maria: thanks, everybody, great show. dagen mcdowell, great to see you. >> great being with you. >> fun. maria: seize that day. here is "varney & company." stuart. stuart: i will try. good morning, everyone. i will start like this, investors, relax there is another political firestorm but again the market is shrugging it off. more on that in a moment. a anonymous senior official writes in "the new york times" that president trump is ill-informed, half-baked, reckless, impetuous, petty and ineffective. this person and other colleagues within the administration, are doing all they can to reverse the president's policies. they are secretly thwarting the will of the people. can you believe this? this morning the president tweets, the deep state and the

left and their vehicle, the fake news media are going crazy. they don't know what to do. the economy is booming like never before, jobs at historic highs. soon two supreme court justices and maybe declassification to find additional corruption. wow. if i may editorialize for a moment, this senior official should resign, now, in disgrace. you are undermining our democracy. there is another big story. it is nike. the football season starts tonight, football fans are greeted with a nike ad featuring colin kaepernick. the man who started anthem protests. nike revived the controversy. everyone loses when divisive politics comes back to haunt the nfl. nike's stock, no recovery after 4 billion-dollar hit the company took when kaepernick ad campaign was first revealed. look at this. no recovery, serious recovery for twitter or facebook.

they took hits yesterday after their leaders appeared before congress. investors worry about new regulations on privacy and the election interference. modest recovery at best. not much of a recovery for tesla. that stock continues to be beaten down by elon musk's toxic tweets and emails. but we have a grand total of three hours. we'll cover it all, believe me. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ first, there has been a deadly earthquake in japan, bring us up to speed. ashley: just getting latest reports. at least nine dead now, hundreds more injured. there is a frantic search going on for people buried, as you can see from the video hillsides collapsed. a 6.7 earthquake that happened 3:08 in the morning. people were home, in bed,

asleep. it was a strong quake, 6.7 in the northern part of japan. as you see from these video here, the hillsides crushing homes. there is a nuclear pow every plant in the area. we think of fukushima and the tsunami there. it was not operational. it had to be put on backup supply. no problems with radiation. this is latest of series of catastrophes to hit japan. last few days a typhoon killed 10 in the west of the country. they have flooding, deadly rains in the last couple of months. they have had deadly hot temperatures. it has been a dreadful run for japan with these natural disasters. this is the very latest. stuart: all right. there you have it. i want to move on to the market this morning. it is thursday. it will open like this. modest gains pretty much across the board. there was a modest gain for the dow at close. we're up who odd points when we get going. let's get back to political firestorm, "new york times" anonymous op-ed.

someone who claims to be a member of the administration, bashing the president, claiming to be secretly working against him. here is an excerpt from the op-ed. the dilemma he does not fully grasp. senior officials are working from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. i would know. i am one of them, end quote. listen to how president trump responded. roll tape. >> it is failing "new york times" has anonymous editorial, can you believe it, anonymous, meaning gutless a gutless editorial. we're doing a great job. stuart: joining us now is rnc chair ronna romney mcdaniel. welcome to the program. >> always good to be here. stuart: does this hurt you the republican party around president politically going into the midterms? >> i don't think it does. this is the same playbook in 2016. democrats making this push to say this mansion fit to be

president. made it all about the personality, not the policy we're seeing that playbook revived heading into the midterms. he is unfit to be president. there is chaos. the results speak for themselves. 4.2% gdp. four million jobs coming back to the country. voters are smarter than this. they will look at results coming out of the administration. they're not interested in palace intrigue. the media is doubling down on the same playbook in 2016. it didn't work then. stuart: when do you think of "the new york times" publishing a anonymous op-ed. we don't know if this person is a senior official or some lowly person. nobody knows. >> "new york times" hit a new low in journalism, put the op-ed out, to let a senior official to hide behind the news. what a brave person. come out to sew your face, if you really believe these things, all the anonymous source, if you think it is chaos, it is so terrible, show your nice, put your name behind it. let us know who you are. reality the good results coming

out. administration cannot come out of chaos. it's a well-run organization. i was with general kelly yesterday. these are things have been talked about. these policies put forward, deregulation, fighting the opioid crisis, helping the militariry, defeating isis, all things happening are not a result of chaos. stuart: i can't imagine working for the administration and working against it at the same time. hold on a second. couple more things in just a moment. i want to get back to your money. market watcher michelle mckinnon with payne capital management. let me put this at you. all around the world i see markets selling off, way down. america seems to be the best and only game in town what do you say? >> yes i would say in the short term america is the place to be. our fundamentals look extremely impressive and we have a very strong consumer with consumer confidence highest it has been in 18 years. but, i wouldn't be too comfortable because tides can turn quickly, you need to make

sure you're diversified. stuart: but for now, this market is in a very good place. money is pouring into america and our stock market is going up. so in the short term, do you expect the dow, s&p, nasdaq to go up a little bit more? >> i think so. particularly once we get past the trade headwinds. we see markets move higher. fundamentals are good. consumer confidence is strong. when the consumer happy and healthy, what do they do? they open the wallet and spend more money. stuart: i will put three stocks up on the screen, facebook, twitter and google. they took a hit yesterday because of hearings in washington. there is a minor leagues recovery this morning. they are up a few cents a piece. when you look at prices there, 1200 for alphabet, 32 for twitter, 167 for facebook. do you see any bargains? are any of those three fit to be bought now? >> tech is important to be in your portfolio, because it has had impressive growth. i think there better buys elsewhere.

stuart: tell me where. >> mid and small caps outperformed. they're getting no headlines. they're reaching all-time highs. number two american energy is performing very well. we've seen oil slowly creep back to $70. who knows, it might break 80. if you look at particular industries in oil, like energy, master limited partnerships, which are pipelines that carry oil and gas, they're on the move. i think we get so bogged down with tech there is a lot of other asset classes out there that deserve love too. stuart: fair enough. at least we're not bogged down with political crises in washington, d.c. michelle, thanks very much for joining us. >> absolutely. stuart: we appreciate it. want to get back to rona, sitting next to me, that is dangerous, you realize that. the delaware senate primary pitch incumbent democrat tom carper, against very progressive newcomer, carrie harris. if miss harris shows real well,

the writing is on the wall that socialists are doing well in america. >> they are. this is not what we want to go for america. do your homework on socialism. look at venezuela, where 90% of the people live under poverty. stuart: hold on. hold on. venezuelan socialism is different from the socialism that they're proposing here. >> weller proposing the government taking over health care and taking over education. they will bankrupt this country. they will absolutely put us in a lower, lower quality of living if they do what they do. when they say medicare for all, what does that mean? it means lesser quality health care especially for seniors. stuart: if you're in your 20s, i'm not asking you how old you are -- >> i am in my 20s, come on, stuart. stuart: in that millenial group, someone said to you, vote for me, you will get free health care, you will go to college for free, write off the student debt, i will get the immigration

authorities off your back, you might vote for them? >> like you hear the credit card deals with no interest, you can pay anything you want. if it looks too good to be true it is. ask every single one of these candidates how will you pay for it? none of them have a answer. how will they pay for it? the american taxpayer. they will come out with more debt. stuart: you want socialists to do well to run against them. >> we're putting forward a vision of prosperity. they're putting forward a vision that leads us to positivepoverty. that is that clear. stuart: thank you, ronna. where are we going to open? roughly 30 points. that will be in 20 minutes time. there is a giant jet airbus 380. flies from dubai to new york. landed in new york yesterday. it stopped on the tarmac, filled with sick passengers. gets quarantined for hours. we'll tell you what those

sickened, what did sicken those passengers. good story. jeff sessions he is set to meet with state attorneys general. on the agenda? social media companies censoring free speech. could regulations be coming? controversial new nike ad features colin kaepernick. it debuts tonight. how will it be received? former new york giants running back tiki barber weighs in when "varney & company" continues. if you're on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the washoe zephyr could damage your siding. and that's very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands?

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i call it my "comfortable future plan," and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. stuart: wait a minute. i just bought one of these things. ford will recall two million f-150 pickup trucks in north america. they have got a problem with, well, there is concern about smoke in part of the seatbelt mechanism. ashley: whoo? stuart: ford's stock is down. ashley: smoking seatbelt? stuart: i have to watch out for that. controversial new nike ad featuring colin kaepernick will run tonight on

"thursday night football" on nbc. who better to talk about this, former new york giants running back, tiki barber, sitting next to me. i say nike single-handedly revived the controversy. everybody loses. i think it is terrible. >> it is part marketing, have you seen the commercial itself. forget the ad, the commercial is pretty uplifting talking about dreams and inspirations whether that keep griffin important with one hand or serena williams. stuart: are you in favor of bringing this controversy back? nfl was trying to get away from this? >> i don't believe the controversy should be elevated like it has been elevated but the discussion is important. so much of this country's history is based on protests, whether it was elizabeth stanton and susan b. anthony, whether rosa parks, whatever it may have been, protests led to what made america great. so to make it into something that is either black or white, you are against this or you are

for this, it is kind of an insult to the complexities of america right? stuart: fair point, but, football is hurting. because of this. >> is it really? football has record revenues. stuart: tv ratings down 9%. >> tv ratings down, pizza hut who replaced existing producer of pizza are to the national football league, paid a premium to get into the national football league. look at salaries. aaron rodgers is making $33 million a year. why? because people build new stadiums, naming rights revenues, everything germane to the success after business sin creasing with the national football league. maybe perceptually -- stuart: tv ratings and money flows -- >> we consume it differently. you can watch a football game on the ipad. stuart: this is america's sport, what about those folks, they want toe see a football game, what have they got, anthem protest? >> do you see the anthem protest? when was last time you saw one watching a game.

stuart: i will not watch the nfl. i won't watch it. i will be damned see my flag of my adopted country, that i am now a legal citizen of, i am not going to see it trashed by millionaire athletes. >> it is not trashed by millionaire athletes. stuart: it is. they are disrespecting it. >> they are not disrespect the anthem. they are in essence using their stage, their platform, to make a point. one, that we have now been talking about for two years. when was last time an athlete did something that forced us as a consumer, as a country, as media, to talk about two years? no matter what we want to say about colin kaepernick. the sport is thriving. stuart: i have this study. nielsen did it. advent of sports gambling, sports betting, sports books will bring in extra $2.3 billion, on the screen, 2.3 extra. >> didn't you say the sport was hurting?

i mean -- 2.3 -- stuart: less money coming in. gambling is going to help it. >> you don't watch football so hard for you to do this. stuart: i used to. >> how do you consume it? how do people consume it? stuart: i watch college football. >> they don't sit and watch fox or cbs or nbc. they go to, their tablet other their smartphone or they go to the red zones to watch all of the games. i have to watch the games on the red zone so i see everything. i can't watch one game. stuart: you're working for draftkings? >> i am doing something for draftkings. we're having a great event this weekend in hoboken with my company. we, cosponsored this event. it is open to the public. go to draftkings.com/kickoffbash to celebrate the new sports book that hosted by draftkings in hoboken. stuart: do you know where i live? >> where? stuart: hoboken. >> i better see you there.

stuart: how much to day me to attend? >> i would day pay you $1000. stuart: you're on. >> we'll get a whole bunch of british business folks. ashley: he would have gone for 20 bucks. stuart: that's right. >> not paying you $1000. maybe draftkings. stuart: tiki barber, draftkings guy, totally wrong on the anthem protest, otherwise a good guy. >> as long as we're talking about it, neither one of us is wrong, correct? stuart: isn't that true. >> that is how it should be. stuart: god bless america. thanks for being with us, tiki. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: check futures where we open? ever so slightly. 25 points up maybe in ten minutes time. susan li sat down for an interview with uber's chief. big headline. they might take the company public as early as next year. in other words you might be able to invest directly in them next year. susan, after this.

stuart: our very own susan li sat down with uber's chief executive. it was an exclusive interview. roll tape. >> i think investors are going to line up behind us and lyft. i certainly hope they are. >> you are guarantying a 2019 ipo? >> there is no guaranty. you don't know what the market is doing. i can guarranty i will be ready

and hopefully the markets are ready for us. stuart: that is big news. ready to go public to we can sell shares in uber. that was a scoop right there. what else did he tell you? >> uber is a large company worth $70 billion if they do go public. they command around 73% of the right-hailing market. that is a big portion. lyft is a small player. president trump talked about antitrust with google, amazon, facebook, given size of uber, what about antitrust and a possible breakup for you? stuart: this is what he said. >> we're regulated now, right. we work in every single city, et cetera. we look at the market as a 6 trillion-dollar transportation market. we're a tiny, tiny part of the market. we account for less than 1% miles driven on the road. i think uber than be ultimately 20, 30% times bigger than today. >> no fear of being broken up at all? >> no fear of being broken up.

susan: 20 to 30 times is probably the sound bite take away. 1% of miles driven on the road. they could grow 20 to 30 times what they are today. they're worth $70 billion. can you imagine the size of the growth and potential? stuart: i'm a uber supporter. they are a revolutionary company. i love them. susan, great stuff and great interview. susan: thank you. stuart: where will we open the market? literally five minutes away. we will be up, but not very much. we were supposed to be up 40, 50 points. that was a few minutes ago. we'll open pretty much flat or slightly higher. stay with us. we'll take you to wall street and the opening bell in a moment.

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president's policies. it is one of the most undemocrattic things in my life. they claim to be doing this, working against the interests of the american people. [opening bell rings] you might think that would affect the stock market because it's a political bombshell but it is not. it is thursday morning. we'll open ever so slightly lower up. we are dead flat. we're down a fraction, up a fraction. we're hovering around the 26,000 level. that is how we started. no clear trend. that is the dow industrials. s&p, down .01%. i don't call that much movement. up 4.06%. it's a go nowhere market in the early pattern of trading this thursday morning. i will show you nike real fast. it was down sharply after the

new campaign ad appeared. no serious recovery. it is holding at $80 a share. thursday morning, at 26,000 for the dow. who is with me? i will tell you scott martin, john layfield, susan li, ashley webster. i want to start with nike, it is happening to night. the kaepernick will appear before "thursday night football," tonight. scott nike tee's stock has not recovered from this move. i think it is a bad business move. what do you say. >> bad business move and hurtful to us as shareholders. we had nike several years. profit growth and new lines of apparel we obviously like too, that consumers like. tough business move. to get back into the political sewage with the nfl, what is going on with the anthem. i don't know what will be worse, seeing the ad come on your tv or the game itself with nick foles

starting at quarterback for the eagles. ashley: got that in. stuart: i don't know what you're talking about. super bowl mvp my producer says. john, weigh in on this one. i think it is dangerous when any big name corporation chucks itself into the political arena. >> this is business decision i agree with scott. i watched the commercial this morning. it is beyond belief. it is that good. it is awesome. it will bring a tear to your eye, all that is great about sport is captured in the commercial. the problem when you talk about a business decision, not talking about the merit what is is going on socially, is colin kaepernick as narrator, do you lose the message because of the messenger? nfl and fox, they have joe and troy in the booth, they have their number one team. michael and terry doing the preshow. you have erin andrews on the sidelines. this is a huge deal for the nfl. this is the nfc rematch from the nfc championship. this should be a big day for the

nfl. the problem is, people will be talking about colin kaepernick. that may be good for our society. maybe they should talk about this, but this is a bad business decision in my opinion. stuart: i want to run with this. america's stock market is the only game in town i say that, put this out. foreign markets are across the board are way, way down. are we the only game in town? >> we are. how long can they go on especially problems overseas hurt us. we are like a moat. all the money pouring in. rising interest rates and strength of the dollar, absolutely killing emerging markets from indonesia from south africa to turkey, on and on. they are in a currency crisis. if this eventually carries on it will eventually hurt us. stuart: if it carries on and. >> shanghai is down 20%. hong kong down almost double digits on the year.

people have to remember we're coming off the best august in the nasdaq since 2000, dot-com bubble days, s&p, for the dow. crossing through pretty high numbers. a little bit of give back doesn't mean things are going awry. stuart: well-said. by the way tonight the eagles game tonight is on nbc. got that? nbc. a big deal. big tech names, you have to check them because that is where the money is. say that all the time. took big hits especially, alphabet, facebook and twitter. i don't see any recovery. facebook at 164 this morning. why? john, is this because maybe some kind of regulation of social networks is coming? >> you know, my mistake on the nbc and fox. i'm the former professional football player. i should know this stuff. i'm not sure what happened. the problem with the social media companies is, the regulation that could be coming down the pike. you saw that in europe.

i don't think you will see it necessarily here. i think incredible buys here. you can't just -- stuart: john, hold on a second. on the screens, our viewers are looking at alphabet, as in google, facebook and twitter. alphabet, 1193, facebook, 165, twitter, 32. are any of these three stocks bargains at those prices? >> yeah, facebook is. facebook is down from potential regulation. google alphabet is good buy. i would stay away from twitter. when a president is so active on twitter and twitter is not able to make money, the model doesn't work and it will only get sold. stuart: move on to whole foods. their workers are pushing to form a union. what is that all about. ashley: they're not happy. they're sending out email to all 490 stores, we need to unionize. since amazon has taken over, they believe the corporate culture has changed. they want better compensation, benefits, profit sharing. before whole foods, before

amazon came along actually resisted unionization. but workers were happy. they averaged $20 an hour. they were able to get access to stock options even very lowest level worker. now that has gone out the worker since amazon has come in. compensation is down. they eliminated a lot of positions, workers don't like it. amazon will push back. they pushed back warehouse workers tried to do the same thing this is not what amazon wants. stuart: we look at things that might hold amazon's stock in check. do you think the unionization push for whole foods might hold the stock in check? >> it might, stuart. other than government regulation, it's a threat. we have a whole foods down the street from us. that means my wife and or me go every day to pick something up. i did a unofficial survey, people are kind of lukewarm howthe amazon adoption has gone.

like ash said, they changed some of the procedures. they amazonned the whole foods process. they stack shelves every day and bring in trucks every day, instead of waiting a few days and overstacking things. there has been a lot of changes that some of the workers have said to me that added a lot of work, added a lot of stress and really haven't provided a lot of reward as far as their job satisfaction. that is something to watch out for if you're amazon. headline this morning, amazon is below $2,000 a share. there is the headline, ladies and gentlemen. check the big board. modest gain at best. we're up 20 odd points. we're above 26,000. stuart: barnes & noble. the stock is down seven cents. but that is 1.3%. ford motor company will recall two million f-150 pup trucks in north america. there is some kind of concern about fire and smoke with the seatbelt mechanism.

the stock, 9.55. i have one of these things. i have no trouble with smoke in the seatbelt, no trouble at all. fbi investigating dow component american express over foreign exchange pricing policies. john, i think a lot of people have some amex stock in their 401(k)s. does this investigation amount to a big deal, you think? >> i think it's a big deal as far as what they were doing. i don't think it will be a big deal for the stock. i think they will get a fine if what they are alleging is true. they say they are getting people to come in to get currency exchange by suppressing currency rates, but raising the rates without telling customers. this is an old bait and switch practice that is frowned upon. it is illegal. it is frowned upon by everybody. i think it will hurt, get a fine but i don't think it will hurt the stock long term. stuart: you don't own american express stock, do you john? >> no, i do not. stuart: i have got two delivery stories for you. first of all, amazon.

they have ordered 20,000 mercedes vans, to ramp up their own delivery program. walmart, testing their own network of independent drivers for grocery delivery. ashley: yes. stuart: you know, scott, there is a battle here. the battle is about delivery, grocery delivery. that is what this is all about, isn't it? >> delivery is killer. again i'm going to throw this back to my home front. when i have been alone with the kids or my wife is out of town, i'm too lazy to go to the grocery store. i said it. i use instacart. some other delivery services. people these days, stuart, whether they're honest with themselves or not, they seem very busy. so delivery is very good. starbucks talking about that too, my friends. walmart getting into that in a metro area where it is easier for them. that is a good idea. ashley: in the online ordering process the most expensive part is the last mile, delivering to the person who actually ordered that item. anytime you get control of those

costs by controlling your delivery process it is attractive. >> people pay for it. ashley: they do. they do. susan: using drones in the future. walmart wants to target 40% of households across america by end of next year. stuart: really? >> middle of next year, 2019. they already bought jet.com. that was the play on delivery versus amazon. you know foot traffic is increasing. sell more groceries. trying to make it on both fronts, delivery and also get you in the store somehow. stuart: you got it. move on to jobs. the big report is out tomorrow morning. i'm throwing this at you all. let's go around the block. i need predictions from everybody on the screen right now. how many new jobs will be reported tomorrow morning. ashley: what is the estimate? stuart: i don't care about estimates. you're furs, susan. susan: 200. stuart: ash? >> 185. stuart: my maserati does 185.

john, what you got? >> 200. biggest thing because of 3.7%, midterms, that is huge number. stuart: fair point. scott? >> 167,000 with average hourly wages, raising, rising closer to 3%, year-over-year, which is good growth. stuart: see what happens with the market, if we get that kind of result. john, scott, appreciate it. see you real soon. where is the market now? up 28 points on the dow. more bad news for tesla. a woman from utah her car slammed into the back of a fire truck while on autopilot. she is suing tesla. full details on that next. attorney general jeff sessions meeting with state attorneys general, discussing how social media companies are censoring conservatives. here is a question. is this a sign regulation may be coming? more "varney" after this.

making my dreams a reality

takes more than just investment advice. from insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. i call it my "comfortable future plan,"

and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. stuart: all right, we're 13, 14 minutes into the trading session this thursday morning. up 40 points on the dow. 26,018 as we speak. tesla getting sued over autopilot. come on in, nicole. you have to tell me more about this one. >> autopilot according to tesla, doesn't mean you don't pay attention, to get your hands off the wheel and read a good book. you still have a responsibility. so the story comes from utah, a woman named heather is basically suing that her car crashed into a stopped fire struck and that the autopilot did not engage in time to prevent the crash. she tried to many apply the brake but did not have the brakes engaged to stop the whole

thing. she is suing $300,000. engaged and canceled, engaged and canceled the autopilot. that her hands were off the wheel for 12 times. for 90 section, looking at her phone, didn't have hands on the wheel, at 60 miles an hour she crashed into this truck in may of 2018. she says she was pressing the brakes. she pressed the brakes fractions of a second before the actual impact happened. this one has to go to court. they will battle this one out. stuart: yes, they are, nicole. thank you very much indeed. it is interesting that tesla's stock was around 350, 360 when elon musk said, i want to take this thing private. the stock then dropped to around the 300-dollar mark. he said no, we'll stay public. it stayed at 300. then came down a bit more as his toxic tweets and emails did the circuit. ashley: yes. stuart: it is now at 288. that is interesting because there is a slew of negative stuff about tesla.

susan: day in, day out. stuart: they haven't made any money. they're still holding at 288. ashley: oh by the way, no money. stuart: what was it somebody said on the show? i know lemonade stands in new jersey that make more than tesla. ashley: jeff sica. stuart: that was jeff sica. that's right. we're up now 52 points. now, jeff sessions he met with state attorneys general to discuss social media companies censoring conservative speech. this is important. congressman louie gohmert joins us, republican of course, from texas. welcome to the program. >> always good to be with you, stuart. stuart: careful. wait until you hear what i have to ask you. you're on the judiciary committee, what do you think? is regulation of some sort coming to these social networks? give us your opinion on this? >> see, stuart, i don't think we need regulation. when we had a hearing with facebook and twitter, i forget the third, you know, the interesting issue was, they were saying, you know, we don't need

any regulation. we need to be treated just like, you know, publishers of anything else, and i said, to them, look, that, that's how we have a solution here. we don't necessarily need regulation but you need to be libel for the problems you creates a a publisher, just like any newspaper is. so, i think that would solve the problems. people that are screwed around or defrauded which i think is occurring which they pay for a service. then find out that actually they didn't get brought to the forefront as they paid for, that they had algorithms that sent them to the back of the line, you just sue them. that is how we solve the problem. no more regulation. just sue them for fraud. sue them for their breach of agreements, and, therein, their

liability will solve things, i believe. stuart: okay. i want to talk to you about the kavanaugh hearings. this is day three. they have just resumed. >> those are hearings? is that what we're calling them? stuart: political theater? whatever you like, call it. look, but at the end of the day, have you got any doubt that he will be approved and confirmed on the supreme court? >> well there is, i believe he will be. but there is always a question. but i feel comfortable. i feel confident, that he will be confirmed. but, stuart, let's just talk about that hearing for a second. what we have had for some time, leftist decrying bullies, we have to do something about bullies. yet the left turned into the biggest bunch of bullies in the country. they were bullying kavanaugh. they are bullying his family. they are bullying the trump

administration. they bully the republicans when they try to go out and eat or try to go different places. there is no civility in these people that decry bullying when they are the biggest bullies. we have to bet back to civility. these people need to be punished as bullies and it is a crime to do what they're doing. and they need to be arrested, not just taken out of the hearing room, arrested. i know when i was a judge, i made clear to my deputies, if somebody disrupts, they are to be taken out, and i don't mean in 10 seconds, i don't mean 20 seconds, immediately, or you will be taken out of my courtroom or get somebody in there who will get the troublemakers out. and by the way, i got to punish people for their contempt of court when they disregarded the orders back then. i just can't believe we're allowing these kind of disruptions without them paying a high price for them. stuart: it is a farce.

i have just 30 seconds, louie. i do want your opinion on this anonymous op-ed piece in the "new york times," where a senior official, is said to be, trying to reverse from the inside, the president's policies. i'm appalled quite frankly. you got to be. >> i have one word, stuart, that is coward, coward. step up to make those claims. stuart: i think within 24 hours we should know who it was. >> then fire him. stuart: they can't keep secrets around here any place. always good to have you own the show. >> good to be with you, stuart. thank you. stuart: we ended it on a smile. that's good. high of the day, the dow industrials up over 60 points. a good 2/3 of the dow 30 are in the green. they're up. more trouble for musk. that cave diver who he called a child rapist says he is going to sue. we'll have the latest on that next.

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stuart: there are reports of an active shooter situation in cincinnati. what else do we have? ashley: just coming in. fifth third bank facility in downtown cincinnati. the police department says it has an active shooter,

officer-involved shooting. one officer at the scene, two, possibly more people have been shot. unclear on their condition. unclear whether the shooter himself or herself, is one of those being shot. it is in an area of the city's fountain square. if anyone familiar with downtown cincinnati. all of this area is sealed off. police try to figure out what is going on. two, possibly three people shot. active shooter situation in downtown cincinnati. stuart: we'll keep on top of that. quick check of stocks. we're 25 minutes into the session. we're up 60 points on the dow. fraction higher on the s&p. 11 points down on the nasdaq. the cave diver who was called a child rapist by elon musk says he plans to sue. what more do we have on this, susan. susan: it is about time, some would say. lawsuits are launched in three countries by vernon unsworth when what he claimed.

u.s., uk, thailand. the thing in thailand if he is convicted on charge of defamation, it carry as prison sentence in the country, in thailand. this is something to watch for. elon musk reigniting the food, emailing the buzz food reporter, calling him a child rapist. a lot of expletives. the man, elon musk need to stop. stuart: absolutely. how many times have we said it. and he doesn't stop. susan: twitter, email, just get off, off. someone needs to tell him. stuart: we have nike's controversial ad featuring colin kaepernick. it debuts tonight. i think this is bad for football. i think it is bad for the country. i think it is bad for the players. i think just about everybody loses. my take on that is next. restaur. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one.

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stuart: if you thought that the

balls and the problem would go away the season, think again. it has been revived and like he did it. tonight the first game of the new season and nike is running an ad featuring colin cabinet, the man who started the anti- police and the healing process. i don't know except perhaps mr. cap next is not being treated as some kind of high-minded moralist. it's bad for the ball. the game itself is losing ground with far fewer youngsters participating. it's bad for the players. tv ratings dropped sharply last year and that takes money out of the players pocket. it's extremely annoying for football fans, they don't like seeing our flag disrespected by millionaire athletes. it's bad for the country. football is our number one spo sport. uniquely american. how does it look for the rest the world when a handful of kneelers trash our country. this is what happens when divisive politics jumped out of

the political arena and affects everything else. nike did this. they brought back the controversy apparently for commercial advantage. i say it is a sad day when the clothing company sticks it to america. a sad day when athletes hurt their own sport and it's a sad day when the ball is contaminated with protest politics. second hour of varney and company is about to begin. jason whitlock will join us later this hour. he says nike is using colin cap next as a pr tool and it will backfire against nike. he's on the show at 10:45 this morning. first, breaking news - it's thursday, mortgage rates. >> freddie mac coming in this week with 4.54%.

itching up ever so much up from 4.52%. by the way, housing prices also running ahead as they rise as inflation and income. housing prices are going up gauges are getting more expensive albeit fractionally but it is an issue in the housing market and still a lack of homes in the market. stuart: more portly we have a number on the service sector and how is it doing - >> very good in the month of august. better than expected in higher than july's number. it's at 58.5 in the month of august and compare that to 55.7 in july. that's a good inflation rate right there. acceleration in the month of august and anything about 50 shows expansion. that's in line with the economy we are in. as we go about 3.5% highest gdp in between years. stuart: the market is up 70 and a strong economy. check apple. it's at or close to the all-time highs, very recently but today it is down 93 cents but that

drags the dow down because apple is a doubt stock. facebook investing a billion dollars to build a data research center in singapore and that the first in asia. facebook is down again. 164 facebook this morning. don't forget, oil $60 a barrel and get the numbers on how much oil we got in store at the top of the next hour. tesla is actually up today solidly nearly $10 higher after losing streak of seven consecutive sessions. more on tesla, by the way. elon musk firing illegal muscle as he faces an sec probe. he also went after the cave rescuer again calling him a child rapist in an e-mail to busby. jean is with us. welcome back. >> stuart. stuart: i have asked everybody on this program how much longer can this go on before musk is shunted to one side, will you

answer that question? >> i will. the simple answer is about six weeks. let me put in the perspective. two sides of the ledger. the side of elon musk as a leader and someone who has been an investor and advisor and analyst for many years that has been, to say, concerning is an understatement. his behavior over the last six months and then in the last few weeks particularly. the other side of the ledger is how the business is doing. i suspect that the reason the stock is up is he is out today saying sales are going well and made tweets related to that and they had an order of 30 and there's some i.c.e. from walmart and if in fact they do exit the september quarter with profitable which is what they've predicted i think that will basically trump any of the negativity we've seen around h him. that is our bet that the fundamentals are going to

outweigh this concerning an unexcused bowl behavior. stuart: the stock is up $10 up back up to 290. interesting. i'll ask you the same question i've asked a lot of people. should apple by tesla? is it a good idea for them to buy tesla? will they buy tesla? what you say on those issues? >> so, i think the answer is they won't come together. it will not. we describe that as a fairytale and the reason is this. both companies make perfect sense to be together ultimately both of them see a huge opportunity around tech and autonomy over the next ten or 20 years. they both pursuing that and they both have a lot of consistent ideas around design and product development. the reason why it's a fairytale is it's a design aspect and elon musk won't you that design and also won't. the x factor where this could

come together and if i'm wrong and they're not successful tesla is not successful at getting and turning the corner to probability the company will be forced to sell a lower evaluation with probability of the slope but in that case apple is the ideal suitor followed by google. notably the big automotive are not ideal suitor sport tesla. stuart: wall street journal reports that apple is going to expand its wearables business. you have a comment on that? what exactly are wearables that they will expand into? >> wearable business they defined as apple watch and airport. total that's about 5% of their total revenue and it's growing quickly. 50% over the past few quarters in the overall ipo business has been going because of the higher asp's at around 15%. this is a high-growth small part

of the business but something they will announce a couple new products october 12th, new apple watch, new air pods but it really is a groundwork for a much bigger initiative around wearables. ultimately the year 2020, best guess, they come out with some form of glasses. they made an acquisition related to this last week. third acquisition around some form of wearable and glasses. the segment of wearables will be important to the proliferation of apple devices in our lives. it could be everything from bringing the world more close to us to health care and lots of different applications for it. apple will be right there. [laughter] stuart: can't wait to get them glasses. thank you, jean, you again soon. >> thank you stuart. stuart: big political story of the day is the anonymous op-ed in the new york times "-right-double-quote, a senior administration official. deadline, i'm part of the resistance inside the trunk and ministration. here's what the president said about that. rotate.

>> if i were not here i would believe the new york times would not exist. [laughter] [applause] someday when i am not president which will be in about hopefully six and half years from now. the new york times and cnn and all these phony media outlets will be out of business. they will be out of business because there will be nothing to write and they will be nothing of interest. stuart: let's bring in charles, washington times opinion editor. right from the get-go, i'm appalled at this. the idea that someone should be borrowing away inside the administration thwarting the policies of the imagination. that is to meet out of bounds and outrageous. what do you make of the new york times publishing this? >> well, i can certainly - there was a time when accusing the new york times of not caring about the truth and wanting to do everything you can to smear

president would be a high charge leveled against a legendary news outlet like the new york times these days it's not even - everyday we see evidence of that so not surprised that they didn't but i am or share astonishment at what the writer wrote in the op-ed. first of all, anytime someone in washington starts accusing someone of being immoral which is the root problem of donald trump grab your wallet and run because no one in washington knows anything about morality. the morality that he accused president trump of lacking basically was that he's not a good republican and doesn't cue to the regular about the line of thinking. obviously, that's why he got elected. to me the most immoral thing anybody can do in washington is to undermine someone who's been duly elected.

president trump, whether you like him or not, has been duly elected and the writer of this op-ed is often elected dogcatcher. the fact that he would sit here and openly admit that he's trying to undermine a duly elected president is the most disgusting, dishonest and immoral thing i can think of. stuart: i have to break away but before i do, charles, i expect that we will find out the identity of this anonymous writer within 24 hours as washington leaks like a sieve. what do you? >> the first thing i said is i read this, we will find out who this is. stuart: yeah, we are. i want to know. that person should resign immediately in disgrace. >> and be fired if he does. stuart: absolutely. by the way, i have a segway because we've had fireworks at the cavanaugh hearing. role tape. >> understand that kind of civil disobedience and has

conferences. i am right now before your process is finished and going to release the e-mail about racial profiling. i understand that that penalty comes with potential ousting from the senate. if senator cornyn believes that violated senate rules i openly invite and accept the course quizzes of my team policing that you not right now. releasing it to expose that number one, the e-mails are being withheld from the public, have nothing to do with national security. stuart: okay. that was part of what i believe is still going on in that committee. edward lawrence has been following this for us on capitol hill and can you give me conte context, edward, about what we just saw? >> what we're seeing is senator cory booker talking about anymore. last night late into last night cory booker started cross-examining brett kavanaugh, the judge wants to be the

nominee for spring court, about an e-mail that he wrote while in the bush white house apparently according to senator booker that e-mail says that cavanaugh said it would be okay to social profile for police in certain circumstances. that e-mail has been committee classified and he's not allowed to reset e-mail but as you heard the setting or threatening or saying he will release that e-mail at some point today where again would violate the rules of ethics in the senate and possibly get him ousted. going back and forth is the debate whether senator booker should or should not least e-mail. again, senator booker said it's important enough for the public to note that those are the writings from when cavanaugh was in the bush white house. stuart: thank you. keep on top of it for us. now this, 20 states suing to and obamacare. they're arguing that when

congress got rid of the part of the law to require people to buy health insurance the whole law became unconstitutional. texas attorney general is leading the charge. i want to know if he wins, is obamacare totally dead. good question. then we have president trump meeting with lawmakers yesterday talking budget, the agenda but what it will get derailed because of fractions like the new york times anonymous op-ed? senator john soon coming up to comment on that. the nfl season starts tonight, nike ad campaign starring colin cap next will air during the game. jason whitlock says it will backfire against nike. he is with us later this hour. you are watching the second hour of "varney & co.".

stuart: they're struggling to hold on to the small game but struggling we are. are up 25 points at exactly 26000. check out cbs. there are reports that the company is in talks with less about an exit plan and the stock was down on the news and now it's up a fraction, 5 cents. twenty states suing to kill obamacare once and for all. one of the states spearheading that effort is texas state attorney general can access a friend of the program. he joins us now. not quite sure what you are suing over. explain it in layman's terms, can you? >> yes, they upheld obamacare less time based on this idea that there was a penalty that was somehow attacked and if you remember justice roberts that individual mandate to myself does not have the authority to

order you to buy health insurance by car or house because there was a penalty associated with it it was considered a tax and under the tax authority of congress they upheld the upheld obamacare statue. when congress moved the penalty with the new tax reform act it took out the text part of it and we are arguing the whole basis for obamacare standing is in constitutional is gone and therefore the whole law is unconstitutional. stuart: if you and it really is the absolute end of obamacare. >> we believe it is because it fundamentally .-dot mandate is gone what is left of obamacare? is gutted and has no any purpose. stuart: but it will drag out in the court for a long time that you don't expect a quick bird, do you? >> we are hopeful. we ask for a pulmonary injunction which we wanted to be stop now until we get to the merits of the case. if that happens obamacare would be stop now all we continue to litigate the case. there's a chance there be a stay on that and we don't know but

ultimately it's will end up back in the us up in court. stuart: attorney general sessions will meet with several state attorney general later this month and he will talk about and ask them about social media companies whether they are intentionally suppressing free speech. i understand be a part of the meeting do you agree that the social networks are indeed suppressing conservative speech? >> we been concerned about this for several months. we been looking at my office we been looking at this. i'm pleased us attorney general, jeff sessions, is willing to take a look at this. we have examples interstate and a church in collin county that had an easter service at and facebook ended up blocking the ad. we stepped in to mitigate that these are the types of issues we want to understand and draw our conclusions from looking at it. stuart: do you think some form of regulation is possible that ends this practice of censoring

out conservative speech? at such a regulator possible? >> i think it is. we need to make sure the stuff is happening but if it is a reality that they are directing certain types of political views it shouldn't be aired on their platform we have a real problem. that will affect issues and how people think about issues and affects elections. what we want is a fair process and they won't be fooled into thinking it's a fair platform but it might not be. stuart: wouldn't that be nice? thank you, as always for joining us. >> thank you. have a great day. stuart: i promise i will. cynthia nixon running against governor cuomo in new york but she wants universal healthcare. there's a problem, however, she is no idea how to pay for it. more varney after this. making my dreams a reality

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stuart: well, well, well, cynthia nixon is running for the governorship of new york and likes big time universal healthcare. actually, what is this about paying for? >> oh, you have to pay for it? she told the new york daily news i don't have a plan for a single payer but i wanted. she says i quote, pass it and then we'll figure out how to fund it. that reminded me of nancy pelosi back in 2010 but she talked about obamacare. she said we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it. similar. listen, she's wanted - this is been a mainstay of democratic politics in new york for a long

time but single-payer, government pays for it. sounds attractive but the bottom line is texas in new york that got 156% over the next four years just to cover it. how do we pay for? you and i pay for it. voters are to know about that before they vote for it. stuart: there is more on this - its primary day-to-day in the. my question is could another progressive candidate beat in astonishment incumbent democrats? >> three term senator. right. tom carver and it will be a tight race where democrats and i can - one candidate they are i now you see her on your screen, committee activist carrie evelyn harris challenging mr. carver and like ortez and presley in massachusetts she's a minority woman taking on a trenched white

male incumbent and outspent harper spent 52 times already. stuart: and while the progressive she's free college free college medical care for free education. stuart: impeach the president. how she does tonight is important. if she has a serious challenge is a big deal. in the next hour judge napolitano, he is a libertarian. i want to know what he thinks of cynthia nixon plan or lack thereof. [laughter] facebook and twitter stock have taken a hit when dorsey were being questioned on the hill. you're still down and i want to know is regulation coming. looks like the market thinks it is. john soon one of the first senators to go after facebook is on the show. i will ask him.

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♪ stuart: i want to hold your hand about 1964, something like that as i recall? ashley: very early. stuart: i was a young lad in those days, dancing up a storm. ashley: long hair and -- stuart: i developed long hair later. that is why i'm bald now. [laughter] 40 point gain for the dow, 26,015. where is the big techs? they have been losing some ground recently. losing some more ground today. look at that. facebook at 163. amazon, well below $2,000 a share. much apple back to 224. alphabet down to $21. microsoft, oh, boy, 108. how will i survive retirement on

that? ashley: it will be tough. stuart: look who is back. we're talking market, that man right there. brian benburg, professor at the kings college. he took the entire summer off, didn't you? >> i was doing some work, stuart. i wasn't sitting around fishing all day. stuart: i say america's stock market is the only game in town because all over the world markets are down. >> part of the reason is because the president is really pushing that. he is saying to the world, line up. you line up behind american capitalism, or you cast your lot with china and violations of the rule of law, violations of property rights. that is what he is saying. you're seeing what is happening in world markets. they're having to make a decision, where are we going to line up? stuart: we have to be clear, some foreign markets, in particular, china, turkey, indonesia, india, major markets, brazil, argue a you name it, they are tanking big time. now, i put it to you.

you got trouble like that over there, sooner or later it washes back over here. >> i think it focuses investors. investors say, where do we want to put our money? they will not want to put their money in turkey. they will not want to put their money in china. you see that already. capitol is flowing out. i don't see contagion, i see it as realignment. finally people are saying we have two systems cannot could exist. chinese communism or american capitalism, you line up. we're offering low taxes, low regulations, that is not what china is offering you. stuart: let me lay this out to you. we have very, very strong u.s. dollar and very weak foreign currencies like turkey, et cetera, et cetera. there come as point, governments and companies have to repay debt with dollars cannot repay. >> yep. stuart: that puts the banks in real trouble, especially european banks. >> no question about it. stuart: it washes back here. >> it wash back here, but it is

nice that the united states is doing things to insulate ourselves. stuart: like what? >> like cutting taxes. cutting regulation. furring growth and hiring. there could be some fall in the short term, stuart, but we're talking about a long-term gain. it is not about the short term. it is about the long-term prosperity, attractiveness of u.s. turkey created its own problems. argentina created its own problems. china created its own problems. we can't do anything about that all we can do about ourselves, make sure we create a attractive environment. stuart: is there any doubt on your mind we continue on the growth track in america, and a 4% rate? we had that in the second quarter. i don't know about the third quarter or fourth quarter, but are we on track? >> the best thing the president could do right now, is get something done with canada, because that puts china on its heels. it also tells the rest of the world, we are willing to make trade agreements that make sense. i think the united states and canada are close here. the president closes that deal. the stock market loves it. businesses love it.

you see continued growth, stronger than anybody expected. stuart: we would love to hear the foreign minister of canada approach the microphones again today, and say, something positive. we're waiting on that. >> everybody is. stuart: welcome back. good to see you, brian. we'll see you again soon. >> thank you. stuart: twitter's ceo, you saw this, jack dorsey, facebook's sheryl sandberg, they testified before congress on privacy and censorship of conservative opinion. senator john thune, republican, south dakota, joins us now. senator, i'm looking at three social network stocks, google, facebook, twitter. they're all down again today. the market seems to feel, maybe, some regulation is coming. is it coming? >> well, i don't know that i have the answer for that just yet, stuart. one thing i do know, is that the tech companies have created a lot of controversy. there is a lot of concern among people in this country about their digital privacy and so

there is, there are renewed emphasis in looking at these issues. the hearing yesterday was one part of that. we'll have a hearing in front of the committee i share, the senate commerce committee which i chair, all tech companies and service providers will come to testify and we'll examine whether or not there is something that congress should be doing with respect to this issue. of course even facebook is now and other tech companies are acknowledging that congress may need to act. stuart: oh, that is what i'm getting at. congress believes it is in a mood to act on these social networks, you pit it like that? >> i think that's right. i think the look, the tech companies want to be political activists and impartial, neutral moderators, you can't be both. i think they're starting to be asked hard questions. on this issue of privacy, there are increasing number of americans who are realizing data collected, their user information is being collected, how it is being used in ways

they weren't aware of. think that is generating a whole lot of interest in this issue around the country. stuart: facebook, had cancellations of the app in large numbers i believe. >> it is affecting their stock, you said it. stuart: 163 right now. that is way down. president trump met with republicans talking the budget yesterday, i believe, senator you were there. did you get any sense that the president's agenda, his policies going forward would be stalled in any way by these political distractions like "the new york times" anonymous op ed? >> you know, i think the president is, although there are a lot of distractions, no question about that, very focused on the agenda. the meeting yesterday was to determine as we look at not only lead up to the fiscal year-end which is september 30th but also the calendar year-end, what are those things we need to accomplish? he is very focused on things that he cares deeply about, and that the american people care deeply about. for example, building the wall, making much bigger investment in

border security. so that was one of the subjects we addressed. but, if you look at the record of accomplishment that this president and this congress have had over the past 20 months or so, it is pretty remarkable, particularly given all the distractions. the economy is in a great place. you have, gdp and in third quarter, at 4.2%. record unemployment. wages are up. the economic record is really strong for this administration and also, we're going to have a great new supreme court justice coming out of the senate in the next few weeks. a hot good things happening in the country right now. too often the media ignores that, and focuses whatever the latest distraction is. stuart: we'll not ignore that, senator. you just suggested -- >> i'm not suggesting you, stuart,. stuart: i thank you very much. i'm very sensitive. >> i don't blame you. stuart: is there any doubt in your mind brett kavanaugh becomes a supreme court justice. >> as you have seen there is a tremendous amount of political theater and political grand

standing going on in these confirm make hearings, particular letter among the democrats running for president in 2020. it almost has gotten comical over there. but the fact of the matter is, we'll keep our heads down, stay in our lane. do the work and get this across the finish line. i think that judge kavanaugh has acquitted himself remarkably well and responded to all the crazy accusations coming from the democrats in a way that will win him favor with the american people. i think every republican in the end will be for him. i suspect a number of democrats as well. stuart: crazy accusations. how about that. >> well they are that. turn it on, man. like watching "the view" or something these days. stuart: it is not that bad, senator. >> okay, not that bad. stuart: mr. senator, thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate it, sir. >> thanks, stuart, you bet. stuart: i got two, what i might call delivery stories for you. we have walmart, they're launching grocery delivery in 100 markets.

susan, trying to use freelance drivers. susan: i would call it the uber of delivery. they're partnering up with spark delivery. so that is a crowd source delivery company where drivers use their own cars to deliver groceries in the future. so 100 metro areas. something call mart is being pushed into this because for a while they were resisting grocery delivery. they are saying curbside delivery, come to the stores, we'll deliver it to the car at the curb. because amazon, kroger are doing this, they feel they need to get into it. walmart has already been delivering, over $30, your order is over $30, they had next day delivery. it add as different element especially with grocery. look to get into 40% of households by end of next year. stuart: 40% will get fairy quick grocery delivery, next year. stuart: how about amazon, they are expanding the fleet of delivery vans. ashley: order of 20,000 mercedes-benz what they call

sprinter vans. they will not other than the vans. they will pass them on to fleet management company, who will lose them out to small businesses delivering amazon good. it is about cutting down costs. ultimately not relying on the united states postal service or fedex or the big guys. they will try toned up being among the players when it comes to delivery. they have a long way to go. incrementally they're doing this this is another example, putting vans out on the road. the final mile to the customer, very important. stuart: big deal. the stock is below 2,000 bucks a share. headline. susan: bargain, i don't know. a senor official within the administration anonymously slamming the president, saying he is, he or she, actively working against trump from the inside. sounds to me like that is the deep state in action. we're on it. nike, going to air their colin kaepernick ad tonight. i think that is just plain bad for the sport of football. i think jason whitlock is going

to agree with me. well, he is our guest and he is next. ♪ (vo hand) can we talk?

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♪ ashley: in the last hour rnc chair ronna romney mcdaniel spoke about "the new york times" op ed allegedly written by a senior member of the trump administration. take a listen. >> put the op-ed out to let the senior official to hide behind the news. what a brave person this is. come out show your face, if you believe these things, all the anonymous sources, if you really think it is chaos, so terrible, show your face, put your name behind it. show us who you are. the reality the good results that come out of this administration cannot come out of chaos. it is a well-run organization. i was with general kelly. these are policies put forward. fighting opioid crisis, defighting isis, helping the military, all the things that are happening are not a result of chaos. ♪ s

like ever. they reveal in extremes and defy limitations. these pursuits may seem unnecessary. but the scariest thing i can imagine is a world where this, doesn't exist.

stuart: you might almost say, here we go again. the justice department is reportedly probing wells fargo wholesale banking unit. they want to know if employees committed fraud. now of course this follows revelations that employees improperly altered customer information, a series of scandals at wells fargo. now there is another investigation. nike's ad featuring colin kaepernick airs tonight during the first nfl game of the season. jason whitlock with us, host of,

"speak for yourself," on fox sports 1. jason, great to have you back again. i think that you and i agree on this, we certainly have in the past, i believe you're saying nike is using kaepernick. explain it. >> well, i think nike is using kaepernick to cover up for issues within the nike corporation. nike's been sued for discrimination from women, from african-americans. they just fired close to a dozen top executives because of some of this. i think nike has long been criticized for its labor policies in asia where they basically create and make the shoes with slave labor over in asia, and they have been criticized for this forever, but, oh, we're behind colin kaepernick and we're, you know, we're social justice warriors just like colin kaepernick and we're for equality when the organization hasn't been for that. so i see colin kaepernick and a lot of these other athletes,

lebron james as well, being used by nike to cover up for the fact that their own props, they're not living up to these ideas that they seem to be supporting. stuart: i think everybody loses from this. the game itself loses. i think the players lose, and i think the nfl loses and football fans all lose. i'm trying to find -- >> let me add one more loser, let me add one more loser to, that varney. allegedly colin kaepernick, allegedly is all about raising awareness for police brutality. these ads don't do that. and what he is talking about, it is all about raising awareness of colin kaepernick. that is what this whole thing has been about from day one, and that is what it's about now that we know that the alleged activist is still making all these great sacrifices has actually been getting paid for, by nike. is being paid more money by nike to promote colin kaepernick and sale of shoes.

there is nothing about police brutality in any of this. everybody loses here except colin kaepernick. stuart: do you think that fans will overlook this, say, okay, we've seen it, we know about it, we'll get past the anthem, we'll watch the game again? is there any chance that will happen? >> i certainly hope so, varney. that is certainly my appeal to sports fans and to football fans, let's don't lose sight of the game, a game that just quite frankly, varney, has been very good to african-americans. i have said this repeatedly, i will say it again, no industry in american history has produced more black millionaires than the game of the nfl. that includes the nba. that includes hip-hop and rap and all these other things. so, all this distraction and all this animus being directed at the nfl is actually hurting black men and black people in terms of, where have we been acquiring our wealth?

where have we seen black men move from poverty to wealth, to the middle class? it has been in the game of football, through football and we're doing a disservice to this game that has been very good to us. stuart: why is it that in america today, if you want to receive praise from society, you must have struggled? the only people who are highlighted in america today are people who have struggled. they come from a difficult background, they have overcome this, overcome that, you must struggle to achieve fame in the public eye. why is that? >> i'm not sure if that is the case. i get what you're saying. we seem to celebrate that more. i don't have a real problem with that because i believe, if you go look at our founders and the people that started this country, it came from struggle. it came from people leaving europe and leaving england to start their own country. and we are a country of underdogs at our foundation. so i get that. we love the underdog story in

american sports and in american life. we celebrate it. i have no problem with that. i have no problem with when you make it. looking out for people that haven't made it but there's a proper way to do it that is effective. i'm not talking about being inphotograph sensitive to people. i'm talking about being effective. again, if you have a problem with the police department, go to their place of employment and raise hell there. not on your own job and not within an industries that has been very good to you. protect that industry that is providing you that wealth and use that wealth to support the causes and things that you're passionate about. i just think these guys have been very ineffective, because taken a wrong approach. and then the denigration of america is what really bothers me because -- stuart: me too. me too. >> there is another country doing better than america, show

me, i will move there. >> whitlock, you make far too much sense. quit the sports gig and come over to analyze money for us. >> i keep asking rupert murdoch to put us together. varney and whitlock would be the greatest show since "the cosby show," anything. stuart: that would be mr. murdoch, okay. whitlock, you're out of here. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. stuart: okay. new report finds that wealthy environmental activists are bankrolling liberal attorneys general candidates, getting them to use their power to advance a climate change agenda without going to a vote. the man who wrote the report is next. mgx minerals' disruptive technology can extract lithium -

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stuart: i want to bring in chris horner from the competitive enterprise institute. chris has a new report out saying that wealthy environmentalists are putting money into the campaigns of environmentalists who are running for attorneys general. chris, thanks for joining us. i want you to be our reporter. what have you found? >> in fact what we've got is donors are providing privately-funded staff, privately-funded prosecutors pursuing agenda, failed through the proper democratic process, they will use law enforcement to

pursue the donors pet causes expressly to pursue causes apparently in violation of numerous state laws. stuart: they can't win on the vote, can't win politically. so they go around the corner and go through the legal process with attorneys yen? >> they're privately funding staff on express condition, they pursue quote, to advance progressive climate change positions and, the other inducements are private network of lawyers, a pr firm, and other support if you will only give office space to privately-funded prosecutors, go after pretty obviously identifiedable group of people. it is unconstitutional and seems to violate a bunch of state laws. stuart: an constitutional. explain that. y is it unconstitutional. >> first amendment issues, seeking to stifle speech and obtaining settlements. you have due process concerns. these people are being paid by the donor. paid by the donor's non-profit. there interest may be to pursue to satisfy that don't are no. you have separation of powers

concerns. ags are required to operate what the legislature give them. they're giving privately funded prosecutors to expressly fund donor fet cause cast. andrew grossman, scholar on this issue, at indicator and parker with baker hostettler, no conceivable way to survive challenge. they're hoping for incur just media and hoping to check the ags, what they do. stuart: chris, i'm out of time. glad you act as reporter. thank for joining us this morning. there will be more "varney" after this. i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release its own insulin, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen. and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise.

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stuart: imagine, you run a business. you have appointed managers. you tell them what you want done. your business thrives, however, some managers don't like the way you're running things and they secretly undermine your decisions. they sabotage your business, and claim they are your moral superiors. this is precisely what is

happening right now to president trump. a quote, senior official, within the administration, writes anonymously in the "new york times," that the president is impetuous, petty, and ineffective and makes half-baked, ill informed and occasionally reckless decisions. that is their words. his words. this official, along with others worked to stall and reverse the president's policies. it is called sabotage from within and it is going on now. i can't remember anything like this. the deep state conspirators are actively, actively frustrating the policies of a duly-elected president. they think they know better than us. they must save us from ourselves. the official writes, we are trying to do what's write, even when donald trump won't. the arrogance, the arrogance is stunning. this is a stab at the heart of our democracy. the will of the people is being deliberately thwarted by a secret cabal, yet again, the

media is complicit. this cannot stand. america voted for donald trump. we knew what we were getting and which voted for it. that is democracy. the deep state is the exact opposite, defying the will of the people, reversing the will of the people. that is outrageous. but that is the state of play in our politics. the left, the media and the deep state hate our president. they will do anything to get him out, and that includes undermining our constitutional republic, a disgrace. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: we have turned south, just in the last after hour. we're now down 44 points, 25,931. moments ago we got the latest numbers on how much oil we've got in storage. ashley: we do.

a much bigger drawdown than we expected. we are down 4.3 million barrels. we were expecting a drawdown about a million 300,000. so that should put more pressure on oil to rise because we don't have as much in storage. stuart: not so far. ashley: not so far. stuart: if we're using a lot more of it demand is strong. ashley: speaks to the economy. stuart: i have guess so. ashley: speaks to the demand. stuart: the price is still hovering around $68. ashley: they thought tropes gordon would do more damage to the oil and gas industry and it didn't. stuart: i keep paying $2.08 for a gallon of gas for a long time. i'm perfectly happy with 2.80. back to the stock market, you have to say, we turned south. now we're down 55 points, but you really have to say the market overall is really unaffected by the extraordinarily political turmoil breaking all around.

dennis gartman with us. he is the "the gartman letter" editor and publisher. so is john lonski, moody's managing director. we have the firestorm about the anonymous op-ed in the new york times but the market seems to ignore it completely. is there a divorce between politics and money at this point? >> i think what there is, a divorce between money moving to the united states and money moving out of other markets. i heard as i was driving over here you were talking about how weak the markets in indonesia, the markets in the emerging markets are. i'm more concerned about how weak are the markets in europe. germany's market down several percent for the year. france is down several percent for the year. we have weakness over in the japanese stock mark competent. money seems to be moving to the united states. the operative word being seems. i think one should err upon the side of being long us, shorts of them. i'm concerned about how things are acting. this is not healthy activity.

a move higher on the opening, now down 71 points. i have seen better days than this. stuart: hold on a second, same question to john lonski. we do seem to see a divorce between political turmoil in d.c. and the market action on wall street. >> i think the market is just thinking if this leads to a stalemate come november in the midterm elections, so what? the market benefit from stalemates in the past in washington. it is not particularly concerned. it is wondering whether or not the democrats would push hard enough for impeachment hearings, that could backfire on them if the economy begins to lose traction. stuart: if democrats win in the house in november, does the market go south? >> i would say, maybe a immediately but i think over time it will start, it will climb higher. it will go ahead and, listen to what's happening to corporate earnings. they continue to grow. we still have a pretty good outlook on the corporate credit front. more upgrade than downgrades. we have the high yield default

rate dropping into december of next year. i could tell you, that something like 90% of the time, we have had year to year decline by the junk bond default rate. this is since the early '90s. we also had year to year increase of market value of common stock. if corporate credit remains in pretty good shape, that will lend valuable support to equities. stuart: here we are worried about politics. john, hold on a second. i want to look at big tech because i think we're pretty much down, sharply so, across the board. look at that. facebook down to 162. amazon down 35 bucks. apple is down. microsoft is down. dennis, techs seem to be driving the market lower. i know you don't invest in them. >> yeah. stuart: what is the problem here? have they gone up too far too fast and this is the big correction? >> i don't think they have gone up too far too fast, i think they have gone up simply too far. the fact washington focuses what is going on in high-tech. very concerned when we watched,

i think a poor performance by the chairman of, what was his name, i just went blank, yesterday. past two days. stuart: you mean jack dorsey? >> there you go, mr. dorsey. i thought his performance was relatively ill-advised. the market says look, they haven't gone up too far too fast but they have gone up too far. there is fear of governmental action on part of high-tech companies to inhibit their growth into the future. should we be surprised? no. again i think it is wise to be involved. if you're going to be long in the market buy things, if you drop them on your foot will hurt. ball bearings, steel, those sorts of things. stuart: we have heard that before. we paid attention to, tell you that. john, there is some feeling that the american market is the only game in town. what do you say? >> that's true. thus far in 2018, outside of the united states markets are down about 7% on average.

china is down by nearly 19%. the u.s. is higher by 8%. that is very much the case. it is troubling that the emerging markets are doing so poorly because not too long ago we have been depending heavily, we had depended heavily on emerging markets to supply, to be the primary driver of global growth. that's not longer the case. the primary driver of global growth right now is here in the united states. stuart: so, i mean, some point that could become a problem because these foreign markets are falling out of bed because their companies and banks cannot -- let me go to dennis on this one. i think you mentioned in your first response, dennis, that america is the only game in town because money is flowing into us. how long does that keep going for and is it good enough, is it strong enough, the america is the only game in town to get us to 30,000 on the dow? >> no, it is not good enough, it is not strong enough to get us to 30,000 on the dow.

perhaps, 10, 15 years from now we may get to 30,000 on the dow but we'll not do it now. the gravity implied here, weakness in germ i in the weakness in france, the weakness in italy, the weakness in spain, the weakness in the emerging markets shall eventually weigh heavily upon the shoulders of our market. for right now, if you're going to be a buyer, buy us. if you're going to be a seller, sell them. stuart: okay. would you echo that, john? >> yes i would. we're seeing benefits of deregulation in the united states, as well as tax cuts. that hasn't happened elsewhere in the world. perhaps it needs to happen if the rest of the world is going to get out of its current funk. stuart: john lonski, dennis gartman. thanks for joining us this thursday morning. always appreciate it. by the way the dow is at the low of the day. we're off 93 points at 25,800. so we dropped down there. big techs, by the way, are leading this downturn. take a look at ford motor company's stock. it will recall close to two

million f-150 pickup trucks. fire and smoke concerns in seatbelts? that is the most popular vehicle in america today. not much reaction in the stock, but it is down at $9 a share for ford. now this one. california lawmakers say, all the state's electricity must be coming from renewables, only renewables, by 2045. i'm asking, how are they going to do that? how much would that cost? can they do it? we'll have an answer for you, i promise. workers at whole foods want to unionize. is this a start to get all amazon workers in a union? we'll ask that question too. coming up we'll talk to ted malik, served as a former trump advisor in the campaign of 2016. i want his take on that "new york times" op ed. the third hour of "varney & company," we're just getting rolling. ♪

stuart: i want to get back to that anonymous "new york times" op ed. there's the headline on your screen. i am part of the resistance inside the trump administration. it goes on to say, i'm actively working against the president's policies. i'm not going to tell you who i am. ted malik is with us. you worked with the trump campaign. this seems to me like hard evidence that the deep state exists, and it is out to get our president. how far, am i wrong on this? >> no, you're absolutely right. i wrote an entire book about it. when i read this piece the other day i thought, wow, what a coward. if there is even such a person, maybe it's a composite, and we know that it's a he now, at least according to leaked texts, why doesn't the person step forward and actually have the

courage to say, here i am, here is what i think? instead of subverting the will of the american people. this is atrocious act. stuart: what do you make of "the new york times" for publishing this? >> well, i have a very low view of "the new york times." i wrote an op ed piece coincidentally earlier in the week, having not read "the new york times" for about 30 years, i had the chance to read it for three days when i was in asia. i was astonished. it has not become a newspaper, but a propaganda organ for the anti-trump, anti-america, anti-capitalist and postmodern radical. i mean it is hardly a newspaper that should be read. and while it has 2000 circulation, i see it is certainly failing economically. stuart: who is winning this battle? i mean if, is the president versus the media and the left? what's the state of play? who is winning? >> well it is a battle that we, that we've seen now for the

better part of two years. and it seems to me that, trump has the up every hand. i mean there are no end to articles like this one, anonymous or not. and commentaries on, you know, other cable news stations. and, anti-trump venom that flows rather frequently. and, spate of books including a new one by the old watergate guy. stuart: woodward. >> but we've heard all this before. trump is still performing and he's going to be president again when he is reelected in 2020. stuart: are you sure of that? >> well, have to keep america great, once it has been established. i think that he is on that path. stuart: let's suppose, i don't know what will happen, let's suppose that the democrats regain control of the house. does that stall and stymie any further developments on the trump growth agenda, for example? >> oh, it could potentially have a very harming effect on all of

the policy fronts because it will be harder to get things actually done. all those, the speaker of the house and chairmanships of the committees will revert back to the democrats. we would have speaker pelosi again, which is something we want to avoid. i think there is absolutely no chance that the democrats could take control of the senate. looks to me like republicans could even pick up three or four seats. which means this whole impeachment fiasco has no legs. just has no possibility. i know depresses people on the left but it isn't? the cards. stuart: treasury secretary steve mnuchin, defense secretary mattis, vice president pence, denied they're authors. mike pompeo says, it was not us. we didn't write the article. big breaking news day. i have something in mind right now. ted, thanks very much. this is breaking news on

cbs. they're talking about replacing les moonves. charlie gasparino has more for us on this. is is exit imminent, charlie? >> i'm not in the boardroom, stuart but i will, i would say yes and here's why i'm going to say yes. sources have confirmed to the fox business network that the cbs board has consulted, this is not today, this is in recent days, an executive search firm for a long-term replacement for moonves. that means that it is unlikely that his number two, joe ianniello will be the long-term replacement, despite the fact he is likely the interim replacement. looks like this guy is on the way out, like imminently. stuart: we don't know what his severance package is doing. >> let me get into that a little bit. the negotiations between the cbs board, shari redstone, the controlling shareholder from national amusement involves moonves' departure and possible restrictions what redstone can do with cbs once he is out.

we're getting that from sources close to the company. we should point out moonves is negotiating the size of his exit package which isn't finalized. i know cnbc put out a number of $100 million in stock. that may be the case but i hear this is not finalized and that the package could, could exceed $100 million. we should point out that we've been told by people inside the company, be careful with this story in terms of citing numbers and exactly what's going to go down because the negotiations between the board and redstone are happening as we speak. they are, they have been described as fluid by company insiders but i think some of the stuff we know, i think you can, this is surmise but a surmise based on food information that he is likely out -- stuart: he is likely out. i think we lost you, charlie. good reporting. we appreciate it. charlie gasparino, got it. cbs. dow down 86. more "varney" after this.

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simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. stuart: maybe this is why the stock is down so much. a pew research center study says 25% of american facebook users have deleted their accounts because of these data scandals. susan, that is a very big number. susan: that would be a very big

number but facebook hasn't reported that big of a drop in their recent user numbers. let's get back to the pew research center survey they did. one in four americans have deleted the app they say from their phones. maybe still have it on the pcs. maybe it is mobile thing. 42% stopped using the app for several weeks or longer. so they took a break from it. these interventions more likely taken by younger people. talking about 18 to 29-year-olds. 64% changed privacy settings in the past year. compared to those 65 and older, probably doesn't even use facebook to be honest. but 33% of the older individuals, they haven't really done much. stuart: i have to presume that is part of the reason that the stock is down so much, down to 162. although i agree, i understand, that facebook's numbers do not jive with the pew research numbers. susan: in recent earnings, they say 2.3 billion, 2.3 billion

still visit each and every month. ashley: that is the truth. susan: stuart and i were talking about this. how accurate are surveys? how accurate were they in 2016? how accurate were they in "brexit"? do people actually tell the truth. stuart: i don't have a landline. so if a survey guy wants to reach me, he can't reach me through the landline. if you call me on cell phone, i don't answer because i don't know your number. i'm tired of spam. ashley: i'm there with you. stuart: any way you slice it, you will not reach me. >> they lost a million in europe. they're not growing in canada or the u.s. but 25% i would be skeptical. stuart: but the stock is down four bucks. 162, how about that? the trump economy is firing on all cylinders. people are going back to work. wages are up. economy is growing. but that may not be enough to help the gop hold the house in november. we'll ask the question, how much does trump's persona put people

off? interesting question. looks like cynthia nixon taking a page out of nancy pelosi's book. she says, we should pass single-payer health care and then figure out how to pay for later. nancy pelosi said you got to pass it to find out what's in it. cynthia says, you have to pass it to find out how to pay for it. the judge on that next. ♪ copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better, i go with anoro. ♪ go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way, with anoro." ♪ go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that work together to significantly improve lung function

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stuart: we are down 50 points on the dow industrials, coming back a bit. we were down 8190 a few moments ago. big tech names down all across the board. look at that. i'm looking at alphabet, google, down $27 and amazon is down $31. red arrows for all the big techs. look at cvs, as we reported. the board in the process of finding a replacement for their chief, les moonves. charlie gasparino says they are also talking about a very rich exit plan for him. stocks up, look at this. take a look at the headline from the "wall street journal." it reads as follows. this is the headline, among the trump doubters and the subheadline reads they like his

policies but a persona giving off non-stop static may keep them home. the man who wrote it is dan henninger. >> good to be with you. stuart: so you think that the president's persona, his style, his way of speaking, not so much his policies, but his style, will keep people away from voting for him, is that your point? >> that is my point. it is my point because i keep encountering people who cannot separate the president's persona, donald trump, this individual who is larger than life, from trump's policies. someone like me will typically say, they will say i have misgivings, trump is driving me crazy. i will say you have to look at the policies, look what is happening to the economy, look at all the wonderful full employment, black and hispanic unemployment at historic lows. you go through this thing about the economy and they say that

doesn't explain trump. why is he behaving like this. my fear is that yes, there's about 35% of the electorate that will be with trump forever. they will show up and vote for the people he has endorsed in the primaries but what about all these other people who voted for him in the general election, 2016, either because they voted against hillary or it was about the supreme court, and now they are having doubts. will they show up to vote for republicans in the midterms. stuart: what's your answer to the question? two months to go. >> two months to go. stuart: that's the way this man is and always will be. so? >> so i think it's going to be troublesome unless the republicans themselves can convince voters, a, you've got a strong economy, the republicans are responsible for it, and look at the democrats that you're going to get if you vote -- allow the democrats to win, and the kavanaugh hearing is a perfect display of the kind of democratic attitudes and

policies, they are going to be going every single week if they take back the house. stuart: okay. moving on to today's political firestorm, "new york times" anonymous op-ed from inside the administration, what do you make of the "new york times" publishing that? >> well, the "new york times" is -- i love the idea that they now put in their story on the front page, they describe this as part of the resistance from in the white house. look, the "new york times" is the resistance and they are feeding their readership. their readership loves an article like this. it's destructive, it's unhelpful, and you know, it's by an individual who under normal circumstances, if you are dissatisfied with the way a president is conducting himself, you resign from office. you don't put an article in the "new york times." stuart: so what do you make of the "new york times" being the resistance? is that out of bounds? >> much of the mainstream media since the start of the collusion

story 18 months ago, the russian collusion story, is completely invested into beating and taking down this presidency. there is no question about it. this piece on the op-ed page of the "new york times" is part of that. they are trying to say this is an illegitimate -- look, they believe that when trump got the nomination back in 2016, they felt someone unacceptable had become close to the presidency and felt the same way after he was elected. just like we can't allow this to happen and that is continuing to this day. stuart: journalistically i would have thought the "new york times" has an obligation to name this person. after all, they could be anybody. it could be nobody. it could be some low level employee you have never heard of, with no clout whatsoever. >> you know, this gets back to the russian collusion story again. all of those stories that came out starting 18 months ago were based on endless anonymous sources in quote, unquote,

intelligence community. there was a time when those of us who have been in this business for a long time could more or less guess who was providing this information, senior government officials who would be head of the nsa, might be henry kissinger. with those stories based almost entirely on anonymous sources, you had no idea where this stuff was coming from, and i think that rubicon has been crossed by papers like "new york times." they don't care about whether a source is anonymous or named or not. stuart: just a terrible thing. but that's just my personal opinion. >> that's the status quo now. stuart: dan, thank you very much indeed. good to see you again. by the way, the dow has come back a bit. we were down 70, 80 points, now down 38 and coming back. then we have cynthia nixon, new york governor andrew cuomo's challenger. she says we should pass single payer health care and then figure out how to pay for it. all right.

>> wait a minute. wait a minute. i was going to play that sound bite. stuart: we just lost the tape. channeling nancy pelosi. what do you make of this? >> this is absurd as mrs. pelosi's statement. the pelosi statement basically was hey, there's 2700 pages here in the affordable care act. you really expect us to read all of it before we vote on it? let's enact it because we like the cuts in it, we like what it stands for. cynthia nixon is basically saying the same thing. this would radically change the relationship of the government of the state of new york to everyone who lives here. it would also make all of our lives infinitely more expensive and more regulated by the government. stuart: i'm glad you got to infinitely more expensive. >> i'm trying to talk to you in terms of your own interest. stuart: there's something serious developed at the capitol hearings this morning. cory booker, has he found some kind of smoking gun? >> it depends how you look at

this. senator booker received through the mechanism of the committee a document authored by then mr. kavanaugh when he was in the bush white house questioning whether or not roe versus wade was settled law. the actual phrase was not all scholars believe it is settled law and in fact, three members of the court are prepared to reverse it. the statement was made in 2003 in this e-mail. senator cornyn says the e-mail was marked confidential and you violated senate rules for revealing it, and you could be expelled from the senate for revealing a confidential document. that is a true statement of the senate rules. senator booker says who marked it confidential? they can't find who marked it confidential. just calling something confidential doesn't make it confidential. is it a smoking gun? it is if you believe that judge kavanaugh has misled the committee by saying today, roe

versus wade is settled when he doesn't believe it is. it is not a smoking gun if you believe judge kavanaugh was characterizing what legal scholars were saying in 2001. my opinion, he still will be confirmed. there will be a lot more fireworks, especially when senator booker gets to examine him, but the committee will affirmatively endorse him and the senate will confirm him. stuart: but if it is a question about the status on roe v wade and that's called into question by this memo that was allegedly written by the judge here, that could persuade susan collins, for example, and lisa murkowski, that could put them on the other side of this. >> it could. that would then force mitch mcconnell to go shopping for three democratic votes. he knows where to go for those. those are democrats in the senate running for re-election in states that the president carried handily in 2016. we all know who they are. i suggest to you that judge kavanaugh, who doesn't need any

advice from me, will say i was not characterizing my own opinion, i was characterizing the state of legal scholarship in 2003. in 2018, the state of legal scholarship is that roe versus wade is settled law. stuart: thank you very much, judge. glad to know exactly what's going on and you told me. thank you very much. whole foods, their workers, where are you? there. reportedly want to unionize. there's the camera. okay. connell mcshane is standing by. connell, could this be a move to unionize all amazon workers, because whole foods is part of amazon these days. reporter: well, it is. i would caution not to get ahead of ourselves on this, stuart. it could be a big deal for parent company amazon at some point. amazon has been able to, you know, hold off attempts to unionize in the past, its warehouse workers, for example.

what we have been told, workers have been upset since amazon took over with lower salaries, also things like stock options they had in the past for lower level workers aren't there now, so there's a movement and i spoke to an official at one of the local unions, retail, wholesale and department store union in new york about this, to try to get them to organize. there are supposed to be e-mails circulating about this today. i actually haven't seen it. we talked to a couple workers inside whole foods here in new york about it. they haven't seen it yet either. one of them told us they would be all for it and think other people would be, too. others said exactly the opposite. one said he loves working here, doesn't need a union. what union officials are saying is that they will see how the rank and file responds to that e-mail. if they are for it, they will move forward with the organizing but we are a long way from having all of amazon organized into a union. the companies really push back on that in the past and successfully. we will see how it plays out. amazon and whole foods have not yet commented to us. stuart: amazon stock is way down this morning.

interesting. connell, thanks very much, sir. see you again real soon. then we have california, mandating carbon-free electricity generation by 2045. no more fossil fuels, renewables only. how are they going to pay for this? how are they going to actually do it? electric rates in california are already much higher than what we pay in the rest of the country. we have the story for you. president trump sticking with his hard line on trade. talks with canada are back under way this afternoon. we could soon be imposing new tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. i want to know, does this mean the u.s. has the upper hand playing hardball? what you're looking at now is miami, just before noon.

nicole: i'm nicole petallides. taking a close look at cvs. we have breaking news here. heavy volume on cvs. the stock itself is jumping, if you were to take a look at an intraday chart, you would see significantly heavy volume. the stock is now up nearly 4% on news that cvs directors want the redstone family to amend the trust to undo the restrictions on cbs transactions including a possible sell on this.

back in august we spoke of a "wall street journal" article that says sumner redstone didn't want his heirs to have the ability to easily sell off ownership, controlling seats in the media company of viacom and cbs and put it in writing. it's an estate planning document. but watch cbs. it's been trading higher with breaking news. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia.

stuart: trade. well, negotiations with canada

still under way and president trump has threatened tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods coming here. china says they will roll out counter measures, too. it's a battle. joining us is curtis ellis, former trump campaign trade and jobs adviser. president trump holding to the hard line, no sign of any cave from our side. is that right? >> that is right. exactly right. long overdue. long overdue. china has been violating every agreement it signed on to when it joined the world trade organization. the world trade organization is incapable of enforcing its own rules. it's either inept or inert. and president trump is finally taking the lead, the same way we took the lead in world war ii. stuart: let me get back to china for a second. china is not going to blink publicly, because china loses face if they blink publicly. >> that's right. stuart: so it's a standoff, isn't it? that's a real problem. >> for the moment, yes.

but that's why president trump is constantly praising president xi. my good friend president xi. he correctly says china is doing what it should do and president xi is doing what he should do. look out for what's good for china. that's a way for him to save face going forward. stuart: you think an agreement with china is likely? >> it is possible. it is possible. stuart: that's different from likely. >> we have to see where the chinese want to go. they have a lot at stake because their policy of violating the wto agreement, subsidizing their industries, stealing intellectual property, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, that is their strategy for achieving world dominance, to becoming the global hegemon which is their goal. if they were to abandon that and adopt actual free market economics, well, that's a pretty big reversal. stuart: but they won't abandon that. how on earth could they abandon that? this is president xi for life.

he tied himself entirely to this idea of reversing china's decline and making them a power house to take over the world technically. he can't reverse from that. >> what they can do, they can raise the standard of living of the chinese people. they can industrialize without doing all of those things they have been doing. it is possible. and remember, you have public opinion in china. the chinese people, as they send all their students over here and become educated in american ways, i think they are actually going to want a little loosening up and more freedom, because now as they're rolling out the social credit system where everything they say, everything they do is being monitored and then added into an artificial intelligence program to determine if they can even get on an airplane, i don't think they are going to go for that. stuart: okay. tell me about the world trade organization, the wto. you think we should pull out and get rid of the whole organization? >> president trump has put that out, saying if they don't fix it, we are going to abandon it.

interestingly enough, bob dole said this in 1998 and in 1994, when we created the wto. he said there should be a three strikes and we're out, if they don't fix their adjudication system, their way of settling disputes, if they don't get that right, we should just get out of it. stuart: look, you are talking about a wholesale realignment of trade all over the world. this is a global realignment. you think we can pull this off because we are strong and because trump holds a hard line? >> yes, and because the world wants it. the global trump support -- the silent trump supporter is global now. the european union knows the wto doesn't work. everybody knows it's not working. china has abused the system. they just don't have the guts to come out and say it like president trump has. stuart: well, mr. ellis, you are saying some remarkable stuff this morning. thanks for joining us. >> always a pleasure. stuart: see you again soon. well, california, if i put it

like this, at it again. this time insisting that all electricity be generated by clean energy sources like wind and solar and they are going to do it by 2045. which is approximately 27 years away. we'll talk to a guy who says this is absolutely totally impossible. as we await his arrival we look at san diego. usually it's 72 and sunny. it's 8:50 in the morning there. time for the sun to come up later. making my dreams a reality

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stuart: well, well, well. lawmakers in california have passed a bill that will make all energy renewable and carbon-free by 2045. get on board, you got to do it. our next guest says it's impossible. robert bryce is the senior fellow and joining us now. okay. in what way is it impossible for california to get to use only solar and wind power by 2045? >> well, i don't know that i would say it's impossible, stuart. i would say given enough time and money, sure, you can do a lot of things. what to me is really fascinating

about what happened in california is that when passing this bill, sb-100, the legislature did no estimates of how much it's going to cost consumers, and that's amazing given that california's electric rates are already 60% higher than those in the rest of the united states, and according to environmental progress institute, since 2011, their electric rates have risen at five times the rate of those in the rest of the u.s. so you know, to me, just on a cost issue alone, this is a remarkable move. stuart: isn't there another part of the argument that you need a vast amount of land for solar arrays to generate the kind of solar power that we're talking about here? i heard someone, you need 16,000 square miles of solar arrays to generate the kind of electricity you need. is that accurate? >> well, you may be referring, i had a piece in the "los angeles times" last month in which i talked about the scenario having an all renewable california not just for electricity but for transportation and everything

else, assuming you can electrify transportati transportation, every bit of industry, you do away with hydrocarbons and all nuclear, the scenario that was put forward by mark jacobson, a stanford professor, you would need 16,000 square miles just for the wind turbines. that's four times the size of los angeles county. so to me, you are hitting on the right issue, which is here's california, where real estate prices are extremely high, and the land use issues regarding renewables are already constraining the growth of renewables. in fact, california last year had less installed wind energy capacity than it did in 2013. so you have counties, four different counties in california, including los angeles county, effectively banning wind turbines, at the same time the state is mandating renewables. stuart: you think, i mean, you say it's virtually impossible. we don't know the cost. what do you think happens to this bill, all renewables by

2045? we just forget about it, just fades away? >> oh, no. i think the politicians that are pushing it, including kevin deleon and democratic leadership in california will push this very hard and say look, we are doing all this for climate change. doing all this for climate change but 2045 is a long way away. they will be long out of office by the time that some of these bills come due. but when you look at the simple math, particularly given that california's closing its nuclear plants, i just don't see how they are going to be able to achieve these targets. stuart: robert, thanks for joining us. we always appreciate it. thanks a lot. more after this. . .

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gutless loser call the opinion desk of failing "new york times" ask them. they are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. stuart: gutless loser. that says it all. that rhymes with the theme of the show, really does. time as up stuart. neil it is yours. neil: all right, stuart. just finishing this anonymous editorial about you. stuart: about me? i want to read it. [laughter]. neil: all right. i had nothing to do with it. some are going to interpret it being anti-varney. was not meant to be. but anyway, thank you very, very much. we're taking under and over who the heck wrote this letter, in this editorial. everyone is doing the palace intrigue. and apparently there are a dozen possible candidates here. we'll get into that. we'll get into the fact that this is nothing new. certainly at this level it raises concerns but in corporate america happens all the time, when ceos, lose the support or there is a palace revolt within their own boards.

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