than last year. we're seeing incline in the price. why is that? a few factors. some people obviously focus price of oil.

that composes 70% of the price of gas. there are other major into the price of gas. you have maintenance fees and refineries in the u.s. changing gas to summer grade. charles: summer blend. >> that needs to roll out on june 1st. we're seeing a lot of these refineries switching over. so that does eat into very lightly but eats into the supply that is being put out. plus you have the, i wouldn't say warmer weather across certain areas. charles: still waiting. making that assumption that is it will get warm at some point. >> exactly. assumption is that you would have more people driving to the gas station and time when they're switching over to summer grade, that would push up the price of oil. charles: we saw a big move in crude. some of it is attributed to syria. there may be some things going on. if we get to $70 a barrel, could we get to 3.50? >> wee getting a you list where we see closer to 3.50. charles: really? the most expensive states across

the united states. here is nice graph. hawaii at $3.56. followed by california. why is that? they have extremely, you're, 3.55. they have very, very high taxes and higher stipulations when it comes to the stipe of gas that you can use because of the emission. you're seeing that there. the terms of cheapest states go to louisiana at $2.47 followed by south carolina, alabama, kansas and texas. overall talking about the price of gas, volatility, run-up before strikes, oil ran up 10%. we're seeing people spend more on gas in general because of type of cars they're buying. crossover suvs are extremely popular, even regular cars, i written down the chevy malibu, nissan sent interest. they have engines. charles: looking at ashley with the chevy malibu. ashley: i'm just sitting here. what happened? you want to talk about taxes,

gallon of gas in england, london, 6.50 a gallon. not that bad. charles: but they have free medical. it is all, thank you very much, really appreciate it. the media jumping all over james comey's first interview since president trump fired him but is there any smoking gun? howie kurtz is next. the move to break up california, make it, make it more than one state, right? a lot of folks believe it or not on both sides of the aisle, this thing is gaining strong momentum. it could happen, two californias, next. ♪ baby boomers,

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♪ liz: yes it is. charles: checking the big board. we twisted and shouted our way to new high. dow up 215 points, giving us some extra move here on the upside. meanwhile, there is this, fired fbi director james comey came out swinging against president trump during interview last night. the president tweeting in response, quote, unbelievably james comey state has polls where "crooked hillary" was leading were factor in the handling of the clinton email probe. in other words he was making decisions based on the fact he thought she was going to win and he wanted a job, slimeball. talk to media buzz host howie kurtz. author of "media madness, donald trump, the press and the war over the truth."

howard, who is obsessed with whom in this case? >> i think it is fair to say james comey and donald trump are kind of obsessed with each other. the rhetoric has gotten hot and heavy. the president is right, the one newsworthy that came out of the stephanopoulous interview on abc last night, comey acknowledging that he let the polls and perception hillary clinton would win the election affect the decision to announce he was reopening investigation that she now blames him costing her the election. beyond that stephanopoulous, obviously worked in the clinton white house provided a pretty sympathetic forum for comey to express some regrets how he handled the hillary probe and at same time kind of intensify the criticism of comey and getting pretty petty in the process, talking orange face, size of his hands, lent of his tie, using over the top phrases like a mob boss, that kind of dimmed his

halo, anything is possible. here is a smart man. he knows his words matter. putting that out there as fodder for anyone who wants to take it and build a case against trump. >> here is the thing that bothers me the most with the timing book. i don't think he moved the needle very much. he keeps talking about the dossier, and you open the paper say the p tape, p tape i avoided any specifics. comey has no idea whether this was true this is unverified allegation yet, giving it, sort of broadcasting now in the process of selling books. that means the media are broadcasting it as well. this is something he can talk about his conversations with trump. he can criticize the president, that is fine. when he gets into that territory he acknowledges he doesn't know whether it is true it certainly gives me paws. charles: he is promoting the book as if he is moral pedestal, trump, loretta lynch, everyone else, he is morally superior to everyone and he will set the

record straight. i don't know how you do it to your point with those innuendoes, whatever. next one, howard, many in the media jumping on the tweet over the weekend about the airstrikes. perfectly executed strike last night. thank you to france and the united kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. could not have had a better result. mission accomplished. of course they jumped on the last two words. i kind of opinion is, president trump baited them. what do you think. >> i'm not sure about that i think he genuinely thinks this was a very successful series of airstrikes with britain and france joining in. look the phrase, mission accomplished in the public mind, certainly in the minds of journalists will be always associated with george w. bush standing on the aircraft barrier with the big banner, which wasn't controversy at time, only when the iraq war went sour later, president should avoided that politically.

some pumped ditz saying everything about his syria policy is been accomplished there. is no claim of that. president deliberately tried to target the chemical weapons facilities and not get further entrin muched in the syrian civil is war. some of the commentary has been a little unfair, at the same time he opened the door with those two words. charles: he opened the door, do the media have to go through these open doors, they seem to do it all the time? they don't stroll but rush through them. i heard more about the phrase than the actual results in planning and what happens after in syria. >> that's a fair point. by and large he got pretty good press coverage for making a decisive move and ordering airstrikes except partisans on the right and left who think he should seek approval from congress or strikes didn't go far enough, they're taking potshots. i think he actually got, with the exception of focusing on mission accomplished thing got pretty good coverage. charles: good luck with your book. thank you for coming on. >> appreciate it. charles: want to stay own syria.

weekend precision airstrikes taking out chemical facilities. we have pictures of the sites showing them to you on the screen. here to discuss, anti-tata, retired brigadier general, author of the book, reaper, a sniper novel. the question now of course what is the end game for syria? heather nauert was on earlier and sort of talked about it. we don't get specifics from the administration? >> charles what we have going on here is national security strategy document that president trump and his team wrote and he approved calls for international order based on rule of law in stopping the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction. so that, those are two very -- charles: weapons of mass destruction, not just chemical weapons? >> chemical, biological and nuclear. chemical falls into that

category. that is why the president has drawn this red line. he is living up to his national security document. by the way the obama said the same thing. he had a red line that meant nothing. charles: sure. >> eliminating chemical weapons is the real end state. nikki haley mentioned also staying in the region until isis is destroyed and iran hegemony is checked. that is the first time we have clued the two missions. there was separate and distinct mission defeating isis. a very surgical strike to deliberately impact the ability of the chem weapons to be deployed. those two missions are together with the troops on the ground in syria. charles: immediate aftermath that assad struck back quickly, more forcefully at the rebels. to me it is two-pronged thing. for the rebels has to be very

denormizing. for the rest of the world he is saying hey, you can't stop me. >> assad is brutal dictator. the rebels will continue to fight. the issue for us is not as much the syrian civil war but more the use of chemical weapons and us standing on that moral high ground not allowing that. charles: for some people they're saying if you kill 600,000 or a million people, as long as you do it with conventional weapons we don't care? is that the position of the united states? >> that is exactly the position of the united states, the national security document says, chem, bio nukes. not consistent with international law. we will not allow this to happen. of course you know we would prefer that the syrian civil war be over tomorrow. charles: sure. >> or today because of the millions of migrants that have flooded europe and created second order impact issues there. so there is a lot going on in syria and the bad iran deal, all the funding that we gave to iran

is now going to hezbollah, hamas, syria. charles: right. >> to buy and build these chemical weapons. second order of impacts of president obama's decision is having devastating effects on that region for decades. charles: so, play it out for us then. perhaps a year, two years from now, obviously assad will be the winner. he is on the verge of a major victory now. we've seen the hollowed out towns including aleppo and others. we know the rebels are on the run. when do we become more involved? is there a point are iran says we have foothold in syria, let's go somewhere else? >> i think we've been speaking from a position of strength here. the military and allies. stopping production of chemical weapons. b, stop iranian hegemony and c, stop russia and syria.

charles: i really appreciate it. now the markets still having a pretty good day. it has been up huge since the election. despite the recent volatility. volatility of course making a whole lot of investors nervous. want to bring in adam shapiro. he is at one of largestance conference for financial advisors. what are they telling the them next five years in this market. reporter: national association of plan advisors convention, they are telling their clients if they're advising them stay the course even if close to retirement. investments in 401(k) in equities are only supposed to be a portion of your total retirement picture. i want to listen to jan stout, she is with hightower. they advise the clients and people that provide 401(k)s but those who are administering the 401(k)s and sheer -- here

is what she said. >> the first thing we ask everyone, are you appropriate asset allocated for the risk? risk tolerance and risk capacity. assuming they are, so you said they're already fully funded are -- reporter: in their 401(k). >> really staying the course and not getting nervous especially this volatility. reporter: now keep in mind, charles, that according to fidelity the average 401(k) balance right now is 104,000. at retirement, that is roughly $167,000. that is not enough according to most people you speak to upon retirement if you don't have other investments, ira, if you don't have bonds or mortgage paid off. a lot of americans need to up savings. who is saving? back in 2012 pew charitable trust looked at actual savings this across the board, not just 401(k), taking part in all kind of employer responsed plans. millenials 31%, again x.

56%. if you're approaching retirement, she told us you should can couple things. maximize social security, draw down the 401(k) until you get to social security. don't think annuities are necessarily that terrible. a portion of your retirement funds can be a newt annuityized to create a monthly revenue stream. charles: adam, thank you. giving bonuses to hundreds of thousands of employees since president trump signed the tax law. the president touting the results. will it work in november? the answer is next. two black men arrested at starbucks, standing there waiting for a friend. judge napolitano will join us on that one. ♪

♪ ashley: in the last hour dr. marc siegel explained how a large salmonella outbreak can begin pretty easily. roll tape. >> the problem from the beginning basal mow nell last, the bacteria -- salmonella, comes out of the intestine of cattle or in this case chickens. chickens are together in squalor. i don't want to get too graphic here. but the salmonella is passed from chicken to chicken.

it gets on the inside of the egg because it is inside the chicken. not on the shells, charles. it is on the inside. so we don't even know it is there. the manufacturer doesn't always know it is there. it is hard to test for. charles: the chicken doesn't exhibit any somes? >> either that or they're all exhibiting symptoms. and it is not being vetted enough properly by this plant. ♪ anna and mark are heading into retirement... and a little nervous. but not so much about what market volatility may do to their retirement savings. that's because they have a shield annuity from brighthouse financial, which allows them to take advantage of growth opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. so they can focus on new things like exotic snacks. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife.

charles: quick check of the big board and we are holding. we have got a pretty strong rally here on a monday morning. now. president trump will tout tax cuts during a speech in florida. tony sayegh is here, assistant secretary of the treasury. tony, good to see you. >> good to see you too. charles: we're in the middle of earnings season. we're already hearing everybody that talks about, we're having major impact, helping the bottom line, helping the market and helping, you know, workers and he have one else. so how come it is such a tough sell to maybe even make these better? >> well look, i would say that we had always wanted to maybe the entire tax package permanent. the way congressional rules were with reconciliation and the budget restrictions it was difficult to do it but we feel when you look at the success already of tax reform, look at the economic growth numbers coming out, look at the fact wage increases happening for first time in 10 years, 89% in ey survey of business executives

last month showed they were going to give workers an increase. 66% would give the customers some sort of savings. when you see the success of this program it is important for us to focus on making the individual tax cuts permanent. that is something the president wanted to do from the start. unfortunately we had not one democrat support making the middle income tax cuts permanent. but now, when you see the success, we think we really have the opportunity to move forward. charles: four million americans will get a bonus, already have. >> already five. charles: it is hard, i think number is even better, think, fringes of a bank, chase, says we'll open 400 branches. each branch has to be conducted and 10 to 15 people to work there. you have nancy pelosi and then more recently cory booker last week again saying these are crumbs. ironically enough pointing to debt as a reason for their opposition. >> it is really unfortunate. you can oppose a tax cut as a

policy you can not necessarily mitigate the positive impact of unless of dollars going back to individual workers, trillions potentially being repatriated from corporations overseas. you talked about capital expenditures, reinvestment into the domestic economy from a lot of these big companies and small companies as well, really doing what you need to do to get free-market capitalism to work, have the private sector stimulate the growth. that is what you've seen for the first time in this last year. we've had eight years of essentially stagnant growth because you have had redistribution of wealth policies, not creation of wealth policies. charles: for the dems, a lot of dems are still about politics of envy. look what nancy pelosi had to say about wealth in america. roll tape. >> god never intended for people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty. charles: that is the richest person in congress, folks. i don't know how you can stay in

congress that long and be richest person in congress but that is her. we all agree. we don't want any americans living in poverty. let me throw this out there, since you might be too humble to do it. january, 600 more americans came off of food stamps. >> correct. charles: we're at lowest level since 2010. >> correct. charles: you guys are doing some amazing things. >> you're absolutely right and last eight years of president obama and nancy pelosi's policies, sad part so many people became. we have changed that all together, 2.5 million jobs created, charles. 277,000 in construction alone. 260,000 in manufacturing. you're having more people able to participate in a growing economy. that is what economic growth is. we talk about all the time. economic growth is expanding opportunity. when the economy is growing under2%, some wealthy people get wealthier but not.

charles: people coming into the job market. >> thanks, charles. charles, google looking to work with the pentagon but google employees are not too happy about it. ♪ just another day on the farm. or is it? this farmer's morning starts in outer space. where satellites feed infrared images of his land into a system built with ai. he uses watson to analyze his data with millions of weather forecasts from the cloud, and iot sensors down here, for precise monitoring of irrigation. it's a smart way to help increase yields, all before the rest of us get out of bed.

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charles: now. this google reportedly in talks to work with the pentagon on drone technology and cloud services but a lot of their employees object. we have defense one technical editor patrick tucker. patrick, google, are they going to go forward with this despite internal opposition from their own employees? >> probably so, yes. 10 billion-dollar cloud contract the pentagon is putting together has three main players that will be going after it, i hear. the. the requirements will come out within a matter weeks. you will have three guys on the board. amazon considered the heavy favorite because they have built a top secret cloud for the intelligence community. microsoft, considered, kind of the hustle player. deep connections with the

defense department. a organizational structure that allows them to pursue defense department business and deal with that client and google, considered a powerhouse in artificial intelligence. diane green,ed head of google cloud saying she is interested in more federal business. that is controversial to a lot of folks at google. federal business is one thing. what they're looking at a 10 billion-dollar cloud contract with the defense department and their key differentiator compared to microsoft and amazon, artificial intelligence and research and development. that is the thing really settings them apart. a lot of engineers and researchers building within that in google as institution are very much opposed to continued work with the defense department if they will do anything that the defense department needs to do. 3100 signed a letter in april asking, folks at google, asking, google leadership and diane green to forego even the very small project they were working on with the air force to do,

it's a pilot project to look attacking images to help the air force personnel with targeting. a lot of folks at google really objected to that they were surprised to learn that google's next objective is a 10 billion-dollar, 10-year contract with the defense department. charles: this is based on ideology right? they don't want their technology used for military purposes? >> that's right. this is a question, really of who is being up front with who. so google leadership has said, you know, our pilot project with the defense department, this was something that they were using that any cloud client could use but the defense department is clear. they want this cloud to improve lethality. very much about making the institution more dangerous. charles: that is what the pentagon is all about, believe it or not. thank you, patrick. big stay are to the markets. focusing on on the profits and the consumer.

big rally to start a new week. hour three coming right up.

charles: it's 8 a.m. in california, 11 a.m. in new york. i'm charles payne in for stuart varney. here's what we have new for this hour, a u.s. army veteran who was convicted of shooting at a vehicle many 2002 and deported twice to mexico has since earned a pardon from california governor jerry brown and has now been granted citizenship. the initiative to break up california gaining ground also, the proposal has enough signatures to get on its ballot in november. and florida-based magnum gas is the producer of natural gas alternative and a metal-cutting, it's a metal-cutting fuel. the company is set to see some major impacts from tariffs. the ceo is with us this hour and he supports president trump. president trump is on his way to miami, he will sell his tax plan there. he will reveal a second phase.

the big question is can we get it done. the markets are holding in pretty good, this is the third hour of "varney & company." ♪ ♪ charles: we always start with your money, and not look too bad. the majority of dow stocks are look up, the ones that are down are off fractionally. merck leading the way, they had a big cancer drug, i think it was phase three news. doug, we've had the airstrikes in syria, it doesn't seem to be having an impact on this market. what do you think, because certainly headlines have mattered more than fundamentals recently. >> charles, international stress events like syria have had only a fleeting impact on the market in the last couple of years. i think the market's giving a sigh of relief after a proportional strike by the administration.

but i suspect we haven't heard the last. assad was laughing at the limited moves by the administration, and i think the president saw that, and we will hear much more. charles: we certainly will, but there are other headlines, right? the president's personal attorney's office gets raided last monday, the dow clings to a really slim gain by the end of the day. those kinds of things are having an impact. >> sure. those are fundamental issues. i said to stuart last week that i believe we're in a new regime of heightened volatility and come pressed market -- compressedded market multiples. i think there's a number of reasons. the first thing is the behavior of the president, the second thing is the increased economic ambiguities boast domestically and overseas -- both domestically and overseas, and the third factor is the central banks are pivoting to tightening and higher interest rates. the most important thing to me is that i believe that president trump will make market economic

uncertainty and market volatility greater again. and there are some people now that are concerned that the president is a bit untethered and is conflating policies with politics, and that's a dangerous precedent in a world that's flat and networked. if i can paraphrase the character in my favorite movie of all time, "the princess bride," the trump administration may be succumbing to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is conducting a trade war in asia. charles: well, and yet by the same token everyone agrees that something is wrong with our trade policies that we lose hundreds of billions of dollars every year in intellectual property, that we've had factories close here, and, you know, maybe -- and by the same token, the president's policies were pretty good for the market last year and pretty good until january 26th.

and all of a sudden it's the personality that matters more than the policies? >> well, i think the policies, to some degree, are poor. my buddy, larry kudlow, is a calming voice in the administration. but the economic handmaidens, as i see it, are wilbur ross and peter navarro, and these are trade hawks. and the basic assertion by mr. navarro is that there's an inverse relationship between imports and gdp. in fact, historically there is a direct relationship between deficits and gdp. so i think we're, we could be on the verge of a trade war which the market is smelling out and is increasingly concerned about. charles: yeah. i think, you know, i don't think -- >> there are stocks, there are stocks to buy, charles. charles: sure, okay. i mean, would you buy, for instance, a boeing which would be in the eye of that storm that you described? >> no, i don't own boeing. i own a little raytheon in the

defense area. my great investment scene is the following, charles: consider the market investors, market participants in a room sitting on a golden throne made of gold, smoking a lot of pot and buying annuities. so my basic three themes are gold in a world of uncertain outcomes, buying marijuana stocks like mj which is the largest exchange-traded fund because of the administration's changing views and altererring of jeff sessions, the attorney general's, view last friday. and the third thing is buy annuities like hartford insurance and lincoln national in case things really go bad. charles: that's an interesting portfolio. very conservative on one hand and sort of out there -- >> let's call it a bell curve. thanks, charles, good seeing you. charles: president trump headed to miami for a round table discussion on tax reform. want to bring in karl rove, fox news contributor. karl, it seems like this should be an easier sell.

it's been very successful so far. the only thing democrats can really quibble about is that rich people are getting richer, but they can't say others haven't benefitedded. >> well, let them make that argument because i don't think the american people basically are, you know, class-conscious. i don't think they say, oh, i'm upset that bill gates is making more money because microsoft is doing well. i'm upset that, you know, steve jobs made a bunch of money before he passed this earth, and his wife hasp inherited it because, you know -- has inherited it because i like my apple computer. this requires dismin. the president for a couple of weeks ago in ohio, proceeded to talk virtually about everything but tax. briefly touched on taxes but then gave the media a lot more ammunition, a lot more material on other subjects, and so they ran with that rather than talking about the message of what the practical impact of cutting taxes was making to the lives of the people in the room and the companies -- charles: you know, it's interesting because last week cory booker, he borrowed nancy

pelosi's crumbs line. i talked about it, but i also went back and looked at the white house under barack obama put out a page, a whole page on their web site about the amazing impact that $40 a week would have on american families. it was $40 a week in 50 states. personal stories. i'm wondering why aren't republicans doing something very similar to that? >> well, a good question. because you have the treasury department, the white house and between the two of them they own a gigantic megaphone on the issue of the economy. and the president has, owns the world's largest circulating newspaper with, you know, what is it 280 characters now that he gets to write. and all of that ought to be focused on the issue of particularly this week when we're all paying our taxes. he's got to remind people, for example, this is the last year that you're going to file -- you've got the new withholding tables, but it's going to get a lot better even next year. charles: one more for you. republican national committee,

$250 million ready for this midterm. of course, big talk of a blue wave. will the republicans be able to keep the house? >> they can, but look, there are four outcomes. the blue wave assumes it's going to be for the democrats what it was in 1994 for us or 2010 for us. i think it's unlikely. it could happen, but that's like the third least likely thing to happen. the most likely thing to happen is that the democrats could win narrow control of the house. i think it's a coin flip. but i think that's the most likely outcome. narrow in the house. the $250 million commitment is going to help even things up. the second most likely one is that the republicans keep control by a narrow margin. it's going to depend on the quality of the candidates and the rnc's direction of spending that kind of money on the ground game -- charles: not a sign of desperation, but a sign of confidence, perhaps? >> yeah, absolutely. remember, republicans need this to happen because the seats that are at risk are in states like new york and california and

illinois. i mean, we've got three seats up at risk in texas. whether or not the republican national committee spends $250 million, we take care of that in texas, but in some of these other places the rnc's money could make the difference. charles: great seeing you in person. >> thanks for letting me come. [laughter] varney, of course, is not here -- charles: that's why he left. [laughter] >> exactly. you can take me, he couldn't. [laughter] charles: let's take a look at gold. had a pretty good week, hanging in there. all of a sudden, by the way, this -- [audio difficulty] it's at 285. again, remember what was it about four or five weeks ago, that was the reason du jour why the stock market was under pressure. and then there's bitcoin that can't find a catalyst to stay above $8,000. coming up, we'll be joined by the ceo of a company that sees a major impact from president trump's tariffs, a producer of natural gas and alternative metal-cutting fuel. the ceo is going to join us this

hour, he supports president trump's tariffs. also a u.s. army veteran who was convicted of shooting at a vehicle in 2002. he was deported back to mexico twice. he has since earned a pardon from california governor jerry brown and was sworn many in as a u.s. citizen. we're on that story. and violence between drug traffickers has driven the murder rate in mexico to record levels. it's becoming a strong argument for those who support a border wall. we're going to cover all of that this hour and more. the third hour of "varney & company" just getting started. ♪ ♪ it took guts to start my business. but as it grew bigger and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything.

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thought. want to take a look at the price of gas because, of course, that kept rising. the national average for a gallon of regular $2.71. here's a look at states with the most expensive gas in the country, hawaii and california leading the way there. and also a look at the cheapest states which include louisiana, south carolina, texas, alabama and kansas. all under $2.50. and now this, there had been a record number of murders in mexico lately, and it's becoming an argument for proponents of building the wall. come on in bill esse, california's 60th district assembly candidate. bill, 29,000 murders in mexico last year, a record number, and a lot of this, of course, the cartel. it's the drug trafficking. it seems to me like this would be one of the main reasons to build a wall. >> absolutely. there is a epidemic of violence in mexico. you know, they started keeping records of their murder rates beginning in '97. in 2017, it was the highest murder rate ever recorded in

their history. so there is a huge epidemic of violence going on in mechanics coe. and -- in mexico. and it is completely fueled by the organized crime whether it's cartel or other groups. and they are using our porous border to fund their criminal activities whether it's drug trafficking or, frankly, human trafficking is a big problem as well. so when we look at things like border security, it's not an immigration issue it's, frankly, a national security issue, it's a humanitarian issue. we have to contain the violence, prevent it from coming into the united states. and then, yes, we do have to work with our partners in mexico to help them battle this epidemic, but we are not helping them by continuing to allow the cartel to have basically a free stream of goods and money going back and forth over our border. it's out of control. yeah, we've got to get control. charles: on this side of the border, the opioid crisis, two million folks, the biggest epidemic ever this fentanyl, by some reports up to 90% just

strolls across the border. certainly, that's another part of this crime/humanitarian argument that you're making here. >> yes. and it's a huge problem. as a federal prosecutor, i prosecuted people importing fentanyl, transporting it, also prosecuted doctors. but they're not even so much getting it through the medical stream anymore, you're right, it's coming over the border. china makes it in huge quantities, and it comes over in cargo ships and over the border from mexico. we see a lot of counterfeit pills from there too. they sell them on our streets, and people think it's okay to take it because it's in the form of a pill instead of injecting it, and it's just as deadly. people are not ready for the effects, and people are dropping dead from it. it's terrible. charles: another one for you, bill, there's a petition to break up california. in fact, now it has enough signatures to get on the ballot in november. what do you say? because i've seen different political ideology behind this, and the one thing they have in common they agree it should be broken up. the left and right saying maybe

break up the state. >> well, look, i'm all for breaking up the democratic supermajority in california but, frankly, breaking up the state of california, it's an enormous task. you'd have to get it approved, it's got to go to congress, congress has to approve it. we can't get congress to balance the budget, i don't think they're going to add four senators to the chamber. and it's also questionable whether you can do it through initiative process. some courts have said that does not count as a legislators' consent as required by the constitution. but here's what i want to say on this, if there's enough political will and votes to break up california, we have enough votes to take our state back this year. we have an election. we can get a majority to vote for this proposition, we can get a majority to elect a governor who's going to bring california back in line with the values of the citizens. we can take our legislature back, all 80 assembly members are up for election, including the woman i'm running against who vote for sanctuary state and to raise gas prices on her constituents.

i want to take our state back, but we can do it now instead of this drawn-out process. charles: bill, thank you very much. we really appreciate your time. >> thank you, charles. charles: the department of agriculture says more than half a million people dropped off food stamp rolls in a single month between december 2017 and january. nearly 600,000 people discontinued their participation in the supplemental nutrition program assistance or s.n.a.p., but despite those numbers, vegan musician moby wrote an op-ed argued that the government should push for a program that focuses on clean, healthy foods like beans, vegetable, fruits and whole grains. >> he makes a good point. >> yeah. charles: that's what the original stand stamps were used for. all right, tens of thousands of residents in north and south carolina without power after severe weekend storms knocked down power lines and trees. the national weather service says a tornado was sighted near greensboro, north carolina. at least one death was reported

in gilford county. and at least seven inmates dead, seventeen others hurt after fights broke out at lee correctional, one of south carolina's most dangerous prisons. order was restored early this morning, no officers were hurt. and now you have this, check it out. lucarra diamond corp. has recovered yet another massive diamond in botswana. look at that. that's a gem. >> is your wife watching? [laughter] charles: i hope not. more "varney" next. ♪ ♪ i am an independent financial advisor. when i meet a new client, i start by asking questions like: did you understand all the fees you were paying? was your broker a fiduciary? were you satisfied with the attention you were getting?

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charles: this green-haired turtle has ben added to the endangered species list, this animal has a mohawk of green hair which it gets from algae that grouse on its own -- grows on its own body. it used to be a popular pet in australia during the 1960s and '70s, but its population has dwindlinged. the remains of a prehistoric sea monster has been found in southwestern england. the fossils say it was up to 85 feet long. another massive diamond has

been unearthed in botswana, it's the third largest found by the vancouver-based locara diamond company last year. they sold a 109,000-karat stone last year, and they fetched $53 million for that one. up next, the ceo of a company focused on industrial metal-cutting market. the ceo will join us and, by the way, he supports donald trump's tariffs. speaking of president trump, he's on his way to miami the try to sell that tax plan. will he reveal the second phase of tax cuts? meanwhile, the markets are hang anything there, the dow up almost 200 points. ♪ ♪ ♪

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charles: geting a check on the big boardp near 200 points on the dow and the vast majority, 90% of your dow components, are higher. merck with good news on a cancer drug leading the way.

joining us now is don -- [inaudible] president trump claiming victory in syria, so want to first start with you, don, which one of these has a bigger impact on the market this morning? >> i think earnings. when you turn to syria, it's a non-event. it was very limited, very successful, targeted chemical weapons, very low probability retaliation, you know? earnings, i think, are going to be up big. the big issue is how much people are willing to pay for those earnings. charles: here's the interesting thing. friday we had amazing earnings, for the most part. at least headlines, right? jpmorgan one of the companies. stock's up $2, the next thing you know it's down $4. is that sort of an ominous signal? >> i think it's an ominous signal. i think earnings are going to be above expectations, but you're seeing a shrinking of pes. since january 1st they've come

down a lot. the fed says they're going to raise interest rates two more times this year, three next, two the following year -- charles: yeah. we were at zero. everyone knew we weren't going to stay there forever. so where is the problem then if you knew that the economy is rocking and rolling, that the fed is obligated to a degree to hike rates as long as they follow the day and they don't overdo it, why would that necessarily come press pe ratios to the point now that argument was the argument, hey, not to buy stocks at the beginning of year, but now seems, hey, maybe there's some value out there. >> i don't think it's going to be a huge negative impact, but rising interest rates do affect stocks. a quarter basis point increase, you know, doesn't affect it that much, but if you're going up to 3.5%, it impacts a bonds lot measure -- more than stocks. earnings will be much higher than that. charles: but you're still -- so overall, end of the year will the major averages be higher than where we they are now or jt

about the samesome. >> up 5-6%. charles: for the year. >> for the year. charles: you mentioned bonds, what was it about five, six weeks ago the ten-year yield was getting 3%, everyone lost their minds, again, the idea that yield wasn't going to move up and somehow the 3% was the magic number to derail the economy. i thought that was farfetched. they're starting to head back up. what are your thoughts? >> again, the fed has given guidance that they're going to raise rates two more times this year, again, three more times next year, two more times after that. rates are going to go up, and i think it's going to affect bond returns. i think bond returns are going to be negative this year, maybe negative next year, you want to be in equities. charles: you make that clear then. >> yes. charles: 3% yield not seductive enough to get money out of equities where you still have enough growth to counter that more attractive 3% yield. >> yeah. you've just got to be ready for a little bit lower return than we've gotten before. but the economy's doing great,

profits are going to be up -- charles: what about the notion of this major rotation, right? the bond rotation has been talked about for a decade, the mass migration of money out of bonds into equities. if that were to happen, would it seek value? the reason i'm asking, don, we haven't had a lot of leadership, right? we've mostly had technology. financials every now and then step up to the plate, but i'm concerned about the fact that there doesn't appear to be any other leadership group out there. >> listen, i think eventually it's going to be great when interest rates have risen. it's going to be great for retirees, for pension funds that aren't able to achieve their actual rate of return. getting to where interest rates rise is going to be tough for the capital markets. if you really want value, i would go over to asia. i mean, asia has much lower pes than the u.s. does -- charles: tough for the average investor out there, right? aren't there ways -- can i play it via cater or caterpillar or , something like that? in other words, the average viewer of this show that's a

little bit tough. i think it's a little bit above what their expertise might be. >> outside of an index fund or a mutual fund that can get them exposure. charles: where are you with the consumer? >> i think it's going to be weak. you know, when interest rates rise -- charles: so despite the fact that we've got 6.1 million job openings, we have enough anecdotal evidence to see wages should go much higher as the year progresses, you know, more people coming into the job market, you don't think that the consumer will have the ability to step up to the plate or won't step up to the plate? >> i think that they're going to have more money in their paychecks because taxes have gone down, but when interest rates go up, they're going to have higher interest becames, and that's going to offset it. i think discretionary spending is going to be weak. charles: all right, don, you covered a lot. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. charles: our next guest, the ceo of magna gas, the company will see a major impact from tariffs.

armando santilli is with us now. you actually, though, support president trump's tariff idea here. why? >> yeah. we think that bringing heavy industry back to the united states is the thing to do. it's going to be good for the economy. today roughly 8% of the work force is in manufacturing while in the 1970s it was almost three times that at 32%. charles: what do you say to critics who say robots have taken over, and we'll never be back where we are, so we're ferrying a few old, rusty industries at the expense of americans who may want to shop at wal-mart and find their tv set has gone up $100. >> i think there's some truth in that, but the heavy industries that the united states has been focus on, i think those are very high-skilled jobs. for example, welders, craftsmen, they're very high skilled. hay make a lot of money. -- they make a lot of money.

and i think the united states has the capacity in the labor market to fuel that. charles: do we have the skills, right? we've got a major shortage to those kind of workers. >> we do, and that's due to the fact that the industries have left the united states. when demand and supply start to kick back in, you know, we'll have a lot more people going through trade schools and everything else. charles: do you think president trump should articulate this message in a different way? be in other words, there will be perhaps a period of pain, if we go through the worst case scenario here and there's not the right accommodations made within a certain time period, that there could be a certain level of pain, that sort of knee jerk prices will go up initially but, ultimately, the idea is to bring back these jobs that were lost? >> i think it's possible that there's going to be some pain, but, you know, the united states is fantastically resourceful and, you know, we'll find ways to keep costs -- charles: so are you shocked that all of the so-called experts, most of them don't run a business like you do, but they are experts, and they keep

saying, hey, we're free traders, and that means if china wants to give it to us for free, we'll take it even if we lose factories. we're getting it for free! they're doing us a favor. i keep telling them it's a cookbook, but they won't listen to me. >> no, i'm with you. there's certain industries that the united states needs to keep for its work force and national security purposes, definitely. charles: do you think judging, you know, i know you're not on the political side of this, but do you think that it would be -- do you think china will blink? i think they already have to a degree. yes, xi has mentioned things he's mentioned in the past, but he's putting some time stamps on these things which he hadn't done before. because it seems to me that what a lot of people don't realize here is that the stakes are pretty high all around. all we ever hear about is what we could lose, but we never hear about what china may have to lose and why it's a worthwhile fight. >> well, i think china has reduced its exposure to the u.s. economy pretty dramatically over

the past ten years, so it's possible that they'll blink. but i think it's also possible that they might play hardball. charles: real quick, your business doing okay? >> yes. we've tripled in sales so far this year. by the end of the year, we expect to be five times. and we produce a metal-cutting fuel that's used in place of acetylene, so cutting metal, forming metal, welding. charles: right. >> we can't keep up with demand. we sell to ge, waste management, all -- charles: we celebrate american success here, and we appreciate you coming on the show. >> thanks for having me. charles: well, president trump about to land in florida where he'll attend a round table on tax reform. connell mcshane is already there, beat him to the punch. what should we expect? >> reporter: well, the president has a chance, charles, to kind of get back on or maybe stay on message depending on your point of view and talk about an issue that he's certainly talking about and sees as a strength, the economy and taxes. as he walked out of the white

house this morning, no comment to reporters gathered on the south lawn. we should point out though that he's leaving behind official washington for an extended period of time. after this tax talk here, it's up to palm beach where he will host the japanese prime minister for a couple of days talking trade and north korea. on twitter this morning after one tweet which he went after the former fbi director james comey again, the president did turn to an economic issue, and he talked currencies which was interesting. the tweet: russia and china are playing the currency devaluation game as the u.s. keeps raising interest rates. not acceptable, tweeted the president. now, we've seen the russian currency go down in recent days, largely investors would tell you because of the threat of more sanctions. sarah sanders, the president's press secretary, did confirm this morning more sanctions against the russians are being considered. chinese a little more interested because the chinese currency, if anything, has been going up, and the u.s. on friday just confirmed that china lately has not been manipulating its

currency. we'll see, charles, if the president expands on any of those issues. this is essentially a repeat of what we saw a week and a half ago in west virginia. he veered well off topic, called his own prepared remarks boring and talked about just about anything but taxes. so anything could happen. senator marco rubio, secretary mnuchin on this dais behind me a little over an hour from now. charles: thank you very much. want to check on netflix. company reports earnings after the bell today. it was up $2, it's down $5. had a big week last week, obviously some anxiety. also take a look at dropbox, it was down on friday and down again today. that'sen an ipo that had some pretty good success but giving some of it back. now a look at blue p apron because this was a disaster right out of the gate as an ipo, although it's up 9% today. two black men arrested at a starbucks in philadelphia after they asked to use the bathroom without buying anything. the city's police commissioner defending the arresting

officers, meanwhile starbucks' ceo is apologizing. we're on top of that. also from california governor jerry brown pardoning an immigrant felon who was twice deported. the judge coming up on that. also nasa's latest project will launch later today. the test satellite will scan nearby stars for orbiting planets. the spacecraft could discover up to 20,000 new planets. that's about the size of a washing machine. [laughter] it cost $337 billion. >> expensive washing machine. charles: more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ [ phone rings ] hi, tom. how's the college visit? does it make the short list? yeah, i'm afraid so. it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. knowing what's important to you is why 7 million investors work with edward jones. welcome to holiday inn!

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♪ ♪ >> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. gm announcing it's going to layoff up to 1500 workers in an ohio plant because of waning demand for smaller cars. the suvs and the pickups are driving growth. the gmc crossover, the cadillac escalade and also the chevrolet silverado, also the canyon. those are the names that have been driving growth at general motors. also since 2009 seven straight years of small car growth. well, why? out of the financial crisis, 360. gas in 2012. well, we saw driving those sales up for small cars, but now today

take a look. $2.71 a gallon for a regular gallon of gas right now, so amid lower fuel prices we're seeing more demand for suvs and pickups, so they're eliminating one of those shifts at the ohio plant. ♪ ♪er to their retirement savings. that's because they have a shield annuity from brighthouse financial, which allows them to take advantage of growth opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. so they can focus on new things like exotic snacks. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife.

he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using. tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in savings! tripadvisor. check the latest reviews and lowest prices. charles: two black men were arrested at a starbucks in philadelphia after they were asked -- after they asked to use the bathroom without paying for anything or buying anything. the police commissioner there

defending the arrest, the arresting officers. roll tape. >> these officers did absolutely nothing wrong. i will say that as an african-american male, i am very aware of implicit bias. we are committed to fair and unbiased policing, and anything less than that will not be tolerated in this department. charles: and now there's an apology from starbucks' ceo kevin johnson. roll tape. >> i want to begin by offering a personal apology to the two gentlemen who were arrested in our store. what happened and the way that incident escalated and the outcome was nothing but reprehensible, and i'm sorry. i want to apologize to the community in philadelphia and to all my starbucks partners. this is not who we are, and it's not who we're going to be. charles: all rise, judge andrew napolitano is here. all right, judge -- >> so they're in starbucks waiting for a friend of theirs to get his order, and while

waiting they ask to use the men's room, and they're denied permission, and they're arrested. for what? what did the police take them in for? charles: well, i think the complaint was from the company though that somehow they were trespassing. i mean, the role of the cops, i saw the video, it wasn't violent. everyone was cooperative. it was sad to see them handcuffed -- >> but the use of government coercion, restraining them and taking them away for a noncrime -- the cops are not there to arrest everybody that every landowner says, arrest them. if they didn't belong in the store, the cops could have said would you mind waiting outside. for some reason they don't want you waiting in their store, and it's their store. it's not against the law. but for starbucks to trigger the coercive power of the state to arrest these people because of no crime whether racism was a motivation or not is unacceptable. and for that police chief to defend this unacceptable behavior compounds it.

charles: you know, to me it's interesting because starbucks has always had this sort of policy, hey, we want people to come and chill out here. there's no pressure to -- >> can't you sit in starbucks with your laptop -- charles: you can order one espresso and take two hours to drink it if i understand correctly. charles: they started this policy when there were only a few people in this country who could actually afford to do that. >> you mean, who had laptops. charles: in other words, back then not everyone could afford to go in there, and not -- >> suppose i bring "the new york post" with me. charles: i think they're phony in this conscious capitalist movement, they're one of the key components of it, but they're phonies in the sense that, you know what? you've got to practice when you preach. >> i hope these two fellows are watching us now and they take this advice: sue the police and sue starbucks and reject whatever offer they give you. i want a philadelphia jury of their peers to evaluate what happened. charles: it's not unlike what

happened with united airlines, is it? >> same thing. those cops just dragged that doctor off because a flight attendant asked them too. charles: although i'm glad to see there wasn't any violence in this thing. another one for you, judge, california governor jerry brown pardoning a u.s. army veteran who was convicted of shooting at a vehicle back in 2002. he was an illegal immigrant, he was deported back to mexico twice, but last week he was sworn in as a u.s. citizen. any conflicts here with this? >> well, the governor of most states, california's an example and our home state of new jersey is another, has absolute pardoning power, can pardon for any state offense. and as a result of this pardon, not only was he not deported, he was made an american citizen. that's a judgment the governor can make. but i will tell you had he not been pardoned, not only would he have not become an american citizen, he would have been deported a third time. it seems odd, a person deported twice and a convicted felon

becomes an american citizen, but it's the beauty of our system is we give people second and third chances. that's what jerry brown did. it's tough for me to defend jerry brown, but he exercised the lawful power of his office, in my view, lawfully. charles: does it embolden people to come to this country illegally, and once they're here thinking maybe i can even get away with committing crimes? >> probably. if i have a governor like jerry brown who wants to stick it to the president, it does. it's lawful power, lawfully exercised. maybe not always wisely exercised, but lawfully exercised. jerry brown, still crazy after all these years. charles: moon beam never changes. [laughter] well, now let's check on the price of oil because it's nearing a three-year high, but why does it keep going up if we have so much of it? remember those old days of peak oil? no one says that anymore. we're going to get answers on the current question next. ♪ ♪ welcome to the xfinity store.

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charles: to the price of oil, jeff flock following it for us from the cme. syria seems to be done for the moment, where does oil go? do we give back some of these recent gainsesome. >> reporter: yeah, we're giving them back today, charles, we're down almost a dollar, and you're absolutely right, that's about syria. it's not -- you know, they built in fear, and it wasn't so bad. maybe mission was accomplished, maybe it's a one-off, and so there. you made a point earlier about the larger picture on oil, and we thought, oh, peak oil, we've got more oil than we know what to do with, price is going to stay low. well, there are other factors out there. the iranian sanctions factor is on the table, that takes maybe a lot of production off the table. venezuela, which we have reported on multiple times and the collapse of the economy, it's getting worse, believe it or not, and they're now importing oil. nation with probably the biggest oil reserves in the world now importing oil because they can't make it work with their economy the way it is. that's taken about 100,000

barrels per day off world production, so -- and here's the other thing, i'll leave you with this. phil flynn, our esteemed oil analyst, has made this point multiple times which is those low oil prices have chilled the exploration piece, so we don't as much exploration going on, and at some point that hits the market. maybe low gas prices could be a thing of the past. charles: wow. thank you very much, really appreciate it. a lot of that stuff i had not even considered. thank you very much. >> reporter: thanks, charles. charles: all right, more "varney" right after this. ♪ ♪

period.

charles: bank of america reported a profit. company got a boost from tax laws and is flat. it set a tone for the day. you're looking at two-day chart of the dow holding feigns.

this after wild ride on friday. got a look at costco. to the an upgrade. retail sales out better than expected. costco has been unmitigated juggernaut. then of course the big story with starbucks. starbucks we, got an apology from the ceo. we've got a police commissioner of philadelphia who is pretty firm. i want to bring in -- liz: the company. charles: i hadn't heard from howard schultz. howard schultz has ambitions to be president of the united states. this is pivotal moment. ashley: i'm surprised we haven't. he is always very vocal. you say don't blame the police, blame starbucks. the police say we were doing what they were supposed to do. they came in, wanted to use the bathroom for paying customers only. didn't order any drinks or food. they were asked to leave, repeatedly. they refused. that is it when the police were called, they showed up and

carried out what the business wanted them to do. to the judge's point they didn't have to go as far as they did and come outside to resolve it. yes was why are they being asked to leave in the first place. liz: that is great point, ashley. starbucks is h business model for the franchise stores to be town square with coffee. people linker there, sit there for a very long time. i have always joked maybe starbucks should start charging rent for people sitting at those tables. the tipping about using the restroom that is an issue, but to handcuff them for trespassing. now the ceo reportedly saying he is going to fly to philadelphia to do a face-to-face damage control situation there. charles: again, one of the companies at the forefront of so-called conscious capitalism. they have been very preachchy to the rest of the corporate world how you should run a business. profits come less, people come first. if this is people coming first,

howard schultz you have to explain to us where people are coming first. ashley: campaign where they rote things on cups. charles: they asked people to right about race relations. liz: on a cup? charles: thank you very much. the man is next. neil cavuto. take it away. neil: charles, thank you very much. we're focusing on the president of the united states, 45 minutes away from making pretax day announcement. arguing that the tax cuts will be manna from heaven for taxpayers, even though the tax filing deadline is reflective of taxes you paid last year. the president will make number of comparisons for individuals that launched a rocket for this economy and some poll numbers he is convinced are going republicans way. you could have a heck of a time seeing that in some of the poll data. in an interesting subset to some numbers out today, when americans are queried where do they see control of congress going what they would prefer, the 10 point gap